Hopeless Class - The Book, an Airhead in the Iron Butt Rally

[r60IBR]

Some of you may remember that I rode my 1976 R60/6 in the 2007 and 2009 Iron Butt Rallies. 2007 was a debacle, and even though the Airhead did well, I was a DNF (did not finish). In the 2009 rally the Airhead and I finished ahead of 42 other riders and ended the rally with over 523,000 miles on the 33 year old R60. After 2 1/2 years I finally finished a book about the Airhead, the Iron Butt Rally, and me. It's called Hopeless Class. That's where the organizers put me due to the age of the Airhead, the high mileage, the low horsepower, and my previous DNF.

The book is about the adventure. It is written for non-riders, riders who couldn't give one whit for long-distance riding, experienced Hedz and Iron Butt folks. The R60 ran beautifully, and except for the sidestand/left foot-peg breaking off at midnight on day 4, and a saddlebag getting torn off and dragged for quite a few miles on day 5, it never hiccuped . I rode 19 hours a day for 11 straight days at near full throttle, got 43 mpg overall, and burned a quart of oil every thousand miles. After the eleven day, eleven thousand mile rally ended in Spokane, WA, I rode two,1,350 miles days in a row in order to get home to North Carolina in time to be at work the day after labor day. I love my Airhead!

If your so inclined, Hopeless Class is available at amazon.com or can be ordered through your local bookstore. Paperback or Kindle.

Thanks for the bandwidth.

Joel Rappoport
1976 R60/6
IBA #397

[TexanRT]

Joel, I just added your book to my kindle library and we are looking forward to the reading your story. Congratulations on getting it published. We followed the last three rallies daily. I remember there were lots of people tracking your progress. The reports and forums were great but I've always wanted to know more from the rally participants themselves. Now I will. Thanks.

[tommcgee]

Received for Kindle. Thanks for making it available that way. I can no longer deal with print books cluttering my life.

[bluehole]

Just ordered the book. Eager for it to arrive and jump right in!

[rhyeks]

Joel,
I spoke with you about 30 minutes before the start of the IBR in Spartanburg. Even though I am sure you had plenty going on, you took time to speak with me -someone you didn't know at one of the most stressful times imaginable. Thanks for your time in Spartanburg and for writing your book. I will be ordering my copy soon!

[68820]

Here's a direct link to the book, Hopeless Class by Joel Rappoport. It sounds like a great read based on the "Look Inside" preview provided by Amazon.

[Voni]

You'll love listening to Joel on a recent edition of Sidestand Up:

http://recordings.talkshoe.com/TC-64458/TS-651186.mp3
He's on the last third of the show . . .

Voni
sMiling

[terham]

Got my Kindle version of the book. Looking forward to reading it.

[r60IBR]

Thanks to you'all. What I wanted to do was show what an Airhead and an airhead could do in extreme long-distance riding. I was also aiming to tell an entertaining story.

Ride safely and far

[terham]

Finished reading it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Long distance riding isn't for me but I like reading about it and living vicariously through others. Glad you found a riding partner that can go 400 miles between breaks.

[wuli959]

Just bought it for my kindle. Looking forward to a great read about your adventure.

[rhyeks]

Just finished reading mine. I enjoyed the stories behind the "crime scenes". I may stop by some of them down the road.

[bogthebasher]

A very nice read, really captured the essence of the journey and the destination.

[PGlaves]

Our hard copy came the other day. Early afternoon I picked it up and started reading it. I was interrupted a few times doing the stuff I had planned to do that day, but sometime after my normal bedtime I finished the book. It is a great read. Anybody who is interested in going places, seeing things, and riding more than just short distances ought to read this book.

[lkchris]

Ordered one based on Paul's recommendation and enjoyed it.

Now have better understanding of what it's like to do this rally, but it's also not the thing for me. I think maybe Joel did smell a few roses along the way but don't think I could have at his pace.

I continue to think BMW riding is about getting some distance away from home and for sure not short commutes to work and that's absolutely the story here.