Not Superman Rally - St. Louis, July 2008

[SteveJones]

OK, those of us in the middle of the country are now out of excuses for not riding in an LD rally.

The "Not Superman" rally (http://www.notsupermanrally.com) is coming.

There are 2 formats, a 12 hour format on July 12th that is just the ticket for rally noobs, and a 30 hour format on the 11th and 12th.

Sign up now before it fills up!

[Razors]

I signed up for the 12 hour this morning. Looking forward to the challenge.  OK, its just another excuse to get out of the house.

[Justin726]

Interesting.

How many riders are they limiting it to?

[kevinwilly]

I think I might do this if I'm still living here this summer....

[SteveJones]

How many riders are they limiting it to?

100 (12 hour and 30 hour events combined)

BTW, the rally HQ has moved a couple of hours south.  It will be in Cape Girardeau MO, not St. Charles.  My wife is happy to hear it, she had a great time hanging around Cape Girardeau and Ste. Genevieve while I was riding the rally last year.

[Razors]

The new location is 110 miles south of St. Louis,right off of I55 and the Mississississippippippi River

[Justin726]

I saw on another message board Jim Puckett said the 30 hour start time would be 6 AM on Friday to avoid the St Louis traffic.  Is there any real concerns bout heading north if your chosen route needs you to head that way first?  I saw there is a big construction project on US-40 / I-64 but I assume that can be bypassed if needed, right?

This would be my first rally of this kind.  I'm really considering this, but might have to wait just a little while before I confirm my attendance.

[SteveJones]

I saw on another message board Jim Puckett said the 30 hour start time would be 6 AM on Friday to avoid the St Louis traffic.  Is there any real concerns bout heading north if your chosen route needs you to head that way first?  I saw there is a big construction project on US-40 / I-64 but I assume that can be bypassed if needed, right?

Jim set that time back when the rally was supposed to start in the St. Louis area, before he had to change the dates and move the rally.  I have no idea if he intends to change the start time again, but so far he hasn't.

40, which runs east/west, is closed between 270 and 170.  Of course it all depends where the bonuses are located, but I doubt that closure would impact ralliers.  

If the rally start remains 6am and you head straight north you will hit St. Louis at rush hour.

[SteveJones]

This would be my first rally of this kind.  I'm really considering this, but might have to wait just a little while before I confirm my attendance.

Oops... 2 things I forgot to mention...

Firstly, I encourage you to sign up... you are really going to enjoy it!

Secondly, the 30 hour rally page has no mention of the Saturday night awards banquet cocktail hour and dinner.  Details are on the 12 hour rally page, but of course it is for both rallies.

[jwhite518]

Hey all you Midwest riders, after you've ridden the Not Superman, you can head over to Omaha and ride the Spank!

http://www.spankrally.com/spank/spank08.cfm

Hey Steve, not trying to steal your riders, just doing a little target marketing.

[Justin726]

I went ahead and signed up for the 30 hour solo.  

This could definatly be fun.

[SteveJones]

I went ahead and signed up for the 30 hour solo.  

Cool!  You riding the 'Busa?

[Justin726]

Cool!  You riding the 'Busa?

Yep, that's all I've got.  I wouldn't have it any other way.  

We'll see how this rookie can do.  I just want to learn a lot, enjoy myself, and hopefully not end up dead last.  

[SteveJones]

We'll see how this rookie can do.  I just want to learn a lot, enjoy myself, and hopefully not end up dead last.  

That's the right attitude!  You have a GPS setup on the bike?

[Justin726]

That's the right attitude!  You have a GPS setup on the bike?

No GPS yet, but should before to long.  Maps haven't really let me down in the past with my long rides, but I don't think they would be quite as feasible for this type of rally.  I know it can be done without GPS, but I've wanted one for a while anyway, so I figure now the perfect time to get one.

If I can pick one up before spring I'll be happy.  That way I will have a chance to use it on a couple trips before the rally to figure out how to actually operate one of those things.  I'm hoping to get a Garmin 2610 off of Ebay.

[wheels_up]

No GPS yet, but should before to long.  Maps haven't really let me down in the past with my long rides, but I don't think they would be quite as feasible for this type of rally.  I know it can be done without GPS, but I've wanted one for a while anyway, so I figure now the perfect time to get one.

If I can pick one up before spring I'll be happy.  That way I will have a chance to use it on a couple trips before the rally to figure out how to actually operate one of those things.  I'm hoping to get a Garmin 2610 off of Ebay.

My boss and registered NSR rider, Gary Davis, bought 12 FEMA Hurricane Katrina 2610's about 3 weeks ago.  I bought one and he sold 4 at the GPS seminar taught by me at Grass Roots BMW this past Saturday.  Most of the 2610's look like they were never used.  They are fully legitimate as all serial numbers have been verified by Garmin.

They all have Garmin Region = Southeast USA installed on 512 MB Compact Flash cards.  They all have Garmin unlock codes for City Navigator v5 and v7, but no City Navigator CD's or DVD came with any of the units.  All physical accessories including automobile integrated cigarette lighter plug/speaker power cord, dashboard "bean bag", remote control, and "glue on" dashboard mounting bracket did come with each 2610.

I decided to buy City Navigator North America 2008 from Amazon for my 2610 and I bought a SanDisk 2 GB Ultra II Compact Flash card that holds all of North America and is much faster on recalcs and map display than a standard Compact Flash card.  I have approx. $250.00 total invested in all of the above.

Gary Davis has decided to keep 3 units for himself, so that leaves 4 units still for sale at $100.00 each.

Jim Puckett
Jackson, MO
NSR Co-Rallymaster
http://www.notsupermanrally.com

[Justin726]

Jim, I sent you an email about the Garmins.  

[Razors]

I will buy one if you have one left. Please  

[jfremder]

 I'm hoping to get a Garmin 2610 off of Ebay.

www.edgegps.com had refurb 2610's for $189 w/ 1 yr Garmin warrantee.

..no affilliation, just a satisfied customer

[SteveJones]

What kind of route did you end up riding and how many miles total to get your 16,XXX points?  Not looking for a step by step route, just a rough estimate of where you went.

I've been looking for some kind of in depth ride report from somebody who's done any kind of 30 hour rally, but can't find any such report on the site.

Justin:

Replying in the thread, because I think this may be of interest to others.

My NSR '07 route was clockwise, about 320 miles.  It was only an 8 hour rally.  If you have Mapsource or Streets and Trips I'd be glad to send you the route.  It went MO, IL, KY, TN, KY, MO, IL, MO.

I came within a hair of making a one minor change to my route that would have won me the rally... but I was afraid it would take too much time.  As it turns out I had plenty of time.

The '07 rally was different in that we had the bonus information (except for points) weeks ahead of time, so I had spent endless hours experimenting with S&T to come up with viable routes, already loaded into my GPS.  When the rally packet was handed out, it was pretty easy for me to evaluate the points and pick the best of the routes I had prepared.

As for the GPS, they are in general considered a likely necessity to win, but unless you are focused on placing as high as possible, keep in mind that they are certainly not necessary to have fun.  In fact good arguments could be made in the opposite direction.

And certain skills can go a long way to overcoming the advantage of a GPS.  Roger Riley won the "No GPS" class in the NSR rally last year, with a score that took 3rd in the rally overall, beating many gps-encrusted bikes... mine included.

Going to http://www.ironbutt.org/forum will find you all the rally reports you can stand.

Because Jim is going to hand out the 30 hour bonuses (without points) a week before the rally, it probably would be a good idea to get Streets and Trips and get familiar with it, so you can use it to experiment with routes.  I hear some folks are having problems with v2008, so I would try to find a copy of v2007 somewhere if I could.  I wouldn't go older than that.

[jfremder]

it probably would be a good idea to get Streets and Trips and get familiar with it, so you can use it to experiment with routes.  I hear some folks are having problems with v2008, so I would try to find a copy of v2007 somewhere if I could.  I wouldn't go older than that.

Steve-

How do you get from S+T into your Garmin? I have GPSU, the demo version. Do I need the full version?

[jwhite518]

I think the free version is limited to 100 waypoints. You can transfer waypoints directly from GPSU into your Garmin through the USB interface. If you have a Zumo you have to save your files as a .gpx file on the Zumo drive, then import them into the Zumo. Other Garmin models will accept the waypoints directly through the GPSU upload utility.


HTH
Jerry

[SteveJones]

How do you get from S+T into your Garmin? I have GPSU, the demo version. Do I need the full version?

Jeff:

I open the S&T file with GPSU, then export it into GPX format.

I open the GPX file with Mapsource, and check the location of each route point for adjustment.  The very slight differences between the S&T maps and the Garmin maps sometimes cause a turn or exit to be barely missed, resulting in a bogus detour.

Then I load my GPS from Mapsource.

I know that some folks just load their GPS directly from GPSU, but I have never done that.

The GPSU demo version is fully featured except it is limited to 100 waypoints.  If you can live with that, no problem.  I couldn't.

[squeezer]

I'm still working out my July schedule because it's a mess, but this sounds great.  I hope it doesn't fill before I can sort things out.

[jwhite518]

I open the GPX file with Mapsource, and check the location of each route point for adjustment.  The very slight differences between the S&T maps and the Garmin maps sometimes cause a turn or exit to be barely missed, resulting in a bogus detour.

Steve, this is a good idea, There is a slight chance the WPs would be off if they were created directly in S&T.

However, if the lat/lon coordinates were obtained by Google Earth or a Garmin GPS itself, then the WPs will be exactly where they need to be. This was proven in the 2007 Spank rally. George Zelenz provided a text file of waypoints that he had created by riding his motorcycle around and pressing "save" when he got to a bonus location. We input them into GPSU, and then saved them directly to many riders' GPS units, bypassing Mapsource. Not a single rider complained about bad waypoints, including those using non-Garmin hardware.

I think it's a best practice to examine each waypoint at a fully zoomed in level before routing to it. But if you're on rally time you might not want to bother with that, and just deal with any slight oddness if and when it happens.

Damn I wish I was riding the NSR!

Jerry

[Justin726]

My boss and registered NSR rider, Gary Davis, bought 12 FEMA Hurricane Katrina 2610's about 3 weeks ago.  I bought one and he sold 4 at the GPS seminar taught by me at Grass Roots BMW this past Saturday.  Most of the 2610's look like they were never used.  They are fully legitimate as all serial numbers have been verified by Garmin.

Gary Davis has decided to keep 3 units for himself, so that leaves 4 units still for sale at $100.00 each.

I talked to Gary earlier tonight on the phone about getting one of those units.  Sounds like I'll be getting an awesome deal for $100.  I can't wait.