One of the greatest misconceptions of the Iron Butt Rally is that it is a race or we go flying around the country at mach 10.
Rather than get all wound up about this I will ask that if you are a rider next time you are done with a long ride on the interstate, think about going out and doing it again. And again. And again. For an Iron Butt rider your long ride is a half day of 22 half days. It is exhausting enough without trying to beat every car on the road. I like finding the right flow and using as much information as possible to avoid big tie ups. Better to sleep an hour than go 10 miles in a traffic jam.
I’ll admit that on a Sunday ride with the Sled Dogs I like to ride a spirited pace with one or at the most two good buddies. After both IBR’s my first ride with the Sled Dogs had me feeling like they were riding fast. The Iron Butt Rally is not about burning a tank faster, it is about going further on a tank and then doing it over and over again.
Running around at extra-legal speeds is simply too fatiguing and over the course of 11 days too hard on the equipment. The odds will catch up with someone who travels faster than the speed of surrounding traffic and if they are lucky it will only be a citation vs a wreck. Iron Butt Riders have an incredible safety record considering the millions of rally miles we have and road side chats with Law Enforcement cost more time than going the extra 10 mph was gaining. Best to stay under the radar so to speak.
Where the event is “time competitive” is, believe it or not, when we are not moving. Let’s be realistic, in the modern IBR there are 20 or even 30 riders who are serious about doing their best which means they all have a chance at the top ten or even top five. The top tier is getting more competitive and everyone has the same mileage potential with a few having more than the rest of us so the gains will have to come when we are not moving or reducing the number of reasons we need to stop. I call it efficiency.
For example I block my time in the following increments
- Six Minutes (Full load of fuel)
- Ten Minutes (Full load of fuel, inside to get water and bars.)
- Fifteen Minutes (Gas Major, includes some time in the washroom.)
- Twenty Five Minutes (Nap on grass)
- Rest Bonus (sleep)
the average rider on a 200 plus mile road trip will take 20 minutes to get gas and they may stop twice in such a ride. When in the my grove I can go 400 miles, stop 10 minutes and go at least another 200 before taking a 20 minute road side nap so I had 10 minutes less saddle time than the average, covered two to five percent more miles and had a nap. My goal is to either be moving, getting fuel, obtaining points or sleeping.
For eleven days.