Iron Butt training

[barbsironbutt]

A few things that paid off for me:
Plan your route so that you travel west in the morning and east at night. This means you're rarely looking into the sun low on the horizon.

Know your body's natural rhythm. Are you most alert in the mornings or are you a night owl? I tend to get sleepy at dawn, so I rode those hours early in my trip when I was most alert and was in relatively familiar territory. Planning a gas/pit stop around then also helped.

Remember darkness will slow you down. I'm always watching for the critters itching for a piece of me and consequently I slow down. Make the most of your daylight hours.

Remember, there really is time to rest. Calculate how much rest time you have when you average certain speeds and comfort yourself with this on the road. Rest when you need it.

It may sound simple, but plan a route according to the speed limits. You can't average 50mph on 35 mph roads.

Throw something quirky into the trip like delivering a large birdfeeder to recent home buying inmates. It gives you something to look forward to and breaks things up. It helps if they meet you with homemade squirrel stew and a 5hour energy drink. Find something that motivates you.

Keep in mind, it doesn't matter if you're lost as long as you keep moving.

If possible, have a friend meet you at the finish line. A friendly familiar face to witness your mileage and maybe pop the champagne will feel like the end of a perfect day!

Happy riding and best of luck!

[gateman]

I ride with a partner often. We do and havve done some huge trips at short notice and for us it works most of the time and I do have a great ride mate.


The thing is we did hundreds of miles and plenty o f trips in the lead up to our first big one. We had clicked.



Now the thing is Pressure to perform and not "wanting to let the side down" can be a negative problem.

If you go the solo thing then If you need to stop then you stop. Two of you has a new dimension. Think it though and dooooooo pleeeenty of miles together to settle in before the big two show trip.

[Canuman]

I'm glad Barb chimed in. She's the person that I was talking about in the my post above. Another thing that seemed to work well on her ride was having cell communication (in her helmet). I'd ridden much of the route she used for her 1,000 a few weeks before her attempt. I went much more slowly! I was able to follow along on her ride and act as a sort of "mission control." It can be difficult to fiddle with GPS buttons while one is riding. From time to time she'd report in and ask how far she was from a certain check-point. I could plug the info into my mapping software and give her answers, as well as point out potential difficulties along the way.

We found out that it is a bad idea while in Canada to give directions to "The Tim Horton's in Cornwall", for example. It's really necessary to specify which of the eight locations.

[pachap]

On the "boredom" issue...

Disclaimer: I've never done an IB ride and I don't really plan on doing one.

The boredom topic came up a few years ago with a co-worker who was about to attempt an SS 1000. He specifically said that he planned his route on some superslab that he had not traveled often, if ever at all, so there would be new stuff to see. If he rode the same old interstate highways he felt that it would become tedious, leading to boredom, leading to lack of awareness, etc., etc. I thought it sounded like a good plan.

So my advice would be to ride somewhere you haven't been on your IB ride. My highest mileage days have come about by just leaving the house with no idea where I am going. If I ever did an IB I would have to plan some oddball route so that it would be over highways that are new to me. Or something like ride 1000 miles from home and take a few days to explore my way back.

[Ken Fritz]

Count the farkles on your bike and add up how much they cost. That'll keep you alert for quite awhile.

[bob393]

Thank you all, this is really really good stuff.

I completely forgot about the way we kept our children quiet in the car on long trips,
you know counting VW bugs or license plates from other states.

I know I have found that when you stare at the odometer all that runs through your head is crap I only went
100mi or 20mi or whatever. That really does kill the fun of the trip, making the end point the goal not the fun
of the ride.

I love the counting up and totaling the price of the farkles, if it doesn't keep you busy it might make you cry!
I forgot the horror of riding east in the morning, so true.
And it's so true the more you ride the further you need to ride to see something different. I was a road salesman
for years and I can remember my wife saying lets go for a ride and all I could think of was I needed to ride four
or five hours just to get out of my daily territory.

[Canuman]

I haven't done 1,000 miles in a day, but I've done some pretty long days on bikes that were not supposedly "ideally suited" for the job. I'm a flower picker and picture taker. 700 miles on a KLR650 is a pretty good one. If your aim is just to get a piece of paper, get on the slab on a big tourer and wind it out. Otherwise, pick a route that is really interesting and run it. The top side of Lake Superior recommends itself. You can keep up a good rate of speed, and still see plenty.

[Alcan Rider]

Boredom can make even a short ride seem like an Iron Butt one. For me, it's simple: I ride as long as I'm having fun. When the fun stops, I stop.

Finding some place interesting to ride helps immensely. Starting the ride early in the day, well before sunrise perhaps, gives you the advantage of getting out of your home area while it is still too dark to see anything anyway, and saving the daylight hours for new places that might interest you.

Initially, instead of seeing how many miles you can do in a limited time, try seeing how many hours you can ride without getting bored and tired of riding, without any mileage goal. See if you can stretch the hours out first, the mileage will follow eventually. That is much safer in that you will not be tempted to ride faster to reach a certain number of miles. It will also let you get off to take photos, eat a snack, stretch your legs, etc., which will help you to last for more hours.

One of my favorite places to do Iron Butt rides is the Dalton Hwy. It is interesting, scenic, somewhat challenging, and never boring. It is no trouble to ride my KLR for 30 hours or more when I'm up there, getting off now and then to snap a photo, then back onto the bike and keep moving. When it is no longer fun, then I'll quit those rides and look elsewhere.

[bob393]

It's true but the challenge of pushing on can be addictive.

[CharlesLathe]

On Wednesday, I sent in the paper work for the Iron Butt Silver National Parks Tour. My wife, Nina, and I did it two-up on a 2010 Bonneville T100. We didn't get bored, but we spent very little time on freeways. It was kind of time consuming, but chasing visitor centers at national parks, memorials, seashores, battlefields, etc. ended up being kind of rewarding -- and tiring. We've now ridden two-up through the 48 lower states and one Canadian province, but it took us 35 years.

I haven't gotten bored on a motorcycle yet. I guess I'm still concentrating too much on figuring out how to ride them better to give boredom much opportunity.

About twenty years ago, I had what looked like a good opportunity to go for a thousand mile day. I was headed home to Washington from Colorado. Maybe 100 miles from my goal, very early in the morning, the headlight on my BMW K100RS started going out and coming back on. I pulled over and slept in the ditch. When it got light, I rode on home. A day or so later, I pulled the gas tank and pushed on the relays. The load shedding relay clicked down. Somehow, after many, many miles, it pretty much unplugged itself.

I'm thinking you are probably ready to give it a go. Whether you succeed or not, you still get to ride your motorcycle. And one nice thing about the Iron Butt rides is that if you don't make it, no one has to know.

Regards, Chuck

[JG55]

The best training aid....... The seat on my F800gs. After some time on it, any other seat will be like sitting on a marshmallow.

[Lone Rider]

Originally Posted by acejones

Maybe ask yourself why you are doing this. Is it bragging rights ? If so, that's stupid. Some kind of personal challenge ? That may be borderline stupid. Its just me, but I don't get it. Good luck and safe riding.

As a moto rider, you get to ride many miles to achieve whatever goal. Perception of the personal importance of those goals varies greatly.

Go ahead - ride your motocyle long distances while fatiqued and not smart of mind.

Knock yourself out...but please, nobody else.

People seek respect in different ways, and from different people/groups.

[bob393]

Originally Posted by CharlesLathe

On Wednesday, I sent in the paper work for the Iron Butt Silver National Parks Tour. My wife, Nina, and I did it two-up on a 2010 Bonneville T100. We didn't get bored, but we spent very little time on freeways. It was kind of time consuming, but chasing visitor centers at national parks, memorials, seashores, battlefields, etc. ended up being kind of rewarding -- and tiring. We've now ridden two-up through the 48 lower states and one Canadian province, but it took us 35 years.

I haven't gotten bored on a motorcycle yet. I guess I'm still concentrating too much on figuring out how to ride them better to give boredom much opportunity.

About twenty years ago, I had what looked like a good opportunity to go for a thousand mile day. I was headed home to Washington from Colorado. Maybe 100 miles from my goal, very early in the morning, the headlight on my BMW K100RS started going out and coming back on. I pulled over and slept in the ditch. When it got light, I rode on home. A day or so later, I pulled the gas tank and pushed on the relays. The load shedding relay clicked down. Somehow, after many, many miles, it pretty much unplugged itself.

I'm thinking you are probably ready to give it a go. Whether you succeed or not, you still get to ride your motorcycle. And one nice thing about the Iron Butt rides is that if you don't make it, no one has to know.

Regards, Chuck

Thank you

[crashmaster]

Originally Posted by bob393

I must say the boredom is HELL and getting worse. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Do something fun instead.

[AdventurePoser]

I've done a pretty fair number of 1000/24 rides and one 1500/24 (Never again, thank you very much) I think the best way to prepare for an "Ironbutt" style of ride is to begin riding bigger miles. If you can ride tank to tank for two or three tanks you've pretty much got the endurance part down.

A certain level of core endurance is good as well. For me, working out helps me ride longer distances, it might for you as well.

Remember as others have said, do this for fun. For me, it IS fun. I live in the West, and watching the miles unspool from the seat of a powerful motorcycle is soothing and liberating to me. It isn't boring, and I certainly agree with others who say, "Don't do this for bragging rights..." Ok, maybe just a little bragging is ok...

Enjoy, take some pix, and let us know how you did!