Yup, it’s two rides for the price of one… Kind of.
As I mentioned in the prior post, I had given myself two days to get back home. I had taken three to ride over to the campground in NC. It was a total of 1789 miles to get over to the campground, making it a point to stay away from the Interstates as I could.
The ride home, was 1503 miles if I stuck to the interstates. (It would be just a tad longer OD wise due to fuel stops) That made it just about perfect for doing the IBA rides. The Saddle Sore and the Butt Burner.
From the IBA site:
| Saddlesore 1000 | 1,000 miles in less than 24 hours |
| Bun Burner 1500 | 1,500 miles in less than 36 hours |
IRON BUTT ASSOCIATION
The 60,000+ members of the Iron Butt Association are dedicated to safe, long-distance motorcycle riding. Although based in the United States, we have thousands of enthusiastic members throughout the globe! One of our more popular slogans is, “The World Is Our Playground.”
This web site is home for hundreds of excellent stories about long-distance riding. One will also find a vast amount of technical information regarding the art and science of long-distance riding. Our most famous document, the IBA “Archive of Wisdom”, contains the collective wisdom and knowledge of some of the most experienced, seasoned long-distance riders in the world!
I know a number of people who have done the Saddle Sore ride (SS). I viewed as one of those things that you should try once. There is a WHOLE lotta rules for getting the rides certified.
Just to give you an idea:
- I had to have a tracker, like my InReach (a spot works, too).
- I had to have a witness at the start, sign verifying my OD reading, the time, and location I left from.
- I also had to get a receipt at the start of my ride with a date and time stamp on it. This would be my official start time.
- I had to log any stop over 30 minutes.
- I had to log every gas stop.
- Can’t ride more than 350 miles without stopping. Regardless, of your fuel capacity.
- I had to note at the gas stops the OD reading.
- I made this easier by just taking a picture of the OD and the receipt showing the date and time stamp on the receipt.
- I also had to have a receipt at the end showing the date and time.
- Along with the witness at the end who would verify that the above was accurate.
I decided before I even attempted this, that I would knock out the 1K miles on the first day and then tackle that last 500 on the second day. However, once on the road, I started to work out how to make it more manageable. Like only doing 750 on the first day, then doing the other 750+ on the second day. That would have only given me the BB award, but it if I was so tired that I couldn’t make the 1K it was a safer alternative.
It worked out that I was able to knock out 1063 miles on day 1. I kept my gas stops under 10 minutes, but I also stopped every 165-175 miles. I could have pushed them out more, but figures more shorter stops was better for me. Also that bike only has a 180 mile range. (I know they say it’s 200, but not at 70 mph it isn’t. I average 66 mph for the trip.) It was the last two hundred miles for me that were the hardest. I was getting tired, my focus wasn’t as good as it should have been. Especially since it was dark out, there was also a strong wind that was pushing the bike all over the road. My last gas stop for the evening, I didn’t pick the pump well and I almost dropped the bike when a gust of wind caught it.
Since I’d already knocked out the magical 1K+ miles. This meant I had less than 500 miles to go til I got home. That is really do able for me. It’s when it get around that 600 mile mark, that I start to feel like I’ve had a LONG day. I stopped for the night in Elk City, OK. I found a Holiday Inn Express… of course. Actually, it was that the other hotels didn’t look very nice. I had already done a couple of dive hotels on the way out to NC. I was over that.
I got a great nights sleep. I can’t imagine why….
I rode the last 450+ miles that day. I did have a long gas stop in the am. I had to stop to remove the visor from my DualSport helmet, the wind was starting to catch it. All that wind tugging on it was making my neck hurt. Once I got that off it was so much better. The wind wasn’t an issues anymore. I also stopped off at Clines Corners to take a break but it was less than 30 mins. My last stop for the day was at the Vet clinic to see my poor lil cat. That’s not a story I care to go into. I was at the vet clinic for just over an hour or so. Then it was a quick ride to home.
There really isn’t much I can say about the ride. I did see some great things along the way, but I didn’t feel I had the time to stop. It turns out that I did, but never having done this type of ride before. I wasn’t sure how it would all play out.
I submitted the logs along with all the documentation to the IBA, via email. The site says it can take up to 6 months for them to get it taken care of. I got mine back in about a months time.
It was when I was reviewing the forms, receipts, InReach and my GPS that I learned that the OD on my bike actually reads less than the actual mileage. Where most bikes tend to read more than the actual mileage. Explains why the GPS speed is different from my OD speed. For example: the GPS says my speed is 65 and the bikes only says its only 61 on the highways. I think it’s only with these Mitas E07 tires, I don’t remember that being the case before, like on my trip to Alaska.
