and he’s on his way back to Denver for a tyre change and scoring.

It looks as though, assuming he’s not done anything too daft that the inconvenient tyre change appointment may not cost him too much. We will see when the results are published for leg 2 sometime on Sunday

He will then be faced with a dilemma : Play it safe and get a respectable finish (he’s already well ahead of the scheduled points requirement after leg 1) or go for broke and see how high he can be placed.

Difficult decision …..

I again managed to catch a few words with Robert between “day four” and “day five”. Remember in the world of the IBR, day six will just be getting underway. The time zone that RTK is currently riding in, is 8 hours behind European time.

When he received the rally book for leg 2, Robert tells me it was a straight choice between heading northeast and Wisconsin or south west and California. Each route had it’s merits and the weather would play a factor in whichever choice was made – the searing heat of the Mohave desert to the south west of storms to the northeast

He chose the heat, not least because there were slightly more points to be had but also because it fitted the tyre change schedule slightly better.

So, that’s what he’s now doing – Tulsa to Los Angeles and then all the way back to Denver.

Leg two is another three day leg and he’ll need to be back in Denver by the time you all wake up on Sunday morning (“you” being the people in Europe that is)

Leg three will be the defining leg for Robert

And now a further explanation of what I mean by the heat of the Mojave …..

It’s been fairly hot in the UK and Europe the last few weeks with some places hitting the mid thirties during the day. In the Mojave it doesn’t DROP to those temperatures even in the dead of the night. Robert will have faced temperatures of mid to high forties, in his riding gear, with no shade available to give some relief from the heat. If you lift your visor up, the wind is so hot that it burns your face. If you take your gloves off and ride “gloveless”, the backs of your hands burn.

The only way to describe what riding across the Mojave feels like, is imagine you are cooking a Sunday roast and you open the oven door. That “blast” of heat you get is what you get in the Mojave – except it’s from every side of you, not just the front.

In 2011, I spent 36 hours hiding behind the screen of my Windjammer as I trundled across the Mojave from east to west. The temperature never dropped below 100 degrees fahrenheit for 48 hours. Each and every fuel stop is a welcome break from the heat as you pay for your fuel in the airconditioned gas stations. In short it is Hell !!!

But there’s points to be had !! Lol !!

The problem is though with Leg 3 being a 5 day leg, he may have to go back again …

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Well I guess most of you will know by now that Robert is in 37^th place after Leg 1.

I managed to have a very brief chat with him after the scores had been announced and he confirmed that the route that he had taken was the one that I guessed.  His placing therefore was to be expected.

He also confirmed though that many (obviously not the top riders) of those above him appeared to be rookies who came in exhausted have ridden hard during the first leg.  Robert is very relaxed and riding well inside his comfort zone at the moment

He’s ahead in points of where he thought he’d be because he was able to pick up several extra bonuses.  The scoring went very well and he did not lose any significant points – only about 0.05% of his total point value because he had made a typo in the bonus code.

On the downside, his rear tyre (or should that be “tire” ?) has lost pressure over the last three days and after pumping it up, his compressor then promptly failed !! – bloody German rubbish !!

Hopefully the leak will not increase and in any case, it only needs to last a day or so as he has a tyre change booked in Denver on Saturday.

However, that in itself will be a problem as he will need to plan his entire route for Leg 2 around that tyre change appointment.  It means that whatever route he plans, unless he is REALLY lucky, it will not be the optimum route.  It’s probable therefore that he will slip down the rankings by the end of leg 2.

I’m guessing he will head west and then do the tyre change on the “way back” east towards the leg 2 checkpoint.  Of course, if that is the case, then he’s heading to the one state in the USA where “lane-splitting” aka “filtering” is legal – California.  Robert, unlike many of the USA riders  should be able to take advantage of this.

And that’s about it for now. When I spoke with him, the leg 2 bonuses had not yet been released so it’s just speculation what he’ll be up to as yet.

Leg 2 therefore will be a “holding leg” for Robert.  He just needs to make the best of it because of the scheduled tyre change and then really go for it on Leg 3 ……

I’ve just had word that Robert has checked in on time at Tulsa to complete Leg 1

I will post more later once I reach tonights (Thursday) hotel.

As I arrive in Graz (my hotel), Day Four and Leg 2 for Robert will just be starting – now it should get interesting

As suspected, the group of riders that Robert is clearly amongst have now set out en masse west and towards Tulsa.

Although he has plenty of time, clearly Robert will want to mop up as many bonuses on his way as possible, without putting himself under too much pressure – that can wait for Legs 2 and 3. Generally, the points available for legs 2 and then leg 3 tend to increase, so only a mug “rides himself (or herself of course) into the ground” on leg 1

As he leaves the east coast, the traffic will ease – and the roads get better. The roads in the USA especially around the cities are in poor condition, but the Interstates tend to be much better. His only real concern will be roadworks as in the USA (well most of the USA), filtering is not allowed meaning you just have to sit and wait in jams along with the other traffic.

Looking at the weather forecast, he should enjoy nice weather over the next two days. Indeed as long as he stays “north”, the weather forecast looks “okay” for most of the rally In the south of course, the heat is always a real killer.

Still at least this time unlike 2013 and 2017, he can just “ride his rally” and enjoy it without having to worry about his bike.

More to follow ……

This is the official IBA report from midway through Day 2.

Fortunately Robert does not appear in it, but note the paragraph towards the end of the report about a rider posting to Social Media.

It is difficult to comment on Roberts progress “blind” as I am, however it is even more difficult ensuring that nothing I say should harm Roberts participation in anyway whatsoever.

My “IBR Blog” this time therefore will necessarily have to be vary different from 2013 and 2017. Please understand that

IBR HQ Report :

There are days when the scribe must sigh deeply and report on things which are unfortunate. It is particularly unfortunate to have to post such things when bringing you news of Day 02. But this is not the first time, nor is it likely to be the last time the scribe is faced with such a task.

Lisa Rufo and Molly are recovering after a deer strike totaled their motorcycle, but they are out of the rally. After making sure Lisa was released from the hospital and all was well, Steve Rufo is continuing the rally solo. He has unfinished business. Steve had entered the 2021 IBR but was unable to ride due to having back surgery before the rally. He will have a penalty assessed for their team not staying together, but still has an opportunity to become a finisher. Continuing without the rest of his team was no doubt a difficult decision, but we wish him well.

Gerry Arel had an accident on his GSA in South Carolina and is out of the rally. He is in the hospital with some broken bones. Medjet is arranging to transport him to a medical facility near his home in Connecticut for the recommended surgery. SCHP and an eyewitness reported Gerry’s front tire hit some construction debris during a rainstorm, and the bike went down hard. Gerry was somehow able to scamper to the median and out of traffic. He called the RallyMom yesterday and apologized for causing her to have to open the Red Book. We are very thankful he is in good spirits and getting the care he needs to recover. IBR Vet Dan Crowley unselfishly drove several hours to be with Gerry at the hospital, something for which we owe him a debt of gratitude. Gerry’s awesome wife Nikki rushed to the airport and is now on scene, allowing Dan to head back home.

Troy Martin rode his Triumph Trophy off a curb and damaged the oil sump, creating a leak. He patched the leaking aluminum with some J.B. Weld and is back on the road. So far the repair is holding.

Rob Griffith had a fuel pump failure on his GoldWing in North Carolina. The pump has been replaced. Rob is making his way to the checkpoint.

Too Much Too Soon?

Conventional wisdom holds that going too hard on the first leg of the IBR is not a good idea. Traditionally, the number of points available per mile ridden increases throughout the rally. The point values available on Leg 3 will typically dwarf the point values available on Leg 1. Ideally, riders still need to be relatively fresh on Legs 2 and 3. However, should they bite off too much from the menu on Leg 1, they might not be fresh enough to route efficiently or ride their plan effectively. In light of that, a conservative approach would seem more appropriate.

Reality is a bit more nuanced. Riders competing for a gold medal finish, especially those in the hunt for the top ten, cannot really afford to pass up points on Leg one. Having noted that, they still need to allow for enough rest to be fresh and ready to plan their routes at the first checkpoint.

It is also a harsh reality that riders looking for a top five finish are operating at an entirely different level and every point they can collect on every leg is important. Riders who breathe that rarified air tend to push the envelope from the start. But even they need to manage time carefully.

There are often bonuses with big point values placed in locations designed to tempt riders to take a big bite which they may ultimately find too difficult to swallow. These are usually referred to as “sucker” bonuses. The points may suck the rider in with dreams of a big score and when it is too late to recover, they find the difficulty of collecting it simply beyond their capability. Maybe it is too far away for the time available. Maybe it is in a difficult to access area which required triple the amount of time to collect it than they budgeted in their route plan. Maybe it is on a rough dirt road which becomes a muddy mess after a rain. Maybe it requires hiking across a land bridge only available at low tide … and low tide occurs after the time a rider would need to leave to get back to the checkpoint. Maybe it is doable, but not if the rider spends too much time collecting smaller bonuses on the way. Maybe it is doable, but is it smart and how does it impact the rest of the rider’s rally? Maybe it is just not doable at all.

In any case, rally architects have a habit of inserting such temptingly shiny baubles into their rallies to see who will reach for them. I would not say it is for sheer amusement, but it probably contributes to the term “rally bastard” being tossed around by certain riders. In addition, what might be a “sucker” bonus for a rookie might be entirely doable for a top tier rider.

Do the top tier riders sometimes bite off more than they can chew? Yes, they do. And sometimes, so do riders who are just looking to finish. Can those elite riders pull off a massive ride that sets them up for a point lead going into Leg 2? Yes, that is possible. Can those riders create an impressive point lead on Leg 1 and then find themselves too fatigued to ride their plan on Leg 2? Yes, that is also possible.

It remains to be seen if any of these scenarios apply to Leg 1 for the 2023 IBR riders. As this report is being written, there are a few riders who appear to be far enough out to place their arrival time at the first checkpoint well into the penalty points. It will be interesting to see how their rides and bonus claims work out if they can get to the checkpoint before being time barred.

As always, we watch and wait.

Other riders are taking the more conservative approach and are on track to arrive at the checkpoint hotel well ahead of the opening of the checkpoint window. Rookie riders are usually better off following this strategy, for multiple reasons. They should be able to get enough points to hit the finisher target for Leg 1 and still arrive with a time cushion at the checkpoint, which reduces stress. They can arrive with time to rest and sleep before the next leg bonus list is handed out. They should then be well-rested when planning their Leg 2 routes, assuming they don’t spend their rest time hanging out in the lobby talking to everyone they see. They should also be rested to start riding the second leg and collect the higher valued points.

Tuesday was a travel day for the rally staff, moving the rally work room from the hotel in Pittsburg to the hotel in Tulsa. Some of the staff made the trip riding, some were driving, and some were flying. There are always issues with any form of travel, but everyone made it to Tulsa. The preparations for the riders to arrive Wednesday evening began late Tuesday night. We will post more details of the Tulsa checkpoint in tomorrow’s update.

There is a group photo bonus Wednesday, north of the checkpoint, and we expect a lot of riders to show up for an easy 1632 points. They must sign in before the deadline to collect the points and be in the photo.

It is disturbing that information about this bonus, and information from another bonus, was posted to social media on Tuesday. That information could have only come through a rider in the rally to the person who posted it. The integrity standard for this group is simple: Do not do anything during the rally about which you would be unwilling to stand up in front of your peers and admit to. The rider meeting at the checkpoint, where the Leg 2 bonus list will be distributed, should be interesting. It is also disturbing that a rider posted a photo of bonus information to Facebook on Wednesday. The rules are clear on these things, and they were covered in depth during the rider meeting. What are these folks thinking?

We posted the following update on Monday under the headline “Rally 101”:

“At 1:07am, Landry received a photo text, showing flag 88, hanging on a pole in Bar Harbor, looking so sad and abandoned by its hapless rider. Oh well. 
Then, at 3:01am, another rider came upon the lonely flag and texted the RallyMom, asking if should they bring it back. Really?!
When no text response came from a sleeping Landry, and no phone call to verify the basic rules of rallying, at 3:07 the rider announced in another text they would bring it back to Tulsa… The riders have managed to connect and they are working on a handoff location to return the wayward rally flag to its owner. Hopefully, this will be resolved without further disruption.”

Unfortunately, Dan Duvall not only chose to take a rider’s flag, costing the rider hours and aggravation, he also chose not follow Jeff Earls’ specific instructions on how to proceed. The scribe predicts the next rally will incorporate a new rule and painful penalty for similar transgressions.

John Harrison
IBR Scribe
Iron Butt Rally©

To begin with, apologies for the delay – I hope to have caught up be the time Robert starts Day 4

Like all rallies, but especially with the IBR, it is all about pacing yourself.  

Looking at the global Spottracker page for Day One, it seems that the riders have split into 3 main groups.  One small group has headed west, another group has headed south east, but the big group has headed first northeast before then turning south at various points.  Given what Robert has already told me, I expect Robert to be amongst those riders as it’s clearly the “middle way” for this leg

The east coast has far more traffic than other parts of the USA and certainly when I rode the rally in 2011, the “east coast” leg seemed to create unrest amongst many of the American riders because of the congestion.  Being used to riding in Europe, this should be no problem for Robert.

It’s very difficult to comment without actually seeing the rally book but Robert did tell me that there is a “group photo bonus” that is worth a lot of points just before the end of the first leg (The checkpoint is Tulsa), so I expect he will stop over somewhere around New York at the end of Day One, before heading in a more westerly direction the following two days.

He’ll have a “neutral” day on Day One, making up time to begin with before losing some time in and around New York.  Day Two and Day Three will no doubt be on interstates with small detours to collect bonuses and so he should make good progress.

It is highly likely that he will arrive in the Tulsa area well before the checkpoint closes as he’ll not want to miss those points.  

More to follow …..

….. in my reporting. Once I get to my hotel tonight (which should just about be at the start of Day 3 for Robert), I’ll post up my thoughts so far

…. and the good news is that he is conspicuous by his absence in the early day one reports – other than a picture at the start

More later ……

Welcome to Day 1 of the “Johnthetommy Blog” previously known as “Hutzmandl on Tour”.

I spoke to Robert about three hours before the rally books were given out and I can see from his last posting that that he has already planned Leg 1 but like all of you reading this, that’s all I know for now.

I guess he will be asleep now as the rally is due to start in a little over 7 hours time at 16.00 European time (15.00 BST)

Fortunately for Robert, “the heat is off” this time. In his last IBR in 2017 he achieved his main objective in obtaining his “3 digit” IBA membership number. For those of you that don’t know, in the IBA, you are allocated a membership number when you complete your first qualifying ride. I guess it must be up to around 80,000 now. However, the first 999 membership numbers are reserved for any rider that has been an Iron Butt Rally finisher (I am number 458) and it marks you out amongst other IBA members as “one of THOSE guys” ……. Robert has his now – higher than mine I might add …. Lol !!

So he can approach this rally differently – however there is his dilemma. He is no doubt capable of achieving a top place, but as a famous racer once said “to finish first, first you have to finish”. Coupled with that, for any European (and especially a European shipping his own bike over to ride), the financial cost is enormous and so “crashing and burning” on the first leg (pardon the pun) is both counter productive to both ending in a high position or indeed from the “value for money” angle.

For that reason, I expect a fairly conservative first leg. It will ease him into the rally and allow for any “heroics” in legs 2 and 3.

So that’s all from me for now. By this time tomorrow, armed with what I know, i should be able to work out what he’s up to on the first leg

It is before midnight and I have already finished my planning and preparations. After I close this laptop, I will hit the sack and you will hear nothing from me until Friday 30 June, 10 a.m. EST. I am under a strict social media curfew from tomorrow morning onwards, no direct information from me must appear on the internet. I may even not be comment or like Facebook posts. So do not expect anything from me in this time. Anybody who has received my GPS tracker link must not share it, it must not appear on the internet. Luckily there is the new http://www.ironbuttrally.net website that will keep you updated together with John Young’s entertaining comments on this website. Stay tuned in to this blog!

I have received the rider number 31 out of 112 starters. The way to the next checkpoint in Tulsa seems close, but as expected, this would have been too easy. It resembles more the Dancing Procession of Echternach.

Talk to you in 11 days!

Mr. Young, please take over the rudder!

I had a a good rest tonight and rose refreshed. The choice of breakfast was again pretty depressing but I tried to counter with some fruit salad at the end. In the beginning I was pretty alone at my table, but gradually it filled with quite illustrious people of the Iron Butt Association such as Ed Otto, Jason Jonas, Bob Lilley and finally his excellency himself, IBA President Mike Kneebone. This made me stay a lot longer as this was a unique opportunity to chat quietly with these people, soon the storm would break loose. I had a long and good conversation with Mike about a series of topics. I told him that I was super relaxed, what a difference to previous IBRs where I was very nervous before the start. This will of course change during the ceremony tonight: after the dinner, when we will be handed out the rally book, the imaginary clock for planning starts.

I rode to the nearest petrol station (or as they call it here, ‘gas station’) and used my electric pump for the first time to correct my tyre pressure. I filled up and I purchased a series of items in the shop (water, energy bars, beef jerky, cookies…). In the parking lot, a had a talk with Bob Lilley asking for tips in terms of riding style, precious information.

In my room, I prepared my luggage, the one that I will carry and the one I leave here. I connected my Sat Nav to the notebook and noticed a problem: the North America maps that are stored on the devices are not visible in Basecamp, the planning software. They are on the devices, I used they to come here, but they are not visible for planning. Luckily, I had installed some Open Source Maps on the Computer to use it also without the GPS, handy to have a quick look on the roadside. This should work as well. A good example for appropriate redundancy.

I will go to the rider meeting now, curious what the rally master will reveal to us. Later the banquet will take place where we will be given the rally books. Then, the storm WILL break loose.

I got up at six and after a typical …American breakfast, registration started at 7 a.m. At lot of stations had to be passed, I went for the paperwork first: insurance, repatriation insurance, GPS tracker check, camera check, video statement recording, In the car park, it was time for the bike papers check and tech inspection. All ok, also the auxiliary tank check. The only ‘problem’ was about the stickers. No commercial stickers are allowed on the bikes, sponsoring is prohibited.

I had wondered if my number plate holder could be a problem, it bears the name of BMW dealer. But no, it were the decals with the name of my site (see the top of this page!). I insisted that this would be my blog site and nothing commercial. In order to have a ‘level playing field’, I was told to cover it with tape. When I tried to put some Gaffer tape on it, Dale ‘Warchild’ Wilson, the head of tech inspection felt sorry as it would destroy the stickers. He made the Solomonic proposal to just cover the ‘.com’ with tape….and so I did. The whole story brought me the first mention in a daily report this year, maybe for the wrong reasons. Well….🙄.

What was missing was the odometer calibration route of about 54 km. It is to be done to determine a correction factor for the milage ridden during the rally. I managed not to take wrong turns like others and at after three hours, everything was done and dusted and rally master Jeff Earls congratulated me for being an entrant to the IBR 23! Everything went very smooth, even the ridiculous sticker episode. Well, I had gone through this before, practice makes perfect.

After this, I went to the gym and did some exercise, I had not moved my bones in one week. In the afternoon I chatted with fellow riders, strolled through the carpark and decreased the entropy in my hotel room by packing the luggage for Monday. At 6 p.m. I joined the happy hour and later the buffet dinner. In contrast to the the previous two IBRs, I am super relaxed and everything worked out just fine. Tomorrow is another relaxing day…until the riding meeting.

I add some pictures from the dark park for entertainment.

Well, my arrival in Toronto was expected – a quick Passport control, taxi ride to Air Canada Cargo and….then staff was confused…”this usually takes more than six hours”. No, it didn’t. However, I had to walk back from customs to get my passport, they needed it. I had to wait for a while, but staff got more and more friendly. Finally I got back back the BMW and rode to the hotel. The night was not pleasant, I got some cramps in the calves…too much sweating and a dehydrating intercontinental flight. Luckily I was prepared and solved the problem with magnesium and lots of water.

In the morning I had a barely edible breakfast and set off soon. On the way to the border, I changed my mind and decided to pass by the Niagara Falls and to do the border crossing there like in 2013. It should be quick as it is a minor crossing. I went to the Falls and took some pictures. Compared to the Victoria Falls in Africa and the falls in Iceland….cute.

When I went on the Rainbow Bridge that spans over the river, I got stuck in traffic…it took one hour to cross the bridge! At the border port, the official did not how to introduce a ‘foreign’ number plate. I had to go into the immigrations building and faced an enormous crowd in the waiting room. Urgs.

Left: a sticker of Hansa Rostock on the Rainbow Bridge??

After one hour of waiting time I was admitted, could answer some questions and got my passport back. Without a stamp, they don’t do this anymore. I had lost a lot of time and in the next hours I learned that the preferred, direct route led right through Western upstate New York, quite rural, slow and with bumpy road. And the worst of all: no filtering permitted. What is quite acceptable to jump the queue with a bike is a no-go here, people would get quite angry. So this route seemed to take forever, with a fuel and sandwich stop in between. Later I continued on Interstates and finally arrived in Gaithersburg after 760 km before sunset. I filled up and prepared my visit for the following day.

Today, I stored my luggage and was picked up by the Director of the Reference Materials Office at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), my peer in the US. I gave a presentation to the department about the European Reference Material program and we had a lot of good exchanges and discussions. It made sense to make a little detour to visit NIST for the first time.

I changed at the hotel and set off for the rally hotel in Pittsburgh where I arrived after a lot of traffic after four hours. I checked in and went to the bar where I found some familiar faces and had some good chats. The “team Europe” is rather small with two Irish, one English and me.

Tomorrow will be a tough day doing the whole registration, this will take the whole day. But everything should go smooth. I hope.

What a glowing tribute from Robert there – even if there was a “sting in the tail” …. Lol !!

So, to clarify what Robert has already said, there is effectively a social media “blackout” during the rally and that even extends to me, his co-blogger. My job therefore is, each day to try to make sense of what Robert is up to and, as best I can, work out what is plan is as the rally develops.

I’ll probably be way off the mark most of the time as Robert’s kind of rally planning is still much of a mystery to me. I’ve never been one for the meticulous Germanic approach to deciphering a rally book – most of the time, I just “wing it” and see what happens. From our past “rally battles”, I’m still not totally sure which method is best. What I am sure of though, is that our respective approaches to rally planning, perfectly reflect the perceived national traits of the English and the Germans !!

So, you’ll not be hearing from me again until the end of day 1 of the rally, when I’ll have my first stab of what the “Kraut” is up to !!!

Got up early, one hour too early. Perfect summer weather. Packed the rest, said goodbye to the cats and the cat mummy ☺️, left at 8 a.m. It was only some 400 km to today’s destination, the airport area in Paris. The usual traffic in Antwerp didn’t slow me down a lot and after two hours I was near the French border where I visit a motorcycle accessories shop. I bought another piece of extension for the RAM Mount system I am using to put the tablet in a better position.

After two hours more, I arrived at the hotel near the airport were I dropped off most of my luggage, at least the one that does not stay on the bike. I went to a car wash and cleaned the bike thoroughly and filled up 1.5 L of petrol: the maximum allowed volume of petrol in the tank is 1 gal (4 L), but I was afraid I’d had too little until I will get to the first Canadian station.

I went to my agent who does all the transport and customs procedures, he explained me the process. His colleague showed me the way to the warehouse/drop-off point. I was happy that I can leave a lot of things in the panniers: helmet, rain gear, tools and accessories. I had to disconnect the plus lead of the battery (as usual) and an employee of Air Canada checked the bike and liked what he saw. After that, I pushed the bike onto a metal pallet and two guys strapped the bike to that plate very thoroughly.

I was driven back to my hotel (excellent service) and did the check-in. It has a modern but very different style (Pink?? Pink!!). I never had slept with the shower next to my bed. The utilities in the room were all controlled by a tablet and the TV program was projected against the wall by a beamer. A funny place and ok for one night. Having the moisture from the shower in the sleeping room is not so nice.

After some relaxing I went downstairs and had some buffet dinner that was actually quite nicely prepared and tasty. I checked the weather in the US and it seems that the situation will be similar than 2017: We will get toasted in a heatwave. Even the two checkpoints that are rather central in the US (Tulsa and Denver) will see temperatures above 35ºC. Wow. What about the Southwest? The prediction for Phoenix (Arizona) left me speechless…highs of 47ºC and lows of 33ºC. Not my thing. Hopefully there will be more options to the North.

I had wondered when drama would struck for the first time. And it did. I had received an e-mail to check in for the flight already. When I went through the process, I had to introduce a number for a Canadian visa. Visa? What? Why? There was a help button that revealed that I had to introduce the number of a visa or the ETA number. ETA? A quick search showed that since my last visit, Canada has also introduced an electronic visa programme similar to the ESTA in the US. Gulp. This was new to me. I found a site on the internet that provided the application. It looked very similar to the US application I had done a few days ago. A the end, I startled…97 $?? That was hefty. Well; but I needed the number ASAP, otherwise I could not board the plane. When I received the e-mail after the transaction, it was in Spanish. Spanish? I checked the e-mail address that led me to a website in Spanish. Was this a scam?? I did not receive a confirmation message. Maybe it was a scam. I searched again and came across a governmental website that asked me all kind of things again. This one cost only 7 $, I got the confirmation immediately and the number a few minutes later, this was fast. I could finish my check-in and disaster could be averted. The other confirmation and number arrived later on that evening so I must have been kind of legit, although it is still a scam to ask 90 $ on top. Right, some money burnt in the process, but at least I could fly. It’s the result that matters.

After my breakfast this morning I took the shuttle to the airport. As there were some roadworks, I got dropped off at another terminal. The hotel could have warned me, as now I had to take a shuttle train as well and to walk for about 1 km to my check-in counter. The security check was interesting, after all I carry a lot of electronic devices, cables, power banks etc…these were fine, but I had to wait for more than 20 min to have my bag routinely swiped for explosives, the only security guy was not the fastest and clearly overworked…At the gate, the boarding went veeeeery slow, Paris Airport is still very complicated to travel. Nice cafés though.

So finally I entered the plane…I thought I was clever to book a seat next an emergency exit door. Infinite leg room. I did not reckon with the super narrow seats that are even narrower close to the window. It is impossible not to be in close touch with my seat neighbour. I realise that my ‚width‘ did grow a bit….this is a disadvantage here. The reason is that I started my fitness programme late, but at least I did. Since January, I have a great personal fitness trainer and together we managed to get me in a much better state than I was in January. Thomas designed a perfect plan to get me ready for the Iron Butt Rally with a focus on core stability. I did a lot of training myself, but Thomas keeps on pushing me to the limit which is necessary for good results. In the end I didn’t lose a lot of weight (yet), but I turned about 8 % of my fat tissue into muscle tissue in the last five months. As a result, I have a much stronger upper body that should bear much better the physical stress and fatigue during an Iron Butt Rally. My test ride around the Benelux was a good proof: no pain felt whatsoever.

As I have plenty of time to write now, being on the plane, I want to take the opportunity to introduce (again) another co-commentator for the next weeks: my good friend John Young will do me the honours, just like for the Iron Butt Rallies in 2013 and 2017. He will comment on my progress, the Iron Butt Rally and whatever comes to his mind. I will be barred to publish anything on social media between two hours before the start and the finish of the rally. In order to keep this blog alive in that time, he will entertain you with his witty contributions. Too bad you can’t hear his nice Yam Yam accent, this would make it even more colourful.

IMHO John is still the best British LD rally rider, even that he doesn’t do rallies anymore. Having said that, no rule without exception, he won the short SAS rally in May where he competed with his famous 1969 Triumph Trident that had successfully completed the 2011 rally with him.

By the way, I did not participate in that rally 😉. While he still WAS doing rallies, it was usually the question who of us would win it. If you are curious, you can check his old posts in June/July 2013 and June/July 2017, they are in the archive.

So I am on the plane to Toronto and I will land in a few hours. Before I can get to the hotel, I’ll have to pass immigrations, the warehouse, customs and the warehouse again. What could be more fun after a transcontinental flight?

Well, here I am, sitting in the garden with the laptop on my knees, enjoying a relaxed evening, probably the last one in the next three weeks when I will be aboard the plane back to Europe. Tomorrow I will be riding to Paris where I will drop off the BMW before I will fly to Toronto on Wednesday. The weather will be good, but I still will have to clean the bike before I present it at the customs and warehouse: no muck allowed.

I have packed everything and the bike is waiting in the garage to be mounted. I will put an extra bag on top of the auxiliary tank that I will have to carry to the rally hotel; it contains some extra luggage like clothes that I will need before and after the rally.

By looking at the pictures I realize that this is the most serious motorbike I have ever taken to an Iron Butt Rally. The XBR 500 and the ST1100 were iconic bikes that gave me a lot of attention, but they were not really “competitive”. This bike and its predecessor have demonstrated that the K1600GT is a very serious motorbike for long-distance rallying. It consider it a “Flying Fortress” as it covers many miles so effortlessly and makes you always feel in control, even under bad weather conditions. A machine. Comfy, but with a lot of character, if needed. And the farkles attached to it make long distances a lot shorter. In the end, I have decided against two modifications: highway pegs and a radar detector. The pegs are difficult to mount and not really needed as I have now lowered foot pegs. Most American riders have radar detectors that are legal in the US; during my trips in America I had never been stopped so why now. And maybe I’ll get away with a warning 🥳. Fixing an electronic device last minute without proper testing is simply asking for stress and problems, so it’s a ‘no’.

So what are the modifications of the ‘Flying Fortress’?

• Russell Day-Long seat for a pain-free bottom
• Clearwater Erica LED auxiliary lights turning night into day with 15000 lumen
• Auxiliary tank with about 11 liters of extra fuel, the smaller version to be under the lower American fuel limit
• Wunderlich Crash bars
• Wunderlich grip protectors
• Samsung Galaxy Active 3, rugged and watertight, permits real-time navigation and online internet
• Garmin Zumo XT GPS
• BMW Navigator V GPS
• Wunderlich lowered foot pegs
• SW Motech tank bag
• Quad Lock mobile phone holder with inductive charging
• Optimale USB Charger with 3A output
• SPOT GPS tracker

That’s it. Pretty modest, actually. At least in comparison with other American riders. But you know, they say ‘less is more’ 😚.

Paris, je viens!

It is less than 10 days to the start of the Iron Butt Rally 2023 and I haven’t posted a thing in months. This is not to surprise people, it is just a case of extreme procrastination. I know for more than one year that I was selected to ride in this year’s rally, but I kept quiet for a long time. In 2013, I posted a lot during month, documenting the transformation of my XBR into a rally bike. In 2017, I was less chatty, but informed about my upcoming trip. In 2023…things were super relaxed. I had to kick myself to start the preparations not so long ago, I was/am in a very relaxed state of mind.

Of course I’m not a rookie anymore. I know how the process works at the IBR. I know how rallies in America are different from Europe and and I have done my share of multi-day rallies to know my body and mind under these conditions. But there is always the possibility to overlook a tiny thing that is essential. In 2017, I lost my proof of medical repatriation insurance before the rally registration. With out this mandatory document, you cannot start the rally. I managed to get another insurance online, but incidents like this result in unnecessary stress before the real stress even begins.

I had planned to ride the rally with my old XBR500 with 402.000 km on the clock. However, it was not possible to obtain insurance for the US and Canada, as the only provider for tourist insurances does not insure motorbikes older than 30 years anymore. So no start in the ‘Hopeless Class’ for me. First, I was disappointed. I had already put aside a more powerful motor with 600cc und had made plans to improve the XBR. The only alternative was the mighty K1600GT, the ST1100 that barely made it to the finish in 2017 is considered retired and is only used occasionally anymore.

Bit by bit I was convinced that choosing the K1600 was the better idea. It’s a comfy ride and 10.000 miles or more is a long distance to get tired. Everything is optimized for rallying, everything in place. Well, small changes I needed to make. I finally managed to get my tablet running, using a plug for the socket in the fairing and using direct charging with a watertight USB-C cable.

Some weeks ago, I bought a original top case for the BMW: I want to use it to keep the rally flag, list and computer and a bag with daily needed gear in there, without having to touch any stuff in the panniers during the different legs, except when needed. An expensive, but very useful addition. I had planned to do some test rides, the first was to the Ride to Eat in Barcelona in April. However, the riding comfort of the BMW got worse and worse and in a common investigation in the garage we discovered that the rear Wilbers shock was leaking! This was a major disaster! As it was not an original part, the shock would have to be returned to Wunderlich and then to the original manufacturer Wilbers. A few weeks before the take-off over the Great Pond, this was an impossible undertaking. After all the issues last year, I simply had enough. It took me one hour of discussion with my dealer and after I had traded my red 2017 K1600GT with 62.000 km for a 2020 white metallic K1600GT with 7.500 km.

Think Big.

Ignore the pain in the area where the wallet is, that’s for later. Or as Douglas Adams has put it:

This planet has – or rather had – a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

We agreed that the farkles of the old bike would be transferred to the new bike by the garage, this softened a bit the pain of the low vending price. After all the administrative procedure (insurance, registration), I swapped the bikes and enjoyed the new bike that was not really different. But it had a working suspension.

I had to go on a business trip to the Lago Maggiore and use the new BMW for. it. Riding in the snow in Switzerland, in the torrential rain in Italy and over the Swiss passes back north showed me that a working K1600 is a mighty fortress and big fun on long distances.

I rode on the ST1100 to Barcelona and was reminded again what a good bike it still is. Smooth.

I visited some of my favorite places in Barcelona and the Costa Brava (I had lived here in the 90s) and did the best coastal road that I know north of Tossa Del Mar. My new tyre was immediately run in 😳.

In May I went to do the only rally this spring, the 12 hour M12 Rally in Mecklenburg Western-Pomerania. I carved out a cunning plan with an excellent adaptation during the rally (I was ahead of my plan). It was a fun ride with no issues. And for the first time in two years, a rally win. The spell is broken.

When all the farkles had been installed, I did my last test ride with the BMW: the Benelux Four Corners ride. Visit all most Western, Northern , Easter and Southern points of the Netherlands and Belgium; And the most southernmost point of Luxemburg. And all geographical centre points of all three countries. And the northernmost point in Holland. In less than 24 hours. After my failed attempt in October this time in perfect sunny conditions.

About 2000 km in 20 hours, right on the planned time. A perfect shakedown run.

Slowly I made my check lists. No hurry. A few purchases. Another advantages of the BMW is that there is little to optimize. I was deeply relaxed. The finalization of the insurance and the bike transport was more nerve-wrecking. Finally everything was settled. Next Tuesday I will ride to Paris, drop off the BMW and fly to Toronto the next day.

At the moment, I am packing my stuff, about half of it is already in the panniers. I think I can call it a day now. There will be more time to mention other preparations…