Andy,
I'm in full agreement with the posters above -- "it all depends".
When riding solo in remote regions where I can make time, I'll often do 125+ miles/200km daily while fully loaded, more like 70mi/113km in tougher conditions. I've also spent all day and felt pretty proud of myself to make 16mi/26km on very steep goat tracks. One day this last summer, churning through 8cm of sifting sand atop some of Hungary's dikes, 12 solid hours of riding netted me a whopping 30mi/48km. It really would have been faster and less strenuous to have walked/pushed. On AndyBG's fully loaded RavenTour in Europe, I averaged about 100-120km/day when riding, with some 200+km days thrown in as well. I sometimes spent 4 days to a week visiting friends and rode very little on those days. I also didn't mind taking the train on several occasions to make up for time lost. Once was after I was robbed in Prague and lost 10 days waiting for replacement cards. Another occasion was a short hop across rural Hungary to Budapest proper when I hit my 8th slow day of 30kph headwinds and constant upslope going east-to-west and wanted a break and to make up time. Trains are marvelous time machines, and I could not have completed my goals in the time I had available without them.
Circumstances do and probably should change mid-tour, even in the face of careful pre-planning. So much depends on the whim of the moment, the goal of your tour, and how you happen to see the bike fitting into your tour at the time. After all, a major reason for touring is to see things and have fun. Often, this can mean using the bike for transiting the spaces between where you want to spend time exploring. That can lower the overall average.
This variability is why it can be terribly hard to set arrival times for meeting others, especially when unknown roads and terrain are ahead. "I'll be there day after tomorrow" can sometimes mean "Oh, sometime next week" in reality. To make my arrival times concrete, I made *sure* I would arrive early, then laid-over nearby to make up any difference so I'd be where I said, on time, to prevent inconveniencing my hosts. Calling ahead or emailing with progress reports helps, too.
Sometimes, you'll run across criticism from other cyclists or even sponsors (if such is the case) if you don't cycle every kilometer of your tour, but instead take a train, bus, or throw the bike in the trunk of a taxi or bed of a truck for some sections. I've gone both ways and read a number of accounts. I think each is a legitimate way to go, with its own advantages and disadvantages. In post-tour accounts, you can avoid criticism by declaring any mixed transportation modalities up-front, as you might declare study limitations in a research paper. The rub comes when people claim to have "ridden my bicycle around the world" (for example) and there is a disconnect in the reader's mind between "going only by bike" and employing other means for some sections.
Remember, your tour is *your* tour, and the decisions you make will be right for you at the time, not subject to second-guessing by third parties looking on from afar. We're all different, and so is every tour. A lot of times, things don't go as planned. That's what makes for an Adventure!
Hope this helps.
Best,
Dan.
