2009 Iron Butt Rally - Official Daily Reports

[Warchild]

The 2009 IBR Official Daily Reports are now being posted on the Iron Butt Rally website:

http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2009.cfm

From the Rally Start Line here in Spartanburg, all Tech Inspections and preliminary Check-In activities are wrapping up. The riders get there Leg One Bonus List this evening. I hope the riders got some good sleep last night, because I suspect most will not be getting to be early tonight.

I only had 3 Tech Inspection failures initially.... all were able to effect corrective action.

The number of BMWs in the Start Line is significantly down from previous years... no need to discuss why; it's clear among the LD community why this marque doesn't have the following it used to. The number of Gold Wings is way, waaaaay up as a result of beemer owners punting their broke-dick machines.

Further, the number of FJR1300 riders is significant up as well - again, thanks to Motorrad. In fact, the FJR1300 is the highest representation of ANY sport-touring bike... there are nineteen FJR1300s on the Start Line this year, just under 1/5th of the entire field.

It ain't all bad news from beemerland, however.... there is a mid-60's era BMW BMW R60/6 entered... Joel Rappoport's, and it has 512,000 miles on it. He is the original owner.

Strangely, there are NO Suzuki bikes, other than the two 1976 Suzuki Rotary RE-5s in the Hopeless Class. Kinda wierd that no V-Stroms are entered.

There are two hyperbikes, both from Canada. One is a 1999 CBR1100XX Blackbird (the owner has my old Blackbird's aux fuel cell that she installed), the other a Kawasaki ZX-12R. Both are IBR rookies who seem pretty serious about finishing decently.

Serious business starts this afternoon at the 2pm Rider's Meeting. For all intents purposes, that's sorta when the rally really starts for many, as they will receive their Leg One Bonus Waypoints on a numbered, tagged memory stick. Mind you, these are not the actual bonus listings with point values, bonus activity, time constraints, etc. Rather, these are just the GPS coordinates of all bonuses that they will load into their mapping software before they receive their full bonus listing at the Rider Banquet later tonight.

The excitement grows..... here we go.


  

[UFO]

The number of Gold Wings cars is way, waaaaay up as a result of beemer owners punting their broke-dick machines.

FTFY

[Warchild]

And BTW..... all these little blogs/tweets/facebooking that riders have set up?

Forget it. It is not happening. There will be NO blogging/tweeting or any of that shit this year, on penalty of disqualification. So don't count on them from any of the riders.

No, I am not kidding. Let me be clear here:

Any IBR rider who makes any blog entry, tweet, texting, audio, etc, and make it after 10AM EDT Monday, 24 Aug, it it makes it to the internet, EVEN AFTER THE 11-DAY EVENT, are subject to disqualification.

This is no shit.

[cbolling]

Why?

[Corbeau]

I was just about to ask the same question...

(And BTW, Dale, thanks for your involvement in the IBR. I like to think that the participants are a little safer because you carefully looked at their bike.)

[Warchild]

Why?

This was a recent development, and it was precipitated by many factors.

Regardless, the bottom line is that this is now an official IBR rule, so if riders want to participate, they will adhere to the rules.

[JBSmith]

Strangely, there are NO Suzuki bikes, other than the two 1976 Suzuki Rotary RE-5s in the Hopeless Class. Kinda wierd that no V-Stroms are entered.

Surely this is partly attributable to the luck of the entry draw; I'll wager several Strommers would have been there had it been up to them.

[2wTraveler]

And BTW..... all these little blogs/tweets/facebooking that riders have set up?

Forget it. It is not happening. There will be NO blogging/tweeting or any of that shit this year, on penalty of disqualification. So don't count on them from any of the riders.

No, I am not kidding. Let me be clear here:

Any IBR rider who makes any blog entry, tweet, texting, audio, etc, and make it after 10AM EDT Monday, 24 Aug, it it makes it to the internet, EVEN AFTER THE 11-DAY EVENT, are subject to disqualification.

This is no shit.

Does this mean no ride reports to be read?

[D-Mac]

Does this mean no ride reports to be read?

I could be wrong, but I think he means that if it becomes apparent at any point (even after the rally) that anyone was involved in outside communication during the rally, they will be disqualified. I don't think this would exclude talking about the rally after it's over (as long as there isn't any evidence that this was done during the rally itself).

From what I've read, there has been too much outside assistance in past IBRs and splitting of hairs about what counts as assistance and what doesn't (the typical controversy about the 'letter of the law' versus the 'spirit of the law'). It happens in almost every type of competition eventually. I think they're just trying to level the playing field and if so, that's very good news.

I get goosebumps just thinking about the IBR. Someday I'd love to do it....and it would be in the 'hopeless class' for sure! I see it as a battle with yourself more than the other riders. Anyone who attempts the rally has my respect! These folks are the real deal.

I'm teaching the first class for students in my new 'motorcycle' seminar class tomorrow at 9am (I'm a biology prof, but we get to teach 'fun' classes to incoming college students and mine is about motorcycles and the riding experience). Just as class ends at 10, the rally will begin. We'll all be following the reports.

[2wTraveler]

Makes sense, I do remember a bit of controversy in 07 about outside help. I also would like to run the IBR someday, and I can do the mileage. But after riding a couple of 24 hour rallies (which I placed well in) I beleive my routing skills need a lot more developement before entering "the big one".

Can't wait for the stories....

[Warchild]

Does this mean no ride reports to be read?

 
Well, there are the official Daily Reports, but the actual rider reports will come out at the end of the event, vice during. We want riders to concentrate solely at the task at hand.... to become a IBR Finisher.

[AlanD]

We want riders to concentrate solely at the task at hand.... to become a IBR Finisher.

This was the exact impression I got from the official writeup over on the Iron Butt Assoc web site. Focus on the ride.

[nantahala]

And BTW..... all these little blogs/tweets/facebooking that riders have set up?

Forget it. It is not happening. There will be NO blogging/tweeting or any of that shit this year, on penalty of disqualification. So don't count on them from any of the riders.

No, I am not kidding. Let me be clear here:

Any IBR rider who makes any blog entry, tweet, texting, audio, etc, and make it after 10AM EDT Monday, 24 Aug, it it makes it to the internet, EVEN AFTER THE 11-DAY EVENT, are subject to disqualification.

This is no shit.

And also the public-access SPOTs are not going to be allowed.  

I agree this is good, for the sake of focusing on the event at hand, as well as other reasons.

Thanks to Dale and everybody at IBA!  What a temendous amount of work to organize and execute the rally.

 

Matt

PS I saw a nicely farkled Strom, but it's apparently not in the rally.  And I heard the other RE5 might be pulling out of the rally - ???  The rider's brother was looking at a small oil leak, but it didn't look like a deal killer.

[Andrew]

"There will be NO blogging/tweeting or any of that shit this year, on penalty of disqualification."  I guess this means NO OUTSIDE HELP,  Now thats a good thing for sure. Level the playing field. I had a feeling this ruling would come (about time)


I would love to be in the rally, but alas I guess I had better start sending in some of my rides  

[DNA]

Dale,

People were seriously pissed at all the outside help 2 years back - can you tell us how they are going to stop that so Jim O can try to win it without fighting against entire teams?

Thanks,
-DNA

[Warchild]

Dale,

People were seriously pissed at all the outside help 2 years back - can you tell us how they are going to stop that so Jim O can try to win it without fighting against entire teams?

Thanks,
-DNA

In a nutshell.... this year, there is absolutely, positively NO routing assistance at all by anyone except the individual rider him/herself. There is NO non-rider assistance allowed whatsoever, under penalty of disqualification. Period.

Riders may - if desired - work as a "team" together, but if they do, they must "declare" this teaming to the rallymaster prior to departure. Further, the team MUST ride together, and score every every bonus together. If the team arrives at the next checkpoint and the "team" members do not have identical bonii collected, it's MAJOR, MASSIVE penalty points. Bottom line: if you team with another rider, than you "never, ever leave your wingman".

The bonus listing no longer has directions to locate the bonuses. They are provided street addresses (if the location has an actual address), and GPS waypoints for it. That's it. Now, overall, the bonus listing takes two forms:

i) a USB Flash drive containing over 130 bonus waypoints, in several file formats for popular mapping software.
ii) a traditional bonus listing that describes the bonus requirements, the points associated with the bonii, any time constraints associated with the bonii, etc, etc.

We gave the jump drives to riders about 2 hours before the Riders Banquet, so they could load the waypoints into their mapping software and see all the pushpins. When they received their actual bonii listing, each bonus has a three digit code associated with a pushpin waypoint. Now it becomes a more traditional bonus plotting exercise: see where the 10 most highest valued bonus is actually located, and begin to plot your route from there.

All this actually makes it a much more level playing field then in previous years. We have other mechanisms in place to prevent outside assistance, but I (obviously) won't discuss them in a public forum.

[nantahala]

In 2011, hand out paper maps with stars written in Sharpie marker.  

With the Indy MotoGP going on, there has to be a bonus with Rossi holding a rally flag...

M-

[BigLou71]

I totally understand, and agree with the "no outside help" rule.  and even the no live reports or tweeting etc, but not being able to follow the spot really sucks.   Though I guess, for legal reasons, I can even understand that.  

I was really looking forward to wasting work hours following the rally via SPOT.

[2wTraveler]

In 2011, hand out paper maps with stars written in Sharpie marker.  

With the Indy MotoGP going on, there has to be a bonus with Rossi holding a rally flag...

M-

I was thinking the same thing last night.

[Orson]

Strangely, there are NO Suzuki bikes, other than the two 1976 Suzuki Rotary RE-5s in the Hopeless Class.

Dang  

what are the chances of one RE-5 competing, let alone two!