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The official 2013 Iron Butt rally - July 1

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mr-roboto

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The Iron Butt Rally, 2013, will start at 10:00 am on July 1st and finish the morning of July 12th. The Rally Headquarters is in Cranberry Township (just North of Pittsburgh), PA.

This ride will be roughly covering 13,000 miles in a little under two weeks for the top dogs. My ST1300 riding friend from Florida did his first rally a couple of years ago and was a silver finisher. He will be riding this IB event on July 1st. as well.

The top three bikes in 2011 was the FJR, ST1300 and the GL1800. The FJR rider Peter Behm rode 13,544 miles with a total of 24,428 points. The ST1300 rider Eric Jewell was a close second at 13,161 miles and a total of 24,109 points.

Iron Butt Rally information

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And the really interesting ones are the guys who aren't riding touring bikes. :D

Also interesting are the ways that folks who don't live here participate. It's been common for folks to come into the country and buy a bike just for the purposes of competing.

One such individual that I followed last time and will follow again is Phil from the UK. He has a first gen FZ1 at home that is fully kitted out for LD touring. Last time he had a friend find him a good condition used FZ1 here in the states. He stripped off all his stuff from his bike at home including custom tank and fairing, and then shipped them here. Once he flew here, he put everything on the USA bike and did the rally, then stripped it back down and shipped everything back to the UK so he could continue his LD rides there.

This time he's saving money and not shipping but checked his huge box onto the plane. His USA bike is currently converted and he's making his way from Colorado to the start point right now.

There are always a few oddballs that'll do this on a sportbike or some old Triumph. They are fun to keep track of.

Keep track on the IBR website with their daily updates of what all is going on.

I'm excited, it was great fun following along with this two years ago.
 
I always enjoy following the IBR. I am amazed at the endurance and drive of these people while at same time convinced they are all a bit crazy.

My one complaint is the 'official' blog on the IBA page never tells as much as I would like to know. Jasen, you seem to have a source! Can you share?
 
Well, the official blog really gives the info available. The riders have to call in and everything but until the checkpoints hit, a lot of info just isn't there. I've been pretty happy with the daily reports.

There's usually a spotwalla page with all the current locations. The id of each rider is disguised for their safety (single alone women participate in this so there's that) but it's fun to watch even not knowing who is who. It's interesting to see what directions people go in to accomplish their plan.

FYI, please do NOT in any thread, discuss who you think or know is one of the tracks on the spotwalla page. Sometimes you can figure it out, but open discussions will bring down scorn on the forum where it is discussed and can result in them re-randomizing the tags or even taking the public view down. Last year it started with just the riders initials and there was a forum where someone was listing all the riders and what their initials were and what their locations were. This lead to them randomizing it with just numbers. Watching the map is a lot of fun and a lot of us would be upset if our access to it were denied.

Now, for speculation...that's a whole nuther deal. There's generally a thread on the FJRForum which is pretty good to follow along with. I didn't have my FJR for the last one but spent 11 solid days on that thread.

What you get are a lot of us who have never done anything like this, watching, discussing and asking questions. There's a number of folks who have done the IBR that will be on there analyzing, discussing and answering questions. Additionally, there's one or two members over there that'll be actively working the IBR that will chime in with occasional information.

It's great fun as "Sucker Bonuses" are discussed as well as tactics and strategies that these folks would have taken based on the information provided. There's still no real information provided there aside from what comes in the daily updates, but it's kind of like going from watching a ball game in silence to suddenly having commentators. Makes it easier to follow especially for folks who aren't familiar with the game.
 
As far as any inside source....my knowledge of Phil comes from his posts on the FZ1 forum. He posted up about wanting to do the IBR on an FZ1 several years ago and everyone kind of pushed it off as just some guy going blah blah blah. It was't till he was here and fitting his bike and posting that we knew he was serious. Folks in the LD community here and mostly in Europe know him well and never doubted him.

So, through his after ride reports I've been following him and keeping tabs. It's fun to watch someone do something like this on a bike you own (owned) that you know you yourself couldn't do.

Also, considering he's competing in this type of event with little local knowledge is pretty amazing as well. Last time he and the other riders had to deal with 40F storms in the north and then 110F temps in the south all in a few days time. Pretty crazy to try to plan something like that when you aren't even on the same continent.
 
I attended Phil's presentation on packing at last years IBA Meet. Very interesting guy.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
My favorite is when you see guys go for the sucker bonuses and succeed. Like the guys that rode to Alaska in 2011.
 
I still have my black cap from the Grand Poobah, back in `99. Rode to Saint Augie to do one day of volunteer work at the checkpoint and rode back home the day after in 800+ miles of nasty rain to be at work the next day. :)
 
Dragwn said:
I still have my black cap from the Grand Poobah, back in `99. Rode to Saint Augie to do one day of volunteer work at the checkpoint and rode back home the day after in 800+ miles of nasty rain to be at work the next day. :)
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I was at the checkpoint also . Maybe we crossed paths .


Dave
 
I was on my champagne coloured Sprint Executive, one of the few there with Texas tags. I learned a hard lesson the night we all went to dinner across the highway, that Floriduh doesn't do side roads, remember it was pouring down and I thought I would come in from the side road, ended up being stuck in five miles of gridlock before I was able to turn around and come back. Mike had a good laugh about that.
 
lddave said:
While you eating dinner I was headed to Corky Reed house for a bonus then on westward .


Dave
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I spent the day with my room open so y'all could get some rest and clean up. Was outside working on bikes under the tents.

Sent from my PG06100 using Tapatalk 2
 
lddave said:
I remember some rooms that were open for riders to use. I had a room but thanks for opening your up .


Dave
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Was all for the greater good as they say Dave. I remember helping re-wire a certain Doc's communications on his Connie.
 
D'artagnan said:
My one complaint is the 'official' blog on the IBA page never tells as much as I would like to know. Jasen, you seem to have a source! Can you share?
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From over on the FJR forum.

warchild said:
And it's not Tom Austin who is doing the Daily Reports this year this year... I am please to tell you that Robert Higdon is BACK, and he will be authoring the Daily Reports, just as he did for many. many past IBRs!
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I actually posted this in the wrong thread earlier today. Here is the poster for this year's event.

600456_556835514354767_989860645_n.jpg



The first update has been made by Bob Higdon...
http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2013/day-1.pdf
 
Here's a little video I put together of the gathering of the IBR participants.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jKxLTq8HLE"]IBR2013TheGathering - YouTube[/ame]
 
Cool Video.

I am tracking a buddy (via SPOT), who is an entrant this year. I show him in Cranbberry Township, PA. Just north of Pittsburg. The start time was 10am but don't show him moving yet......
 
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