2013 Iron Butt Rally - The Inside View

[Warchild]

Oh, damn..... this is so excellent, and completely accurate... I have watch Rick Morrison and Don Arthur do exactly as Bob describes here:

Some riders are geniuses in the route plotting game. Rick Morrison was one, using a Marlboro cigarette to measure 200-mile distances on a Rand-McNally map. He seemed to be able to absorb the intricacies of a 30-page list of bonus locations the way Bobby Fischer could deconstruct chessboard positions. Jeff Earls, Eric Jewell, and Jim Owen are in that league. I once saw Don Arthur, then the surgeon general of the U.S. Navy, take the bonus listing from the first leg of the 2005 IBR and, using Street Atlas and an Excel spreadsheet, produce in less than 20 minutes a near duplicate of the winning ride that Jim Owen had taken in the event. It was like watching Michelangelo sculpt an elephant from a block of marble: he just chipped away everything that wasn’t the elephant. There wasreally nothing to it.

 

[wfooshee]

FIVE guys headed for Key West! I see someone at Daytona's speedway right now, on the way down, but well behind the others on spotwalla. If you're in Daytona when others are leaving Key West, you are at least half a day behind them! Maybe the others are stopping at the other Fla bonuses on the way back?

 

[Warchild]

One of them is Sam Liles... a very curious route plan from him...

 

[David Foley]

Bob Higdon Day 2 Report online, including a shot of Leg One Bonus distribution!
In the Middle

Fascinating article - Mr Higdon!

 

[Warchild]

Hope Doug Chapman has a good handle on server performance; we are gonna test some bandwidth between now and July 12....

106 users are online (in the past 15 minutes)33 members, 69 guests, 4 anonymous users

 

[steveaikens]

He's about 1800 miles from the checkpoint from his spot position. He has roughly 2 1/2 days to reach KW, then pick up what he can on the way back to the CP. Depending on him, he has time.

 

[Mike Aldea]

For those FB users, some photos here.

I am related to a rider who owns the concours in the pictures.

Being there was more than one Concours in the pictures that is not telling us much.

 

[velvet fog]

One guy in Manhattan - so much fun a big bike.

There's a SR-71 there.

There are about ten SR-71's on static display around the country. I bet all of them are bonus locations.

You need a bit more of a sadistic streak in your thinking. I bet you need to get them *all* to get the bonus.

 

[wfooshee]

Well, since one of them is in the Florida panhandle, and not on the map in the Day 2 report, your theory is blown wide open.

 

[Twigg]

One one Rally I thought I had put together a good route that bagged most of the high point bonuses available. That plan resulted in one of my two DNFs, because I ran out of time, and I was in considerable pain.

The Rally was won by Phil O'Connor, who stayed fairly local and scarfed up dozens of low-point bonuses. Even if my route had worked (It was doable), I still would not have won, by quite a margin.

Lesson learned early in my Rally career.

 

[Fred W]

So, you are saying that math skills apply here?

 

[Twigg]

So, you are saying that math skills apply here?

A combination of math skills and witchcraft. I've got better at it

 

[skyking96w]

Well, since one of them is in the Florida panhandle, and not on the map in the Day 2 report, your theory is blown wide open.

There are two more legs to go, so the rest of them, including the one in your back yard and the one in Mobile, could be on legs 2 and 3. But that is not really the problem; the real difficulty is that there are 29 Blackbirds on display in the US if you count the A-12 and YF-12 versions. If you stick to the SR-71A and SR-71C, then there are 19. It would be a truly evil bonus, but certainly doable for some of the top dogs. Here is a link to the locations:

https://www.sr-71.org/blackbird/locations.php

 

[IronMaiden]

https://tobie.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/Iron-Butt-Rally-2013/30225872_5gNwbS#!i=2609412437&k=HXwtD5Q

Updated photos here.....

 

[MEM]

#33 is showing about 10 minutes from my house.

I should take a ride out and wave at him / her

 

[wheatonFJR]

#33 is showing about 10 minutes from my house. I should take a ride out and wave at MOON him / her

Really??

 

[Peter Murray]

Bob Higdon Day 2 Report online, including a shot of Leg One Bonus distribution!
In the Middle

69 boni sounds better than 120 + and manual entry compared to 07 .. The manual boni location days. Half the problem was manually locating the boni !

 

[dougc]

Hope Doug Chapman has a good handle on server performance; we are gonna test some bandwidth between now and July 12....

106 users are online (in the past 15 minutes)33 members, 69 guests, 4 anonymous users

Had a DDOS against us this afternoon after a gaming customer pissed off the wrong folks. We filled a couple of full gigabit ethernet pipes for about an hour and 10 minutes between 1:30 and 2:40 PDT before we could get the traffic filtered and null routed.

But yes, this rally will be a "trial by fire" test of the newer IPB software, bw should not be an issue.

I stay camped out here all day while at work like a number of folks I'm sure.

 

[exskibum]

Looking at those pics, there are sure some f#&%ed up haircuts on the starters. Clearly, the barbers were drunk, sadistic, blind and/or had no hair themselves upon which anyone might get even. One, who is caught by the camera with the clippers in hand, is known to be a sadist and masochist, possibly even evil intentioned.

But holy shi-ite, Iggy's hair is such a masterpiece that it (1) belies his alien origins, (2) will probably get him fired from his job, (3) is likely to get him barred from city council chambers, and (4) will generally make him feared on sight along his route if he should take off his helmet. Considering that handicap, it's NO WONDER that he got to leave the line first.

 

[TripperMike]

OK so when they get back to Pittsburgh, they going to take a 3 day break or something? Because I'm starting to get exhausted trying to keep up.

Watching all this as it unfolds is a great way to dissaude oneself from even considering ever doing it. This is a lot hard riding.