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| Iron Butt 2006 Report |
| by Dass |
| May 14, 2006 |
|
At the big motorcycle show last January various groups, including the Southern Cruisers, had booths to disseminate information about themselves. Among these was a Toronto group called the Zen Riders. They were promoting a ride they host annually for the Iron Butt Association (www.ironbutt.com), a 24,000+ member association of riders dedicated to long distance/endurance riding. You cannot join the IBA you can only gain membership thru successful completion of one of their rides, the shortest of which is the Saddle Sore 1000, one thousand miles in 24 hours or less. The particular ride the Zen Riders were hosting is called The Lower Great Lakes 1000, a complete circle of Lakes Ontario and Erie, a distance of just over 1000 miles, starting and ending in Toronto. I signed up for more info. I posted my intention to do this ride on our forum wondering if anyone else would be interested/crazy enough to do it with me. Urban Daviz responded and we made plans to go together. Weather looked bad for ride day, cold ,wet, windy etc. but we somehow rationalized that a 50% chance of rain (all day) meant a 50% chance of no rain and decided it was a go, a questionable decision. I left my house about 4:30 am., met Dave (and Pearlzzzzz who was up to wish us luck) before 5, and headed to the official start point, the Cdn. Tire gas bar at Rutherford Rd. and 400. After the Zen people filled out and witnessed the paperwork and we gassed up to get our first official time stamped receipt, 5:34 am, (one of the IBA official rules is to document the entire ride with timed and dated receipts) we were off.. My bike generally gets about 265 km. before reserve but just after London at about 210 km. I had to switch over so we hit the next stop to gas up. Seems to use more gas at 120-130 kph.duh. We spent 25 minutes gassing, eating, stretching etc. and I realized I should have spent more time trying to adapt my Lindby Bar to the new bike as the muscles on the inside of my thighs were already sore from trying to hold my legs in to the tank while the wind at 125kph+ tried to rip them off. To be able to change position and relax them would have helped a lot it was going to be a long day. Then it started to rain. We continued on in the rain and cold to the border. The cold was not a factor for me as I have a Gerbings electric jacket liner (vest with sleeves) and was toasty. On my lower half; long underwear, jeans, chaps and good rain pants did fine. Dave didnt have a vest and described himself as comfortably coolkudos to Dave.Id say he was comfortably freezing. At the border I went thru first and the older black gentleman asked Citizenship? Canadian. How long are you going to be in the States? Well, the guy behind me and I are doing this ride around the Lakes and with a bemused smile he waved me thru. He only asked Dave for his citizenship. We continued on thru Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, toward Buffalo stopping about every 200 km. for gas and bathroom break. The Zen people encouraged us to drink lots of water which we did with the result that whenever we stopped for gas we also had to pee, a lot. Somewhere in Ohio at about 1 pm. we stopped at a roadside service plaza for gas, and to peeagainand decided to lie down on the grass for a rest. Dave says he slept, I didnt but at least stopped and closed my eyes. After about 25 minutes I got up to go inside, Dave didnt move and I briefly considered he may be frozen solid. Inside I found a turnpike info desk and asked the attendant when we would hit the turnoff for I-90. He told me we had missed it. He explained the best route to get back on I-90 and I went back outside to get Dave up and moving. As I walked out I saw a trucker walking by Dave staring at him unmoving on the ground. As I walked past the trucker I said I think hes dead. He said yah, hes not moving. The rain was off and on all day, never so heavy we had to stop but enough to be a concern. It did get pretty heavy for a while and we had to slow down enough that the transports were passing us spraying us with their tires and causing a lot of turbulence, it was rather disconcerting. But we pressed on and about 4:30 in the afternoon the sun came out. That was a welcome change, for about an hour and , then it started to rain again. Somewhere in Ohio, maybe around Cleveland, a guy on a sports bike came up to us. He rode beside Dave for a few minutes then did a couple of wheelies and caught up to me. I gave him a wave and then he did another wheelie or two and took off. He was wearing sneakers, jeans, a sweater and NO HELMET! 120kph on the Interstate in traffic doing wheelies and no helmet! If when we got to Buffalo the weather had been horrible I would have seriously considered heading home. I dont think Dave had any such thought. The weather was OK however so we continued on. Shortly east of Buffalo of course it started to rain again.. It was dark when we got to Syracuse, where we turned north and took Hwy. 11 to Gananoque. The ride from Syracuse to the border was fabulous. It was dark and quiet, I dont think it rained, not to many cars, we made good time, and I really felt like we were on the last leg. I remember that as the nicest part of the ride. At the Canadian border (about midnight) I started to tell the ride story to the guy and he said several other riders had come thru hours earlier and he waved us thru. We got gas and then stopped at the first Tim Hortons we came to. By now its about 1 am and both of us are getting pretty tired, not just physically but mentally. Dave suggested we change leads (pass each other) every 4-5 minutes as we headed to Toronto to keep each other awake and involved, and it did help, especially mentally. So we get to Toronto, 1000 miles later, weve had a long safe ride, were on the 401 near Yonge St., its 3am and some person cuts right in front of Dave, he wasnt pleased. We headed up 400, off at Rutherford Rd. and into the Cdn. Tire where 4 Zen Riders were waiting for us with big smiles. As they say in the Amazing Race we were the last team to arrive. 3:21am. 21 hours, 47 minutes. We gassed up, got our official receipt, had our papers witnessed and were on our way home. We had a slow, relaxed and peaceful ride back to Aurora for Dave and Queensville for me. Its a beautiful time of day to be out riding. The ride took more of a physical toll on me than I had expected. I was very tired for a few days, my pectoral muscles were sore from working the handlebar all day, and my clutch hand still has some pain and numbness. My Mustang seat even though it only had about 1500 kms. on it when I started the ride did a fabulous job, my butt felt no pain or discomfort for the whole ride. Would I do another one?, Im not sure. Dave says he would. I learned some things and would do it a bit differently, and it sure would be nicer on a warm sunny day. Dass |
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