NORTON ONE DAY DISTANCE RECORD

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aceaceca

aceaceca

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The saying goes, "The sun has risen and the sun has set and we ain't out of Texas yet." Lets see who has the longest one day distance run. Must have been on your trusty Norton. Back in Nov of 1970 I ran from Houston, Texas to Van Horn, Texas. My trusty Google maps says it was 623 miles and 9hrs and 51 minutes. That time does not include 6 stops for fuel. Poured myself into the motel bed that night and slept like a baby. What ya got????
 
In 1977 me/ex wife on back went from Jacksonville FL to Memphis TN in one day. I recall the bikes odometer said it was 620 or something like that. I suspect there are folks around like Art Bone who may make those sort of numbers look a bit light! ;)

But frankly that was miserable. I learned my lesson and the longest trip in one day I ever made after that on a bike (not a Norton) was 335 miles (from our house on Long Island to Lake Placid.)
 
I'm a pussy, so I won't even try to beat any Iron Butt record, even the lowest one :)

Jean
 
2005 MN1K
1,010 miles in approximately 20 hours of ride time.
Interstate tank, Norvil rear sets, EU bars, Corbin seat.

One other 660 mile day on the same bike this summer.
 
Phoenix, Arizona to Ridgeway, Colorado = 520 miles.

It was 1997 on the same 850 Mk3 that I'm riding today.
2 up (me and my woman) , across the Navajo Reservation into the Rocky Mountains. over a 10,000 ft. pass, Rain, Hail, and about 400 miles of it was on 2 lane roads.

A muffler shook itself loose and fell off right past the 4 corners which required a roadside pitstop to wait for it to cool down before I could put it back on.
It was a Long Day.

We have since done longer rides on bigger bikes (Goldwings, HD's) but that was the longest on a Norton.
 
Lake of the pines Texas to Pueblo Colorado. Just over 900 miles. Two up. Jim and Margaret in 1989
 
In the late '80's I rode my 1973 850:
Galveston, Texas to
Austin, Texas to
Galveston, Texas
in 1 day, I seem to recall it being about 750 Miles.

I have a Car now (and I am old).

Vince
 
In the 70's I rode from the Grand Canyon in Arizona to Greenfield Iowa but it took over 24 hours and I did catch a couple hours on a picnic table in Kansas after drifting off. On an N15. Jim
 
Rode from back to Raleigh from the Michigan Rally in one day a few years ago, about 950. This was with an Interstate tank. Rode back from the Vermont Rally a couple years before that, 800 miles in one day, with a Roadster tank. I've done many 500+ mile days, four in a row to get to the last Utah rally.

-Eric
 
Wow - lot's of miles on a bike! I just can't deal with that any more - heck, I didn't like it in my 20's! I used the Commando as a daily rider to work for years and went all over the place with it but a "long" ride to me, that I was comfortable with - not saying, "Get me off of this F^$&#ng thing - was/is maybe 4 hours. After the Norton I have never owned other than sport bikes except for a 1 year attempt in the mid 90's at trying to understand the Harley thing - which I never did. So I have no experience with bikes like Gold Wings, etc. My 330 mile ride to Lake Placid was on my Duc 996 and I also road it to/from Wash DC from LI several times - about 250 miles each way and from LI to Lime Rock, CT about 160 miles each way. That kind of stuff is about it for me.

I would have been a great Cafe Racer in the UK - maybe not great from a skill level but from a "this is fun on a motorcycle" level.
 
MexicoMike said:
Wow - lot's of miles on a bike! I just can't deal with that any more - heck, I didn't like it in my 20's! I used the Commando as a daily rider to work for years and went all over the place with it but a "long" ride to me, that I was comfortable with - not saying, "Get me off of this F^$&#ng thing - was/is maybe 4 hours. After the Norton I have never owned other than sport bikes except for a 1 year attempt in the mid 90's at trying to understand the Harley thing - which I never did. So I have no experience with bikes like Gold Wings, etc. My 330 mile ride to Lake Placid was on my Duc 996 and I also road it to/from Wash DC from LI several times - about 250 miles each way and from LI to Lime Rock, CT about 160 miles each way. That kind of stuff is about it for me.

I would have been a great Cafe Racer in the UK - maybe not great from a skill level but from a "this is fun on a motorcycle" level.
Click to expand...

The 800 mile day kind of sucked, I think that was about 18 hours of riding, due to the small tank, adjusting my chain, plus adjusting the chain of this guy I wound up riding with. That time I met up with a guy in New Jersey or so riding a newish (<10 years old) Honda 600 sportbike. We rode back together until we got into North Carolina. His aluminum rear sprocket was gone, the chain would slip unless he was really gentle with the throttle. He was riding back to Florida, I told him there was no way he would make it back, and recommended he stop in a town with a hotel and motorcycle shop and get it fixed. He didn't want to because he wanted to be at work in the morning.

The 950 mile day was pretty nice, I think it was only on the road for 15 hours.

If I had to do the Utah trip again, doing it around 6 days each way would have been more fun, more time to site see. My vacation time was kind of a limiting factor though.

-Eric
 
About 450 miles in one day is my record. Kingston, Ontario to my home in Connecticut. That was back in '76. Five hrs of it was in the rain - no fun at all. Nowadays I limit myself to 250 or so before looking for lodging. The old back juss ain't what it was.
 
Steve Snoen managed 1510 miles for which he got the Bun Burner 1500 gold reward of the Iron Butt Association.
Check http://www.ironbutt.com/articles/snoenb ... bg2007.htm
He even changed a primary belt en route.

For myself, I think it was a humble 640 miles from Holland to Salzburg, Austria, two up, late seventies.
On arrival, the passenger was not feeling entirely happy but was forgiving...still married.
 
"He even changed a primary belt en route."

He wouldn't have had to do that had he kept the original chain! :)
 
The longest day I ever did on mine was about 350 miles. That was about 30 years ago. These days, I think my longest ride was 239 miles at the Mancos rally. That was enough for me!

The longest I've ever done in one day was about 500 miles on my GS750, and my neck was killing me by the end of the day. Don't want to do that any more!

Debby
 
600 and change (forgot by now, but it's posted somewhere)

Texas hill country including "the Trinity" (twisted sisters) 335/336/337.

Bog stock '75 Interstate 850, ran 40+ MPG all day at 80MPH on the straight bits, wicking up to the ton every once in a while.
 
Not my longest but the most brutal was a few months back in Sequoia's giant forest area, (4,000 year old trees). My friend on his Duck & I on my 850 with rearsets and too low clippons spent a week riding every road we could find. We did a unintended 16 hour ride one day checking out Kings canyon all the way to "roads end" where due to my roadster tank I was lucky a local rancher sells gas from a very cool 1940's hand pump. By now it was getting dark & we made a bad decision to take the 245 South cuz it looked fun on the map! I could barely see due to 37 year old Luckless lighting and just when I thought we could fly down the mountain we hit a 31 mile section of super steep down hill 10 mile an hour switch backs! My clippons are a bit to low so ALL my weight was on my 50 year old wrists and they were not happy. By the time I got to my bed we had been riding for 16 hours on two lane mountain roads and I will not be doing that again soon. Glenn.
 
Best I got on my commando is my trip to barber this year. On the way home left Leeds, AL at 5:00am and arrived in Princeton, Illinois at 10:30pm and I believe I stopped at least a dozen times and got lost a few times. Mileage in the 750 mile range maybe a bit more. If it isn't the commando I've done 1572 miles in a 24 hour period, but that was an IBA ride on a new triumph a few years ago.
 
my best has been done twice in the last couple of years, round trips from shady valley tn to orlando fl 650 miles door to door but my normal day is 150 + in the mountains of Tn, Va and Nc :mrgreen:
 
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