Girlie Motorcycle Blog

On August 27 the leg 2 bonus listing was distributed to the riders, dark and early at 4am. This 3 1/2 day leg puts riders to the task of accumulating 27,000 points to be considered a finisher. After the riders meeting, everyone was clear for takeoff. Unfortunately, for Catfish, he did not get an early start.

When I heard from him on Thursday morning it was short and sweet. ‘Bike is dead, swapping the battery.‘ My heart sank. I expected to hear that he was already underway with a couple hundred miles under his belt. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Thirty minutes later, I got the news. Not only was his battery dead, but if you can believe this cruel twist of fate, so was the replacement.

Day 4 was a tough one for Catfish.

I am unsure now if he got a jump on the second battery or if a 3rd battery was in play. But I do know that he didn’t get rolling until after lunch time. I didn’t hear from him again for the rest of the day. I can only imagine that every minute that ticked by must have felt like an eternity as he fiddled with his bike. Frustrating probably doesn’t begin to cover the way that morning played out.

It did my heart good to finally confirm that he was on the move. I know that on Thursday he was moving through Wisconsin, specifically around Spring Green. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin is there. This has to be a bonus location. It was the scene of a horrific crime that resulted in the death of his companion Mamah Borthwick Cheney and her 2 children amongst several others. Kenny and I passed through in 2005. Upon hearing the town name, what else but Frank Lloyd Wright and this crime can you think of? Well, except House on the Rock, which we visited that May. That too is a crime; against good taste.

You just never know what will happen from one day to the next. The Iron Butt Rally is like a soap opera for motorcycle riders. There is intrigue and adventure, excitement and plot twists. I can’t get enough!

Onward toward Santa Ana, California!

Checkpoint 2
Sunday, August 30, 9pm – 11pm Pacific Time
Santa Ana, California

• Iron But Rally – Day 4 pdf
• Leg 2 Bonus Snapshot

Checkpoint 1 has come and gone.

I got a chance to speak with Catfish on Wednesday night (August 26) after he checked in at St. Charles, Illinois and finished scoring. He arrived in the rain at about 4:30 central time. He was very chatty and sounded like he was in good spirits.He was looking forward to a shower and sleeping. The whole process sounds like it is a beautiful mix of terrible and wonderful all wrapped up into one. I’m certain that as time passes, the experience will provide him with long lasting memories.

• Catfish after arriving in St. Charles

He’d mainly worked on picking up bonuses around Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Tennessee. When he first answered my 10 questions about the rally about a year ago, he noted that he’s never really done any traveling. He echoed that sentiment again but peppered it with a clear interest in the traveling aspect of this undertaking.

Catfish had been plagued with a problem with his fuel cell right out of the gate at Spartanburg. The first two and a half days of the rally he’d been riding with his regular fuel tank only. With the weight he’s lugging around, he said he was turning about a 180 mile range or so. That makes for a few gas stops, huh? Luckily, he was able to fix is ailing fuel cell at the St. Charles. It turned out to be an issue with the filter. At the risk of sounding extra stupid I will leave my technical assessment at that.

At the close of night two before settling in for a few hours sleep in a Home Improvement store parking lot, he realized he’d left his rally flag about 4 miles back. So, in the wee hours, he had to pack himself back up, ride back to retrieve his flag and re-settle in for 40 winks.

Arm Chair Rally

With the first leg of the rally now a thing of the past, the Iron Butt Association has posted a listing of the leg 1 bonuses. Now you too can get a glimpse of what it is required to string a route together. Some other folks around the web have taken the time to put the bonus listings in to excel and csv files with you can find on the web to monkey around with. I particularly like this Google Maps version.

For your armchair rally-ing pleasure:

• Official IBR Leg 1 Bonus Listing PDF
• Leg 1 Bonuses in Google Earth
• Leg 1 Bonus Snapshot

Ready for it? Last week sometime, Kenny put his Zumo on my bike. Yes, yes, I know. Open mouth, insert foot.

I’ve taken 5 rides on the bike with the GPS now. It was turned off for 2 of them. 1 ride I strictly used the MP3 player. 1 ride I kept it on for the duration but I found that my desire to look at the screen was distracting. And lastly, while out playing tag-o-rama with the LI guys from ADVrider.com, I managed to unintentionally set a waypoint. Being that I had absolutely no familiarity with the device, I’m not sure how this happened as I was largely just listening to music.

What was an enjoyable ride listening to tracks from NIN’s Year Zero turned into me being hassled by some British lady who kept trying to tell me that I needed to make a left because I was going the wrong way. Considering that I had no idea how I turned on the way point, I surely didn’t know how to intuitively make that uppity broad shut the hell up. I ended up turning the stupid thing off.

What have I learned from my rides with the GPS so far?

Pros:

• If you are in unfamiliar territory from wandering as I am apt to do, you can set a course for "home" and just mindlessly follow it.
   
• Gas locations and distances at the touch of a button. Can’t beat that.
   
• Saving your tracks is a big Pro. If you are a wanderer this can be a great reminder for future outings.

Cons:

• Lengthy route planning is most easily done at a computer. For multi-day trips routing on the fly seems like it would be more difficult if you didn’t have access to a computer. You don’t get a high enough overview like you would by cracking open a map of the area.
   
• The propensity to look at the screen feels distracting to me at this point.
   
• Blind faith in a machine can be a hazard. Assuming that the machine is always right is… wrong. Though it may not happen often, you sometimes find yourself at  a gas station that was there 5 years ago. We ran into this issue in Tennessee once.

I think the reality is that GPS is absolutely useful but won’t always be the only right tool for planning when I don’t have access to a computer. My perceptions might be colored by my unfamiliarity with the device at this point. At the very least, you always know exactly where you are and wherever that may be you’ve got yourself an easily accessible and waterproof MP3 player.  More time is needed for me to formulate a better informed opinion.

How about you? Is a GPS a must for you? Can you take it or leave it? Hate it? Comment below!

We can happily say that there was no official news coming out of the Iron Butt Org on any of their assorted posting spots referencing Catfish. We’re going to go on the assumption that no news is good news!  To us, that means he’s still in there fighting the good fight.

I hope he’s safe and getting some sleep along the way. Less than 24 hour before Checkpoint 1 officially closes in St. Charles, Illinois.

What do we know?

• Today was the first Call In bonus
  This is when riders call in to rally staffers and leave their name, their rally number, where they currently are, the last bonus that they picked up and the next bonus that they will be shooting for.

  Did Catfish make the call in? We don’t know, but we sure hope so! This seems like a easy bonus to get, but then again I cannot imagine what its like to be out there competing. I am sure it’s pretty easy for things to slip your mind.

  Apparently rider locations will be released some time tomorrow (August 26) based on the call in, so we’ll be able to see where the ‘Fish is. Where ever that may be, I hope it’s with a fist full of bonus points.
  
  

• Catfish shows up in video and pictures
  There are some photos and video floating around the web from Spartanburg, which happen to catch Catfish or his bike in them.
  • A nice YouTube video of the riders leaving rally headquarters.
    Look for the hi-viz yellow jacket shortly after the 1:40 mark. That’s our guy!
     
  • The FJR Forum has a picture of Catfish’s “Farkle” FJR.
     
  • In Monday’s official Iron Butt dispatch pdf, Catfish can be seen in the staircase group shot, peeking over the rally sign on the lower left corner.

If you spot any Catfish pictures or video from Spartanburg on the web, please let us know!

I’ve been scouring the internet and the official IBR dispatches for clues.

The riders rolled out of Spartanburg, SC at 10:00 am today.  They are due at Checkpoint 1 in St. Charles, Illinois Wednesday, August 26 between 9 – 11pm Central Time. Scoring is to start any time after 5pm. Points get deducted every minute past 9pm with riders who fail to make it by 11pm being time barred. Riders will rest there until receiving their next leg bonuses at 4am on August 27.

What do we know?

• Suggested bonus points for this leg to be a finisher: 9000 points
  If a rider has not collected the suggested 9,000 points at Checkpoint 1 that does not mean that they will not be able to accumulate enough points in the next 2 legs to be considered a finisher.
   
• Bonus Theme:  Crime
  Each of the Bonuses has something to do with or is related to crime.
  
  
• Hours to ride for the leg: 10am Eastern (August 24) to 9pm Central (August 26) is 60 hours.  Obviously riders can’t do 60 hours straight riding. You have to factor in sleep, biological breaks and eating.  I just took a stab at what I think someone being kind to themselves could do using 2500 miles as my target:

  This is totally hypothetical. I’m not so hot with the math but, I’m pretty sure I have this right…

  Based on 1,000 miles per day.

  • 1000 miles per day x 2.5 days = 2500 miles
  • 60 Hours Available in the non-penalized Time Window
  • -20 Hours of Rest (2 8hr sleeps & 4 hours of assorted stops)
  • Leaves 40 Riding Hours
  • 62.5 mph    Moving Avg

•  Rally Participant Numbers that are open to solo-riding rookies:  53 to 101
  Could he have gotten every boys fantasy number, 69? We’ll know for sure in 10 more days!

Go, Catfish, Go!

Stay tuned for more updates!