Endurance and motorcycle riding

Before I took up motorcycle riding I remember years ago as I was watching a motocross race on my boob-tube one time and was fascinated by the answer that a racer gave when asked how he'd kept in shape for competition: he rode his mountain bike!

Why a mountain bike? Seemed simple enough to sit on the seat of his motorcycle and twist the throttle, right? How much work could motorcycle riding be?

Back to the present... Just a little over a month ago as my brother and I were on our way to the Mammoth Lakes area on a long stretch of highway I remember thinking to myself "we've gone past 170 mile mark on the odometer, almost time to gas up the motorcycles..." when I remembered that motocross racer. While what we were riding was probably not as rigorous as what he did, it was still a lot of miles covered. The amazing thing I noticed was that I didn't even feel tired (my derriere, on the other hand, was a different story). Thinking back, I attributed my motorcycle riding endurance to my continual outings on my mountain bike.

Before the trip, I had ridden 2 to 3 times a week at 8 to 12 miles per outing. But from my experience mountain biking it's not always the distance that builds your endurance, it's the consistency in your exercise routine. Bicycling is great because it's also low impact and all you have to do is sit and "spin." If you can't get out on a bicycle, a stationary bike would also do.

My recommended routine is to ride 2 or 3 times a week (the more the better), keep your rpm (revolution per minute) between 70 - 90. You could gauge your rpm by simply counting how many times one of your feet passes an arbitrary fixed point that you choose on the bike frame in 10 seconds, then multiply that number by 6. Moderate push on your pedals is the key and not a heavy load since you're trying to get your heart rate up. The distance is not important, just try to maintain within my recommended rpm for 20 - 30 minutes (20 minutes minimum but more is better) and you're all set.

By the way, the 70 - 90 rpm regime is also the fat burning bracket so you could essentially loose weight while building up your endurance for those long motorcycle tours.