Iron Butt '07

[Elseanno]

My friend Tom (Cal24Master around here) took of for the Butt '07. Alan Barbic is also riding. Both great guys & I hope they do well. I can't remember if Mark Crane got in this year..

Who has friends/aquaintances in the Butt this year? Are you gonna follow online or wait 'til the end? Who here would seriously consider doing the IBR?

I'd like to run it in a few years, but feel like I need to do a few more 24 hour rallys and get a brain transplant (rally's always highlight my stupidity & poor decision making skills) before I invest a year's vacation & descretionary income on the IBR.  

Elseanno

[Bounce]

Who has friends/aquaintances in the Butt this year?

me

Are you gonna follow online or wait 'til the end?

durring - as much as possible. considering the Dollywood fiasco, we haven't been able to follow in near-real-time for several years.

Who here would seriously consider doing the IBR?

did ('03).

I'd like to run it in a few years, but feel like I need to do a few more 24 hour rallys and get a brain transplant (rally's always highlight my stupidity & poor decision making skills) before I invest a year's vacation & descretionary income on the IBR.

some basic tips. ride the piss out of your bike for the 2 years prior to the rally. put at least 20k miles a year on your bike and get to know it and yourself well. even if you knew it in the past, a decline in riding can lead to overlooking what used to be instinctual. next... plan on it costing 3 times more than your highest estimate. then set aside double that upgraded estimate. this thing can be a financial monster even if nothing breaks you or your bike.

[Elseanno]

Good info on riding. I've ridden 4 Cal 24's. You're right, when I was riding 20k per year the riding was no problem. riding 8-10k per year I found it brutal & exhausting.

I'd love to blame my bad rally decisions on being tired from riding, but I usually started making mistakes the minute they gave me my paperwork! LOL!

I believe Tom spent around $6k in '05, so yeah... not cheap considering I've never paid that much for  bike!

Elseanno

[UFO]

Still waiting for someone to do a cool reality show on the IBR.  Of course I know that will never happen.

I'm pretty realistic and can say I will never do the IBR.

[Bounce]

Still waiting for someone to do a cool reality show on the IBR.  Of course I know that will never happen.

considering the pre-rally riders' meeting, that's a big 10-4.

[Specter]

star-traxx is planning to show some bikes again this time

http://rally.star-traxx.com/

[discochris]

Who has friends/aquaintances in the Butt this year?
I know a number of people in the IBR.  Mostly acquaintances met through various Team Strange events (MN1000, Butt Lite).  Some of the top riders in the IBR come out of Minnesota.

Are you gonna follow online or wait 'til the end?
Online. I look forward to it.

Who here would seriously consider doing the IBR?
That's a tough one for me. I did the Butt Lite last year, and that was 7 days, and it was the hardest thing I'd ever done. I was sore for weeks, had weird dreams for months, and didn't even want to think about motorcycles until about June of this year.  Adding four more days onto it would be tough, not to mention the cost, and the vacation time, especially with a wife that doesn't ride.

That said, yes, I think I would like to do it. When people ask me, I say that the main reason I would like to run the IBR is that we rarely have the opportunity to compete against the best in the world at anything. We don't get to play in the Super Bowl or the World Series, but the IBR is the equivalent in distance riding. I'd like to say I competed against the best.

[discochris]

star-traxx is planning to show some bikes again this time

http://rally.star-traxx.com/

This was a BIG issue in the Butt Lite. It's pretty easy with star-traxx for people to tell how fast a rider is travelling, and that can bring a lot of unwanted attention to the sport of endurance riding.

[Rocket_Cowboy]

I'd like to run it in a few years, but feel like I need to do a few more 24 hour rallys and get a brain transplant (rally's always highlight my stupidity & poor decision making skills) before I invest a year's vacation & descretionary income on the IBR.  

I highly suggest getting beyond just 24 hour rallies and into a few multi-day events. I thought I was ready and applied for this this year's IBR. After having ridden in the Beast In The East this year ... I now know I would have been a miserable failure in an 11 day event. Don't stop doing 24 hour rallies as the planning experience is great, but try and do some multi-day events as well such as the Spank, Butt Lite, or the BITE to work out pacing yourself. Maybe by the 2011 IBR I'll be ready to re-apply.

[GTS_Rider]

Before anyone breaks out the , this thread is useless without...gif, let me see if I can link in a few photos I've run across..


One gps is not enough?



I guess it's kosher to show up for the IBR in a trailer? Nice eyes of God lighting setup..
 


This is just wacky...



Good Lord!, that's a busy looking bike...




Interesting aux tank placement. I think this bike wheelies wheely easily...





More Here: http://gallery3.dougc.com/07ibr-prestart

[mike goodwin]

I have a good friend who is with a group from the Ninja 250 forum seeing off one of their gallant riders...On a 250 Ninja of course.
I swear every time i view that site i think i have gone to some weird cult like church.

Wanted to be there to see every one off but work and money had a different view point on that.
I would love to ride the IBR but i dont think i will ever have that much money to do so.
So i will have to be content to living vicariously through those that can.

[discochris]

I've often questioned the need for some of the more outrageous farkles on LD bikes. On the BL, I rode with 3 friends. We each had:
1 GPS each
Aux. fuel
hydration
CB radio/XM
heated gear (though we didn't need it)

and we carried, but didn't mount, a laptop each.

I don't really see the need for three GPS units, star-traxx, an onboard laptop, multiple timers, toaster oven, coffee maker, panini grill, and some of the other oddball things you see. All it would do is confuse and distract me.

[mike goodwin]

My high tech gear includes,but is not totally limited to....Paper maps,flashlight,magnifying glass to read those tiny mileage numbers on said paper maps,and of course a small calculator to figure up those miles.
Works just fine.

[cultureslayer]

I would like to, but honestly I'd be more likely to take a leisurely 11 day vacation so the boyfriend could tag along, and right now any IBR attempt would be physically impossible and only attempted through large amounts of chemical engineering.  

[discochris]

I would like to, but honestly I'd be more likely to take a leisurely 11 day vacation so the boyfriend could tag along, and right now any IBR attempt would be physically impossible and only attempted through large amounts of chemical engineering.  

That's something I've discussed a lot with my other LD riding friends. The time and cost for a multi-day rally is a big commitment. Add to that the fact that for a large part of that time, you will be spending your vacation being:

uncomfortable
hot
cold
wet
miserable
tired
mentally unstable
pissed off

When one considers that paying thousands of dollars to experience this kind of "fun" could be spent on a trip to say, Tahiti, you really have to balance out what you want to do.  It was a big strain on my wife that I did the BL last year, because it ate up well over half my vacation for the entire year, not to mention a lot of money. I don't regret doing it - the sense of accomplishment, and the stories, and the fun parts outweigh the misery by a long shot, but this sort of thing isn't for everyone.

[cultureslayer]

When one considers that paying thousands of dollars to experience this kind of "fun" could be spent on a trip to say, Tahiti, you really have to balance out what you want to do.  It was a big strain on my wife that I did the BL last year, because it ate up well over half my vacation for the entire year, not to mention a lot of money. I don't regret doing it - the sense of accomplishment, and the stories, and the fun parts outweigh the misery by a long shot, but this sort of thing isn't for everyone.

If it weren't for the physical impossibility for me, I'd do it once I'd put a down payment on a house and had the free cash.  I'm a masochistic soul, that also enjoys distance bicycling.  

[GTS_Rider]

This thread seems to be going slower than I would expect, though I guess many of the regulars of this forum are busy at the moment. Don't any of you out there have friends or family competing?

Anyone that could post links to pics or video of the following described spectacle that happened this morning will get a gold star ...

"Regardless of the turn around point they choose, virtually every rider is going to head for Gateway Arch to score their first bonus of the rally. At 3,565 points, its too big to ignore given its proximity to the starting line. Since its only a 23 mile ride to the Arch, and since the bonus is only available during the first 3 hours after the start, there will likely be a parade of over 90 motorcycles all headed for exactly the same spot. When everyone lines up to obtain a receipt from the Arch parking structure, its going to be more of a mob scene than the start of the rally. But its going to be the easiest 3,565 points on the leg. Its a must do bonus for any rider who is thinking clearly.

Dean Tanjis son, Colin, will be waiting for the parade to arrive at the Arch tomorrow morning with his camera rolling. The video should be priceless."

[UFO]

Yeah, these guys are hardcore.  I'm a mere peasant...even in the presense of their online photos.

[GTS_Rider]

Yeah, these guys are hardcore.  I'm a mere peasant...even in the presense of their online photos.

Yeah, I would never do something like this myself, but I'm completely fascinated by it at the same time.

Come on folks!, this is like the SuperBowl/World Cup/Olympics of Sport-Touring. Though 98% of the members consider the meaning of Sport-Touring to involve a lot of riding and some nice breaks to the see the sights in a little more vacationy atmosphere, don't forget "It's the ride, not the destination". The IBR is the penultimate expression of dreams to reality for all those that really believe in their hearts that it's truly *ALL* about the ride. They're all a bunch of sick fucks as far as I'm concerned. Still I'm oddly drawn and feel inferior at the same time...

In any case, the fact that there's one meager thread with a few odd replies for this bi-annual SuperBowl/World Cup/Olympics of Sport-Touring just saddens me. Who's the mod for this forum? I want to speak with the manager!!

To loosly tranlate the above paragraph, it means "Dammit!, I expect ya'll to keep *me* entertained!" .  

Since it's still up to me to provide content, here's a link from one of the reports on the IBR site that you could have missed. It's Rob Nye's BMW R1200RTP, farkled to the max. I wonder if you get pulled over on a police bike that's a thousand times more cool than the police bike that pulls you over, is that  a catch and release, or a double penalty ticket?

You need to go to the site to get all the mouse-over details on all the add-ons: http://www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com/IBRB/

[DNA]

When I ran int he MD2020 this year there were at least 10 (possibly several more) riders that were using it a 24 hour test and tune for the rally.  Most of the top rider from the east coast were there - and they were all great.  Don Arther, Jim Owen. et al.

Rick The MD Rally Bastard is running this year on his yellow GL, and several other MD/PA guys I know are running their first one.  I was passed several times in the early AM by Alex Schmidt - he was riding awesome at 2:30 it he AM - faster than I ride in the daylight.  I realized that there was no way without a lot more experience I wold have a chance of completing a 10 day event.  Don Catterson is a rookie this year and He hand I have bent a few elbows after events - so he will also be getting my psychic support (Like hat will help).

I will be following it on line this year - I had dreamed about being there for the  of finish - but as I have a 7 month old - these type of events are a good 10 years away for me now.  My window is closed for a while, but I'd like to think it is not sealed shut.


BTW - here is the link - http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2007.cfm
I'm waiting for them to post the Stage 1 Boni - probably when they give out Stage 2 as I recall from last year.