Hamburg Pa.

Our first day went very well. Departure was bittersweet for Dillon. He admitted to thinking about ‘being strong” but got a little tender when he was hit with the reality that he was leaving home.

It isn’t like he’ll never come back or won’t be welcome with open arms but this is different. He is on his way to start writing the book of his life and by choice he is doing it where his family is an all day plane ride away.

Life isn’t about finding yourself, it is about creating yourself.

Being somewhat of a nomadic sailor boy, a motorcycle traveler and having been packed off to boarding school by the 7th grade feeling sad at a departure is not something I am used to experiencing. Watching Dillon drove home the magnitude of what lies ahead for the dillmeister. Fortunately he is a very smart kid and makes friends easily. I only hope that after breezing through High School with little hard work and great grades he doesn’t fall too far behind before realizing that the Game is On.

The bike is running great and all systems are working remarkably well for being finished at 8am on the day of departure. I have one issue with an electronic stack on the shelf, it wants to bounce and launch off the bike, only the safety cords are keeping it all in place. I’ll sort this out before we get going today. It is great to have a good intercom system and the Autocom I had installed at the MOA National is working great. We can chat with little effort up to 75mph which is great.

While I am New England born and bread and I love the area getting in and out of New England is getting to be more and more of a pain in the ass. No matter when you leave it will suck, leave at night and you have construction and lot’s of idling behind trucks, leave during the day and you get grid lock and lots of time idling behind trucks although often not as much as in the middle of the night, only because of all the idiots in their cages.

Regardless we pushed on through, going over the Tappan Zee bridge and down 287. It added distance but made for a less painful experience than the GW bridge on a Friday afternoon. My SO, Chace is also heading west on her GS. She left three hours ahead of us and had to sit on the side of the Cross Bronx when her bike overheated. I joked that we were riding sweep but as we took a different route we would have seen her.

For our first night it worked out that Chace got us all a room in Hamburg at the lovely Dutch Motel. It shows the pervasiveness of the Internet that a dump like this has free wireless. Two beds and a cot for $80, chains can’t or won’t touch this plus we have an exterior door which is great for traveling with a bike.

Our goal for today is westward ho! I’d be pumped if we could knock off 700 miles but that may be unrealistic. Chace is heading to Boulder and we’re heading to Colorado Springs so at some point we’ll part company. Could be sooner than later as she wants to be in St. Louis tonight which is 835 away. One thing I got to say about Dillon, our stops yesterday were very quick to perhaps we can throw down a monster day. The sooner we get to the Rockies the sooner we’ll be camping in the woods, eating meat and doing things best not put “on the record” 🙂

Two years ago this week I was deep into the tunnel preparing the RTP for what as we all know as a less than satisfactory run at the Iron Butt Rally.

My last post was just about one year ago. I put the RTP back together for a Bun Burner Gold (1500 miles in 24 hours) to the IBA National Meet in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was a fine ride and last fall the RTP won a major prize at the Larz Anderson Classic European Motorcycle Day.

I put it away and three weeks ago pulled it out and went to the BMW RA National Rally in Canaan, West Virginia. 600 down, sleep, party, ride 200 twisty miles in WVA and 600 back was a wonderful three days.

I was selected in the drawing for the 2009 Iron Butt Rally but along the way something more important and hopefully much more rewarding happened.

My oldest son Dillon was accepted early decision to Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

Now I’ve always wanted to take my son to school in a sidecar but various reasons always prevented me from getting the right rig. Somewhere around January I woke up and realized that if I didn’t do this now I never would, plus what could be better than a little father son bondage on three wheels for 11 days? You can bet that for some time Dillon would say anything would be better but after seeing the construction of the rig and a few rides Dillon is with the program.

While financially painful it was easy to blow off my fourth IBR for a chance to go cross-country with Dillon. He’ll only be a 17 year old freshman once and luck willing I’ll get in the 2011 rally so it will all be good. Chances are it won’t be on the RTP but that’s a whole ‘nother post.

Right now it’s game on as we leave in 24 hours.

More to follow.. Or not.

I’m back.

If you were a reader of this tripe and followed the 2007 Iron Butt Rally surely you know all about the self-distruction of the final drive on my BMW.

That’s old news.

Those demons were exocised by earning one of these.

The fine print says I rode my RTP from Bristol, RI to Tulsa, OK in under 24hrs.

That’s all we need to know and once again thanks to Max the RTP kicks ass.

It has been a great few days.

On Thursday morning I left Rhode Island by 6am. I called Chacifer about four hours later..

“I’m bored”

She laughed at me and said I was really up a creek if I was bored after four hours.

As much as I like my little FJ cruiser it just isn’t a good highway monster like the old F-350 with the Powerstroke but really neither is as fun as the bike for gobbling up mile after mile day after day. I could easily turn this into a million words on why I ride but at this point you either understand or you don’t. I figure if you are still reading this lame blog then you get it so let’s move on.

Thursday evening I made it to Cleveland and joined my friend Bob for a trip downtown to see Modest Mouse. Prudence kept me out of the mosh pit which was actually pretty tame compared to Lupo’s Heartbreak in downtown Providence. We got back to Bob’s around 11 and i thanked him as I didn’t think we would see each other in the morning. I think he took this as a challenge but I was up and gone when he got up at 4:30; I wanted to get through Columbus where I stopped to take a nap.

The ability to power nap is key for the rally and I have always been good at it. I pulled into a mickyd’s parking lot, put the seat back and 18 minutes later work up with no alarm, pulled out and felt great for the rest of the day.

I arrived in Saint Louis and went straight to the HQ of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America so I could wash the road grime off the bike and say hello to the office staff. I was an officer of the MOA until this summer and I have fond memories of the great team we have at HQ, which as a coincidence is just down the road from the Rally Hotel.

When I got to rally HQ I immediately sought out Dale Wilson (aka Warchild) and Tom Austin as I wanted to have my aux fuel tank inspected. Dale is the chief tech inspector for the rally and Tom is the chief tech guy for the association so I wanted their input right away. It passed the initial check for structural integrity but there were some concerns about volume so I was prepared for scrutiny at tech this morning.

As my practice (remember the ritalin boy thing) I was first in line for tech and after very close inspection it was determined that the total fuel capacity of my motorcycle is 11.45 gallons. The maximum is 11.5 gallons so I am 0.05 gallons short. Har de har har.

It is my last day before departure and I got a lot to do. It is also my last day at work for two and half weeks so I got a lot to do.

This afternoon I am going to run by EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports) for a sack for the mini Thermarest (Son Corbett lost the original) and some nifty socks, then over to Kingstown for an inspection sticker. I don’t need a sticker as in Rhode Island you don’t get one your first year but I don’t want to worry about having to prove this at tech.

Then I will visit the original Sleddog and Chief of the Sled Dog Touring Team, Doug Mo for a ceremonial laying of the hands on the bike. I will also get a pair of original SDTT stickers which will be the only stickers on the bike, other than the blue reflective tape Pete put on yesterday.

So, I leave tomorrow, got a ton of stuff to do and I am blogging.

Hare de Har Har and a big Roger Ramjet to you, I’m almost outta here.

With any competition there are rules and there will always be folks who look to exploit the rules for an advantage. This is what I learned from my time managing high end racing sailboats for the uber rich. I also learned that the rule book is a good way for someone new to the game to figure out what can provide a competitive advantage. For example in the Iron Butt Rally we are allowed a maximum amount of fuel. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that carrying as much fuel as possible can be advantageous.

Rules with absolute values (like 11.5 gallons) are easy to understand and enforce. It is the rules with terms open to interpretation that can cause problems for both the competitors and the people enforcing them.

The theme of the IBR is one rider, one bike and one ride. Over the years technology has enabled riders to use computers for mapping and planning, GPS devices for positioning and cell phones for communication, however the rule states that:

“Riders will not receive undue assistance during the event. In determining what constitutes “undue assistance,” the rallymaster’s determination shall be final. Close questions in the interpretation of this section shall be construed against the rider. See, §IV.A.4 for further details.”

The IBR staff has a policy that they will not have a rule they can not enforce. When I first started paying attention to the rally (2001) a rider wrote about calling a friend who ran some “what-if” scenarios on the computer which he incorporated into his ride. From what I had read I thought this was against the rules or at least pushing the envelope a bit. In 2005 we were told that it was permissible to fax our route sheets to our support team with the stipulation that if any of the information were to become public and traceable back to any rider, said rider would be tossed from the event. With riders sending their actual bonus listings to friends the possibility of having someone plan your route is a real possibility. Also in 2005 there were a few “teams” were veteran riders who were not riding the rally were on hand to couch their charges and assist with things like bike maintenance and pre-scoring.

Personally I don’t see an advantage of planning in a team setting and while I do see some advantage to having a coach on-site I think this is pushing the limits of what the rally is all about. I have to be careful about being a bit hypocritical is my bike and the effort of people like Max could also be seen as pushing the envelope, however it is something that is available to any rider, unlike the team gig.

So last night my ribbi, lifeline, coach, mentor and general all around good guy Pete Withers came by. Pete has ridden four Iron Butt Rallies and has retired from competitive events, except when I drag him out for one more rally. Pete is going to be my lead support call during the rally so we wanted to get together so I could give him copies of the latest mapping software. We also needed to discuss how we were going to handle file transfers.

Pete brought over his wife’s nifty brand new Dell notebook running (more likely crawling) Microsoft’s new OS, Vista. As an IT manager I have managed to avoid Vista, however now I was forced to watch it suffer as we discovered that Street Atlas 2008 (can’t get much more current) won’t load. Too funny.

To me it actually is comical because in the grand scheme of the ride weather or not Pete and I can exchange map files is meaningless, yet come next week people will look at my bike and think that Pete can ride it form his couch. The entire idea of having someone plan my route from the comfort of their couch is comical. My experience has me thinking that my best chance for a great ride involves doing my planning alone.

What is important is that when I have a question I know who to call for an answer. The question about where to go and how to get there will be answered on the bike, but trick questions like the local sunrise at the summit of Mt. Evens Co can be answered by anyone, even someone who doesn’t even ride a motorcycle. That and mechanical help at the checkpoint is the extent of my plans for outside assistance.

Gimmie the Book!

One week to go.

I had a very productive weekend. Saturday I put the bike on the trailer and went up to Max’s in New Hampshire for a final service. Two new tires a set of new tires on the spare wheels, switch to synthetic oil, new brake pads all around and I am good to go.

Sunday I spent the day alone in the garage and took all the body panels off so I could run a few comm wires and tidy up the autocom installation we did last week.

I think I am going to be very happy with the Autocom. A dark cloud / silver lining sort of situation developed as apparently the Garmin 2820 has issues with the stereo jack so Autocom highly recommends (in fact their cords demand) using the mono audio out incorporated into the power cord. I rode home from the installation using XM in mono and I thought it would work *ok* but when I got home I plugged in my I-Pod and unleashed the stereo potential of the new system. Rather than purchase a new XM receiver I went with Sirius because I think they have better music and they are introducing a Grateful Dead channel. (you can stop rolling your eyes now)

So I have the Sirius ready to go save a mount, other than this the bike is ready. I am getting down to the little details, earlier today I swung by a Kinkos to get a checklist page laminated. This will go inside the lid of the document box as a little reminder when getting fuel or bonus points.

So the big issues are all sorted out. All of my new Boxers have at some point before 16,000 miles transformed themselves seemingly overnight from a new motor to something perfectly run in and sorted out. With this bike the motor fairy visited about a week and a half ago or right around 10,000 miles. Oil consumption is nill, range is up and when asked the bike gets up like a scalded cat. The police model has a different final drive with a lower ratio which improves acceleration at the expense of economy at cruising speeds. I am happy with the ability to do low speed maneuvers with ease, the wonderful roll-on power and the fact that I am getting over 40mpg.

So with two more days before I leave for St. Louis I feel pretty good and I am getting excited.

Let’s GO!

Good morning,

The title of this Blog is Living in the Tunnel which is where I have been over the last few days and it has been very dark down there.

Actually the tunnel analogy comes from the amount of focus that I just can’t help putting on the ride as the departure time draws near. Last February the IBR was “something in August” as we loaded HP 2’s in New Hampshire for the Sandblast Rally. Then it was easy to think of something else but now with less than a week before I leave for St. Louis, it is all ‘Butt, all the time.

As I have mentioned previously I had been having a hell of a time getting my cell phone to work on the bike. As much as I wanted to I just could not get the JM stuff to work as it should so I scrapped it and went with Autocom. I am much happier as now I can communicate. Unfortunately I lost the opportunity to have CB, which to me was the big plus to the JM, however I could never make even this core function work properly so it is no loss. To say it was a frustrating experience would be putting it mildly, I just can’t imagine a company that provides little to no tech support and refers calls to the owner who doesn’t take calls can stay viable. My faith was misplaced.

It is interesting how important a working cell phone is to many riders. I heard through the grapevine that Rebeca Vaughn has been fighting issues with her cell phone and JM system for a few weeks and that my buddy Jim Frens was also working on his comm setup.

For me the cell phone is critical for booking hotel rooms, checking on things like ferry availability and just plain shooting the breeze with a buddy when we need a little boost. Let’s be honest with each other, no matter how much you like to ride a bike, doing the Tour Du Corn (Kansas) again can get a little boring. On a recent ride a “quick” stop for a necessary call was six minutes long, time an IBR rider can’t afford to burn to talk on the phone, especially when multiple vendors offer phone in the helmet solutions.

In the IBR there are rules against outside assistance, however we are allowed to call a friend and discuss possible routes. We are also allowed to ask for information such as local sunrise at a specific altitude or to confirm opening times of a National Park for example. It has even become permissible for us to send our “ground team” a copy of the bonus locations, however it is frowned upon for a shore team to plan the actual route while the rider sleeps.

In 2005 there was a “team” approach to the rally by a group of riders. I am not sure it helped them with their routing and bonus selection but it did help when it came time to get ready for scoring.

Personally I don’t subscribe to the team approach, nor do I want to trust my routing and bonus selection to someone who is a thousand miles away in the comfort of their home. I do believe it is valuable to have one or two buddies with rally experience to call for information and advice. I will have such a person available and I will be sending him my rally book. One of the big things I learned at the IBR National Meet last summer is that the very top riders plan alone. This struck a chord as in 05 I did my planning for the last leg with another rider and we convinced each other that going from Maine to the West Coast was smart. (it wasn’t)

Once I have my route set in the computer I will be sending an electronic copy to a my “lifeline” and my friend Chace. This is not really for them to review the route but to have a copy of where I am planning on going should I turn up missing.

So now that I have the communication issues resolved I can focus on all the other details, none of which will make or break my ride but in total will make things go smoother.

10 days.

Today was a nice day for a ride even if it had to be up the Eastern Seaboard via the Delmar peninsula.

As I have said it is not about speed. Here is the money shot from the GPS.

As I have said it is not about speed, it is about keeping moving. As my last weekend of solid riding (I went the same distance yesterday) the bike is working great. I now have just over 11k and will easily get the next 1k so we can do a full service this weekend.

Part of today’s ride was to decide exactly how important a integrated cell phone is to a competitive rally rider.

In short order I was able to conclude that I have been fooling myself into thinking that not having the ability to place and receive calls while moving would be no big deal.

In my first rally, the Butt Lite III I arrived at a hotel late at night with another rider. We had been riding for a long time and this was the junction where the road from nowhere got on the Interstate to nowhere and it was this one chain hotel or the ground. It was hot and really humid too.

So we walk up to the counter and the nice lady asks I was the rider who called. I said no and she said I was still in luck she had one room left. Five hours later as we left I saw LD legend Gary Egan trying to sleep on the ground while flies were having him for dinner.

That was 7 years ago. Now if you are out on the interstate highways on a Thursday – Sunday night and you don’t get a room by 7 you are on the ground. I have the ability for my GPS to look up a location, give me an ETA and place the call but THEY CAN’T HEAR ME.

So I have been after this for over a month and we are down to under two weeks to go.

First thing tomorrow the plan of action generated on the ride gets put in play. The fairing will come off one more time and I’ll have all the necessary parts to troubleshoot the whole ball or wax or I’ll simply replace the whole lot.

All I really need is the GPS to work two ways into the helmet, then I have music, phone and traffic.

No big deal with 1 week to get it right.

It has been a busy and productive couple of days.

Last Thursday I got up early and went to Vermont to see Charlie and get a few details sorted out.

My list has gotten shorter but one major item remaining was a few minor modifications to the aux fuel system. My fuel cell uses a pump with a spring loaded check valve which is supposed to prevent any siphoning or flow through the system when the pump is not on. I feel it is very important to have precise control over when the fuel is transferred and on my run up to the Cabot Trail I discovered that on the interstate fuel will flow to the main tank. I also had an issue with the cap as the threads were too fine. The first time I saw it I thought it would be a problem but it took cross threading the cap in Maine to prove my point. This is why I am doing as many shakedown rides as possible to find these sort of issues.

I left a little later than I planned and I got to Vermont around 9am. Charlie and I got started and by 2pm we had a petcock and a new filler neck installed on the aux tank. This is great. When my reserve light comes on I know I have used 5 gallons and have two remaining in the main tank and 4.3 in the cell. At this point I can calculate current consumption, then dump in the extra gas.

Unfortunately we were not able to resolve the issue with the J&M system. I can hear everything wonderfully, however I can not place a cell phone call or get a response on the CB. Charlie and I confirmed the installation yesterday with no luck. I am in the process of deciding exactly how important communications are (vital if you ask) and what to do about it. J&M has a “unique” way of doing business and so far they have been helpful but not really effective. Today I need to decide if I am going to ditch the JM stuff and put in something else, or just go with what I have.

After spending quality time with Charlie I headed down to Heath, MA where my local club, the Yankee Beemers were having their annual Damn Yankees Rally. This is always a good time and since I was in the neighborhood I thought I would drop in and put up my tent before heading back to RI for the night. This way I could roll in Friday and not have to worry about setting up. I needed to get back to RI for some work (waiting for the UPS man actually) Friday.

My weekend included plans for some serious training, Sled Dog style.

One thing that is difficult to practice is riding somewhat fatigued or trying to simulate the way we feel on day 9. The Sled Dogs have prefected a method for emulating this feeling, the key ingredient is to have a destination of 500 or more miles away for the following evening, then proceed to consume mass quantities of “training beverages” the night before *and* limit yourself to under 5 hours of sleep. This also works best if you sleep on the ground too.

I executed this method to perfection by the use of Stella Atoris as the training beverage of choice and also were around people who became more difficult to converse with as my friend’s “accents” became somewhat variable as the session progressed. At about 3am my coach said I was done and at 8 I was up and at em. I won’t say I was my normal hyper self I tend to be first thing so I was a bit casual about my departure.

I had a lovely day putting down 550 miles in 95 degree heat on the eastern seaboard, riding from Heath, MA to Norfolk, VA. The NJ turnpike still sucks.

The bike ran great, the fuel cell worked as it should and life is grand.

Except I still can’t make a goddamn phone call.