48 States ride

#1
Not for sure if I am posting this in the right forum. Would anyone like to share a map of the best route to do the 48 states ride? Would be starting in Ohio.

Thanks
 

Rollin'

Premier Member
#4
If best is shortest, I can't help you. :)

This 48-state route was 8200 miles. I liked it because it started and ended close to home. Could be modified.



Sometimes it helps if you ride to a different starting point. This 49/10 route was 8800 miles but if I would have stopped after 48 states it would have been 7542 miles and a long ride home. I rode 550 miles from SE Wisconsin to get to my starting point in SD.

 

kwthom

=o&o>
Premier Member
IBA Member
#7
Mine:



There are several threads elsewhere on this forum that deal with some of the planning that others have accomplished.

Note that a significant portion of this ride matched many others. The late, great Ron Ayres routing has been massaged over the years, yet many of us have used a lot of the same stop locations from that epic ride.
 

kwthom

=o&o>
Premier Member
IBA Member
#10
That's is what we call "Ride Craft".
I did have two or three contributions to my learning by sending me GPX files.

At that time, I was a bit of a neophyte at manipulating them. That certainly got me off my butt to actually learn how to create, edit and use them. For this ride specifically, it certainly helped me to understand the process.

I wrote a series of blog entries about my ride - mainly so that I would have a record (beyond that piece of paper...) of what I did, and why I felt like I did after it was over. It begins with this entry: https://kwthom.blogspot.com/2018/07/prepare-for-bucket-list-ride.html
 

Crafty_rider

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#11
I completed this ride in June 2022 and I agree that it was a fun ride...

1681250643812.png

I started in Montana (because I was at my cousin's wedding in Alberta, Canada) and finished in Vermont (close to home) so I rode many, many miles to get to the start but I had a reason. This is a slightly modified version of "Shortest 48-10 ride". According to my cert, I rode 7,448 miles during the ride.

I had been contemplating the ride for several years prior to actually doing it and was considering this route, which is an "Ohio start - Vermont finish". I did this because I live near Vermont (so finishing close to home) and tried to plan the most efficient route possible (least miles) but if you run it clockwise, it would be a "Vermont start - Ohio finish".
1681250996816.png

I heard from several people who had completed the ride who told me "It is a fun ride" and "You have time to take a few detours or ride special roads". Having never completed such a long, time-sensitive ride before, I preferred to keep any extra cushion available for any "what ifs"...because I just didn't know how I would feel...

Well, I completed the ride in less than eight (8) days...and after eight (8) days, I was ready to get back on the bike the next day and keep going...I rode mostly during daylight hours (very little night riding...but the days are long in June, 'natch) and could have taken a small detour here or there to see certain roads on my bucket list like the Million Dollar Highway in Colorado...oh well...next time...

I hope this helps...now get out there and ride...

Cheers!
 
#13
My 48/10 route of many years ago was similar to the maps that have been posted. It was generated by staring at a Rand McNally road atlas for a hundred hours and guided by daily post it notes on my gas tank. Now, with only minor route tweaking, it's possible to jump in on those well-established routes from almost anywhere and be guided the entire way with a cell phone. Enjoy the planning!
 

kerrizor

Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#14
> IMO, a big part of the fun of this ride is figuring out your own route.

100%! ...that said, it's neat to see the differences in what folks end up with. Here's mine:

BaseCamp 2023-05-05 13-49-10.png

For this one, my family is from Brattleboro, VT, so it was a perfect starting location, and I knew I wanted a "one-way" route that would land me as close to home (Seattle, WA) as possible. I also had a relatively rookie LD rider along with me, so I wanted to keep to highways anytime we might have night riding/end-of-a-long-day to reduce any risk of fatigue on secondary roads causing a problem. Ended up ~7300 miles, which is pretty efficient; I think one day was even only like 630 miles... if I were to do a 49/10, I'd probably do this again, but start up in Hyder and reverse it.
 

Stephen!

Flivver Flyer
Premier Member
IBA Member
IBR Finisher
#16
I like that idea of starting in Hyder. Living in Indiana I gotta get from 1 end to the other at some point.

Having done a 1-Bike, 2-Up, 50-State ride ending in Hyder, I gotta tell ya that (in my opinion) starting in Hyder would be a mistake. Finishing the ride there and taking a week to decompress (and wait for parts to arrive) could not have worked out better. Our ride was no IBA ride (16k miles in 7 weeks) but we had a great time.

http://imagesdesavions.com/biketrip/index.html