Earlier this year I attempted an Iron Butt Association (IBA) Certified Ride, the Ride Around Louisiana. I suppose that my narrative made it sound easy, and friends were interested in trying their hand (butt) at it. Surely they wouldn’t make the same mistakes that I made. [foreshadowing]
One such friend, Kevin, was so inspired and completed his longest solo ride last month, about 350 miles. We do a lot of 300 mile rides, but his solo ride involved several hours of night riding, so definitely a new milestone was reached. A rider that hopes to ride a SaddleSore 1000 (SS1K) should be increasing their endurance by riding longer distances, but when you think you’re ready for 1000 mile ride, you might as well document it.
We negotiated a date based on our work schedules, and the planning began weeks ahead of time. Kevin would propose a route, and I’d ask for certain tweaks to avoid a city, or too many red lights. He’d change it, and we’d discuss... after a couple of iterations, a simplified route was agreed to that involved a lot of time on the interstate. Like most of you, we don’t like taking the super-slab, but time and distance dictate all decisions. At least riding as a pair in formation would make us easy to see. Plus we both have auxiliary lights... we’re hard to miss head-on. I guess this is a good place to mention that we both ride Vespas. Both are GTS 300’s (278 cc), and mine is a little more modern with ABS and ASR. My absolute top speed is about 80 mph, Kevin’s is a little lower, although his speedo makes him think that he’s approaching Mach 1, when he’s doing the speed limit.
In the days leading up to KSU, rain was in the forecast. We proposed a couple of alternate destinations for the turn around, but the real weather problem was going to be southeast Louisiana... so we stuck with the original plan, to some extent. As it turns out, New Orleans got 5 inches of rain Saturday, causing street flooding in large parts of the city.
Now, for the comedy of errors... and herein lie the lessons learned. If you plan to attempt a SS1k, heed our advice here.
Everyone that we told in the days leading up asked if we had plans for the rain... my smug response was that we had rain gear, and that real riders ride in the rain. The plan was to meet up at a 24 hour gas station around 4:15am, KSU at 4:30. I arrived at the station around 4:15, parked on the center stand, opened the seat, took off the gas cap, had my credit card at the ready... and waited. About 10 minutes go by, and I decided to change pumps, so that Kevin could see me better on his approach... so repeating the above process on the next pump over... and wait. As it turns out that Kevin is getting some last minute coaching from his girlfriend. She’s a little concerned about the rain as lightening is flashing outside their windows.
Kevin texts me at 4:35 that he’s about to leave home. He only lives 6 or 8 blocks from the station. Kevin arrives soon afterward, but not that soon... I assume there was additional coaching!
We spend a few minutes complaining about the weather, and Kevin shows me how prepared he is regardless. Except, he’s worried about his Sena getting wet, so he’s going to keep it packed away until we clear the rain. We own the clock at this point, we can take as much time as we need to get started. We can wait until the current rain band passes. We discussed the route, and made some changes. As a reminder to the readers, the only requirement of the judges is that we ride 1000 miles in 24 hours, and log our fuel receipts... there are some fine details, but this is the broad strokes. So we don’t have to follow any plan, we only have to turn in the executed route... We are masters of our own fate!
On the rides leading up to this, I had not insisted on Kevin practicing the receipt logging process. It’s not hard, it’s just 6 or so steps, most of which involves the long piece of toilet paper that the gas-pump produces, or going to the cashier if the pump is out of paper. The rest of the steps involve touching the screen of your smartphone. I’ve been practicing for a year or so. (What could possibly go wrong?) Kevin picked up the process quickly, but by concentrating on his first receipt, he forgot to start his tracking app. As for me... Four gas stops, four pumps that didn’t produce a receipt. So, I have to run into the store, and get the receipt with soaking wet gloves, then try to write my mileage on the receipt that is now falling apart and sticking to my wet glove when I try to lay it flat and take a photo with my phone that isn’t responding to touch or voice... and at two stops I ended up with a screenshot of the camera app with the receipt in the viewfinder! Then trying to store the wet receipt in my pouch... NOTHING is cooperating.
So, back to the timeline... We pull the trigger at the first stop... I’m cussing like a sailor due to me having 20 gas pumps to choose from, but I got the one out of paper! We log the receipt and pull away. The time stamp for my receipt is 5:02 am. Kevin decides that he wants to go through the Harvey Tunnel to avoid wind gusts on the elevated expressway. We pull away at 5:08. He had chosen the gas station due to 24 hour access and proximity to the on-ramp to the elevated expressway. Instead, we stay on the surface road. Five red-lights later we read the sign that says the Tunnel is closed for repairs. So, two more red-lights for the u-turn, back a few blocks, miss the u-turn lane, so two more left turns with red-lights, and then up the on-ramp to the elevated expressway. At the next red-light after the elevated overpass of the Canal, Kevin realizes that he didn’t start recording his track. I intended to use my recorded track to generate some of my documentation, so this is an important detail. Elapsed time 17 minutes... distance traveled 3 miles. Of course, all communication is being done face to face at red lights, because only one of us is using his Sena. Kevin’s iPhone is in his pocket.
At this stop, I tell Kevin to take a deep cleansing breath... and remind him that we own the clock. We can get away from all the red lights and start the clock over. He’s relieved, so we travel another couple of miles to a 24 hour station, for a convenience store receipt since our tanks are full. The store is closed! We continue on to the next community, Avondale, and pull into a station. Grab a couple of bags of peanuts, 2 for a $1... but we each need a receipt, so 75¢ each... Kevin’s wallet is safely locked under his scooter seat. I pull out my wallet, but don’t want to doff all of my gloves, so Kevin handles my wallet and pays the cash, and we each get a receipt. I can’t get the cash back in the money clip due to EVERYTING being wet. I don’t keep my wallet in my pants, but rather in a drop-leg bag. It makes it easy to get to when I need to, but it is exposed to the elements. New time stamp: 5:54 am. Distance traveled, 10 miles. Good time to start over!
Due to the excitement and apprehension, I’ve been awake since 2:30 am. I’m not a happy camper, and Kevin is in an even worse mood. He’s already feeling water get through his outer layer. We should have been near Baton Rouge by now, and we’re not even out of the metro area. But we press on. We continue up to a highway that we know well, and at it’s northern end, we have good choices depending on the weather. We decide to take La Hwy 1 to continue north. It’s a good road, but we are going to encounter four little towns with RED LIGHTS before we get to I-10. But it beats going through Baton Rouge after sun-up and crossing the Mississippi River bridge in traffic.
Kevin’s scooter looks like it was packed by Jed Clampett, and it is affecting his fuel economy. I’m carrying a 3-gal fuel bladder, plus my always ready emergency bottle of 1.5 liters of fuel. Kevin is carrying a gallon of aux fuel, plus a couple of fuel bottles. Scooterists that are attempting Certificate rides MUST learn how to make fuel stops efficient, and skipping the gas station a couple of times is part of my strategy. Regardless, we stopped for gas in Addis, La., and I took a bio-break there. I only needed 1.6 gallons, but it was a 15 minute stop. We need to be running on fumes, and refuel from the extra fuel we’re carrying... still, we’re wet and miserable, so the fuel stop efficiency is not our biggest concern at the moment. We’re just a few miles short of the interstate. Oh, important note... we are finally out of the heavy rain. It’s still raining a little, but this is better. Fun fact: it can be raining and foggy at the same time, and it’s getting foggy. I was concerned about being on the interstate as we went over the Atchafalaya basin, but visibility was pretty good. I could see a car a half-mile-back without its headlights on, so we had enough visibility. The stretch of I-10 was uneventful, thank God, and we exited to I-49 at just before 9am, with 140 miles of our thousand behind us. BUT, to be fair, 3 hours and 140 miles is about 45 miles per hour average, which is faster than required, if we can keep it up. Scooters are not really able to go faster to make up time. On the interstate, we are already at 90% of top speed.
We arrived in Opelousas,La., at about 9:12 am, just a little over 3 hours from our re-start and Kevin decided he’d had enough for one day. His rain gear had completely failed him. His torso, crotch and feet were all wet, and from here on the temperatures were going to drop. As it turns out, Kevin didn’t zip his waterproof liner into his new 3-season jacket. He had the liner on... just not zipped, so it had migrated it’s way around to his back. We pulled into a truck stop and Kevin changed into dry clothes and shoes... who brings extra shoes???? Kevin’s initial shoes were rubber soled “gum-shoes”, but didn’t cover the ankles, and definitely weren’t covered well by his rain-pants, so I guess it’s no surprise that his feet got soaked.
We topped off our tanks, and turned back home. Interstate 49 ends in Lafayette, La, and we decided to keep going that way, on Hwy 90, back to New Orleans. The road is awful! We kept changing lanes looking for relief from the uneven cement slabs. Our little tires don’t absorb all of those bumps like a car does. We tried to stop at a Waffle House in New Iberia, but CLOSED. We found one open in Morgan City an hour later. WH was typical, good-food-fast, but by the time we rearranged the deck chairs on this cruise, our stop cost us an hour and ten minutes. I was worried that they were going to charge us rent or something. At least I could take off my rain coat and let my inner jacket dry some. My rain gear hadn’t failed, but invariably some rain hits your exposed neck, and your shirts start wicking all of that moisture around.
Remember all of that rain we had encountered earlier??... well we caught back up to it and drove through two bands of steady rain. I finally arrived home at 2:15 after about 340 miles on the day. What to do with all of this time on my hands but go to the Tulane football game after a quick hot shower!
Lessons Learned: don’t underestimate the impact that rain and rain-gear will have on your typical routine. Here are a list of things that I was not dealing well with:
• I had water-resistant covers for my gloves. These were mitten-style, so I lost finger dexterity. For one thing, I typically have a couple of fingers on the brake levers and the other fingers holding the handlebar-grip. Not possible with mittens. Second, it was hard to write my mileage on the receipt, which is a necessity for scoring.
• Water resistant is a euphemism for something, but my hands were macerated and pruney by the time I got to Avondale.
• I have a touch-screen stylus on a tether, and have one on each layer of my suit, but in the rain they are flakey
• My iPhone is susceptible to water droplets hitting the screen and doing weird things, so I had a cover over the screen, which typically works okay, but not with a stylus or rain-gloves, etc. I preach to my friends to practice these things, like I have. But nothing was working correctly, and it was compounding the issues.
• The “poncho” on my iPhone also kept it from recognizing the stylus at the edges of the screen, so I couldn’t swipe.
• Siri voice commands will work to a point also, but kept misinterpreting “open Scenic” by opening the Sonic app. I’ve since deleted the Sonic app.
• I have a double pouch system for my receipts. The wet receipts were still a problem. I’ve got to address this time wasting issue with some sort of clip-board, or some plastic that will make a good writing surface.
• I’ve got to get better gloves for the rain.
• Gas pumps shouldn’t prompt for extra button pushes to get gas... asking for my phone number while I was wearing mittens really annoyed me. If not so frustrated at that point I could have used my stylus, but I just wanted to get gas!!!
Also, a few things did work for me that should be mentioned for any novices reading this:
• My rain gear worked well. I have a Nelson Rigg rain suit, big enough to fit over ALL of my other gear. Pay good money for one that you hope you’ll never use. But, you’ll get your money’s worth the first time you use it.
• V-wipes from Aerostitch. These little miracles of silicone allow you to remove rain, mist and road grime from your helmet’s visor. I keep mine tethered to the cuff of my jacket with paracord. It’s always there as a talisman against the rain. When needed, I slip it over my thumb and keep it there for the remainder of the ride.
• Tether stuff to your self or your bike. When you’re fully geared up, stooping to pick something off the ground while wearing gloves is a PITA. I keep my credit card in a tethered badge holder. It is perfect for tap-to-pay, and I can easily slide my card out for a chip reader, then it goes right back in it’s holder.
• My touchscreen-stylus on a retractable IDbadge tether. I’m disappointed at how poorly gloves that claim to be touchscreen friendly really work, so I don’t rely on them. The stylus works well no matter which gloves I’m wearing.
• A side note here... those of you that say “leave your phone in your pocket” can keep that unhelpful advice to themselves. In my opinion you are better off mastering your devices than hiding them. Invariably you’re going to need it at some point that you didn’t plan on, and are going to put yourself at greater risk trying to fish your device out of its hiding place.
• A shameless plug for QuadLock and their wireless charging head. My quadlock set up is reasonably expensive when you add up all of the components, but for as much as I ride, it’s reasonable. I’ll get my money’s worth. Getting my iPhone on and off the mount is easy, and it’s charging all the time without me fooling with a cable... especially in the rain.
• Although my Sena worked well all day, I’m going to apply silicone grease to the o-rings to improve its weather resistance. Better safe than sorry. And it’s not a bad idea to put it in a bag of rice after a long weekend in the rain.
In conclusion, everyone should decide for themselves if distance riding for a Certificate is a Team Sport or not. It’s hard enough to get all of your own ducks in a row on a challenging ride... It’s a near miracle when two people can get it together, but in the end, it’s safer. I have made good friends through riding, and I’m glad to help them achieve IBA status too, but I reserve the right to tease them about their mistakes. Regardless, you have to be prepared to fail.
We’ve already started talking about our next attempt, but I’m curious what lessons Kevin learned.
One such friend, Kevin, was so inspired and completed his longest solo ride last month, about 350 miles. We do a lot of 300 mile rides, but his solo ride involved several hours of night riding, so definitely a new milestone was reached. A rider that hopes to ride a SaddleSore 1000 (SS1K) should be increasing their endurance by riding longer distances, but when you think you’re ready for 1000 mile ride, you might as well document it.
We negotiated a date based on our work schedules, and the planning began weeks ahead of time. Kevin would propose a route, and I’d ask for certain tweaks to avoid a city, or too many red lights. He’d change it, and we’d discuss... after a couple of iterations, a simplified route was agreed to that involved a lot of time on the interstate. Like most of you, we don’t like taking the super-slab, but time and distance dictate all decisions. At least riding as a pair in formation would make us easy to see. Plus we both have auxiliary lights... we’re hard to miss head-on. I guess this is a good place to mention that we both ride Vespas. Both are GTS 300’s (278 cc), and mine is a little more modern with ABS and ASR. My absolute top speed is about 80 mph, Kevin’s is a little lower, although his speedo makes him think that he’s approaching Mach 1, when he’s doing the speed limit.
In the days leading up to KSU, rain was in the forecast. We proposed a couple of alternate destinations for the turn around, but the real weather problem was going to be southeast Louisiana... so we stuck with the original plan, to some extent. As it turns out, New Orleans got 5 inches of rain Saturday, causing street flooding in large parts of the city.
Now, for the comedy of errors... and herein lie the lessons learned. If you plan to attempt a SS1k, heed our advice here.
Everyone that we told in the days leading up asked if we had plans for the rain... my smug response was that we had rain gear, and that real riders ride in the rain. The plan was to meet up at a 24 hour gas station around 4:15am, KSU at 4:30. I arrived at the station around 4:15, parked on the center stand, opened the seat, took off the gas cap, had my credit card at the ready... and waited. About 10 minutes go by, and I decided to change pumps, so that Kevin could see me better on his approach... so repeating the above process on the next pump over... and wait. As it turns out that Kevin is getting some last minute coaching from his girlfriend. She’s a little concerned about the rain as lightening is flashing outside their windows.
Kevin texts me at 4:35 that he’s about to leave home. He only lives 6 or 8 blocks from the station. Kevin arrives soon afterward, but not that soon... I assume there was additional coaching!
We spend a few minutes complaining about the weather, and Kevin shows me how prepared he is regardless. Except, he’s worried about his Sena getting wet, so he’s going to keep it packed away until we clear the rain. We own the clock at this point, we can take as much time as we need to get started. We can wait until the current rain band passes. We discussed the route, and made some changes. As a reminder to the readers, the only requirement of the judges is that we ride 1000 miles in 24 hours, and log our fuel receipts... there are some fine details, but this is the broad strokes. So we don’t have to follow any plan, we only have to turn in the executed route... We are masters of our own fate!
On the rides leading up to this, I had not insisted on Kevin practicing the receipt logging process. It’s not hard, it’s just 6 or so steps, most of which involves the long piece of toilet paper that the gas-pump produces, or going to the cashier if the pump is out of paper. The rest of the steps involve touching the screen of your smartphone. I’ve been practicing for a year or so. (What could possibly go wrong?) Kevin picked up the process quickly, but by concentrating on his first receipt, he forgot to start his tracking app. As for me... Four gas stops, four pumps that didn’t produce a receipt. So, I have to run into the store, and get the receipt with soaking wet gloves, then try to write my mileage on the receipt that is now falling apart and sticking to my wet glove when I try to lay it flat and take a photo with my phone that isn’t responding to touch or voice... and at two stops I ended up with a screenshot of the camera app with the receipt in the viewfinder! Then trying to store the wet receipt in my pouch... NOTHING is cooperating.
So, back to the timeline... We pull the trigger at the first stop... I’m cussing like a sailor due to me having 20 gas pumps to choose from, but I got the one out of paper! We log the receipt and pull away. The time stamp for my receipt is 5:02 am. Kevin decides that he wants to go through the Harvey Tunnel to avoid wind gusts on the elevated expressway. We pull away at 5:08. He had chosen the gas station due to 24 hour access and proximity to the on-ramp to the elevated expressway. Instead, we stay on the surface road. Five red-lights later we read the sign that says the Tunnel is closed for repairs. So, two more red-lights for the u-turn, back a few blocks, miss the u-turn lane, so two more left turns with red-lights, and then up the on-ramp to the elevated expressway. At the next red-light after the elevated overpass of the Canal, Kevin realizes that he didn’t start recording his track. I intended to use my recorded track to generate some of my documentation, so this is an important detail. Elapsed time 17 minutes... distance traveled 3 miles. Of course, all communication is being done face to face at red lights, because only one of us is using his Sena. Kevin’s iPhone is in his pocket.
At this stop, I tell Kevin to take a deep cleansing breath... and remind him that we own the clock. We can get away from all the red lights and start the clock over. He’s relieved, so we travel another couple of miles to a 24 hour station, for a convenience store receipt since our tanks are full. The store is closed! We continue on to the next community, Avondale, and pull into a station. Grab a couple of bags of peanuts, 2 for a $1... but we each need a receipt, so 75¢ each... Kevin’s wallet is safely locked under his scooter seat. I pull out my wallet, but don’t want to doff all of my gloves, so Kevin handles my wallet and pays the cash, and we each get a receipt. I can’t get the cash back in the money clip due to EVERYTING being wet. I don’t keep my wallet in my pants, but rather in a drop-leg bag. It makes it easy to get to when I need to, but it is exposed to the elements. New time stamp: 5:54 am. Distance traveled, 10 miles. Good time to start over!
Due to the excitement and apprehension, I’ve been awake since 2:30 am. I’m not a happy camper, and Kevin is in an even worse mood. He’s already feeling water get through his outer layer. We should have been near Baton Rouge by now, and we’re not even out of the metro area. But we press on. We continue up to a highway that we know well, and at it’s northern end, we have good choices depending on the weather. We decide to take La Hwy 1 to continue north. It’s a good road, but we are going to encounter four little towns with RED LIGHTS before we get to I-10. But it beats going through Baton Rouge after sun-up and crossing the Mississippi River bridge in traffic.
Kevin’s scooter looks like it was packed by Jed Clampett, and it is affecting his fuel economy. I’m carrying a 3-gal fuel bladder, plus my always ready emergency bottle of 1.5 liters of fuel. Kevin is carrying a gallon of aux fuel, plus a couple of fuel bottles. Scooterists that are attempting Certificate rides MUST learn how to make fuel stops efficient, and skipping the gas station a couple of times is part of my strategy. Regardless, we stopped for gas in Addis, La., and I took a bio-break there. I only needed 1.6 gallons, but it was a 15 minute stop. We need to be running on fumes, and refuel from the extra fuel we’re carrying... still, we’re wet and miserable, so the fuel stop efficiency is not our biggest concern at the moment. We’re just a few miles short of the interstate. Oh, important note... we are finally out of the heavy rain. It’s still raining a little, but this is better. Fun fact: it can be raining and foggy at the same time, and it’s getting foggy. I was concerned about being on the interstate as we went over the Atchafalaya basin, but visibility was pretty good. I could see a car a half-mile-back without its headlights on, so we had enough visibility. The stretch of I-10 was uneventful, thank God, and we exited to I-49 at just before 9am, with 140 miles of our thousand behind us. BUT, to be fair, 3 hours and 140 miles is about 45 miles per hour average, which is faster than required, if we can keep it up. Scooters are not really able to go faster to make up time. On the interstate, we are already at 90% of top speed.
We arrived in Opelousas,La., at about 9:12 am, just a little over 3 hours from our re-start and Kevin decided he’d had enough for one day. His rain gear had completely failed him. His torso, crotch and feet were all wet, and from here on the temperatures were going to drop. As it turns out, Kevin didn’t zip his waterproof liner into his new 3-season jacket. He had the liner on... just not zipped, so it had migrated it’s way around to his back. We pulled into a truck stop and Kevin changed into dry clothes and shoes... who brings extra shoes???? Kevin’s initial shoes were rubber soled “gum-shoes”, but didn’t cover the ankles, and definitely weren’t covered well by his rain-pants, so I guess it’s no surprise that his feet got soaked.
We topped off our tanks, and turned back home. Interstate 49 ends in Lafayette, La, and we decided to keep going that way, on Hwy 90, back to New Orleans. The road is awful! We kept changing lanes looking for relief from the uneven cement slabs. Our little tires don’t absorb all of those bumps like a car does. We tried to stop at a Waffle House in New Iberia, but CLOSED. We found one open in Morgan City an hour later. WH was typical, good-food-fast, but by the time we rearranged the deck chairs on this cruise, our stop cost us an hour and ten minutes. I was worried that they were going to charge us rent or something. At least I could take off my rain coat and let my inner jacket dry some. My rain gear hadn’t failed, but invariably some rain hits your exposed neck, and your shirts start wicking all of that moisture around.
Remember all of that rain we had encountered earlier??... well we caught back up to it and drove through two bands of steady rain. I finally arrived home at 2:15 after about 340 miles on the day. What to do with all of this time on my hands but go to the Tulane football game after a quick hot shower!
Lessons Learned: don’t underestimate the impact that rain and rain-gear will have on your typical routine. Here are a list of things that I was not dealing well with:
• I had water-resistant covers for my gloves. These were mitten-style, so I lost finger dexterity. For one thing, I typically have a couple of fingers on the brake levers and the other fingers holding the handlebar-grip. Not possible with mittens. Second, it was hard to write my mileage on the receipt, which is a necessity for scoring.
• Water resistant is a euphemism for something, but my hands were macerated and pruney by the time I got to Avondale.
• I have a touch-screen stylus on a tether, and have one on each layer of my suit, but in the rain they are flakey
• My iPhone is susceptible to water droplets hitting the screen and doing weird things, so I had a cover over the screen, which typically works okay, but not with a stylus or rain-gloves, etc. I preach to my friends to practice these things, like I have. But nothing was working correctly, and it was compounding the issues.
• The “poncho” on my iPhone also kept it from recognizing the stylus at the edges of the screen, so I couldn’t swipe.
• Siri voice commands will work to a point also, but kept misinterpreting “open Scenic” by opening the Sonic app. I’ve since deleted the Sonic app.
• I have a double pouch system for my receipts. The wet receipts were still a problem. I’ve got to address this time wasting issue with some sort of clip-board, or some plastic that will make a good writing surface.
• I’ve got to get better gloves for the rain.
• Gas pumps shouldn’t prompt for extra button pushes to get gas... asking for my phone number while I was wearing mittens really annoyed me. If not so frustrated at that point I could have used my stylus, but I just wanted to get gas!!!
Also, a few things did work for me that should be mentioned for any novices reading this:
• My rain gear worked well. I have a Nelson Rigg rain suit, big enough to fit over ALL of my other gear. Pay good money for one that you hope you’ll never use. But, you’ll get your money’s worth the first time you use it.
• V-wipes from Aerostitch. These little miracles of silicone allow you to remove rain, mist and road grime from your helmet’s visor. I keep mine tethered to the cuff of my jacket with paracord. It’s always there as a talisman against the rain. When needed, I slip it over my thumb and keep it there for the remainder of the ride.
• Tether stuff to your self or your bike. When you’re fully geared up, stooping to pick something off the ground while wearing gloves is a PITA. I keep my credit card in a tethered badge holder. It is perfect for tap-to-pay, and I can easily slide my card out for a chip reader, then it goes right back in it’s holder.
• My touchscreen-stylus on a retractable IDbadge tether. I’m disappointed at how poorly gloves that claim to be touchscreen friendly really work, so I don’t rely on them. The stylus works well no matter which gloves I’m wearing.
• A side note here... those of you that say “leave your phone in your pocket” can keep that unhelpful advice to themselves. In my opinion you are better off mastering your devices than hiding them. Invariably you’re going to need it at some point that you didn’t plan on, and are going to put yourself at greater risk trying to fish your device out of its hiding place.
• A shameless plug for QuadLock and their wireless charging head. My quadlock set up is reasonably expensive when you add up all of the components, but for as much as I ride, it’s reasonable. I’ll get my money’s worth. Getting my iPhone on and off the mount is easy, and it’s charging all the time without me fooling with a cable... especially in the rain.
• Although my Sena worked well all day, I’m going to apply silicone grease to the o-rings to improve its weather resistance. Better safe than sorry. And it’s not a bad idea to put it in a bag of rice after a long weekend in the rain.
In conclusion, everyone should decide for themselves if distance riding for a Certificate is a Team Sport or not. It’s hard enough to get all of your own ducks in a row on a challenging ride... It’s a near miracle when two people can get it together, but in the end, it’s safer. I have made good friends through riding, and I’m glad to help them achieve IBA status too, but I reserve the right to tease them about their mistakes. Regardless, you have to be prepared to fail.
We’ve already started talking about our next attempt, but I’m curious what lessons Kevin learned.
