'09 IBR results and BMW final drives

[Donster]

BMW was well represented in the latest IBR including first place (R1200RT) and (IIRC) five of the top ten. BMW was also well represented in the DNF group, but so also was Honda Gold Wing. Can we draw any conclusions about BMW FD problems from the latest IBR?

[motorman587]

But were the DNF mechanical or human issues???

[smiller]

Can we draw any conclusions about BMW FD problems from the latest IBR?

As John said... the first thing you'd need to know are the precise reasons for the DNFs. I know there was one failure of an oilhead final drive, not sure if there were any others...

[Nice n Easy Rider]

Donster,

Can you recall the totals? i.e., how many started?, how many DNF? wnat % were BMW in each category? etc.

[Roadwolf]

I had been following the IBR and results and as it relates to the DNF, I would say it would be safe to assume that a lot of those DNFs are from not meeting the finishing level of 76,000 points. They still made the entire rally ending up in Spokane, but did not meet the finishing criteria for the rally. Some did indeed have mechanical issues though.

[Rocket_Cowboy]

But were the DNF mechanical or human issues???

 

My DNF was due to lack of points when my rest bonus was denied. Otherwise, the bike performed wonderfully.

 

In my case the rider let the bike down, not the other way around.

 

I will say, there was a lot of chatter about BMW riders carrying spare final drives with them this year. Other than Jim Bain's clutch issue, and the 1150RT final drive that failed in Cripple Creek CO, I'm not aware of any of the hexhead bikes or the GT's needing new FDs.

[Albert]

My DNF was due to lack of points when my rest bonus was denied. Otherwise, the bike performed wonderfully.

 

Hi RC, hopefully this won't be too dumb a question but I've always been fascinated by the IBR. What exactly is a "rest bonus" and how does one lose it? Thanks, and congratulations despite the setback. You had to have gone through Hurculean effort just to be in the ralley.

[DavidEBSmith]

What exactly is a "rest bonus" and how does one lose it?

 

I'm not Charlie but I know the answer.

 

A rest bonus is a bonus where you have to get two receipts from the same location X hours apart, and you can't collect any other bonuses during those X hours, X usually being 3 or 4 or 5. The point value is usually very high. The idea is, this forces you to be off the bike for a significant period of time, which you can profitably use for rest. The high point value makes it very worthwhile and hard, if not impossible, to pass up. If you pass up a rest bonus, it's usually a very bad mistake (it was my mistake in 2005).

 

You can lose a rest bonus in many ways. Generally speaking, and every rally has different rules: You have to have a start receipt and an end receipt. They both have to have dates and times and location printed on them. The times have to be the specified number of hours apart. The location has to be the same, although "same" can depend on a lot of things. Sometimes the bonus has to be completed on a certain date or within a certain period (i.e. "August 27, 2009" or "Noon to 11:59 pm PST 8/27/09")

 

From the other side of the scoring table, what I have seen on problematic rest bonuses is missing times, missing location, receipts not the required number of hours apart (when the time overlaps midnight it can be especially tricky to calculate on Day 9), or not completing the bonus within the specified time frame.

[Albert]

Thanks David, great explanation.

[Donster]

Donster,

Can you recall the totals? i.e., how many started?, how many DNF? wnat % were BMW in each category? etc.

 

It's on my home computer. I'll pass along the info tonight. IIRC, BMWs were five of the top ten finishers (including the winner) and ten of the thirty that DNF'd. But no reasons for the DNFs were given, and as someone said, they could be unrelated to the bike.

 

The real hero is the last-place finisher, who rode a 250cc Kawasaki.

[Rocket_Cowboy]

From the other side of the scoring table, what I have seen on problematic rest bonuses is missing times, missing location, receipts not the required number of hours apart (when the time overlaps midnight it can be especially tricky to calculate on Day 9), or not completing the bonus within the specified time frame.

 

David provided the detail on what a rest bonus is and how it's claimed. I've quoted the relevant portion of his reply to answer the specific question on how I missed mine.

 

Like David said, you have two receipts to document the start and end times of the rest period. The rest bonus in this case was to be a 5 hour rest period that had to start on a specific day. I chose to start mine at 2am on the day of, and had a gas receipt time stamped for 2:17am local time. I went back to the same station and same pump, and grabbed a fuel receipt time stamped at 7:39am to end my rest bonus.

 

The problem with my receipts ... while they were otherwise pretty good fuel receipts, they did not have the city/state location printed on them. I noticed this on the start receipt, so I went inside and got a reprint ... but the reprint had the same problem. I had been bitten by this on leg 1 and lost 100 points, so I got the street address and phone number of the station and wrote in the location on my receipts.

 

The problem is, while you can make corrections to fuel receipts for the fuel log, corrections are not allowed for any receipt used for any other bonus. This was covered in detail in the riders meeting in Spartanburg, but on Day 9, at 2am, that important piece of info slipped my mind. Had I caught it, and ATM receipt would have been a good substitute. Had I noticed it after the fact, I could have done another rest stop later in the day in order to try and salvage those points. But, I rode on thinking I was good, only to be crushed on the scoring table 3 days later.

[Whip]

Charlie

 

I would be very interested in what kinda training you did to get ready for the long days ahead of you.

 

Also....I have never used an ATM in my life, what other options would you of had to get the rest stop points.

 

Could you have checked into a motel for 5 hours and got the right paperwork that way???

 

L

[motoguy128]

Charlie

 

I would be very interested in what kinda training you did to get ready for the long days ahead of you.

 

Also....I have never used an ATM in my life, what other options would you of had to get the rest stop points.

 

Could you have checked into a motel for 5 hours and got the right paperwork that way???

 

L

 

 

I would think refueling at a gas station, taking a nap in a nearby motel then grabbing a doughnut at the same gas station convenience store in the morning...a couple hours later would work. But who knows. Like most rules, they get a little complicated because they have been frequently altered when someone has figured out a way to circumvent them.

[krussell]

I did some quick calculations on the 70 finishers to get an idea of bike/brand representation. First I tossed out any bike that had only one finisher. That left 63, broken down as follows:

 

GoldWing 15

FJR1300 14

ST1300 8

1200GS 5

R1200RT 4

R1200GT 4

K1200LT 3

1200GSA 3

1150RT 3

1150GS 2

 

And by brand:

 

BMW 24

Honda 23

Yamaha 14

 

The BMW diversity is interesting, the Yamaha diversity is non existent.

 

 

[Rocket_Cowboy]

I would be very interested in what kinda training you did to get ready for the long days ahead of you.

 

Also....I have never used an ATM in my life, what other options would you of had to get the rest stop points.

 

Could you have checked into a motel for 5 hours and got the right paperwork that way???

 

L

 

This is where my master plan pretty much fell apart.

 

I had great plans to participate in a few single day rallies, plus doing several IBA certified rides to build up to the event and to make sure that my equipment was in order. I made the ride out to Florida for the annual IBA Daytona Party, but that ended up being the last significant ride I would take on the bike until August.

 

Several things came up early in the year that made my ride in the 09 IBR look doubtful, and I was on the verge of notifying Lisa I wouldn't be able to make it. I was holding on to the fact that the bike had been pretty much set up and working effectively in previous rallies in 2007 and 2008, so could go as-is if needed. The comfort mods where already there, and I knew what kind of range I could get and seat time ... at least up to over a 7 day time span. When things finally came together in late June, I went to work getting some additional lighting installed on the bike which resulted in the bike being down for another few weeks when I could have been out riding.

 

I started hitting the gym regularly just over a month before the rally started. Since it was crunch time, my schedule was either to be in the gym after work working on me, or the be in the garage making sure the bike was ready to go. The time at the gym was spent working on cardio and strengthing my back muscles which normally complain when in the seat too long, as well as breaking myself from air conditioned office dependence.

 

I didn't start getting seat time until I left the house headed for Spartanburg. I took two days to get the 1000 miles to the start, and made the days progressively longer. I also used Leg 1 of the IBR to progressively extend my seat time. I had planned to do a minimum Leg 1 to pace myself, as previous multi-day rallies I've over extended in the first leg and left myself hurting for the rest of the event. This played into my day building, and by the 1st checkpoint, I was back to doing my normal ride pace. I paced myself on Leg 2 as well, leaving Leg 3 to work hard. I ended the rally by riding just under 1500 miles from Eastern Minnesota to a bonus location just outside of Missoula Montana and then in to Spokane on the last day, taking right around 21 consecutive hours to do so.

 

The riding was the easy part. On Leg 3, it was the constant second guessing of my mathmatics and of the route itself that caused me the most grief. As it turned out, the route I had planned was fine as is ... had I executed that rest stop appropriately.

 

For the rest bonus receipts, all that's required is that it be a computer generated receipt showing the city/state location, along with valid date and time. You want two receipts from the same place, covering the minimum time window allowed by the bonus, to document that you did not move from that spot for the rest bonus time window. You'll also record your odometer at the start and end of the rest bonus ... and as David said you are unable to score any additional bonus points while in the rest bonus window.

 

The problem with hotel receipts is that they usually don't list both your exact check-in time and check-out time. Even asking the hotel worker doesn't always get you accurate info, so I assume that the hotel receipt will not be valid for the purpose of claiming the rest stop. I had a receipt from the hotel for this rest stop, but it did not list the in/out times either.

 

So my problem was that it was 2am in rural Minnesota, and I needed two good computer generated receipts with date/time/location. There were two gas stations in the town, but only one of them was a 24-hour station. I actually started at the closed station to see if I could pay at the pump, but their pumps were down as well. The other station gave me the bad receipts. If I couldn't have found an ATM, then my next option would have been to try and find any 24-hour establishment where I could buy something with a credit card ... or move on to the next town while hoping for a better receipt.

 

The problem with my plan ... since I've been hit in the past by stopping at a town and then finding they have no vacancies at the hotels, I usually grab a hotel room first, then hunt for my starting receipt when I know what town I'm in. In all other cases, that has worked for me.

[Rocket_Cowboy]

I would think refueling at a gas station, taking a nap in a nearby motel then grabbing a doughnut at the same gas station convenience store in the morning...a couple hours later would work. But who knows. Like most rules, they get a little complicated because they have been frequently altered when someone has figured out a way to circumvent them.

 

That would normally work as well. The only reason I do gas both times is to make sure I'm dealing with a known good receipt. I'll gas up for the start receipt with the bike on the side stand, then for the finish receipt I'll kick it up on the center stand and top off the tank. In this case, both the receipts generated at the pump, and those generated outside, didn't have all the info needed in order to be valid rest bonus receipts.

[Paul Mihalka]

Just finishing a Ironbutt rally ride, even if you are not a "finisher", is a superb achievement.

A tip, for any Ironbutt event: When I planned my only Ironbutt ride, a basic SS1000, first I rode from home in MD to Morrisville PA, to start the SS1000 the next day. Before getting to the motel I filled $1 to the bike to check the receipt and make shure the station is open early am. Next morning (4am) I filled up at the same station and I had my good receipt.

The SS1000 was easy. In 16 hours I was in Salina KS, a bit over 1.000. Had dinner, a good night's sleep, on the bike early, by about 1pm local I was in Dillon CO, got my receipts for a Bunburner 1500. Had lunch and rode Loveland pass. All this on my way to the first Unrally in Gunnison CO

 

[Selden]

The SS1000 was easy. In 16 hours I was in Salina KS, a bit over 1.000. Had dinner, a good night's sleep, on the bike early, by about 1pm local I was in Dillon CO, got my receipts for a Bunburner 1500. Had lunch and rode Loveland pass. All this on my way to the first Unrally in Gunnison CO

The first UN was in 2002, so you must have been a mere youngster in your 60's at the time. I'm envious.

[Paul Mihalka]

The SS1000 was easy. In 16 hours I was in Salina KS, a bit over 1.000. Had dinner, a good night's sleep, on the bike early, by about 1pm local I was in Dillon CO, got my receipts for a Bunburner 1500. Had lunch and rode Loveland pass. All this on my way to the first Unrally in Gunnison CO

The first UN was in 2002, so you must have been a mere youngster in your 60's at the time. I'm envious.

71

[EffBee]

The SS1000 was easy. In 16 hours I was in Salina KS, a bit over 1.000. Had dinner, a good night's sleep, on the bike early, by about 1pm local I was in Dillon CO, got my receipts for a Bunburner 1500. Had lunch and rode Loveland pass. All this on my way to the first Unrally in Gunnison CO

The first UN was in 2002, so you must have been a mere youngster in your 60's at the time. I'm envious.

71

 

This is a bit of a hijack, but I've GOT to tell the story. I was at Un One and took a ride with Paul, (BMWRT.com founder) Cary Littell, then site owner David Baker, and a few others. We went down through Lake City and then climbed up toward the 11,400 peak known as Slumgullion Pass.

 

As is the practice in Colorado, they were taking advantage of the warm weather to rebuild that road, devastated over the years by the bitter cold and pavement contraction and buckling that takes place during winter at those elevations. The asphalt had been ripped up and a layer of gravel lay atop the dirt, waiting from fresh madacam to be applied.

 

We had been stopped by a flagman as the road crew worked on the two-mile twisting uphill section that was being rebuilt. Eventually, our flagman got the radio call that it was OK to allow us to proceed, so we did. Caution was the order of the day as we wiggled and squiggled our RT's through the two-inch-deep gravel, careful not to lay anything down as such would cause substantial cosmetic damage to our beautiful road bikes.

 

Paul, however, had other ideas. As has been documented here in numerous recountings of his youthful days as a two-wheeled hellion, he kicked it down a gear and as we half pedaled our way through the dry pea-grains, he blew past us and around us in beautifully controlled powerslides, gravel bouncing off the bottoms of his side cases, and disappeared into the distance only to wait courteously for us as we (eventually) descended toward Creede.

 

And yeah, he was 71 back then.

[/hijack]

[Paul Mihalka]

Hey, I got smarter... I wouldn't do that today...

[Marty Hill]

Paul, I remember you roaring past me on highway 50 going up the mountain...then waiting at a pull out just to say hi.

[Paul Mihalka]

To continue with EffBee's hijack (he is a Administrator, he can do it!) you guys can't imagine how blessed I feel that I am still producing future memories instead of just remembering them!

[Twisties]

To continue with EffBee's hijack (he is a Administrator, he can do it!) you guys can't imagine how blessed I feel that I am still producing future memories instead of just remembering them!

[hANNAbONE]

"uN oNE"....aw, dem memories.!

[Donster]

Here are the results:

 

http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2009/html/3.html

 

[flars]

"...powerslides, gravel bouncing off the bottoms of his side cases, and disappeared into the distance ...

 

Hooligan is his middle name, you know.

[Albert]

. . . he kicked it down a gear and as we half pedaled our way through the dry pea-grains, he blew past us and around us in beautifully controlled powerslides, gravel bouncing off the bottoms of his side cases, and disappeared into the distance only to wait courteously for us as we (eventually) descended toward Creede.

 

And yeah, he was 71 back then.

[/hijack]

 

THAT is priceless.