The Second Leg

The Leg 2 book was distributed at 06:00 on Friday the 5th of July.

We had until 20:00 hrs PST on Sunday July 7th to present ourselves at a Marriott hotel in Rancho Cordova, California.  If you left the hotel the second you got the book and took the direct route you’d have 65 hrs to do 2,465 miles.  This would require an overall rate of advance of 38 mph, which is quite sedate.

Most riders will have an anticipated mileage for each leg of the rally.  The variable is the overall rate of advance or VMG (velocity made good).  In my case I use 47 to 48 mph, so my potential mileage cap is right around 3100 miles.  With the straight line route taking almost 80% of my potential mileage it became clear that something like a repeat of Key West would be a sucker play.  Leg 2 was shaping up to be what I’d call a Squadron Run, with everyone staying mostly to the same route with timing and options making the difference.  I also felt that given the nature of the leg the rally would follow tradition and there would be plenty of opportunities to gain spots on the final leg, if one was ready to go when they got the final book.

One thing I was not ready to do when I got the second leg book was go.  For the first time in the rally I needed an alarm to wake up and I was a bit groggy.  I tried to sleep as late as possible so the bike was not packed.  Other than change the tire I didn’t do any of the housekeeping items I had planned, however none were super critical.  I digitized the book and went upstairs to plan my leg.

Leg 2 Bonuses

One great thing about color coding the waypoints is it can help identify strings or clusters.  In this case the green flags are the Pony Express bonuses and the four red flags in Colorado represent Pike’s Peak and a few others.  While the front runners were ready to go I was thinking a mid-day nap under a tree would be fantastic.  I figured the Pony Express combo wasn’t for me so I headed west planning on the easy stuff with an arrival to Colorado early the next day.

Did I mention I blew the checkpoint?  I did all sort of little stuff wrong and didn’t get my electronic files set up properly.  I got my first few bonuses, then found myself at the Air Force museum spending almost 30 minutes for 100 points.  This was no way to rally so I took another 15 minutes, got my plan back on track and continued west.

The Race is On

Now the race is on and here comes pride up the back stretch
Heartaches are going to the inside
My tears are holding back, trying not to fall
My heart’s out of the running
True love’s scratched for another’s sake
The race is on and it looks like heartaches
And the winner loses all
-lyrics by Don Rollins

Much has been written about the Iron Butt rally as being a race.  I have said it’s not a race until you’re not on the bike. Since my first rally it seems people have really taken this a bit too seriously.   I noticed that there were some people who were ready to sprint to their motorcycle seconds after receiving the book.  Jim Owen made a quick departure the thing to do on his way to winning the IBR and the trend of using mostly time or daylight restricted  bonuses makes the idea of getting going quickly appealing, so long as one knows where to go.  Then there’s the business of collecting bonus points.

Most bonuses will require a photograph of a specific object.  Sometimes this may be of a train at a specific stop, or a natural event such as a photo of Old Faithful.  For almost every photo your rally flag must also be in the photo and to further complicate the issue some photos require you to include your motorcycle in the picture, or if not possible to take a second photo with your bike.  On top of all this you may also be asked to return with a receipt or specific item too.

Like many riders I have a routine to make this process as efficient as possible.  Ideally I can park the bike just so, hang the flag on the bike and get a quick photo.  Log it in, close up the case and I am off to the next bonus.  Where things get a little trickier is when we’re instructed to do something like ride a tram with specific open and closing hours.  One of the core rules of the rally if the book says something opens at 9 and you get there at 8:45 and it’s open that you wait until 9 to take the picture.  It’s also pretty clear that if the instructions state to ride a train, you must ride the train its entire length, not jump off as soon as you get your picture.  Apparently both events happened on Leg 2.

This gave me a chuckle and pissed me off.   If I planned a 600 to 750 mile day and I’ll need to shave a minute or two by jumping off a train my chances of success are dim.  The IBR is about doing your best; at the end of the day your biggest competitor is yourself.  I’ve learned from experience getting all amped up because you’re around other riders and now it’s a “race” is a great way to loose not only points but important items (like a gas cap).   It pissed me off because we spend a huge amount of time explaining how we’re not racing on public roads, which is true.  We set our routes based on what we feel we can accomplish and then try to execute it.  People who have been too ambitious spend more time talking to Law Enforcement than getting points.  People who jump off tourist trains reinforce the misconception that we race around at crazy speed for 11 days.  For the record I did this years rally with no radar detector and I received no tickets.  Lovely!

If you’re inclined to enjoy yourself one of the real treats of riding the Iron Butt Rally is the rally book proper.  Not only does it contain the instructions but it will include a little bit of information on the location we’re to visit.  The rally will have a theme, this year it was Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

Having the ability to search and read the rallybook on the tablet was a huge benefit, if not for my performance then my enjoyment of the rally.  While many were scribbling “chevy dealership, photo mural inside” or such on an index card I was able to read the actual book, over and over.  Here’s the listing for the “Chevy dealership”

HCD 204 points
Hare Chevrolet
2001 Stoney Creek Road
Noblesville IN
40.03023 -85.9982
Mon – Thur. 9:00 am – 8:00 pm,
Fri – Sat 9:00 am – 6:00 pm

The United States longest-lived family-owned vehicle retailer Hare Chevrolet has been
in business for over 160 years, giving them the title of the “Nations Oldest Transportation
Company”. The saga began in 1847 when Wesley Hare started building wagons,
carriages and buggies out of his log cabin in Noblesville, Indiana. His primary market
was the steady stream of Americans heading west to California to pan for gold.
Take a photo of a portion of the 90-foot long mural inside the dealership depicting the
company’s journey.

Here I am riding my motorcycle all over North America and I’m going to stop in at the “Nation’s Oldest Transportation Company.”  How cool is that?  As I arrive it’s just like I imagined; a big Chevy store in the heartland.  I walk in and ask the receptionist if they mind if I take a few photos.  As I unwind a small crowd gathers and the ladies excitedly tell me “You’re in FOURTH PLACE!”

I said it isn’t a race to which they replied that from the way the first three acted it sure seemed like one.  I really felt like a tortoise at that point, with the hares racing ahead while I chatted with the son of the current owner.  I asked if along the way any of the sons had six daughters before a son.  This got a chuckle and the explanation that & Sons part of the company had been dropped a few generations ago but it was still family owned.

Hare Chevrolet

From Hare I headed west, taking an interesting route that avoided Indianapolis and St. Louis putting me a few hours east of Colorado Springs for some quality rest.

My sleep plan for the rally was simple.  Get plenty of it.  Don’t make stupid routing mistakes, forget my flag or break the bike.  The clock doesn’t stop for any of these issues so when they happen the first thing to go is time to sleep.  More sleep = more fun.

Another concept I embraced is while you cannot bank sleep you can conserve energy so I worked on being efficient and not getting worked up over the issue of the moment.  I burned a lot of unnecessary energy at the checkpoint and I didn’t want to repeat it.

Like the choice of the bike itself sleep and rest are topics that few two riders approach the same way.  For some a series of short power naps broken up by the rest bonuses and time at the checkpoints is plenty, with sleep found on benches, tables and for some, even on the parked motorcycle.  Having done it the hard way I decided that I was going to use hotels more often than not, get at least 5hrs in a bed and allocate the time for one mid-day power nap if necessary.

To accomplish this every evening at around sunset I’d figure out where I was going to be in a few hours.  I’d select a budget priced hotel and give them a call.  Once we’d get over the less than perfect connection you can expect from making a call on a bike I’d get a reservation for a ground floor room as close to the desk as possible with a promise to hold it until I arrived.  I’d explain I was on a bike and couldn’t get to a credit card so they’d hold it on a verbal agreement.  This worked great, I was usually off the bike and in a room quite quickly.  When combined with the long days I was able to reduce my time riding in absolute darkness to a minimum which worked out to under three hours per day.

I made it to Pike’s Peak a little later than I would have liked.  It was Saturday morning and everyone and their brother wanted to ride to the top.  There was quite a line to the toll.  Too much heat, too much incline and too much traffic meant that caring for the bike was the major concern.  There was a Vespa club that was running to the top, however down here there were Vespas along the side of the road at every turn.  Apparently every Vespa with a rider greater than 200lbs was having clutch issues.  Go figure.  While in line I got passed by a two up couple, they bullied their way to the front and I decided to drop in behind.  The set a great example of how to be “from out of town.”  From the que to go up the hill to getting a beer at the finish party they come from a land where they have even less tolerance for waiting than a Gingerbomb from New England.  Cutting the beer line?  Really?

It’s all in good fun, while their passing was limited to the parking lot I enjoyed a good ride up the hill getting to the summit while the train was unloading.  14,000 feet of elevation on day 6 was getting to me a bit so I got my second photo, closed up and headed down.  I received quite a nice hello wave from a ranger along the way,then saw my new friends clutching along behind a pickup truck at about 10mph.  Satisfaction indeed.

The train at the summit of Pike’s Peak

I snagged the other red flags in the Denver area and went north to capture a photo of a really big locomotive.  I decided I was going to maximize the rest bonus so I splurged for a room at a Hampton Inn for 7 hours of high thread count bliss.

I awoke feeling pretty darn good for the morning of day 7 of the Iron Butt Rally.  It’s a reasonably direct shot to the checkpoint and I have all day to do it.  Before going to sleep I decided I might add in the Golden Spike Bonus, this is the location where the transcontinental railroad was joined.   It is a small National Forest Service monument with a few buildings located in the middle of nowhere, Utah.  It opened at 9 and I arrived around 8:20, giving me plenty of time for a nap.  Todd and Dianne LeClair rolled in a short time later so we had a nice visit before taking our photos.  It was great to see them as they were doing very well and made me feel like perhaps I wasn’t being a complete dope with my routing.

As I approached the check point there were still a few bonuses to get, one being the monument on Donner Pass.  I started seeing more riders and got caught up in the race mentality enough that I made a critical mistake.

One of the modifications I made to my bike was to remove the stock BMW (keyed) gas cap and replace it with a threaded cap.  Both my wife and my dealer said I better tether it or carry a spare or I’d loose it.  Sure enough in Tahoe I forgot to screw it in and while I heard it fall 30 minutes of searching didn’t fine it.  Doh!  What a dope.  I was focused on getting to the CP early to avoid a repeat of Leg 1, but now I had to figure out a gas cap.  Fortunately for me A&S BMW was a bonus and I was able to talk than into giving me an assembly *and* key from a new bike they had on the floor.  Thanks A&S!

I also took the time between Tahoe and A&S to remind myself that it isn’t a race and I am not competing against my friends.  We ride our best rides and get scored against each other’s rides.  There is nothing you can do to change this, trying to shave 60 seconds or beat another rider to a bonus has no benefit, especially when it can lead to careless errors.

Next

CP 2 

Oh Captain My Captain

While there is no replacement for experience (Unless you’re a guy named Josh Mountain) what counts the most is recent experience of which I had little.  This bit me at the first checkpoint.  In 2007 the defining issue of the rally was the use of outside assistance.   Needless to say this topic is good for a book of its own but part of how I was going to do the rally was to service my bike on my own, using outside help for the staging  of materials only.

Most modern bikes should be able to do the entire rally with no major service, not even an oil change.  The only variable are tires or chains.  Some riders opt for rock hard tires hoping they can go the distance, others hope for a kind dealer along the way and others such as myself make arrangements to change tires at or near the checkpoints.  Because of Max BMW Motorcycles excellent support and the fact my wife also rides a GS I had the opportunity to change to a fresh rear tire at each checkpoint and change the front tire at the second.   My anticipated mileage combined with heat meant that I couldn’t guarantee my favorite or similar rear tire would last from the start to the second checkpoint (California).  My anticipated high mileage for the first two legs was in the 7,500 range, I ended up riding 6,678.  As I had an abundance of rims I enjoyed excellent rubber for the entire ride.

The checkpoint instructions as I understood them were simple.  Stop the clock before the penalty starts.  Within one hour of stopping the clock present yourself at scoring, ready to be scored.  This made me think I had one hour from stopping the clock to being ready to be scored.  As it was going to be dark I wanted to get my tire swapped first, then stop / start the clock.  This was an error as you only had to check in with scoring, then you could leave, i.e. you didn’t have to be ready when you checked in a scoring.  This coupled with three scoring volunteers who were unable to attend in the 11th hour meant I didn’t get scored until the 12th, or 00:15 hrs.  I shook it off, went to my room and got 4.5 hrs of sleep instead of 7 or 8.  Oh bother.

Next

The Second Leg

Thursday evening before the rally I found myself in the second row for a David Byrne concert in New Bedford.  David Byrne went to the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence where he founded the Talking Heads so a show in NB was almost a homecoming of sorts.  It was a great show and a great way to spend some quality time with my wife Chace.  It’s a bit of a tradition, in 2007 I stopped in Cleveland to see Modest Mouse.  David Byrne was better.

At some point during the week prior to the start the Chief Technical Inspector, aka “Warchild” offered up a way to guarantee to be one of the first out of the lot.  Now let it be known that while I have stated I was planning on being casual, that didn’t exclude me from taking advantage of situations when presented.  In this case it was allow the rally staff to give you a hair cut and if your trim was judged most interesting by the masses you could leave the lot first.  Personally I like getting out first if possible.  Everyone is tight, it’s raining and anyone could waffle before the first stoplight, not to mention that if everyone is going to the same bonus first as in 2007 it will be beneficial to get there early.

That and the chance to save fourteen bucks had me convinced it was worth it to get my traditional #2 from Nancy Oswald rather than my normal barber.  I bravely went first while Nancy and Dale learned how to use trimmers.  Thank God for John Harrison; himself a father of some very well cropped young men.  He stepped in and made me presentable.

 Saturday morning I breezed through the technical inspection and registration process.  It was so well done that I was through in record time, so fast that I had to cool my heels to wait for Lord Kneebone as he had gone across the street for supplies, confident the first rider wouldn’t be done until lunch.

Sunday we had our mandatory rider’s meeting then a nice banquet followed by the distribution of the first leg rallybooks and the thumb drives containing the waypoint files.  All good so far and I loaded the waypoint files into the tablet at the table to start getting a visual representation.  They gave us all the waypoints at once which was good and bad, good because all the data was there, bad because you didn’t know which waypoints were for which leg or if there were any repeats.

All bonus locations as provided at the banquet.

Once released from the table I got my rallybook to the fax machine then went upstairs to input the point values into my spread sheet.  Just about everyone is using a spreadsheet to input point values, I use one to combine the bonus name, value and D (daylight) or R (time restricted).  I then sort by value and create my breaks based on points.  This takes about 15 minutes.  I didn’t use EZ bake or calculate the anticipated number of points because I never knew exactly where I was going when I left the checkpoints.  I looked for clusters of red flags in areas I wanted to go.

My Leg one “Picture.”

Most of the Reds are daylight only.  In reality most of the bonuses in the rally were restricted either by daylight or opening hours.  I decided that the cluster over the lake would be important as would be Quebec and Detroit.  I decide it would be fun to visit the incline plane in Johnstown on my over to New Hampshire and Quebec.  I’d see how I was doing and decide how to approach the lakes and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn as this was big points.  While the winners went clockwise, sweeping up points to the Northwest, I went counter clockwise running down some low hanging fruit on the PA turnpike before blowing my rainy sunrise photo of the Cog train in New Hampshire.  This was my first big bonus and my first and only mistake of the rally as I forgot to include my bike in the photo.  Better to work the kinks out here than on Pikes Peak.

No bike, no points.  Oops.

Moving on to the North I really enjoyed Quebec.  In fact, all my time spent in Canada was fabulous.  A fellow rider, Perry Karsten proved to be a great banker, exchanging US for Canadian dollars on par.  A few bucks in local cash and some really horrific High School French got me by although my fist gas stop was a challenge.

From Quebec I headed west.  I was planning on going to the top of the lakes but it soon became apparent that the daylight restriction would be working against me so I adjusted my route to go south to the Whirlpool Aero Car in Niagra Ontario.

One area of advance work that did prove valuable was my taking the time to get a Nexus card.  This is a card that requires enrollment in the trusted traveler program.  Getting the card was a process, however for entry back into the U.S. it saved me over three hours on one crossing.

The Whirlpool Aero car is a bonus I love to hate.  Riding in an antique cable car suspended high over raging currents is not something that I seek out on a regular basis but for 999 points I’ll give it a go.

Don’t look down!

From there I continued west to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn with a stop at Canada’s first commercial oil well.

In Dearborn I ran into Jon Good and Ande Bergmann. They’re a pair of Naval officers riding two up on a K16GT.  There’s something about Naval officers that make good rally riders and these two are no exception.  It was nice to see them.

Ande Bergman, still smiling on the third day.

To claim the Henry Ford bonus we had to find and photograph 25 exhibits, with our flag visible on any one.   If I could have brought any car home it would have been this Beetle for Chace.

From Dearborn I went north to the Mackinaw Island Bridge and the cluster north of the lake.  This was a night I elected to sleep on the ground.  I brought along a nice Big Agnes bivy sack, sleeping bag and thermarest pad.  But for a good pillow I would have enjoyed a great sleep but it was still pretty good.  With minimal practice I was able to go from the bike to a bug free IB hotel in under 10 minutes, or less then it takes to get most hotel rooms.

I finished the leg with time to spare and between the COG mistake and another location I arrived to 15 minutes late due to rain and traffic I left 1055 points behind.  I finished the leg with 16,426 points while riding 3,710 miles.  This had me in 34th.  I gave it a “meh” and was happy that I had banked more points than required to be a finisher.

My leg one route as ridden

Next:
Blowing up a checkpoint.

On June 30 I posted the following status update on my Facebook page.

Friends, Tomorrow I start my fourth Iron Butt Rally. I’m looking forward to a great time on two wheels and seeing my sweetheart at the finish. I’m not in it to win it but I figure I have a good shot at beating my best finish. To those who have asked for my tracking information I’m sorry but we’ve been instructed / asked not to share this sort of information. You can follow everyone’s progress on the IBR page: http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2013.cfm

To those who have sent me good vibes thank you very much. Cheer for me to finish and I feel confident we’ll all be happy with the results. Bet on me to win and you’ll likely lose your shirt.

Here is the story of my ride in the 2013 Iron Butt Rally.

After my first rally in 2003, I labeled The Iron Butt Rally an 11 day “Scavenger Hunt on Steroids;”   As far as results go it was my best finish (23) along with being an epic ride as I slipped on some oil outside of Moab, Utah, tearing a hole in my valve cover and removing most of the glass and plastic from one side of my motorcycle, yet still made the next checkpoint on time.

I came back with a BMW R1150 GS Adventure in 2005 along with the support of a great dealer; Max BMW Motorcycles.  There was a bit of fun and hype in ’05 with Max featuring me and my bike in some advertisements in some BMW publications.  Hype is no guarantee of success but I did enjoy a Gold Medal finish however I was still mid pack on points.

In the spring of 2006 a casual conversation with some executives from BMW resulted in my coming to own a BMW R1200RTP with the P designating a police bike.  This bike was a marvel of engineering and planning.  It came with a gaggle of switches for lights, sirens, radios and such. We used each one.  The bike was dubbed the spaceship and I was looking forward to meeting my goal of a top ten finish.  From the if only files I was well on my way to a top ten when the final drive gave up the ghost in Edmonton while on my way to Alaska. 

This was to say the least a very painful experience.  I had built what I felt was the “prefect” rally bike only to have it succumb to an issue that BMW did their best to deny existed.  I became the poster child for every flaw in the drive train of a BMW built from 1999 to 2010.  The relationship between a boy and his horse is vital to his success and after driving the rear shock through the swing arm scouting Minuteman bonuses I sold the bike on e-bay for 8 grand and a  promise to never call me.  I like to think we both got a good deal.

Since 07 life has been busy, busy enough that I entered and did not start 09 and 11.  I got divorced, remarried, watched my father succumb to Parkinson’s and my employer of 21 years get caught up in the economic crisis; forcing a AMEX listed company to liquidate, leaving me under-employed as I decide to do with life after the big 5-oh.  I’ve also become a “stunt father” to my new niece, a delightful 10 year old who is now living with us.

They say you have to be certain kind of crazy to want to do the Iron Butt Rally, I wonder what they would say about someone who is doing it to relax.

I looked forward to the Iron Butt Rally as a vacation, eleven days just for me and my motorcycle. Having been in it to win it I knew there was no way I’d be able to dedicate the time and resources to be ready to compete at the top, while at the same time another DNF would be completely unacceptable.  One thing I was sure I didn’t have the juice for was to “trick out” another bike, or dedicate close to 20k on a dedicated rally bike.  I’ve also evolved in my approach to the bike and the rally; gone is the appeal of extra buttons, pumps or bells and whistles.  I wanted a bike that when rolling would look like any other bike out on tour, not some sort of geeks wet dream or something that would be called a spaceship.

Just a guy on a bike heading north on I 5.  Photo courtesy Maura Gatensby

 I ended up adding some bits to my BMW R1200GS Adventure.  With a stock fuel capacity of 8.9 gallons, a riding position I love and the comfort of a boxer twin I already owned what in my opinion would make a fine platform for a big ride.

My original plan was to leave the bike as close to stock as possible.  I planned on not mounting a second fuel tank, fancy water jug, pumps and all that.  This was before I started channeling my inner Eddie James.  I could write volumes about Eddie; he was a friend who served as the rallymaster for the first event I entered; the Butt Lite II in 2000.  We rode together a little in 2003 and for the last few days of the 2005 Iron Butt Rallies.  Sadly he left us too early as a victim of a motorcycle accident in Atlanta a few years ago but I carry him in my heart whenever I rally.  Eddie would never consider entering an IBR with anything less than maximum fuel so I came up with a nifty aux fuel design that utilized the stock mounting points for the Adventure rack and worked by gravity.  No pump required.  For a top box I mounted the same Hardigg storm case I used in 2005 to the top of the fuel tank, for hydration I put a platypus water bladder on top of the storm case, again no pump required.  I felt I was on to something as one of my major build goals was to make a IBR bike that I could convert back to a woods weapon in a few hours *and* I really wanted to keep the weight down.  Using the stock mounts and standard switched (electrical) sockets on the GS I was able to accomplish this easily.  My bike will be back to stock and in the woods 5 days after finishing the rally.

For navigation I wanted to return to the active screen I used in 2007 however I was very interested improvements to be gained from 2007 when I ran a remote display slaved to a laptop in the topcase.  This time the cornerstone of my set-up was a Panasonic Toughpad.  This is a recently released military spec tablet running Windows.  I configured it to run Windows 7 Pro, Delorme’s Street Atlas and Adobe reader.  Using a fax to email service I was able to get the paper rally book converted to a searchable .PDF file.  I did my planning on a full sized laptop, then transferred the files to the tablet using a USB stick.

I was not able to get the tablet until early April and the mount wasn’t available until mid May.  This didn’t leave me much time to practice or get familiar with the tablet but I figured by the end of leg 1 I’d have it well sorted out, one way or another.  I finished the bike three weeks before the rally, then went to a motorcycle rally in Johnstown, PA as a demo rider for Yamaha.  Interestingly enough we rode the incline and I mentioned to fellow IB Rally vet and co-worker Pete Withers that this could be a bonus in the rally.

By the time I left for the start I put about 750 miles on my bike in rally trim.  I wasn’t ready but I was somewhat confident that because of the simplicity of the modifications that there was nothing done that could be a ride stopper.  If all failed I had a laptop, Zumo and a stack of index cards along with the mantra of “no drama.”  If it doesn’t work move on.  In each rally past I’ve spent some time in a truck stop fiddling with this or that and getting worked up that something isn’t just right.  I was determined through either redundancy or a I don’t care attitude that I’d be able to avoid reaching for tools this time around.  Bluetooth and simple electrical wiring made this a reality.

I only wish the bike looked this good now.

  Next:

Let the Games begin

Last year I had the opportunity to attend Daytona Bike Week for a few days as a new contractor for Yamaha Motorcycles, helping with the demo rides.  This led to other opportunities and this year I returned to Daytona for the entire week.  The demo rides are opportunities for members of the public to take a test ride on a new Yamaha or Star motorcycle.  For those unfamiliar with Yamaha, the Star line are the cruisers; from the new 950cc Bolt all the way to the 1900cc Stratoliner Deluxe they provide a fun relaxed ride which is perfect for Daytona.

Because I was on a schedule I decided to load my bike on the Kendon and trailer it to my friend Pete’s place just south of Charlotte, NC.  I have a new GSA which I kept in the garage all winter to keep it salt free, then wished for an enclosed trailer as I towed it south (and back home) in a snow storm.

Liberty CRD (Diesel) towing GSA on Kendon fold up trailer

With a need to be in Daytona by Friday afternoon I planned a trip to arrive at Pete’s place Thursday.  We had a plan for some back roads to Daytona as my GS had a total of 7 miles when I loaded it on the trailer.  The last thing I wanted to do was break it in by going down the interstate.

We departed early Friday morning and arrived in Daytona at 4 that afternoon. 

The Yamaha set up at the track. Demo bikes are upper left.

We jumped right in Saturday morning and were greeted by a line of enthusiastic riders waiting for registration to open.  Riders can do two rides per day but they can only sign up for one bike at a time.  They are also issued a wrist band so they can come back every day for two rides and not have to fill out all the paperwork each time they want to ride.  At a big event we’ll run two lines, one of sportbikes, FJR and Super Tenere and the other line will be all cruisers.   We’ll have five riders with one rotating into the tent for the day to assist with sign up and whatever else comes along.

Given a choice I’ll take the sportbikes and to start my week I got lucky and was assigned to the sportbike line with a new (old) guy named Mike.  Mike is a retired motor cop from Milwaukee and spent the last 16 or so years doing the same thing for Harley and Buell.  Choice of mount aside He’s a great guy.  Retired cops are great to work with, especially when you consider the primary focus of our job is to take 10 strangers who have never ridden the bike they’re on for a fun, safe group ride in Daytona traffic 8 times a day. 

We put 12 bikes out in the line with all 12 on the sign up sheet.  The ride is full when we get to 10 signed up, the demo riders take what the customers do not select with the lead rider choosing first.  This way the lead rider doesn’t end up on an R6.  Not that we don’t like the R6 but it’s a bit cramped and the visibility through the mirrors isn’t the best for leading a group.  Competitive riders love the R6 and it dominated the 200; taking the top six spots.  When I follow a ride on a R6 I always come back grinning, if not in need of a chiropractor.  25, I’m not.

My favorite bikes to lead on are the Super Tenere, the FZ1 or the FZ8.  The Tenere and the new FJR are the popular new bikes and get booked for the day early, however on this fine Saturday morning it was the FZ1 that customers were overlooking; making it a lucky day for me.

Slightly de-tuned R1 race motor, 12,000 rpm redline and 487lbs wet.  Oh my.

The FZ1 is a gentleman’s version of the legendary R1, Yamaha’s Superbike.  The seating position is just relaxed enough with the perfect amount of weight on the bars.  It’s hyper quick and a ton of fun.   The combination of power, handling and a great seating position keeps me coming back to it as a great bike to lead the demos, plus I can see quite well from the relatively high mounted mirrors.

The other highlight of Saturday was the unveiling of the Bolt, the newest addition to the Star line.  It’s a 950 twin in a stressed frame done in a bit of a retro / bobber theme.  This was a pretty secret project, we knew a new bike was coming but had no idea what it was until a few hours before the unveiling.  It was quite a time, the Yamaha guys did a great job with the intro and some dancing girls from Miami Beach led everyone in Daytona Bike Week’s largest ever Harlem Shake.  Totally Wow.

Sunday I was on the cruiser line, after all somewhere it’s been said Sunday is a day of rest.  I was teamed up with “Big Rick”.  Big Rick has been doing this since bikes were powered by wood.  A former Marine, current husband and doting grandfather, Rick is the real deal.  He’s got a ton of riding experience including a bunch of Iron Butt Rallies and I love riding with him.  We’re lucky if we can make the radio batteries last to lunch.

Monday I was on Tent duty which is much harder than riding.  You’d think it was easy but round about mid-afternoon it became apparent that looking busy is harder than being busy.

When we returned to the hotel Monday there was a Suzuki Boulevard (650 thumper) in a non-specific state of dis-assembly under the portico.  One of our truck drivers suggested that we stop and help the owner out with her issue which involved installing a stereo she purchased at a vendor earlier that afternoon.  While the vendor wasn’t exactly lying when he said installation would take 15 minutes he didn’t know his customer had never used a socket wrench and it would take her 45 minutes to remove the seat.   I asked her how she planned on connecting the wires and she mumbled something about having some scotch tape.  We had to help.

How many guys does it take to install a stereo on a pretty girl’s bike?

While I was out getting some butt connectors Tammy had someone from the hotel get us some beer as a way to say thanks.  6 cases of Yuengling was more than generous!

Tuesday… Tuesday I must have rode with Pete but I don’t remember a thing about it.  That’s because Pete and I ride together quite a bit and we work very well together, so well the day went smoothly enough I don’t remember a minute of it.  I’m not completely sure Monday’s bell cart of Yuengling doesn’t have anything to do with this.

Wednesday it rained.  Cold too.  We don’t do demos in the rain.

Thursday morning I got some bad news.  My father passed away.  This was not unexpected, I’d been there when we decided it was time for hospice but after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease it was his time.  My silver lining was I was busy working in a great environment with a great team and a few close friends so it was as good a  day as one might expect.  My boss offered me the day off but the last thing I wanted to do was mope in a hotel.  As a compromise I took a V Star 1300 for a ride.

Before we can put a demo bike in the hands of a customer it needs to have 150 miles.  As this was our first major event of the year we had a few bikes that needed mileage.  Starting with the 1300 I rode most of the day, finishing up on a 950T.  I can’t lie, I liked the big motor better.  In fact, my favorite Star motorcycle is the Stratoliner S or Deluxe which as a massive 1900 cc V Twin.  I laugh every time we refer to a 950 as a “starter” bike as my first big bike was a 650 back in 1978.

The Bolt, 950 cc, low seat height and classic looks. A “starter” bike I can’t wait to ride

Friday I was back in the sportbike line working with Catlin.  While Thursday was super cold, Friday was only somewhat sub-tropic.  The demo loop is just about 13 miles, we did it 8 times for a grand total of 104 miles of incident free riding.

Friday evening Pete and I took a ride up to Jacksonville for the Iron Butt Association’s Annual “Pizza Party.”  We had a Super Tenere and 2013 FJR that needed their minimum mileage requirement.  Originally we were going to switch but after riding the FJR north I begged, pleaded and ultimately would not give up the keys to the FJR.

For 2013 the FJR has larger forks and updated suspension components up front.  This is a dramatic improvement of what was already a great handling motorcycle.  Also changed are the electronics and instrumentation.   Yamaha’s new Chip Controlled Throttle (YCC-T) delivers outstanding throttle response.  With the ability to select touring or sport mode and the YCC-T the FJR can be a pussy cat in Daytona traffic or a lion charging up I-95.  I could have skipped Jacksonville and gone on to Atlanta with no problem.  One never knows when a FJR may show up in my garage but I’d be happy to make room for one next week.

Saturday I was back on tent duty for what was scheduled as a half day.  Traffic builds in anticipation of the 200 later in the day.  There comes a point when traffic is too heavy for us to ride and the boss adjusts the schedule accordingly.  Fortunately for me we had a Stratoliner Deluxe with zero miles so I went for a nice ride into the swamps to break it in.

Give me some George Thorogood on the stereo and I’m outta here.

Saturday afternoon we were told in no uncertain terms that we needed to head to the Yamaha suite for lunch and the 200.  Not one to disobey orders I ended my week with one more hamburger while chatting with some great people.  After lunch there were three bikes that needed mileage but I’d had my fun so Pete, Rick and Mike did a tour of the swamps while I retreated to the hotel.

Sunday Pete and I blasted north, now that work was done I wanted to get home and give my family a hug.  We got to his house in the early afternoon and I was loaded and moving in under 15 minutes.  Once again I was very happy to be in the Jeep as this is what I encountered Monday morning in Maryland.

I’ll be doing demos with Yamaha all year.  For our current schedule of events visit the Star Motorcycles website or click here.

Our plan after Moab was to take it easy continue west.  We had only camped one night and we were looking forward to camping.  Our destination was the Great Basin National Park which is just west of the Utah / Nevada border.

It was to be a short day so I encouraged Dillon to sleep in a bit.  The short day also gave us time to have a nice breakfast so we walked down the street to a place that advertised the best whole grain waffles in the world.

obligiatory food shot

Now those that know me know that I have a “thing” for real Vermont Maple Syrup.  As I like to say you can ruin a good pancake with fake syrup and save a marginal pancake with the real deal.  That’s why I always travel with a pint of product from my friends at the Carmen Brook Farm.

Being a cheap Yankee I’ve figured out a way to get the syrup “free” by making it a high point bonus in the Minuteman 1000.  Dillon and I enjoyed our breakfast without Aunt Jemima thanks to rider #21, Jim Stoddard.  Thanks Jim!

After breakfast we packed up, checked out and got on the road at a very relaxed time of 10am.  With a short day planned I figured we’d be at our campsite by 4 or so.  After the agressive pace of the last few days I was looking forward to dialing it back a bit.  Our route included a chunk of Interstate before to Salina, Utah to pick up US 50.

US 50 through western Utah and Nevada is known as the Lonliest Highway in America and they are right.  I put this on our route because both of us wanted to get away from civilization, or at the very least strip malls, fast food, neon and Walmarts.  You won’t find that on route 50.  In between the few towns you’ll go over a 100 miles with nothing except foundations of long since abandonded pony express stops.  No water, no gas and absolutely no cell service.  I was looking forward to this with some aprehension, should we have a breakdown in the desert I figured it could be up to six hours or more before meaningful help would arrive, assuming a good samaritan would stop and summon help from the next town.  I discussed this with Dillon and we came up with a “disaster plan” that was pretty much put up the parawing, (shade) conserve water, watch out for sand critters and wait for help.

After leaving I 70, US 50 takes a jog to the NW, then merges with I-15 for a bit down to Holden before heading west to Delta, Utah.

As we approched the junction of 50 and I-15 Dillon informed me that a bolt holding the spare fuel can bracket on the sidecar was missing.   We stopped and not only was the bolt gone but the angle braket was missing as well.  This was sort of a big deal because the angle bracket secured the bottom of the carrier to the fender and made everything more solid.  Without the bracket the carrier wanted to droop, distorting the body of the sidecar and making a bit of a racket when we’d hit a bump.  We stopped at a truck stop but they had no material to make a bracket so I used a spare strap to take some of the load off the top bolts.

Feeling confident in the temporary fix we motored on.  This leg was the reason we carried spare fuel and I didn’t want to give up our reserve heading into the desert.  We had about 14 miles to Holden before turning west into the desert where I planned on checking things over.

Just as we made the right turn out of Holden the alternator light came on.  Great!  Just what we need, electrical problems as we head into one area in the lower 48 where help isn’t exactly handy, not to mention the closest BMW dealer might as well be on Mars.

I was somewhat prepared for this as common issue on the earlier GS’s on the 2005 Iron Butt Rally was shredding the alternator belt.  The belt had been changed prior to our departure and I was carrying a spare but the trouble light was only coming on at low RPM which meant it wasn’t the belt.  We had a brief discussion and decided to continue west to Delta.

We arrived in Delta around 2pm, as we slowed for town the light came on and stayed on.  I told Dillon I didn’t want to go further away from civilization without a better idea of what was going on so we stopped in front of an Ace hardware store with a Radio Shack.  It didn’t take long to figure out the problem, when I added the strap to the fuel carrier I tightened it up a little too much and introduced some chaffe to the wiring in the hack.  Nothing like a real world shakedown, this was something that could have been done better in the initial build but was only realized after a few thousand miles.

From the start of the trip I told Dillon this wasn’t a race, the Iron Butt Rally or a forced march. I joked back in February that at times the trip might be torture but it would never be punishment.  The goal was to enjoy the country and each other. I declared that should we have a breakdown we wouldn’t let it ruin the trip, we would simply rent a big ass Caddy with a kicking sound system and good AC.  He asked me if we were going to need a caddy and I said no way.  Memory fades over time but I think he was sort of rooting for the Caddy at this point.

We purchased what we needed from Radio Shack and went down the street to a hotel to find a shady spot to make repairs and if necessary to get a room for the night.  Even though we had our first mechanical issue and it looked like we wouldn’t be able to camp I was able to keep myself from popping a nut over the carelessness during the build although I admit it was close.   I wanted to get fixed and get moving, the hotel had the halmarks of a crack den; multiple cars on blocks in the lot, shady people coming and going, plus an extremely malnourished woman tried to bum cigarettes or cash from Dillon while I was working on the bike.  Not a happy place.

After a brief consutation with my friend Max Stratton of Max BMW Motorcycles (my dealer of course) we had most of the lighting we started with and decided to set off.  I discussed our options with Dillon and while it might be a bit late to the park to camp we could see how it goes and continue on to Ely, Nevada for a room or we could stay in Delta.  My goal for the trip was to leave as much of the daily decisions to Dillon when possible and this day he agreed that we didn’t want to stay where we were, even if it meant getting to Ely late.

Off we went, departing Delta around 4:30, west into the blazing sun and out on the lonliest highway in America.

As we rolled into Moab I spotted a BMW R1200 GS Adventure heading the other way. I noticed he had a European license plate and mentioned this to Dillon, telling him that this guy was serious to go through the expense and hassle of shipping a bike over.

Continuing north into town I forgot about the GS while I looked for the home of Moab Off Road, the kind folks who helped me out in 2003. Every time since when I visit Moab I liked to drop in, thank them again and pick up a sticker for whatever I’m riding. I couldn’t find their shop but I was able to find the one cheap motel in Moab.

Much to our delight the lot was filled with bikes with all but three bearing license plates from the United Kingdom.

There were 19 bikes and a Sprinter van in the lot. The riders were on expedition put on by Globe Busters and were in the first third of a trip from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina. This is a hell of a ride going from as far north to as far south as you can go in North America. Only one rider has ever done the trip in its entirety unassisted including the infamous Darien Gap, everyone else has shipped their bikes around the Gap with good reason.

We spoke with the riders who were all very friendly and as curious to hear about our trip in the sidecar as we were their trip to Patagonia. They were taking their time as in 134 days to go 20,000 miles and staying at 119 different hotels. Average mileage was to be 200 per day.

Moab is a cool place.

I’ve had a special place for Moab since the 2003 Iron Butt Rally, when I hit an oil spill a few miles out of town and had a nasty crash. Starting with the tow truck driver to the great folks at Moab Off Road I managed to get the bike all fixed up and was back in the rally the next day. I’ll never forget hearing the phone ring at the shop and the owner getting a funny look as he said “it’s for you”. It was the tow truck driver telling me that while the town was too small for him to actually tell me his name, a gentleman named Clayton Stokes had the motor seize in his Econoline Van three miles up the road from where I crashed. Turned out Mr. Stokes had just left the local quickie lube after an oil change and his new oil was on the apex of my turn.

A few years ago I went back to Moab on the Crazy Uncle Tour and my buddy Dave suggested we visit the Arches at Sunrise. This was such an experience I wanted to share it with Dillon.

We left Howard without ever meeting the few soreheads and headed west on US 50. Up and up we went, cresting Monarch Pass at 13,000 feet, absolutely amazed at the people riding touring bicycles up the pass.

West side of Monarch pass

After Monarch we stopped in Montrose for some fuel. When I was planning the trip I wanted to see if we could do some high altitude camping or ride Emmegrant Pass which I did on the CU tour. It’s a jeep trail with dramatic drops and incredible views, but I decided after riding the bike for a few days that the chances of making it up and down without smoking the clutch would be pretty tough.

I had a fall back plan for some remote riding. Thanks to my friends on Adventure Rider I was able to confirm that route 90 west from Montrose would give us a good taste of the wild without putting too much abuse on the bike.

90 is a forest road, graded dirt and gravel with just a few choppy sections. We took it easy and had a great time, Did I mention Dillon loves trees? He loved this road and all I sad was “you just wait till we get to Northern California.”

We both enjoyed 90. I liked it because it was easy and accomplished part of our primary mission which is to get away from pavement, billboards and wal-marts. Dillon liked it for the adventure and the middle of nowhere feeling.

What’s a ride in the country without encountering animals? We came around a turn and found a good sized cow in the road. Good thing Dillon had the camera ready.

While the woods were a lot of fun I was ready for pavement and Dillon was ready for Utah.

According to the sign there are 1201 residents and a couple of soreheads living in Howard.

Fortunately the owners of the Sugarbush campground are not soreheads, plus they have wireless. We had considered going further west and camping at 10,000 feet but we don’t have the right gear for anything under 40 degrees which is the forecast for 6,500 which is right about where we are.

We had another great day, if you can call riding Kansas great. I’ve done Kansas a few times and this was the first time it started to get to me, perhaps it is the constant push or pull required to keep a hack going straight for a few hundred miles. We’ve covered almost 2100 miles since Friday afternoon and I’m a bit sore up top, it’s time to start the Advil routine.

We both have been ready to spend a night outdoors for a few days now, we’re even ready to give up wireless. While our original route was a bit ambitious, no matter how you slice it 10 days is not a tremendous amount of time to go from Bristol to Portland when you want to avoid interstate, see stuff and stop to smell the roses. We’re starting early and ending late with little energy to cook.

After dinner down the road we had a sunset discussion about the rest of the trip. The original itinerary was based on the three points of interest I got out of Dillon last winter. I’ve tried to make it clear that this is his trip, we can go any direction except east and of course we must get to Reed (college in Portland) on schedule. My only request is that we be in Marin Friday night to visit one of my best buddies and his wife who has hit little rough patch with her health. I can’t bear the thought of not seeing her and making sure they both know how much they mean to me, plus I want to show off my son. Dillon doesn’t know about the show off part but he knows I want him to meet my friends and he’s game for the visit. We’re going to cut out the Sequoia National Forest and General Grant’s highway. This will give us three sub 300 mile days to Marin and a chance to relax the pace some. I’d like a couple of nights where we get to camp early enough to enjoy happy hour and cook together, that doesn’t happen after a 500 mile day although with a plan to visit the Arches at sunrise a room in Moab is in the plan.

Before heading west from Pueblo on US 50 the most interesting sight of the day was either a few massive wind farms in Kansas or the sign on the back of a semi that appeared to be a hog taking a dump along with some slogan about not eating chicken or beef. That’s a photo to be posted when we have the bandwidth. I’m psyched at how much better it will be from here.

It’s apparent that Dillon loves the outdoors which is no surprise, he and his buddies have been camping in the woods behind the house for years. At one point I couldn’t find him at the campsite until he told me to look up. My hack monkey is a tree climber too. I’m looking forward to sharing Northern California with him, after Marin we have three nights and four days to get to Portland and I’m looking forward to every one as well camp “for real” after Marin.

Just so long as he doesn’t try to scale a redwood.

The interstate is great for covering ground efficiently, seeing strange billboards (Colt 45, works every time, as seen in Saint Louis) and blowing by big stadiums. We agreed that the Colts have a much more attractive house than the Chiefs.

Dillon is a great traveling partner and the perfect monkey (sidecar passengers are called a monkey). I had no idea how he would do in the hack and I am delighted with how well it is going. After Hamburg we hit it pretty hard to Effingham, IL covering a little over 700 miles in some 90 degree heat.

I took a tiny jog off route so we could go through St. Louis and see the arch. Dillon took three years of American History (and aced em I might add) which is great because I slept through AH. A good part of my current knowledge came from reading markers on the Iron Butt rally; In 07 I strung all sorts of Lewis and Clark sites together so we had some stuff to chat about.

The arch as viewed from the chair.

As we went west from St. Louis we got our first weather event of the trip. The sky started to get very dark and I started explaining the thought process that goes into dealing with storms. Do we stop now and seal up? When we do we’ll get all steamy in our gear if we get lucky and miss rain, if we don’t we could get totally soaked with can lead to hypothermia, even when it’s 80 degrees out.

While I was explaining to Dillon that I might have blown the call we created a hill and I pointed out that what you see up there is a wall of rain, we’re going to get very wet unless we make it to that exit before we meet rain.

I was off by about three minutes. We got under cover at a truck stop as it got really hairy, horizontal rain and lightning all around, good times! We literally just made it and I learned how tenuous the ME 880’s tires can be in the rain as I broke the back end loose off the exit ramp. A decision was made to enjoy a truck stop lunch of hot soup and a sandwich. Meanwhile we could see the interstate get choked up as there were a few accidents to clean up. We passed on the pies as they were “boxed” i.e. not made on the premises.

In the 05 IBR I had an epic last day, a big part of which was a forced march from St. Louis to Denver on I 70. We stopped at a TA (truck stops of America) which brought back a flood of memories. I had a big fueling problem at the same stop four years ago next week, when the auto shut off on the pump did not work. I had my back turned and discovered this when I heard the hissing of fuel vaporizing as it ran down the tank and onto the motor; my training kicked in and rather than touch the handle I hit the emergency pump stop. Did you know that if you hit that button you stop every pump in the truck stop? Now you do. 🙂

We continued west to Kansas and the “tour du corn” as we like to call it. Did you know Kansas really is flatter than a pancake?

Entering Kansas (photo by Chacifer)

There’s not much to say about Kansas, except to say the Best Western Angus is a wonderful surprise, especially the Angus part as I had a great KC strip for dinner. We said goodbye to Chace and took 159 south, not quite sure what we would find. I had wanted BBQ for lunch. When in New England eat Lobster, when in Missouri, try BBQ. This doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out but our rain delay and truck stop lunch pushed a pulled pork sammich off the menu so to speak but I made up for it with the KC steak.

Now all that stands between us an a night camping in the Rockies is the rest of Kansas and some nasty weather. Our plan was to get up at six, it’s now 7:15, it’s raining hard and the time between the flash and boom is under six seconds so Dillon is still sleeping and I’m blogging. I’m not opposed to getting wet but hard visibility cutting rain and lighting makes me happy to be in a hotel room vs on the bike.

Once the weather breaks we’ll be taking 56 to US 50 and heading to the hills.

Right after I find some pepper spray.