The Iron Butt Rally (11,000 miles/11 days) [Archive]

Montana

08-10-2003, 05:38 PM

It's been an interesting two days. You walk around and help out with directions, leaking gas cleanup, get a KRS rider a muffler (watch for him: go, Chya!), whatever. You look at the unusual bikes and you know there are stories there. You get to talking to the riders of the "regular" bikes, the K1200LT or R1150 RS or GS, the Honda Gold Wing, the Yamaha Venture, and find out they have stories, too.

There are two no-shows, and one K1200LT is still in Cody, WY. The rear end went out (starting to sound familiar?). The rider was at registration taking care of as much as possible. He has a new rear end in the trunk of the rental car. He is driving back to Cody tonight, the dealer will install it first thing tomorrow morning, then the rider will come back to Missoula to officially start from here. He'll lose half a day, but hey, it's an 11-day event.

One rider from San Jose said that coming to Missoula on Friday he hit the Hot August Nights (in Reno) traffic, once he left the Bay area. He rode about 300 miles in nearly 10 hours, never going faster then 43 mph (per his gps unit).

There is a Yamaha SR500 thumper (chrome fenders!) that is one of only two that are doing this long distance stuff. The owner was telling us he has a support crew all over the country - this has become a virtual neighborhood team effort. He is the original owner and "they" are going to turn 100,000 miles on the first leg, tomorrow. Last week, 10 miles from home, the transmission blew up - first and neutral only. He managed to get parts sent from friends and got the bike running, loaded it to get to the start area in time to register. He's only got 60 miles on the rebuild and is nervous about any overlooked item since there was no shakedown cruise time.

From the "...and you thought your local shop was bad..." department: So, I'm standing at the 500 cc Yamaha thumper, talking to the rider, and I see the bike behind me is a brand-spankin' new Venture (watch for it: gold and red). The rider is from San Diego. Last week his 1999 Venture was in the shop for its major service and prep for this rally. It was well broken in and the mechanic and the owner were pretty confident the bike would make the whole rally requiring no additional service stops.

He picks it up and takes it home but it doesn't seem to handle quite right. What the heck? He notices the tank and windshield are new, and the handlebars seem bent. Turns out, (take a deep breath) the bike fell off the shop lift, three feet to the ground. When it hit, it was topside down. The shop didn't even mention it. They hoped he wouldn't notice.

So now he has a 2003 and it was all he could do to get the first 600 miles on it last week and get the first service done before leaving to come to Missoula. For the first 400 miles here, he had to keep it below half throttle. It does ride nice, though. He's hoping all the bad stuff is behind him, now.

An anatomically-correct mascot:

KBasa

08-10-2003, 06:50 PM

This one belongs to our own Rob Nye. He's also got a mil spec, fully waterproof table PC that mounts on the tank. I've actually ridden that bike.

http://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/attachment.php?s=&postid=6343

I think he's going to need new graphite rods in the reactor that powers all that stuff by the time he gets done.

Colt03

08-10-2003, 08:17 PM

K Bikes have been the bike of choice for the last 5 or so rally's it is interesting to see your pics's and a few still in the line up.

I know Rob Nye is riding his , I think Paul Glaves is riding his K75 which has to be pushing almost 400K.

Thanks for the update.

Craig

Montana

08-10-2003, 10:43 PM

So the bike sprouting all the stuff is "Rob Nye the 'MOA Science Guy?" I was wondering how many things you need to tell you where you are, until you finally believe it. That bike is the dictionary reference of "multitasking."

I was very surprised at how many various Hondas there are (oh, is it okay to use the "other" brand names on this forum?) in the crowd. Many GWs and the ST1100 is well-represented. The Yamaha FJRs look popular. I've never seen so much heat-blocking tape being used outside of a furnace room. Of course the BMW R-RT is here but there probably are more K variants. Just a couple of HD, and I keep seeing a side car rig but haven't been able to determine if it's part of the rally or part of the support staff. One V-Strom, and I only remember Chye's K12RS.

I don't know if anyone on this forum is from AZ and knows him, but now that Chye has the OEM muffler from the local dealer, he did the odometer test and is good to go tomorrow. He mentioned that he hasn't stashed stuff ahead, hasn't called ahead for support from anyone, and didn't really know anyone. He said everything he read about this rally indicated that there is incredible camaradrie and a willingness to help each other, even at the last minute, and he's already found this to be true.

There was one bike with a fuel cell that started dripping in the midday heat. Don't know if there was a venting problem or what caused this, since it passed Tech inspection. It was near 100 degrees F today.

Some lightning strikes Fri night seem to have started fires outside of town on all four sides, so ash was falling late yesterday and by this afternoon you couldn't see across town. Must be time to get out of Dodge!

KBasa

08-10-2003, 11:22 PM

Just got off the phone with Rob. He told me they're headed south tomorrow. Rob seems to be heading to Death Valley, Las Vegas and finally to the checkpoint.

I'm jealous.

tmgs

08-11-2003, 08:02 AM

All I can say is AWESOME!

thanks for the pics, we are going to be at the check point in florida to see a friend of ours, So if ya see a gal on a silver R1150RT tell her we are rooting for her and will see her soon!

Tom

MarkF

08-11-2003, 11:22 AM

If someone gets a pic of Connecticut's own Marsha Hall please post it. I wonder if she riding that R1100S without a fuel cell.

MarkF

Montana

08-11-2003, 12:57 PM

Ha ha ha - that was pretty funny! A few of these riders think they have it all figured out.

Official start time 10:00 am.

On the dot of 9:00 am they start lining up, two columns. About 40 bikes are ready to go this way, the others are still sitting off to the sides, riders are putting on sunscreen, strapping gear, visiting with the crowd, etc.

9:40 am final rider meeting. It is announced that the start is at the other end - they're all pointing the wrong way! Chaos ensues in the parking lot.

First checkpoint is Primm, but they got the packet of extra point locations, and this leg includes Orofino and Oregon.

I'll post pictures later tonight.

KBasa

08-11-2003, 07:19 PM

From Bob Higdon:

Missoula, Montana
August 10, 2003
Day -1

Who's Who

The final rider count is 117 bikes. One team is two-up. A
breakdown and a family emergency today will keep John Ferber and Gary
Johnson, both Iron Butt veterans, out of this year's running. They aren't
the only experienced hot shoes missing from the 2003 lineup. Gary Eagan,
the winner in 1995, is at home. The 1997 champion, Rick Morrison, after
having set almost every motorcycle endurance record imaginable, claims to
be in retirement. George Barnes is out this year. He won in 1999, setting
an IBR record of about two billion miles in the process. Only Bob Hall,
the top dog two years ago, is here, trying for a second IBR crown. The
bookmakers in Las Vegas are not looking kindly upon his chances. Since
Mike Kneebone raised the Iron Butt Rally from the ashes in 1991, no rider
has ever won twice. Shane Smith, with three top ten finishes in three
tries (including a second overall in 2001), couldn't make the start, nor
could the profoundly cherubic Morris Kreumcke. Other perennial hot shoes
absent this year are Chuck Pickett, Asa Hutchinson, Bill Kramer, Bob Ray,
and Germany's Martin Hildebrand. These are all colorful people; their
absence makes the rally seem just a little paler this year.
The veterans who have showed up are tanned, rested, and ready to
roll. They are a Who's Who of the long-distance motorcycle world with
hundreds of huge rides in their collective wake: Five-time finisher Harold
Brooks; Joe Mandeville, a member of the exclusive 100,000-mile-year club;
Paul Taylor; Eric Jewell; Eddie James; Tom Loegering; prosecutor Manny
Sameiro; ISDE qualifier Dick Fish; Rallye Tunisia finisher Steve Eversfield
(via Great Britain); Dennis Kesseler; and Tom Loftus. You'll probably be
seeing their names toward the top of the rankings for the remainder of the
rally.
And then there's Peter Hoogeveen, who has more podium finishes on
this event than anyone else. What he lacks is a win. His string of
second-place finishes in rallies all over North America is the stuff of
legend. Still, no one in his right mind would bet against this tireless
Canadian.
There are 67 rookies in the pack. Most of them have no chance for
distinction. But some will do amazingly well and cause no trouble. Other
riders won't do well at all but will cause metric tons of trouble. Take,
for example, Leonard Aron, an attorney who looks as if he might have been a
defendant in the Chicago Seven trial. He isn't a rookie, but he often acts
like one. He introduced himself to one of the check-in workers yesterday
with this: "I'm Leonard. It isn't easy being Leonard. But I make it look
easy because I'm so good at it." His singular claim to IBR fame was that
in 2001, after a bunch of miserable DNFs, he shoved a '46 Indian completely
around the country. It was the oldest bike ever to complete the
IBR. After that, Leonard has nothing to prove in endurance riding forever.
At the drivers' meeting in the afternoon, rules and procedures
were reviewed a final time. For example, it is critical that you must call
the rallymaster if you are going to be more than two hours late to a
checkpoint. A hand was raised: Suppose I am allowed only one phone
call? You get the idea.
Mark Kiecker, who came in 10th two years ago, wondered whether he
would be considered a finisher if his bike broke down in Texas and he
trailered it to the next checkpoint. Kiecker is known to the IBR
administration as a relentless provocateur, a younger, slimmer version of
Eddie James. Mike Kneebone's usually calm demeanor went stratospheric in a
matter of milliseconds. He threatened to have the next person who asked
such a question doused with acid and set afire. The meeting moved along
more briskly after that.
At the opening banquet, Lisa Landry, a finisher on the 2001 IBR
and this year's rallymaster, took over the meeting to pass out name tags
and rally identification towels to the riders. Bob Hall received towel #1
in recognition of his status as defending champion. In 2001 when I was the
holder of towel #1, they told me the number represented my percentage
chance of reaching the first checkpoint in something other than an
ambulance. I thought it represented the rider's anticipated finishing
position. When Hoogeveen was handed towel #116, he sighed, "Of
course. Second to last. I can't even be last."
The riders and guests then filed out into the Holiday Inn's lobby
atrium. A moment later Michael Kneebone appeared on a second-floor balcony
decked out in a white robe and mitre, looking every bit the twin of Pope
Silver Wing the First. He gave a brief blessing to his children, wished
them a safe journey, and commanded them not to speed in school zones. The
audience over, the crowd disappeared --- some to plot routes to the first
checkpoint, some to hoist a glass in the bar, and some to scribble
furiously by candlelight in a cold, dark garret.
When I mentioned some of those missing in action above, I
neglected two because their stories are significantly different. One, Dan
Lowery, isn't here tonight because he is on his way back to Cody, Wyoming
to pick up his bike. It is recuperating from a blown whozit or a fractured
whatzit. We never use the word "race" in endurance rally circles, but at
this moment Lowery is in a legitimate race to retrieve his bike, chase back
up here to Missoula, obtain a timed receipt, and then head off to the first
checkpoint in Nevada. He will be hours behind the field; he will have no
chance to win the rally; he probably won't get a single bonus on the first
leg; but he will be on the road and running. That's all that matters to
him. Any one of these 117 riders can appreciate that.
Another MIA is Airyn Darling. She has never run an Iron Butt, but
she has worked on the last couple as a volunteer. Missoula isn't far from
her home in Seattle, and she had confidently expected to be
here. Unfortunately, conflicts with her work schedule at a wolf shelter
kept her from being here. She sent a despondent e-mail to me a few weeks ago.
I tried to console her. "You have to choose between the animals
that you can help and the animals that no one can help." Tonight the
animals that no one can help are but one restless night's sleep away from
the ride of their lives.
And with that I blow out my candle.

Bob Higdon
www.ironbutt.com

Colt03

08-11-2003, 08:41 PM

Dave,

Thanks for the post, I checked the IB website, Team Strange and the YB's but no one had the info you just posted.

Next time we meet I'll buy the first !

Craig Cleasby
South Windsor, CT

KBasa

08-11-2003, 09:21 PM

I'm cross posting it from the IBMWR list. I'll keep sending them over as I see them.

I sent Rob an email and told him to send pictures. He's probably somewhere in Nevada right about now, Monday night.

KBasa

08-12-2003, 09:29 AM

Passed along:

Salt Lake City, Utah
August 11, 2003
Day 0

The Visitor

Just before the banquet began last evening, the Typhoid Mary of
motorcycling, Michael Charles Gasper, rode into the Holiday Inn parking
lot. You may know him by one of his aliases: Speedracer, Gary Gonefar,
Biff, Bob Ransbottom (an identity theft of a 1995 IBR finisher), The 2K
Kid, Psycho Mikey, Brad Beckley, Ray Poisson (a combination of "Rey"
[Spanish for "king"] and "Poisson" [French for "fish"], hence "Kingfish"),
Chuck LaDeux, and most recently Charles Ladue. No matter what name he's
using, this is one dude you don't want to meet.
Gasper's history of lies and sociopathic behavior is so well known
in the long-distance motorcycling community that it would actually be
comical were it not for the occasional assault with a deadly weapon or
child molestation conviction. In recent years, however, because of his
multiple threats against other riders he has been turned away from every
endurance rally of any consequence in North America and permanently banned
from participation on the Long Distance Riders e-mail list. Unhappily, and
ironically, for Psycho Mikey, riding a bike for endless miles under
difficult conditions is one thing that he can actually do with some
skill. Now the boys and girls won't play with him anymore.
The drums had banged out the news of Gasper's arrival before he
was even off his bike. The police were called because at least three
riders at the dinner have keep-away orders against him. He muttered a few
epithets and rode off but, like the Energizer Bunny, he'll keep coming
back. If he shows up at any of the rally's checkpoints, however, he'll
find the state police waiting for him.
It took Mike Kneebone a few minutes to arrange for security guards
to patrol the parking lot last night, an unexpected expense that the riders
Gasper so desperately wants to associate with will ultimately bear through
their entry fees. But soon the drama subsided, rallymaster Lisa Landry
strode into the banquet room wearing the executioner's robe that Mike
Kneebone had first used in 2001, and the riders quickly resumed their
positions of whipped-dog submissiveness.

Bill Shaw's Surprise

Landry was wearing the same ominous shroud when she appeared in
the parking lot at 9:40 this morning. Eager motorcyclists immediately
clotted around her like white blood cells attacking an infection. They had
been told at the riders' meeting the day before that they would be exiting
through the south end of the lot. The rallymaster slowly lifted her nose
skyward, took in the scent of smoke from forest fires to the west of the
city, and concluded upon further reflection that it would be better for
riders to use the north exit.
I glanced at rookie Bill Shaw. He has been writing a series of
articles for "Motorcycle Consumer News" about preparing both a motorcycle
and one's soul for the IBR. A look of uncomprehending pain was creasing
his face. His bike was positioned 6" from the sawhorse at the south
entrance. One minute earlier he would have been the first bike out of the
lot; now the entire field would be lined up ahead of him. I smiled cruelly
and thought, "Welcome to the Butt, Bill. Let the mind games begin."
Shaw's loss was Paul and Voni Glaves' gain. In a motorcycle
popularity contest these two would receive about 112% of the vote. Voni
won a BMW Motorcycle Owners of America club mileage contest a few years ago
with 73,000 miles in six months. Paul is a former president of the same
club. Their bikes were parked at the north end of the lot. As a reward
for their quiet willingness to be last out of the gate, they became the first.
Rick Rohlf's BMW was third in line. Five minutes before the 10:00
a.m. start, I walked over to him. "You know what they do with jets that
stall on the carrier's flight deck?" I asked.
"They throw them over the side," he answered correctly.
As the Glaves began to roll toward the exit moments later, Rohlf
punched his starter button. Nothing happened. We threw him over the
side. Twenty minutes later all but one of the machines had disappeared
into the hazy smoke that still swirled through the city.

The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

The plan in 1997 was for Mike Kneebone and me to rent a Lincoln
and follow the rally around the country, checkpoint to checkpoint, from
Chicago back to Chicago. We weren't out of the city limits on the first
leg of the event before we realized we had made a monumental mistake. A
big road trip on a bike is an adventure; a big road trip in a car is
idiocy. I vowed never to be associated with such foolishness again.
It is 3:55 p.m. MDT as I type these words. Somewhere in
northeastern Idaho I sit in a van, a Pontiac Montana --- the Spanish word
for "moron" --- that sways rhythmically from side to side. In another
304,000 oscillations I will be green enough to hang my head out the window
and leave lunch on the highway that winds through this beautiful
landscape. But there are no windows where I sit in the back of the
Moron. That means we will have to stop. No one wants that. Bringing this
unwieldy pig to a halt and discharging its passengers could take up to a week.
Why a van? That's what I wonder. Sure, we have doubled the space
of the old Lincoln, but we have also doubled the crew: Lisa (rallymaster)
and Warren Harhay (rally cinematographer) are now with Mike and me. We
have doubled the bladders that need draining, tripled the luggage, and
quadrupled the angst. I was told a few days ago that a pool was taking
bets on when my fellow travelers would either throw me out of the Moron or
strap me onto the luggage rack on its roof.
I don't want to think about that. Instead I try to remember who
these horsemen were. Death, disease, famine, and Oprah? I can't do
it. Whoever they were, we have channeled them in a Pontiac Moron. I'm
seeing shades of green. Just 22,000 more oscillations and . . . well, I
don't want to think about that either.

Casualty Report

Two of the five bikes in the Hopeless Class --- motorcycles
challenged by age, power, ugly paint, or a combination of the above ---
have chalk outlines around them tonight.
At 2:55 this afternoon we received a call that Ken Morton's '82
Honda Silver Wing was having electrical problems north of Idaho
Falls. Exactly 90 minutes later we passed him. The roadside temperature
was over 100F. We would have stopped but we didn't want to let the cold
air out of the Moron. Besides, the tow truck was there.
At 4:39 we learned that Jim Winterer's '81 Yamaha 500cc single, a
motor that completed the last IBR, had rolled to a stop at a farm access
road near Riggins, Idaho. Diagnosis: Transmission failure. Prognosis: Toe
tag. The owner of the property is a BMW MOA member. He knows MOA board
member and Iron Butt vet Karol Patzer. Winterer knows Karol, and tonight
he has a place to sleep.
Within seven hours of the start two bikes bit the dust. Two
hundred fifty-seven hours remain.

Bob Higdon
www.ironbutt.com

Montana

08-12-2003, 12:21 PM

Sorry to be so late posting the remainder from Monday. We couldn't dial out last night. I think the fires are limiting our communication services.

As mentioned, at the riders' meeting they learned that the empty aisle in the right of the photo is actually where they should start lining up, not the upper left beyond the meeting group, where there is already some congestion from waiting bikes.

Montana

08-12-2003, 12:23 PM

Chye was at the end of the parking lot that was actually the starting point, so he was one of the first riders to get on the road. He honked at me as I was walking back to my office and I waved good luck. At least, I hope he knew that was my wish for him.

Montana

08-12-2003, 12:27 PM

Tough biker babes! I had the pleasure of meeting Ardys Kellerman and Phyllis Lang during the registration days, and when Phyllis mentioned a small crisis at work made her think she needed to return home, I offered to help however I could.

I have learned that Ardys and Phyllis were the only solo women to ride the IBR in 1993 and Ardys is the third woman on record to finish. Ardys has finished four times and Phyllis has finished three. Voni Glaves is entered this year, her first attempt. She has supported Paul’s efforts in past years and even met up with him on the road in the past.

Phyllis has parked her HD (pretty purple) in my garage - there is no way I would let her leave it in a motel lot for a week. I took her to the airport this morning. I think I've convinced her to try to be back by Wed, Aug 20. The Harley Davidson Ride Home will stop overnight here in Missoula - we are expecting 20,000 riders.

Ardys brought her laundry over while we were putting away the bike and riding gear, and we left it to run while we went to dinner, so I know she is good to go for at least a few days. She left around 8:00 am this morning. She started out from home in Texas and rode her R1150RT to Maryland, where she housesat for a friend, then, if I've got it all straight, she rode to Pennsylvania to meet up with Phyllis. They rode to the start in Missoula. I won't mention where she is going now because it is a surprise for someone and I don't know if this forum is read by that person. Let's just say it's far from MT. From there she will head to the Maine checkpoint for the IBR. She'll be back in Missoula for the finish.

We had a chatty dinner and traded some great stories. Although I've been riding 36 years I've never considered attempting a long distance event and it was interesting to hear from those who have done so, and more than once. I probably still won't try one, though. I can't think of anything I want to do for 11 days straight.

We ran into Harold Brooks’ son at the restaurant. He said although he’s been hearing about and living with his father’s involvement since the late 1980s this is the first rally he’s actually come to see.

We took a quick photo when we parked Phyllis' bike, so I am including that picture. The sun was low and there is a forest fire burning on the mountain across the river from my house, so it is all smoky and glary - sorry, this digital stuff is new to me. But, you can see everybody is happy!

Tieton

08-12-2003, 01:31 PM

Marsha Hall talking shop with Tobie Stevens and Al Holtsberry the day before the start of the rally.

Tieton

08-12-2003, 01:33 PM

Marsha waiting to exit the gate

Tieton

08-12-2003, 01:36 PM

The Waiting Continues: Marsha Hall and Russell Stephan

KBasa

08-12-2003, 09:08 PM

Just got off the phone with Rob. He's got a cell phone setup on his bike to go with all the other crap he's carrying, so I've been talking with him while he's riding down the road. Pretty intense.

He came across the desert today through Nevada. Death Valley was one of the bonus legs, but Rob wound up taking a pass on it. He's got, in addition to the nuclear reactor and stuff, a thermometer that gives him the outside temp and the temp behind the fairing. He saw temps of 110 on the outside and 124 behind the fairing. With the forecasted high in Death Valley today of 116, it was just too hot to ride to.

The bike was running poorly, but seems to be fine now. He's chalking it up to high temps, oxygenated fuel and altitude. He got 4.5 hours of sleep last night and headed out at 4am. Temps were 38F and he had his Gerbings on when he left. Quite a contrast from the temps he'd see later.

One of the bonus legs involved using your GPS to find a geocache. Joe Denton was at a spot and had a specific cache for each rider. Rob pulled in, got his coordinates from Joe and then started searching the desert for his location and "prize". He was walking in circles in the desert, red headed Ritalin poster boy activity in full effect. He couldn't find the spot and, in his words, was "starting to get a little pissy." Then he realized he'd managed to pretty much park his bike on top of the spot he was looking for.

He was, when I talked to him, about 27 miles outside the checkpoint in Primm, so he's almost done for today. He's going to call later and I'll drop a report when I know more.

moterbiker

08-12-2003, 10:42 PM

Got a couple of calls from Paul Pelland who isn't riding a Ural this year, he also can call from the helmet, he said he was doing well and was having fun, he also added he wants to be very competitive this time. it will probably be the last time he can attempt it for quite a few years.
Anyway he sounds great and isn't tired, I don't understand people that can go without sleep for that long:snore

KBasa

08-13-2003, 12:35 AM

OK. Here's the Rob Report. I got off the phone with him about 15 minutes ago and he's pretty amped up. I've got a bunch of stuff here, so this is going to be kind of long. I don't know if it breaks my trip report rule, but it's not my trip, so I suppose not.

They left yesterday at 11am and started heading south. Rob headed south with a couple guys on GoldWing 1800s, running at pretty respectable speed, I'm assuming on 93 or whatever it is that runs south there out of Missoula. They rode together for a while until one of the Wing guys decided he'd had enough and just rode off into the distance.

Short, but important strategic alliances seem to be the order of the day, at least at this point in the ride. Rob and a guy he sort of knows, rode together through some deer infested canyons last night. Later, he shared a room and part of today with a District Attorney from Joisey.

He got hung up at a construction site today for a bit, but got a fairly lucky bit of local info and saved 40 miles.

Rob: "Hey! How long are going to be here?" If it's been more than a couple minutes, Rob's probably already riding in little circles in the road, sometimes standing up and sometimes sitting down.

Flag guy: "Twenty minutes! You riding to Tonopah with the rest of those guys?"

Rob: "Yeah, sure am. How much longer?"

Flag guy: "I make everyone wait twenty minutes."

Rob starts doing little circles in the road again, while he fiddles with his tablet PC, calls Julie and sends an email to some of the folks in his company's Swedish office.

Flag guy is start to get cheesed because now they're going to have to grade the berm Rob's making smooth before they can go home.

"Hey, busy boy!"

Rob flicks the tail on the KLT out slides up next to the guy while he hangs up the phone and sends the email. Sending the fax is going to have to wait a minute.

"Yeah! How much longer?"

"How do you feel about dirt?"

"I'm cool with it. Why?"

"Good. You can save 40 miles if you go back and take Powerline Road. We just graded it last week."

"Cool! Let's ride bikes!" He leaves a perfect roost as he launches out and over the berm he's made. The flag guy smiles and starts kicking the berm flat.

So anyway, Rob tells me that when the K11LT starts doing the big wobble in the dirt, in the really deep stuff, gassing it will not help. He's somewhat surprised he didn't crash out there.

He's also hit a couple birds today. One of them hit the base of his windshield and split itself in half. Part of the bird went over the top of the shield, but the other one wound up inside on the back of his GPS units. It must look great with all the dust and stuff he picked up by riding 70 miles of dirt. Yikes.

Coming out of a gas station somewhere in Nye County, NV. (Yes, it's true), Robs getting his go brain on again. He's got the face shield up, he's spooling up the K bike after a fresh set of control rods and he's eating M&Ms. He looks up and sees two giant signs that say Speed Limit 25. He rolls it off and instantly, his Valentine One lights up, full lock. So he pulls into a parking lot, parked on a pretty sharp slope to the left of the bike. He's sitting on the bike and the cop walks up.

"Going a little fast, eh?"

"Yeah, I was riding along, I've been out in the desert, I'm from Rhode Island and we don't have desert and then I looked up and there were these two giant signs and ya know, I'm kind of flipped out by seeing my name all over the place". He has to pause and take a big breath. At this point on the phone, Rob's telling me all the things he saw, Nye County Sherriff, Nye County Courthouse. You name it. The time is Nye.

The cop asks Rob for his license.

"Ya know, if I put the sidestand out, my bike's going to fall over. Do you mind if I just turn it around here?"

"Sure".

Rob buzzes around in a little full lock circle and parks the bike, just a few feet from where he was and digs his license out. Cop sees his name is Nye, he's motorcycle endorsed and then sees the Chuck Clapham Hollister Volunteer Sticker on the back of his license.

"You a fireman?"

"Yep. I'm a volunteer!"

The cop hands him back his license.

"I'm going to give you my first and probably only Warning this month."

"THANKS SO MUCH!" *under his breath* "How much longer?"

The cop is now looking at the collection of antennae on the back of the bike. He's looking a little puzzled.

"How'd you get this thing so dirty?"

"I rode it down Powerline Road. The Flag Man told me it was a nice shortcut."

The cop's eyes bug out a little and he suppresses the urge to let his mouth flop open.

"You rode *this* down Power Line Road??!!"

The organizers have also split the rally in two. They've circulated envelopes to all the participants with either a blue or red dot. The red folks are going to Lakeland, FL, in a traditional IBR. The blue folks get something different. Everyone is cheesed. They're going to explain more fully at 11PM PST tonight when they hand out the route sheets.

Also, the location that is furthest NE in North America is supposedly on the route sheet as this years equivalent to the Alaska bonus they offered last time around.

More when I hear.

Dave

moterbiker

08-13-2003, 12:58 AM

The rumours said it was gonne be Goose Bay, with all the rain this year that could be a bad bonus

KBasa

08-13-2003, 09:17 AM

From Bob:

Primm, Nevada
August 12, 2003
Day 1

Ernie Pyle And Me

Someone, maybe von Clausewitz, called it the fog of
war. Information comes in. It sounds good, but it turns out to be
bad. You think it's true, but it's crap. Yesterday morning a woman walked
by me in the motel parking lot. Smoke from fires in the mountains west of
the city wafted through downtown Missoula. It looked like Los Angeles
during the riots. A woman walked by me. "Lolo pass is closed," she
said. "I just heard it on the radio."
There are really only two main ways through the Bitterroot
Mountains. One is via I-90, which once was a U.S. highway and before that
a state highway and before that a wagon trail and before that a trapper's
route and before that an Indian path and before that a deer track. In that
sense, I suppose, it's fair to say that I-90 was originally mapped out by a
jack rabbit.
The other route is by way of U.S. 12. It runs west over Lolo pass
toward Lowell, Idaho. On the Montana side is Lolo Hot Springs where in the
movie "A River Runs Through It" Norman MacLean's brother was beaten to
death in a bar. The real Paul MacLean was actually murdered in
Chicago. The fog of poetic license.
The Montana-Idaho border lies at the top of the pass. To the west
one of the world's great motorcycle roads begins, a section of
uninterrupted curves for 77 continuous miles. At least some of the riders
would have taken that road to reach bonuses in central Washington. If Lolo
were really closed, they might not have gotten through. At that point, I
thought, they might have backtracked to run south on U.S. 93, a highway
that has been closed off and on because of fires during much of the past
several weeks.
I went inside to the hotel receptionist. She had just been on the
telephone with fire and highway officials in Montana and Idaho. Lolo was
open. Really? Really. But was it really? Is a radio faster or more
accurate than a telephone? Fog, fog.
Sometimes I tell people that I know what Ernie Pyle's life was
like. He was a war correspondent in the Pacific during World War II. It
is a tough, scary job. Accurate information is rare. Fog is
everywhere. People really are out to get you. Ernie was killed by machine
gun fire near Okinawa. A nation mourned. Some motorcyclist, angry that I
have commented unfavorably on his riding style, will one day rearrange the
back of my skull with a brick. The last thing I will see is fog.

How To Get From Montana To Nevada

The first thing a rider must decide when the list of bonus
locations is dispensed at the beginning of a leg is the route to be taken
to the next checkpoint. Some factors to be considered are the length of
the proposed ride, the value of the bonuses, and the kinds of conditions
--- principally roads and weather --- likely to be
encountered. Additionally, experienced riders know that as the rally
progresses, the bonuses invariably increase in value. The vagaries of
human emotion also must be recognized and controlled. Conservative riding
will trump greed every time.
In the first leg of the 2003 Iron Butt, there were three basic
rides that looked appealing: 1) Ride west to Washington, south to the
Nevada desert to reel in some easy bonus points, pass up the hard ones
(like Bristlecone Pine forest and the charcoal kilns in Death Valley), and
then to the checkpoint; 2) Ride south to the Nevada desert, pick up all the
difficult bonuses there, and head to the checkpoint; 3) Ride south to the
Nevada desert, skip the difficult desert bonuses, and grab the bonuses in
downtown Las Vegas and Boulder City. Stay out of the desert as much as
possible, especially in the afternoon. Conserve your strength. It only
gets harder.
Before this first leg began, the administrators felt that Route #1
was a poor choice because it was much too long for this early in the
rally. Route #2 fared little better because some of the desert bonuses
would be challenging for even highly-skilled motorcyclists. That left
Route #3.
Did the length of the Montana-Washington-Nevada route deter any
hot shoes? Not a chance; seven of the top ten riders listed below went
that way. Was the weather much of a factor? Bob Ryan and Bob Cox started
this morning with the temperature seven degrees above freezing. In the
late afternoon they were riding in heat of 114F. Did road conditions
affect the ride? The Jungo Road in northern Nevada, as usual, took no
prisoners, and the normally hard-pan, dry lake bed of the Black Rock Desert
at Gerlach was wet enough in places this morning to trap more than a few
bikes. Fortunately, volunteers were able to yank them out. Mark Kiecker,
trying desperately to escape the mire, burned the clutch out in his Honda
VFR800. He used a piece of a Folger's coffee can to repair the damage and
made it to the finish.
When the dust had settled at the scoring table, the guys below
were setting the pace. The www.ironbutt.com web site will soon list
complete scores, along with the bonuses that each of the 117 starting
riders earned:

1. Eric Jewell BMW 3,690
2. John O'Keefe BMW 3,506
3. Jeff Earls BMW 3,506
4. Jim Owen BMW 3,461
5. Todd Witte Yamaha 3,483
6. Tom Loftus Honda 3,434
7. Manny Sameiro Honda 3,431
8. Paul Pelland BMW 3,385
9. Jeff Powell BMW 3,282
10. Leonard Roy Honda 3,282

The Casualties Continue

There are five cell phones, six laptop computers, and two
satellite radios in Moron, the van from Hell. Warren Harhay says that the
contents are worth more than the vehicle that's carrying them. Cell phones
are the worst annoyance; the closer we are to a checkpoint, the more
frequently they ring. Sometimes two go off at once. I shudder when even
one lights up. No one ever calls with good news.
Yesterday we reported that Ken Morton's beater had crumped due to
electrical issues north of Idaho Falls. He revised his diagnosis to blame
carburetor gunk. If he's right, we'll move him from the category of In The
Toilet to In the Bathroom. It's not anywhere close to On The Podium, of
course, and it may not sound like much of an improvement to you, but Morton
will take it.
Homer Krout called late yesterday afternoon. His Harley had
overheated in a 25-mile traffic jam north of Ogden, Utah. He was unable to
restart it. Fearing a burned out something or other, he was towed into
town. The mechanics found nothing fried. Krout is back in the hunt.
Speaking of fire, Dennis ("Sparky") Kesseler saw enough of it this
morning to last him a lifetime. He and Paul Taylor had just bagged the
large bonus in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, the home of some of the
oldest living things on Earth. Kesseler suddenly noticed that both he and
his Aprilia Capo Nord were on fire. He jumped away from the flaming
machine and rolled in the dirt to extinguish himself. The bike's tank then
exploded. A moment later his four-gallon fuel cell also erupted. A ball
of blistering, stinking, black smoke shot high into the air. Could
Kesseler's day possibly get any worse?
Yes. Before he could regain his footing, flames from the bike
started a brush fire. Think of it: For 4,500 years those aged trees have
withstood everything the planet could throw at them --- rain, hail,
lightning, snow, and sandstorms. Then an Iron Butt rider shows up on his
blazing steed. The horror, the horror.
Fortunately for everyone, the fires were quickly
controlled. Dennis headed for Los Angeles in a rental car to borrow a bike
and rejoin the rally. He was time-barred at the checkpoint tonight, lost
all the points he had accumulated during the first leg (including the
points in the bristlecone forest), and will be barred from chasing any
bonus points on the next leg. Then it gets worse: Changing machines in
mid-rally invokes a 10,000-point penalty. When Dennis arrives at the
second checkpoint in Florida in a few days, his total score will be
-10,000. It is the rare and nightmarish triple crown of Iron Butt
disasters. And it's no wonder those old trees have lived so long; they
always get the last laugh.
Other stories from the day weren't nearly so humorous. Dan
Lowery, who had retreated to Wyoming before the rally started to pick up a
repaired bike, managed to return to Missoula, hours behind the other
riders, only to develop an intractable clutch problem. That was the stake
through his BMW's heart. A forest rat --- you may know these vile animals
as "deer" --- jumped in front of Stephan Russell near the Oregon-Nevada
border early this morning. The front end of the Honda was demolished;
Russell, shaken, didn't have a scratch. Finally, Patrick Jacobson's Harley
sidecar rig was another to be hammered by the Black Rock Desert. His
suspension system may have suffered damage that cannot easily be repaired
in time for him to continue.
But at least he didn't burn down anything.

Bob Higdon
www.ironbutt.com

Montana

08-13-2003, 11:42 AM

Thanks for the update. Poor Russell. When I first pulled through the starting area lot on Friday, after work, just to see how it was shaping up, he was one of the dozen or so that were already here. He introduced me to someone as an Iron Butt Rally groupie. The next morning when I arrived to help, I told him, "Hey, you came to my town, you're a Missoula groupie." Besides, Russell, I'm not the one that keeps entering the rally.

On another forum I posted pictures of the more unusual bikes but left some photos untitled so they could try to identify them for fun (surely not profit), so this forum has only seen the GL500 (remember the roundel?) that sounds like it's resurrected and in the hunt again.

Here's the Yamaha thumper that, as mentioned, had the tranny rebuild just last week, only to find it was indeed the weak point, apparently:

Montana

08-13-2003, 11:47 AM

This is Leon's (don't know the last name, sorry) Kawasaki Ninja 250 twin. I named it the Stealth bike (and I'm probably not the first to do so) because that finish is not flat or matte black paint, that is spray-on bed liner. Maybe it helps the bugs, birds and deer bounce off?

KBasa

08-13-2003, 03:18 PM

Today's Rob Report:

OK. Got off the phone with Rob a bit ago. The rally has split into folks that took the blue pill and folks that took the red pill. I believe, if I can keep this straight, Rob took the blue pill along with about 90% of the participants. Those folks are off to Lakeland. The red pill people are doing something closer to an automotive time/speed/distance rally, the first portion of which involves riding to Lake Isabella, then to some Hot Springs in CA and then back to Lake Isabella, where they pick up more directions. Apparently, Kneebone told the heavies, the ringers and the heavily favored that if they wanted to win, they needed to take the red pill. Rob took the blue, hoping for a good finish, but not a win. The folks that took the blue pill are calling themselves the "Special Olympics." The riders are not happy. Not at all. Also, the red pill seems to involve lots of dirt roads. After Rob's experiences with the CVN-K11LT on Powerline road, he's glad he took the blue pill, but still somewhat distraught that he's pretty much riding for a good finish instead of contention for a win. Que Sera, Sera. Maybe I should email Rob a Doris Day MP3....

Rob and I talked about the logistics of doing a TSD event on a motorcycle versus a car. Typically, in a car, you have a navigator that runs the clocks and the TSD computer to tell the driver what to do, how fast to drive and when to turn. I daresay that this could be a problem on a motorcycle, even if you're an overachieving red head with two GPS units (slathered in bird guts) hooked to a milspec tablet PC. Additionally, TSD rallies are typically built around traveling exactly at the speed limit or very close to it.

I don't know about you guys, but neither Rob nor I saw that as part of an effective Nye riding solution.

While we were on the phone, Rob asked me to find out what time the sun comes up on top of Mt. Evans, CO, which has the highest paved road in North America. Apparently, he needs to be there during daylight hours, which are probably different that what they are 15K feet lower. I think his intention is to ride up there in the dark, get his picture taken at dawn and then beat feet out of there.

More later.

Montana

08-13-2003, 03:52 PM

Hey, someone should tell Rob it's latitude not altitude that will help with the time of sunrise, unless he is standing in the shadow of the mountain. Or maybe it's latitude not attitude? Or altitude not multitude of gadgets?

KBasa

08-13-2003, 04:03 PM

I just got a hugely broken up call from Rob. It seems he's crashed, but our connection was horrible.

:(

Stay tuned.....

JimBud

08-13-2003, 04:39 PM

Dave, did you get a location from him??

Jim Bud

Colt03

08-13-2003, 05:14 PM

Dave,

Keep us posted, hopefully Rob and bike are ok.

I agree the blue route would be best, but am sorry to learn of Robs crash if true.

lancew

08-13-2003, 08:01 PM

FWIW, at the same lat/long, a high altitude WILL get first light on any given morning (think about the top of Mount Katahdin Maine being the first place in the US to get a sunrise on Easter, in spite of there being lower land to the East).

Unfortunately, that bit of information is not worth a p-hole in the snow if Rob has crashed... seems he's already been through his own personal Twilight Zone this year (how do you get pulled over in your own town!?). Life ain't fair, but it ought to be for the good guys... bummer.

Hope all is well

KBasa

08-13-2003, 08:29 PM

OK, I finally got through to Rob and he's all good.

He was in Utah, outside Moab when he went down on an oil spill in the road. He lowsided on the left side and as he went down let go of the bike. The bike came to rest against a mile marker by the side of the road and Rob was able to get up and wander over to inspect it. His 'Stich is fairly shredded but still usable.

The bike, however, needs some TLC. All the lights and stuff on the left side are trashed and there's some pretty good road rash on the bike. The biggest hurdle is a hole ground through the valve cover. When I talked to to him, he was in a 4x4 shop and they were TIG welding the hole shut so he could ride it.

The plot thickens a little here, though, if that's somehow possible. The welder told Rob that up the road at Jiffy Lube a guy was in there with a siezed engine. Apparently, his oil filter fell off and the car puked all its oil out on the ground. Right about where Rob was. When I talked with him, he was going to go find the guy and have a discussion about the whole mess and what to do about it.

He commented that the folks in Moab have been terrific and there a good three or four folks that deserve a steak dinner courtesy of the Rob Nye Iron Butt Travel Fund. He's pressing them to hook him up with a steak house so they can all go have a big feed.

I asked him about timing on this leg and I think he's going to ditch the bonuses and just concentrate on mission #1 - get home safely. He's going to head to Lakeland, which he's got until Saturday to accomplish. I think even a dork like me could get from Utah to Florida in three days if I was properly motivated.

I'm certain that Rob's properly motivated.

robnye

08-13-2003, 10:48 PM

Through adversity lies the opportunity for excellence.

This is something I gave to myself a long time ago and it remains true to this day. Unfortunately this year seems to be filled with more of these opportunities than I would like.

After taking care to get some quality rest in Primm I departed this morning at around 4. Grabbed a gimmie bonus (casino chip from casino across the street) and headed back into Las Vegas for another. Then I went NE to Utah for some more before heading to Moab for a gas recipt and a picture of a bridge.

8 Miles after getting gas I approached a sweeping left and found a big pile of oil while leaned in. I went down to the left and released as we hit. I slid (he's SAFE at second) with left arm up and the Darien suit did exactly what it is supposed to which is save my hide. The suit is abraded from the knee to the elbow. The bike fetched up off and down to the right, stopped by a mile marker. I needed help to get it up and used one person and the engine (remembering the guy who fried his clutch in the desert yesterday) to get the bike on the road and parked to the side.

Meanwhile cars are hitting the apex, seeing me and hitting the brakes in the pile of spooge. I decided I would wait for the trooper in the *inside* of the turn. The trooper arrived and I walked back with him to the mess. He immediately called for back up as folks were not really responding to his lights and still sliding around. Ever see a veteran trooper nervous? I want back to the inside and sat for a bit.

The damage is bent fairing bracket, lots of scratches, bent bar end, toasted lights and one antenna, foot peg, holed valve cover, missing engine protection bar, busted pannier and more scratches.

The towing company arrived and we got the bike loaded. On the way to town he made a few calls to his buddies to see who could weld aluminium. We wound up at Moab Off Road which is a very cool shop full of the 4x4's you see in the magazines. The gave me a place to work and I removed the fairing, valve cover and other busted bits. Not only did they fix the problem (hole) in the valve cover but he PAINTED it too! I wish I had seen that as it took some time and I sorta wanted to keep the battle scars for a bit (and the adjuster). Now I have a bike with a servicable fairing, a funky left peg (passenger peg modified to be at the right angle but no spring and short) non functional ABS (after a whack the brain needs a reset) and some "minor" lighting issues. The mil spec tablet showed exactly why mil spec is mil spec, I hope they don't mind the little grinding on the corner when I return it.

Meanwhile the local grapevine is producing fruit and I learned that a fellow with a truck got an oil change at the local quickie lube and his motor siezed about three miles north of where I went down. I have the name of the truck owner and I am going to speak with him to see if it was a filter (which perhaps I could find) or the plug. Either way on my way out of town I am going to visit the quickie lube and show them my bike and stich. We may also have a "come to Jesus" chat as well. Without really trying I see around 3k of damage. My insurance company has been notified (and teriffic) and the police report will indicate the presence of oil. I was not cited for any violations.

So.... Here I sit in an internet cafe in Moab pondering what is next. I am absolutely going to finish the Iron Butt, that is what it really is all about, just ask Paul Pelland. I came to Moab because I wanted to ride the roads here (good points too) and was planning on doing some riding in Colorado. I was around 24th in Primm and was hoping to be in the top 20 for the rally and felt I had a very strong route to Denver where I was going to take my sleep bonus and plan the rest of my leg to Florida. First I must take a time out of at least 8 hrs of sleep, a nice meal and the morning business mentioned above. I figure to go get the bonus I was heading to when I crashed, the rest is up in the air. Chief technical inspector Dale (Warchild) Wilson mentioned on the LDR list that every finisher of the IBR is a winner, I intend to enjoy this victory however hard the task.

To clarify a few items that got confused in cell phone static, I really don't know anything about the red route because the blue crew left the meeting after we got our packets. I no longer think it is time on distance (I spoke with Dave between getting the notice and the meeting), I do know that the Iron Butt Rally is much more than just "sit there, twist that", it is a mental game as well. While I am a little disapointed that I can not directly compare my routes with the big dogs my plan in going blue was to have attrition from red give me that spot in the top twenty.

While I have some less than wonderful tales at this time the IBR is to me the greatest field event ever. I can't wait to get back in the game and I look forward to Florida, Maine, Missouila and the dumpster.

More to follow.

Best,

pbansen

08-13-2003, 11:18 PM

GO ROB!!!!!

You have the right attitude and I'm sure you'll finish. Paul Pelland's amazing 2001 finish on the Ural (maybe I should say Urals - since he went through several bikes worth of parts) is an excellent analogy.

Don't forget the other lesson from the '01 IBR - it looked like the big bonii were awarded during the first leg, but Mike Kneebone hinted strongly that there would be bigger things coming to those with patience.

That may very well be the case in the '03 version as well. Hang in there and keep rolling.

Pete Bansen

KBasa

08-13-2003, 11:56 PM

From George Mastovich:

Paul Pelland is having several kinds of bike problems. He did well on the first leg, but seems to be fading as a result of the difficulties.

Jack Tollett is in the hospital. He's sitting up. He has a bunch of broken ribs and a broken collarbone. Lots of pain, but he seems to be coming along.

Allen Ledue is out. He crashed in UT or NV. He was pushing up a dirt road on his Goldwing. He says he shouldn't have been there. He has a concussion. He's on his way home by plane.

Manny Samiero crashed. He hit gravel on a relatively low speed turn. He's got road rash -- but nothing like the last time. He's on his way back to NJ.

The rally has been split between two route. The only way that the blue route wins is if the 32 people who took the red route all fall in a bottomless lake. That's a direct quote.

There is a lot of whining going on. It is crap. People had a choice. The red route is not TSD. But it is a far tighter route. No room for either rookie error or whacking the throttle and speeding your way out of a problem.

That's about all I know. The IBR crew is in Flagstaff and on their way to FL.

gbm

tmgs

08-14-2003, 06:28 AM

Rob Nye writes

"While I have some less than wonderful tales at this time the IBR is to me the greatest field event ever. I can't wait to get back in the game and I look forward to Florida, Maine, Missouila and the dumpster. More to follow."

looking forward to it, thanks for the post.

we will be in Lake city showing support, I'm Tom I'm be wandering around to say hey and wish good luck to a friend of ours Vicki.

cya there!
have fun

Tom

Colt03

08-14-2003, 07:45 AM

Rob,

I am glad you are OK. Thanks for taking the time to post. It calms nerves and dispells mistruths (rumours). Have a great Ride to Florida. Ride Safe, at the rate the riders are falling out, just finishing could get you a decent place.

Best

Craig Cleasby
South Windsor, CT

skert

08-14-2003, 08:46 AM

HI Folks, I am hanging on all the websites to hear about the IBR. I finished in 2001 with my own difficulties. I can relate to several stories making me hold my breath as I recall being stranded on the side of I-10 in the dark. I know what it feels like to just want to finish and how helpless one feels while counting the minutes to check point closing while the bike is on a lift. I am talking to Rob and Paul in my mind, encouraging you mentally to ride your own ride as safely and prudently as you can and may the deer never cross your path. Good luck to all

Russell Stephens is out but alive.
Paul Taylors riding partner Dennis is out.
Jack Tollet is out but alive

The bottom line is alive here. Ride the wind to hug your loved ones.

SKERT

jefe

08-14-2003, 09:55 AM

Th' IBR is all about right mental attitude, and that 's especially true when the bike's attitude is horizontal rather than vertical. Good adjusting, Robstah!

Here's El Jefe's 3 rules:
1. Anybody can ride 1,000 miles a day, when the roads are smooth, traffic light, and the bike is in perfect order. Even I've done this, which sorta proves the point...
2. Only a few will do such a thing after a crash like this one. THIS is the sort of action of which IBR legends are made. Plus, why waste the entry fee, eh?
and
3. The IBR IS a mind game, and Kneebone is a Master Gamesman. The red and Blue Pill routes may be A)just a ploy to throw you off your game; B) NOT true at all; Duh! and C) likely to be a trick that will get repeated on the 4th leg.

Anything can happen, but only if you're riding the bike. Good on ya, Mr. Nye. Be seein' ya!

KBasa

08-14-2003, 10:17 AM

From Bob..

Albuquerque, New Mexico
August 13, 2003
Day 2

Go West, Young Man, Or Maybe East

The first leg of the 2003 edition of the Iron Butt Rally followed
a typical format with its route instructions. Thirty-three bonus listings
spread over nine pages invited the riders to figure out the most efficient
and effective way to pile up points between Missoula, Montana and Primm,
Nevada.
You might think that there is a fairly good correlation between
efficient riding and a high finishing position. There isn't. More than
any other factor, a winning ride almost invariably correlates with total
miles ridden. There's no getting around it: Efficiency looks great, but
sloppy most often takes home the bacon. Never forget, however, that
fatigue can easily give it all back. The dynamics are complex.
After the first leg the points-per-mile efficiency of Eric Jewell
and Bob Cox was almost the same (2.12 v. 2.11), but Jewell stood in first
place while Cox was 60th. The difference was that Cox had ridden a very
short, controlled route while Jewell was all over the map, racking up 621
more miles than Cox. A rider with an excellent efficiency is smart; a
rider with big points is an animal; a rider with both is the guy to beat in
the Iron Butt.
But the bonus instructions are not always so straightforward. In
1993 Mike Kneebone handed out not one but two sets of instructions for a
single leg. He called it "Pick Your Poison." Both sets of route
instructions went from Point A to Point B, but one set was dramatically
more difficult than the other. You didn't have to decide which route to
follow, but if you began picking up bonuses from Poisoned Route #1, you
couldn't grab any from the other route.
It sounds somewhat worse than it was. The tough route was clearly
for those who had aspirations of winning the event; the simpler set of
instructions was for everybody else. Most entrants realize that they have
no realistic chance to win this rally. Being selected in the drawing for a
starting number was more luck than they ever should have had. They had
jumped to the head of a line of more than 2,100 hopefuls. For almost
everyone the mere fact of being able to participate in such an amazing
circus is sufficient. There are rides with some friends in the country;
there are cross-country rides that can last weeks; you may take rides to
foreign lands. And then there is the Iron Butt, the big one. Winning it,
except for a couple of dozen heavies with the thousand-yard stares, isn't
why they're there. Finishing it is.
For the second leg on this year's IBR from Nevada to Florida,
Kneebone turned up the heat to a degree that was clearly uncomfortable for
more than a few of the riders. Instead of having the opportunity to check
out bonuses in a single set of route instructions or having the chance to
compare two sets of route instructions and decide which might be more
suitable, at 11:00 p.m. PDT last night The Evil Lord Kneebone forced the
lambs to select one of two possible routes out of Nevada without first
being able to look at either of them.
It was a variant on a theme from the original "Matrix" film. The
rider would pick a colored pill, red or blue, and once having done so, his
future would be fixed for the next several days. The riders had been
gathered together in a huge showroom. Kneebone walked up to the
stage. They stared at him uneasily.
"In that movie," he began, "the blue pill made your life fairly
easy and safe, but it wasn't reality. If you needed reality, with all its
sordid, downside risks, you'd take the red pill. Your life would
immediately become hard, dirty, tiring, nasty, brutish, and short. But it
was in the tradition of True Iron Butt. And it will be the route that the
winner of this rally will take. Any questions?"
A hand was raised. "Is there any way the blue pill route can win?"
"Yes," Mike said. "If every single rider on the red pill route
crashes, breaks down, goes home, is time-barred at the next checkpoint,
develops tertiary syphilis, or is abducted by aliens, it is theoretically
possible that a rider on the blue pill route could win. Still, I view it
as unlikely."
There it was. You want to win? Pick that red pill. You say you
don't have a clue where it could take you? Well, Kneebone spent the next
twenty minutes trying to assure the quaking riders that most of the rumors
they'd heard during the months leading up to the event were
baseless. Yeah, one option was the road to Goose Bay, Labrador, but it
wasn't worth taking. No, the winning route wouldn't require slogging
through 15,000 miles of corrugated dirt roads. Yes, rallymaster Lisa
Landry had gone to every major bonus aboard her massive Gold Wing, and if
she can do it, stop telling me that you can't.
The long and short of it was that taking the blue pill would
guarantee a nice, easy ride from Las Vegas to Florida via the top of Mt.
Evans in Colorado (the highest paved road in the U.S.) or via the bowels of
Carlsbad Caverns. The average motorcyclist would view either of such trips
as the mother of all rides; for the Butt entrant, it was not much better
than an also-ran. Me? I'd have kicked my own mother down the stairs for
one of those blue pills. Let's be realistic, OK?
Lisa and Mike arranged to have the riders approach the stage
single-file, declare their preference of pill color, and accept
one. Having done so, they were directed to return to the chairs in the
audience. The chairs to the left of the stage were for red pill holders;
those to the right for blue. I later asked Mike how he and Lisa had
arrived at this structured kind of dance.
"People are constantly telling me that they're ready to go to
Prudhoe Bay or Cabo San Lucas or the Isles Beneath the Wind. Talk is
cheap. Half the people who declared they were going to Alaska in 2001
never went near the place. I thought it was time for them to decide in
advance whether they were big dogs or not. The red pill will win. I told
them that. The blue one won't. You want that red sucker, not knowing
where it will take you? Here it is, Jack, and good luck."
All in all, they had about two hours to consider the odds. Then
they were lined up and fed up to the stage one by one where Lisa waited
with the two bowls of pills.
"Red or blue?" she asked repeatedly.
Kneebone dotes on this sort of drama. It's the most obvious kind
of cheap, staged effect, from the Greeks to Jolson. I tell him that these
poor bastards are tired, frazzled, and crazier than rats in a coffee
can. They don't need to stand in a line like this, I plead. They need to
be lying down in a manger somewhere, loaded up with 200mg of Ambien and
Prozac, dreaming of bunnies hopping through a green meadow. You're
prolonging their nightmares, I say. Have you no sense of shame, sir? He
chuckles sadistically.
When the ceremonies were concluded, just 33 of the still-standing
110 riders held red pills in their sweaty fists. Thirty-four had initially
picked red, but Rob Nye, a BMW MOA club director, chugged back to the stage
just before bonus packages were handed out and begged for the chance to
exchange his red pill for something milder. Landry granted his wish.
Today 77 riders are on their way to Florida, while 33 of their
friends have gone in the opposite direction to the western slopes of the
Sierra Nevada mountains in California. There they will receive further
instructions. Pain is on the horizon, I fear. Stay tuned.

Bob Higdon
www.ironbutt.com

Tieton

08-14-2003, 11:36 AM

Is Rob Nye the one with the IBER dog on his bike?

Thanks,
Lisa

KBasa

08-14-2003, 11:39 AM

Originally posted by Tieton
Is Rob Nye the one with the IBER dog on his bike?

Thanks,
Lisa

No, he's the guy with all the antennas and lights on his K11LT. I think a couple of those lights are gone and the antennas are all pointing in different directions now.

PeoriaMac

08-14-2003, 04:27 PM

Skert, our mutal friend, Kerry Willey, has his own ride
comments - via a ladyfriend - on www.carssuck.com. He's on the Yammahammer again this year...but because of Mike Kneebone's
"no sponsors" rule...had to get ride of the dealer plate and buy one himself.

Mac

skert

08-14-2003, 04:59 PM

Thanks! Kerry is one of my mentors and a dear friend. I certainly want to keep up with him. He an Rick are IB ridders that made me feel like one of the group. I try to make others feel the same way.

KBasa

08-14-2003, 06:03 PM

From the IBMWR list:

Bill Shaw is running the Iron Butt and had an accident yesterday afternoon.

Here are the details:

Bill's in a Red Roof Inn in Phoenix - - he's
working with his insurance company on the bike now.

He was 3rd day in the IronButt - on I17 South in Phoenix. Car in his lane
2 up had a blow out - Toyota Pick up - the car in front of him slammed on
the brakes and Bill swerved left to avoid the
Honda Civic in front of him and contacted the left rear quarter panel. He
went down then and slid about 8 to 10 feet - the bike traveled further and
hit the Jersey wall before going off the road. Lots of damage to the bike
- impacted the front wheel - probably totaled.

It was towed to the BMW dealer - he's unhurt - thanks to his Rukka suit -
which has abrasions on it - he does not think he hit his helmet.

Police showed up termed it a no fault accident - no tickets
issued. Basically sucks for Bill.

He's trying to get back in the IronButt - he's working on a plan to fly
back to Washington Dulles tonight (red - eye) and get back in the Ironbutt
on another bike.

Don Graling
Centreville, Virginia
BMW 2001 R1150GS

KBasa

08-14-2003, 07:15 PM

Today's Rob Report, as of 5pm PDT:

I talked with Rob, who was just south of Denver on 470. He's on his way to Florida and trying to get south and east across OK and TX. He hooked up with Norm Babcock and they rode to the top of Mt. Evans together, a 1500 point bonus. He's now got 36 hours or so to get to Florida.

This morning, he went and visited the Quick Lube folks. I'll say it was an interesting discussion and leave it at that. Nonetheless, he managed to nab the bonus points for the bridge near Moab and then beat it to Colorado where he met Norm. They've now split up, Rob being a Yankee in traffic and Norm being somewhat more polite.

Rob's looking for a truck stop that can sell him a giant cell phone antenna so he can get better range on the phone. I've been talking with him while he's usually riding down the road.

His quote:"I'm at about 90% of full operational capabilitiy."

This is good. More later.

JimBud

08-14-2003, 08:09 PM

Did Rob say that he had installed a new set of "Energizer" batteries???

Go Rob, Go Rob, Go:
bliss :bliss :bliss

KBasa

08-14-2003, 09:27 PM

7:30 PM PDT

Rob's fixed the cell phone antenna and now has some decent communications ability. He's heading off of I-25 and going to take 50 and try to head southeast.

He's going to ride another few hours and then stop and sleep for a few. Tomorrow will be a big push south toward Florida.

Karol Patzer

08-14-2003, 10:15 PM

You reported that Rob hooked up with Norm Babcock. Any word on where Linda is? Has anyone heard anything about Vicki Johnston (R1100RT), Marsha Hall (R1100S) or Paul and Voni?

Say Hi to Rob!!

KBasa

08-14-2003, 11:51 PM

Originally posted by Karol Patzer
You reported that Rob hooked up with Norm Babcock. Any word on where Linda is? Has anyone heard anything about Vicki Johnston (R1100RT), Marsha Hall (R1100S) or Paul and Voni?

Say Hi to Rob!!

Sure will. I'll see who else he's run into. I'll probably talk with him tomorrow at some point. He says when he runs into other riders on the road it helps him feel like he's doing something right, especially if he runs into other folks that have done this before.

tmgs

08-15-2003, 06:09 AM

Hi Karol, yes we've heard about Vicki, she's doing fine and headed to florida, I talked to her other half last night and KNee Bone had said he saw her as well, I saw a couple pics with her in it. Heck that rally is looking like alot of fun!

Tom

bikerfish1100

08-15-2003, 08:53 AM

marsha is just outside of memphis, getting ready to run the last few hundred down to Lake City. she was fortunate enuff to miss a 2-truck crash last nite by just a few minutes (had been riding near them earlier), and didn't even get stuck in the aftermath. her spirits are good and bike is running like a champ.

moterbiker

08-15-2003, 08:59 AM

Just got off the phone with Paul Pelland, he is in Texas heading for Florida and man has had a hell of a time:bliss

Paul decided to take the red pill and has been "hitting potholes the size of trashcans" , he has ridden over a thousand miles of dirt and gravel roads on his RT. His fuel cell mount broke, and at one point lost all of his lights and accessories on his way to his nightly checkpoint. Dark fell early on the way and a Maglight duct taped to his fender and the aid of another rider served as his headlight. The cause of the problem? All of his fuses vibrated loose!

He also told me of his trip over the Burr Trail
http://www.so-utah.com/hwy12/burr/homepage.html
at one point he was travelling straight down a loose rock hill and couldn't slow down because his ABS kept kicking out, not the stuff I would want to be doing on an RT!!

Then at another point he was faced with turning around and backtracking 100 miles or riding across a river, of course since this is Paul we are talking about he went across the river. That probably felt good after spending 5 hours in 118 degree heat in Death Valley the day before.

He also was telling me af a 1 lane dirt road around the side of a mountain that wasn't wide enough for 2 vehicles to pass so one would have to back up to a wide spot, oh yeah, no gaurdrail and a huge drop off the side. :eek

Total miles so far is over 5k with 6500 or so by the time he gets to the FL checkpoint. He is a little tired but has a room at the checkpoint and he figures to be in around 4 AM to get some rest.

:snore

Montana

08-15-2003, 10:20 AM

"Just to let you know that Chye just called me from New Mexico, he is presently on the way to Lake City, Florida right now. He said that he doing very well and feeling good, that's good to know. Will write again if I hear anything else.

Joann"

This was emailed to me from the other half of the K1200RS team from AZ. She is at home, 9 months pregnant. If she feels up to it she wants to catch a ride with another IBR wife and come to the finish in Missoula next week.

moterbiker

08-15-2003, 10:21 AM

Just got off the phone with Rob, he has about 1k till he is in Florida and is having fun. Like myself when he had his little get off he discovered that there are a lot of people out there willing to lend you a hand when something bad happens to you.

He sounds good and really wants to finish the rally and have some fun doing it. He is hoping that there is some nice scenic bonuses up the east coast.

JB

k75karol

08-15-2003, 10:49 AM

Originally posted by KBasa
He says when he runs into other riders on the road it helps him feel like he's doing something right, especially if he runs into other folks that have done this before.

I found that to be a real adrenaline rush to meet other riders. When you're out there, and feel like you're behind or might not make it to the check or bonus in time...all you have to do is see another IB rider, and you know you're in it together!!

Thanks for the updates!

Montana

08-15-2003, 11:25 AM

Would anyone watch reality TV if they knew the reality we know?

KBasa

08-15-2003, 01:24 PM

From Don Graling:

I posted this from my work account yesterday but for some reason that
account takes two days to get to the list.

I'm going to be sending the Higdon reports to the list but he has not
sent one on Friday morning yet.

Bill Shaw is running the Iron Butt and had an accident on Wednesday
afternoon.

Here are the details:

He was 3rd day in the Ironbutt - on I - 17 South in Phoenix. Car in his
lane 2 up from him had a blow out - Toyota Pick up - the car in front of
him slammed on the brakes and Bill swerved left to avoid the Honda Civic
in front of him. He contacted the left rear quarter panel. He went
down and then slid about 8 to 10 feet. The bike traveled further and
hit the Jersey wall before going off the road. Lots of damage to the
bike (K12LT) - impacted the front wheel - probably totaled.

It was towed to the BMW dealer - he's unhurt - thanks to his Rukka suit
- which has abarsions on it - he does not think he hit his helmet.

Police showed up and termed it a no fault accident - no tickets issued -
basically sucks for Bill.

He was trying to get back into the IronButt but bagged it and took the
red eye through Los Angeles last night - he should be back at
ArmoredVeh@aol.com today.

Don Graling
Centreville, Virginia
BMW 2001 R1150GS

moterbiker

08-15-2003, 01:28 PM

Damn, how many is that out now?

KBasa

08-15-2003, 01:38 PM

Forwarded to BMW list from Bill Shaw via Don Graling

>
>All,
>
>I just returned home from my first unsuccessful attempt at riding in the IBR.
> For those of you who haven't heard, I was literally in the wrong place at
>the wrong time and was involved in an accident on Day 3 while driving
>south on
>I-17 in Phoenix. Here are the details:
>
>On Wed afternoon at about 1:15pm, I was in the far right lane on I-17
>traveling about 55mph. Unbeknownst to me, a red Toyota P.U. two cars
>ahead of me
>blew a tire (apparently) just when I was making a head check to move one
>lane to
>the left. When I looked forward again a split second later, all I saw were
>red lights as the Honda Civic in front of me had slammed on its brakes. I
>then
>immediately countersteered to the left but hit the Honda's left rear
>bumper/turn signal and went down. I estimate that my speed at impact was
>40mph...but I
>don't know. I only slid 8-10 feet and came to rest in the breakdown
>lane/shoulder. The bike continued sliding on its right side for about 30
>feet from
>where I stopped and the front end (apparently) hit the concrete Jersey wall.
>The Phoenix Sherriff who handled the accident did not cite anyone. As she
>said,
>it was just an unfortunate series of events that caused the accident. Truer
>words were never spoken.
>
>With the exception of two sore wrists and an abrasion the size of a dime on
>my right elbow (which I didn't notice until Terri showed it to me this
>morning), I am completely unscathed...Frank Cooper is going to get an
>excellent review
>of the Rukka suit when I right it up. :-) The Phoenix BMW dealer estimates
>that the bike will be totaled.
>I have been riding motorcycles for 27 years. During this time, I never had a
>flat tire much less been involved in an accident. It's so unfortunate (on
>many levels) that it had to happen now during one of the major milestones
>of my
>life.
>
>Since this happened on day three, I had not even begun to come close to
>approaching my limits of endurance. I felt great and just stopped a half
>hour
>before for gas and lunch. The bike was running great. I even chose a
>relatively
>easy route to Lake City. So to be sidelined for something that happened
>outside of my control is truly disheartening. On the other hand, I have not
>forgotten for one nanosecond that I literally walked away virtually
>unscathed from
>being involved in an accident where my bike will probably be totaled.
>
>So the team of Taylor, Kessler and Shaw has not fared too well in this year's
>IBR (at least Dennis was able to recover thanks to the kindness of a stranger
>in LA who loaned him his ST1300). My efforts to push USAA to provide me with
>a definitive answer with respect to totaling my bike (so I could buy another
>one and continue the rally) were unsuccessful. They said I wouldn't have an
>answer for at least two weeks...and we are just not in a financial
>position to
>casually charge $13K on our credit card hoping that USAA will total the
>bike.
>Another alternative was to post a note to the LD list and attempt to borrow a
>bike. But familial commitments require me to be home on Sunday, Aug 24, and
>there's no way I could logistically get from Missoula to Phoenix after the
>rally to drop off the bike, and then be home in time. And Kneebone's
>excellent
>suggestion to get a loaner bike from MCN didn't materialize because I
>couldn't
>reach Searle or Rau. So I made one of the hardest calls I've ever had to
>make
>and told Higdon I had to pull the plug.
>
>After I spoke to Don Graling on Wed morning, he posted a note to a private
>list that we subscribe to and I was inundated with calls at the hotel and
>offers
>to help. Diaz was the first, and after I reassured him I was in fact OK, he
>then asked if I could salvage any usable parts so he could put them on his
>bike. :) Don then made arrangements to fly me home on his frequent flyer
>account -- this was after he offered to fly me home and loan me his bike
>so I could
>continue. Because of you guys (especially Don) and my family, I never felt
>alone or stranded even though I was ~2,400 miles away from home. Also, I
>honestly appreciate everyone who tried reaching me while I was on the road
>(the cell
>reception out west and Verizon are not sympatico). I got all the
>messages...sometimes a day or two later.
>
>In a world where people are measured by whether they pass of fail, I failed.
>This isn't easy for me to accept since I've never failed at anything before.
>I have a 2003 IBR t-shirt and hat that I have not earned the right to wear,
>nor will I wear, until after I successfully complete an IBR. So now the
>waiting begins. Will Kneebone run a 2005 rally and will I recieve another
>invitation? That's a long time to have this albatross hanging around my
>neck. One
>thing's for certain -- my next article for MCN is going to be interesting. ;)
>
>Toodles and warmest regards, Bill Shaw

Tieton

08-15-2003, 03:43 PM

"You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the thing you think you cannot do."
--Eleanor Roosevelt.

Best Regards to ALL

Lisa Stevens

KBasa

08-15-2003, 03:53 PM

From Bob Higdon, forwarded by Don Graling:

>Subject: Iron Butt Rally: Day 3
>
>In a Van Named "Moron" in a Louisiana Swamp in the Middle of the Night
>August 14, 2003
>Day 3
>
>The Spider's Web
>
> As noted yesterday, the 110 riders who survived the desert's
> oppressive heat to arrive at the first checkpoint in southern Nevada had
> a serious choice to make for the following leg: If they wanted to win
> this rally, they would take the red route package. If they wanted simply
> to finish with a gold, silver, or bronze medal, they would take the blue
> route. There was one other problem: They weren't permitted to see either
> package of bonuses before making a choice. Mike Kneebone took questions,
> but it all came down to asking yourself whether you wanted to win or
> not. When the dark muttering subsided, 30% of the field was seeing red
> and the rest were turning blue.
> With a pack now divided, most of the blues headed to Mt. Evans
> (west of Denver, Colorado), the highest paved road in North America, and
> then would complete a downward arc to the southeast and the checkpoint in
> Lake City, Florida. A few of the blues, mostly those in the Hopeless
> Class of underpowered bike or rider, would aim straight for the East
> Coast, where a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico is wobbling around,
> not sure where to strike next.
> For the red group, life was about to become more intricate
> still. Between 6:00 and 9:00 this morning all but a few of the 33 reds
> met legendary motorcyclist Dave Barr at a Korean war memorial northeast
> of Bakersfield, California. Years ago Barr lost both legs to an Angolan
> land mine. That slowed down, but hardly stopped, his big rides. First
> he rode his Harley around the world, then he crossed the width of Europe
> and Russia with a sidecar in the middle of winter. Meeting someone like
> Barr would be worth it for even negative bonus points.
> From there the group headed for the leg's largest bonus,
> "Kiecker's Nightmare," a serpentine, bumpy road that crawls up into the
> Sierras and dead ends at Mono Hot Springs. The final 13 miles are single
> lane with rumors of guard rails. Don't miss a corner or you and the bike
> will reach terminal velocity long before you impale yourselves on the
> rocks below. On the 2001 IBR, after reaching the Springs, Mark Kiecker
> called the rallymaster's cell phone and left this impression of the trip:
> "Kneebone, you suck."
> The last worthwhile bonus of the day required showing up at Pat
> Widder's vacation house in Lake Isabella between 6:00 and 9:00
> p.m. Having worn out their spirits in the Sierras and their tires in the
> scorching heat of the San Joaquin valley, all 33 members of the red
> brigade found themselves at day's end not eight miles from where they had
> met Dave Barr that morning. This perfectly illustrates the Iron Butt
> water torture: Wander around for the entire day only to realize as the
> sun goes down that you have not advanced so much as one inch toward your
> goal in Florida.
> But was the goal still Florida? At Widder's house the reds were
> handed another set of route instructions. The choices in that package
> --- pick just one --- were:
> 1) Aim due east for the Florida checkpoint and
> congratulate yourself for a good day's work. You'll be ahead of all the
> blue riders, but this route will not win the rally.
> 2) Show up at Ira Agins' house in Santa Fe, New Mexico
> on the evening of Thursday, August 14 and receive still another set of
> route instructions. Those will tell you to:
> a) Continue on to Florida as if nothing had
> happened, in which case you'll still be ahead of the blues but will have
> no chance to win the rally; or
> b) Point your motorcycle north for a couple of
> bonuses near Anchorage, Alaska and then, skipping the checkpoints in
> Florida and Maine, return directly to the finish in Missoula. This route
> is geared for those who hate the traffic, politics, and power outages of
> the East Coast. Successfully completing this ride will beat the blue
> guys but it won't win the rally. Still, if I were an entrant this year,
> I might take this route just to minimize the chances of running into
> Hillary Clinton.
> 3) Visit Goose Bay, Labrador. The ride to there from
> Pat Widder's front door is just over 4,000 miles, the last 550 of which
> run over bad dirt. Did I mention that Goose Bay is also at the end of a
> dead end road? Add another 550 miles of ugly dirt for your retreat. In
> heavy rain, and there's always heavy rain at the latitude of Hudson Bay,
> the road can be impassable. This route isn't worth quite as much as
> option #4, but it's about 300 miles shorter. Take this ride and two
> things will happen: 1) You can legitimately skip showing up at the
> Florida checkpoint and 2) You will be behind any of the riders who have
> succeeded in completing the fourth, and mercifully last, route.
> 4) Take a ride to Bella Coola, British Columbia. "Bella
> Coola" is an Eskimo phrase meaning "Please stop beating me with that
> caribou horn." If you are a crow in Vancouver, Bella Coola is just 266
> flight miles to the northwest. The distance by road exceeds 600
> miles. Because of road construction near the destination, there may be
> delays of up to four hours. Like option #3, if you take this route, you
> are permitted to skip the Florida checkpoint. But, and that's a big
> "but," survive the trip, avoid the caribou horns, make it to Maine on
> time, and you'll be leading the 2003 Iron Butt Rally with just one leg
> remaining.
> Fun, huh? At Primm the field was divided into potential winners
> and everyone else. At Widder's the winners were further divided further
> still. Tonight the Butts are crawling around a dozen routes like spiders
> in a web. The strands cover the four corners of North America, but
> eventually they will all lead back to the center of the web, Missoula,
> where the two biggest spiders of all --- Landry and Kneebone --- await.
>
>The Falling, the Fallen, and the Revived
>
> Alan LeDuc and Jack Tollett, enormously popular riders from
> Indiana and Texas, experienced rally-ending accidents during the first
> leg. Alan encountered an especially bad section of the notorious Jungo
> Road in Nevada and went down. Jack is believed to have been the victim
> of a catastrophic rear tire failure. Both were banged up and lost some
> cosmetic points for their experiences but are expected to make quick
> recoveries.
> A truck blew a tire in front of Bill Shaw, causing a
> three-vehicle crash in Phoenix, Arizona. In a couple of seconds his
> gorgeous BMW K1200LT rearranged itself into the world's largest
> paperweight. Unable to find a replacement ride, he has been forced to
> withdraw.
> BMW's relentless drive to shut down dealerships in North America
> in the face of a free fall in sales came home to roost with Jeff Powell
> when the charging system in his R1100RT blew up in Needles,
> California. Before the shop in Las Vegas was shut down, that would have
> been the closest dealer, a 114-mile haul. Now he faced a tow of twice
> that distance either to Pomona, California or to Phoenix. Cost: A mere
> $700, plus whatever it takes to fix the machine.
> A trail of dripping oil from a truck brought down Rob Nye, the
> Yankee Beemers' favorite son, in Moab, Utah. A truck's oil filter
> apparently had not been tightened properly by a mechanic during an oil
> change. Nye got a lift to a welder who repaired the shaved-down valve
> cover. In his last report, Nye said that he was up and over Mt. Evans
> and heading for Florida.
>
>Bob Higdon
>www.ironbutt.com
>
>

KBasa

08-15-2003, 06:35 PM

I'm just off the phone with Rob. He's on his way to FL and doesn't anticipate and difficulty making it in there. I told him about the folks that took the other pill and he sounded pretty relieved that he'd gone the way he did. The heat has been kicking his ass and the temp behind the KLT's fairing was about 104, while it was 90 on the other side.

If you're in FL and you're going to be at the checkpoint, he'd love it if you have a Sony MemoryStick reader so he can get some of the pictures out of the camera. If you do, let me know. I've got a site you can load them to and we can hang them up here.

PM me if you can help. That's it for now.

dmottv

08-15-2003, 08:42 PM

marsha is just outside of memphis, getting ready to run the last few hundred down to Lake City

I'm following this thread with new interest. First, I met Alan LeDuc in NS for lunch over July 4 weekend, then my Bro and I were lucky enough to meet Marsha on 7/30, on her way from Madawaska to Key West, before she went on to Missoula. We were on my first IBA Saddlesore and Bunburner ride, on our way out to Sturgis, and she flattered us with the comment she liked our pace so fell in and rode with us for a while. Good luck Marsha!

Dave
K12LTC

Tieton

08-16-2003, 12:46 AM

A message I received tonight from Ron Smith:

"A little more news from the wet coast:

John Bolin is out of the hunt. He made a gallant effort but received a call that his mother was taken to a hospital and may not make it through the night. He did a quick turn around and is heading back to the coast. I think she is in California but can't be sure. This is a heart breaker since John chose to take early retirement in order to make this memorable ride. His company would not give him the time off. Ride swiftly John, we are waiting for your arrival back here at home.

Rody Martin is doing well at the hospital and the nurses will kick his sorry butt out as soon as they can. The last time I called they said he was named wrong, it should have been Rowdy!!!
I knew he would be O.K. then. Rody went down after a car turned left in front of him. The driver had passed Rody a few minutes before and Rody had slowed to about 30 mph to look for a turn to a boni. The cage had gone ahead, made a "U" turn and came back and turned in front of Rody. Rody tried to dodge to the left but almost made it, taking out the tail light with his knee---and a few parts of the bike. The bike is totaled as I understand

John (it won't rub out) Langan is doing well. At the last call he said he was sore Thursday but feeling good today after hitting the deer on Wednesday. Now I wonder if John has ever completed a ride on an intact bike? He seems to be better off with one that shows some battle scars.

More as it comes in.

Respectfully
Ron Smith
Bothell WA"

Lisa & Tobie Stevens
Tieton, WA

KBasa

08-16-2003, 09:11 AM

> Lake City, Florida
> August 15, 2003
> Day 4
>
> Road Trip
>
> I think this is true: On Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m. we were eastbound
> from Albuquerque, New Mexico in Moron, the van from Hell. That was the
day
> I thought I'd left my cell phone in the motel room, but it turned out
> instead to be buried under 40 miles of wires and connectors, 12-volt
> inverters, a surge protector or two, liters of diet cokes and bottled
> water, clothes that haven't been washed since the Crimean War, and a few
> pounds of pistachio nuts.
> Twenty-seven hours after leaving Albuquerque we rolled into the Holiday
> Inn in this hot, incredibly humid town in north-central Florida, a
> certified cross-country-all-nighter accomplished by four people who are
> clearly old enough to know better.
> As I said, I'm hazy about those details, but this I know for certain: I am
> beginning to remember how miserably tired I was during the 2001 Iron Butt
> Rally, a sort of fatigue that leaves scars on the soul. Still, Moron
beats
> any motorcycle ever made on a day when the heat is setting the highway
afire.
> I don't know how they do it, these crazy riders. I really don't.
>
> The Red Guys
>
> Thirty-three had chosen the red route package out of Las Vegas, had all
> completed a tough ride into the western Sierras, had all showed up for the
> last bonus at Pat Widder's house, and were now deciding whether to ride to
> Canada or back to Florida. If they went north, they could skip the
> checkpoint in Florida and rejoin the rally in Maine. If successful, they
> would be at the head of the pack with only the final leg back to Montana
> remaining. If they opted for Florida, they'd at least be ahead of the
blue
> route riders and more rested than their friends on the red route.
> Leonard Roy was the first to call late Wednesday night. "The rules
> require that I notify you if I will miss a checkpoint," Leonard told
> rallymaster Lisa Landry. "I hereby announce my intention to miss
> Florida. I will bring you a post card from Bella Coola when I see you in
> Maine." Alan Barbic and Dick Fish called a short time later to advise
that
> they too were skipping Florida. They didn't say where they were headed,
> Bella Coola or Goose Bay, but for Fish it can't be anywhere but up. For
> losing his rider's card during the first leg, he sacrificed all the bonus
> points he'd earned during that section. His score in Primm stood at
> 0. That put him about 3,500 behind the leaders but 10,000 points ahead of
> Sparky Kesseler.
> Other riders bound for Canada began calling in: Will Outlaw, Peter
> Hoogeveen, Paul Taylor, Mike Hutsal, Lee Myrah, Mark Kiecker, and Marty
> Leir. Landry received a garbled message that we think might have been
from
> Bob Hall, the 2001 IBR winner. If others intend to skip Lake City, we
> haven't heard from them yet. At least three riders we had thought would
be
> northbound --- Eric Jewell (the first-round leader), Eddie James, and Tom
> Loftus --- decided instead to point their bikes to Florida.
>
> The Attrition Continues
>
> On Thursday morning Kyle Crippen's rear-tire went to heaven. He was
> trying to find a tow. He may not make the Florida checkpoint. In such a
> case the rider, unless he wants to give up completely, must ride to the
> checkpoint city, obtain a receipt that proves he was there, and arrive at
> the following checkpoint on time. If he makes it, he still loses all
bonus
> points on both legs and receives no points for making the first
> checkpoint. For scoring purposes, the only thing worse --- aside from a
> DNF --- is switching bikes.
> The bike-swap penalty is informally known as "Taking a Manny," after Manny
> Sameiro, who wrecked his Gold Wing on the first leg of the 1997 rally and
> finished on a Honda 500cc Magna. For those of you not familiar with these
> machines, it's comparable to moving from a Ferrari to a Dodge Neon. Sure,
> they're both cars in a metaphysical sense, but those good-looking dates
you
> used to have don't seem to be returning your calls now that the Neon's in
> your garage.
> Sameiro's was an heroic ride. It took him the remainder of the rally, but
> he eventually crawled up into positive numbers. Two years later, riding
> with Harold Brooks, he tied for third overall.
> He'll be close to the bottom of the standings this year,
> unfortunately. His Wing apparently washed out in gravel in a corner on
the
> way to the Primm checkpoint. The abrasions on his right forearm were bad
> enough for the New Jersey prosecutor to call it a day. At least he'll be
> symmetrical now; six years ago it was the left arm that took the hit.
> A couple of days ago the plastic radiator in Dave Tyler's BMW K1100LT
> started to melt in the desert. He made it to a big bonus in Leadville,
> Colorado, at which point the radiator began leaking. Tyler nursed the
> machine south to Tucumcari, New Mexico, looking for replacement parts all
> the way but finding nothing. This morning, he was forced into retirement.
> John Bolin, whose wife Karen is the president of the Motorcycle Riders
> Foundation, left Salt Lake City at 5:00 p.m. yesterday after having made
> frantic repairs to his bike. As he hurried toward Florida, he was called
> back to San Francisco today because of a family emergency. Our sympathies
> go out to John for a courageous ride under such daunting conditions.
> This afternoon a sixteen year-old driver turned in front of Rody Martin's
> '87 Yamaha Venture, a bike formerly owned by Michael Kneebone. The
> accident happened just twelve miles north of Mamou, Louisiana, a large
> bonus that was available to riders on both red and blue routes. Rody had
> an improbable rescue by the Wild Pelican Iron Butt Club, whose membership
> includes only riders who have completed an IBA-certified ride. They had
> been manning the Mamou bonus location. So well known is the club that
word
> of mouth about Martin's wreck reached the Pelicans before even a telephone
> call could. Fortunately, Rody didn't break anything but was admitted to a
> local hospital for overnight observation.
> When we last saw Russell Stephan, he had finished off both a deer and the
> front-end of his motorcycle in about three-fifths of a second on U.S. 395
> in Oregon. If that weren't enough, I negligently referred to him as
> "Stephan Russell" in that day's report, which is the sort of thing that
> must happen fairly often to people with two first names. With his rally
in
> the tank, Russell bought a $2,000 truck to transport his mangled machine,
> drove to Las Vegas and dropped the bike off for repairs, sold the truck,
> bought a better one, and is now sightseeing somewhere in the West, waiting
> for the rally to return to him. He paid a lot of money for that final
> banquet ticket; he might as well stick around to use it.
>
> Bob Higdon
> www.ironbutt.com
>
>
>

moterbiker

08-16-2003, 05:21 PM

Just received an enthusiastic voice mail from Paul chockfull 'o good news.

Heading to the Keys, then the Outer Banks, and he's currently in first place. Really happy for him!

On a side note Bob Lyskowski hit a car on I95 and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance, Paul and Rob stopped and said he seemed alright but had a fair amount of road rash, Bob unfortunately wears a half helmet and jeans usually, thats what happens, at least he had a Stitch jacket on.

moterbiker

08-16-2003, 11:37 PM

Talked to Rob and Paul, both went for the Key West bonus but are plannig different routes of attack heading Rob will be getting a sleep bonus tonight and plans to keep plugging along tomorrow. Word on Bob L is that he will be fine, that is great news, Bob is a great guy, just wish he wore more gear when he rode.

moterbiker

08-17-2003, 10:28 AM

Report from the road:

I just got off the phone with Rob Nye who called to give me an update on Bob Lyskowski. Yesterday heading down the interstate in Florida Bob was travelling in the left lane in traffic. Further up the road there was an accident and traffic came to a halt. Bob realized that he probably wouldn't be able to stop without hitting the car in front of him so he saw a hole to his right that went straight to the shoulder and he went for it. Unfortunately the left side of his fairing grazed the right rear of the car that was in the right lane and caused enough of a wobble that put him down.

Bob has some road rash but otherwise okay, he even said to Rob that he wishes he could find a bike to finish the rally.

Good luck Bob

KBasa

08-17-2003, 03:02 PM

From Greg Roberts:

Just got off of the phone with Joe Colquitt, who is riding an R1150GS. He
is just outside Bristol, TN, heading north.

Following a re-wiring of Joe's accessories by John Harrison at the Florida
checkpoint Joe once again has use of his two GPSs, CB radio, driving lights
and XM radio. He said it makes it MUCH easier to find some of the locations
with the GPS.

After a couple of rough legs (new helmet lost the chinbar & visor hours into
the rally, loss of all electrical accessories a few hours later, loss of
driver's license in Las Vegas (dropped it and didn't notice it was gone) &
loss of the top of his water bottle) Joe has decided he's going to cherry
pick on the third leg, going after just the higher valued bonuses.

He is in good spirits, the bike is running well and he's having a good ride.

After getting to the Florida checkpoint about 4 hours later than planned due
to heavy fog and no aux lamps, he said he intends to get to Maine in plenty
of time to catch some rest before the final leg.

Greg Roberts
Wadley, AL

KBasa

08-17-2003, 03:32 PM

Pirate John took these at the FL checkpoint. Rob's bike is looking pretty well thrashed.

This is the side he went down on. The passenger peg has been appropriated for the rider peg. The big ol' Hella is gone. The top light gets adjusted with a pair of Channeloks.
http://www.fototime.com/{F24ECA42-D08B-11D7-BD38-0002DD43511E}/picture.JPG

[I]Ouch.
http://www.fototime.com/{F24ECA43-D08B-11D7-BD38-0002DD43511E}/picture.JPG

Ugly, but effective.
http://www.fototime.com/{F24ECA44-D08B-11D7-BD38-0002DD43511E}/picture.JPG

Dahs eeet bozzer yoo zat I am weenking at yeoo?
http://www.fototime.com/{F24ECA39-D08B-11D7-BD38-0002DD43511E}/picture.JPG

Do you think the folks that loaned him the tablet are going to be mad about the grind mark?
http://www.fototime.com/{F24ECA3C-D08B-11D7-BD38-0002DD43511E}/picture.JPG

KBasa

08-17-2003, 03:36 PM

Forwarded by Don Graling:

>Subject: Iron Butt Rally: Day 5
>
>Washington, D.C.
>August 16, 2003
>Day 5
>
>The Florida Checkpoint
>
> On the day after Paul Pelland learned that he had won a
> protracted, bitter, legal battle, he found himself in first place at the
> Lake City, Florida checkpoint of the Iron Butt Rally. Two years ago he
> dragged a Ural motorcycle in the Hopeless Class around the country,
> surviving disasters by brute force on an almost daily basis. He finished
> so low in the standings that it took miners to find him. This year he's
> on a BMW R1100RT and has better than a 2,100-point lead over Eric Jewell
> and Rick Sauter. Still, the scoreboard isn't quite as simple as it looks.
> The 110 riders who left the first checkpoint in Nevada split into
> two groups: 77 headed for Florida and 33 aimed for southern
> California. The latter group split again with 22 riders going to Florida
> and 11 chugging toward Canada. The pack of 22 now occupies 20 of the
> first 21 positions in the standings. Todd Witte, at 20th place and the
> highest ranked of the blue pill brigade, is 120 points ahead of Homer
> Krout, the lowest ranked of the red pills. This was almost exactly the
> scoring breakdown that Mike Kneebone and rallymaster Lisa Landry had
> predicted in Nevada.
> All this ignores, however, the 11 riders who departed southern
> California for the Great White North. We are fairly certain that they
> have all reached Bella Coola, British Columbia or Goose Bay,
> Labrador. If they arrive at the Maine checkpoint on time, they will
> immediately take over the top positions, irrespective of what any of the
> riders in Florida may accomplish on their next leg. At that point only
> the final run back to Missoula will remain.
> Virginia's Leon Begeman, 24th overall, apparently is insulted
> that his 250cc Kawasaki Ninja, the smallest machine in the rally, is
> assigned to the Hopeless Class. As usual, he is running like a man
> possessed. Tonight he stands 42 places ahead of Paul Meredith's 750cc
> Suzuki water buffalo. Sure, Meredith's two-stroke bike is ancient and
> struggles to get even 20 mpg, so maybe that's not a fair fight. But
> Begeman takes on motors with five times his displacement --- BMW K1200LTs
> and 1,800cc Gold Wings --- and chews them to pieces as well. If you put
> him on an armadillo, he might lose a few places, but he'd still be
> scratching his way down the road.
> Sparky Kesseler, the terror of the bristlecone forest, parked his
> replacement bike at the checkpoint, was awarded 2,000 points for making
> it to Florida without incinerating anything along the way, and remains
> firmly in control of 117th (and last) place with a total score of -8,000
> points. This afternoon, however, he picked up some competition. Bob
> Wooldrige's '64 BMW R69S, having had alternator replacement surgery two
> nights ago at Craig Vechorik's vintage BMW factory in Sturgis,
> Mississippi, has eaten a valve. Wooldrige grabbed a newer BMW, will take
> a 10,000-point hit in Maine, and soon should challenge Sparky to see who
> can crawl out of the negative number territory first. My bet is on
> Sparky; he'll torch Wooldrige's bike the first chance he gets.
> The ride west to Lake City was not completely uneventful. John
> Langan hit a deer but was able to continue. Jerry Harris, coming down
> from the top of Mt. Evans in Colorado, was smacked by a mud slide. For a
> moment he thought he would skip through. He didn't. The right side of
> his BMW K1100LT looks as if it was scraped by a train, but it's still
> running somehow.
> Great Britain's Steve Eversfield ran into a nightmare while
> attempting to pick up a valuable bonus in Silverton, Colorado. He was on
> U.S. 550, The Million Dollar Highway, one of the most picturesque roads
> in the West. Southbound from Ouray it rises straight up and over a
> couple of 10,000' passes. On a clear day you can almost see Argentina.
> Eversfield, however, wasn't having a clear day; he was having a
> black, fearsome night. He was reminded of the terrifying Bald Mountain
> scenes from "Fantasia," a movie that has sent two generations of children
> from playgrounds to psychiatrists. Lightning smashed into the hills all
> around his elevation, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. Unable
> to see through his rain-swept visor, he raised it. That was worse. In
> the Rocky Mountains that awful night he was practically the tallest thing
> around. He was also on top of a 700-pound block of metal. Eversfield
> was feeling peckish.
> A mud slide had wrecked Jerry Harris' day; a mud slide now saved
> Steve Eversfield's night. As he rounded a corner, he saw that the
> highway ahead had been completed washed away. He was the first vehicle
> southbound to encounter it. Disappointed was he? Not a bit of it,
> mate. He jumped off the bike, draped his identification towel on the
> rocks that covered the road, and snapped a photo. Because of an act of
> vengeful Nature, Eversfield would be able to claim the Silverton bonus
> without actually having to go there. Better still, he could turn around,
> get off that hateful mountain, and look for a quiet place to dry out and
> stop shaking.
> All's well that ends well, right? Sometimes, but not for
> Eversfield. His Silverton bonus was disallowed by the scorers when he
> arrived in Florida.
> "Excuse me?" he said in his best British accent, the kind of
> sound you hear just before a Limey begins beating your head in with a
> spanner and tyre iron. "The road was completely blocked. Other
> motorcyclists have verified it. I followed the rules exactly."
> "Sorry," the scorer said. "There was an alternative route to
> Silverton."
> "That 'alternative route' was a 300-mile loop around half the
> state of Colorado," Eversfield protested.
> "True," the scorer replied, "but it was available."
> In the old TV series set in New York, "The Naked City," the
> closing voice-over intoned darkly each week, "There are eight million
> stories in the naked city. This has been one of them."
> And there are eight million stories in the Iron Butt Rally. Some
> of them are sad.
>
>The Top Ten in Florida
>
> 1. Paul Pelland BMW 18,517
> 2. Eric Jewell BMW 16,391
> 3. Rick Sauter Suzuki 16,348
> 4. Tom Loftus Honda 15,998
> 5. John O'Keefe BMW 15,919
> 5. Jeff Earls BMW 15,919
> 7. Jim Owen BMW 15,903
> 8. Jeff Fisher BMW 15,842
> 9. Heinz Kugler BMW 15,751
> 10. Eddie James BMW 15,010
>
>Bob Higdon
>www.ironbutt.com
>
>
>
>
>
>

karen

08-17-2003, 03:54 PM

We talked to Rob today and went by the hospital to drop off his belongings (he couln't believe so much fit in the bike) anyway other than some roadrash and stiffness he is feeling good.:clap

BlackFly

08-17-2003, 04:13 PM

KBasa...

A little 1200 paper and the whole thing will be as good as new, won't it?

Send the tablet back to Dell - Warranty! It ddin't hold up to the everyday thrashing of the RI gorilla.

BFF;)

KBasa

08-18-2003, 09:22 AM

Portland, Maine
August 17, 2003
Day 6

Reports from the Frozen North

Trying to retrieve accurate information from the 11 red pill riders who
left for Canada during the second leg of the rally last Wednesday has been
harder than going ten rounds against a kangaroo. But we do hear rumors and
naturally have no hesitancy about repeating them. One of the best ones
starts with the night that Paul Taylor was almost shot while trying to
knock down the door of a house in British Columbia.
It was a dark and stormy night --- well, dark at least --- and Taylor was
hustling toward the bonus in Bella Coola, British Columbia. Two riders
passed him. That was irritating, for Paul is one of those rare riders who
has finished not only the IBR in the top ten (twice) but lived through Greg
Frazier's vicious, invitation-only Big Dog Rally in the Rockies. He
doesn't enjoy being overtaken by anyone.
As he began preparing for a counterattack, the alternator light on his
BMW's R1150GS started glowing. He continued to ride, draining the battery
and looking for help. He noticed a bed-and-breakfast and turned down the
driveway. It was 2:00 a.m. He banged on the door. Nothing. More
banging. More nothing.
Now if your alternator is dying, you might try changing the belt,
right? And you always carry a spare belt with you, huh? Of course you
do. So does Paul. So he started taking his bike apart to dig out the
alternator only to discover that a socket he needed to handle the job was
at home in Virginia.
Back to the front door he goes for more banging. After a while, he
notices that a woman is aiming a rifle at him from a basement window. She
has evidently called a neighbor to protect her from this deranged
motorcyclist, because Paul sees the headlights of a pick-up truck coming
down the driveway. With the way his night has been going, the driver will
probably be carrying a 50mm cannon and a few grenades.
Before war can break out, Paul manages to relate his story of woe. And
while not everyone runs around at night with a 27mm socket, the neighbor
has one in the truck and lends it to Paul. The belt is replaced and
everyone lives happily ever after.
Fast forward to later that morning. Peter Hoogeveen is staring at a "Road
Closed" sign. It is barring his way to the Bella Coola bonus, just 30
miles away. A construction crew is preparing to do some blasting and the
road will be nailed shut for about four hours. This is not good news for
Peter. He begins to reason with the flagger. You have to know here that
Peter's endurance riding exploits over the years have made him something of
a hero in Canada. Magically he is slipped past the barricade.
What was good news for Hoogeveen was even better news for Will Outlaw who,
at the moment Peter was being waved through, sat on the opposite end of the
construction zone, unable to get out of Bella Coola. Apparently Peter's
flagger radioed Outlaw's flagger and the gate suddenly opened for Outlaw
too. When Paul Taylor, later held up for hours on the far side of the
barrier, found out what Hoogeveen had done, his eyes rolled up in his
head. And while gates do occasionally open for a favorite Canadian son,
they rarely do so for a Yankee who is known in British Columbia mostly for
terrorizing little old ladies on dark, stormy nights.
As we suspected, Alan Barbic and Dick Fish took off from California for
Goose Bay, Labrador. The town lies at the end of hundreds of miles of
rugged, often impassable dirt. Because Barbic was faster on pavement and
Fish faster on dirt, they decided to split up in Nevada, figuring that
their paths would cross later. They didn't. Barbic apparently bailed out
at some point and headed for the Maine checkpoint. He'll be credited with
the few bonuses he grabbed during the second leg, but without the
2,000-point Florida checkpoint bonus, his 11th place standing in Nevada
will drop to perhaps 80th place in Maine. In Alan's case, the red pill
turned out to be poison.
Fish's pill was poison squared. He aimed for Goose Bay, made it, and then
lost his alternator on the road out. It was a shorter route than the run
to Bella Coola, but it was harder on the bike and worth fewer points. It
doesn't matter now; Goose Bay cooked the Fish's goose.
Lee Myrah suffered minor injuries when his bike was blown into a ditch
near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in the late afternoon yesterday. His rally is
over. Mike Hutsal, who was riding with Myrah at the time, made sure his
partner was all right, then continued east.
Bob Hall, with Bella Coola behind him, was feeling great yesterday until
his engine began sputtering near Livingston, Montana. He subsequently
called to say that all was mysteriously well again. Leonard Roy hasn't
been heard from in days, but he never has problems anyway. All he ever
does is finish quietly and well. Mark Kiecker pulled away from Marty Leir
in Chicago and caught up with Will Outlaw this afternoon in Erie,
Pennsylvania. Kiecker laughed that they were so far ahead of schedule that
they might take in a Red Sox game tonight in Boston.
It thus appears that of the original Canadian 11, only Myrah and Fish
won't make Maine tomorrow. The nine who do will be leading the rally. And
the one of them who is the most well rested will be the favorite as the
long, last leg back to Missoula begins.

Reports from the Sweltering South

Key West, the southernmost point in the continental U.S., has been a bonus
stop on 238 of the last 11 Iron Butt Rallies. It is never, ever worth
going to, mainly because first you have to ride more than 380 miles from
north Florida to Miami, then survive another 160 miles from there to Key
West. The last 105 miles are two-lanes wide. It's so hot and humid that
you pray for rain to come along and wash your sins away. There are cops,
deer, and blue-haired matrons to enforce snail-like speed limits. On
Saturday night the drunks come out to play. And no matter how well you
felt before you headed south, when you emerge from the Keys in a day or so,
you'll be tired, boiled meat, utterly unfit for human companionship.
So when rallymaster Lisa Landry suggested that the boys and girls run down
to Key West from the Lake City checkpoint instead of conserving what is
left of their energy for the final run to Missoula, at least a couple of
dozen of them said, "Let's do it!" Those were the last words that Gary
Gilmore said some years back, just before Utah state prison execution squad
put six bullets through his heart.
Thirty-seven riders who were thinking a little more clearly left Lake City
and took the saner route up to Iron Butt veteran Eric Faires' house near
Knoxville, Tennessee for a bonus that paid the rider to sleep for a
while. On the way north they will be picking up bonuses that are worth
more than what they lost by skipping Key West.
In tonight's down-and-out report, Bob Lyskowski was involved in a
multi-vehicle wreck yesterday near Gainesville, Florida on his way to Key
West. He sustained what are believed to be minor injuries. Although his
bike may be rideable, Bob has decided to withdraw. Don Speck's Harley was
totalled when, on his way back from Key West, a van in front of him
suddenly slammed on its brakes on a bridge near St. Augustine. Speck's
rear-end slid out with predictable results. He is unhurt but has retired
from the rally.
Finally, in a bulletin from the Hopeless Class, we can confirm that Mike
Grosche, whose '80 Suzuki GS750 has suffered fuel starvation problems from
the start as well as two flat tires, not only missed the Florida checkpoint
but blew out a head gasket along the way. He is somehow up and running
again. If he doesn't make the checkpoint in Maine tomorrow afternoon, he's
out of the rally. We can only hope that he doesn't decide to go to Key
West first.

Bob Higdon
www.ironbutt.com

Montana

08-18-2003, 01:27 PM

Don Speck, Billings, Montana's own native son, on a brand-new Harley. Oh well. Nice try.

Win3855

08-18-2003, 07:37 PM

Hers some Pics I took this afternoon in Maine (http://win38-55.smugmug.com/Motorcycles) I am not sure of names. If you see someone you know please leave a comment.

KBasa

08-18-2003, 07:52 PM

This is Marcia?

http://win38-55.smugmug.com/photos/639814-M.jpg

KBasa

08-18-2003, 08:06 PM

Rob Report for today, the 18th.

Rob wound up riding a good chunk of the trip north with Paul Pelland. Paul was leading the blue pill people and is now in 8th or 9th spot after the arrival of the red pill folks in Maine. Great rider. Lousy dresser.
http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/639794-M.jpg

Rob took the shot to Key West, which even he says was a rookie mistake. Lots of miles, not much bonus payout. But hey, it was a nice ride.

Anyway, they met in the Carolinas somewhere when they both came across the guy on the HD that went down. From there, they've been talking and whatnot and keeping each other on the move. The finally called it quits last night in Maryland and slept for a couple hours behind a rest area. They were in and out of NYC this morning collecting bonus points and split up after they left the city.

Here's hwo it stood in Gorham, ME. Irene Boettcher took these pictures and has nicely provided them.

Crusty K11LT
http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/639793-M.jpg

Fix those lights.
http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/639792-M.jpg

Voni's bike. I wonder if the bike is sMiling?
http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/639796-M.jpg

I need to get one of these. A tablet PC on my tankbag. Yeah. That's what I need......
http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/639801-M.jpg

The truckers are taking some interest in this event as well. They've got CBs and a bunch of the riders have CBs, so they wind up talking to each other.

Rob was asked a few times last night what was going on with all the bikes. He told them and the truckers kind of dug it. What the IBR guys are doing is what these guys do for a living. Ride more miles safely and with good bookkeeping and you make a pile of money. Or win an IBR. Or finish an IBR.

Anyway, some of them have been taking note of the gizmos attached to the bikes and realize that these guys are serious. One of the truckers and Rob were talking about what they're using for navigation systems. Rob told the driver what was installed on the LT and the trucker responded that he had a similar setup and that the GPS base map had been modified to show only roads that he could drive down legally with his truck.

Max's BMW in Portsmouth, NH took good care of Rob today and he wanted to send them some props. They hung some fresh tires on his bike, got him a shower and let him sleep on their lawn for a while. I thought getting free donuts was pretty sweet.....

OK, here's Rob after a week on the Iron Butt:
http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/639803-M.jpg

And here's me after 860 miles:
http://kbasa.smugmug.com/photos/456599-M.jpg

...and that's why I'm here typing this stuff and he's out there riding around the country.

iRene

08-18-2003, 08:53 PM

For a full pictoral of Paul Pelland's castoff Iron Butt ensembles,
see his website and click on IBR Clothing Drive... way too funny!
Avoid the Scratch 'n Sniff section, though...
Long Haul Paul's website (http://www.longhaulpaul.com)

bikerfish1100

08-19-2003, 04:49 AM

Paul Glaves' K75FT at Reynold's in Gorham. "well, RT was taken, and so was LT, so this one is FT. Farm Truck."

KBasa

08-19-2003, 10:20 AM

Hartford, Connecticut
August 18, 2003
Day 7

M*A*S*H, Iron Butt Style

After a telephone call from Peter Icaza last night, I decided to
administer mental status tests to some of the suspect riders. Icaza was
reporting that he would miss the Maine checkpoint by several hours. It
turned out that he was fewer than 200 miles from his goal and had almost 24
hours to get there. He's not the first rider to be off target by a day.
So now I look at them carefully when they check in. If they crawl up to
the table on all fours, I ask them what day of the week it is and the name
of the vice-president of Botswana. If they fall asleep before answering,
we drag them off into a corner and hit them with the fire hose. If they
get cute with me, I threaten to disqualify them. Naturally, I have no
power to do that, but they don't know it.
If I did encounter a truly questionable case, I would refer the matter to
my medical officer, Don Arthur, a two-star admiral and the commandant of
the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He worked the
intake scoring table today and on Saturday night he put up most of Moron's
crew for the night at his home in suburban Washington, D.C. We like to
have multi-talented individuals volunteering to help this rolling
circus. Arthur, who racked up more than 100,000 miles last year on a BMW
K1200LT and won both endurance rallies he entered, certainly fits that bill.
On the days when I don't think I'm Ernie Pyle, I like to think I'm a
doctor, like Dr. Zeuss. I sure hope no one decides to start testing
me. They might find the cat in my hat.

Canterbury Tales

By early afternoon the riders began filtering into the Reynolds
Motorsports dealership in Buxton, Maine, a checkpoint on every Iron Butt
Rally since the first one in 1984. With them, strange and twisted stories
from their travels arrived too. It was sort of a "Canterbury Tales" as
told not by Chaucer but by Vlad the Impaler.
Example: Stephan Bolduc, Quebec's Iron Butt entrant, is more comfortable
speaking French than English. When he was checking in with Mike Kneebone,
the first step in the scoring process, I asked him diplomatically in my
best French how he was doing. "Ca va bien?"
"Non," he said. "I try to sleep in zee park, but zee bear he will not let
me."
"The bear? You mean the police?"
"Non, non," he said, waving his arms. "Zee BEAR!"
I can't remember the French word for "bear," but I could understand
Stephan perfectly.
Example: Voni Glaves, who has undoubtedly logged more motorcycle miles
than any woman in recorded history, pointed at her BMW's odometer with
disgust. "It stopped working," she said. I looked at the traitorous
instrument. It was just 4,900 miles short of 300,000. Voni has never
learned to frown, but she wasn't quite smiling either.
Example: Jim Frens' wallet flew out of his tank bag on the New Jersey
Turnpike. Bad luck. He yanked his bike over to the breakdown lane,
stopped, jumped off the bike, and began running back down the highway. The
odds of finding the wallet, given that 20,000 cars and trucks per second
were flying up that highway, are too small to be measured. Yet Frens did
find the wallet and its cash (good), but the credit cards were long gone
(bad). At the checkpoint he told his Canterbury Tale and one of the
volunteer scorers, Howard Chain, lent Jim a credit card to finish the rally
(good). But this is the Iron Butt Rally, where no good deed goes
unpunished. My guess is that the first time Frens tries to use Chain's
card, he'll be arrested for theft, fraud, and forgery (bad).
But there is the rare Canterbury Tale where good triumphs over evil. It
happened today to Joe DeRyke. He came into Reynolds' parking lot with one
thread of his BMW R1100RT's twisted steel throttle cable still intact. The
first time DeRyke applied the slightest pressure to the throttle, the final
strand would snap faster than a heart string. The closest BMW dealer
didn't have the cable in stock, but a shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 60
miles south, did.
Joe Mandeville, DeRyke's riding partner, asked me if the rules would
permit him to ride down to Portsmouth and buy the cable. No problem, I
said. Mandeville, a judge in Los Angeles, suited up and was ready to leave
when David Smith, a lawyer from Chicago, said that he was carrying an extra
throttle cable on his R1150RT. Would it fit DeRyke's bike? Well, we'll
ask Bob Wooldridge, who owns a BMW shop. He says it's no problem. But
does anyone really know how to do the replacement? Ah, there's Paul
Glaves, the tech guru of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America, already on
his knees at the side of DeRyke's bike. He has the machine in pieces in
the parking lot, with the help of Chris Ratay, who with his wife Erin has
spent the last four years riding around the world on their BMWs. They
showed up just to be part of the crowd and now Chris had grease up to his
elbows, busily repairing the bike of a guy he had known for all of four
minutes.
An hour later DeRyke was headed for the open road. He saw me. "You can't
write about this," he said. "My wife would kill me if she thought there
was anything wrong with the bike."
"Your secret's safe with me, Joe" I said.
Sure it is, like I'm going to sit on this story, the quintessential
example of True Iron Butt. We tell them over and over: If you're not
sleeping, riding, eating, filling the tank, or sitting on the pot, you're
wasting time. Yet here were a dozen contestants helping a rival for no
other reason than he needed help. They might be in his shoes one day. I
shook my head and smiled. How were we ever so fortunate as to meet such
people as these?

Wine for My Men; We Ride at Dawn

Eleven riders had gone to Canada. One had crashed, one had blown up, one
had pulled up short with no bonuses, and one, 2001 IBR winner Bob Hall,
called from his home in Ohio this morning to announce his retirement
because of a failing motorcycle. The curse of the Iron Butt had struck
again. No one has ever won two Iron Butt Rallies outright. They keep
trying. The curse keeps cursing.
The Canadian 11 were now The Canadian 7. All made it to Maine, though
Mike Hutsal was more than one hour late. His penalty was voided because he
had spent time helping his downed partner, Lee Myrah, a few days
earlier. Of these seven only Hutsal wasn't completely rested. Paul Taylor
was. "The Robo is ready to rumble," he said, referring to his license
plate, "RoboBike."
Eric Jewell, in eighth place and more than 14,000 points behind the
seventh place rider, had been one of the original 33 red pill riders, but
had opted not to go to Canada. He hoped that he would be able to score
enough in the Florida and Maine legs to come close to those who had gone
north. That didn't happen. He hoped that they would come in bushed while
he was fresh. Fresh he was, but so were they. He is a great endurance
rider, but he had given away too much. You can't give even an inch to the
seven men who lead the IBR tonight. They won't give it back.
At 6:00 p.m. EDT tonight the run back to Missoula began. It is a
difficult ride that will require planning, precision, and luck. Only seven
men have a realistic chance to win.
Ninety hours remain.

The Top Ten (complete standings are on the www.ironbutt.com web site):

1. Leonard Roy Honda 39,273
2. Marty Leir BMW 39,222
3. Will Outlaw BMW 39,187
4. Mike Hutsal BMW 39,009
5. Mark Kiecker Honda 38,908
6. Paul Taylor BMW 38,888
7. Peter Hoogeveen Yamaha 38,830
8. Eric Jewell BMW 24,433
9. Eddie James BMW 24,421
10. Paul Pelland BMW 24,169

Bob Higdon
www.ironbutt.com

JimBud

08-19-2003, 05:04 PM

I know how quiet it gets in the later stages of just about all sporting events...when you get near the end...but I can't imagine how tired these guys must be getting.

Maybe it is like just holding on untiil the end??

Hang in their guys....

JIm

KBasa

08-19-2003, 09:49 PM

I talked with Rob a couple times today.

He actually slept in his own bed last night, which is probably the best night's sleep in a while. He was planning on taking the ferry from RI to Long Island to go bonus point collecting. He met up with another rider, whose name escapes me right now, and they've been riding as a team all day.

They've been to Fire Island, Manhattan (WTC, I believe), a Harley dealer in New Jersey and down to Washington DC to pick up another bonus. They had two guys riding with them, but got seperated at some point. They then made it to the 9/11 memorial in Shanksville, PA by dark. Quite a day, considering they left RI on the 6am ferry.

Weather headed west looks good and they're anticipating a straight shot into Missoula.

He can't say how much better he feels after a good night's sleep, a chance to see his wife and some laundry.

"I feel like a million bucks."

Indeed!

itchybro

08-19-2003, 10:30 PM

i've been trying to keep up on about four different sites. Glad to hear Rob got some much needed rest.

Gonna be interesting to see how the "Quick Lube" fiasco plays out. Hopefully he's gonna get enough bread to make things OK.

The Team Strange guys are lookin strong going into the last leg but, as you mentioned, the quiet is deafening. Sending up prayers for everyone especially the Ladies.

Higdon's kept me grinning since the beginning.

I don't think "tired" is going be be strong enough of a word for their condition.

Colt03

08-22-2003, 10:55 AM

Glad the site is back up. What did I miss ?
oh yea I took this picture at the Maine Checkpoint.

I figured it was Kind of Kbasa like.

It should be over soon. Wonder how the Teamstrange boys ended up.

KBasa

08-22-2003, 11:38 AM

From Bob Higdon:

Chicago, Illinois
August 18, 2003
Day 8

The Riders' Meeting

Ninety-nine riders stood in the Reynolds Motorsports parking lot in
Buxton, Maine at 6:00 p.m. yesterday, awaiting the distribution of bonus
packets. After a week of separation, the red and blue pill entrants had
rejoined for the run back to Missoula. Lisa Landry called for quiet.
"On this final leg," she began, "you may be visiting some airline disaster
sites that will demand your respectful attention. Families of passengers
lost on these downed flights visit the memorials to this good day. You
will do nothing to disturb their thoughts. Nothing. Is that understood?"
Ninety-nine heads nodded.
"Those of you who went to the bonus in Palouse Falls, Washington on the
first leg may have seen a bird watcher near the falls," Lisa
continued. "You may also have noticed that he trained his binoculars more
often on your license plates than he did on the fang-beaked mud warbler."
"It was pretty obvious," Paul Pelland said.
"It was meant to be," Landry replied. "We wanted you to believe us when
we tell you now that we have volunteers stationed at every one of these
tragic sites. They may identify themselves to you. They may not. You
will be watched, that I promise. And if our observers report to us that
your behavior has brought the slightest discredit to yourself or to this
rally, rest assured that at that moment your participation in this event
has just been terminated. Are we clear on that as well?"
Ninety-nine heads nodded.
"Good," she said. "Now in the battle for dead-last-but-still-running,
Sparky Kesseler with -1,946 points has overtaken Bob Wooldrige with
-2,101." A huge cheer went up for the arsonist, particularly from Sparky's
wife and daughter. Elizabeth had shown up earlier in the day wearing a
fireman's turnout coat and a red, plastic helmet that read "Ride 'Em,
Sparky." There's nothing like support from the home front to keep your
overall score closing in on zero.

Memorial Stones

The sites that Landry mentioned hold terrible memories. They are five of
the worst airline disasters in recent memory: the SAS crash near Peggy's
Cove, Nova Scotia; the downed TWA flight in Long Island Sound; the Twin
Towers memorial in lower Manhattan; the west wall of the Pentagon where the
hijacked plane struck on September 11, 2001; and the field near
Shanksville, Pennsylvania where the last plane came down on that awful day.
These locations are clearly not typical IBR nonsense stops like touring
the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices or paying a call on Clay Henry,
the beer-swilling goat. They are serious, somber places, difficult to get
to and more difficult yet to absorb once there. Riders may one day forget
taking a photo of the world's largest ball of twine, but they're not likely
to forget visits to places that have scorched the pages of American history.
Jack Savage, a senior editor at Whitehorse Press, came into the SAS
memorial park this morning and met John McKibbin, our observer. Jack
thanked him for providing such spectacular weather. John replied that they
have about ten days like that on the south coast of Nova Scotia every
year. When Savage left the park, he called Mike Kneebone.
"Thank you for sending me here," Jack said. "It's a beautiful park and a
beautiful day. If I don't finish the rally after this, it'll be O.K."
McKibbin reported that while he was there (from 5:45 a.m. to 8:30 a.m.
ADT) the following riders showed up: Jim Frens, Eric Jewell, Leon Begeman,
John O'Keefe, Jeff Earls, Brent Ames, Todd Witte, Sean Gallagher, Will
Outlaw, Marty Leir, and Mark Kiecker.
"You've got some big bikes there," John told Mike, "but what really
impressed me was that fellow on the 250cc Ninja."
"Leon Begeman. We call him 'The Animal.'"
"I'll say," John said. "Do you know that he's about to complete ten
straight 1,000-mile days?"
We do. In fact, while at first blush it looks as if Leon lost two places
(from 24th to 26th) in the leg from Florida to Maine, when you factor in
those riders from Canada who reappeared in the standings and took over the
top seven positions, The Animal actually gained five spots on his competition.
Hopeless Class indeed.

The Gladiator

John Hart, one of the original 33 red pill riders, had gone to California,
declined to join the 11 pills heading for Canada, and showed up at Ira
Agins' house in Santa Fe on the way to Florida. There Hart was offered an
additional bonus: go to Andy Goldfine's Very Boring Rally in Duluth. There
he should track down the person who had won the I'm Wearing the Ugliest
Aerostich Suit on Earth Contest and take a photo of the winner. If
successful, he could bypass the Florida checkpoint.
The problem was that no one had a clue when the contest would be
over. Hart might be sitting around, bored to tears at the Very Boring
Rally, for longer than riders would ever have had to wait for a barricaded
road to open in Bella Coola. No one in his right mind would accept a
challenge with so many uncontrolled variables.
Why not, thought John. He set his GPS coordinates for Minnesota, called
to say he was skipping the Florida checkpoint, and disappeared from the
Iron Butt radar for the next four days.
Hart could hardly have expected what would follow when he arrived in
Duluth. Andy Goldfine, Aerostich's founder, hauled Hart onto the stage and
introduced him as an Iron Butt rider who was then and there bravely
fighting his way through snow, rain, heat, and gloom of night toward the
swift completion of his appointed bonuses. The crowd applauded happily.
"It was unbelievable," Hart said. "They treated me like a gladiator." He
was surrounded and assaulted with questions about his heroic deeds. The
2005 IBR unwittingly may have recruited 15 new riders that evening. Hart
got his photo, climbed onto his chariot, and charged out into the gloom of
night, feeling possibly just a little like Spartacus.

The Moving Finger, Having Writ, Moves On

On Sunday morning Marc Lewis was forced to withdraw because of family
problems. He had been running 31st at the Florida checkpoint.
In Maine yesterday Mike Grosche's endless struggles with his Hopeless
Class Suzuki GS750 came to an end. In Missoula he began re-routing the
fuel cell hose minutes before the start of the rally. He was the last
rider out of the Holiday Inn's parking lot. Two flat tires slowed his ride
east, but a blown head gasket was worse, causing him to miss the Florida
checkpoint altogether and dropping him down to 108th place. The gasket was
fixed, but as he plodded north to Maine, his clutch headed south to
Hell. He came into the Reynolds' parking lot 45 minutes too late. With a
second missed checkpoint, his rally is history.

Bob Higdon
www.ironbutt.com

KBasa

08-22-2003, 11:38 AM

From Bob Higdon:

Gillette, Wyoming
August 20, 2003
Day 9

Moron Sails West

I know a lot of motorcyclists who can't abide the midwest. I
love it. The Great Plains is an inland sea with waves of corn and grain
elevators for navigation buoys. Interstate 80 is one of the principal
shipping lanes. This is the very heart and soul of America; everything
else just hangs on to it for one reason or another.
We have been on The Eighty since New York, for two days, for
forever. It isn't my kind of road with its sameness, its remorseless
stamp of federal approval, its turbulence, and its incessant noise. Give
me anything that parallels it, even a goat track. But Moron doesn't
care. It plows on.
The heat is searing, but Moron doesn't care about that
either. The oil light may have come on for a while this morning; we'll
check it if we ever stop, unless we forget. Moron keeps rolling,
uncaring. Now and then the whine of the tires on the concrete and the
buzz of the wind is interrupted by the sound of Mike ripping another
magazine in half. He can't put it down or away or aside. When he
finishes one, he has to rip it across, creating top and bottom half
magazines. We had about 35 magazines a week ago; now we have 70, and
they're harder to read.
I take his atavistic response to finishing a magazine as an angry
sign, usually manifesting itself on the ninth day of the event, that
there is no way on Earth there will ever be another Iron Butt
Rally. That feeling will continue to grow until next June when he will
run across a plaster cast of the world's largest wart at the Museum of
Disgusting Things somewhere in North Dakota. "If I were doing that
stupid rally again, this would have been a good bonus," he'll think. A
week later he'll forget the fingerprints that the 2003 IBR left on his
soul. Two weeks after that he'll be sending out the preliminary
invitations and mapping the base route.
Until then, the blistering heat pops corn on the stalk in the
fields along I-80, another magazine is ripped in half, and Moron rolls up
and down the gentle hills of western Iowa.

And the Beaten Go On

Paul Meredith's hopeless, triple-cylinder, two-stroke Suzuki, a
motor that creates its own smog system as it limps down the highway and
struggles to achieve a worthless 20 mpg, yesterday finally dropped off
the Environmental Protection Agency's hit list when a broken piston skirt
drove a dagger through the machine's oil-fouled heart. Its days of
contemptuous sin are finished.
Paul's are not. A friend posted news of the breakdown on the
K1200LT owner's list. Thirty minutes later a Samaritan responded,
brought his own bike on a trailer, rolled it off and turned it over to
Meredith, and hauled the dead Suzuki off to the nearest toxic waste dump.
This illustrates what I think is the major difference between all
previous Iron Butt rallies and this one. It isn't advanced GPS receivers
or sophisticated mapping programs or other high-zoot gizmos. It's the
availability of internet e-mail lists, brand specific or otherwise, that
can produce salvation literally at a moment's notice. I have lost count
of how many riders have been rescued by them so far.
There are reports that Marsha Hall's BMW R1100 alternator belt
went to alternator belt heaven this afternoon, where it will join Paul
Taylor's, Dick Fish's and many, many more. It is not for nothing that
BMW calls its machines "The Legendary Motorcycles of Germany." Marsha
was looking for a tow; BMW was looking for an engineer who knew something
about alternator belts.
In a mechanical failure this afternoon that is as scary as it
gets, Rick Sauter broke a chain on his Suzuki V-Strom and cracked open
the crankcase, not his leg. He was 11th overall in Maine. We put out an
emergency bulletin on the moto lists but have heard nothing further.
Eric Jewell, who may be in the midst of a monster final leg, had
the rug temporarily pulled out from him near Shanksville,
Pennsylvania. Today's quiz: Eric's BMW R1100RT quit running because: a)
It was tired; b) Eric has already won enough rallies; or c) An alternator
belt failed. Marty Leir, having heard stories of belt failures for the
past week, had the presence of mind to buy a few spares on the way from
Bella Coola. As prescient fate would have it, he gave one to Eric at the
Maine checkpoint.

The Leaders Head into the Home Stretch

If you were in the top seven positions in Maine, took a rest
bonus today, and picked up the bonuses in Nova Scotia, Long Island,
Manhattan, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, you have gained the combination
bonus and will have a chance to win the rally. If you didn't do that,
you won't win. Your finishing position also depends on what those other
six guys are doing.
At 7:20 CDT this morning, Marty Leir, Will Outlaw, and Mark
Kiecker --- the second, third, and fourth overall riders in Maine ---
called from New York. They had picked up the largest bonuses from Maine
to Manhattan and wanted Lisa Landry to tell them if they were ahead or
behind.
"Yes," she said and hung up.
We call them "The Boys." They're young, smart, and incredibly
tough. They're from Minnesota and are affiliated with Team Strange,
which means that, especially in Kiecker's case, they have utterly no
respect for authority. In most cases numbers on the identification
towels were assigned randomly, but Lisa saved the highest numbers for
those who had given her endless trouble in the months leading up to the
rally's start. Of the 117 towels issued, Kiecker's is #115.
They've been joined at the hips for days. At some point they
will have to break apart from each other or they'll end up in Missoula as
they were in Maine, with Leir 35 points ahead of Outlaw and 314 points in
front of Kiecker. Maybe they've agreed to that finishing order, but we
don't think so. We know that they did the combination bonus, so the bar
has been set.
Leonard Roy, who led Leir by 51 points when the final leg began,
has as usual disappeared into deep space. He never calls; he never
writes. We don't have a clue what he's done since yesterday and we miss
him. Still, we think he'll show up in Missoula. He'd better. My bike
is locked in his trailer.
We can give a time allowance to Mike Hutsal for his help to Lee
Myrah but we can't give back his lost energy. He earned some tough
bonuses in the last 24 hours but he didn't take down the combination. It
looks as if his long effort will fall short.
Peter Hoogeveen, along with The Boys, checked in this morning for
a bonus at a Harley dealer who is on a direct line from lower Manhattan
to Shanksville. It's reasonable to believe that Peter has nailed down
the combination bonus, but we don't know.
Paul Taylor also showed up at the Harley bonus. More ominously
for his competition, he was also able to secure the Pentagon bonus, one
of the largest on the leg. There he ran into Todd Witte and Brent
Ames. If other riders have made it to Washington, we aren't aware of it.
As you can tell, we are wandering in the dark here, but we do
know this: just 34 hours are left.

Bob Higdon
www.ironbutt.com

KBasa

08-22-2003, 12:32 PM

Catching up.....

> Missoula, Montana
> August 21, 2003
> Day 10
>
> Fire
>
> More than one hundred miles east of Missoula the cars coming at you have
> turned on their headlights. It's the middle of the afternoon. The
> visibility is under one-half mile, and the tops of some of the mountains
> that line both sides of I-90 have disappeared in dense smoke. On the
worst
> day it ever had, Los Angeles could never have looked like this.
> Forest fires have ringed Missoula to the extent that parts of the town
> have been evacuated. When we left here a week ago Monday, smoke was
> drifting through the motel's parking lot. It's much worse now. You never
> know from hour to hour what highways will be open. So widespread are the
> fires and so resistant to eradication are they that they may not be fully
> extinguished until the snows fall next month.
> A lot of motorcyclists are riding through the night toward this city. If
> they're not in by 8:00 a.m., the penalty clock starts running at 10 points
> per minute. At 10:00 a.m., they're time barred. Every second is counting
> now. The last thing you want to see on a motorcycle at night is the glow
> of a fire and a wall of smoke. God only knows what could be hiding behind
it.
>
> We Know What We're Doing, More or Less
>
> A question was raised on the Long Distance Riders list about the
> 10,000-point penalties assessed against Sparky Kesseler and Bob Wooldridge
> for changing bikes in mid-rally. The rule states that the rider's final
> score shall be reduced by one-half. Which is correct?
> The fixed penalty worked well until the point inflation that appeared in
> the 2001 IBR. Bob Hall picked up one million points for making the
Prudhoe
> Bay bonus on the final leg. Had his bike fallen apart on the way to the
> finish, he could have changed machines 42 times and still have won the
rally.
> Last year we amended the rule to eliminate that absurdity, but the scoring
> program was not similarly revised. We think the 10,000-point spanking
> roughly approximates in a rider's running score what his final total will
> look like, but we don't really know and we don't really care. It'll get
> taken care of in the end, anyone who swaps isn't competitive anyway, and
we
> think it's lots of fun to watch guys scrambling randomly around, trying to
> pull their scores up to nothing.
>
> Will the Last BMW Running Please Turn out the Lights?
>
> BMW motorcycles constituted about 50% of the starting field. Tonight they
> constitute more than 90% of the mechanical breakdowns. Jeff Earls'
K1200LT
> ground to a halt late today in Dickenson, North Dakota with a rear wheel
> bearing failure. Earls, riding the entire distance with John O'Keefe, was
> having a magnificent ride, grabbing every bonus that meant anything on the
> final leg. With any luck he and O'Keefe would have been close to a Top
Ten
> finish. Now he's just another DNF.
> Had enough of BMW rear end collapses, have you? Not quite. Don't forget
> to count the rear end of Jim and Donna Phillips' K1200LT. It dropped dead
> earlier today as they were going up Pikes Peak in Colorado, the largest
> individual bonus on the entire leg. Had they made it to the top, they
> would have guaranteed themselves a Top Twenty finish. Instead they nursed
> the bike back down the mountain, caught a ride into Colorado Springs, and
> bought an 1800cc Gold Wing.
> It gets even uglier. Yesterday Jim Owen, who stood 8th in Maine, took a
> photograph of Eric Jewell and Brent Ames in the process of replacing the
> alternator belt on Eric's BMW R1150RT at the Shanksville, Pennsylvania
> bonus stop. A few hours later the belt on Owen's R1150RT failed. He had
> no replacement, couldn't find one, and will be lucky at this point to
> finish the rally at all.
> Mike Kneebone and I sat in the hotel room tonight and reflected on the
> string of BMWs that have bitten the dust in the last ten days. We shook
> our heads. Between us we have around 800,000 miles on these bikes.
> "If you're looking for something to write about in an epilog," he said,
> "this is it."
> He's right. BMWs could easily finish 1-2-3 in this rally, a tribute that
> will be due far more to the talented singers than to the ugly song. In
the
> 2003 IBR BMW's song has been the shriek of alternator belts coming apart
> and the wail of ear ends seizing. Don't play it again, Sam.
>
> And Then There Were Five
>
> Seven riders in Maine had a chance to win. Leonard Roy was first. He
> says that this will be his last Iron Butt, and he wanted to go out with a
> finish he could be proud of. He has done that in his customary quiet,
> outstanding fashion. He knew that he hadn't gotten enough rest at the
> start of the run back to Missoula, so he picked bonuses that should
> guarantee him the highest finish he has ever had. Tonight he is safely in
> Missoula, catching up on a week's worth of lost sleep.
> Mike Hutsal was roughly in the same boat. He arrived at the Maine
> checkpoint after it closed, but was granted a time delay allowance for
> having stopped to help his partner after an accident. The revised
> checkpoint score put Mike in fourth place. That was as high as he would
> fly. Without rest, the last leg was impossible. He will finish, but he
> will take a heavy hit in the standings.
> That left The Boys --- Marty Leir, Will Outlaw, and Mark Kiecker --- who
> stood 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in Maine. We're confident that they managed to
> earn the large combination bonus and pick up other big points in Chicago
> and Sauk Center, Minnesota before pointing to the finish. It might be
> enough to take home all the marbles.
> Paul Taylor was 6th in Maine. We are under the impression that he has
> picked up the same bonuses that The Boys did. But Taylor also dropped
> south to pull in the Pentagon bonus. It's worth 2,359 points. If The
Boys
> didn't do that, Paul could vault ahead of them. We don't know. Taylor
was
> in western North Dakota tonight, aiming for the barn door and hoping his
> alternator belt would last a few more hours.
> And then there is Peter Hoogeveen, who has more second-place finishes in
> rallies than most riders have rallies. He stood 7th in Maine, 50 points
> behind Taylor. We know little about Peter's route in the final leg. He
> was seen at the TWA crash site on Long Island early Wednesday morning. He
> signed in at a bonus in eastern Pennsylvania later that morning. Since
> then he has disappeared. Is it reasonable to assume that he did the
> combination bonus? Clearly. But he didn't show up at the large Minnesota
> bonus, unlike The Boys and Paul Taylor. So where has he been for the last
> 36 hours?
> Scenario #1: he broke down. If so, why haven't we heard? Scenario #2: he
> couldn't go any farther. That doesn't sound like Peter
> Hoogeveen. Scenario #3: he saw where the other riders would naturally
head
> --- Pennsylvania, Chicago, and Minnesota --- and realized he had to do
> something dramatic to beat them. Did he then run south from Pennsylvania
> to the Pentagon and turn due west for Pikes Peak? Depending upon how many
> other smaller bonuses he and the others either earned or skipped, such a
> run could be the winner.
> It's almost 1:00 a.m. in Missoula. In ten hours we can stop guessing.
>
> Bob Higdon
> www.ironbutt.com
>

itchybro

08-22-2003, 01:15 PM

Who was the cruel IS geek that decided that during the Iron Butt rally was a GREAT time to swap the forum servers eh?
auuuugh!

Torture anyone?

KBasa

08-22-2003, 01:25 PM

Originally posted by itchybro
Who was the cruel IS geek that decided that during the Iron Butt rally was a GREAT time to swap the forum servers eh?
auuuugh!

Torture anyone?

It was us. The bandwidth we were consuming was just killing us financially, so we really, really needed to swap servers.

The strange thing is that I've been talking with Rob over the last couple days and wanted to relay the stuff he said, but didn't have an appropriate, ahem, forum to do so.

I'll put some stuff up later, but suffice to say for now that Rob's in Missoula. He landed last night at about 10pm. Just outside Missoula, he ran over a deer carcass. Woke him right up to full alert, Ritalin necessary status.

itchybro

08-22-2003, 01:34 PM

Would that have been the one that Eddie James apparently creamed? (300 miles from the finish this morning @ 6?)

itchybro

08-22-2003, 01:37 PM

Did he mention anything about visibility due to the fires in the area? (Particulate matter uh..matters in that situations).

Any other finishers mentioned? (The Canadian SEVEN?)

DISH honey DISH!!!

skert

08-22-2003, 01:41 PM

I heard Eddie James bagged a deer in Billings this morning. Should be released from the hospital later today.
Bob Wooldridge who started out on an R69 made it in on a GS last night.
Hoping Paulie gets the big one this time.

itchybro

08-22-2003, 01:46 PM

Glad to hear that Bob finished. (How many days did he compleat with ol'Black? 8, 10?) Not too shabby.

KBasa

08-22-2003, 01:47 PM

Originally posted by itchybro
Would that have been the one that Eddie James apparently creamed? (300 miles from the finish this morning @ 6?)

No, this was last night at about 9pm.

Rob went by a rest area at the junction of 212 and 90 and there were a whole bunch of guys in the rest area sleeping while it was still light. Rob pushed on to get to Missoula and a nice bed. When I talked to him last, it was about 10pm and he was just beat. He'd had a beer and was sitting in his hotel room anticipating a nice nap. His plan was to get up at 6, get his paperwork ready to go and then get down to the checkpoint to get scored.

He took the Cooke City, MT gas reciept bonus, though he doesn't have a lot of other information about what else went on. I'm certain I'll talk with him later today and get a better and more complete report.

Rob did hit the Chicago bonus, the Shanksville, PA bonus, the Pentagon bonus, the Manhattan bonus, the HD dealer bonus and on at the Buffalo Bill Museum. I think he hit as many of the large ones as he could, with the exception of the Pikes Peak bonus.

Paul Pelland has had a rough go. On one hand, he learned that he has finally obtained primary and full custody of his children. On the other hand, he stopped to help a rider that crashed in New England and broke his ribs. I'm unsure of the rider's name, but I'm sure I can find it. Yesterday afternoon, Paul was 1500 miles from Missoula and was pushing hard to get to the checkpoint. I don't know if he made it.

Where's Montana with the pictures when we need him?

dave

itchybro

08-22-2003, 01:57 PM

Dave, thanks so much. Thrilled to hear he's made it. Hope his insurance ain't Progressive (from what I hear from another site they are much friendlier TAKING your money).

Don't know if I'm blaspheming here in Beemerland but, I'm still pulling for Kiecker (aka decaf) on the VFR.

I'm thinking Mr. Missing X factor is Peter Hoogeveen. Higldon's next missive should be da bomb!

bikerfish1100

08-22-2003, 01:59 PM

Marsha Hall (Rottenbiker) is in Missoula and (almost) well-rested, having slept in an AC'd motel room in town last night. So on her third try, she finally gets her finish. And earns the distinction of becoming the first ever IB finisher on a "S" version ('99 R1100S) BMW.

KBasa

08-22-2003, 02:02 PM

Originally posted by bikerfish1100
Marsha Hall (Rottenbiker) is in Missoula and (almost) well-rested, having slept in an AC'd motel room in town last night. So on her third try, she finally gets her finish. And earns the distinction of becoming the first ever IB finisher on a "S" version ('99 R1100S) BMW.

:clap

swamp

08-22-2003, 02:10 PM

I was in Madison, AL two years ago when this lady pulled up to the finish line a couple of minutes too late. I couldn't be happier for her!

swamp

:clap

bikerfish1100

08-22-2003, 02:16 PM

Yeah, she said the "evil lord kneebone" gave her a big hug this time, and noted that this finish was much nicer for him as well as for her. Pity that Speedvision was not there to record this finish as they were the previous one. And no frozen brakes this time, and no flying truck tires either. Just a shredded alternator belt (hmm, sound familiar?) and toasted battery. I could hear her smile over the phone!

KBasa

08-22-2003, 02:19 PM

One thing I thought interesting was that BMWs represented 50% of the starting grid and 90% of the mechanical failures.

Not good.

k75karol

08-22-2003, 02:24 PM

Originally posted by KBasa
. On the other hand, he stopped to help a rider that crashed in New England and broke his ribs. I'm unsure of the rider's name, but I'm sure I can find it. dave

I heard Jeff Lambert crashed @ 4:00am in ILL. Concussion, broken collarbone, sternum.......

This was sure rally of rider and bike misfortune.

Karol Patzer
:confused:

flash412

08-22-2003, 02:37 PM

KBasa: One thing I thought interesting was that BMWs represented 50% of the starting grid and 90% of the mechanical failures. Not good. Welcome to the NEW "Legendary Motorcycles of Germany." Perhaps it is time to seek a roundel-free existance?

itchybro

08-22-2003, 02:53 PM

How many were alternator belts? I know Jewell went down for a bit that way, but I can't remember the others. (I'm pretty sure there were more than two more).

Just curious.

itchybro

08-22-2003, 02:57 PM

Oh yeh, speaking of roundel free, I thought the absence of Gary Egan was pretty glaring (Ducati). I'm interested to see how Rachel Dwyer does (Duc Monster). Thought it interesting there were no ST2's or 4's.

At this point I'm wantin' EVERYBODY to finish safe.

k75karol

08-22-2003, 03:06 PM

[QUOTE]Originally posted by itchybro
Oh yeh, speaking of roundel free, I thought the absence of Gary Egan was pretty glaring (Ducati).

I think there was a reason for his absence. At the checkpoint in 2001 he gave us an interesting talk on how not to read maps!

Yea for Marsha!! If anyone sees her tell her I said Congrats

Karol

Montana

08-22-2003, 03:56 PM

It’s all over but the shouting. Or maybe the shooting, I guess. The Iron Butt Rally ended this morning. I’ve learned more about an event I’ll never enter than I ever needed to know but it sure has been fun. For those who haven’t been following this rally the last eleven days on any of the other websites (iron butt org, adventure rider, long distance rider, various riders’ weblogs, etc) here’s my recollection of some “highlights.”

This event requires you to manage a lot of variables: you, the bike, time, distance, paperwork (receipts, photos and other evidence), bonus locations, etc. There are always four corners of the US that are checkpoints. 2003 started and ended in Missoula MT; interim checkpoints were Primm NV, Lake City, FL, Buxton ME. Each checkpoint is open for a limited time period.

For example, the finish checkpoint was open for early check in at 6:00 am. At 8:00 am the riders still out there start losing 10 points a minute. At 10:00 am the checkpoint is closed. Miss a checkpoint, forfeit any points for that leg and the next, if there is one. The last leg included Cooke City MT on the Beartooth Hwy near Yellowstone and Pike's Peak CO as bonus locations, but remember you may now be running out of time so it gets trickier to manage all those variables to the very end.

The positions of the riders have been available on line and it’s been interesting. Although a rider may have ridden 5,000 miles and another may have ridden 6,000 miles, one of them may have 1,835 points and the other may have 36,780 points. That shows how optimization makes a difference.

5 minutes before the end of each checkpoint the envelopes of extra bonus point sites are handed out. It’s kept secret so no one has any advantage in planning. From Missoula to Primm these included St Mary MT (a 600-mile detour), Palouse Falls WA, Orofino ID, Death Valley charcoal kilns, etc. The bonus point locations tend to get tougher later in the rally, because you are running into a time constraint and risking what may have already been a good ride.

You can change bikes but you are penalized negative 10,000 points and you forfeit all points for that leg. Sparky (the Aprilia rider, renamed) had a long way to go to regain positive points status. Other riders changing bikes included a few BMW K1200LTs that lost rear drives. Other common deaths were BMW RT alternator belts. One couple (the only two-up entry) on an LT had trouble on Pike’s Peak, a bonus location on the leg from ME to MT, went down the mountain into town and bought an 1800cc Gold Wing.

After slapping on a magnetic “Is it poaching when you use a motorcycle?” sign on his truck, I visited with Russell Stephan, the rider of the ST1100 from OH that hit the deer just the second day out. (The other sign says "Speed never killed anyone - it's those sudden stops that hurt.") He showed me his route map and how he put little dots marking the bonus locations and indicating their value, if there was a time restriction to bagging that bonus, etc. Then he highlighted an optimum plan. I reminded him that “plan” is a four-letter word. His totaled bike in the back of that green truck is going to be in photos from every camera that passes by. He told me the trooper asked to see the deer hair on the wreck to prove it was a deer and not just drunk or careless driving. You can’t see it in my photo, but it’s there in a couple of places. He also mentioned why he may not take it to the insurer: Since you pay your insurance premium as if you are a normal rider (notice I did not use “typical rider”) he’d prefer they not see the odo is over 100,000 miles on this fairly new bike.

Of the bikes in my earlier posts, the GL500 Honda made it to the finish after having electrical trouble but the 500cc Yamaha died early in ID. The Stealth Ninja 250 made it in with about 20 minutes to spare (Leon the Animal from DC). The brand-new Yamaha Venture from San Diego (that replaced the one the dealer dropped) looked great at the end but definitely is not so new any longer. The Suzuki Water Buffalo made it until nearly the end. It finally died of a piston problem.

I’ve been told an Iron Butt Rider gets their gas stop routine to under 7 minutes. Even if they are only riding to work and stop for gas – under 7 minutes is the habit. Consider the Suzuki rider was stopping for gas twice as often as the other riders since that bike only gets about 20 mpg.

Chye (my new friend who we helped get a K1200RS stock muffler so he could pass the tech check) was 20 minutes late into the ME checkpoint, mostly due to NY traffic holdups, so he lost the points from FL and there were no points for his ride to the finish. But he still finished. Someone said fewer people have finished the Iron Butt Rally than have climbed Mt Everest.

At the finish area all but two riders were in by 10:00 am. About 15 minutes later I was walking a block from the finish when one of the last riders came through – he shrugged at me. Oh well. That means he was 20 minutes late after an eleven-day trip. He still is a finisher, though.

Oh, I forgot - at the finish line, with about 15 minutes to go, one woman is sitting on the bench nearby, anxious for her hubby. She'd spoken with him not long before when he said he was at a gas station just outside of town, but where is he now? Why didn't he come in? Then he showed up. She leaps up, yelling, "Thank God. He would have been impossible to live with, otherwise."

Montana

08-22-2003, 04:07 PM

You can chew the air in Missoula, stage 2 air quality alerts all week - 150 new fires in the region just since Tues. I guess many riders were afraid of running into road closures at the end of the last leg. A large piece of ash was on a friend's head last night. Another person said, "Hey, some kind of bug is on your head."

Here's my last photo, The End Of The Road:

Karol Patzer

08-22-2003, 06:26 PM

Has anyone heard how Linda Babcock, Vickie Johnston and Voni are. I assume we would have heard if they had any problems

If anyone sees them...tell them Congratulations on a heck uva ride!!

Karol:clap

skert

08-22-2003, 08:33 PM

1. Paul Taylor
2. Mark Keicker
3. Marty Leir
4. Will Outlaw
5. Peter Hoovegeen

RebeccaV

08-22-2003, 08:46 PM

Now just waiting for the Higdon report (via KBasa of course)
C'mon Bob - don't leave us hanging.....

iRene

08-22-2003, 08:47 PM

As Bob Higdon pointed out- this year the internet message boards (including this one)
played a key role as the most current and detailed sources of info on the event-
THANKS AGAIN to all who posted the updates and photos for us!

Montana

08-22-2003, 09:22 PM

The epilog - the banquet:

Without taking notes and/or hopefully not giving away all the stuff Higdon will tell, I can give you the following information.

All the woman finished. Voni was only a few places behind Paul, and Linda finished more than that ahead of her husband. Rachel didn't rack up many points for all the speed she used, and in the audience I heard murmurs that this may be a bit of concern - that a sponsored racer may pollute the waters of the IBR, since that is not what this event is all about. But I would not want to disparage any finisher. And of course, the new Gold Wing owners were two up so - another female finisher.

Chye was given special recognition via a Fran Crane award. It was announced that outside of the FL checkpoint he unknowingly left a sidebag unlocked while taking a pit stop at a rest area and returned to find the bike was ransacked. If anyone knows someone trying to fence heated riding gear in FL, call it in to the police.

Sparky moved so far up the ranks and had such an incredible last leg that he will get promoted to gold just because. As a joke, the rallymistress mentioned he would also be given bristlecone pine seeds that he and his ancestors must forever husband to replace the life that he took - at least, I think it was a joke.

The Hopeless Class will need to be renamed, since Leon's 250 Ninja finished 12th. Just to prove you should never say never, and that nothing is truly impossible, two of the top ten finishers were blue pill riders. So there you go, the Iron Butt Rally finishers have challenged even The Matrix and come out the other side.

KBasa

08-23-2003, 09:34 AM

> Missoula, Montana
> August 22, 2003
> Day 11
>
> The Interstate at 3:30 in the Morning
>
> The 2003 Iron Butt Rally is officially in the bag. Although it was the
> shortest base route in the event's history, it began picking people off on
> Day #1 and didn't stop until about 3:30 this morning when Eddie James
> smashed into a deer on I-90 near Billings. He is hospitalized with some
> broken ribs, a fractured clavicle, and other injuries. Riders were on the
> scene within minutes and have stayed with him ever since. He'll be
> O.K. He asked the admitting doctor if he were a real physician or just
> played one on TV. Does that sound like he's in trouble?
> If he hadn't whacked the deer, Eddie might have encountered 30 hay bales
> on the highway. Tom Loftus rode into them just after a truck driver lost
> control of his rig, swerved into a ditch, and threw the bales all over the
> highway. I can't repeat Loftus' description of how he got through that
> lethal mess because my hands shake too much just thinking about it.
> Tom might not have been able to see the bales in time because of the smoke
> all over western Montana. It has turned from simple gray clouds into gray
> clouds that drop ash and other particulate matter over everything. If
this
> keeps up much longer, the second largest city in this state is going to
> start looking like the countryside around Mount St. Helens two days after
> it blew its top.
> Still, smacking into the bales would have been better than smacking into
> the crane that sat on the interstate, trying to lift the truck that
dropped
> the bales on the highway out of the ditch that the truck eventually wound
> up in, possible because the driver couldn't see through the smoke.
>
> Dropping Like Flies in a DDT Factory
>
> A few days ago I began losing track of the people who were going home
> prematurely. The IBR is usually a war of attrition, but this was worse
> than the norm. Twenty per cent of the starting field didn't finish. Nine
> per cent had seen medics. Roughly 100% of me was jumping 94% out of my
> skin every time a cell phone rang. But the only goal that really matters
> was achieved: every rider who started the rally is breathing tonight.
They
> may not be here in Missoula, but they're somewhere and, except for Eddie,
> they're vertical. That's all I care about.
> Here's another 100% statistic, a much happier one: All the women who
> started the rally finished. You go, girls.
>
> Checking In
>
> Tom Austin, chief technical advisor of the IBR, rode his bike from here to
> Nevada to Florida to Maine to here. He left each checkpoint two hours
> after the last rider departed, arrived at the following checkpoint at
least
> four hours before the riders were due, ran the scoring assembly line at
> each checkpoint, and persistently looked in better shape than anyone else
> involved in the process. He didn't get a finisher's certificate, but he
> deserved one.
> We began checking off the riders who were in, on the way, or
> missing. It's that last class that is worrisome. No news on this rally
is
> bad news. Three of the missing were Paul Taylor, Leon (The Animal)
> Begeman, and Peter Hoogeveen.
> At 7:53 a.m., seven minutes before penalties would accrue at ten points
> per minute, Taylor sauntered in, produced his rider's ID tag to stop the
> ticking clock, and said, "I didn't want to peak too soon." The Boys ---
> Leir, Outlaw, and Kiecker --- were the clubhouse leaders in the scoring
> computer, but they hadn't gone to the Pentagon. Taylor had. It might be
> decisive, depending upon what Hoogeveen had done on the last leg.
> That assumed Peter would show up at all. At 8:26 he ran into the scoring
> room, 26 minutes late. His 260-point penalty was subsequently reduced to
> 110 because he had stopped to assist Eddie James. I asked if he'd gone to
> the Pentagon. He shook his head.
> The last rider to show up before 10:00 a.m. was Begeman. He was a mere 16
> minutes from being time-barred, and for his lateness took a penalty of
> 1,040 points. Had he had a breakdown, an accident, or a time delay to
help
> someone else? Nah. "I thought the penalties started at 10:00," he
> said. Sometimes I wonder how these guys can even get out of bed in the
> morning, and The Animal may be the smartest one in the rally. If he can't
> read, what hope is there for the others? I sighed, not for the first
time.
> Eventually, we had accounted for everyone. We went into the restaurant
> for a late breakfast. The waitress, Amber, seated us.
> "Are you with Harold and Rick?" she asked. You don't hear this question
> every day.
> "You know Brooks and Williams by their first names?" I said, trying not to
> laugh.
> "Oh, sure," Amber nodded. "They're real nice."
> Harold has a Virginia accent that even Mississippians can't decipher. He
> can turn a word like "four" into "fo" and make seven syllables out of
> it. I later congratulated him on his having finished six Iron Butts. "Is
> there a seventh in your future?" I wondered.
> "No," wife Jean said without a moment's hesitation.
>
> And the Winner Is . . .
>
> This was it. People ride for days from everywhere to be part of the Iron
> Butt final banquet. It's a big deal. Michael Kneebone took the
> microphone, told a few lies about our ride around the country in Moron,
and
> turned the ceremonies over to Lisa Landry, the rallymaster. She received
a
> standing ovation, the first of three on the night.
> The first award was presented to Quek Cheng Chye in memory of Fran
> Crane. It's an award for perseverance. Chye's ride was the stuff of Old
> Testament pain and suffering. It began with his rider identification
> number: 58. In Chinese culture the number 50 stands for luck; the number
8
> stands for bad. Chye was screwed before he even showed up in Missoula.
> He failed the muffler sound test during tech inspection, which caused him
> eventually to have to buy a new BMW muffler system for close to $900. At
> the first checkpoint in Primm he overslept, missed the rider's meeting,
and
> had to call Mike at 4:00 a.m. to receive his route instructions for the
> second leg. At a rest stop in Florida someone stole a saddlebag off his
> bike. Fortunately, not everything he valued in life was in that bag, just
> most of it. In deranged frustration, he lashed a kick out at a cruel and
> vengeful world, missed the world, hit his remaining saddlebag instead, and
> destroyed it on the spot. He lost his wallet and then was time barred in
> Maine, sinking deeper into the swamp. He finished 92nd overall, beating
> just two riders. Someone mockingly asked what he was going to carry the
> plaque home in. Poor Chye tried to smile.
> This is the kind of story that could bring tears to the eyes of
> Cinderella's stepmother. And it would have had much of that effect on the
> banquet crowd as well, except that by this time the entire room was
doubled
> over in rib-cracking laughter. Pity on your fellow human? A grain of
> empathy? Oh, please. We're motorcyclists.
> When Chye modestly accepted the award, you could hear the cheering in
Idaho.
> Jim Hickerson was called up to receive his trophy for a 54th-place finish
> on his Buell. A heckler in the crowd made rude remarks to the effect that
> the machine should have been placed in the Hopeless Class. Hickerson
> didn't blink. "How many BMWs failed and how many Buells failed?" he asked
> rhetorically.
> Most riders, realizing that they have no hope of a Top Ten finish, will
> content themselves to strive for a gold, silver, or bronze medal. I, for
> example, was awarded the bronze for my masterful ride in 2001, a tour in
> which I finished something like 65th, rode fewer miles than almost
everyone
> else, and expended so much energy in the process that I came under the
care
> of a psychiatrist for the eight months following the rally's
> conclusion. Silver medals are harder to get, and don't even think about
> the gold things.

[continued - next post]

KBasa

08-23-2003, 09:35 AM

[continued]

> Now consider Sparky Kesseler's final leg. He burned up the highways from
> Maine to Montana, raking in an astonishing 58,826 points, a score that was
> enough to take home a gold medal on that leg alone. I can't even imagine
> such fiery determination. He finished 49th, with half of his points taken
> away because of the bike swap. In my opinion, that ride deserves
something
> in addition to a gob of metal. Sparky deserves to have his name back: I
> salute you, Dennis. I knew you were good; I didn't know you were that
good.
> When Lisa called out the name of the 12th-place rider, the whole room
> stood for the second time. The plaque went to Leon Begeman on the 250cc
> Ninja, who rode 11,186 miles in 11 days. It is the kind of effort that
> will live in the annals of endurance riding forever. I have rarely seen
> anything to compare to it. Confident to the end, Leon told me, "Now that
> I've seen what kind of rally Kneebone puts on, I can build a bike to beat
> it." I've known The Animal for more than ten years and I've learned this:
> Don't bet him anything you can't afford to lose.
> Just two riders from the blue pill route, who shouldn't have been anywhere
> near the Top Ten, were Brent Ames (10th) and Todd Witte (8th). Paul
> Pelland had started a red pill route but in California reconsidered and
> took off for Florida. He finished 9th. John O'Keefe and Eric Jewell had
> done the same thing as Pelland but had stronger finishes (6th and 7th).
> That left five, and in the end, it came down to the Pentagon bonus. Paul
> Taylor drove the punishing miles south to Washington to earn it. His
> competitors didn't. That was it. Peter Hoogeveen finished fifth, his
> fourth Top Ten finish. No one in Iron Butt records has more podium
> finishes or a higher finishing average than does he. He'll be back.
> The Boys stuck together almost until the end. Will Outlaw took fourth,
> Marty Leir was third, and the youngest rider in the field, 26-year-old
Mark
> Kiecker, was second. The entire State of Minnesota must be standing on
its
> head tonight. For once even Eddie James wasn't talking about
> himself. These were his guys, and a prouder father he could not have
> been. You'll be seeing their names in the game of long-distance
> motorcycling for the next 20 years.
> But the Commonwealth of Virginia must be the proudest of all for its
> favorite son, the unstoppable Paul Taylor. When his name was called last,
> the crowd rose for the third time. I've watched him from his first
> rallies, back-to-back wins in the Capitol 1000. In 1999 he was called up
> to the Big Leagues for the Iron Butt. He was a rookie, made some
> incredibly bad route choices, and still finished 8th. In 2001 he ran a
> much better route but finished fourth behind Bob Hall, Shane Smith, and
> Peter Hoogeveen. That, by the way, isn't bad company with which to be
> associated.
> This year Paul's route planning was perfect. He needed one big bonus to
> pull himself away from the pack. The Pentagon was it. The difference
> between his winning score and that of Mark Kiecker was the 2,359 points at
> the Pentagon plus 272 miscellaneous points.
> On Day 2 I wrote: "A rider with an excellent efficiency is smart; a rider
> with big points is an animal; a rider with both is the guy to beat in the
> Iron Butt." Among the top five riders, Taylor rode the fewest miles. He
> knew how to take down the big points. He can ride through anything. And
> ultimately he was the guy to beat in the Iron Butt Rally.
> "The Robo is ready to rumble," he had said in Maine.
> Was it ever.
>
> Bob Higdon
> www.ironbutt.com
>
>
>

JimBud

08-23-2003, 10:44 AM

Dave, thanks for your efforts that kept us "on the ride" with all of the IBR riders......I bet with a more timely availabiity of the rally schedule...and the future spread of the MOA web site...it will be possible to have members posting pictures of the event stops and bonus points...almost real time...

Thanks again for the effort

itchybro

08-23-2003, 11:56 AM

I echo Jim Bud's sentiments.

Higdon ROCKS.

I think it's time to start thinking about some short rally riding (baby steps baby steps...)

DDHR1150RT

08-23-2003, 01:58 PM

Originally posted by bikerfish1100
Pity that Speedvision was not there to record this finish./ No frozen brakes this time, and no flying truck tires either. Just a shredded alternator belt (hmm, sound familiar?) and toasted battery.

I am so glad to hear that Marsha finally finished the Iron Butt!!!And the first on a R1100S to boot! Way to go Marsha! :clap

But, do I detect an ongoing problem with BMW motorcycles (90% of mechanical failures in the Iron Butt). "Another shredded alternator belt and a toasted battery". . . hmm. . . most peculiar! (see my post in oilheads under electrical problems)

Well, I guess that I can pinpoint the root of this epedemic in the Iron Butt 03. It seems that I should have never let Marsha park her bike near mine since an obvious motorcycle virus (strange that it only affected BMW's?) has attacked the alternator belts of many riders in the Iron Butt. Look out others! It also attacks batteries and varying electrical components!

To Marsha and the other BMW riders bitten by this virus. I am sorry that I failed to quarantine my motorcycle as this virus has obviously spread and affected many. My bike infected Marsha's who in turn infected others throughout the Iron Butt. I DEEPLY appologize to all!! Will it end or will it continue? We can only hope that a cure will be found! Are you listening BMW?

To all the BMW riders of the Iron Butt and beyond. Pay close attention to your alternator belts, your batteries and any other electrical gremlins that you may or may not notice right away. Despite what BMW may think, there is a problem with their recent durability as can be seen in the stats of the Iron Butt 03.

Now, what will I have to worry about next? The rearend? Jeeze, maybe I should just buy a different brand. The FJR1300 is starting to become appealing.

KBasa

08-23-2003, 02:08 PM

Originally posted by j-budimlya
Dave, thanks for your efforts that kept us "on the ride" with all of the IBR riders......I bet with a more timely availabiity of the rally schedule...and the future spread of the MOA web site...it will be possible to have members posting pictures of the event stops and bonus points...almost real time...

Thanks again for the effort

My pleasure. I'm hoping we'll start to see more of that type of stuff on here: pictures of places people went and the things they did.

After all, isn't that what motorcycles are for? To go places and do things?

skert

08-23-2003, 07:57 PM

My rally master, Eddie James, is in the hospital. Some really big dogs
of the Iron Butt rally have come by to see him. He is respected with
disrespect on many occasions by all of us and we love him.

I, for one, can't imagine him trapped in a bed, but that is where he is.
A broken shoulder, crack neck vertebra, broken pelvis. Bamby the
culprit, just 300 miles from the finish of the 2003 Iron Butt. He had
no more bonuses to get, just a leisurely ride into the check point in
Missoula. A BIG deer jumps in front of a car and decides this is not
good and dashes to the empty safe lane. NOT! That was Eddie's lane.
BAM! Going the speed limit in Montana which is sane and prudent I think.

Melody is on her way to pick up her honey. Huh? Do we know Eddie as a
honey? I don't think so. Just ask Mark Keicker, Bubba Kolb, anyone who
has run a ButtLite. He is a demon to us all as a Rally Master.

I know the "honey" though. I got to spend a week with him and Mel
before the AMA Vintage days. He was so affectionate about Mel as she
cut the grass on their four wheel drive lawn mower. He actually said
some of the sweetest things a man can say about a woman, and she rides
her own bike. Eddie is telling me that she is wasting mileage by
cutting the grass in strips, "if she would just go in circles she would
cut off valuable mileage". Next night when Mel comes home from work he
is out there cutting the other side of the huge yard they live in in
circles. What a guy.

We are all so sad for Eddie's untimely hunting episode, but wish him
painless times and a quick recovery. Do you think I am suggesting a
speedy recovery? No mention of speed here. Quick recovery is what I said.

Thank you to the Iron Butt Gods that Eddie is in with us and all that
met with something different than a closing banquet in Missoula, Montana.

SKERT

Karol Patzer

08-24-2003, 03:44 PM

Originally posted by Montana
The epilog - the banquet:

>>All the woman finished. Voni was only a few places behind Paul, and Linda finished more than that ahead of her husband. Rachel didn't rack up many points for all the speed she used, and in the audience I heard murmurs that this may be a bit of concern - that a sponsored racer may pollute the waters of the IBR, since that is not what this event is all about. But I would not want to disparage any finisher. And of course, the new Gold Wing owners were two up so - another female finisher.<<

Let's not forget Vicki Johnston riding an R1100RT!! Vicki quietly finished in 23rd place and as 1st place woman rider. Quite a feat! Don't know if she had any mechanical problems, but if she did, she certainly overcame them.:clap :clap
Wish I could have been at the finish to congratulate everyone!

Karol
3 IB Finishes

robnye

08-26-2003, 10:28 AM

Greetings,

Safe at home (at work now) after what was the ride of a life-time.

I had a ball climbing the steepest learning curve imaginable, from a crash in Colorado to the rookie mistake of heading for Key West, it was all good *almost* all the time.

My goals for the IBR was to finish, have fun and put down a ride I could be proud of. I had run a few other rallies and while generally had good results my last Mason Dixon was not a ride I was happy with. Secondary goal was a top 20 finish.

I met most of my goals and I am verry happy to have moved from 61st in Maine to 24th at the finish, however at the end of the day nobody really cares about the score, finishing makes everyone a winner, especially this year with the high rate of attrition.

My hat is off to Mike Kneebone, Lisa Landry and all the volunteers who worked so hard to put on a great event. I believe that the IBR is one of the last great amateur competitions left and it amazes me how well the game is organized. While some of my friends teased me about being beaten by a girl (Vikki Johnston finished just ahead of me) I think it is pretty cool that this game can be played equally well by men and women and my hat is off to Vikki. While I was making my move on the last leg I kept seeing her (usually leaving a bonus as I was arriving). I thought I was having a good leg and figured she was also going to have a strong finish.

I will be composing a trip report over the next few days. In the mean time here is a photo of my five star accomodations in the Iron Butt Motel. This was in South Dakota (town unknown) where I *assumed* I would find a room in one of the eight hotels. Unfortunately I did not know of the rodeo / round up also going on. Rather than go from town to town looking for a bed I built my own. I actually had a nice five hours of sleep here.

More to follow.