Another Road Trip! Wing Ding 37

Yes, I know.  I haven't completed my trip report yet for my epic adventure through all 48 States, but I will post that soon.  In the meantime, I am heading out tomorrow for another road trip!  This time it is a short, leisurely 670-mile ride to Huntsville, Alabama to attend the Gold Wing Road Riders Association Wing Ding 37.  I will be using my SPOT Personal Tracker so you can follow my trip by clicking here.  Hope to see you on the road!

Thirty Days on the Road – this Year’s Epic Adventure!

My epic adventure this year of 30 days on the road begins in Stafford, Virginia on Saturday, July 18.  My first 10 days on the road will be a thrilling Iron Butt Association ride called 48 Plus! that involves visiting all 48 lower states plus Alaska in 10 days or less.  Ron Ayres set the record in 1998 when he visited the lower 48 states in 6 days and 5 minutes and all 49 states in 7 days and 20 minutes.  I will be thrilled to safely ride through all 49 states in 9 or 10 days.  Then after resting in Hyder, Alaska for a day, I plan on a relaxing ride back through British Columbia and Alberta, Canada and camping out for 5 or 6 days in Wyoming and Montana.  I will then meet up with some 1.2 million of my best biker friends August 3 – 9 at the 75th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Overall, my route to Hyder will entail a planned 73 gas stops over 8,991 miles.  For those who like calculators, at 10 minutes (very optimistic) for each gas stop, that’s more than 12 hours pumping gas during the 8 – 10 day ride from Stafford, Virginia to Hyder, Alaska!  Argh.  The 48 Plus! ride and the remainder of the trip returning from Hyder, camping in Wyoming and Montana, touring around Sturgis for a week, and then cruising home will add some 12,890 miles or more to my Gold Wing's odometer in less than 30 days.  In context – 12,890 miles is farther than half way around the earth at the equator; it is farther than traveling from the North Pole to the South Pole; and it is twice as far as traveling from Beijing, China across the Asian and European continents to Lisbon, Portugal.  Here is my planned route.

I have a SPOT Personal Tracker so you can track my 48 Plus! adventure and my travels while camping out, visiting Sturgis, and returning home.  I will be posting daily journals on this blog that reports 'states visited' and 'miles traveled' during my 48 Plus! ride, and I will be Tweeting photos and other spontaneous updates throughout the 30 days from my @AmJourney handle using the #IBA48Plus and #BikerHaiku hashtags.  Hope to see you on the road!

#BikerHaiku

Follow me @AmJourney and watch for my #BikerHaiku™.  Here is a "super" #BikerHaiku™ as an example!

Most have five or six

   senses to live with.

Bikers have a seventh sense,

   we feel what others cannot.

We feel the warm earth, 

   we feel life itself.

Test blog 2 for email posting!

This is simply a test to see if I can post text and photos using email.

__________________________

life on the road . . .

TheAmericanJourney.bike

@AmJourney

 

Announcing:  The Great American National Cyber Motorcycle Show™

The 73rd Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

So, how much is there to say in advance?  I leave Friday morning, August 2 for a 12-day ride to the 73rd Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally that runs from Monday, August 5 through Sunday, August 11.  But on the way to Sturgis, I will stop off in Salem, South Dakota to visit my niece Renee and her family.  Overall, it should only be about a 4,000 mile trip to tour the Black Hills and Badlands as well as riding out and back.  And yes, my pillion seat is empty.  I will post a trip report after I return, but until then you can check out some of the photos taken during my road trip at 2013 Sturgis Road Trip (iCloud).  You can follow my SPOT tracks to and from Sturgis at the links in the top left margin of this blog.

The 2013 Iron Butt Rally: 11,000 miles in 11 days

Ninety individual riders and six two-up teams began the 2013 Iron Butt Rally on Monday, July 1, at 10 am.  As described on the Iron Butt Association web site, the Iron Butt Rally is the ultimate competitive motorcycle endurance ride. Held in August/September every other year in odd-numbered years, it covers a minimum of approximately 9,000 miles in North America over an eleven-day period. Points are accumulated by arriving at checkpoints within the allotted time and by visiting optional bonus locations between the checkpoints. It is not a race, but rather a test of planning, preparation, strategy and tactics, riding skill, and endurance.

Their amazing 11-day journeys took them well over half a million miles throughout the United States and Canada. I was one of 30 to 40 observers and family members waiting at 4 am Friday morning, July 12, for some two-thirds of these riders to cross the finish line at the Cranberry Township Marriott. Those who arrived after 8 am lost 20 points per minute, up to the arrival deadline of 10 am. After 10 am, riders became a DNF (did not finish). Once a rider crossed the finish line, his or her odometer reading was recorded and their official time was stopped. Then each rider had to sit with a judge to validate the scores for bonuses they collected during their ride. We learned at the banquet that night that there were 67 riders (five with spousal pillions) that successfully completed this event of a lifetime. Even as an observer, I learned a lot about fortitude and perseverance while listening to the stories of the finishers, and not surprisingly, I also learned a lot while listening to the stories of the DNFs. To give one a sense of the magnitude of the accomplishment of finishing the Iron Butt Rally, reflect on the route of the top finisher, Derek Dickson, who accumulated 92,524 points while traveling 11,799 miles in 11 days on a 2005 Yamaha FJR1300:

On my way home Saturday from Cranberry Township, I stopped by Somerset County, Pennsylvania to visit the Flight 93 National Memorial. It was a very somber visit to sit in a light rain and imagine the bravery of the passengers and crew of Flight 93. During a break in the rain, I captured a quick photo of "The Patriot" at the entrance to the memorial:

Overall, it was a good ride from home to Cranberry Township at a leisurely 625 miles round trip. Maybe "The Patriot" will attempt the 2015 Iron Butt Rally!

The Rides Begin -- Heading to Pennsylvania

I head out tomorrow morning to Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania to observe the end of the 2013 Iron Butt Rally (http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2013.cfm) and to join the riders who just finished riding more than 11,000 grueling miles in the last 11 days in their celebrations and banquet.  The Iron Butt Rally consists of checkpoints and bonus locations around the United States that each rider must visit within certain very rigid time frames (http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/default.cfm).  For me, this trip to Pennsylvania is a casual 600-mile round trip, and you can follow my SPOT tracks to and from Cranberry Township at the links in the top left margin of this blog.  Although my ride to Cranberry Township is not remarkable in distance, it will be very remarkable to watch some 90-plus riders finish an event of a lifetime.

2012 in Review: 7,260 Miles Down the Road & Back

Although I did very little blogging last year, the good news is that 2012 was a moderately good year for riding.  In March, I traveled 1,540 miles round trip to the 2012 Daytona Florida Beach Week, and while there I participated in a 1,000-mile Iron Butt Association "scavenger" hunt through the panhandle and mid-region of Florida.  In August, I traveled 3,400 miles round trip to Denver, Colorado to participate in the Iron Butt Association International Meet (http://www.ironbutt.com/national/), and while there I participated in another 1,000-mile Iron Butt Association ride through the northern mountains and southern plains of Colorado.  And then in November, a friend and I rode to beautiful and scenic Appomattox, Virginia, in a relatively short 320-mile round trip through some of Virginia's most beautiful back roads.  All in all, not counting other short trips and commuting to work, I logged in 7,260 miles in 2012.  Not bad.  Lots of quiet time to think and reflect and enjoy being on the road.  My SPOT tracks for these adventures are available in the top left margin of this blog.  At the moment, my plans are to beat that number of total miles in 2013, and to do much better about writing at least a short blog for each adventure.

Motorcycle vs. Car

My wife and I were traveling in our car last weekend in stop-and-go traffic when we were rear-ended by a motorcyclist.  His pride was bruised and his right leg was scraped up, but the rider is otherwise fine.  We were stopped for a red light and the rider came upon us too quickly to stop.  He swerved to the left to miss us, but the concrete curb prevented him from moving over, causing his crash bar to catch the driver’s side rear bumper, causing him to fly over his handle bars (fortunately into a grass median), and channeling his bike as it moved forward, wedging itself between the curb and the driver's side of the car.  The bike came to rest even with the driver's door with its wheels slightly under the car.  The bike looked in pretty bad shape, but it was still street-worthy.  After we chatted with the local medics and highway patrol, we all continued our respective trips.

I passed this story around this past week because lots of times I have heard that it’s the car’s driver that doesn't see a motorcycle on the road, but I learned first-hand last weekend sometimes a rider gets distracted to his or her great detriment.  So my message is for all riders to be careful out there, because sometimes it’s our fault and not the driver of the car!

A long distance rider friend reinforced my point, with what I thought were some very surprising statistics.  He highlighted that the large majority of motorcycle-involved collisions – including this one – could have been prevented by the rider, and that drivers are truly at fault only about 15% of the time.  For example, my friend passed along unofficial statistics for Oregon motorcycle fatalities in 2011, which identified the fault for 39 accidents as follows:

19 single vehicle accidents were the rider’s fault

13 motorcycle vs. car accidents were the rider's fault

5 motorcycle vs. car accidents were the driver's fault

2 motorcycle accidents caused by animals or other factors

I don’t know how representative Oregon’s statistics are when compared nationwide, but the lesson I learned from sharing this accident with more experienced riders is that there are times when the car doesn’t see the motorcycle, but as riders we can avoid most accidents by always being aware of our surroundings, paying attention to what is in front of us, and looking for potentially dangerous situations.  Ride hard, ride far, ride safe.

2012 Daytona Beach Bike Week - Planning

The 2012 Daytona Beach Bike Week  promises to be a lot of fun this year!  In addition to enjoying Bike Week activities (http://www.officialbikeweek.com/), I will also attend the Annual Daytona Iron Butt Association Party and participate in the Iron Butt Association's "Florida Mountain 1000" (check both out at http://www.ironbutt.com/daytona/).  The "Florida Mountain 1000" is a 1,000-mile ride that must be completed in 24 hours or less!  I plan on arriving Jacksonville on March 14, and participating in the "Florida Mountain 1000" on March 15 and 16.  That gives me a full day left for Bike Week activities on Saturday, March 17, before I return home on March 18.  Click on http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=41244f4291c685061, http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=41264f42935c2f931, and http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=41254f42928c80241 to check out my progress on my trip to, during the "Florida Mountain 1000," and my trip home, respectively.  Hope to see you in Daytona!

2012 Timonium Motorcycle Show

Anne and I had a great time this year showing "The Patriot" at the February 2012 Timonium Motorcycle Show.  We literally spoke to thousands of folks who attended.  There were more than 250 bike entries, and "The Patriot" won First Place Trike Full Custom!  "The Patriot's" Marine Corps theme seemed to resonate with everyone.

Back in the Saddle!

Back in the Saddle.  After a year and a half of reduced long-distance motorcycle riding, I have finally beat my colon cancer and am back in the saddle!  Long-distance riding is certainly a sport and an adventure that I have missed.  My longest trip since my last blog was only 190 miles to a friend's chalet in the mountain resort area of Davis, West Virginia, but I have big plans for "The Patriot" in 2012 - starting with showing "The Patriot" at the February 2012 Timonium Motorcycle Show (http://www.cycleshow.net/).  Look for "The Patriot" on the Show website under the "Celebrities and Bike Builders' Bios" link!  "The Patriot" won "Best of Show People's Choice" and "Second Place Trike Metric" at the February 2010 Timonium Motorcycle Show.  Hopefully, "The Patriot" will win some mention in this year's show.  I took "The Patriot" out for a short ride today to test my SPOT device and blog connections (http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=40424f242c3aa4b90).  It was a very short ride so there are not many data points, but everything still works.

Trip Report for the 2010 Grand Motorcycle Tour of Virginia.  Anne and I really enjoyed the 2010 Grand Motorcycle Tour of Virginia.  From May 1st through September 11th, 2010, we traveled 3,680 miles over ten days throughout Virginia visiting the Tour's 82 locations.  Our shortest trip was 150 miles to catch six stops in Northern Virginia and our longest trip was 945 miles over two days to catch fifteen stops in Southern Virginia.  Although we really got to see a lot of wonderful and quaint parts of Virginia, I think the most scenic leg of our trip was when we visited the Paint Bank General Store (http://www.paintbankgeneralstore.com/) in Paint Bank, Virginia.  The road to Paint Bank was beautifully scenic through the mountains with lots of switchbacks to make the ride even more interesting.  Plus, the Paint Bank General Store has a very popular restaurant that would serve as a great ride-to-eat (RTE) one weekend.

2010 Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia - Trip 8

If all goes as planned, Anne and I will visit 12 locations in the Richmond and Hampton Roads area on Saturday, September 11, which happens to be our 34th anniversary of when we met in Norfolk, Virginia on a blind date.  This ride will complete all 82 stops for our 2010 Grand Motorcyle Tour of Virginia, and as serendipity will have it, our last stop will be in Norfolk where Anne and I met 34 years ago tomorrow.  We will celebrate finishing our "grand" tour and our anniversary by having dinner in Norfolk with our daughter before returning home Saturday evening.  Click on http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=1f694c8a1b790754a to check out our progress on a map in real time visiting these 12 locations.

2010 Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia - Trip 7

On Saturday, September 4, and Sunday, September 5, my wife Anne and I are riding through the Central Virginia and Shenandoah Valley area to catch 14 more stops during our 2010 Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia (http://www.motorcycleva.com/).  When we complete this ride, we will have visited a total of 70 locations since May 1, 2010.  That leaves us only 12 more locations to visit before the deadline of November 1, 2010 to visit all 82 locations.  Click on http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=1ed54c810fc1be5a1 to check out our progress on a map real time visiting these locations!

2010 Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia - Trip 6

On Saturday, August 28, my wife Anne and I are riding to the Hampton Roads and Eastern Shore area to catch nine more stops during our 2010 Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia (http://www.motorcycleva.com/).  When we complete this ride, we will have visited a total of 56 locations since May 1, 2010.  That leaves us only 26 more locations to visit before the deadline of November 1, 2010 to visit all 82 locations.  Click on http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=1e514c77949f9d63e to check out our progress on a map real time visiting these locations.

2010 Motorcycle Grand Tour of Virginia - Trip 5

On July 2, 2010, my wife Anne and I are riding to Kilmarnock, Virginia to catch four stops during our 2010 Motorcyle Grand Tour of Virginia (http://www.vamotorcycletour.com/).  The Grand Tour requires you to visit 82 locations in Virginia that will stamp a "passport" to document your visit.  When we complete this short ride on July 2, we will have visited a total of 47 locations since May 1, 2010.  We have until November 1, 2010 to visit all 82 locations and return our passports to the Grand Tour headquarters in Richmond.  Click on http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=5666 to check out our 945-mile Memorial Day ride starting on Jeb Stuart Highway through southern and southwestern Virginia that weaved through the mountains of Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Kentucky.  And click on http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=6516 to check out our leisurely ride of July 2 to eastern Virginia.  PS:  Anne and I will not be eating any sub sandwiches on this trip!

The Fizzle

Bottom line up front. As of 1:00 pm today, rider and trike are home in Stafford, Virginia safely without injury, damage, or speeding ticket. I guess I successfully accomplished the more important of my two goals.  You can view how far I made it at:  http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=5667.



Trip Report. My official departure receipt from the Kittery 7-Eleven was printed at 1:58 am on Sunday, June 20. I had four witnesses, including one of Kittery’s patrolmen who was passing by on duty that night. Everything was going perfect. The Gold Wing – Lehman trike performed superbly. Absolutely no complaints or problems; although I would enjoy an 8 – 10 gallon tank for greater range (which would have also avoided the problem below that was caused by a stop required for gas but not required for getting a receipt). It was a bit warm on Sunday (mid-90s) but about 4 hours of rain on Monday made up for it going through Cincinnati. And I hit very little traffic or construction during my entire trip. My goal was an absolute minimum 1,000 miles per day, but I wanted to hit 1,100 or 1,150 per day if I could. On Day one (1:58 am Sunday to 1:57 am Monday) I hit 13 states, stopping in Elyria, Ohio at 1:21 am on Monday with 1,046 miles under my belt. Day one was a good day – I was hyped and excited about having a great run to Hyder. I departed my hotel on Day two at 7:00 am. It was a beautiful, cool morning ride to Ottawa Lake, Michigan. Again, no traffic or construction was anywhere in sight. My next scheduled stop – as everyone who has studied the Ron Ayres route knows – was Lawrenceburg, Indiana by way of Cincinnati. On the way to Lawrenceburg something pleasant and unexpected happened that I hadn’t read about on the LDR listserve – I found that sweet combination of position and posture that seemed to eliminate a sore butt. Again, everything was going well – great weather, no traffic, no construction, and got in the rhythm of the trip. My eight days to Hyder looked right around the corner! The 228-mile trip to Lawrenceburg exceeded my comfort zone for the range on my trike, so I stopped at Lima, Ohio for gas. It was lunch time and I was starving, so I bought a sub sandwich; in hindsight, a terribly huge mistake. About an hour later, the torrents of rain hit, but that was no problem. My Olympia Phantom suit kept me bone dry. Although way, way too hot for 90 degree weather, the Phantom did not leak in 4 hours of heavy rain. Another hour later, another type of torrent hit. I pulled over and quickly found myself projectile puking in the middle of a concrete medium strip on the Cincinnati beltway in the middle of a pretty neat rainstorm. Okay, in the Corps, I guess that’s just another great day in the field. I was feeling pretty weak by the time I got to Lawrenceburg, but thought I would recover on the road with the cool fresh air on my face. So I pushed on another 370 miles to London, Kentucky; Gate City, Virginia; Johnson City, Tennessee; and Mars Hill, North Carolina. Sadly, this leg of the trip was slowed down with a few extra stops caused by my sub sandwich. My good friend Imodium was also not very helpful with the other consequences of my sub sandwich. Mars Hill was at mile 1,739 on my 8,880-mile journey to Hyder, and I got there at 10:50 pm Monday night. I was now a little behind schedule and I wanted to be on the south side of Atlanta before its morning rush hour, so down the road I went. The moon and the stars were out and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. What a perfectly beautiful night for a motorcycle ride! But, I didn’t make it far south before the continued puking drained my strength and alertness, so I decided to take a 2 – 3 hour nap to see if that would help, and figured I would simply take my chances with Atlanta’s rush hour in the morning. I turned off my SPOT and crashed at a roadside park with my bed roll. I woke up around 4:00 am and saw Hyder slipping away since I didn’t feel any better at all. So I decided to pull the plug and limp home to regroup, cursing every place along the way home that I saw selling sub sandwiches. I made it home to Stafford at 1:00 pm, glad to be home and still too sick to eat. Other than the sub sandwich, the only blip in an otherwise perfect trip was that the Johnson City, Tennessee “1 Stop” computerized gas station receipt didn’t have a city or state on it, so I had to go immediately next door at the Burger King to buy a diet Coke to get a receipt with all the required elements. Like a said, a perfect trip – so once I recover and regroup, I will try it again, likely next June – and I cannot think of a single thing I would change in my planning and execution, except being more careful about what I eat on the road.

My apologies. I apologize for not turning SPOT back on this morning so that everyone tracking me would not be concerned that I hit a deer or was otherwise injured. In hindsight, I realize that leaving it off was inconsiderate – but SPOT was the furthest thing from my mind as I was worried about making it home and I was overwhelmed with the disappointment of not making it to Hyder this year.


My thanks. Many thanks for everyone's advice and kind wishes before I began my trip -- and many thanks for your concerns when you didn't see my SPOT working this morning.

The Adventure Begins!

Going off grid. I am going off grid tonight, meaning this is my last blog until I return home on July 5 and that I do not intend on blogging, tweeting, emailing, stargazing, or anything else during my trip so that I can keep the wheels rolling. If I am not moving or sleeping, I am wasting time. I have my E-Z Pass at the ready, and I have my SPOT Personal Tracker (http://www.findmespot.com/en/) and a waterproof, shockproof camera mounted with a RAM clutch reservoir base mount. These two devices will help record my adventure.  You can track my progress at: http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=5667.




Last minute thoughts. The route is tried and tested – it is a modified version of Ron Ayres record-breaking route. And this website mirrors that of Gregg Lenentine who created a similar blog linked to Jason Jonas' SpotWalla for his May 2010, 48 States ride. These blogs and SpotWalla make it really easy for everyone to track our adventures. I will keep the URL for my SpotWalla blog to the top left of this website so that everyone can easily click on it and watch my tracks across our great nation. My odometer reading as I depart Stafford, Virginia on Saturday, June 19 is 19,378 miles.

Again, my primary goal is for rider and trike to return home to Stafford, Virginia safely without injury, damage, or speeding ticket. But really, what is the whole point of the ride if it is not my best effort? He tan, he epi tas!

The Road Trip

The Warm Up Ride.  There are six legs to my June – July 2010 road trip. The first leg begins on Saturday, June 19 with a 546-mile warm up ride from my home in Stafford, Virginia to Kittery, Maine. I will rest up that night in Kittery at the Enchanted Nights Bed and Breakfast (http://www.enchantednights.org/).

48 States in 10 Days.  The second leg is a 7,350-mile journey through all 48 continental states, starting in Kittery, Maine sometime early on Sunday, June 20 and traveling to Kennewick, Washington. This route looks similar to a lazy “W” scribbled across the United States. This leg will be punctuated with naps and motel-stops as needed.

48 Plus!  The third leg continues the journey for another 1,158 miles from Kennewick, Washington to Hyder, Alaska, completing the 48 Plus! ride in less than the IBA-allotted ten days. While in Hyder, I plan on resting up at the Sealaska Inn and Camp Run-A-Muck (http://www.sealaskainn.com/).

SaddleSore 1000.  The fourth leg begins my trip back home with a 1,082-mile ride from Hyder, Alaska to Moses Lake, Washington, where I will likely find another hotel to rest up before I pick up Interstate 90 and head east. Should the roads and terrain through British Columbia, Canada permit, this leg of the trip will complete another IBA ride, the SaddleSore 1000 (http://www.ironbutt.com/ridecerts/getdocument.cfm?DocID=1), which is 1,000 documented miles in under 24 hours.

BunBurner Gold.  The fifth leg will take me another 1,658 miles from Moses Lake, Washington to Des Moines, Iowa to attend Wing Ding 32 (http://www.wing-ding.org/), which is the annual rally for Gold Wings. This leg of the trip will complete another IBA ride, the BunBurner Gold (http://www.ironbutt.com/ridecerts/getdocument.cfm?DocID=3), which is 1,500 documented miles in under 24 hours.

SaddleSore 1000.  And finally, the sixth leg of the trip is another SaddleSore 1000 ride of 1,082 miles from Des Moines, Iowa to Stafford, Virginia.  I hope to be home no later than Monday, July 5.

Musings.  According to MapQuest, this 17-day road trip will take 216 hours to travel 12,760 miles. For those of you who cannot resist reaching for a calculator, that is only 9 straight days of riding if I average 59 mph, which leaves me another 8 full days to stop for gas, food, and sleep, or to slow down for traffic, construction, and weather. I know, easy ride!



Of course, averaging 59 mph is the real challenge when stopping for gas, food, and sleep. My Gold Wing has a 6.6 gallon tank and I average a minimum of 31 mpg around town and in the mountains, and a maximum of 37 – 42 mpg on level blacktop Interstate. So, I have planned my road trip around the stops required for each state and a comfortable 180-mile range for the stops required for gas. I have calculated that I need to stop for receipts and gas 57 times between Kittery and Kennewick, and another 9 times from Kennewick to Hyder (at 15 minutes per stop, that’s almost 17 hours pumping gas just from Kittery to Hyder!). A 15-minute stop for gas during a 3-hour run at 60 mph drops my average mph to 55 mph, and a 2-hour stop for a nap during a 3-hour run at 60 mph drops my average mph to 36 mph.



Okay, enough with numbers. My number one top priority goal is for rider and trike to return to Stafford safely without injury, damage, or speeding ticket. The trick is not to speed, but to keep the wheels rolling and to stay reasonably well rested. I have food and snacks on board for 15 days, and a 100 oz camel back for hydration. I also have waterproof boots and a waterproof Olympia Moto Sports Phantom riding suit with a great ventilation system that will keep me moving regardless of the weather. And my Bluetooth-enabled Nolan N103 full-face modular helmet keeps me in touch by phone for emergencies.

The Ride

48 Plus! is one of the 117 rides sanctioned by the Iron Butt Association (IBA) (http://www.ironbutt.com/about/default.cfm) that involves visiting all 48 continental states plus Alaska in ten days or less. The IBA rules permit a rider to take any route to all 49 states; however, it requires two witnesses to document the beginning of the ride and two witnesses to document the end of the ride as well as a dated business receipt documenting a visit to each of the 49 states.


The IBA reports in its rules for the 48 Plus! ride (http://www.ironbutt.com/ridecerts/getdocument.cfm?DocID=14) that:

“In 1998, Iron Butt rider and author, Ron Ayres set a new 48 state record of 6 days, 0 hours and 5 minutes. Ron went on to add a new twist to the 48 state record ride by continuing on to Hyder, Alaska to establish a new 49 state record of 7 days, 0 hours and 20 minutes and a new ride, one that Ron has named the 48 Plus!”

I believe Morris Kruemcke now holds the record for visiting 48 States on May 20, 2004 riding a Honda Gold Wing with a route of 7,146 miles in 5 days, 8 hours, and 52 minutes.