Archive for the '2009-IBR' Category

These are the routes I took in the rally, along with a simple finish route that I could have taken had I not hit the deer. I probably would have finished with a much bigger route, but I had not finalized a plan yet. Had I not lost points in leg 1 for the bike issues and leg 2 for delays for helping out a rider, AND had gotten the points that I had in mind for the rest of leg 3 I would have been in the top 20, close, but not quite a top ten position. Of course, woulda, coulda shoulda, I don’t know where I really would have finished, but it is nice to imagine a great finish.

My actual Leg 1 route. Yep, Martha's Vinyard. There were at least 2,000 more points on my plan that I did not get due to the bike problems. I made some mistakes that lost me other points, but I think that is pretty standard.

My actual Leg 2 route. This was not my originally planned route. I helped out a rider and it threw me off my plan, psychologically if not actually. I was able to make up many of the points when I replanned, but I still think I lost a good 6,000 points anyway.

This was my actual Leg 3 route, up to the point where the Deer committed suicide using my bike. Again, this was not exactly where I planned to go, but re-planning on the fly made up for most of my errors.

This was the short, basic route that I had planned. There was at least a full EXTRA days worth of time available with this route, so I would have re-planned and gotten more points somewhere. This was just my fallback plan. I had a few other plans that would get me good points.

2009 IronButt Rally

Now that the ride is over, I can let you all know how things went, while it lasted.   I have trouble remembering details, but I will relate them as well as I can.

DAY 1 – Monday, 24 August 2009

The rally started at 10 AM with an organized departure from the hotel.   The Suzuki rotary motorcycles left first, then Dale *Warchild* Wilson directed us one at a time to leave.   The first bonus was the headquarters of BMW North America.   This was a short trip, and my first chance to screw up with these newfangled navigation devices.   Every other rider was turning left at the first intersection.   My GPS said to turn right.   While in the parking lot, waiting for the start, I *practiced * with my GPS.   I guess I left it set to go to my second bonus location, instead of the BMW boni.

The theme of this rally was *Crime Scene Investigation*.   The crime here was the failure to continue to make one of the most reliable Ironbutt Motorcycles.   We all crowded around one motorcycle to take a photo with our flag in it.   A few riders had gotten there and took there photos before the 10:30 time listed on the bonus sheet, and most likely did not get the points for this one.

From there, I headed north and east, getting bonus locations along the way, including in Washington, DC.   By nightfall I was in Connecticut, stuck in heavy traffic in high heat.   My bike took to smoking some, which from my experience, usually means oil is leaking past the valve guides.   Never a good thing.   Stopping in a rest area off of I-95 I was able to get an hour or so of sleep.   I prefer to always get hotel rooms but I felt I would be too keyed up on this first day of the rally to get much sleep so I decided to check into the *Ironbutt Motel*, in this case just laying my head on the tank bag on the bike while sitting in my seat.

DAY 2 – Tuesday, 25 August, 2009

The biggest doable bonus on this ride was the Ted Kennedy Car Wash, also known as the Dike Bridge at Chappaquiddick on Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts.   This required two ferry rides on one of the busiest times of the year.   Oh, and president Hussein was there vacationing with his family as well.   This went very smoothly and I was able to get some more sleep on the ferry.   This was actually the last time I did any of this napping stuff.   As I said, I prefer to get hotels daily.   Every other day of the rally I found a hotel, set my alarm to get 5 hours of sleep.   Each time, I woke before the alarm went off feeling great.   I figure that I got more *real* sleep on this rally than I do at home.   When I got tired, I slept, and slept well indeed.   At home it takes time to fall asleep, I toss and turn during the night, wake up to go to the bathroom etc etc.   Not during the rally.   I expect that I went through two full REM sleep cycles, which is all most people really need anyway.

After Martha’s Graveyard, I scored some other boni in the area, including Lizzie Borden’s house and a place in Hebron, CT.   I had a plan, but timing and bad traffic made me miss my plan some.   My bike smoked some more.   I eventually made it into Pennsylvania, stopping at a hotel for the night.   I had a plan for the next day that would give me a relatively easy 2,000 points.

DAY 3 – Wednesday, 26 August, 2009

Plenty of time to get my boni and get to the first checkpoint near Chicago.   Suited up, I hit the starter button.   It sounded like there was a guy in my rear exhaust pipe with a hammer trying to get out.   When I shut the bike down last night one of the valves must have been left in the open position, a normal occurrence.   With all the smoking from traffic there was a significant amount of carbon and sludge stuck on the valve stem, which must have delayed it’s closing long enough for the piston to strike it.   Once struck, the valve bent and caused continuous havoc.

I had 18 hours to fix the bike and get to the next checkpoint if I wanted to continue in the rally.   Not freekin’ likely.   There was a Harley Dealer less than an hour away, but there was no way I could get towed there, get the bike fixed, drive it back to the point of towing (required) and still get there.   I opened the pushrod tubes to see what was happening.   This turned out not to be a good idea, as with the valve stuck and the tubes loose, the pushrod had a chance to move where it did not belong and quickly broke.   This damaged the pushrod tube slightly.   I removed the pushrods and bent the tube back into shape but there was a hairline crack in it.   Hard to see, but it allowed oil to ooze out on my way to the dealer.   Save this information for later.   Let me tell you, trying to climb the hills of Pennsylvania with only one cylinder working and the other dragging is no fun.   It was emergency flasher city on most of the hills, and slow moving to let the bike cool off on the downhill sections.

I was surprised to find that the dealer opens it’s service department at 8am rather than the showrooms 9am.   The dealership was Highland Harley Davidson in Somerset, PA.   I lucked out on this one.   Not only does this Dealership have the reputation of having the lowest labor charges of any Harley Dealer in the world, but they understand the Ironbutt Rally.   I may have the titles wrong, but I believe it was the service manager that is an IBA member.   My bike became first priority.   Yep, stuck exhaust valve.   A *take off* head was removed from storage.   A take off part is one that is removed from a new or almost new bike because the owner wants the bike modified.   I am guessing that someone bought a bike and wanted the larger cylinders installed.   My bike was done by noon and I had the fuel cell and all back on my 12:30.   I watched some of the work and was impressed with the professionalism and care taken on my dirty old bike.   The total cost of the job was $400.   I spent more than that for those damned tires at the start.

Twenty miles down the road I smelled burning oil   Remember that pushrod tube with the crack in it?    Well, since the mechanic did not know it had been damaged, and the damage was difficult to see even if you knew to look for it and there was no reason to check it, he used the old damaged one.   Not his fault, I should have said something.   Fortunately for me they gave me the rest of the pushrod kit which included new tubes.   I called the dealer to ask them how many turns to adjust the pushrods and to advise them of the situation.   I will have to contact them again to explain that I don’t blame the mechanic, I know the mechanic did the job right, quickly and even took a later lunch just to finish my bike.

Anyway, this is a painful job on a hot bike in the hot sun, but twenty minutes later I was on the road.   Fortunately traffic was light and I got to the checkpoint 48 seconds into the penalty window.   Only lost a few points for that.

Although it was rainy in the checkpoint area, I somehow missed all the real rain, only hitting a little mist here and there.   They were short scorers and a lot of people came in all at once so scoring took a long time, cutting our available sleep time.   There was supposed to be food at the checkpoint, but only if you were there early.   Fortunately Jim Frens whined louder than me and the manager felt sorry for us and made us a dinner package of all that was left, Pasta and Green Beans.   Never tasted anything so yummy in my life.   Well, it was food anyway.

DAY 4 – Thursday, 27 August, 2009

Up at 4am to get the rally packets.   Still raining.   I spent quite a while preparing a route in extreme detail.   I don’t think this plan lasted to the first bonus location.   I ended up getting boni in Iowa and Minnesota.    One of the most amazing things about the IBR is just when you think you have completely screwed up and have planned a stupid route, you stop at a bonus location and 10 other riders show up.   You did not see these people on the road.   You did not know anyone was going here.   But there they are.

I was in 46th place.   Had I gotten the boni I had planned on before the bike crapped out I would have been in the top 20.

I stopped for the night somewhere, I think just over the boarder into North Dakota.   There was a rest bonus for this rally that was worth a lot of points.   It could start anytime on day 5.   Since it was day 4 when I checked into the hotel, I was not thinking and did not get a receipt.   I could have used this stop as the rest bonus since I was there more than the required 4 hours into day 5.   This just means that I will have to stop before midnight tomorrow whether I am ready to or not.

DAY 5 – Friday, 28 August, 2009

As I checked out, the receptionist made sure I had a receipt with a time and date.      What, was she reading my mind?   Sure enough, there was a Kawasaki Concourse outside with a BIG fuel tank, kinda a Frankenstein head kinda extension of the main tank.   Down the road near Bismark, ND there was a rider that needed some help.   I stopped and spent some time helping out.   This is a rally requirement but most riders would consider it a duty no matter what.   Every rider that went by stopped to chat to make sure everything was being taken care of and to offer help.   What a great group of guys this is

After this, I went to Why Not Mynot, ND then out to Montana, into Wyoming and stopped for the night.   I really wanted to continue on a while longer, but needed to stop for my rest bonus.   If I continued on, I would be in the next time zone and would miss the window.   Due to my delays yesterday my plans had to be changed.   There were some boni that had time windows.   Although the actual amount of time I was delayed was not a real problem, it threw me off mentally just enough that I just could not see a good pattern for the next day.   I came up with a detailed plan that lasted only until the first planned bonus.

DAY 6 – Saturday, 29 August, 2009

Again I woke before the alarm feeling better than almost anytime I wake at home.   The first bonus of the day was in Nebraska.   I blew off my second bonus as I felt it would hurt the rest of my plan too much.   I actually did great today, although I did not follow my plan much at all.   Most of the boni for the day were in Colorado around either Denver or Colorado Springs.   I missed a couple of big boni due to timing, but made up some of the points elsewhere.

Then I made my first, er, second technological mistake.   I programed in the next couple of boni and let the Garmin Bit… er Garmin Girl tell me which way to go.   The fastest way to the boni by almost an hour was to go due west.   The longer route would have been due south then west, all on the super slab.   I shoulda’ looked at my paper maps.   The shorter route sent me on some of Colorado’s most scenic roads including the Gunnison area and Durango.   Scenic roads in Colorado tend to have what we in the East Coast would consider high speed limits.   Most 65 and some more.   They also have a lot of animals.   The majority of this ride would be done at night.   NOT a smart choice.   On the way I saw many deer, including one that was just standing in the road.   I came almost to a stop before it wandered off the road.   I was not tired yet by the time I got to Durango, but really needed to do some planning and this was a crossroads that I would either go straight on or turn south.   Had I taken the superslab I would have had many choices of places to stop.   Durango is a rather expensive area as well.   I ended up paying more than $100 for a hotel room I used for less than 6 hours.

DAY 7 – Sunday, 30 August, 2009

Again, up before the alarm.   I had a plan.   It was wrong.   I missed a boni or two that I did not need to skip as I went to Flagstaff, AZ then down towards Phoenix, AZ and across the most uncomfortable desert towards Santa Ana, California and the next checkpoint.   My thermometer was above 110 for many miles and hit 120 for some periods.   I went through two gallons of hot water without having to pee once.   Later, when I did pee it came out in chunks.

This time I got to the checkpoint early enough to get food.  Scoring was much faster and I was in bed early.   Being the only Harley rider in the rally I had a small fan club cheering me on.

DAY 8 – Monday, 31 August, 2009

I am currently in 25th place.   If I added the boni I figure I missed do to helping out a rider and the boni I missed due to the bike problems I would probably be in the top ten.   Woulda, coulda, shoulda.   Where the heck is that crying towel?

Realistically, I had two plans for the day.   I was to choose one or the other when I got to a certain crossroads.   One would have had me getting a bunch of boni around death valley and north of there then to a big one in Utah on the second day, the other would have me getting the one in Utah first.   Somehow, in the confusion of planning, I did not sit and plan at the crossroads and when I got to the first boni near death valley I somehow was thinking I needed to get to Utah that day.   There was not enough time to get all the Death Valley boni and get to Utah, so I bailed on the other boni there.   Not really a bad decision anyway, but it would have been better if I had just gone straight to Utah.  Then I would not have had to go across Death Valley in the hottest part of the day.   120 degrees of heavy air.    The poor bike was not liking it at all.   Most of the day was wacky hot.   I did get to Utah, along with a bunch of other riders at the same time.   Odd how that works.

I stopped at a Motel 6 in Page.   As I was checking in, two other riders stopped in the parking lot.   I am not sure if they checked in, I didn’t notice their bikes in the AM.

DAY 9 – Tuesday, 1 September, 2009

Again, I got up before the alarm went off.

What an awesome sunrise over Monument Valley to the point on the highway that Forest Gump stopped running, then up to Deadhorse Point out of Moab, UT.   Great roads, great scenery.  Each time I thought I was alone, I would run into other riders.   It is funny, I would get to a bonus location, another rider would arrive, I would leave, he would pass me.   Then, hundreds of miles later I would arrive at the next bonus location, and the same rider would arrive after me.   This happened numerous times with different riders during the whole rally.   The next bonus was Doc Holiday’s grave, up a long steep hill at high elevation.   At least we were warned not even to think about attempting this bonus unless we were in good shape.   The last bonus I got was a photo of a stuffed cop in an old police car in Rand, CO.   My plan was to go to some Wyoming boni then into South Dakota.   After that I had a couple of very good routes to choose from, depending on how much risk I wanted to take.   One route was in the wrong direction.   Another was into Canada, another was a little safer and more conservative.   It was 5:26 PM when I hit the Damned Deer.   That is another story you can read elsewhere.

The accident happened just north of Walden, CO but I was towed to Krommley, CO.

DAY 10 – Wednesday, 2 September, 2009

The rally is over, all I can do is read all the reports from the last 10 days and deal with transportation home and the bike.   Next time I travel on a bike, I will pack it, then unpack everything and try to carry it.   Man, what a ton of useless crap you can cram onto a big touring bike.   I had to ship 20 pounds home and still had about 70 pounds of crud to lug around the airport.

DAY 11 – Thursday, 3 September, 2009

This Krommley is a nice town with great people.   I talked to a bunch of Lumber people.   The Pine Beetle is killing the trees in mass here, and they are trying to harvest the wood before it goes bad and to clean up the forest some so that the beetle won’t spreed so much.   This area is also having a problem with smoke from the California fires.   When the wind shifts, everyone’s eyes start itching and everyone is sneezing.

Finish – Friday, 4 September, 2009

Well, the rally may have been finished for me a few days ago, but I am still watching how everyone else is doing and rooting for a few folks I know.   This was a travel day, as I had plane reservations.   Left the hotel at 6am and will not get home until after midnight.   I would much rather be on a bike.   As I was leaving Krommley I saw a Goldwing on the side of the road for sale.   I wish I had known, I might have bought it and continued the rally.

I have not decided if I will ride another one of these.   I like this kind of rallying, but I don’t know if I like it enough to go through the expense again.  At least anytime soon.   But then, I said that last time too.

Now that the rally is over, I suppose I can blog again, so, here is a story of why I DNF’d (Did not finish), just in case you have not been keeping track on the IBR site.  I wrote this over a couple of days, so some of the time references may not make perfect sense.

Just to keep you all informed, I am currently in Krommley, CO and doing OK.   SORE but OK.

Last night, Sept 1, I hit a deer north of Walden, CO on Rt. 127 in a 65 MPH zone.  This was at exactly 5:26 PM local time, way too early to be expecting deer.   This was a BIG mule deer.  She came out of a gully from my left at full speed.   I had no time to react in any constructive manner.   I hit her just in front of the rear hip and killed her pretty quick.   The situation was made much worse by the fact that the fender got smashed into the front wheel causing a lockup.   Can’t ride that out.   The bike fell to the left side without really slamming down.   My head did not hit the ground hard but did do a little scraping as I slid down the road.   From the moment I hit the ground I was swearing at the dear and yelling OW, OW, OW, OW into my helmet.   The Aerostitch suit did it’s job.   I started sliding on my left side, but started getting a burning sensation on my arm due to the suit sliding and scraping the top layer of skin off.   I rolled to my back, but remembered I did not have much back protection.   I Then tried rolling onto my left side and did a few quick rolls before I was able to stop it and ride out the rest of the incredibly long slide on my right side.   A great thing about a textile outfit like I have is that it does not have a lot of friction with the ground so it does not tend to make you roll.   The bad thing is you slide pretty much forever.   I remember asking no one in particular “when the hell am I gonna stop?”.

After stopping I took the time to wiggle toes etc to be sure I was OK.   I was conscious and aware of every second of the slide, so I knew I did not hit hard, but I wanted to be sure.   If I was not absolutely sure, I would have laid there waiting for the paramedics.   I was fine.   Getting up I realized that I would have some specific spots that would be very sore.   The biggest one was going to be my leg/hip area.   The muscles there were sore already, I knew I didn’t have more than a few hours left where walking would be a reasonable task.

After I left it, the bike continued to slide about as far as I did, eventually sliding off the pavement and hitting a chunk of pavement that jutted off the road, kinda like a 4 foot long driveway.   This gave and extra bit of damage to the left side.    The bike rolled over to it’s right side just before stopping, just to make sure there was complete coverage damage.

The deer was back where I hit her, never had a chance.

It took a good 5 or 10 minutes for a car to come by.   I flagged her down, as a man standing on the side of the road in a helmet and full riding gear, but no bike, did not seem to faze her.   This IS Colorado after all.   She called the police and paramedics for me.   It took a good 20 minutes for them to get there.   In the meantime I had the girl take pics of the deer, as there was no way I was walking that far at the moment.   I started gathering up my stuff.   It was scattered all over.   The only things that were left unaccounted for was my brand new expensive Valentine radar detector and my bath bag with my toothbrush and Ibuprofen.   I would eventually really miss that Ibuprofen.

In the meantime, and for the rest of my time there until after dark, every bike that went by stopped, both IBR riders and non IBR riders.   All offered assistance, all were concerned.   What a great community this is.

While the EMTs were checking me out, the Sheriff on the scene poked his head into the ambulance and asked me if I had had much to drink today.   I said, I thought I had had enough, I had bottles on the bike that I sip from as I ride.   But I haven’t had any since I crashed.   I told him the EMTs gave me a bottle, but I have not had a chance to drink any yet.    Apparently he was not concerned about dehydration.

One of the bystanders told the officer that he smelled whiskey.   When the officer poked his head into the ambulance, he could smell it too.   He asked me if I would submit to a sobriety check.   He said it was voluntary.   Yeah, right.   Submit or go directly to jail.   Some choice.   Anyway, I told him I would submit as long as it did not involve any leg work, as I was in no condition to walk, much less in a straight line.   Remember, it is now almost an hour after the crash and this old body was beginning to complain.   Once he got me out of the van, he knew I was not the whiskey person, and he told me so.   He did a quick eye check for the record and let me get back to being poked and prodded.   Later, he told me it was one of the EMTs that had the strong whiskey breath.   He was not pleased and was going to do an investigation.   There were a number of people there, and I suspect it was the only one that did not actually work on me.   She seemed to be having trouble getting the right supplies for the others, and eventually went to stand out side.   Hey, it was a volunteer group.

The EMTs did a very thorough job of checking me for injuries, poking and prodding and pushing.   They found nothing to be concerned about, and did not recommend I go to the hospital, not that they didn’t encourage me to, but they said that there was nothing “that they could find” that would warrant it.

So, the EMTs left, and the Sheriff, his dog, and I sat in the car to wait for the wrecker.   It had to come up from Krommley, about an hour away.   We waited, and waited, and waited………   Eventually the wrecker came and took me and the bike back to Krommley about 11pm, where I stayed at the Easton Hotel.   A nice, 1930′s Hotel.    While with the Sheriff, we talked about all kinds of things.   Nice guy.

Now, imagine this, you are sitting there, injured, you just wrecked your bike, you have no idea how or when you will get home.   What does the Sheriff do?   He give me a ticket for “Failure to drive properly on a Mountain Road.”  !!!!!   Apparently issuing this $111 ticket is standard practice in this county.   He told me he had no choice and that if I was in the next county they give a more expensive ticket.  The least he could have done was harvested the venison and sent it home to me.   I don’t know if I have any recourse in the matter, but I will pursue it.   I have a feeling that it is one of those things that it is better to just pay it and let it disappear rather than fight it and have mention of it get back to my insurance company or something.

Now, as far as injuries, I had a pretty good gouge out of the skin of my thumb, right where I already had a hole in my glove.   If I had no hole, I would not have had that gouge.   I have some minor road rash on my left arm, possibly nothing more than the suit sliding and burning me.   Most of the hairs are still there.   My leg was the worst part.   What I believe happened was that when I first hit the pavement, my knee caught and was pulled to the side, stretching the muscles more than normal.   By the time I got to the hotel, the pain when walking was so bad I could barely hobble in and could not carry my bags.   Going up the stairs was, surprisingly, not a real issue.   By the next morning, things were better.   The biggest pain I had was my sister and girlfriend.   They got together and started feeding on each others concerns.   I was forced to go to the hospital for all kinds of tests.   The staff was quite surprised at how little damage I had.   ATGATT (all the gear, all the time).   Can’t say enough for it.   I walked around town at a snails pace, but every step got better.   By the second day I was almost normal.   I have transportation to Denver, and a flight out Friday.

I can’t say enough good things about the people in this little town.   Everyone was helpful, offering me rides, and all kinds of help.   Fortunately I did not need much help.   And the riding community, wow.   I had all kinds of offers for help.   I would have loved to have gotten a bike to finish the rally, but I did not think I could get one in time to get enough points to be a finisher.   I kinda regret not trying, but I suppose R&R is better, and it allowed me to deal with the bike and all my stuff as well as the insurance company and everything.   And at $47 for a nice room, I am not going broke here.

Someone asked, I don’t know who or where it was asked but, yes, this is my first deer strike.  Many close calls, no contacts.   Earlier in the rally, also in Colorado, I had a deer jump out on the road and just stand there.   I had to stop for that one.    I looked all over this town for a place that cooks venison, but had no luck in that venture.

For various reasons I will NOT be blogging, even quick messages from my phone or any where else until the IBR is done.

So, if you want to keep informed, check the Ironbutt web site.

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

I may be very busy at the end of the rally, so I may not get to send anything out until I get home.   Sorry.   There will be some post dated posts that will be going out while I am riding.   At least you will have something to read.   Although I am beginning to think I only have one reader who is not actually in the rally.