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Destination: 2001 Iron Butt Rally -- 11 Days / 11,000 Miles |
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June 2001 Volume 2, Number 2 ============= Special for Rollin' readers
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Butt
Wait! --
Get the Rollin' Dude Wallpaper Tic Toc, Tic Toc, Tic Toc. Slowly butt ever so surely, time marches on. As I sit in front of my Fred Flintstone PC and spool up it's gerbil power wheel, there remains butt 3 months and 1 week until the gathering of the loons in Madison, Alabama and the start of the 2001 Iron Butt Rally. At first glance, one might assume that over 3 months away would be a little too far ahead to really start to get things together for this ride. In fact, I might have thought the same myself had I not had the idea to write this article for each of the few remaining months that precede the rally. Now, I know better, there are so many small details to attend to in order to ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible on this, the ride of my life. It seems the more I get accomplished; the more there is left to do. Just deciding what to prepare and pack for a trip like this is not an easy task in itself. While I have ridden approximately four-1000 mile days in a row before, those have been ridden in basically one temperature zone where the weather forecast could easily be checked ahead of time and items selected and packed accordingly. Riders in past Butts have found themselves in freezing temperatures at the top of Mt. Washington, the windiest spot in America on one day, after a few days earlier transiting Death Valley, the consistently hottest spot in the US. While most any decently maintained bike could probably make it through a 3-4000 mile stretch without difficulty, multiplying that distance by 3 or more has been known to bring out the mechanical and electrical gremlins in the most dependable of mounts. As you can see, the difference in packing lists required for what I have ridden to date and the Iron Butt Rally amounts to much more than just the multiplying times three the amounts of "expendables" like clean underwear and socks, and adding lots more beef jerky and dried fruit than I would normally carry. As a matter of fact, I'll be adding one more foodstuff to my Butt menu, courtesy of IBDoners "Harooold" Brooks and Manny "Could you hand me that Diesel hose?" Sameiro, and that will be small pop-top cans of spaghetti, which I'll stash within the crannies near the Barfrocket's engine between gas stops to warm up. You have heard me write before that to me, some of life's most important lessons are those you can be taught by others without having to first suffer through yourself. I put the utmost credence in the words of those that have ridden this rally before me and take great measures to learn from their good pointers while trying to make sure I do not duplicate their calamities. The Long Distance Riders Email list and the Iron Butt Association website have been immeasurable assets here. Any fledgling LDR and/or IBR rally rider would be well advised to take advantage of what they have to offer. The Iron Butt Association website has a full section on the IBR itself, a full and overflowing cornucopia of information just waiting there for the gleaning. There are sections from each of the rallies from 1993 to the present complete with IBDoner rally write-ups, the "blow-by-blow" daily accounts of the rallies from IBA Chief Counsel, Rally Scribe Par-Excellance and Beemer mechanic wannabe Bob Higdon along with photos taken during the rallies and some of the actual bonus lists that were used in the past. Earlier this year, when it became apparent that nothing was going to prevent me from riding this years Butt, one simple sentence plucked from the '95 rally write-up by Bob Higdon transformed itself into a huge glowing neon sign that constantly blinks its red warning message in the HUD in front of my eyes. It is basically a short conversation between Bob Higdon and the CEO and High Lord of the Iron Butt Association, Mr. Iron Butt Rally himself, Mike Kneebone. It concerns a certain rally rider's stumbling and misguided efforts to procure himself a first aid kit, a required rally item, immediately prior to the tech inspection for the rally. Mike Kneebone mentally places this rider in the "will not finish" category based simply on his inability to be properly prepared for the rally, the rider having known for 2 years in advance that the first aid kit was a required item. The sign that has been flashing its message to me since January reads thusly, "COLLECT YOUR EXCRETIA!" (Author edited into a family friendly format.) The actual sentence that begat this little sign is as follows; Mike Kneebone to Bob Higdon, "When I ran my first Iron Butt Rally, my bike was packed one month before I was scheduled to leave my house, the morning that I left, all I did was open the garage, get on the bike and turn the key." Folks, hear me now and believe me later. When Mike Kneebone speaks (as softly as it may be), I Listen. If and when I am embarrassed during this years rally, it WILL NOT be for being without something I have known for two years that I would need to have. As I mentioned earlier, one good point of writing these articles has been to help me personally keep track of my preparation progress, or more precisely it seems sometimes, the lack thereof. So, let's take a couple minutes here and go over where we stand (or stumble) at the moment; The Bike Actually, we're in pretty good shape here, mainly because this is where the most efforts and money have been expended to date. It was important to have the Barfrocket as ready as possible in order to run this year's Waltz Across Texas Rally at the beginning of May. That 3500+ mile trip would make an excellent "shake-down cruise" for the Butt. (Boy did it ever... "shake down" being a most apt description.) The bike showed itself remarkably well on this ride, all the added bananas functioned completely as intended. (ST1100 pilots call added LDR modifications "farkles", we Chatty Morons prefer to refer to them as "bananas".) In fact, disregarding that it's time for some normally scheduled maintenance, I have no doubt the bike would do just fine on the IBR if it were being started today. A few minor electrical gremlins surfaced related to some prior modifications relative to the auxiliary driving lights butt these will be corrected in one last upcoming pre-flight inspection at Larry Buck's shop in BO-ca Raton, FL. As expected, the Sampson Sport-Touring auxiliary fuel cell functioned flawlessly, allowing me to complete the 810 miles I rode during the rally with only two fuel stops. The Hella auxiliary driving lights allowed me to ride 500 miles through the night on the way out, with no main headlight, in time to be at a bike shop in Shreveport, LA, when they opened to have that problem remedied. The stock seat really wasn't that bad at all, butt heeding some IBDoners advice that "Harder is Better" (That's what SHE said! :-) ) I plan on packing my Travelcade Gel seat pad that has served me pretty well for 80,000 miles or so on my Katana 750. While I could probably live with the stock windshield, the fact the it's about 2" too short and the resulting wind turbulence would probably have me percolating in a constant state of grouchiness and "pissed-off-ness," which may not be a bad state to run the IBR in anyway. Since it's only abut a 30 minute chore to install, as soon as I can round up the required $125, I will probably bolt on a Clearview aftermarket windshield prior to the rally. There are several COG riders who shake their heads in disbelief at the fact I've ridden about 21,000 miles in the past 7 months with the stock shield still on the bike. Ignorance is bliss I tell them. (Remind me to expound someday on the "Barge Theory of Relative Stupidity".) I am pretty happy with the CB, Valentine radar detector and Street-pilot GPS as they are currently set up, though Larry and I will also install the "hidden" audio and visual displays for the Valentine during that final check out session. For simplicity and economic reasons, I will use my regular helmet speakers for the CB and it's built-in FM and use a set of most excellent Koss in-ear plug speakers for the Valentine and a Sony Walkman. I used the Koss plugs with the Walkman on the way out to the Waltz and was real happy with the way they worked out. All that really remains in the bike department is mounting another set of Dunlop 491 tires and doing a full service on the bike sometime around the end of July. I have about 10,000 miles on the 491's that are on the Barfrocket now and they still look brand new. I fully suspect there will be plenty of tread left on them when they get switched out for a fresh set prior to the rally, probably more than enough to warrant tossing them in the garage and remounting them at some later time. While some riders arrange to have a second set of tires mounted during the IBR, this will not be the case with the 491's on a Connie, as they are more than capable of going the full rally, or TWO full rallies for that matter. The bike's valves will have to be adjusted and the oil changed in that last servicing the month prior to the start of the rally. The IBA has strict noise avoidance policies regarding loud exhaust systems for bikes entered into the IBR. Aftermarket bike exhausts must pass a stringent noise measuring test prior to being allowed to run in the rally. However, bikes with stock factory exhausts are generally exempted from this testing unless they are deemed to be obnoxiously loud in their stock condition as observed by the IBR tech inspectors. I do not expect the stock Concours exhaust system to have any difficulties in this area. My
mother just bought me a new Shoei RF800 helmet for a combination
Birthday/late Christmas present and in the next couple weeks, I'll switch
over the CB headset and began to get the helmet broken in good. I want to
ride with it for at least the last two months prior to the rally for it to
loosen up a tad. I have already applied my customary two Widder stickers,
Iron Butt Association sticker, black electrical tape stripe on the visor
and front face bar medical warning stripes to the new helmet. The RF800
seems much quieter and noticeably lighter than the RF700 I am wearing now,
the much lighter part I'm sure will be most welcomed at the end of wearing
it for 11 days straight. (Mother, Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.) In past IBRs, Mike Kneebone has expertly and temptingly tossed out that rubber worm of a mega-load bonus of Hyder, Alaska (ending site of Ron Ayres record setting 49 states in 7 days ride) in front of the gaping mouths of his large-mouth bass rally dawgs hoping that one or more of them would chomp down and run with what would have been the mother of all sucker bonuses. Not this year. He has made it perfectly clear that during this year's rally, the Hyder bonus is indeed a valid bonus for those riders hoping for an exceptionally good finish. This year, the sucker bonuses appear to be even heavier laden with points and further North than Hyder. (Whatcha say there George B and Rick M?!) Riding to Alaska and then over almost 4 thousand miles of Canada (the quickest route per MopNGlo) will require a couple more items not necessary should one decide to confine their IBR riding within the contiguous US. One of these is a Canadian Insurance ID card that shows that your US carrier insurance is valid in Canookville. In most of the IBR recognized rallies, you are required to carry to highest limits of liability insurance short of a 1 million dollar umbrella policy. (Actually, the maximum limits for my Barfrocket run me about $105 annually.) I have already been in contact with my insurance company and they are sending me the required Canada ID card. I also gave some thought to procuring a US passport, then, Mr. Thrifty here found out they costs $60, and that folks, is over 600 miles worth of gas. Consultations with those in the know on the LDR list indicated that border crossings are easily accomplished with good solid US ID (birth certificate, voter's registration and D/L) and that a passport is not really a necessity. Actually, the fact that my bike will have a Florida tag on it is somewhat of a liability already that would not be lessened by a passport, as it seems that vehicles with tags from the southern states are often suspected of carrying either guns, drugs, or both and are often subjected to greater scrutiny anyway, passport or not. So, I have made the decision to forego the passport and spend that $60 on a heftier supply of dried fruit, beef jerky, chew gum and canned busgetti. The IBR section of the IBA website contains the full (rather extensive and all encompassing) rally rules for riders to refer to along with a pretty good start of a packing list. I'll end this month's segment with that packing list so that you, our faithful Rollin' Mag readers will have some more idea of what is involved and I'll have some reminders of things I have left to take care of. This
packing list is (mostly) reproduced with the expressed permission and
courtesy of Mike Kneebone, President, The Iron Butt Association. Paperwork Registration, License with M/C endorsement, and Insurance with Canadian Insurance card Extra copies of all signed and notarized rally releases (Author's addition) Address book for emergencies Contact information for rally check-in Bond card-AAA or Amoco Motor club Towing Service paperwork Bike Preparation Service/Replace battery Change fuel and air filter Check accessory plug(s) Replace hydraulic fluid(s) New Tires Tune-up Oil and filter change Rosary beads and vial of holy water if riding a BMW (Author's addition) Clothing One pair of Jeans (Author addition) 2 long sleeve t-shirts, 1 short sleeved t-shirt* 2 pair of gym shorts (Author's addition-I will ride with gym shorts over boxer shorts during the rally, under my full Motoport riding suit of course.)* 3 pair of underwear (switched to reverse side and worn for 2 days)* 3 pair of socks* *Author's Note; I will only carry enough socks, t-shirts, underwear, and gym shorts for the first half of the rally and will ship a box to the second checkpoint ahead of time with socks/u-wear/t-shirts, gym shorts and re-supply of rally munchies for the second ½ of the rally. Swimsuit Widder Vest and Gloves (Don't screw around, Buy the BEST!-Author's edit) Miscellaneous Extra Glasses/Contacts/Contact juice Ear plugs-several sets Radar Detector (installed) Bungee cords and or net Towel for cleaning windshield and cleaner Small Mag-light Large mean person, hungry wildlife neutralizing Mag-light (Author's addition-Thanks Jack!) Tape deck for notes, extra tapes Rally planning supplies-3"x5" cards, markers, and pens Polaroid camera, 7 packs of film for Gold Medal finish Back up point and shoot camera with extra film Rainsuit Gloves, regular summer and mid-weight (Author's addition) Balaclava Plastic bags (laundry, etc) Sun Hat for hiking to boni (My IBR rally hat will do just fine, thank-you) Screaming Meanie PC/Power supply-(God Bless You Unofficial B2 support team!) Water bottle (installed on bike) Normal SSS toiletries (Author's editing)
Suntan lotion Eye drops Toolage Pocket multi-meter Flat repair kit (is glue fresh?) Small mini-compressor (Author's addition) Tie-wraps Electrical and Tollett tape (often erroneously referred to as duct tape) Wirestrippers 8,10,12,14,17,19 Sockets and ratchet 8,10,12,14,17,19 Wrenches Needle nose pliers Adjustable wrench Screwdrivers Visegrips Safety wire Extra taillight and headlight bulbs (Author's addition) Mapage Atlas
with pages that can be torn out (Author's note; I
HIGHLY recommend getting the Rand McNally Wal-mart edition for 2 reason.
1) It has a listing of every Wallyworld in the US. 2) It has numerous
hotel discount coupons in it. 3) It's half the price of the non-Wallywurl
edition.) USA X2 Canada (Author's addition) West States X2 Central States X2 Eastern States X2 Well folks, that's about it for this month's segment, gotta go, just remembered about a zillion things I gotta go pick up! 'Til next month! B2 out, Stay tuned during the next couple months as the finishing touches are made to these light mounts and auxiliary fuel cell and they are installed on the Team Rollin' Mag Barfrocket. We'll also be bringing you some of the other preparations being made for this year's Iron Butt Rally. |
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