FJRForum Official 2017 Iron Butt Rally Tracking/Analysis Thread

Ignacio said:

Once you get that done you could go back inside for a final bathroom break, toss your cookies, call your loved ones, have a final discussion with your shaman/shrink/auditor/higher power, etc.

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I spend the time worrying that I've completely missed the ball and everyone else has a much better plan than me! Well, that and my stupidity will end up in the daily reports... "yeah, and we can't figure out what the F that guy is doing."

Oh, and because of all that I always forget to check my GPS to figure out which way I should be turning out of the parking lot!

This year I'm going to be keeping a close eye on Wendy vs Kirsten. Both of them have the potential to take the big trophy!

20 minutes to go... I'm nervous for all of them.

RebeccaV said:

Great pics, Rick C.!
Half and hour til liftoff. I'm not even there and I have jitters.

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Sidebar of past IBRs for those watching. Rebecca and I rode our first IBR in 2007. On the second leg we were all headed to a HUGE bonus at Lick Observatory. It was my first time riding a motorcycle in California and I encountered stop-and-go traffic north of Santa Cruz. I'd never lane-split before and was a bit nervous trying it and was at it for about 15 minutes when I went by Rebecca in traffic.

I gave a big arm wave as if to say, "Follow me!".....and she did.

We threaded through traffic at a fairly conservative rate and rode with each other for an hour or so in intermittent traffic loving the splitting option.

We got to the top of Mt. Hamilton and she came over, "Thank you so much! I've always wanted to lane split, but wanted to follow somebody who was experienced."

I looked at her stunned and confessed, "Errrr....experienced? I have a total of 15 more minutes than you at it."

We both laughed, bagged the bonus, and headed back to St. Louis.

Currently # 158 spot trakker is at Leo's South motorcycle shop. Did they forget there spot trakker at the shop or is the bike being worked on and not going to make the start?

08FJR4ME said:

Currently # 158 spot trakker is at Leo's South motorcycle shop. Did they forget there spot trakker at the shop or is the bike being worked on and not going to make the start?

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Remember that the numbers are going to change rapidly, so numbers aren't going to last long. It shows as 193 to me already.

You're talking about the one south of town. My guess is they either haven't turned their unit back on (the date from that report is 6/22 if you click on it) or that they might be a rider that planned to ride, but changed their mind. (Remember in the first or second dispatch that the rider count decreased by one).

We're going to see a variety of lagging SPOT trackers during this event and they run the gamut of forgetting to turn it on, batteries running out, some people bailing on the ride, possibly people turning them off on purpose (sometimes Top Dawgs might be doing something strategic), and (hopefully not) DNFs.

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4 minutes until Warchild launches the birds from the carrier. I've been in that line three times including the very first one in 2013. It's incredible exhilarating riding out of the parking lot knowing that you're headed to literally wander the entirety of the U.S. and Canada for 11 days and see sites you've never seen before. Flashing through my brain right now are memories of French-only speaking clerks at gas stations in Quebec at 2:30 a.m., misty orange sunrises of Kentucky, placing duct tape on my visor to try and reduce the sunburn as I rode 4 hours straight into the sun in Texas, and Warchild greeting me at the finish line and telling my I had to do 25 push-ups.

Tick tock!

Planned live stream of start here: https://www.facebook.com/longridersradio/

Ignacio said:

RebeccaV said:

Great pics, Rick C.!
Half and hour til liftoff. I'm not even there and I have jitters.

Click to expand...

Sidebar of past IBRs for those watching. Rebecca and I rode our first IBR in 2007. On the second leg we were all headed to a HUGE bonus at Lick Observatory. It was my first time riding a motorcycle in California and I encountered stop-and-go traffic north of Santa Cruz. I'd never lane-split before and was a bit nervous trying it and was at it for about 15 minutes when I went by Rebecca in traffic.

I gave a big arm wave as if to say, "Follow me!".....and she did.

We threaded through traffic at a fairly conservative rate and rode with each other for an hour or so in intermittent traffic loving the splitting option.

We got to the top of Mt. Hamilton and she came over, "Thank you so much! I've always wanted to lane split, but wanted to follow somebody who was experienced."

I looked at her stunned and confessed, "Errrr....experienced? I have a total of 15 more minutes than you at it."

We both laughed, bagged the bonus, and headed back to St. Louis.

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It's all about the stories, Iggy! I'm nostalgic/envious when I think about the adventures that the 2017 riders will have.

They're riding out now. Beautiful feed Longriders! Lots of fully-loaded FJRs....and two-up riders.

Thanks for the feed it was great!

BEST of LUCK to all the RIDERS. Wishing all a GREAT ADVENTURE!!

Matt, as far as IBR starts...,

You must remember me at the start of the '13 IBR?

It was my 2nd rally and first one on the clock. I spent ALL

night trying to load the points into my GPS. I finally got them loaded and got about 1 hour of sleep. I was out in the parking lot at the start with no clue as to a route or even the first bonus that I was going to. I looked around and saw everyone chomping at the bit. I remember saying " I don't belong here, I have no business competing with all these big dogs.

TriggerT calmed me down and told me One bonus at a time" I never thought that I could route on the fly, but that's what I did for the whole rally. Most others are ready though.

... and we won't talk about the '15, but I had fun!

Thanks for the link to livestream, eflyguy...So fun to see!

Yeah, at the start in those final hours, there's a lot of running to the bathroom to make sure I really emptied my bladder, nervous chatter with spectators and other riders, checking to make sure my flag, camera, rally book, etc, etc are all where they're supposed to be, lip balm applying like a freak, I always forget during the rally, at gas stops, bonus stops, etc and wind up with horrible chapped lips. No one in their right mind would stop their motorcycle just to apply lip balm. I think I put it on every 5 minutes in that pre-rally couple hours thinking it'll somehow save me later. Not. But I still did it.

Lane splitting, I did the same thing, waited for someone else to go by and then followed behind. Worked great for me as well!

I was one of them who told her to turn her phone sideways, so you can blame me for the stiff neck...

.... unless you had a laptop, like me = I just propped it up on its side like a book!

Service Unavailable

HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.

IBR sight seems to be overwelmed.

Try in a minute or two.. it comes and goes.

Once I got in, I quickly downloaded all of the reports.

The theme is Safari. Where we going? I'm sure there are some Floridas in there. You know Alaska will have a few. It looks like a lot are headed northwest. The rest south or east.

eddiememphis said:

The theme is Safari. Where we going? I'm sure there are some Floridas in there. You know Alaska will have a few. It looks like a lot are headed northwest. The rest south or east.

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I like the lone wolf headed SW! #112(on Rte 212) on my screen at the moment

It is interesting to look at all of the spots right at the beginning of the leg to see how many are headed in each direction!

heynowref said:

eddiememphis said:

The theme is Safari. Where we going? I'm sure there are some Floridas in there. You know Alaska will have a few. It looks like a lot are headed northwest. The rest south or east.

Click to expand...

I like the lone wolf headed SW! #112(on Rte 212) on my screen at the moment

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He's headed to Hooper, Colorado. Gonna wrastle him a gator!

@heynowref - also a lone wolf headed north(east) for now on Rt 35