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The Iron Butt Rally (11,000 miles/11 days)
- Thread starter montana
- Start date
kbasa
Well-known member
Re: BAM BAMBI?
No, this was last night at about 9pm.
Rob went by a rest area at the junction of 212 and 90 and there were a whole bunch of guys in the rest area sleeping while it was still light. Rob pushed on to get to Missoula and a nice bed. When I talked to him last, it was about 10pm and he was just beat. He'd had a beer and was sitting in his hotel room anticipating a nice nap. His plan was to get up at 6, get his paperwork ready to go and then get down to the checkpoint to get scored.
He took the Cooke City, MT gas reciept bonus, though he doesn't have a lot of other information about what else went on. I'm certain I'll talk with him later today and get a better and more complete report.
Rob did hit the Chicago bonus, the Shanksville, PA bonus, the Pentagon bonus, the Manhattan bonus, the HD dealer bonus and on at the Buffalo Bill Museum. I think he hit as many of the large ones as he could, with the exception of the Pikes Peak bonus.
Paul Pelland has had a rough go. On one hand, he learned that he has finally obtained primary and full custody of his children. On the other hand, he stopped to help a rider that crashed in New England and broke his ribs. I'm unsure of the rider's name, but I'm sure I can find it. Yesterday afternoon, Paul was 1500 miles from Missoula and was pushing hard to get to the checkpoint. I don't know if he made it.
Where's Montana with the pictures when we need him?
dave
itchybro said:
No, this was last night at about 9pm.
Rob went by a rest area at the junction of 212 and 90 and there were a whole bunch of guys in the rest area sleeping while it was still light. Rob pushed on to get to Missoula and a nice bed. When I talked to him last, it was about 10pm and he was just beat. He'd had a beer and was sitting in his hotel room anticipating a nice nap. His plan was to get up at 6, get his paperwork ready to go and then get down to the checkpoint to get scored.
He took the Cooke City, MT gas reciept bonus, though he doesn't have a lot of other information about what else went on. I'm certain I'll talk with him later today and get a better and more complete report.
Rob did hit the Chicago bonus, the Shanksville, PA bonus, the Pentagon bonus, the Manhattan bonus, the HD dealer bonus and on at the Buffalo Bill Museum. I think he hit as many of the large ones as he could, with the exception of the Pikes Peak bonus.
Paul Pelland has had a rough go. On one hand, he learned that he has finally obtained primary and full custody of his children. On the other hand, he stopped to help a rider that crashed in New England and broke his ribs. I'm unsure of the rider's name, but I'm sure I can find it. Yesterday afternoon, Paul was 1500 miles from Missoula and was pushing hard to get to the checkpoint. I don't know if he made it.
Where's Montana with the pictures when we need him?
dave
Now DATS what I'm a talkin bout!!
Dave, thanks so much. Thrilled to hear he's made it. Hope his insurance ain't Progressive (from what I hear from another site they are much friendlier TAKING your money).
Don't know if I'm blaspheming here in Beemerland but, I'm still pulling for Kiecker (aka decaf) on the VFR.
I'm thinking Mr. Missing X factor is Peter Hoogeveen. Higldon's next missive should be da bomb!
Dave, thanks so much. Thrilled to hear he's made it. Hope his insurance ain't Progressive (from what I hear from another site they are much friendlier TAKING your money).
Don't know if I'm blaspheming here in Beemerland but, I'm still pulling for Kiecker (aka decaf) on the VFR.
I'm thinking Mr. Missing X factor is Peter Hoogeveen. Higldon's next missive should be da bomb!
bikerfish1100
New member
Marsha Hall (Rottenbiker) is in Missoula and (almost) well-rested, having slept in an AC'd motel room in town last night. So on her third try, she finally gets her finish. And earns the distinction of becoming the first ever IB finisher on a "S" version ('99 R1100S) BMW.
S
swamp
Guest
I was in Madison, AL two years ago when this lady pulled up to the finish line a couple of minutes too late. I couldn't be happier for her!
swamp
swamp
bikerfish1100
New member
Yeah, she said the "evil lord kneebone" gave her a big hug this time, and noted that this finish was much nicer for him as well as for her. Pity that Speedvision was not there to record this finish as they were the previous one. And no frozen brakes this time, and no flying truck tires either. Just a shredded alternator belt (hmm, sound familiar?) and toasted battery. I could hear her smile over the phone!
ItÔÇÖs all over but the shouting. Or maybe the shooting, I guess. The Iron Butt Rally ended this morning. IÔÇÖve learned more about an event IÔÇÖll never enter than I ever needed to know but it sure has been fun. For those who havenÔÇÖt been following this rally the last eleven days on any of the other websites (iron butt org, adventure rider, long distance rider, various ridersÔÇÖ weblogs, etc) hereÔÇÖs my recollection of some ÔÇ£highlights.ÔÇØ
This event requires you to manage a lot of variables: you, the bike, time, distance, paperwork (receipts, photos and other evidence), bonus locations, etc. There are always four corners of the US that are checkpoints. 2003 started and ended in Missoula MT; interim checkpoints were Primm NV, Lake City, FL, Buxton ME. Each checkpoint is open for a limited time period.
For example, the finish checkpoint was open for early check in at 6:00 am. At 8:00 am the riders still out there start losing 10 points a minute. At 10:00 am the checkpoint is closed. Miss a checkpoint, forfeit any points for that leg and the next, if there is one. The last leg included Cooke City MT on the Beartooth Hwy near Yellowstone and Pike's Peak CO as bonus locations, but remember you may now be running out of time so it gets trickier to manage all those variables to the very end.
The positions of the riders have been available on line and itÔÇÖs been interesting. Although a rider may have ridden 5,000 miles and another may have ridden 6,000 miles, one of them may have 1,835 points and the other may have 36,780 points. That shows how optimization makes a difference.
5 minutes before the end of each checkpoint the envelopes of extra bonus point sites are handed out. ItÔÇÖs kept secret so no one has any advantage in planning. From Missoula to Primm these included St Mary MT (a 600-mile detour), Palouse Falls WA, Orofino ID, Death Valley charcoal kilns, etc. The bonus point locations tend to get tougher later in the rally, because you are running into a time constraint and risking what may have already been a good ride.
You can change bikes but you are penalized negative 10,000 points and you forfeit all points for that leg. Sparky (the Aprilia rider, renamed) had a long way to go to regain positive points status. Other riders changing bikes included a few BMW K1200LTs that lost rear drives. Other common deaths were BMW RT alternator belts. One couple (the only two-up entry) on an LT had trouble on PikeÔÇÖs Peak, a bonus location on the leg from ME to MT, went down the mountain into town and bought an 1800cc Gold Wing.
After slapping on a magnetic ÔÇ£Is it poaching when you use a motorcycle?ÔÇØ sign on his truck, I visited with Russell Stephan, the rider of the ST1100 from OH that hit the deer just the second day out. (The other sign says "Speed never killed anyone - it's those sudden stops that hurt.") He showed me his route map and how he put little dots marking the bonus locations and indicating their value, if there was a time restriction to bagging that bonus, etc. Then he highlighted an optimum plan. I reminded him that ÔÇ£planÔÇØ is a four-letter word. His totaled bike in the back of that green truck is going to be in photos from every camera that passes by. He told me the trooper asked to see the deer hair on the wreck to prove it was a deer and not just drunk or careless driving. You canÔÇÖt see it in my photo, but itÔÇÖs there in a couple of places. He also mentioned why he may not take it to the insurer: Since you pay your insurance premium as if you are a normal rider (notice I did not use ÔÇ£typical riderÔÇØ) heÔÇÖd prefer they not see the odo is over 100,000 miles on this fairly new bike.
Of the bikes in my earlier posts, the GL500 Honda made it to the finish after having electrical trouble but the 500cc Yamaha died early in ID. The Stealth Ninja 250 made it in with about 20 minutes to spare (Leon the Animal from DC). The brand-new Yamaha Venture from San Diego (that replaced the one the dealer dropped) looked great at the end but definitely is not so new any longer. The Suzuki Water Buffalo made it until nearly the end. It finally died of a piston problem.
IÔÇÖve been told an Iron Butt Rider gets their gas stop routine to under 7 minutes. Even if they are only riding to work and stop for gas ÔÇô under 7 minutes is the habit. Consider the Suzuki rider was stopping for gas twice as often as the other riders since that bike only gets about 20 mpg.
Chye (my new friend who we helped get a K1200RS stock muffler so he could pass the tech check) was 20 minutes late into the ME checkpoint, mostly due to NY traffic holdups, so he lost the points from FL and there were no points for his ride to the finish. But he still finished. Someone said fewer people have finished the Iron Butt Rally than have climbed Mt Everest.
At the finish area all but two riders were in by 10:00 am. About 15 minutes later I was walking a block from the finish when one of the last riders came through ÔÇô he shrugged at me. Oh well. That means he was 20 minutes late after an eleven-day trip. He still is a finisher, though.
Oh, I forgot - at the finish line, with about 15 minutes to go, one woman is sitting on the bench nearby, anxious for her hubby. She'd spoken with him not long before when he said he was at a gas station just outside of town, but where is he now? Why didn't he come in? Then he showed up. She leaps up, yelling, "Thank God. He would have been impossible to live with, otherwise."
This event requires you to manage a lot of variables: you, the bike, time, distance, paperwork (receipts, photos and other evidence), bonus locations, etc. There are always four corners of the US that are checkpoints. 2003 started and ended in Missoula MT; interim checkpoints were Primm NV, Lake City, FL, Buxton ME. Each checkpoint is open for a limited time period.
For example, the finish checkpoint was open for early check in at 6:00 am. At 8:00 am the riders still out there start losing 10 points a minute. At 10:00 am the checkpoint is closed. Miss a checkpoint, forfeit any points for that leg and the next, if there is one. The last leg included Cooke City MT on the Beartooth Hwy near Yellowstone and Pike's Peak CO as bonus locations, but remember you may now be running out of time so it gets trickier to manage all those variables to the very end.
The positions of the riders have been available on line and itÔÇÖs been interesting. Although a rider may have ridden 5,000 miles and another may have ridden 6,000 miles, one of them may have 1,835 points and the other may have 36,780 points. That shows how optimization makes a difference.
5 minutes before the end of each checkpoint the envelopes of extra bonus point sites are handed out. ItÔÇÖs kept secret so no one has any advantage in planning. From Missoula to Primm these included St Mary MT (a 600-mile detour), Palouse Falls WA, Orofino ID, Death Valley charcoal kilns, etc. The bonus point locations tend to get tougher later in the rally, because you are running into a time constraint and risking what may have already been a good ride.
You can change bikes but you are penalized negative 10,000 points and you forfeit all points for that leg. Sparky (the Aprilia rider, renamed) had a long way to go to regain positive points status. Other riders changing bikes included a few BMW K1200LTs that lost rear drives. Other common deaths were BMW RT alternator belts. One couple (the only two-up entry) on an LT had trouble on PikeÔÇÖs Peak, a bonus location on the leg from ME to MT, went down the mountain into town and bought an 1800cc Gold Wing.
After slapping on a magnetic ÔÇ£Is it poaching when you use a motorcycle?ÔÇØ sign on his truck, I visited with Russell Stephan, the rider of the ST1100 from OH that hit the deer just the second day out. (The other sign says "Speed never killed anyone - it's those sudden stops that hurt.") He showed me his route map and how he put little dots marking the bonus locations and indicating their value, if there was a time restriction to bagging that bonus, etc. Then he highlighted an optimum plan. I reminded him that ÔÇ£planÔÇØ is a four-letter word. His totaled bike in the back of that green truck is going to be in photos from every camera that passes by. He told me the trooper asked to see the deer hair on the wreck to prove it was a deer and not just drunk or careless driving. You canÔÇÖt see it in my photo, but itÔÇÖs there in a couple of places. He also mentioned why he may not take it to the insurer: Since you pay your insurance premium as if you are a normal rider (notice I did not use ÔÇ£typical riderÔÇØ) heÔÇÖd prefer they not see the odo is over 100,000 miles on this fairly new bike.
Of the bikes in my earlier posts, the GL500 Honda made it to the finish after having electrical trouble but the 500cc Yamaha died early in ID. The Stealth Ninja 250 made it in with about 20 minutes to spare (Leon the Animal from DC). The brand-new Yamaha Venture from San Diego (that replaced the one the dealer dropped) looked great at the end but definitely is not so new any longer. The Suzuki Water Buffalo made it until nearly the end. It finally died of a piston problem.
IÔÇÖve been told an Iron Butt Rider gets their gas stop routine to under 7 minutes. Even if they are only riding to work and stop for gas ÔÇô under 7 minutes is the habit. Consider the Suzuki rider was stopping for gas twice as often as the other riders since that bike only gets about 20 mpg.
Chye (my new friend who we helped get a K1200RS stock muffler so he could pass the tech check) was 20 minutes late into the ME checkpoint, mostly due to NY traffic holdups, so he lost the points from FL and there were no points for his ride to the finish. But he still finished. Someone said fewer people have finished the Iron Butt Rally than have climbed Mt Everest.
At the finish area all but two riders were in by 10:00 am. About 15 minutes later I was walking a block from the finish when one of the last riders came through ÔÇô he shrugged at me. Oh well. That means he was 20 minutes late after an eleven-day trip. He still is a finisher, though.
Oh, I forgot - at the finish line, with about 15 minutes to go, one woman is sitting on the bench nearby, anxious for her hubby. She'd spoken with him not long before when he said he was at a gas station just outside of town, but where is he now? Why didn't he come in? Then he showed up. She leaps up, yelling, "Thank God. He would have been impossible to live with, otherwise."
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You can chew the air in Missoula, stage 2 air quality alerts all week - 150 new fires in the region just since Tues. I guess many riders were afraid of running into road closures at the end of the last leg. A large piece of ash was on a friend's head last night. Another person said, "Hey, some kind of bug is on your head."
Here's my last photo, The End Of The Road:
Here's my last photo, The End Of The Road:
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