For about the past year I've had plans of passing my 1991 ST1100 on to my nephew, but I could never get a free weekend to get it to Denver where he lives. About 2 weeks ago I decided I'd ride it out around the 4th of July. As I started making plans I decided to go for a BBG, or if the holiday weekend traffic was bad a Bun Burner...it's about 1540 miles to my sister’s just north of Denver.
I hooked up my V1, XM radio, GPS and mix-it on the bike thursday night. Except for for installing my Rick Mayer Saddle and a +3 givi windshield the bike was stock. (FYI.. I shipped a corbin seat so I could bring my saddle back with me). With the final plans in place and an airline ticket in hand for the return I was ready for the trip.
A friend of mine, who is a firefighter stopped by friday night to sign the witness form for the start of my ride. I left my house at 4am saturday morning July 1st and headed to a gas station in search of gas and a receipt. Official start time was 4:13 EDT. I jumped on I-75 north towards Atlanta. Arriving in the Atlanta area, I jumped into the HOV lane to blast through the morning holiday traffic. &%@.. at the I-75 / I-85 junction I missed the exit for I-75 and took a slight detour of east Atlanta, loosing about 10 minutes of time. This was not a good way to start a 1500 mile ride...
Getting back on I-75 north I was able to keep a steady pace. I stopped for gas just before the GA / TN border. It was still early and only one gas station was open at the exit so I pulled in filled the tank and headed to the restroom..&%@! The men's room is "out of order". I headed north again and caught I-24 in Chattanooga. Traffic continued moving at a good pace, but was getting heavier. I slipped through Nashville and into Kentucky. I was still keeping a good pace despite the traffic. The second gas stop was at Cadiz, KY and was kept to a minimum. I really hate driving in Illinois with a 55mph speed limit for trucks, trailers, etc. and 65pmh for other vehicles. The different speed limits really screws up traffic flow. I stopped again for gas just east of St. Louis, it was 11:55am CDT and I’d ridden 644 miles according to the GPS. I ran inside and used the restroom. While I was leaving the store, I saw some hotdogs cooking, I couldn’t resist and grabbed one for a quick bite to eat. The weather had been good up to this point, but was getting HOT quickly. I pushed on and weaved through St. Louis traffic and road construction, which slowed traffic to a crawl for a short stretch. Traffic flowed at a good pace after the construction and I quickly left St Louis. Gas stop #4 was in Concordia, MO. It was HOT, I refilled my water bottle and continued west. Besides St Louis, Kansas City was the other major city that I had concerns about getting through as both can have heavy traffic. I was lucky in KC and zipped through, just missing the Race traffic on the west side as it looked like the race had just ended as I rode by the track. As I got further west in Kansas the cross winds started to pick up, but weren’t bad. At a quick gas stop in Quinter, KS the GPS showed 1036 miles after about 14hrs and 10 minutes on the road. It was HOT!! and I hadn’t been drinking enough water so I took a few extra minutes to drink a large bottle of gator aide and about ½ bottle of water. I was making excellent time and was on track to complete the ride in about 21 hours. It started getting cloudy and dark…I could see rain a short distance to the west. I put on my waterproof gloves and buttoned the jacket. As I started west again I could see heavy rain & lightening to the north and south of me, but every time I thought I’d get wet the road turned away from it. At the KS / CO border the wind switched direction and was now coming from the north and increased in strength. Then the rain started… With the rain and strong gusting winds I had to slow down well below the speed limit to keep the bike on the road. I was getting tired and remember thinking if the winds continued all the way to Denver I didn’t think I would be able to finish the ride. But I was lucky once again and the rain and wind quit after about 100 miles. The last gas stop before Denver was in Limon, CO…only about 150 miles left! The weather had slowed me down, but I had plenty of time to complete the ride in under 24 hours. I grabbed a candy bar and something to drink before starting the last leg… Traffic was light and the weather good so I was able to keep a good pace going until getting on the E-470 toll road just east of Denver. E-470, this took me to I-25 and the last ~40 miles to Loveland. My last gas receipt was time stamped 11:44pm MDT. The GPS showed 1552.9 miles in 21hrs:32 min. My overall average was only 3.9 mph slower than my driving average, which indicated to me I was able to keep my stops to a minimum, total stop time was 1hr:05min.
I still remember the look on my sister's face when she asked me why I rode to her house instead of my nephew's, which would have been 50 miles less. I tried to explain to her I needed the extra 50 miles to complete a Iron Butt ride. She still doesn't understand. :)
I learned a couple of things on this ride…
Most importantly, I won’t do this type of a ride again on a bike that isn’t setup for me. Without risers and heli bars, I was putting a lot of pressure on my wrists and by about the 1000 mile mark, my wrists were in severe pain. It also caused pain in my neck & shoulder. I still feel it 4 days after the ride.
Second, I’ll use a camel-bak in hot weather instead of water bottles. The water got so hot in the bottle I couldn’t drink it. I’ve never had this problem with a camel bak in my tank bag. Since I wasn’t continuously drinking water, I was severely dehydrated by the end of the ride.
Now I just need to finish the paperwork and wait for the IBA to do their thing.