CJ's not one to toot her own horn, so I'll let y'all in on a little secret. She rode the "first ever" Iron Butt Association SaddleSore 1000 (1000 miles in 24 hours) ALL ON DIRT ROADS this past Saturday! :aj: :aj:
Here's the story (ride report from another forum I frequent)...
Back in January, while I was preparing to ride the Iron Butt Association (IBA) sanctioned 100CCC Insanity, my wife CJ looked at me kind of sideways and said, "Why do you like doing these long distance rides? I mean, it's all Interstate. How BORING is that?!" So I looked at her and said "Well, would you do it if it was all dirt?" Without hesitation, she replied an enthusiastic "YEAH!" Hence, the DustyButt 1000 was born...
It's all your fault Jen, all your fault...
The goal: To ride 1000 miles of dirt in under 24 hours, and to document it as an IBA ride.
I proceeded to contact Mike Kneebone of the IBA and he agreed that a ride like this met the "sickness" test (his words, not mine) and that the IBA would recognize this ride if successfully completed. We subscribed to the standard rules for the SaddleSore 1000, and adopted a few enduro techniques for validating that riders passed a certain waypoint. In addition to the receipt gathering from ATMs and gas stations, we had 9 landmarks and a questionnaire that was to be filled out, and could only be filled out by visiting the landmarks.
The day finally came, Saturday, May 17th, and after a half a dozen last minute cancellations from various people, we kicked the ride off with 8 starters. The roster:
3 BMW R1150GS Adventures
2 Kaw KLRs
1 BMW GS 1100
1 Suz DR650 (Jen)
1 Aprilia Pegaso
We met at the starting point, a Total station in Goodland, KS, at 4:30am and everyone had the route plugged into their GPS. We were to head north into Nebraska, west into Colorado, south thru eastern Colorado, back into southwestern Kansas and north again back to Goodland. 1076 miles total, 1028 of which was dirt. The paved sections were necessary to get us in and out of towns that had gas.
Off and running, we left the gas station and immediately pulled onto the backroads of Kansas, roads voted "most likely to never be paved". These were perfect roads for this kind of ride. Long, straight, north-south farms roads, fenced on both sides to keep the cows away, and with the occassional gentle rolling curve and hill, taken us down to the bottom of an arroyo (sp?).
After about 50 miles, we hit the first real bump in the road, and the 1100GS found out that BMW system-cases don't stay attached very well when traveling off road (either that, or he didn't have it mounted properly before departing). His left side case came flying off and tumbled about 75 feet out into a pasture. He never missed it though and kept right on trucking down the road. I stopped and collected the case and was glad to have a roll of duct tape handy. I figured he'd notice it missing at the first landmark stop.
New found luggage taped firmly to my rear rack, we rolled on down the road, now at the tail of the pack. In fact, we didn't see another bike for almost an hour, and the first landmark parking area was vacant when we got there. We rolled up the speedo a little and tried to make ground on the pack. After about a half hour, we finally caught sight of the last bike, and shortly thereafter, we got a close-up view of him, as his bike lay sideways in the rut infested road. He had been caught off-guard by a rut and went into a tank slapper at about 25 mph. Thanks to the low speed, he wasn't hurt, but his GS Adventure was out of commission. He had landed on the left handlebar and the hydraulic unit for the clutch was FUBAR. A local farmer came by and offered to help out and his house was only a couple hundred feet away. So we took the bike up there and Pete bid us fairwell as he acknowledged that he was probably out of the ride and that we should get moving again. He spent the rest of the day working on the hydraulic unit, with help from two different BMW dealerships via telephone. In the end, he had to trailer the bike home.
We finally caught the 1100GS at the first gas stop and gave him his boat anchor back. (perhaps he thought this was going to be a multi-day ride, as his luggage was packed full and heavy). About 5 miles out of the gas stop, I passed a rider going the wrong way. He said he had missed the gas stop and was back-tracking. He also informed me that he didn't feel he was making good time and would likely bail before day's end. That's the last I saw of him.
So, we were down to 6 riders, and for almost 200 miles, we were all riding within sight of each other. When I say "within sight" I mean, we could see each others dust cloud, even up to 5 miles away.
The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. CJ, Dan on the 1100GS and myself all rode together and chased the tell-tale signs of Lee Garrett out in front. Lee's a Big Dog, and left a GS Adventure roost mark at every corner in the road.
At midnight, we rolled into Lakin, KS, to gas up for the last leg of the ride. CJ was looking pretty tired and I offered to bail with her and ride back to Goodland via pavement. This would still give us the required mileage for a standard SaddleSore 1000, without the dirt signature. But her determination was unrelenting and she indicated that she thought she could ride another 150 miles of dirt before collapsing from exhaustion.
So dirt we did, and these last miles were the most punishing. Not because of the road, but mental strain was taking it's toll. I had blown a fuse on my GS and so my auxilliary lights were out as well as my GPS, which was now just running on the remaining juice left in the batteries. I knew I had a fuse in my luggage somewhere but was too tired to look for it in the dark. With the reduced lighting and CJ's DR650 insufficient lighting, we reduced our speed and focused on "finishing" the ride, even if we did not make it in 24 hours. All attention was now on finding a 6 inch wide strip of acceptable riding surface amid the gravel, sand, ruts and mud.
The 1100 GS still had it's PIAA on bright and so Dan led the way, although rode a little too far out in front of us for us to benefit from his brights.
About halfway thru the last leg, at about 1:30 in the morning, we saw him go into an awesome tank-slapper and land in a splash of mud. Ah, ya gotta love western Kansas! You can crash pretty hard and all that you're going to hit is soft mud. We stopped and helped him right his bike and clean off a layer of the soil like material that was now coating every surface of his existance, had a good laugh, and slipped and slided our way for the next 100 feet.
We rolled into Goodland, KS, tired, worn and fairly well exhausted at around 2:40 am on Sunday morning. Total ride time was 22 hours and 7 minutes. 1076 total miles and 1028 miles of dirt. I'm most proud of CJ who finished this ride, even though her previous longest day on a bike was 550 miles in about 10 hours.
In the end, we had 4 confirmed finishers (3 GS's and 1 DR650). The two KLR's were about 1/2 hour behind us and at 21 miles from the finish, one of them went down on a rut and broke his collar bone. The other KLR rider stayed with him until help showed up, and finished the ride about 15 minutes late. We think there is precedence for allowing him to receive the award for successfully completing the ride, since he stopped and stayed with an injured rider. He's a winner in my book, but I neither make nor interpret the IBA rules.
Sorry no pictures. Endurance riding is not really very photogenic.
Cheers y'all!
Here's the story (ride report from another forum I frequent)...
Back in January, while I was preparing to ride the Iron Butt Association (IBA) sanctioned 100CCC Insanity, my wife CJ looked at me kind of sideways and said, "Why do you like doing these long distance rides? I mean, it's all Interstate. How BORING is that?!" So I looked at her and said "Well, would you do it if it was all dirt?" Without hesitation, she replied an enthusiastic "YEAH!" Hence, the DustyButt 1000 was born...
It's all your fault Jen, all your fault...
The goal: To ride 1000 miles of dirt in under 24 hours, and to document it as an IBA ride.
I proceeded to contact Mike Kneebone of the IBA and he agreed that a ride like this met the "sickness" test (his words, not mine) and that the IBA would recognize this ride if successfully completed. We subscribed to the standard rules for the SaddleSore 1000, and adopted a few enduro techniques for validating that riders passed a certain waypoint. In addition to the receipt gathering from ATMs and gas stations, we had 9 landmarks and a questionnaire that was to be filled out, and could only be filled out by visiting the landmarks.
The day finally came, Saturday, May 17th, and after a half a dozen last minute cancellations from various people, we kicked the ride off with 8 starters. The roster:
3 BMW R1150GS Adventures
2 Kaw KLRs
1 BMW GS 1100
1 Suz DR650 (Jen)
1 Aprilia Pegaso
We met at the starting point, a Total station in Goodland, KS, at 4:30am and everyone had the route plugged into their GPS. We were to head north into Nebraska, west into Colorado, south thru eastern Colorado, back into southwestern Kansas and north again back to Goodland. 1076 miles total, 1028 of which was dirt. The paved sections were necessary to get us in and out of towns that had gas.
Off and running, we left the gas station and immediately pulled onto the backroads of Kansas, roads voted "most likely to never be paved". These were perfect roads for this kind of ride. Long, straight, north-south farms roads, fenced on both sides to keep the cows away, and with the occassional gentle rolling curve and hill, taken us down to the bottom of an arroyo (sp?).
After about 50 miles, we hit the first real bump in the road, and the 1100GS found out that BMW system-cases don't stay attached very well when traveling off road (either that, or he didn't have it mounted properly before departing). His left side case came flying off and tumbled about 75 feet out into a pasture. He never missed it though and kept right on trucking down the road. I stopped and collected the case and was glad to have a roll of duct tape handy. I figured he'd notice it missing at the first landmark stop.
New found luggage taped firmly to my rear rack, we rolled on down the road, now at the tail of the pack. In fact, we didn't see another bike for almost an hour, and the first landmark parking area was vacant when we got there. We rolled up the speedo a little and tried to make ground on the pack. After about a half hour, we finally caught sight of the last bike, and shortly thereafter, we got a close-up view of him, as his bike lay sideways in the rut infested road. He had been caught off-guard by a rut and went into a tank slapper at about 25 mph. Thanks to the low speed, he wasn't hurt, but his GS Adventure was out of commission. He had landed on the left handlebar and the hydraulic unit for the clutch was FUBAR. A local farmer came by and offered to help out and his house was only a couple hundred feet away. So we took the bike up there and Pete bid us fairwell as he acknowledged that he was probably out of the ride and that we should get moving again. He spent the rest of the day working on the hydraulic unit, with help from two different BMW dealerships via telephone. In the end, he had to trailer the bike home.
We finally caught the 1100GS at the first gas stop and gave him his boat anchor back. (perhaps he thought this was going to be a multi-day ride, as his luggage was packed full and heavy). About 5 miles out of the gas stop, I passed a rider going the wrong way. He said he had missed the gas stop and was back-tracking. He also informed me that he didn't feel he was making good time and would likely bail before day's end. That's the last I saw of him.
So, we were down to 6 riders, and for almost 200 miles, we were all riding within sight of each other. When I say "within sight" I mean, we could see each others dust cloud, even up to 5 miles away.
The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. CJ, Dan on the 1100GS and myself all rode together and chased the tell-tale signs of Lee Garrett out in front. Lee's a Big Dog, and left a GS Adventure roost mark at every corner in the road.
At midnight, we rolled into Lakin, KS, to gas up for the last leg of the ride. CJ was looking pretty tired and I offered to bail with her and ride back to Goodland via pavement. This would still give us the required mileage for a standard SaddleSore 1000, without the dirt signature. But her determination was unrelenting and she indicated that she thought she could ride another 150 miles of dirt before collapsing from exhaustion.
So dirt we did, and these last miles were the most punishing. Not because of the road, but mental strain was taking it's toll. I had blown a fuse on my GS and so my auxilliary lights were out as well as my GPS, which was now just running on the remaining juice left in the batteries. I knew I had a fuse in my luggage somewhere but was too tired to look for it in the dark. With the reduced lighting and CJ's DR650 insufficient lighting, we reduced our speed and focused on "finishing" the ride, even if we did not make it in 24 hours. All attention was now on finding a 6 inch wide strip of acceptable riding surface amid the gravel, sand, ruts and mud.
The 1100 GS still had it's PIAA on bright and so Dan led the way, although rode a little too far out in front of us for us to benefit from his brights.
About halfway thru the last leg, at about 1:30 in the morning, we saw him go into an awesome tank-slapper and land in a splash of mud. Ah, ya gotta love western Kansas! You can crash pretty hard and all that you're going to hit is soft mud. We stopped and helped him right his bike and clean off a layer of the soil like material that was now coating every surface of his existance, had a good laugh, and slipped and slided our way for the next 100 feet.
We rolled into Goodland, KS, tired, worn and fairly well exhausted at around 2:40 am on Sunday morning. Total ride time was 22 hours and 7 minutes. 1076 total miles and 1028 miles of dirt. I'm most proud of CJ who finished this ride, even though her previous longest day on a bike was 550 miles in about 10 hours.
In the end, we had 4 confirmed finishers (3 GS's and 1 DR650). The two KLR's were about 1/2 hour behind us and at 21 miles from the finish, one of them went down on a rut and broke his collar bone. The other KLR rider stayed with him until help showed up, and finished the ride about 15 minutes late. We think there is precedence for allowing him to receive the award for successfully completing the ride, since he stopped and stayed with an injured rider. He's a winner in my book, but I neither make nor interpret the IBA rules.
Sorry no pictures. Endurance riding is not really very photogenic.
Cheers y'all!
