Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 23:17:51 -0700 From: "Roger Van Santen" To: Subject: Re: tires and the IBR Message-ID: <001801bf04c2$48404000$bb99fad0@default> Forgive the band width, but this seemed like natural subject to address and segue into some thoughts and observations about the Iron Butt Rally. For those not interested, there's always the delete button. Thanks to all of you who showed interest and followed my progress as well as all the other participants of the rally. It was good to meet Steve at the start in Ojai. One of his pictures is on the cover of a little album that Karen put together of our exploits. Thanks Steve. And it was great to see the familiar faces of Kevin Harrington and his wife in St. Augustine. Thanks for showing up. Even though I was tired and a bit scatter brained, you were a real pick me up. And then there was Kelly who showed up at the finish. The two of us have been at more GTS get togethers than perhaps anyone else on the list. Glad you took the time to come down to Ojai. Sorry our time was so limited. And thank you Kevin Hawkins for letting me talk you out of your wind deflector. It really does quiet things down. Now to the topic. TIRES: I have had good luck with Michelin Macadam 90s (120/70 Front, 40 psi; 170/60 Rear, 42 psi). They handle well in the wet and dry and give me good tire mileage. The front that I ran in the Butt has 13,000 miles with at least 4,000 miles left. I changed the rear in Maine because I didn't want to worry about it during the end of the rally. It had 6,000 miles on it with at least 5,000 left. And it hadn't flat spotted all that badly either. SPONSORS: Some riders did solicit sponsorships. As Dave pointed out, it was just a matter of how aggressive one wanted to be. I accepted a free ScottOiler, as could have anyone with a chain driven bike. Pat Widder offered a heated vest with the new arm chaps at cost. It was worth it if for no other reason than the really cool Iron Butt Association logo. And our own Mike Coan provided a prototype of his new permanent mount dual control heat-troller to try. By the way, the new controller is a great improvement over the old. It is more efficient, there is no strobbing of the headlight, and it is nice to be able to separate the heat to your various heated clothes. All in all, a ride of this magnitude is not inexpensive, so every little bit helps. THE RIDE: The first leg, I ran up the California coast, through lousy traffic in Carmel, around Mt. St. Helens and finished with a good solid ride. The second leg I made a major error when I elected to go through Chicago instead of down through Texas. As I was riding past Baker City, OR, I was chatting on the CB with a friend who had decided to go to Texas. He almost persuaded me to tag along, but I decided to stick to my original plan--mistake! In order to make a time dependent bonus location in Chicago, I was forced to do an all nighter. That, along with a couple of thunder storms with the associated lightning, wind and rain made for a long ride. Then I had to do another all-nighter to get to Maine in time to have the bike serviced before the check point opened. As riders came into the checkpoint, it became obvious that two distinct groups had developed: those who went to Texas, and the rest of us. So I started the third leg beating myself up for not going to Texas. Then I lost the audio on my CB which also took the audio for my radar detector. Having lost two devices that I have come to depend on, I backed off a couple notches. Then I ran into the western fringe of tropical storm Dennis. By the time I had a chance to stop and put my rain gear on I was already wet, so I decided to skip it and kept riding. Needless to say, I was at my low spot of the rally--day seven. That is one of the reasons it was good to see the Harringtons in Florida. I needed a friend at that point. Fortunately, I shared my room in Florida with Rick Morrison ('97 IBR winner, '99 second place finisher). He was gracious enough to give me some tips on route planning and strategy. As a result, I had a very good fourth leg. I moved myself up from an "also ran", to a solid silver medal finisher. BTW, I thought about calling Phil Benson for breakfast on the last Thursday morning. I went through Los Cruces twice, once on my way up to White Sands and the Petroglyphs, and then back down to I-10 to shoot up from Demming to the Cliff Dwellers. Phil, how many times have I been through Los Cruces without letting you buy breakfast for me?;)) OBSERVATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS: There is a world of difference between 24/36 hour rallies and and 11 day event. I have been quite competitive in the short rallies. They are more like a sprint, albeit a long sprint. But an 11 day event takes more planning, pacing, and self discipline. The GTS is a great bike, but unfortunately, not the best bike for this type of event (IMHO). A better bike would be one with more fairing; one that protects from the wind and rain. Day after day of fighting the weather can really be fatiguing. What would I choose? BMW K1100LT, BMW K1200LT, Gold Wing, ST1100, (original Venture--good choice Kelly). Built in CB and other electronics has a lot going for it also. I really felt handy capped when I lost my ability to communicate. Better foul weather gear is a must. I have a two piece Roadcrafter. It is not waterproof at this stage of it's life. A couple of guys I rode with off and on stayed completely dry in their Dariens. So one of those is probably in my future. Finally, pick the biggest bonuses possible that are not time dependent and go to Texas! There is no other way to be competitive. EPILOG: About the time I hit the Oregon border on the way home, the bike dropped a cylinder. Hoping it was some bad fuel, I ran some fuel injection cleaner through, to no avail. New plugs didn't help. Tonight I finally got around to checking the compression. There is none in cylinders #1 and #3. So I guess my expenses from this rally aren't over yet. :( If you've endured this long, you too could be a long distance rider. In summation, I had fun and I would/will do it again. It's not for everyone, but it's an itch that I've scratched and it feels good. Again, thanks to all of you for your interest and support. Roger 99 IBR Finisher on the only GTS entered!