Aussies @ IBR23 prep
- Thread starter Martin Little
- Start date
Congratulations to Jeff on an outstanding rally!
From Rebecca and I, Jeff, and Olaf have done an amazing job to navigate their way through to the finish, it was one tough gig this year.
Will provide a further update once we have some more sleep, but we can say we had one heck of a rally for 10 days.
From Rebecca and I, Jeff, and Olaf have done an amazing job to navigate their way through to the finish, it was one tough gig this year.
Will provide a further update once we have some more sleep, but we can say we had one heck of a rally for 10 days.
Ok, coming up for air after a couple of days sleeping, so thought we would share some photos from the Rally. A more detailed download will follow, but in short we had one heck of an adventure riding around the USA, including experiencing some incredible (and totally unexpected storms)
The calm before the storm...literally!
A rare moment of calm, twilight in Nebraska heading for Columbus. (We were to pay for this moment of calm a few hours later)
Departing for Leg 2 from Checkpoint 1 & the best laid plans........Credit to Tobie Stevens for the photo!
The calm before the storm...literally!
A rare moment of calm, twilight in Nebraska heading for Columbus. (We were to pay for this moment of calm a few hours later)
Departing for Leg 2 from Checkpoint 1 & the best laid plans........Credit to Tobie Stevens for the photo!
IBR 23 Ride Report
Overview:
Ok, so here is the postmortem, back at our Basecamp in Minnesota, catching up on sleep and reflecting on our rally.
Overall, we had a good rally, one that was full of new and interesting places we visited, or saw. But also, one that was full of adverse weather, compounding fatigue, and ultimately decision making that didn’t go the way we wanted it to.
Something we really hadn’t acknowledged, or addressed fully was the fact we hadn’t rallied for 4 years. Our last rally was IBR2019.
For IBR 23, our total distance covered was approx. nearly 14,500kms for the 10 days ridden on the rally. Standing is Did Not Finished (DNF).
Once Day 11 dawned, we were shot ducks. We took stock of where we were and what the ask was for the final day/night. A ride of nearly 2,000kms from Michigan into the Appalachians, three cities (Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh), and all assuming things according to plan, we would arrive just on commencement of the penalty window. Given my overall fatigue levels, (I was riding poorly, and not making the best/quickest decisions) with Pillion Piglet not much better, we made the collective decision to withdraw and rest/recover.
Leg 1: This leg went pretty well for us, we collected all of our bonuses and finished the leg at 81st. We planned and rode a fairly conservative leg, knowing what lay ahead. This included slaying the Atlanta traffic demon with a dream run into the city center and out again in the middle of the day. The rides through the Tennessee foothills and mountains were the best of the times and the worst of times.
Downtown Atlanta, after a relatively easy run in through Atlanta traffic
What was a portent for the rest of the rally was the ferocious storms that would batter us at the most unexpected times and contributed significantly to our fatigue and stress levels. We were forced to get off Interstates due to these storms every day/night due to the sheer volume of rain, (and an inability to see ahead at all) and intensity of the lightning and wind. We had a lightning strike the ground approximately 75 metres from us on Day 2. To say that scared the crap out of us is an understatement, combined with being on an Interstate heavy with traffic in monsoonal type rains.
They don’t call this the world’s toughest rally for nothing!
Beautiful Bell Buckle, TN. The ride into and out of Bell Buckle was gorgeous. 45 minutes later we were in Monsoonal rain and threading our way through lightening strikes
The last bonus of the day was in downtown Memphis, just off Union Avenue, which was super cool, we will have to come back to here, we said before riding into Arkansas for the evening.
Downtown Memphis, just off Union Avenue. can't wait to go back and spend more time here
On the flip side, we scored well, with no points left on the table. We went to bed after scoring, tired but happy with our Leg.
Leg 2: The leg of would have/could have/should have. We had booked a tyre change for the end of Leg 2 in Denver for around midday on the Saturday. While we routed well, this constraint was a constant drag on our thinking as we rode the leg. Our choice was to go for the big diamond (12,000 plus points) up in Wisconsin, while collecting a few bonuses along the way. The downside was an inability to collect the group photo bonus (3,400 points) approx. 5 hrs outside of Denver scheduled for 11:00am Saturday morning. As we rode north out of Tulsa, we discussed the options of either moving the tyre change to late afternoon Saturday or ditching it all together and winging a tyre change on Leg 3. After a phone call to BMW Denver (who provided outstanding service) confirmed delaying the tyre appointment was not an option we decided to stick with being in Denver as planned. This meant skipping the group photo bonus. 3,400 points gone whistling. Not fatal, but a decision that compounded with other events and decisions.
Our route was taking us past a 1,750-point bonus in Chicago, with an ETA mid evening. After talking it over, we discarded this option of going into the city for this bonus as I just didn’t feel up for dealing with Chicago traffic. In hindsight, it would have added approx. 1 hr to our overall route, and we were to need these points desperately.
Early evening in Illinois, we had a seriously close miss, when a large semi-trailer two lanes over from us changed lanes unannounced, pushing a SUV into our lane, which pushed us out of our lane towards the median barrier. The driver of the SUV was magnificent in juggling the two split second competing priorities, truck and us. This was all occurring at 75mph. Once everyone resumed their lanes and heart rates, we gave the SUV driver a wave and thumbs up as we went past.
We collected our rest bonus that evening and then went on to collect the big diamond bonus in Wisconsin. This was the farm centre and was cool. There were lots of riders there and we were able to swap stories and take a few moments of the bike. Once this bonus was collected at 9:00am sharp, we hightailed it west towards our next bonus, the small hamlet of Cream near the Mississippi river. The ride into the valley where Cream resides was a motorcyclists dream and we really enjoyed it, although due to my own fatigue, my cornering lines were off. Another indicator of how fatigued I already was. From here, we rode into Nebraska to collect our last bonus for the day, a Daylight only bonus in country South Dakota. We collected this about 8:30pm and then rode down to Columbus NE in glorious twilight. There were storms all around us but we seemed to be able to avoid them (for now)
Next morning, we got going early, about 3:30am as there was a serious storm brewing ahead us on our route westward towards Colorado. To say this storm was serious is a understatement. Lightening filled the entire sky in front of us, and Pillion Piglet was more than happy for me to ride quicker in the dark in the hope of threading the needle of a gap in the storm front. Alas, it was not to be, and once the horizontal rain arrived, we got off the road twice, the rain and wind were just too much with zero visibility in the dark. At the second stop, we just waited for dawn to arrive, in the hope of improved conditions. The service station attendant , where we were sheltering was very understanding as we left some rather large pools of water!
Twilight in Nebraska, AKA threading the needle between storm fronts....next morning not so lucky.
From here, it was a cold and wet ride towards CP 2 in Denver. The clouds cleared away, and the sun finally come out, as we crossed the state line into Colorado, with snow clad Rockies in the distance looking magnificent. About 2 hrs out from Denver, a fault light flashed up on the screen. A blown main headlight bulb, damn! Not to worry, this could be replaced during the tyre change in Denver.
BMW Denver were magnificent in processing us as promised (they had a number of riders coming in that afternoon for new tyres) However, after about 30 minutes I got summoned to the service desk to be advised that there was a blown fork seal. Replacing both fork seals was then added to the workshops list, and what was 1-2 hr job became a 4-5 hr job and time off the bike. In a rally 4-5 hrs not turning the wheels is far from ideal. We had planned to collect a few local bingo bonus’s in Denver, after the tyre change, which would have given us another 900 points. Due to the time taken in the workshop, we moved this task to the next morning, which we ended up not doing as they were all closed.
We got through scoring not leaving any points on the table but knowing we were now drifting backwards, which only added to our fatigue and pressure to make up for this on Leg 3.
Leg 3: Along with the rest of the riders, we collected our Leg 3 Rally packs at 4:00am and retired to our rooms to work up our route for the big leg 3 (5 days). We were both so fatigued we didn’t stick with our routing routine and missed scanning the Rally Book into our phones (for ease of reading while on the road) and also didn’t diarise the Call in Bonus’s. Even worse, we missed reading some crucial information for a big bonus up in Idaho, which was to bite us later that evening in Boise.
Satisfied we had a plan to gather enough points, with a small buffer we got going at 7:30am. There were still about half the bikes still in the parking lot when we left.
Salt Lake City Utah and our first bonus of Leg 3
This was a big day for us, we almost got run off the road by an Outlaw Motorcycle gang (that was stressful!), almost ran out of fuel in the middle of nowhere in Idaho, followed by another massive super storm cell that blew us across two lanes of the interstate onto the shoulder at 75mph. (yep, that was stressful too) Finally, as rode into Boise to fuel up, Pillion Piglet realised we had made a major oopise with the major bonus in Idaho requiring nearly 100k of “unpaved road” This is a major no no for us, and after debating this pros and cons of this, we rerouted by abandoning this bonus and adding more bonuses to Day 11 to make it up for it.
Boise Idaho Bonus, and about now we realised we had a problem with our next planned bonus....Oops
On the flip side, after a few hours sleep, the next morning, we rode the Hells Canyon Road watching the sun come up. Wowza!! This was one of those incredible highs that comes from riding rallies. We continued with our revised plan for Leg 3, knowing every day was a big day that had to go perfectly well. We saw some beautiful sights, including Coque de Alene in Idaho as we collected bonuses in Washington State, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Canada. The ride to Thunder Bay, then around the top of Lake Superior to Mackinac was again one of many beautiful places along the way. It also was the 3rd time we had a near miss, a SUV pulled out suddenly into our lane as we were overtaking a line of cars. I was super excited to ride the Mackinac Bridge, followed by collecting the bonus on Mackinac Island on Day 10.
Mackinac Island Bonus......a photo tells a thousand words. We are knackered.
I was so fatigued I fell asleep in the ferry across to the Island.
The final bonus for Day 10 was in Traverse City in Michigan. A daylight only bonus we only just made. The ride there seemed to take forever, and once collected, we faced the realisation we still needed to ride another 3 hrs to Detroit to position ourselves for Day 11. We both needed to rest and get off the bike, so we made the decision to take our Rest Bonus in Traverse City. When I woke up, I felt worse, not better and after talking over the options with Pillion Piglet for Day 11, we made the call we were done and it was time to make the right decision for us.
We went back to sleep, and then made a call to the Rally Mom (Lisa) to let her know we were OK but done for IBR23.
So that’s a wrap on my 3rd IBR and Pillion Piglets 2nd. We experienced the absolute highest of the highs of rallying along with the lows, it was an awesome adventure!
Overview:
Ok, so here is the postmortem, back at our Basecamp in Minnesota, catching up on sleep and reflecting on our rally.
Overall, we had a good rally, one that was full of new and interesting places we visited, or saw. But also, one that was full of adverse weather, compounding fatigue, and ultimately decision making that didn’t go the way we wanted it to.
Something we really hadn’t acknowledged, or addressed fully was the fact we hadn’t rallied for 4 years. Our last rally was IBR2019.
For IBR 23, our total distance covered was approx. nearly 14,500kms for the 10 days ridden on the rally. Standing is Did Not Finished (DNF).
Once Day 11 dawned, we were shot ducks. We took stock of where we were and what the ask was for the final day/night. A ride of nearly 2,000kms from Michigan into the Appalachians, three cities (Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh), and all assuming things according to plan, we would arrive just on commencement of the penalty window. Given my overall fatigue levels, (I was riding poorly, and not making the best/quickest decisions) with Pillion Piglet not much better, we made the collective decision to withdraw and rest/recover.
Leg 1: This leg went pretty well for us, we collected all of our bonuses and finished the leg at 81st. We planned and rode a fairly conservative leg, knowing what lay ahead. This included slaying the Atlanta traffic demon with a dream run into the city center and out again in the middle of the day. The rides through the Tennessee foothills and mountains were the best of the times and the worst of times.
Downtown Atlanta, after a relatively easy run in through Atlanta traffic
What was a portent for the rest of the rally was the ferocious storms that would batter us at the most unexpected times and contributed significantly to our fatigue and stress levels. We were forced to get off Interstates due to these storms every day/night due to the sheer volume of rain, (and an inability to see ahead at all) and intensity of the lightning and wind. We had a lightning strike the ground approximately 75 metres from us on Day 2. To say that scared the crap out of us is an understatement, combined with being on an Interstate heavy with traffic in monsoonal type rains.
They don’t call this the world’s toughest rally for nothing!
Beautiful Bell Buckle, TN. The ride into and out of Bell Buckle was gorgeous. 45 minutes later we were in Monsoonal rain and threading our way through lightening strikes
The last bonus of the day was in downtown Memphis, just off Union Avenue, which was super cool, we will have to come back to here, we said before riding into Arkansas for the evening.
Downtown Memphis, just off Union Avenue. can't wait to go back and spend more time here
On the flip side, we scored well, with no points left on the table. We went to bed after scoring, tired but happy with our Leg.
Leg 2: The leg of would have/could have/should have. We had booked a tyre change for the end of Leg 2 in Denver for around midday on the Saturday. While we routed well, this constraint was a constant drag on our thinking as we rode the leg. Our choice was to go for the big diamond (12,000 plus points) up in Wisconsin, while collecting a few bonuses along the way. The downside was an inability to collect the group photo bonus (3,400 points) approx. 5 hrs outside of Denver scheduled for 11:00am Saturday morning. As we rode north out of Tulsa, we discussed the options of either moving the tyre change to late afternoon Saturday or ditching it all together and winging a tyre change on Leg 3. After a phone call to BMW Denver (who provided outstanding service) confirmed delaying the tyre appointment was not an option we decided to stick with being in Denver as planned. This meant skipping the group photo bonus. 3,400 points gone whistling. Not fatal, but a decision that compounded with other events and decisions.
Our route was taking us past a 1,750-point bonus in Chicago, with an ETA mid evening. After talking it over, we discarded this option of going into the city for this bonus as I just didn’t feel up for dealing with Chicago traffic. In hindsight, it would have added approx. 1 hr to our overall route, and we were to need these points desperately.
Early evening in Illinois, we had a seriously close miss, when a large semi-trailer two lanes over from us changed lanes unannounced, pushing a SUV into our lane, which pushed us out of our lane towards the median barrier. The driver of the SUV was magnificent in juggling the two split second competing priorities, truck and us. This was all occurring at 75mph. Once everyone resumed their lanes and heart rates, we gave the SUV driver a wave and thumbs up as we went past.
We collected our rest bonus that evening and then went on to collect the big diamond bonus in Wisconsin. This was the farm centre and was cool. There were lots of riders there and we were able to swap stories and take a few moments of the bike. Once this bonus was collected at 9:00am sharp, we hightailed it west towards our next bonus, the small hamlet of Cream near the Mississippi river. The ride into the valley where Cream resides was a motorcyclists dream and we really enjoyed it, although due to my own fatigue, my cornering lines were off. Another indicator of how fatigued I already was. From here, we rode into Nebraska to collect our last bonus for the day, a Daylight only bonus in country South Dakota. We collected this about 8:30pm and then rode down to Columbus NE in glorious twilight. There were storms all around us but we seemed to be able to avoid them (for now)
Next morning, we got going early, about 3:30am as there was a serious storm brewing ahead us on our route westward towards Colorado. To say this storm was serious is a understatement. Lightening filled the entire sky in front of us, and Pillion Piglet was more than happy for me to ride quicker in the dark in the hope of threading the needle of a gap in the storm front. Alas, it was not to be, and once the horizontal rain arrived, we got off the road twice, the rain and wind were just too much with zero visibility in the dark. At the second stop, we just waited for dawn to arrive, in the hope of improved conditions. The service station attendant , where we were sheltering was very understanding as we left some rather large pools of water!
Twilight in Nebraska, AKA threading the needle between storm fronts....next morning not so lucky.
From here, it was a cold and wet ride towards CP 2 in Denver. The clouds cleared away, and the sun finally come out, as we crossed the state line into Colorado, with snow clad Rockies in the distance looking magnificent. About 2 hrs out from Denver, a fault light flashed up on the screen. A blown main headlight bulb, damn! Not to worry, this could be replaced during the tyre change in Denver.
BMW Denver were magnificent in processing us as promised (they had a number of riders coming in that afternoon for new tyres) However, after about 30 minutes I got summoned to the service desk to be advised that there was a blown fork seal. Replacing both fork seals was then added to the workshops list, and what was 1-2 hr job became a 4-5 hr job and time off the bike. In a rally 4-5 hrs not turning the wheels is far from ideal. We had planned to collect a few local bingo bonus’s in Denver, after the tyre change, which would have given us another 900 points. Due to the time taken in the workshop, we moved this task to the next morning, which we ended up not doing as they were all closed.
We got through scoring not leaving any points on the table but knowing we were now drifting backwards, which only added to our fatigue and pressure to make up for this on Leg 3.
Leg 3: Along with the rest of the riders, we collected our Leg 3 Rally packs at 4:00am and retired to our rooms to work up our route for the big leg 3 (5 days). We were both so fatigued we didn’t stick with our routing routine and missed scanning the Rally Book into our phones (for ease of reading while on the road) and also didn’t diarise the Call in Bonus’s. Even worse, we missed reading some crucial information for a big bonus up in Idaho, which was to bite us later that evening in Boise.
Satisfied we had a plan to gather enough points, with a small buffer we got going at 7:30am. There were still about half the bikes still in the parking lot when we left.
Salt Lake City Utah and our first bonus of Leg 3
This was a big day for us, we almost got run off the road by an Outlaw Motorcycle gang (that was stressful!), almost ran out of fuel in the middle of nowhere in Idaho, followed by another massive super storm cell that blew us across two lanes of the interstate onto the shoulder at 75mph. (yep, that was stressful too) Finally, as rode into Boise to fuel up, Pillion Piglet realised we had made a major oopise with the major bonus in Idaho requiring nearly 100k of “unpaved road” This is a major no no for us, and after debating this pros and cons of this, we rerouted by abandoning this bonus and adding more bonuses to Day 11 to make it up for it.
Boise Idaho Bonus, and about now we realised we had a problem with our next planned bonus....Oops
On the flip side, after a few hours sleep, the next morning, we rode the Hells Canyon Road watching the sun come up. Wowza!! This was one of those incredible highs that comes from riding rallies. We continued with our revised plan for Leg 3, knowing every day was a big day that had to go perfectly well. We saw some beautiful sights, including Coque de Alene in Idaho as we collected bonuses in Washington State, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Canada. The ride to Thunder Bay, then around the top of Lake Superior to Mackinac was again one of many beautiful places along the way. It also was the 3rd time we had a near miss, a SUV pulled out suddenly into our lane as we were overtaking a line of cars. I was super excited to ride the Mackinac Bridge, followed by collecting the bonus on Mackinac Island on Day 10.
Mackinac Island Bonus......a photo tells a thousand words. We are knackered.
I was so fatigued I fell asleep in the ferry across to the Island.
The final bonus for Day 10 was in Traverse City in Michigan. A daylight only bonus we only just made. The ride there seemed to take forever, and once collected, we faced the realisation we still needed to ride another 3 hrs to Detroit to position ourselves for Day 11. We both needed to rest and get off the bike, so we made the decision to take our Rest Bonus in Traverse City. When I woke up, I felt worse, not better and after talking over the options with Pillion Piglet for Day 11, we made the call we were done and it was time to make the right decision for us.
We went back to sleep, and then made a call to the Rally Mom (Lisa) to let her know we were OK but done for IBR23.
So that’s a wrap on my 3rd IBR and Pillion Piglets 2nd. We experienced the absolute highest of the highs of rallying along with the lows, it was an awesome adventure!