FJRForum Official 2017 Iron Butt Rally Tracking/Analysis Thread

Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum

Help Support Yamaha FJR Motorcycle Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.
It's fun to watch the centipede right now closing in on the final point. Something like 10 already in the barn, and maybe another 25 within the next hour or so? Unless of course someone's out hunting another bonus string!

I guess we'll know a lot by tomorrow morning, but I think we'll all be anxiously waiting for the stories and the results. Hope all have a safe and successful last night of the rally.

 
The two in Michigan are right on the edge...I know there will be staff at the finish to keep spectators out of the way, and speed them to the table to stop the clock. I hope there will be other staff to keep well wishers away...these riders will be fried, and they now have one hour to get their **** ready for scoring. I would imagine they have all of their leg 3 ready up to leaving the ferry, and just have to get the bonuses from the ferry in order. Cheering for everybody to arrive safely and before 10am CDT.

 
I thought I'd share a bit more memory of IBRs and what the last night might be like to riders. Of course it varies, but I think back to my most recent rally and those riders coming around the horn to Chicago are about the place I was the last night of '13 going to the finish in Pittsburgh. Thursday night is full of truck traffic on I-80 and you're tired. Not necessarily a sleep tired, but a tired that you feel like bits of your brain and body that produce important chemicals have been squeezed dry.

You've got a bike that has ridden 11 days that other than putting fuel in and maybe checking tire pressure a time or two...is just tired too. You're on your last granola bar, maybe you haven't bothered to fill up your water jug because you only have to run until 8 a.m. in the cool morning...you just don't bother fiddling with stuff because you're like a homing pigeon with a GPS. You keep looking at that mileage left indicator and your estimated arrival time shifts by a minute and it's dramatic.

Maybe you have a last bonus or two to get, but they're likely small potatoes in this particular rally. You known you have to gas up one more time and you'll grab that large cup of coffee.

Randomly you remember bits of the ride you've had. You remember the epic moments certainly, but weird obscure turns, sitting at stop lights, or your biggest goof (I vividly remember watching one of my helmet visors fluttering in the rear view memory on a two-laner in Indiana in 2013).

You might be texting a bit....on straight easy stretches. RenoJohn was always an entertaining contact for me. I imagine others contact signficant others.

You also judge yourself. What could you have differently and better. Where did you screw up. That part of the night is harsh because of your competitive spirit.

But you also give yourself a slug in the arm and say, "You did good."...and you did. Assuming you don't do something incredibly stupid or unlucky that last 5% of the rally...you're either joining a group of about 500 people to pull of the feat or reaffirming that three digit number and entering a smaller number of n-finisher status.

You think about who's going to be at the finish line and stressing the **** out of your scoring. It ain't done until you score and there are so many ways to screw up. You think about how you're going to organize your points.

You also have probably listened to music much of the ride and play song lyrics in your head. One I often would remember:


Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together

I've got some real estate here in my bag

So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner's pies

And we walked off to look for America

Cathy, I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh

Michigan seems like a dream to me now

It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw

I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus, playing games with the faces

She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy

I said, be careful, his bowtie is really a camera

Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat

We smoked the last one an hour ago

So I looked at the scenery

She read her magazine

And the moon rose over an open field

Cathy, I'm lost, I said though I knew she was sleeping

And I'm empty and aching and I don't know why

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike

They've all come to look for America

All come to look for America

All come to look for America

Simon and Garfunkel - America

But, mostly you look left, you look right, you take a lung full of air and smile that you're riding a motorcycle like a grinning idiot.
Thanks much for the reflection. And with that, all those spots came very much alive for me - especially those on the bubble blasting holes in the middle of the Dakota night with nothing but their own thoughts to keep them company.

 
Gonna throw this out there before I go to bed. Some of those folks that look like they're too far out may be purposely planning to be into penalty time. Just eyeballing Leg 2 results where top riders were in the 40K range...it might not be unreasonable to think the last leg is worth that or maybe even 1/2 again as much...or maybe double. Let's say the leg is worth 60,000 points. If penalty points are 20 points a minute...they could lose up to 2400 points. THis seems light to me compared to the points.

It's entirely possible a string ending in the right amount might be worth more than that of a penalty.

So, I would just suggest factoring in this as a possibility with a one or of the SPOT tracks.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The two in Michigan are right on the edge...I know there will be staff at the finish to keep spectators out of the way, and speed them to the table to stop the clock. I hope there will be other staff to keep well wishers away...these riders will be fried, and they now have one hour to get their **** ready for scoring. I would imagine they have all of their leg 3 ready up to leaving the ferry, and just have to get the bonuses from the ferry in order. Cheering for everybody to arrive safely and before 10am CDT.
Mr. Frick. Been watching these two closely, and it looks like they're going to keep me up all night.

I've been running a lot of numbers, they're not sniffin' many flowers. They're also very close to each other. With the devices not pinging at the same time and a delay it gives some really interesting results. Sometimes they're seemingly within a mile of each other, sometimes over a dozen miles from each other. The reality at this particular time I'm guessing about 6 miles from each other based on averages and math of locations.

Not making projections on if they'll make it before penalty, that wouldn't be kosher but like I said, I don't think they'll be stopping at many souvenir shops to browse for a Michigan coffee mug or fuzzy dice.

map01t.PNG


distance01t.PNG


Be safe, y'all. ...RJ

 
The trailing spot in MI is showing on the side of the road on I-94 in Michigan, and not moving. This was at 4;10am CDT.

 
The dot by Gary appears to have gone off the main I-90 route home....wonder if they're still bonus hunting? Frickin' animal if so!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Per Google maps, and I put them a bit down the road because of the delay, these two are really dancing on the cusp of DNF. My wild speculation tells me these are NL riders, but I don't have much to back that up factually. There's a fair bit of traffic and detours reported for the Minneapolis area and they need to get to the OTHER SIDE of the city... I don't know traffic patterns there, but in DC, 10AM still has traffic that will slow you down several minutes or more, especially if there's road closures/detours/etc. I have been calculating this since yesterday and they've been close all along.The google maps average speed is about 66 mph, I hope they don't need to stop for gas. Definitely cheering these two on!

Such a bummer about Fazer Phil. Very nice guy.

 
If you dig deeper into the SPOTs, one of them has a link to a personal spotwalla that requires a password. One of the NL riders had that.

A couple days ago someone asked "is there any way to keep track of the riders that went to Newfoundland?" At the time I thought "they'll be on the right side of the screen Thursday and Friday"... I think I was pretty close to being right.

 
A little over an hour now till the Penalty period starts (8am CDT)

Most look to be well within striking distance... those Wisconsin riders need to move along....

2hrs.JPG

 
construction.gif
Lets not forget about this little factor. So close and yet so far.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yeah, if I'm close to right with my figuring, they are looking better now. Well into penalties, but not as close to 10AM. The traffic map doesn't look bad at all. I think people have different experiences with traffic so "horrible traffic" means many different things.

During the IBR in 2007, Walt and I did a little touristing between the checkpoint and finish. We stayed in Birmingham one night and planned to go to the Hank Williams Museum the next day. The locals were warning us about the awful traffic. We politely listened, but knew they had no idea what awful traffic really is. The next day proved this. I think we slowed to 45 mph about 2 times for less than 1/2 a mile. ooooooo.... awful indeed!
smile.png
smile.png
smile.png


 
I thought I'd share a bit more memory of IBRs and what the last night might be like to riders. Of course it varies, but I think back to my most recent rally and those riders coming around the horn to Chicago are about the place I was the last night of '13 going to the finish in Pittsburgh. Thursday night is full of truck traffic on I-80 and you're tired. Not necessarily a sleep tired, but a tired that you feel like bits of your brain and body that produce important chemicals have been squeezed dry.

You've got a bike that has ridden 11 days that other than putting fuel in and maybe checking tire pressure a time or two...is just tired too. You're on your last granola bar, maybe you haven't bothered to fill up your water jug because you only have to run until 8 a.m. in the cool morning...you just don't bother fiddling with stuff because you're like a homing pigeon with a GPS. You keep looking at that mileage left indicator and your estimated arrival time shifts by a minute and it's dramatic.

Maybe you have a last bonus or two to get, but they're likely small potatoes in this particular rally. You known you have to gas up one more time and you'll grab that large cup of coffee.

Randomly you remember bits of the ride you've had. You remember the epic moments certainly, but weird obscure turns, sitting at stop lights, or your biggest goof (I vividly remember watching one of my helmet visors fluttering in the rear view memory on a two-laner in Indiana in 2013).

You might be texting a bit....on straight easy stretches. RenoJohn was always an entertaining contact for me. I imagine others contact signficant others.

You also judge yourself. What could you have differently and better. Where did you screw up. That part of the night is harsh because of your competitive spirit.

But you also give yourself a slug in the arm and say, "You did good."...and you did. Assuming you don't do something incredibly stupid or unlucky that last 5% of the rally...you're either joining a group of about 500 people to pull of the feat or reaffirming that three digit number and entering a smaller number of n-finisher status.

You think about who's going to be at the finish line and stressing the **** out of your scoring. It ain't done until you score and there are so many ways to screw up. You think about how you're going to organize your points.

You also have probably listened to music much of the ride and play song lyrics in your head. One I often would remember:


Let us be lovers, we'll marry our fortunes together

I've got some real estate here in my bag

So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner's pies

And we walked off to look for America

Cathy, I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh

Michigan seems like a dream to me now

It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw

I've gone to look for America

Laughing on the bus, playing games with the faces

She said the man in the gabardine suit was a spy

I said, be careful, his bowtie is really a camera

Toss me a cigarette, I think there's one in my raincoat

We smoked the last one an hour ago

So I looked at the scenery

She read her magazine

And the moon rose over an open field

Cathy, I'm lost, I said though I knew she was sleeping

And I'm empty and aching and I don't know why

Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike

They've all come to look for America

All come to look for America

All come to look for America

Simon and Garfunkel - America

But, mostly you look left, you look right, you take a lung full of air and smile that you're riding a motorcycle like a grinning idiot.
Being an DNF points in 09 the ride from Zipp's to the finish line had me all over the spectrum. From "How did I "F" this up?, to wow did I ever have a blast.. then thinking of my seeing my wife at the finish (turns out my son surprised me by being there also). But perhaps the main thought I had was simply that MAN these BIG DAWGS are just phenomenal!!!

Being a finisher in 13 The last night of the ride included major flooding riding on hwy 17 a mountainous shortcut. There were vehicles that were actually off the road. and I kept singing the Tim McGraw song "The Highway don't care." I also thought that while I had a great rally...... These BIG DAWGS are just phenomenal!!!!!!!!

 
A few miscellaneous updates from my sources at Rally headquarters:

A good number of well-known Big Dawgs are in.... Eric Bray, Mark Crane, Eric Lipps, Ken Meese (who hit a deer last night; his K1300GT front end is pretty bad, but he is in).

Have not heard about Wendy, Jim Owen or Bob Lilley yet. Possibly, they might be among those trailing three riders currently in Wisconsin, I don't know.

My favorite Japanese rider Ishii Yohinori made it in on his Burgmann scooter. We'll see if he has the points to be a Finisher.

More as the drama unfolds... WE HAVE ENTERED THE PENALTY WINDOW!!!
weirdsmiley.gif


 
Last edited by a moderator:
Isn't that Wendy with the zombie lady on her dash? Tyler Risk posted a pic on FB

EDIT confirmation from Tyler - that IS Wendy! YES!!!!

 
Last edited by a moderator:
The three outliers to the east have 4 construction zones to go through to get back to home base. Never mind the ones around the hotel.

Hoping for the best,

Dave

 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Top