working out distances..

[Viper]

When planning your ride how much extra mileage are people planning in? just to be sure they have done enough? my latest route planned on tyre is coming up with 24 miles spare, kinda worried this isn't enough...

 

[saphena]

I use Garmin BaseCamp to plan my routes. I have two profiles set up, one for what I'm actually going to ride and one for "proof". The proof profile always takes the shortest route between waypoints and when I have a "proof" distance in excess of 1,000 miles, I'm happy.

 

[Stephen!]

If you browse the big list of certified rides at https://www.ironbutt.org/certified.htm you'll see plenty of certified rides 2 or 3 miles over...

The verification team will calculate the shortest possible distance (within reason, of course. Goat trails not likely used) between each of your receipts using tools such as Google Maps. Regardless of what actual path you took between those points and the value displayed by your odometer, that will be your "official" mileage. As such, it would behoove you to do the same... As long as that value exceeds the mileage required by the certificate, and you make sure there aren't any short cuts unaccounted for between your receipts, you're golden.

That all being said, I am typically comfortable with 20-30 miles excess, providing I'm not pushing the DNF time too close (in case there is a problem obtaining a valid receipt at the end).

 

[Viper]

using google maps, i have 19 miles in excess, decided to change my route for something a bit simpler....

 

[GSears]

When planning your ride how much extra mileage are people planning in? just to be sure they have done enough? my latest route planned on tyre is coming up with 24 miles spare, kinda worried this isn't enough...

This is one I did as a series of 1000 mile rides. Good planning and mapping program (such as tyre, autoroute, mapsource or basecamp) are essential. Google does not give the option of shortest route.