Kathy R Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Iron Butt Rally I'm looking forward to all the tales coming out after June 20th. Huge CHEER for KTsRidin. May she and everyone have a safe adventure. Link to comment
JayW Posted June 12, 2011 Share Posted June 12, 2011 Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder Kathy. The IBR is a lot of fun to follow. I have a lot of respect for the guts, stamina and focus of the Iron Butters. A bit of luck is also required for a top finish, and always keeps things interesting. I got my certificate for a SS1000, but that is about my comfortable limit. Jay Link to comment
Matts_12GS Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 There's check point here in Jax this year. I am going to go and hang out and watch what happens while they are here. Link to comment
Glenn Reed Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 There's check point here in Jax this year. I am going to go and hang out and watch what happens while they are here. Let us know what happens! Link to comment
KDeline Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 There's check point here in Jax this year. I am going to go and hang out and watch what happens while they are here. I did that two years ago when it came though IL. It was anticlimatic. Interesting to look at the bikes and setups they were using. Link to comment
jfremder Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Carol and I are leaving in a couple days to have at it a second time. We were bronze medalists in our first attempt. The '04 RT will turn over 100k mi. during this little bi-annual adventure. We had a great time in '09 There's a ride report in my sig. Link to comment
tallman Posted June 13, 2011 Share Posted June 13, 2011 Jeff & Carol, Just tead your '09 tale. Fantastic. Good luck and best wishes to all for a safe journey. Link to comment
Whip Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Kathy Thanks for posting that. It is very interesting. L Link to comment
DiggerJim Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Not your normal IBR It might be....Tom is known to be devious. I'd scrap his base route that he shows in his write up & start by loading up all the capitals & their bonus points. Then find a route anchored by Buffalo, Jacksonville & Ontario that garnered the most points & hit the checkpoints in the windows. Then I'd go back & see what waypoints I'd have to add to touch the states I'd miss that way (& potentially which capitals I might have to drop). Treating it as a 48 state capitals rally vs. a 48 state touch rally might be the difference between finishing & finishing at the top. I think Madawaska & KW might be suckers -- Maine is 16 hrs south to north to south again to pick up just the 4 corner & Bangor bonuses & Jacksonville to KW to Tallahassee is 20 hrs just to bag the checkpoint/4 corner/capital....and those are under optimal conditions. You could kill 2 of your 11 days just getting 2 corners & 2 capitals - not efficient I don't think (unless you're someone like Meese who can grind out 20 hr hwy days for weeks at a time). Looks from the IBR Spots that they broke into 3 groups - one headed north to pick up Blaine (those are likely looking to do the 4 Corners bonus), those going out I90 to follow Austin's map (maybe just looking to finish) and then a group headed into Salem to pickup Oregon's capital...time will tell if these folk are on a different route or just going to head back up I84 to rejoin Austin's base route. Just thinking here....it's too straightforward the way it's suggested by Tom...I'm the suspicious sort and think he's more devious than that - otherwise it's just a case of who can spend 20 hour days riding the interstates without blowing a final drive or hitting wildlife since all the state capitals are Interstate interconnected. That doesn't seem to be worthy of an IBR. Lots of people think it's a back to basics rally where the computer geeks don't have an edge...I'm willing to bet that some creative routing that's capital based is going to be the winning route & computer routing skills are going to be critical. Link to comment
tallman Posted June 20, 2011 Share Posted June 20, 2011 Kathy, Don't know if other states have 2 capitol buildings, but Florida does. Old one is in front of new one. The new one is 20+ stories high andthe old one is much smaller. I hope the photo they need to take shows the correct building. If a rider just heads south from I 10 to "the capitol" they will be in front of the old restored one. Just a head's up to any who may need it. Looks like this rally may be a good one. Best wishes. Link to comment
DavidEBSmith Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Just thinking here....it's too straightforward the way it's suggested by Tom...I'm the suspicious sort and think he's more devious than that - otherwise it's just a case of who can spend 20 hour days riding the interstates without blowing a final drive or hitting wildlife since all the state capitals are Interstate interconnected. That doesn't seem to be worthy of an IBR. I think it's exactly as straightforward as suggested by Tom, and much more difficult than you think. People who do 48/10 rides spend months pre-planning the logistics, optimizing the route, finding 24 hour gas stations with good receipts close to state borders, timing the route to avoid rush hour in big cities, routing around construction zones. The IBR riders had a few hours to do that. (How many of them didn't have time to find out that a certain Interstate highway that's a standard for 48/10 rides was closed as of this morning?) I don't know which state capitals are available on which leg, but I'm sure some of them will be less than optimally scheduled. A few months back I tried to come up with a 48/10 route that hit every state capital, and concluded that if it could be done, I couldn't do it - the best route I could come up with was 13,000 miles. Add in the Four Corners and it's 15,000 miles. You hate to say "it can't be done" with some of the riders out there, but, oh my. This Rally reminds me of the 2003 IBR, where, at the first checkpoint, you had to make a choice of going for the "safe" but non-winning route, or the potentially winning and potentially losing route. This year, the riders essentially had to decide, at the start, if they wanted to be a finisher or try to be a winner. There are a lot of riders who didn't sleep last night, not because they were up routing, but because they weren't sure about that once-in-a-lifetime choice they had to make before 10 am this morning. Apparently people are saying this is an easy rally. I disagree. I think the base route should be doable by anybody who has the ability to ride in the IBR, but that doesn't mean it's easy. There's a whole 'nother level of difficulty to do the Four Corners and get a Gold. Then the state capitals add the layer of variability and randomness that will challenge the best riders. To provide a comparison, in the 2001 Rally I rode 8200 miles and, excluding checkpoints, rest bonuses, and fuel logs, did 22 bonuses. In the 2003 Rally I rode 9100 miles and did 45 bonuses. To be a finisher this year, you have to ride 8300 miles and do 48 bonuses. Not easy. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 Thanks for the pearls of experience/wisdom EB. Sobering task at hand I do hope they all are enjoying themselves. It takes a certain breed of rider to take on the IBR. While I'm grateful for my SS1000 it showed me my limitations. Link to comment
DiggerJim Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I think it's exactly as straightforward as suggested by Tom, and much more difficult than you think. LOL! Better not be - I think just the 48 in 11 days is gonna be a major effort because it's not just 48 states but 48 states & 3 stops in very specific windows too. 48 in 10 is anything but easy - doing that with the extra curves of a predetermined start & end and then the checkpoints in the middle says it's nothing like the optimized routes someone would plan were they doing a 48/10. I don't know which state capitals are available on which leg, but I'm sure some of them will be less than optimally scheduled. That's kind of what I was thinking - some, like Denver or Salt Lake are likely (no facts here, just speculation) worth a bunch because they're not really close to the northern route & pretty far from the Four Corners that most everyone will try to hit to get CO/UT/NM/AZ. It's a fascinating logistics exercise. This Rally reminds me of the 2003 IBR, where, at the first checkpoint, you had to make a choice of going for the "safe" but non-winning route, or the potentially winning and potentially losing route. This year, the riders essentially had to decide, at the start, if they wanted to be a finisher or try to be a winner. That's a great analogy. I was interested in seeing who headed north out of Seattle (towards Blaine) vs. the southern/eastern heading riders. And then if Ken & co. can get to Hyder & back to Buffalo on time they could do the 48 + AK + 4 Corners - that'll be a ride! That's a serious table bet on "I'm in it to win it". Apparently people are saying this is an easy rally. I disagree. I think the base route should be doable by anybody who has the ability to ride in the IBR, but that doesn't mean it's easy. I think that's really it - not that it's easy but that it's doable for anyone in the rally. Sometimes on the sidelines it looks like there's no way regular folks could possibly run some of the IBRs. I think the "easy peasy" folks this year may also be looking at it from the point of view that they can actually see the (or a) route this year vs. the years when you have to try to figure out which of the hundreds of bounus locations might make a winning route. There's something mysterious about being able to suss out a winning route from a hundred dots on the screen - this year's apparent simplicity belies it's difficulty I think. To provide a comparison, in the 2001 Rally I rode 8200 miles and, excluding checkpoints, rest bonuses, and fuel logs, did 22 bonuses. In the 2003 Rally I rode 9100 miles and did 45 bonuses. To be a finisher this year, you have to ride 8300 miles and do 48 bonuses. Not easy. I think it was back in '07 when everyone in the top-5 did more than 10K miles & Marty was over 12. In 09 there were a dozen riders doing more than 12K. Those are huge distances to keep grinding out day after day. The Golds this year are going to be riding historically big rides & adding in the capitals suggest that the podium will require miles & planning not seen before. This is a really neat one because it's easily approachable - you can wrap your head around the 48 state route - but at the same time potentially incredibly complex. For those of us who can't spend the 3 weeks or so it takes to ride it, watching it play out & trying to find solution to the problem posed is great. BTW, shameless plug for Wallace French here! Ride Wallace Ride! :-) Link to comment
EddyQ Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 BTW, shameless plug for Wallace French here! Ride Wallace Ride! :-) Go Wallace! Spot Site Link to comment
skinny_tom (aka boney) Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 What's the over/under on final drive failures? I want in on the action! Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 22, 2011 Author Share Posted June 22, 2011 I hear you Tom. THIS contains the listing of makes/models at pre-registration Best of luck to Wallace too Link to comment
DavidEBSmith Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 What's the over/under on final drive failures? I want in on the action! There was a final drive failure before the start - on a Yamaha FJR. On the other hand, rumor is that of the 3 riders who went to Alaska, 2 were carrying spare final drives. My bold prediction is 0 final drive failures on BMWs, simply because this seems to be a year for thwarted expectations in the IBR. Link to comment
DiggerJim Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 There was a final drive failure before the start - on a Yamaha FJR. On the other hand, rumor is that of the 3 riders who went to Alaska, 2 were carrying spare final drives. Two of the 3 Alaska riders are on BMWs - the other is on an FJR Ken looks like he's making an incredible ride already based on Tom's report. But he can ride 20hrs/day for a week at least (based on prior rallies). It's got to be like competing against Lance Armstrong to be riding against him. We'll have definitive proof that he's a cyborg when we hear that he heads to Madawaska If he makes the 48 + AK + 4 Corners, it'll be legendary. Link to comment
roadscholar Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 I hear you Tom. THIS contains the listing of makes/models at pre-registration Best of luck to Wallace too And best of luck to Kirsten too. I haven't seen her or anyone else mention it but she's on the entry list. Link to comment
OlGeezer Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 There was a final drive failure before the start - on a Yamaha FJR. On the other hand, rumor is that of the 3 riders who went to Alaska, 2 were carrying spare final drives. Two of the 3 Alaska riders are on BMWs - the other is on an FJR Ken looks like he's making an incredible ride already based on Tom's report. But he can ride 20hrs/day for a week at least (based on prior rallies). It's got to be like competing against Lance Armstrong to be riding against him. We'll have definitive proof that he's a cyborg when we hear that he heads to Madawaska If he makes the 48 + AK + 4 Corners, it'll be legendary. Don't forget about John Ryan, he is already legendary completing the UCC (Prudhoe Bay to Key West) in 88 hours. His body clock is different than ours. He only needed two hours of sleep even before he discovered motorcycles. Link to comment
Rich06FJR1300 Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 there was a driveshaft failure on a 2005 GSA, but it was fixed and the rider is back on the road Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 HERE is an updated list of who is riding what Link to comment
RedMac Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 Looks to be a great rally. I too don't think it's as easy as many folks think. I think the real key in this rally is who can stay on the bike longer. (not always the case). This one will require multi BBG rides to win. Also as in EVERY IBR, it requires a bit of luck as well... I'll be there at the finish to watch the riders come in. I'm leaving tomorrow to head to San Francisco riding the Lincoln Highway the whole way from Illinois. Then south on the Pacific Coast highway with plans to be at the finish on Friday. I have a good friend riding in it and want to be there to see him in. Also have tickets to the finish banquet to see the award ceremony. I wish ALL the riders luck and safe riding. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 Mike, your trip sounds terrific. Hope you can share some photos Link to comment
Paul Mihalka Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 "I think the real key in this rally is who can stay on the bike longer" - and still be able to use his/her brain while doing it. Link to comment
flars Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 "...We'll have definitive proof that he's a cyborg when we hear that he heads to Madawaska..." Since he didn't go to Blaine at the start, I think the 4 corners is out. These guys/gals are just either stoopid or innnnnnssssaaaannnnne. Plus they apparently have a lot of vacation time. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 23, 2011 Author Share Posted June 23, 2011 These guys/gals are just either stoopid or innnnnnssssaaaannnnne. Plus they apparently have a lot of vacation time. "insane" or "stupid" ? These folks aren't average. They have an ability that many of us don't enjoy, and a few can't grasp. Link to comment
russell_bynum Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 These guys/gals are just either stoopid or innnnnnssssaaaannnnne. Plus they apparently have a lot of vacation time. "insane" or "stupid" ? These folks aren't average. They have an ability that many of us don't enjoy, and a few can't grasp. +1 Link to comment
Albert Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 These folks aren't average. They have an ability that many of us don't enjoy, and a few can't grasp. Funny, that's exactly how I describe rap music. Link to comment
flars Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 I've ridden with (or 'against') Nancy Oswald during the Cape Fear rally a couple of times, and with a few of the other riders in the Void and Cape Fear. I agree wholeheartedly that they are highly motivated, special people. Some are more special than others (Jim Owen, fer instance). I found out that I can outride Nancy if I flatten her tire first. (just kidding, just kidding!) Link to comment
DiggerJim Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 "...We'll have definitive proof that he's a cyborg when we hear that he heads to Madawaska..." Since he didn't go to Blaine at the start, I think the 4 corners is out. Unless he did & we don't know it - he's not displaying his Spot track. Or he could have stopped on the way back south. I actually don't understand anyone who didn't go to Blaine. By definition they've decided not to do the 4 Corners. Regardless of whether it's a good idea or even a doable ride, by not going, you're irrevocably taking it off the plate. If you go to Blaine you keep your options open - you can always skip the 4 Corners bonus add-on later. But by not going to Blaine you close that option off & you can never get it back (try hitting it from San Ysidro & back to Ontario on the last day or so). I know it's a couple hours each way, but from a strategic point of view available options almost always are more useful than a lack of them. Link to comment
Slainte Posted June 23, 2011 Share Posted June 23, 2011 "...We'll have definitive proof that he's a cyborg when we hear that he heads to Madawaska..." Since he didn't go to Blaine at the start, I think the 4 corners is out. Unless he did & we don't know it - he's not displaying his Spot track. Or he could have stopped on the way back south. I actually don't understand anyone who didn't go to Blaine. By definition they've decided not to do the 4 Corners. Regardless of whether it's a good idea or even a doable ride, by not going, you're irrevocably taking it off the plate. If you go to Blaine you keep your options open - you can always skip the 4 Corners bonus add-on later. But by not going to Blaine you close that option off & you can never get it back (try hitting it from San Ysidro & back to Ontario on the last day or so). I know it's a couple hours each way, but from a strategic point of view available options almost always are more useful than a lack of them. The BMWLT site discussion says that he picked up Blaine after Salem Oregon before heading to Hyder. One of the Ironbutt Gurus on there has his spot track info and speaks with him from time to time. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 One rider down, but OK Jim Winterer Jim - Here is hoping you are comfortable and that you mend well and fast. Link to comment
EddyQ Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 Jim - Here is hoping you are comfortable and that you mend well and fast. I second that. Interesting comment by Jim: “I’ll never ride another rally bike without ABS again.” He was riding a DL650. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 He was riding a DL650. Link to comment
flars Posted June 24, 2011 Share Posted June 24, 2011 "...he picked up Blaine after Salem Oregon before heading to Hyder..." Okay, that proves it - Ken is an animal. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 24, 2011 Author Share Posted June 24, 2011 There are a few folks who may be cutting it close for arrival in Cheektowaga SPOT Link to comment
Slainte Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Yeah I see that too. If the Spotwalla is correct it seems a few did not make it to checkpoint 1 on time Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 WOWEEWOW! Go KT GO! "In 7th place, Kirsten Talken-Spaulding is the high-point woman rider with 4,992 points." Leg One Standings Link to comment
tallman Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 She is riding. Keep on trucking all the way to the finish. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 Carol and I are leaving in a couple days to have at it a second time. We were bronze medalists in our first attempt. The '04 RT will turn over 100k mi. during this little bi-annual adventure. We had a great time in '09 There's a ride report in my sig. Looking forward to that odometer shot. Hope the ride is safe and fun. From what I've read the weather has had an effect. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 LINK to Warchilds IBR chatter Link to ADV IBR chatter Link to photos by the Glaves Link to photos by (ADV) patl Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 Someone created a weather page for the IBR and this, from ADV is cool... "BTW, on www.sidestandup.com last night (6/21), the show host, Tom Lowdermilk, Mike Newton from the MTF, and I talked about 40 minutes about the IBR. The show is available for a free download via a podcast at the link above or iTunes. __________________ ---------------- Tim in Burien, WA" Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 Too Funny! Link Checkpoint One Photos Link to comment
Paul Mihalka Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Hi Kirsten! Keep riding! Link to comment
hopz Posted June 25, 2011 Share Posted June 25, 2011 Someone created a weather page for the IBR Yeah, right... they always say "Visible Satellite"... I always look but I never see that sucker... its a fake.. Link to comment
Kathy R Posted June 25, 2011 Author Share Posted June 25, 2011 One of the scorers stopped on his way south...and I was thrilled to see him and that classic bike of his... Link to comment
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