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Ironbutt Jax to San Diego ride

S

stevestubbs42

"Natural Born Chiller"
Q: Doing a coast to coast ride in under 50 hours in June...will my 2002 R1150RT that I bought in Jan. run OK on 87 or 89 octane in case premium is unavailable? Should I be overly concerned about the dreaded driveshaft failure?
Mileage is 23K. Any other advice on common failure problems with this model?
:usa I LOVE THIS BIKE!
 
Skyking over on the Chromeheads forum left Jacksonville sometime after the first Sunday in April attempting the 50hr coast to coast Iron Butt run. He rides an RT and has completed 1,000 and 1,500 mile Iron Butt rides. I hope to see him the first Sunday in June at our BMWNEF Club meeting and will post the results of his ride here. Ride Safe :usa :usa
 
stevestubbs42 said:
Q: Doing a coast to coast ride in under 50 hours in June...will my 2002 R1150RT that I bought in Jan. run OK on 87 or 89 octane in case premium is unavailable? Should I be overly concerned about the dreaded driveshaft failure?
Mileage is 23K. Any other advice on common failure problems with this model?
:usa I LOVE THIS BIKE!
Click to expand...

How many miles on the bike. Worry about the driveshaft at about 150,000 miles. Less than that failures are very rare.

I would avoid 87 if possible, and if forced to use it then go 50 to 100 miles and fill again with premium to boost the blended octane a bit. It should be OK on 89 unless it is really hot and you are bucking head winds. Then do the same.
 
Fatigue is your enemy!

Steve,
Seems obvious to me your biggest worry should me fatigue. The machine does not require sleep.
Ride safe. Be smart.:lurk
 
Are you going to ride straight through US 10, then US 8 into SD?

At 50 hours the avg. speed would be 42 mph. You'll probably easily do twice that most of the way. Do you have an elapsed time in mind? - or an average speed?

Do you have a buddy, or support?

Good luck and ride safe. Remember, it's just for fun...
 
Not that tough anymore

The 50CC is considerably easier to do since the old 55 mph speed limits are ancient history.

Most riders stop for rest in a hotel about San Antonio. If you don't screw around at stops, you can get almost a night's sleep there, and go on refreshed. Pick a bike you can sit on for, um, well, 50 hours. If you get fatiqued, stop at a rest area, and take a break. Some walking around in a rest area and a drink of water is fairly refreshing for most riders.

There should be little concern about gasoline availability, including 90+ octane. Just play it conservatively, so if a station or three are closed at night, you have enough reserve to go a few more exits. One fuel outage can spoil your whole ride.

My biggest concerns were road 'gators and wildlife at night. Plan your route so your timing is likely to miss big city rush hours. There's nothing quite like Houston at 4 pm on a Friday :cry

Like the man said, the thing to fear is fear itself. Bon voyage.

Jim
 
Did the ride a couple of summers ago from Jax to San Diego...... watch out for the deer in Western TX hill country at night. Never seen so many on the sides of the highway.
 
stevestubbs42 said:
Q: Doing a coast to coast ride in under 50 hours in June...will my 2002 R1150RT that I bought in Jan. run OK on 87 or 89 octane in case premium is unavailable? Should I be overly concerned about the dreaded driveshaft failure?
Mileage is 23K. Any other advice on common failure problems with this model?
:usa I LOVE THIS BIKE!
Click to expand...

The rear end is easy to check & service the rear splines when you are at it. To give you piece of mind you might want to do that anyways.

As for fuel. Try to stay with big name gas stations and run 90 or better you'll have less fuel problems. In a pinch you use whatever you can find but it will likely rattle the timing under load which is bad for the engine.
 
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