Cross-posted from another forum I'm on, and my blog:
I did my first Iron Butt SS1K on Thursday. A total of 1044 miles according to the bike, and 1026 according to the GPS, so in any case I'm covered for the 1K in a day threshold. Traffic was light and police presence was scarce (not that I was flying, but people tend to do really dumb stuff like slam their brakes, even when they're going 2-under, when they see a cop...). I put a post up
over on my blog with more pictures, but I'll at least include the obligatory shot of me on the bike at the pier in San Diego here:
Also, I thought it a good idea to write up a little AAR, which I've cut and pasted below:
After Action Review:
Issue: Fuel stops took entirely too long.
Discussion: I made a conscious decision not to use my camelbak for the ride. I did bring the drink bladder which goes in the front of the jacket, but the temperature outside was colder than expected. Because of that, I didn’t think putting cold water and gatorade next to my chest while I still had the heated grips and seat on trying to keep warm would be prudent. I found the bladder for my backpack unit camelbak, but couldn’t find the backpack itself, which would have put the cold liquid outside the jacket and behind my back protector. Without that equipment I was unable to keep drinking fluids while on the road and thereby eliminating that piece from the stops. While it doesn't seem like a lot, 5-7 extra minutes per stop to stay hydrated can add up to nearly an hour over the course of a day. It's also harder to gauge exactly how much I should drink at each stop, because 'full due to chugging water' doesn't necessarily equate to 'hydrated'.
Recommendation: On rides, make sure to lay out gear ahead of time so as to have the right gear available. Hydration is very, very important on rides like this, so without the onboard water, I was forced to slow down at stops to make sure I was getting enough liquids.
Issue: Time zone SNAFU
Discussion: I am an idiot. However, in my defense, for most of the year, AZ is on west-coast time, due to that fiddly daylight saving nonsense.
Recommendation: Check for time zone changes in your route, and when planning link-ups, consider whether you calculated arrival in local or “where you started” time.
Issue: Temperature changes
Discussion: Knowing it would be colder in the morning than during the meat of the day, I layered up appropriately, and brought my insulated gloves, leather gloves, and vented gloves just in case. It never did get warm enough to break out the light gloves, but did get warm enough that I needed to pull the quilted liner out of my riding pants and lose one shirt layer. Wasn’t quite warm enough to pull the wind liner out of the jacket either.
Recommendation: SUSTAIN! At least I did something right!
Issue: Rider visibility / conspicuousness
Discussion: Being somewhat concerned for my safety, Kelly bought me an AdMore brake/turn-signal light kit for the Givi topcase as this year’s birthday present. I installed it and made sure everything was working correctly on Wednesday before the ride because 1. I needed to be more visible and 2. Kelly said I couldn’t go unless the lights came in and I got them installed. They came in Wednesday morning. Also, I had previously added iron-on reflective strips to the jacket, which add a huge amount of reflectivity to me while on the bike.
Recommendation: Consider riding with the side-cases installed as well next time. There’s no real hit to fuel mileage with them installed, they help act as crash guards for low-speed drops, and they’ve already got lots of extra reflective material installed on the sides and rear. Plus, with a bike as big as the Concours, lane-splitting in CA isn’t really an option anyway, so the extra width is not a problem either.
