Is anyone else glued to the Iron Butt Rally reports?!

[JohnnyBSurfing]

Gentlemen:

I am totally into the reports coming from the Iron Butt web site at
http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2007.cfm

Thanks to the folks here for the sattelite tracking page that is really cool at
http://rally.star-traxx.com/rallyview.asp?Rally=98

11,000 miles in 11 days and that's not even the hard part.

After doing my Iron Butt 1,177 miles in 24 hours in May I can only begin to imagine the pain, fatigue, and brain drain going on out there on the road.

It took me 51 days to finish my 11,018 mile ride around the country this summer. Check out my pics and blog at GraceHighWay.WordPress.Com.

There are quite a few BMW motorcycles GS and K1200LT's. 47% of the bikes I believe were reportedly BMW's in the rally this year.

I have not heard any bad reports from the BMW's yet although I was pulling for the guy on the Gold Wing who went for the Goose Bay bonus ride and crashed in deep gravel with a broken bone and a total loss to his Honda.

Check it out!

[STARFIGHTER]

Karen and I read, discuss and second guess every rider.......during supper every evening.............
This is one of the only things that make me wish I had my old endurance back...
BUT...................
I couldn't believe the Wing on the gravel road.....and was waiting for the two guys that called in a day early to get the message.................glad they did....
I've got my money on Jim Owen this year.

[Beemerider]

Yes, definately. Read them and dream of running in the "big one" one day myself. ;)

[dshealey]

Yep! Reading it every day.

This is the first year that I personally know only two people in it though, in the previous 3 IBRs I knew at least four one year eight.

Too bad about the Goldwing rider. Got to within 200 miles of the biggest bonus available (likely the only one to even try it?) and crashed out. Know he will be playing the "what ifs" through his mind for years to come.

[jeffklt]

My riding buddy from North Myrtle Beach, Jim Bain is on an LT which we have been preparing for months. Developed a leaking front brake line Tuesday night in North Carolina but limped it to Atlanta where it was repaired by Bob Woodward and staff on Wednesday morning. He left there for Birmingham, Biloxi and New Orleans. Haven't heard from him since Wednesday morning.....which is a good sign, means he's riding hard.

[STARFIGHTER]

I thought it was funny when the dealer said the brake failure was caused by debris from other brands of bikes.....................

[bowlesj]

Yes I am, and my wife is sick of hearing about it.


I told her - your choice I can go roadracing or LD riding - make your choice.

Still waiting for the outcome of that decision:rotf:

[hallzee]

No IBR for me, but hoping to get a Four Corners in. In planning stage. SO wants to go, so I danced around that issue by offering to have her FLY to meet me somewhere and ride the last couple thousand miles home. I think she'll sign off on that.

Done the SS1000; good enough for me! I have a lot of respect for the IBR Finisher!

[slowflyn]

Well, I wasn't paying attention until you posted this. Can't stop reading it now.

Thanks for putting up the links.

[bowlesj]

Yea, comon, lets see the leg 1 standings.:crazy::crazy::crazy:

[gr8fulfred]

I read the reports every day and I always root for Eric Jewell even though he's no relation and he's on a BMW.

[messenger13]

I have not heard any bad reports from the BMW's yet... Day 4 was ugly for 2 BMW riders. :o

[gulfxray]

Yea, comon, lets see the leg 1 standings.:crazy::crazy::crazy:

No kidding! I noticed the Day 5 entry came through on the LDR mailing list this AM, so it should be up on the web site very soon....

[JohnnyBSurfing]

Wow I am hooked on the second leg now.

In June I was just in some of the places the riders are headed on my 11,000 mile journey.
I was able to stop and enjoy some of those amazing sites like, Yosemite National Parks Glacier Point, the hot tubs near Mono lake, the oldest living things on the planet the Ancient Bristle Cone Pine forest just North of Death Valley some are 4,800 years old that is older than the Pyramids.

The brain drain after what these guys have already done would make me come close to giving up if someone handed me a 35 page document.

My last 200 miles in May doing my SS1000 I was so delirious I averaged 77 mph ( through the mountains of Kentucky and the city of Louisville) could barley keep my ass in one place it hurt so bad and didn't even realized until the next day that I did 1177 miles and I could have stopped and found a witness almost 3 hours before I ended. By that point the advil + tylenol cocktail was of no use.

I saw Bob Nye (the rallys biggest techno geek) in the BMW ON magazine and see he is running around 11-13th now.
Amazing how well the BMW R1200RT bikes are doing in this rally.

Stay tuned!

[JohnnyBSurfing]

Gentlemen:

Rob Nye the fellow I have been following has made a bold move going for Alaska!

The bad news is he is having some trouble with his rear drive.

That is just a tragedy that was such a risk and it had to all go perfect to make that run work out. Who knows what kind of magic he can patch together to see it through to the finish line.

I was encouraged to hear about the Tech in Kansas staying late to help out the fellow in need of a new Metzler ME880 tire.

With as far as these guys are driving I know you can take a new ME880 down to a steel belted skunk stripe in less than 11,000 miles.
More tire woes are sure to come along for the Iron Butt riders.

stay tuned!

[STARFIGHTER]

Something I don't understand.
I was looking at Karol's photos of IB riders bikes........
and noticed that many have two GPS units, usually different models......
Is this just to have a backup, (in which case it would seem having one in the hard bag in case makes sense)
OR......is there some reason to run two GPS units ?

[nightcrawler921]

I was encouraged to hear about the Tech in Kansas staying late to help out the fellow in need of a new Metzler ME880 tire.
Actually Engle Motors is in Kansas City, Missouri. But it is just a stones throw from Kansas City, Kansas.

[ironbuttwannabe]

I'd like to see them take away having "team" routers. It's pretty easy to plug destinations into a computer program and find out what routes will produce the most points. They should have to figure it all out themselves. I don't really know how you could get rid of it completely but it is almost like cheating posting all the checkpoints on the internet and having somone do it for you. I think they will make some changes next year.

[ljmattox]

"Team" routing is a hot topic right now.

To clarify, the bonus listings aren't posted on the internet until the conclusion of that leg of the rally.

Those using teams are conveying bonus info to their co-horts by other means, or their co-horts are on site at the rally HQ. The IBR staff used red paper this year to try to cut down on faxing copies to others.

[ironbuttwannabe]

"Team" routing is a hot topic right now.

To clarify, the bonus listings aren't posted on the internet until the conclusion of that leg of the rally.

Those using teams are conveying bonus info to their co-horts by other means, or their co-horts are on site at the rally HQ. The IBR staff used red paper this year to try to cut down on faxing copies to others.

I know IBR doesn't put it on but right after they gave the bonuses it was. This is from the IBR website.

Within a few hours of the bonus listings being distributed, electronic files containing all of the bonuses were moving over the Internet.

Currently, there is a thread entitled "IBR Podium Etiquette" on the Long Distance Riders list. The question is being asked whether the trophies should be awarded to the rider or the router this year.

[lnowell]

What happened to the daily updates?

[JohnnyBSurfing]

Gentlemen:

Rob Nye is headed back to the barn and not going to be a finisher, I salute his bold move to go for it and take on the Alaska challenge.

All the right gear all the time! I rode my 11K trip this summer and even in the hot humid southern states I never rode 1 mile without everything piece of protection I had on my hot tired body. I always would see those guys on a big Goldwing or another K1200LT wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt shorts no helmet and think boy they look comfy, but what if the other guy doesn't see them ?!

Well as this thing gets down to the end I am sure we are going to see some more fireworks at the scoring table.

My question to you guys is "What happened to all the BMW's with mechanical failures???" My bike had 36k on it when I purchased her in January this year and I have put on 17k in 8 months or less and not one problem. Of course I did pay a lot of hard ca$h to do all the scheduled service.
Any opinions?

[TxWhiteKnight]

4th place was Jeff Earls on a BMW K1200GT with 309,681 points

[meese]

Final results are posted here (http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2007.cfm?DocID=43).

Four of the top five finishers were on BMWs, with an HD Sportster in at 3rd. Most of the riders seemed in great spirits at the final banquet, but understandably tired. I'm sure we'll start getting lots of stories and ride reports soon.

[tmgs]

Final results are posted

Four of the top five finishers were on BMWs, with an HD Sportster in at 3rd. Most of the riders seemed in great spirits at the final banquet, but understandably tired. I'm sure we'll start getting lots of stories and ride reports soon.

you were there?


still the most broke down motorcycle brand - BMW

I laughed at the words of a tech at the new BMW dealer in St louis when he said the failuires were due to improper maintence

Tell that to the faces of those who's BMW's broke down during the IBR particularly Rob Nye's bike

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

poor Maintence! what BS that was!

HAHAHAHAHAHA



maybe I will look at HD's Uly now a little closer now that they increased the rake on it (or whatever they did to it, I only caugfht part of the converstaion on the '08's)

Tom

[JohnnyBSurfing]

Gentlemen:

I can't believe how many hits this thread has had over the course of the race.
Thanks to everyone who added their insights.


As the final list was posted it was great to see 4 out of the top 5 were riding BMW's.

The sportster now moves to the top of the Harley line!

Outstanding to me were Mike Langford finsihed 26th & Jim Bain 36th on a K1200LT. Even more inspiration to me was that Tom & Rosie Sperry came in 47th riding a K1200LT two up!!! and did it with enough points to be finishers.

I think we all have a good list of what to look at close the next time we go to the dealer to pick up our new dream ride, ex the maintenance free final drive?

I hope to see Rob Nye out there next year!

Thanks again Gentlemen and hey lets do it again next year!

[tomandrosie]

Compared to the '05 Rally, the '07 was a real butt-kicker, at least for us. Doing the Rally 2-up is really not that difficult as long as you have the most important and rarest of all ingredients........a tolerant, cheerful and helpful pillion, who remains so for all 11 days! All credit to Rosie!

We had our share of misfortune, and at one point had all but given up, when our rear tire was shredded by a sagging taildragger fuel tank. That was a freak occurence......no fault of the tank fabricator, nor the mounting hardware......the metal just let go. We were in Kellog, ID on Sunday evening....no local tires, and even the more distant shops would be closed on Monday.....we had no cell service, and no internet access. It was "Life's darkest moment". We located a tire in Spokane with the assistance of the MOA, and, after a 20 hour delay, were able to resume our quest. At that point we were fighting just for finishing points.

With a couple of big bonuses, we were back in the hunt, but just barely. Near the end, in OK City, we were in a minor hit-and-run, when an asshole jetted out of a parking lot and clipped the right rear of the bike. He never looked back. We didn't go down, but Rosie's foot was hit pretty hard, and she has a fractured big toe on the right side. Ever the trooper, Rosie never considered quitting.

Considering the loss of a day due to the tire loss, and the accident, 47th place looks real good to us now.

The LT ran flawlessly, and used a total of 1/2 pint of oil. Not bad for 80+K.

Kudos to Reiner and Lisa Kappenberger, who topped the list of 2-up teams....they are now riding a GL1800, but don't hold that against them ;^))

-tom