What's your pick for "Story of the 2007 IBR"?

[eeksnake]

I love it. The written accounts of this thing are simply captivating. I must check Matt's site and the '07 IBR page every hour hoping for updates. I'm hooked on these reports. Strange really, that any other event that was only able to read about (rather than watching or listening) would be of no interest to me at all. But this? I just can't get enough.

GUNNY!

Paul's audio blog is part of that list for me too.

Thanks so much to those of you keeping the rest of us informed.

 

[EffBee]

The following is edited, thanks to input from Warchild (below) who was there, and has inside information I'd not previously seen. It turns out the Yamahas did a whole lot better than first thought, while the ST1300's did worse.

Out of 39 Beemers, and as best I can determine from the reports I've read, apparently 4 had final drives fail.

Out of 14 FJR's, those that had mechanical/electrical problems were due to aftermarket products and/or shoddy dealer workmanship in installing those products.

The 21 Honda Gold Wings had one mechanical failure.

The reliability of the Honda ST1300's is unclear. There were some DNF's. Rider? Bike? At this point in time I haven't seen the answer.

The Suzuki V-stroms had no failures. They went 5 for 5.

One Kawi 1400 started, and finished.

Three Harleys started. One failed. One finished third! And it was a Sportster!!! Some people thought it had HD factory support. No details beyond that. I'll leave it to him to explain.

The performance of the BMW final drives was dismal, despite the fact that they finished 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th in the rally, (which has more to do with rider stamina, experience and routing capabilities than anything else). BMW has a BIG issue and they'd better address it soon. Still, are they winning because there are so many of them? Are IBR results based on true reliability, or just sheer numbers?

I fully expect that as the even more details of what really happened to all of the participants become and their bikes becomes known, that this report may have to be updated in order to reflect that growing knowledge. If you have additional information that is more accurate, please post it below.

As for the best story, I would say that it's the tenaciousness of Marty Leir. He was hardly mentioned in most of the reports I read. It was Jim Owens this, and George Barnes that. But Marty just kept plugging away, riding and riding and racking up the bonus points. Sure, Jim Owens probably would have won if not for the three punctures, but we all know about "ifs." Nevetheless he did a great job. Ultimately, though, it was Marty who very quietly amassed with the most points.

I agree with all before me who said that anyone who finishes is a hero. Hell, anyone who seriously attempts it, regardless of the outcome, is a damned serious rider. Congrats to all involved, from the organizers to the very last rider. Well done.

 

[Warchild]

I continue to appreciate the unbelievable frustration Kneebone, Landry and the rest of us on the IBA Staff go through when we read the various forum tripe that is spewed out during every Iron Butt rally. Some of this **** is not even close to anything resembling reality. :glare:

The biggest story coming out of 2007 Iron Butt Rally, I can't even discuss! :huh: I can only say this: there was SO much behind-the-scenes drama this year, on so many different levels, both within and outside the IBR event itself, I am just about ready to ralph up my cookies.... :angry:

I'll just add a couple of corrections to the more egregious errors being posted, and the rest of the ********, I'll leave alone. For now.

The ST1300s were far from perfect. I can't (and won't) go into the specific reasons why two did not finished. The two ST pilots that didn't finish were very, very good riders. Still and all, the highest placing ST1300 rider came up to me after the event and said he "has had enough of this heat problem", and he either is going to fix the blast furnace effect coming off the engine bay/frame rails, "or I am selling this piece of ****!"

Re: FJR1300s. There were NO failures due to the bike itself! None! Doug Chapman was not held up a single mile due to his wonky Datel readings, which returned to normal once he stopped riding in the monsoon of Leg One.

Bob St George's problem had NOTHING TO DO with the bike itself. He has his dealer to thank for ******* away his 2007 Iron Butt Rally. They installed the Electrosport ESH-130 stator, and they did a COMPLETELY ****** UP job doing it. They used ********, low-grade crappy wiring, did not retain the OEM connector, and used electric tape to "seal" the spliced-in crappy-*** wiring. They etched up his rotor by failing to position the wire retaining clamp properly. The piss-poor connections caused the whole set-up to burn through the wiring and short out. This is hardly a "FJR failure"; this is simply ****-workmanship on the part of a dealer

So of the 14 FJRs at the Start Line, Bob St George got butt-****** by his dealer, Doug Chapman retired for personal reasons, and David Hinks retired when it became apparent the 11-Day IBR effort was waaaaaay over his head.

But NONE of the FJRs dropped out because outright platform failures.... such as the blown final drives, exploding transmissions, etc that many BMWs experienced.

Beemers finishing 1, 2, 4, 5 really doesn't mean **** to the IBR veterans, because IBR veterans all know it's the rider, not the bike. True, the bike choice has an impact on what the rider can do, but no "bike" ever won the Iron Butt Rally... riders have won it. Anyone can play the "positive spin" game with these statistics; here's an example: just as many FJRs stood on the Top 10 Podium as Beemers did.

Joel Rappaport crossing the finish line with over 400K miles on his ancient Beemer is indeed a good story, but many folks are missing the fact that the R60/6 did not finish. (must earn 190K+ points to be an official "Finisher"). So while it didn't outright DNF, it had the same result.

The Harley Sportster that was ridden by Brett Donahue has very little in common with a Sportster that the general public can obtain. Rumor has it that the Motor Company had a large, large hand in prepping this machine. The words "factory support" were whispered by those individuals who were there at Chesterfield to directly observe what was going on behind the scenes.

Like I say, there is a lot, LOT more horsecock drama going on behind the scenes that email lists and web forums never ever see or know about...... :glare:

 

[FJR-Richie]

Like I say, there is a lot, LOT more horsecock drama going on behind the scenes that email lists and web forums never ever see or know about...... :glare:

Sounds like the "behind the scenes IBR" would make a really nice docu-drama! Too bad I'm not a film maker - anyone know Michael Moore's phone number?

 

[wheatonFJR]

Like I say, there is a lot, LOT more horsecock drama going on behind the scenes that email lists and web forums never ever see or know about...... :glare:

Sounds like the "behind the scenes IBR" would make a really nice docu-drama! Too bad I'm not a film maker - anyone know Michael Moore's phone number?

too late for Michael Moore...he's already done a film called "sicko"

 

[boogahboogah]

I'm still waiting to hear more of the in-depth stories, you know, the ones that people write after they've got a weeks sleep so they can get back to normal.

So far:

I'm impressed by the skill and stamina of lots of the riders, especially the ones that didn't give up when thrown a curve. Lots of good stories I'm looking forward to.

Disappointed by the cheaters.

 

[Udjeni]

The ST1300s were far from perfect. I can't (and won't) go into the specific reasons why only two finished. The two ST pilots that did finish were very, very good riders.

Uhm, not that it's any skin off my nose, but I think you might have your numbers confused, Warchild. I count 6 ST1300s in the final results, of which 4 finished.

10 Peter Leap Honda ST1300 10,910 292,596

13 Curt Gran Honda ST1300 11,090 285,512

51 Bill Thweatt Honda ST1300 9,999 205,319

72 Maura Gatensby Honda ST1300 9,117 147,868

DNF Steve Broadhead Honda ST1300 3,337 60,123

DNF Tom Loftus Honda ST1300 0 0

 

[RayW]

Still and all, the highest placing ST1300 rider came up to me after the event and said he "has had enough of this heat problem", and he either is going to fix the blast furnace effect coming off the engine bay/frame rails, "or I am selling this piece of ****!"

:rofl: ...sorry....can't help it....my best friend is a die-hard Honda guy (even has the Honda red wings logo tatooed on his arm!!) and while he isn't crazy about the ST1300 he absolutly LOVES his ST1100.....let him ride my FJR one time and his biggest complaint was the heat...

Beemers finishing 1, 2, 4, 5 really doesn't mean **** to the IBR veterans, because IBR veterans all know it's the rider, not the bike. True, the bike choice has an impact on what the rider can do, but no "bike" ever won the Iron Butt Rally... riders have won it. Anyone can play the "positive spin" game with these statistics; here's an example: just as many FJRs stood on the Top 10 Podium as Beemers did.

I'd be REALLY curious to know if the top Beemer finishers (or ANY of the Beemer finishers) did any "preventative maintenance" on their "maintenance free" final drives before they started the rally. It might be like some old British sports cars...if you knew what to watch for you could head off a lot of the reliability problems they had.

Ray

 

[Bounce]

I have a friend, who's an avid Bimmerphile. He does a complete final drive service every 15k to 20k miles (including all seals and bearings) so that he won't have another final drive failure. After having at least 3 go on him (all around the 30k range and on at least 2 different bikes) he said this is his best insurance to avoid DNFing in the middle of a rally.

 

[STL FJR]

I have a friend, who's an avid Bimmerphile. He does a complete final drive service every 15k to 20k miles (including all seals and bearings) so that he won't have another final drive failure. After having at least 3 go on him (all around the 30k range and on at least 2 different bikes) he said this is his best insurance to avoid DNFing in the middle of a rally.

I had to replace my final drive on my 2004 R1150RT at 18k. My 2005 R1200GS only has about 10k now, but I will certainly service the "maintenance free" drive at 12k. Wishing I had bought that extended warranty now, like I have on the FJR and will probably never need.

 

[Warchild]

I count 6 ST1300s in the final results, of which 4 finished.
10 Peter Leap Honda ST1300 10,910 292,596

13 Curt Gran Honda ST1300 11,090 285,512

51 Bill Thweatt Honda ST1300 9,999 205,319

72 Maura Gatensby Honda ST1300 9,117 147,868

DNF Steve Broadhead Honda ST1300 3,337 60,123

DNF Tom Loftus Honda ST1300 0 0

Four did NOT finish..... only 3 did, as I forgot my good friend Bill Thweet made the cut-off by a 15319 points.

As mentioned, there is a minimum number of points to be an official Finisher, and that was 190,000 points. Anything less than that (even if they made it back to Chesterfield before the Checkpoint closed) results in a non-Finisher status.

These folks may look like they are Finishers, but they are not:

64 David Bourdeaux Honda GL1800 8,570 187,222

65 Jim Simonet BMW K1200LT 10,987 187,035

66 Chris McGaffin Kawasaki Concours 8,690 176,784

67 Joel Rappoport BMW R60/6 8,885 175,945

68 Bob Collin BMW R1200RT 9,050 157,920

69 Jim Mulcahy BMW K1200RS 8,833 150,023

70 Alexander Schmitt Honda ST1100 10,584 148,232

71 Mark W. Collins H-D Electra Glide 7,869 147,905

72 Maura Gatensby Honda ST1300 9,117 147,868

The EXCEPTION to the above is Alex Schmitt, who IS a finisher (w/ a Gold Medal!), but had half his total points forfeited for swapping bikes during the rally. 140 miles from the Finish Line, his ST1100's front rim split on a big pothole hit, and he rode a firend's Viffer the remaining miles to become a Finisher. For swapping bikes, this penalty is assessed after the fact... i.e.: his point total is calculated for Finisher status and Medal assignment first, then the penalty assessed for his final standings of 70th Place.

 

[Badcat]

Hey Warchild when does the book and made for TV movie come out. We wanna know the gory details!!! :dribble:

 

[Thug]

Yeah WC Gunny on the BadCat comment...maybe a personal PM with the gory details???

 

[squeezer]

The EXCEPTION to the above is Alex Schmitt, who IS a finisher (w/ a Gold Medal!), but had half his total points forfeited for swapping bikes during the rally. 140 miles from the Finish Line, his ST1100's front rim split on a big pothole hit, and he rode a firend's Viffer the remaining miles to become a Finisher. For swapping bikes, this penalty is assessed after the fact... i.e.: his point total is calculated for Finisher status and Medal assignment first, then the penalty assessed for his final standings of 70th Place.

I hadn't heard the Alex Schmitt story yet. 140 miles from a top ten finish -- unreal.

That after-the-fact penalty is a quirky scoring rule, but I'm glad it worked that way for Alex and he got his gold medal. That's a great ride.

 

[Toecutter]

Tossup between the state trooper, Joel Rappaport, and Jim Frens.The state trooper story was hillarious and well-told.

This one? If not, got a link?

At least five separate riders, Karol Patzer, Tony DeLorenzo, MichaelBoge, Stephan Bolduc, and Richard Buber, had an interesting encounter

with a Nevada state trooper on Interstate 80. They each were sweating

bullets as the cruiser pulled up beside them and rolled down the window.

The officer then held up a clipboard with a sign on it reading, "Tell

Kneebone hi for me." He sometimes held up a second sign saying,

"Good Luck!"

 

[Ignacio]

Although I think I ultimately made a fine choice of a Metzler ME-880 tire and had plenty of tread at the end of 9700 miles......it cupped very badly. Combine the cupping with some fatigue on Night 9 cruising across Nevada and I thought my rear end was doing a BMW impersonation. First pic shows general center wear expected of a tire in the IBR

Right of center shows a canyon that has a huge amount of extra tread on the right side and a shortage of tread on the left side of the cut. At 60 mph or left going around a corner on a two-laner and one seriously wonders if the rear end is going to explode. While riding down the Interstate dead straight at FJR nominal, however, is fairly quiet. That's the kind of thing that will play serious mind tricks on a person in the wilds of California and Nevada.

 

[Bike Effects]

Although I think I ultimately made a fine choice of a Metzler ME-880 tire and had plenty of tread at the end of 9700 miles......it cupped very badly. Combine the cupping with some fatigue on Night 9 cruising across Nevada and I thought my rear end was doing a BMW impersonation. First pic shows general center wear expected of a tire in the IBR

Right of center shows a canyon that has a huge amount of extra tread on the right side and a shortage of tread on the left side of the cut. At 60 mph or left going around a corner on a two-laner and one seriously wonders if the rear end is going to explode. While riding down the Interstate dead straight at FJR nominal, however, is fairly quiet. That's the kind of thing that will play serious mind tricks on a person in the wilds of California and Nevada.

Welcome back Iggy. Congratulations to you!

 

[fjrchik]

So how many of the "cheaters" were up on the podium?? Did they bring "the Team" with em?

 

[Thug]

What's the Trooper story????

 

[rickcorwn]

What's the Trooper story????

From the day 10 report...

At least five separate riders, Karol Patzer, Tony DeLorenzo, Michael Boge, Stephan Bolduc, and Richard Buber, had an interesting encounter with a Nevada state trooper on Interstate 80. They each were sweating bullets as the cruiser pulled up beside them and rolled down the window. The officer then held up a clipboard with a sign on it reading, "Tell Kneebone hi for me." He sometimes held up a second sign saying, "Good Luck!"

There was a picture on the web but it's missing now :blink: