Anybody Want to Do An Iron Butt Ride?

[Doc Edkin]

Wednesday morning, another rider from the Rome area (John Shearer. . .Ultra Classic he bought in Utica) and I are leaving to do a Saddle Sore 1000. This will be a documented ride within the Iron Butt Association list of certified rides. We will get receipts and signatures along the way to certify that we rode 1000 miles in 24 hours or less. This particular ride, not yet done by anybody on the IBA list, will be done without leaving New York State. (We will be leaving the Sylvan Beach/Canastota area around 0400 and after a big figure eight sort of route around NY, we will land back here around 2200.) Any G&H members want to do this with us? Later, I plan to organize an IBA sanctioned "Empire State 1000" rally with housing, a banquet, T-shirts, prizes, etc. Stu, Bill, and others have given a thumbs up to the notion that G&H might serve as the organizing group. With some dealer support (Destiny, an H-D shop, and a BMW shop?) and IBA certification, we may be able to make this a nationally advertised annual event with a theme and some fund raising potential for the club or for some charity (Baldwin's?) or a combination of the two. We want to be a rider's club and this seems to me to be one way to punctuate that identity. For starters, somebody needs to be the first to do the initial route so it might as well be us. Anybody in? Post here and call me: Home: 245 1688 Cell: 225-1116. It sounds like there is a riders' meeting Monday night. I'll be there with details if anyone is interested.

[Doc Edkin]

Here is a recent report from the IBA site telling the story of one incredible SS1K. Running around NY on the Interstates shoulc be a cakewalk. Anyway, read this and imagine what they must have dealt with.:confused:

Bob Higdon said it was "impossible" but very early this morning, Iron Butt
Veteran John Ryan became the first person to finish the Washington DC-1000!


Showing that he was at least willing to throw himself at a task beyond
comprehension, Robert Higdon came in next, followed by Michael Kneebone.

What best can be described as combat conditions, our trio put up with
massive traffic jams when a four car pile up closed part of the D.C. road
system they were using, riding through areas that when a local police
officer noticed the motley crew, he pulled them over and suggested this was
no area to be riding a motorcycle at 2 a.m. In fact, he said it was no area
to be riding a motorcycle anytime! John's craftilly engineered route did
mean covering ground in some of the most dangerous parts of what was for
many years known as the Murder Capital of the World. The officer warned
Mike, "Do NOT stop, no matter what when you come back around."

On that note, our thanks go out to the metropolitan police for providing
some extra protection along the route. They rolled out the red carpet to
ensure the 62 laps of D.C. would be as safe as possible. On the sidelines,
they would stop us and ask, "What lap is this? How many more miles to go?!"
It was the best pull-over you could ever hope for!

Due to the short, repetitive nature of the route, verification was handled
by GPS tracking, manual lap recording data and IBA staff members Bill Shaw
(IBA News editor), and Dave McQueeney, the creator of the D.C.-1000. He
rode two SaddleSores from Los Angeles to be a witness in Washington, sat up
for 24 straight hours at the checkpoint, and (as I write this) is on his way
back to California in another two-day jaunt.

Taking on eyewitness duties with Shaw and McQueeney were IBR Winner Paul
Taylor, IBR Veteran Sean Gallagher, local BMWBMW (BMW Bikers of Metropolitan
Washington D.C.) IBA member Ed Read, and electrical guru and tech at
Morton's BMW, Roger Sinclair. Shaw, Sinclair, Taylor and McQueeney would
not leave the checkpoint for the entire 24 hours our boys were out riding a
unique urban route.

Ryan, Kneebone, and Higdon had been looking at routes for months, but it was
Ryan who came up with right combination to make the ride possible. Besides
the challenges of spikes sticking out of the ground, constant traffic, and
the ever-present photo-radar patrol cars (causing traffic traveling at 60+
mph to slam on brakes so hard that they would slow to in some cases to 28
mph!), John's route offered many elevation changes, and wonderful views of
the Capitol, National Cathedral, and Washington Monunemt.

The DC-1000 - a ride for the history books!

[Top Gun]

Wayne,
I'm interested in the proposal to have Guns 'n Hoses support your idea. We have a very good rapport with the Ramada Inn on Buckley Road and if you're going to seek housing and even a banquet, I'm sure they'd jump at the chance to be a part of it. Gary, Stu, Lorrie and I put about 600+ miles on during our trip to NYC yesterday, returning today. Gary and I had put a great push on during our return trip, with a stop in Roscoe for lunch at the fabulous Fairway Inn owned by our riding friends The Walters' (Don and Bunni). Gary and I hit some major presip in Binghamton, which stalked us off and on back to Syracuse. The topper was about 4:45PM on I-81 at Lafayette. The weather turned fierce with the hail stinging our faces and hands. The temperature dipped to a nipply 33 degrees and the visibility dropped to a couple hundred yards, with the heavy rain, freezing rain and hail accompanied with a healthy dose of fog. We slowed to about 30mph because of the painful precip mainly. Lucky for us that we did. We could see brake lights through the mist and frozen snow and ice on the windshields and then some 4-way flashers and as we navigated through, we saw several several cars all over the road, in the ditch, several more spun out a quarter mile down the road and another way off the road with the windows blown out. Another mile down the road, there were several more along with a Trooper with the roof lights on to alert approaching traffic. It looked like there was about a half inch of ice on the road! And yet 5 miles later, the skies cleared and the temperature was at 40! The trip itself was a lot of fun and the Dinosaur in NYC is a great place. Navigating NYC's roads is not for the faint of heart though.

I have to do my 600 mile service in the next day or two. I'd like to do the 1K ride on Weds., but I've been out too much already! Ride safe, Wayne and let's discuss the 1K run.

[Doc Edkin]

John Schearer (Ulta Classic rider from Rome) and I completed the Saddle Sore 1K in just short of 19 hours. With over 200 miles of secondary roads, we had a 63 mph rolling average with a 53 mph average for the trip inclusive of stops. Our stopped time, including gas stops, lights, construction and the like was just short of four hours. Actual riding time, then, was about fifteen hours and included a route through Watertown, Malone, Rouses Point, Albany, Oneonta, Binghamton, Bath, Buffalo to home. Today, I rode my old bike, but not not very much. :( I'll give you guys a little more notice the next time I do one of these and maybe we can get some more G'nH folks involved in the IBA activities. If anyone is interested, do a search on the Iron Butt Association and the main web site will give you more information than you may want.