Auburn
Well-known member
Our vacation this year coincided with the Big Sky Rally put on by Bob and Sylvie Torter. We first heard about the rally while following the Iron Butt Rally this year when Warchild mentioned it and suggested anyone interested in doing a rally do this one as it would have a newcomers class.
I contacted the Beamer Reamers who we were traveling with to see if they wanted to give it a try. A month ago, we found ourselves signed up to participate as 2 - 2up teams. As we got ready for the trip, we started looking for tips on how to do a rally. We found the LDRiders.com website that gave rallying tips that we used to learn tips about dealing with waypoints and basics about
The rally hosts and staff were absolutely amazing and very welcoming to new comers. All told there was about 70 people signed up and 30 were new to rallying.
As part of the making the new comers fell welcome and remove the anxiety for figuring out what route and how to link bonuses, they locations for the bonuses were sent out to the new comers 10 days before the rally. They did not tell us what the bonus was worth or what it was, but gave us the GPS coordinates in several different formats.
The rally packet was given out at the rider meeting after the Friday night dinner. The packet was gone over and explained. There were several rally staff available after the rider meeting to answer questions and help newbies with anything they had questions about. Included in the rally packet were 3 routes that would give you a SS1000 and guarantee finisher status for any newbie that chose to follow those routes exactly. 1 person did. Also, to be a finisher as a newbie you had to get 50,000 points. Veterans need to get 100,000 points.
We went back up to the room to plan our routes. First we had to decide what our goal was for the rally. We had three:
1. Get back safely
2. Have fun
3. Finish the rally
We had to be at our bikes for final odometer checks at 4:30 AM and riders were sent out on there way at 5AM Saturday and had to be back by 1 PM on Sunday or they would be time barred. 32 hours total. Once our odometer checks were done, we moved our bikes to the line for release. We ended up 5th going out.
The rally theme was based on the Lewis and Clark expedition. We found a bonus series that if we could complete it, would give us finisher status in the veteran class. So we picked that as our first series of bonuses to get (101-106) which covered about 700 miles. Then we looked at what else we could add and what combinations would work for us. All told if we could get all the bonuses we planned we would be back with 210,000 points.
Warchild released the bikes at 5AM sharp and we were on our way. We had 250 miles to go to get tour first bonus location. Only had one mistake in routing were Garmin (map source) messed us up. Bonus 106 was on the NB side of I-15 north of Great Falls and we had set it up so we would get it to complete the series and then get DDD in Great Falls. Garmin in its infinite wisdom, put DDD before the 106. Well we had to ride back 35 miles to get 106 before we could get the DDD or we would screw up the multiplier for the series and our finisher status.
On the way back from 106 to Great Falls, I noticed that my rear tire (PR2) with 2500 miles before the rally and 600 miles during the rally at that point was to the wear bars. Very unusual, since we usually get 6500+ miles two up towing our trailer. I found the Yamaha dealer in Great Falls (Steve's Sports Center). We pulled in at 4:45 PM, 15 minutes before closing. I saw several sportbikes in the showroom as we walked in. I was thinking they might have a tire in stock. I talked to the parts guy and he said yes we do, a Metzler is all we stock. I asked could they install it? We were traveling from out of state and were in the middle of a rally. The owner came out and said we will get you on the road right away. 1 hour from the time we got there until we were on the road. I highly recommend these guys if you are in need in the area. They were fantastic. and they did not gouge us when they easily could have.
New tire on the rear and we are under way. The next series had three bonuses that were time limited, by daylight or sunset. We got them all in order and snapped the sunset picture just as the sun was setting.
Next we headed down I-15 towards Helena, and ran into a lightening storm that was around us on three sides with side winds of about 70 mph that was blowing around. One gust moved us over 2 feet. It was 10 PM and very dark out. My HID lights were making daylight out in front. We were in a curve and all of a sudden, there was an absence of reflector on the jersey barrier in the median about 200 feet in front of me and then I see the back end of an elk jump over the fence to the right of us. That was a close call. The elk was so dark, you could not see it, just the absence of what should have been there. No eye reflection, nothing. The bonus were heading to, was a rest are on the NB side, so were had to pass it by 7 miles to come back. When we did, there was 2 fresh elk kills on the side of the road on the way back to the rest area.
Once at the rest area we ran into another rally rider veteran who had come from the direction were headed and said the lightening is really bad and the area got flat with no protection around you. We decided it was time to get a motel room, it was 10:30 and the storm was going to take a few hours to blow over. We got up and were out the door at 4:30 on our way. But it did mean we had to revise what were going to get fro bonuses and still get back in time.
We got back to Big Sky at 11 AM - 2 hours early with all the bonuses we could get.
We finished with 1100 miles, 154,000 points, 29th overall, 10th in the new comers class and had a fantastic time. I highly recommend if you are thinking of doing a rally in the future, do so. This was a great experience and I cannot say enough about how much fun we had.
At the awards dinner we had Ken Meese (9th in the 2009 IBR, DNF the last 2 IBR with crashes) and Eric Bray (7th in this year's IBR) was at the table. We were like sponges listening to their perspectives about how they approach a rally and how they approach their routing and why.
Our friends the Beamer Reamers finished 15th overall and 5th in the new comer class with 270,000. They got to see the sunrise on Beartooth pass and then ride up and back down Chief Joseph highway without passing another soul. They had a great rally and thoroughly enjoyed the experience also.
We far exceeded our goals.
1. we finished safely
2. we got enough points to finish as a veteran
3. we had FUN!
And yes there will be more rallies in our future.
And again, a VERY BIG THANKS TO ALL THE RALLY STAFF! this was a great event.
I contacted the Beamer Reamers who we were traveling with to see if they wanted to give it a try. A month ago, we found ourselves signed up to participate as 2 - 2up teams. As we got ready for the trip, we started looking for tips on how to do a rally. We found the LDRiders.com website that gave rallying tips that we used to learn tips about dealing with waypoints and basics about
The rally hosts and staff were absolutely amazing and very welcoming to new comers. All told there was about 70 people signed up and 30 were new to rallying.
As part of the making the new comers fell welcome and remove the anxiety for figuring out what route and how to link bonuses, they locations for the bonuses were sent out to the new comers 10 days before the rally. They did not tell us what the bonus was worth or what it was, but gave us the GPS coordinates in several different formats.
The rally packet was given out at the rider meeting after the Friday night dinner. The packet was gone over and explained. There were several rally staff available after the rider meeting to answer questions and help newbies with anything they had questions about. Included in the rally packet were 3 routes that would give you a SS1000 and guarantee finisher status for any newbie that chose to follow those routes exactly. 1 person did. Also, to be a finisher as a newbie you had to get 50,000 points. Veterans need to get 100,000 points.
We went back up to the room to plan our routes. First we had to decide what our goal was for the rally. We had three:
1. Get back safely
2. Have fun
3. Finish the rally
We had to be at our bikes for final odometer checks at 4:30 AM and riders were sent out on there way at 5AM Saturday and had to be back by 1 PM on Sunday or they would be time barred. 32 hours total. Once our odometer checks were done, we moved our bikes to the line for release. We ended up 5th going out.
The rally theme was based on the Lewis and Clark expedition. We found a bonus series that if we could complete it, would give us finisher status in the veteran class. So we picked that as our first series of bonuses to get (101-106) which covered about 700 miles. Then we looked at what else we could add and what combinations would work for us. All told if we could get all the bonuses we planned we would be back with 210,000 points.
Warchild released the bikes at 5AM sharp and we were on our way. We had 250 miles to go to get tour first bonus location. Only had one mistake in routing were Garmin (map source) messed us up. Bonus 106 was on the NB side of I-15 north of Great Falls and we had set it up so we would get it to complete the series and then get DDD in Great Falls. Garmin in its infinite wisdom, put DDD before the 106. Well we had to ride back 35 miles to get 106 before we could get the DDD or we would screw up the multiplier for the series and our finisher status.
On the way back from 106 to Great Falls, I noticed that my rear tire (PR2) with 2500 miles before the rally and 600 miles during the rally at that point was to the wear bars. Very unusual, since we usually get 6500+ miles two up towing our trailer. I found the Yamaha dealer in Great Falls (Steve's Sports Center). We pulled in at 4:45 PM, 15 minutes before closing. I saw several sportbikes in the showroom as we walked in. I was thinking they might have a tire in stock. I talked to the parts guy and he said yes we do, a Metzler is all we stock. I asked could they install it? We were traveling from out of state and were in the middle of a rally. The owner came out and said we will get you on the road right away. 1 hour from the time we got there until we were on the road. I highly recommend these guys if you are in need in the area. They were fantastic. and they did not gouge us when they easily could have.
New tire on the rear and we are under way. The next series had three bonuses that were time limited, by daylight or sunset. We got them all in order and snapped the sunset picture just as the sun was setting.
Next we headed down I-15 towards Helena, and ran into a lightening storm that was around us on three sides with side winds of about 70 mph that was blowing around. One gust moved us over 2 feet. It was 10 PM and very dark out. My HID lights were making daylight out in front. We were in a curve and all of a sudden, there was an absence of reflector on the jersey barrier in the median about 200 feet in front of me and then I see the back end of an elk jump over the fence to the right of us. That was a close call. The elk was so dark, you could not see it, just the absence of what should have been there. No eye reflection, nothing. The bonus were heading to, was a rest are on the NB side, so were had to pass it by 7 miles to come back. When we did, there was 2 fresh elk kills on the side of the road on the way back to the rest area.
Once at the rest area we ran into another rally rider veteran who had come from the direction were headed and said the lightening is really bad and the area got flat with no protection around you. We decided it was time to get a motel room, it was 10:30 and the storm was going to take a few hours to blow over. We got up and were out the door at 4:30 on our way. But it did mean we had to revise what were going to get fro bonuses and still get back in time.
We got back to Big Sky at 11 AM - 2 hours early with all the bonuses we could get.
We finished with 1100 miles, 154,000 points, 29th overall, 10th in the new comers class and had a fantastic time. I highly recommend if you are thinking of doing a rally in the future, do so. This was a great experience and I cannot say enough about how much fun we had.
At the awards dinner we had Ken Meese (9th in the 2009 IBR, DNF the last 2 IBR with crashes) and Eric Bray (7th in this year's IBR) was at the table. We were like sponges listening to their perspectives about how they approach a rally and how they approach their routing and why.
Our friends the Beamer Reamers finished 15th overall and 5th in the new comer class with 270,000. They got to see the sunrise on Beartooth pass and then ride up and back down Chief Joseph highway without passing another soul. They had a great rally and thoroughly enjoyed the experience also.
We far exceeded our goals.
1. we finished safely
2. we got enough points to finish as a veteran
3. we had FUN!
And yes there will be more rallies in our future.
And again, a VERY BIG THANKS TO ALL THE RALLY STAFF! this was a great event.
