2011 Iron Butt Rally Part 1

The 2011 Iron Butt Rally is in the books. The picture is me at the start of the rally. I left Boston for the start of the Rally in Seattle on June 14th. I decided to do what is called a SaddleSore 3000 on my way out to Seattle. That's 1,000 miles per day for three days. That ride went off without any problems. In fact, I can't even remember much about that ride. I started from Boston with a friend from work riding a Harley. He was going to ride with me to South Dakota and then he would head south to go to San Diego to visit his son while I continued west to Seattle. We got about two hours outside Albany NY when he broke down on the side of the road. Luckily he was on a Harley and there are dealerships in nearly every town in the Northeast. I waited with him on the side of the road for the tow truck, but then I had to keep moving because I was on a schedule. I was planning to stop for a few hours in Cleveland to visit with a friend and thought Skip would have time to catch up to me if he could get his bike fixed. The dealership didn't have the part he needed so he had to spend the night there and then he said he would just turn around and head home from there. The next day, his bike broke down again. I made it to Cleveland and had an early dinner with my friend Steve.

I got to Seattle on Friday and made arrangements with the BMW dealer (Ridewest BMW) to get the bike serviced including new Metzeler ME880 tires which I planned to ride the whole rally on. Once the weekend started, the riders had several tasks to take care of before the start on Monday the 20th. I wanted it to be a stress-free weekend because I didn't want to panic before the start. It wasn't too difficult, but it wasn't stress-free either. I had a problem with my fuel cell. My cell is mounted on the rear seat of my bike. This is within regulation, but the cell cannot move around. Most cells are bolted to the frame of the bike. Mine moved around a little too much for the tech inspector so I had to rush around town and try to find some straps to secure it to the bike a little better. I got it taken care of, but I was freaking out for a little while.
There was a lot of speculation about the theme of this year's Rally. Nothing is revealed to the riders until the riders meeting/dinner on Sunday night. However, there were clues around the hotel like posters, lanyards and t-shirts worn by IBR staff. It looked like it was going to be a 48-state ride based on the clues, but you knew there would be a twist. At the dinner we were given our rally packs and rally flags. Tom Austin was the mastermind behind this year's theme and it was indeed a 48-state ride. The rules were very basic. Ride to all 48 states within 11 days and you will be a finisher. The base route for this was only 8,500 miles. If you wanted to be competitive and improve your position in the standings, you could visit state capitols and take a picture of your rally flag at the capitol buildings. Each state capitol had different point values. The capitols along the base route were of minimal value, but the further from the base route, the higher the point value. Plus, as the rally goes on, the point values increase so the points in the first leg are considerably less than the points in the third leg.

We knew ahead of time there would be three legs in this rally. The first checkpoint was in Buffalo NY, the second checkpoint was in Jacksonville FL, and the finish was in Ontario CA. Only certain capitol bonuses were available during the individual legs, but you could visit any state on any leg. Additionally, bonus points were available for resting and calling-in to the IBR staff during certain time windows. This was a drastic departure from the tradition of receiving a 50+ page bonus listing and spending half the night before the rally trying to plan your route. Once all was revealed in Seattle, I went back to the room and only spent about an hour on routing. I decided I was going to take it easy and stick to the base route and maybe hit a couple capitols along the way, but not go crazy and do a ton of miles on the first leg. That didn't last long. We left the hotel on Monday, June 20th for 11 days on the road. I went to Olympia WA, Salem OR, and Boise ID on the first day. I stopped for the night north of Boise before heading into Montana. I thought for sure I would see several riders in Boise, but I only ran into Chris Sakala. This was encouraging because Chris is one of the top riders in this game. I thought I was doing something right by seeing him there. My plan was then to go through Montana, dip into Wyoming, and across North Dakota. I spent the second night in Bismark ND. I did a lot of miles on day two. The speed limits are high through Montana and North Dakota so you can cover a lot of ground. The ride across North Dakota was brutal. It was heavy rain, wind, and cold temperatures. I had my electric vest working overtime. At one point, I turned my head to the left and rain was stinging my neck. It continued to burn so I thought a wire popped out of my electric vest and was burning my neck. I turned off the vest and when I got to the motel for the night in Bismarck, I looked at my vest and it was fine. The rain was like wet fire I guess. From Bismarck, I went south to South Dakota and then east through Minnesota. It was somewhere in here that I decided to change my plan. I was feeling really good about the ride so far and I was getting plenty of rest. This was likely going to be the last time I was going to be able to do this so I decided to crank it up and ride as hard as I could for the next nine days. I hit almost every state capitol left on the leg; WI and PA were the only ones I missed. I passed right by my mom’s house in Minnesota and all I could do was wave. The highlight for the leg was Kentucky. I did about two hours of back roads in Kentucky on some of the nicest twisty roads with beautiful landscape. I really want to go back there for a couple days and ride those roads again. I made it to Buffalo with a couple hours to spare.

Part 2....

Rally Prep Continues

It is getting close to the big show. I leave for Seattle on June 14th and the Iron Butt Rally starts on June 20th. I have done a couple rallies in the past few weeks. I did the Minuteman 1000 two weekends ago and the Mason-Dixon 20-20 last weekend. I was happy with my results on both. The Minuteman is a 24 hour rally. I did it last year as well. It started in Northampton MA and had a checkpoint nine hours into the rally at Max BMW in North Hampton NH. I had a flawless first leg of the rally sweeping a truckload of bonuses in CT before pulling into the checkpoint right on time. I felt great at that point. The second leg started well, but as I got into the middle of Maine and it got dark, things started to happen. My camera crapped out on me and a I missed a couple of the bonuses I wanted to go to. I rested for about an hour on a picnic table in a little town in Vermont. I woke up to a scratching sound and as I opened my eyes I saw dog licking my Aerostich suit. He just looked at me and then ran away. Part of the surrealness of rallying in the middle of the night. Anyway, things picked-up after that and I nabbed a bunch of big bonuses in NH and VT. I pulled into the finish with only nine seconds to spare. I hate cutting it that close. I placed fourth. The Mason-Dixon rally is a 32 hour rally that starts and ends in Hagerstown MD. There is no checkpoint midway through on this one. We received the bonus locations a couple weeks before the rally started so I kind of knew where I was going to go before I got there. There were 62 riders in the rally and many of them were IBR riders using the rally for a final shakedown before the IBR. I knew it was going to be competitive. You had two choices in this rally. You could either go to a bunch of bonus locations with very little point value and try to build enough points to be competitive or you could go for 3-5 high point value targets and do some big miles to get them. I decided on the 3-5 big bonuses. My route was Hagerstown MD, D.C., Manhatten, Indianapolis, and back to Hagerstown MD. It was actually a very leisure ride with only a few stops. It was just long. Riding across Ohio on I70 is probably the most bored I've ever been on a motorcycle. Luckily the satellite radio signal was strong the whole time so I could keep myself entertained. I knew I was going to be in Indiana by 10:00 or 11:00 at night and I had to wait until 5:30 Sunday morning for the Indianapolis bonus to open. It was Indy 500 weekend as well so that made things interesting. All the hotels within 50 miles of Indianapolis were booked so I found a Motel 6 right across the Ohio/Indiana border which is about an hour from Indianapolis. It was perfect. I got there around 10:00 and was sleeping by 11:00. I got a good five hours of rest before starting again at 4:00 in the morning Sunday. The bonus was a photo of the 100th anniversary of the Indy 500 sign. Sunday was race day. I thought it would be quiet at 5:30 in the morning, but it was party central. Cars and people everywhere. I jumped off the bike, took the shot, and took off. Some kids asked if I was on one of the pit crews. I guess my one piece Aerostich suit looks a little pit crewish. Getting out of there was a breeze, but once I got back on the highway, I realized I may not have taken the correct photo so I went back and took another picture. That burned about an hour of my time so what was once an easy ride back to Hagerstown ended up being a rush to get back on time. I wanted to stop at a couple little bonuses along the way, but there was no time for that. At the scoring table I found out that my original picture was fine. Doh! I ended up in 6th place, but if I had the extra hour to collect a few more points it may have bumped me into the top 5. That's ok though. It was a great training ride for the IBR. The bike performed without any issues on both rallies. The left speaker in my helmet blew out. I mailed it to J&M yesterday to get repaired. I leave in less than two weeks so I am hoping they get it back to me before I leave. I have a backup plan though. The two rallies helped me realize that the camera I have for the IBR sucks. I ordered a different one today. Besides the helmet and camera issues, I have a couple little things I need to do on the bike and I'm ready.

Slush Ride

This past weekend was the Yankee Beemer ride to close down Gould's Sugarhouse in Shelburne MA. There are two rides to Gould's every year. They are only open during the winter months so there is a ride in the fall for the opening weekend and a ride in the spring for the closing. It is an odd business model, but I guess it works for them. It is usually one of the better rides of the year since that part of MA has some of the best backroads in the state. This past Saturday was some of the worst weather I've been in on a bike. About a dozen bikes met in Orange MA. It was raining with slush and snow on the ground which made for a surreal start. Going further west we hit more snow so it was a basic ride along the main highway 2. We had breakfast and took off east to head back to Boston. Three of us broke off and went for a little extended ride to Moto Market in Acton MA (picture). All in all it was 220 miles of rain and slush all day. It was a great training/test ride because I had all the gear on the bike and put it through the water test. Everything held up except for the shelf on the bike. One of the screws popped out and now the shelf is flopping around. It is an easy fix. I'm glad it happened now.

Nerves

Starting to feel the pressure of getting my act together for the IBR. It is now only two months away and I feel under prepared. I am always reading posts on the IBR forum and on the LD mailing list about rider preparations and people are doing much more than I am doing. It is kind of a mind game at this point, but I still feel under prepared. Many of the participants are retired and have a lot of time on their hands. I've done a little riding over the past few weeks, but not nearly enough. I blew out another tire somewhere in CT a few weeks ago right before a trip I was making to D.C. for work. I got a new tire before the trip. Made it down to D.C. without any problems. I stopped at a few national parks along the way and kind of pretended I was in a rally. I stopped, got my passport stamped, and then quickly left and on to the next. I got back in under seven hours and only one gas stop. The bike performed without any issues. I have the Minuteman Rally coming up next month. That will be the real test of the bike and gear in a real time rally mode. I don't think I am going to have time to do a three-day three thousand mile ride like I had hoped before the big dance. Ugh. I guess I just have to deal with it.

Thaw Arrival

The spring thaw has finally started to happen. I have had the bike out a few times in the past couple weeks. Last Sunday I went for a little south shore ride with a couple friends from the Yankee Beemers. We got wet, but it wasn't too bad. I am still dusting off the cobwebs so I am a cautioned rider right now. I took the day off yesterday and went for a ride until I burned through a tank of gas and flipped the aux fuel cell switch for the first time. It worked. I love having more gas on the bike. It is so annoying to get gas. With the 4.5 gallons on the pillion seat, it is about an added 30 pounds. I did not notice any handling problems with the extra weight which is good. Acceleration is compromised though. It is noticeably less peppy. I also got my SPOT tracker and satellite radio working yesterday. The sat radio is great. I can listen to Howard Stern as I ride which is very cool. With the SPOT tracker, people can follow the adventure online. I'm down to just a few little things before the big ride. I bought a new kickstand base to attach to my kickstand to widen the base. I still have to attach the sat radio antenna and the SPOT tracker to the shelf. I am planning to use some tough velcro for that. I am in the market for a new phone. I would like to get a mount for a new phone as well and perhaps broadcast online for a couple hours/day. The thought there is to set it up as a webcam so people can see what I see for a couple scheduled hours during the day. Vibration may be an issue, but I'll give it a try and see what it looks like. I took care of the MA inspection for 2011 yesterday at Greater Boston Motorsports in Arlington MA. I haven't been in that shop for a couple years since they screwed-up a parts order I made. They have reorganized a bit. They have a nice gear shop now above the showroom. Planning a Berkshires ride this weekend. Giddyup.

Boxer Shorts Article

I was asked to write a little something for the March 2011 issue of the Yankee Beemers Boxer Shorts. The Boxer Shorts is the monthly newsletter of the Yankee Beemers motorcycle club. Read it here first.

My Obsession by Wallace French

Hello, my name is Wallace French and I am an addict.

Like many of you, my obsession happens to be motorcycles, and, more specifically, long distance riding. I wasn’t always like this. When I got my first street bike back in high school (1976 Kawasaki KZ400), I mostly liked riding around town then gradually started to get into sport riding and some minor touring. There was a gap in my obsession too. I got over it and stopped riding for about 10 years and then it happened… I bought the RT in 2006 for a one time cross-country trip and the addiction returned. That’s when my wife would say the “trouble” started. Every time I get on that bike, I don’t want to get off.

When I discovered the Iron Butt Association (IBA) a few years ago, I immediately set out to start racking up the ride certifications. It’s an addiction. Then, I discovered competitive rallies and found groups of people that like to do what I do. I’ve been a quiet follower of the Iron Butt Rally (IBR) crowd for the last few years through various blogs, the LD Rider list, forums, and publications. After the 2009 IBR, I decided I was going to do everything I could to try and get into the 2011 Rally. When the time came to apply for a spot, I sent my application and a few months later received an email. “Congratulations! Your application was drawn for entry in the 2011 Iron Butt Rally.…you can expect to ride through blistering desert heat, numbing cold, pounding rain, painful hail and blinding snow on some of the worst roads North America can offer.” What’s not to love about all of this? I fully expected not to be selected this time around. I have heard stories about people applying for years and never getting selected so I’m not sure why, but I’m in and I’m pumped. There is some randomness to the “drawing” so perhaps they were looking for a certain percentage of rookies and I just happened to be drawn.

Once I got the message, I immediately created a punch list with all the tasks I needed to accomplish in order to be fully ready for the Rally. The RT is a work horse and ready for anything at any time, but I wanted to make some modifications to enhance my personal safety and increase my chances of being competitive with technology. The bike is a 2004 R1150RT. Here are the modifications that will eventually be on the bike: Ohlins suspension, custom seat, custom windshield, auxiliary lighting, HID headlight upgrade, 4.5 gallon fuel cell with custom cover and attached rally book case, communications system, two GPSs (and a third spare), radar detector (and spare), laser jammer, cb radio, satellite radio, cruise, electrified tank bag, tire pressure monitor, and a SPOT tracking device. None of this is going to give me an advantage because 90% of the field has the same stuff, but I think it is going to help me be competitive and give me some comfort on the ride. I have also done a few other things based on lessons learned from IBR veterans. I purchased the Florida and California equivalents to EZPass which should come in handy. I am working on a NEXUS card for speedy border crossings. The IBR is notorious for locating high value targets in Canada and Alaska and my guess is this year will be no different. I did a rally in Canada last year and zig-zagged across the border a few times. The NEXUS card would have been useless because the NEXUS lanes were always closed, but it is one of those things that if I don't have it and discover I could have used it then I’ll beat myself up over it. Especially if it would have saved me from being late to a checkpoint so I am going to mitigate that risk.

In terms of riding preparation, I am planning an “extreme” IBA ride in the spring. I am in the middle of an IBA National Parks tour which is a fun way to pretend you are in a rally. The National Parks tour rules require the rider to get 50 National Park stamps from 25 different states within one year. I’ve got all of them from the six New England states and a few from New York. In the spring, I will ride down to Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland to get as many stamps as possible and then ride back on the same day. I will complete the National Parks tour during my 3000+ mile ride to the start of the Rally.

I will be doing the Minuteman Rally in May. The Minuteman will be a good test of my routine and gear and some additional routing practice. You’ve got to have a routine in competitive rallying. For example, pull up to the gas pump, use credit card for gas, get receipt, verify information on receipt, enter data into the rally paperwork, file everything away, get on bike, and go. I can usually do this in less than two minutes. A routine is critical because when you are riding for days, mental mistakes are common and could cost you at the scoring table. I argued with Rob Nye for 10 minutes at the Minuteman scoring table last year on a technicality, but if I had stuck to my routine I probably wouldn’t have needed to argue for the points. I lost the argument. Routing is also critical and something I continue to work on. In this game, you’ve got people who can ride big miles, but lack the ability to route efficiently. Then you’ve got people who are excellent at routing, but can’t do the big miles. I am in the first category. I can do the big miles, but I am only mediocre at routing. If you excel at both and have a reliable machine you can be competitive. You also need a fair amount of luck which I am lacking.

I could go on and on about my preparations, but I’ll force myself to stop here for now. I could talk about this stuff all day. Are you starting to see the “obsession” factor here? What can I say; I’m an addict with no thought of entering rehab any time soon. For three weeks in June and July, I will be riding nearly 20,000 miles and I can’t wait to do it. Not 10 minutes go by during the day where I don’t think about the Rally. I’m obsessed.

No Riding Rut

It has been awhile since I've posted. Mostly because I am bummed that I haven't been on the bike in about a month. This snow and ice is putting a damper on things. Prep work for the IBR continues. My custom fuel cell cover is taking forever to be completed so I am still patiently waiting for that item. It is the last thing I need before dropping off the bike at the shop to get a makeover. There is a private forum on the IBA board for us riders of the 2011 IBR. I haven't posted very many things, but I read the posts every day. There are so many riders that are doing way more than I am doing for this thing. I thought I was obsessed, but these guys make me look like a total amateur. When I started seeing what others were doing in preparation for the Rally, I got a little nervous like I wasn't doing enough or that I was out of my league. I got over that feeling. I am sticking with my game plan for now and hope it's enough. The last few weeks I've been thinking about my riding/routing prep work. I would like to do a few weekend long rides as soon as the weather will allow. I am planning on doing one rally before the IBR. The Minuteman 1000 is the end of May. The Minuteman is a 24-hour rally and starts in MA so it is close to me; there are usually a few IBR vets riding the rally so it can get competitive. I am heading to the International Motorcycle Show in NY this weekend. Maybe I'll find another farkle or two for the bike. The picture in the post is what my neighborhood still looks like after a winter storm a couple weeks ago. The snow is not going anywhere anytime soon.