2:Iron Butt Rally 2019 - Countdown T-4,3,2,1...

T-4  Disaster averted

The morning of June 13, 2019 arrived and it was time to head south to Greenville, SC for the start of the Iron Butt Rally of 2019.  Little did I know how stressful this day would be.  The odometer on the Trophy read 56891.

I left the house just before 8 am so that I would miss rush hour traffic going through Richmond.  As I pulled out of the driveway, the clouds were dropping a bit of drizzle but nothing too bad.  20 miles south on I-95 and I was out of the wet and riding into bright blue skies.  Passing through Richmond was a breeze as I continued south to hop on I-85 south of Petersburg.  I had looked on FB earlier and saw my friends, Marty Cover and Lisa Rufo (a father/daughter team from up in Maryland), had hit the road a little before me which would put them about 2 hours behind me.

Everything was going great as I passed into North Carolina and passed Durham where I-85 and I-40 join up for the run west to Greensboro.  I needed gas and a bite to eat so I pulled off the highway to stop at a Flying J Truck Stop that had a Denny's attached to it.  After filling my tanks I went inside for some breakfast and some coffee.  Boy, were they slow this morning.

After eating I went back out to the bike and got all my gear on and proceeded to pull out of the parking lot.  As I got out onto the road I went to upshift to 2nd gear and nothing happened.  My shifter had none of the normal resistance to it.  Since I was rolling I went ahead and turned onto the on ramp to the highway and pulled off on the side.  Upon inspection, I found that the shifter pivot bolt had broken off.  Ok, I can deal with this.  Call the nearest shop and see what we need to do to get this taken care of.

First call was to Triumph Raleigh. The parts manager told me that they didn't have any of the shifter pivot bolts and a search of the Triumph parts system revealed that none were in the United States and would have to be ordered from England.  Full panic is now setting in.  A second call to my regular dealer, Moto Richmond, confirmed the same issue.  No bolts in the USA.

I am devastated.  All this time and thousands of dollars spent to be sidelined by a $10 bolt.  I sent an email to Lisa Landry, the Rally Master, indicating that I was having a problem and may have to drop out.  She responded with having none of that and to work the problem (She is well known for her abilities to help desperate riders solve problems over the phone).

I was ready to call AMA Roadside Assistance but for some reason chose to send my friend Lisa a quick FB Message describing my problem.  She asked where I was and for my phone number as she knew of a resource nearby that could possibly help me.  10 minutes later I get a call from Mark at MotoMark1 asking for directions to where I was.  He was less than 5 miles away and within minutes he was pulling up with his trailer and his son to assist.  We got the bike loaded up and started heading to Greensboro as that was where the closest Triumph dealer was located.

We pulled up to Select Cycles of Greensboro and spoke with the Service Mgr and nonchalantly said that sure, they could fix it.  I asked if they had the correct part as 2 other dealers said there were none to be found in the USA.  He let me in on a secret and every Triumph on the showroom floor has 2 of the same bolts on them.  Triumph, in its infinite wisdom, assigns different part numbers to the exact same item if it is on a different family of bikes.

So up on the rack the bike goes and the tech starts removing covers to get to the bolt.  He has to drill into the sheared off bolt and extract it using a specialized drill bit made for this purpose.

Two hours later I'm back on the road to Greenville.  I'm just overwhelmed at the generosity and willingness to help a fellow rider in distress.  Lisa saved my IBR.  Mark went out of his way to get me and the bike to the dealer.  The dealer knew what they were doing and got me fixed up right away. I just don't have the words to express how grateful I am that it all came together to keep my dream alive.

Arriving at the start hotel, I take a few deep breaths and try to relax and be thankful that I'm here.  After a quick apology to Lisa Landry for the drama, I collapsed in my room to wait until dinner time with some of my friends.

I have to also shout out to fellow Trophy owner Dave Arkle who talked to me at length and kept me from freaking out.  He had several of the necessary part and was willing to overnight them to me if I needed them.  Dave would continue to be a calming and valuable resource throughout the rally.

T-3  Getting some quiet before the storm

Friday at the hotel was spent relaxing as much as possible.  I got my room setup for the routing session that would happen Sunday night.  For lunch, the folks at Michelin North America invited us to stroll across the parking lot to visit their headquarters and have a pizza lunch. It was nice of them to do that and Michelin definitely got some feedback on what we would like in future products.  Chief among all of the suggestions was longer tire life.

  

Later in the afternoon I took a dip in the pool and enjoyed some quiet time.

T-2 Registration and Tech Inspection

Saturday dawned and it was time to get down to business.  Multiple tasks needed to be completed in order to be properly registered for the rally.  First was to pick up the registration packet and collect my rally swag (t-shirts, hats, etc.).  Then is was outside to line up for tech inspection and odometer check.  I had spent hours at home getting all my documentation in one folder so that there wouldn't be any issues.  Unfortunately, that would not be the case.

After standing in a short line, I was paired up the IBR Veteran Cletha Walstrand for my tech inspection.  We stroll out to my bike and I removed the cover.  We started with documentation: drivers license, insurance, bike registration....registration....where's my registration card.  Oh crap, I had left it upstairs in my hotel room last night when I was "re-checking" the folder.  I dash off as fast as a fatboy can dash, wait for the elevator, upstairs, room, grab registration card exactly where I left it, back to elevator, wait, down, and dash back out to the parking lot.  Cletha is waiting for me and has already completed the rest of the inspection.  After presenting my registration card she signs off on the rally registration form.  Rookie mistake 1 of many.

Next up was the odometer check.  I get my gear on and fire up the bike to head over for the start of the odo run.  The route was pitifully simple this year as a straight out and back to a specific exit on I-85.

I made my run without any issues and got the sign off by Rally Staff.  All the outside work is done.  Now for the fun stuff.

I got in line for the videod liability release exercise.  I sat down with IBR veteran Pat Blewett in one of the conference rooms.  As another rally staff member started the video camera, Pat read off the liability release form and I had to verbally respond with 'Yes' to each statement.  If a mountain lion attacked me at a bonus location, I had just promised that I nor my family would sue the Iron Butt Association.

Last was a room with several stations.  I got a sign off that my SPOT tracker was working properly. Next up was having my camera SD cards confirmed as formatted and the timestamp was correct. Three SD cards were marked with my rider number and my photo was taken on each one.  All clear.  Lastly was my MedJet Insurance check.  I gave my card to Ed Otto and he said that it was expired.  Crap. I had forgot to put the new card in the folder.  Ed allowed me to call MedJet and confirm my coverage. No problem and got the sign off.  I was done for the day as my final sign off would be during the rookie rider meeting the next morning.  The rest of Saturday was spent relaxing as it would be my last chance for the next 2 weeks.

T-1  Rider Meetings and Banquet

Sunday morning broke with the definite rise in tension among the riders.  After the breakfast buffet (Marriott always serves the best bacon!!) the rookies were herded into a conference room where Route Master Jeff Earls gave us a sobering reminder of what we had signed up for.  He reminded us that this was probably the most selfish thing that we have ever done. We've put our families at risk, our own lives at risk, and still moved forward with attempting this ride.  And he was absolutely correct.  After some other rally business we recessed and had our registration forms signed off.  Last task was to present our registration packet to Lord Kneebone for his final sign off.

Next rider meeting was at 2 pm so I took the time to get my room situated for rally planning that evening.  After playing around with various ports,  I was able to get my MacBook to display on the large TV.

At 2 pm, the general Riders Meeting (vets and rookies) was held.  We were instructed to bring our rally computers to the meeting.  Hearts stopped when Dale Wilson produced a roll of duct tape hidden in the podium.  Would we be planning this rally on paper maps??  Sighs of relief were heard across the room when he placed the tape back in the podium.  Dale told the riders that he would be the one to look for at the checkpoint in Kennewick, Washington.  Next up was Jeff Earls to answer various questions such as "What's the definition of Daylight Only?"

Following the Rider Meeting we were shuffled outside and across the very hot parking lot to the steps of the Michelin building for the official group photo.

Now was the wait for the 6 pm banquet where we would 1) get our last full meal for quite a while, and 2) get the rally packs to start a long evening of planning.  Rider number assignments were ordered by the rider's current IBA number.  Rally veterans of course were first as they had already been assigned their 3-digit number.  Rookies would get higher numbers and I fell roughly in the middle with #82.  As they called you up you were given your rally pack for Leg 1.  Hmmm....this is an awfully thin rally book, I noted.

After all packs were distributed (my buddy, Steve Gallant, was the last one called as he had the highest IBA number) we were allowed to open the packs.  OK, the pack was for Leg 1 only which differed from the last 2 IBRs.  There were only 26 pages consisting of about 73 bonus opportunities.  Following the Road Less Traveled theme, the gps coordinates given in the book and the electronic files did not necessarily get you to the exact location of the bonus, a point I didn't grasp right away.  For instance, the BTH (Beartooth Pass Vista Point) bonus coordinates were followed with instructions to "ride soutwest on US-212 for 62.9 miles to Beartooth Pass."  The bonus was actually an hour and a half away from where the provided coordinates were.

Riders were released to head back to their rooms for rally planning.  Electronic files would be waiting in our mailboxes.  I sat down about 8pm and laid out a fairly conservative route with a target around 21,000 points which would put me a little bit ahead of the 16k minimum suggested to be a finisher.  Satisfied with my plan, I uploaded the routes to my GPS units and iPad and hit the sack around midnight.