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Green Mountain Rally

J

JOECUBANA

Guest
Ok,

I have listened to Brad and BG's accounts of the Bonzai Rally...

Read about BG and Bubba's adventures with the MM1000....

Loved the accounts of BG at the Utah 1088...

Heard what Gene mentioned about his 3 LD events.....

Me thinkst I ma want to give the GMR a try. Can't find any specifics online and Max says the info isn't quie ready yet.

Anybody have any good stories and/or pictures from GMS's past?

Thought would be appresiated too...

JC
 
Joecubana said:
Ok,

I have listened to Brad and BG's accounts of the Bonzai Rally...

Read about BG and Bubba's adventures with the MM1000....

Loved the accounts of BG at the Utah 1088...

Heard what Gene mentioned about his 3 LD events.....

Me thinkst I ma want to give the GMR a try. Can't find any specifics online and Max says the info isn't quie ready yet.

Anybody have any good stories and/or pictures from GMS's past?

Thought would be appresiated too...

JC

Are you confusing the GMR with the GM400?
GMR is a typical local club rally of the BMWMOV.
 
Go for it Joe!!!

Here is a link to the thread I started about last October's GM400. From what I understand it will be even better this year.

Green Mountain 400

I really think that if you enjoy riding motorcycles you should try at least one competitive rally. You owe it to yourself to try this aspect of the sport.
 
Blame it on RV

My introduction to endurance rallies came within hours of first meeting BoxerGrrlie at Dells 2004. When asked if she was planning to attend the upcoming Falling Leaf Rally, and she said, "Nah, I'm thinking about going to Vermont." To which I said, "Vermont? What the heck is in Vermont?" Through exchanged emails, I learned about the inaugural 2004 GM400.

I was intrigued, but I had a few mental obstacles to overcome: distance, vacation time, riding in October, etc. Hey, I was overreacting in each case, but there's a first time for everything, and I didn't know any better at the time.

Anyway, October arrived, and I made the 1200 mile trek alone, arriving outside Brownsville, VT roughly two hours before the rider's seminar began. I found a group of motorcyclists in a parking lot, and decided I must be in the right place. I immediately met Joe, Alex, and Mike, who were rally veterans from NY, and being friendly (and taking pity on me) they invited me to accompany them to dinner. Joe would later give me a crash course in rally strategy and planning, which was a big help.

After dinner, we rode back to the resort, and I was happy to see BoxerGrrlie there. I've always thought she was shocked to see that I'd made the trip, even though I'd been pestering her for details for weeks.

The first part of the event was an Endurance Riding Seminar, given by Rob "RPB" Nye. This was an excellent wealth of information about topics like rider fatigue and bonus point hunting. The seminar led into the Riders Meeting, where our bonii packets were handed out and the rules were discussed. After this, we were turned loose to copy the bonii information onto our maps, plan a route, and get some sleep.

After plotting all of the available bonii onto my maps, I started to look for circular paths that would generate the most points in the allotted time. I followed Joe's advice and planned my route to allow for "throwaway" points at the end, in case I misjudged how long my route would take. This was useful advice.

At first dawn, the bikes began to line up in the parking lot, and once the official hour arrived, the bikes were released in flights of four bikes each, to reduce congestion at the first stopsign. I was in no hurry, so I lined up in the middle somewhere. My odometer reading and my departure time was recorded on my rally pack and when the judge said "Go", I went.

At the first stop sign, I think I went the opposite way from everyone else, then I tried to retrace my path to dinner the night before, then I got lost in the first town I came to...all while I was trying to find the on-ramp to the interstate highway. Finally getting on the road, I was blessed to see a beautiful sunrise on a gorgeous stretch of four-lane, but I didn't stop to take any pictures. (Pictures versus bonus points was a tough choice for me.)

I followed my plan pretty carefully, but my first stop was an unplanned stop at a roadside pumpkin dealer. I must have spent 15 minutes purchasing just the right pumpkin (for bonus points) and explaining to the woman that she'd probably sell a bunch of pumpkins to motorcyclists today, and they'd each want a receipt. I guess my enthusiasm was bubbling over; poor woman. I was so excited to have acquired my first points, that I drove right past the statue I was supposed to find. More time lost, but I eventually found it, and recorded the time and the trivia information in my log book. Great! Onwards to the next location! Two miles down the road I realized I didn't record my odometer reading. Oops. Another stop, record the information, get moving again.

The rest of the day was more relaxed. I followed my route, found the places the rally team picked out for us, etc. I think I was the third person to reach the maple syrup farm...it's a Rob thing...plan on it.

I took a leisurely gas stop/lunch break, and another rider even commented later that I didn't look like I was in any hurry at all. (See, in a timed event, you're supposed to keep moving, and you'll gather more points that way. But, I was hungry! :eat)

I continued on, found more bonii locations, wasted some time trying to find an open state park office, and had to ditch the last 2-3 bonus locations that I planned. At the end, I was watching the clock, fighting 5pm Sunday traffic in light rain, made two wrong turns, and was riding rather fast to make up time. :banghead I should have heeded Joe's advice about avoiding traffic congestion late in the day, but I'd never been East in the fall, so I didn't know anything about leaf-peepers.

Nothing bad happened, and I arrived safely back at the resort at 10:16 elapsed time (16 minutes late, 5 points per minute, equals an 80 point deduction.) Joe had advised me to keep the 5pts/min idea in my mind, in case I thought I could earn points faster than the penalty assessed them. I think there was a two hour window before becoming time-barred (DNF), but I was happy to be back.

Once checked in, I gathered my rally pack, my pumpkin, and my syrup swag and headed to the scoring tables. They checked my entries for completeness and possible fraud, and gave me my score. But, they kept the swag. Dang, I'd picked a nice pumpkin, too. (Not that it wouldÔÇÖve still been nice 1500 miles later when I got home, so it's just as well.) I had time to get back to the campsite, get showered, and get back to the resort for the dinner and awards ceremony.

I have to add this part, just because it's become a running joke among my endurance rally pals: I arrived at the banquet to find that every single person that I knew at the rally was sitting at one over-loaded table, and there was no room for me to squeeze in. :cry Mike bought me a beer because of it (as did BoxerGrrlie) but Mike says I later "stole" his Omaha IBA rally swag because my IBA # was highest in attendance, and I "stole" the last rootbeer at the dinner at the 2005 Minuteman. At both those occasions, Joe made a special effort to save me a chair, too. What a great group of guys, considering I just showed up and they invited me to dinner with them. Top-notch people are the rule, not the exception, as far as I'm concerned.

Alex took 5th place and a plaque. I earned 9th, much to my surprise, and BoxerGrrlie placed somewhat lower (a point she keeps reminding me). There's a lesson there, though. She took pictures of her ride...I didn't. When we did the Minuteman 1000 in 2005, I took pictures, and she didn't. Since I wasn't planning to win, then I chose to take pictures and just enjoy the ride. BoxerGrrlie and I each received a gift certificate from MAX BMW (the extremely gracious underwriter of these Yankee Beemer events) for being the long-distance female/male participants. MAX provided stocking cap swag for everyone also.

Somewhere between the finish line and the scoring table, BoxerGrrlie asked me if I had fun. I was somewhat dazed and tired from the ride, and unsure of how I felt, :dunno but quickly realized that the smile on my face said it all :thumb ...and it was all BoxerGrrlie's fault. :hug
 
Lined up

Here we all are, lined up at the starting gate.
 

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you shall meet The Hooligans there:

be prepared, we only have to stop for gas 3 times for the GM400, not quite like the 10 gas stops for the MM1K...................


butts shall be kicked :D
 
BubbaZanetti said:
we only have to stop for gas 3 times for the GM400, not quite like the 10 gas stops for the MM1K...................

I might be able to do that on my Roadster. My Airhead could get by with a single stop!
 
hmmmm

Thanks for all the input...

Yes Mark, I did confuse the two....THanks for the link to your report from last year Rebecca....

Guess I better start doing some riding :thumb
 
Oops

Joecubana said:
Thanks for all the input...

Yes Mark, I did confuse the two....THanks for the link to your report from last year Rebecca....

Guess I better start doing some riding :thumb


And also a big thanks to you too Gene!
 
A big thanks to all that are forthcoming with this kind of info indeed!

Are there more rides of this length during the year, or is this the only sub-1k mile one out there? Looking to whet my whistle with a few shorter ones, before I iron my butt. :D
 
Buffalo Run is timed

The Buffalo Run is a timed event so you cna pick your mileage. GMR is 400 miles IIRC.
 
Nomenclature

BradfordBenn said:
GMR is 400 miles IIRC.
Now, you're doing it, too. It's the GM400, not the GMR.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I think they're ALL timed events. Someone, once upon a time, declared that a 24 hour endurance rally was a "1000", so it follows that a 12 hour event is a "500" and a 10 hour event is a "400". Then, there's the Utah 1088, which is 26 hours (and should be a "1080"), but I don't know the story there.

The Rallymaster might make mileage part of the rules, though. Like, minimum mileage required, or by assigning bonus or penalty points for total mileage within certain ranges.

Anyway, check out http://www.rallymasters.org/ for a nearly comprehensive list of events of this type of insanity.
 
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