yellowducati900ss Posted May 14, 2002 Share Posted May 14, 2002 Ok, now for a ride report... Summary: The Plan: Ride a double Iron Butt ride from Dallas, TX to Wausau, WI, and back in 4 days to suprise my mother on Mother's Day. I had never done this sort of thing before but I really wanted to see if I could do it. Did I bite off more than I could chew? No, but it did test my limits for cold/wet conditions, my pain tolerance, and my determination. Did I succeed? Yes, I made it up there in 23.5 hours and although I technically went 1000 miles in under 24 hours on the way back, I didn't do the whole 1117 miles in 24 hours like I did going up. I decided not to do an "Iron Butt" tour back because the record keeping was a pain in the @ss and I wanted to get a good night's sleep on Sunday night. Besides, I had already proven to myself that I could do it in really bad conditions so the challenge was gone. Biggest Lesson: Gear, Gear, Gear! I had only marginal gear and if I would have had better gear I would have wasted a lot less time! Stats: I accidently put the batteries in the GPS backwards and it reset the memory so I have no exact GPS mileage for trip up. Total Mileage: ~2200 miles Mileage back: 1117 miles Avg. Speed for trip back: 79 mph Sore Shoulders: 2 Sore Neck: 1 Sore Ass: 0 (Don't know why they call it an Iron Butt, it didn't hurt there) Full Report: Friday (Gear Frustrations): After a 3/4 day of work, I filled up with gas at 3:17pm on Fri. 5/10. This marked the offical beginning of the ride. I left the Chevron at Forest Ln. and 75 in Dallas, TX and headed north on 75. There was traffic and the beginning was slow but after McKinney things opened up. I was keeping an avg. speed of about 83 mph through the first day (you will notice this avg. speed increasing over the trip...). I filled up and threw down a quick dinner of sandwiches at McAlester, OK and kept on going north. At Big Cabin, OK, I stopped for gas again and some quick food. That stop turned into quite a long stop. I called my contact back home and a truck driver told me to expect rain at the MO border so I put on my gear. This was quite a fiasco. It took me 20 minutes to put on gear and get everything sorted out. It turns out I didn't need it but it was a good learning experience and now I REALLY can't wait for my aerostitch to come! I started getting sore in the shoulders and neck during the later part of the day. I dumped a bunch of Gold's Medicated powder down my back and it helped a lot. I passed Cuba, MO but it was getting really late so I didn't stop to take my "Around the World" picture. It didn't matter because I'll be going through there on my trip to WI in 2 months where I'm taking only the back roads. I stopped at a Super 8 for the night just after midnight and asked for a 6am wake-up call. When I went to my room, I looked in the mirror and realized that the powder was all over my clothes, face, etc. It looked like I was rolling in it. Saturday (Day from Hell): I woke up, ate a quick breakfast and headed out in a crisp 52 degree, overcast day. I had already put on all of my wet weather gear except for my aerostitch over-gloves because it wasn't raining yet. Little did I know it was the best weather I was going to get for the day! I rode about 100 miles before the rain started. I pulled into a gas station in IL, just on the other side of St. Louis, MO, to grab some gas and put on the gloves. I took off again with the heated vest (courtesy of Lee Nolan) turned on high and me all toasty warm... One hundred miles later I was in hell! Like an idiot, I had left my waterproof boots at home. They are a half size too small and I thought they would be too uncomfortable. I learned in these hours that that would have been far more comfortable than the vertabra boots full of water in 40 degree weather! My socks thermal socks were soaked and useless and my toes were starting to freeze off. This is when I started to get my first doubts about making it in the distance in 24 hours and actually if I was going to make it at all! The riding was challenging. I was doing 80+ miles an hour in light rain with a pretty strong side wind. The roads weren't puddling up so I could go pretty fast but the visibility was pretty poor, especially when the trucks were kicking up a lot of mist. I couldn't see past them when I wanted to pass. I needed to put down the windshield for each one so the wind would push the rain off of my helmet and then ease past their rear before my vision would improve enough for me to put the screen back up for comfort. With the cross-wind, it wasn't helping too much anyway. The wind/rain was coming at me from the side (it was coming from the EAST for cripes sake)! I suffered for a while (at least one gas stop) until my feet were really starting to be a problem. I grew up in WI so I know the differnce between uncomfortable and it starting to be a problem. Around 11 (I think) I pulled into a gas station in IL and resigned myself to doing what I could to make it to WI alive and healthy and to-hell with the Iron Butt. It was bearable on the bike but as soon as I had stopped and took off my gloves to gas up, I started to shiver really bad. After gassing up, I went inside and grabbed some hot coffee and took a break to think things through. I was already late and I didn't want to push any harder than I already was! Along the way I passed Lebanon, MO; Lebanon, IL; and Ottawa, IL, but I was so damn cold and miserable I wasn't about to stop and take pictures for the "Around the World" tour. While there, I realized I needed to do something about my feet. I purchased some trash bags and went into the bathroom. I cared so little about the little things by then that I did something I will probably never do in my life again. I sat down on the floor of a public, gas station, bathroom! To give you an idea of what I was going through, it actually felt good! I changed took off my socks and dried my feet. I then put on my only remaining pair of good, dry, socks and put the bag over them and then put my boots on. I was in heaven, dry feet! I also put on my winter gloves beneath my over-gloves for added warmth. I got back on the bike and headed north again. I was toasty warm, dry, and feeling about 75% again. As I got farther north, I started to do the math in my head again and I realized that without pushing any harder than I was, it was just possible that I would make it! I had only one more necessary gas stop and if I was quick, I could make it! I pulled into the last gas stop in-transit and filled up quickly. By now there were starting to be some small leaks in my rain gear but they were bearable. The worst part was that the aerostitch gloves were starting to leak a bit. I should have scotch-guarded them before I left. Also, the cheap winter gloves I had would not go back on my hands after taking them off. They were too wet so I went back to my Fieldsheers. I got back on the bike and took off for the home stretch of about 80 miles. My balaclava (sp?) was starting to get wet around my neck and I was getting a sore on my finger from the wet and rubbing gloves. Also, and I forgot to mention this earlier, I had to do this whole 400 or so miles without my radar detector because of the rain. Luckily the only cop that I passed (as far as I know), I was alerted to by a passing motorist flashing his lights! For WI, anyway, it is the best detector out there! Especially because he was sitting on an on-ramp where I couldn't see him... The last 20 miles were spent dreaming of the very large, very deep old fashioned bathtub that my parent's have. It was going to be soooooooo taking a looooooong hot bath. I made it to Wausau, WI shivering again but happy to be there. I grabbed my last receipt at 2:39pm, thus getting by with about 30 minutes to spare! My mom was shocked to see me but she was very happy. That night I went to Gander Mountain and picked up some heated socks for the trip back. Sunday (leisurly ride): After the Mother's Day festivites, I headed out at 6pm. As stated earlier, I decided not to do the Iron Butt thing because I didn't want to mess with the record keeping and because I figured I would sleep in on Mon. morning so I wouldn't make it anyway. I headed out and rode south on 39 to take a State Highway over to the Interstate I was planning on taking home. Instead of going through St. Louis again because of rain there, I was going to go down I-35 through Kansas City. I ended up getting onto a Detour for about 60 miles because of a bridge being out so that was a good start to the trip. Somewhere along the line I got the bike up to 123 mph (GPS, indicated was in the 130's). 124 is the stated top end, not bad for full luggage, a big windscreen, and a fat guy on it! The last couple miles of WI goes through some beautiful countryside (sorry, no pictures) that reminds me of the Texas Hill country but full of trees. It also had a lot of state troopers on the Interstates. They all had cars pulled over but they weren't tripping the V1. Sneaky cops and their damn Instant On/Laser... I rode pretty swiftly averaging anywhere between 83 and 88 mph for the rest of the day. No cops to speak of and light traffic. I made it to my hopeful stopping point, Des Moines, IA, and I was really ready to stop. I wanted to get through it and find the closest motel after it because I wanted to stay out of rush hour traffic in the morning. Wouldn't you know it, there aren't any hotels, or gas stations for that matter, until 45 miles south of Des Moines!!! I was doing everything I could to stay awake. It was too cold to pull over and sleep so I had to get somewhere safe. Luckily I found a Days Inn and after a nice warm bath to put some body heat back into me and relax the knots in my shoulders and neck, I fell into a deep sleep. Monday (Haulin' @ss): Monday morning dawned bright and clear if a little chilly. I put on all of my heat gear but left off the rain gear and heated socks and garbage bag boots. After a quick breakfast, I was off. This was the first day I really played with the GPS a lot and the radar detector was working great. As the day progressed, my speeds picked up. Before you know it, I was constantly cruising at 90+ mph. I decided to swing into Kansas and come down Hwy. 69 instead of Hwy. 71 in MO like I normally do because I wanted to pick up Kansas as a state I had ridden in. The 100 miles sough of Kansas are mostly two lanes but they are almost totally free of traffic on a Monday morning and I was doing triple digits for over an hour! This is when I found out my bike can do 129 mph. I probably could have pushed it to 130 but some cars got in the way... The only bad part about Hwy. 69 is that towards the south end of it in OK there are a lot of small towns. That cut my total average speed for the return trip all the way back to 79 mph on the GPS. The whole day was pretty uneventful and the cops were staying where they belong (on the Interstates) until I hit southern OK. Then they came out of the woodwork. In the last 30 miles of OK, I got lit up by at least 3 cops and one even turned around to follow me for a short while but thanks to my V1, they never got me... >:-) <--- Evil Grin... Somewhere along the way I passed 1000 in just under 24 hours but I was in the middle of B.F.E. and I wasn't keeping records anyway... Once into TX, I started to hit rush hour traffic and there were more cops around so I eased back into Plano doing regular traffic speeds. I was pretty sore by then anyway and was just happy to be home... Link to comment
tlash Posted May 15, 2002 Share Posted May 15, 2002 Thanks for the write-up Mike and congrats on a safe ride. I'm thinking of doing a SaddleSore 2K later this year. Your ride report is a reminder for all of us to have good equipment and be prepared. Link to comment
Airtire Posted May 18, 2002 Share Posted May 18, 2002 Great Story. With that ride under your belt, any other ride is lightweight. Link to comment
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