bradley33 wrote:Anyone seasoned bikers here? What is a 450km bike ride like? I have only ridden dirt bikes ages ago casually. Was considering getting something cheap to get me between two towns about 5 hours apart on inland QLD roads(sealed) every couple of weekends. Save some costs versus taking the car, ( fuel. tires, wear and tear etc). The ride would be 4pm-9pm-ish so some night riding involved. Viable financially, impractical, impossible, unsafe? Id like to get a bike anyway for casual use, which stimulated this idea as well.
450km is nothing, that's four hours at highway speed, but you'll probably make a fuel stop.
I think it mainly depends on what you're used to. I've done 22 and 30 hours straight on the Fireblade, and did 24hr rides twice on the old CB1100F. Perth to Albany and back is only about eight-hours, but you need a fuel stop each way unless you carry extra. The Fireblade gave me more than 30kpl at highway speed, with extra fuel I had almost 1000km range.
For long stretches you want a throttle lock so you can rest your hand. Use a tank bag so you can lay against it to rest your arms and wrists. Carry a couple of army blankets and every time you stop for fuel stack them differently on your seat, this changes the angles of your back, shoulders, hips, knees and ankles. If you carry extra fuel you aren't tied to making fuel stops at towns, just ride until you're empty, stop and have a wee and a Mars Bar while refilling the tank and carry on.
For night you really want decent headlights, and if you're well up North I would avoid night riding due to animals. In the Northwest lots of the highway is unfenced and you will come across cows in the floodways, your lights don't hit them until you're on your way down into them, which is generally too late to do anything about it. A guy was driving back to Perth from racing in Darwin a couple months ago and hit a cow, in daylight.