I had been thinking about doing an Iron Butt certified Saddlesore 1000 for quite a while. I bought my 2010 Concours 14 in April 2011 as a leftover and started adding all the pieces needed to make trips as comfortable as possible. After adding, Murph’s risers, wedges, J&M CB, Cee Bailey Ultra windshield, throttle lock and a new seat, I was set.
I had put about 7200 miles on the bike from April 2011 til August 2012 and had been on quite a few 800 mile trips over 3-4 day periods, but I’ve never come close to doing 1000 miles in such a short time of 24 hours.
I initially had planned a trip to Knoxville, TN from NE PA for my SS1000. My return trip would have been a three or four day camping trip in the Smoky’s and Blue Ridge Mountains on the way back home. Needless to say the weather wasn’t cooperating so I condensed the trip into an out and back SS1000 from Scranton, PA to Marion, VA.
I left at 0336 hrs. on the morning of Sept. 29, 2012 from Sheetz in Scranton, PA. I already had a full tank of gas so I bought a Snickers bar to get the start receipt with the time stamp an date. A straight shot down I-81 through PA, MD, WV, all the way to the southernmost part of Virginia and back. Believe it or not, the trip was actually a lot more relaxing than I had envisioned, not much to think about except the speed, traffic, stops and time to next fuel stop. I made it a point to not look too far ahead as far as the trip went; I broke it down into smaller sections which worked out well. I knew I could comfortably go 180 miles between fuels stops and still have a good cushion of fuel reserve, so I would stop at a rest stop for a few minutes to take a break between each fuel stop.
The first 524 miles to Marion, VA took 10.5 hours. The return leg of 515 miles took me 10 hours. Other than construction between Marion and Roanoke, VA and a bad motorcycle accident* (unknown rider or condition) on I-81N near mm-140 in VA, that was about it for any delays. The rest of the trip went great; fuel, rest stops and passing little white lines. I pulled back into the same Sheetz that I left from at 0009 hrs on Sept 30th. Topped off my tank and got my finish receipt, 20 hours and 33 minutes total. I just sent my paper work in to the IBA, hopefully it's all in order and I get the license plate holder and certificate in about 2-3 months.
One thing I will definitely look into before riding long distances at night is a set of PIAA lights. The low beams on the Concours 14 are terrible, the high beams are great but with oncoming traffic it’s hard to keep the high beams on.
For anyone thinking of doing the SS1000, it’s not too bad of a ride. I did a few 300-350 mile day trips on a few weekend days leading up to the SS1000 just for conditioning. Plan a route that you’re comfortable with, especially during the night hours. I use a Garmin 62sc GPS mounted on a Ram Mount for navigation. The GPS kept track of my overall average speed along with the distance to go. I didn’t let myself get anxious about reaching a certain point at a certain time, I stuck to the flow of traffic as far as speeds go.
Good luck to anyone getting ready to make their SS1000, can’t wait to hear your stories.
*I had just stopped at a rest stop (just south of the accident) and noticed a guy and his riding partner on their Harley’s driving up the interstate, the one guy was on a white Harley Ultra Glide towing a white trailer. About 25 miles up the interstate this same guy with the trailer was wrecked up against the guide rail. Not that I was speeding, but seeing this guy on a backboard, not looking in the best of shape did get my attention for a while. I’ve been looking on the internet for any updates as far as the motorcycle accident that I came upon, but can’t seem to find anything. Hopefully the guy is ok. He was being treated by EMS when I went by.
