What makes a motorcyclist into an Iron Butt Rider?

FazerPhil

President IBA UK
Staff member
Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#1
When a qualifying ride is done and verified you become an IBA member with all those benefits.

But surely one qualifying does not make you into an Iron Butt rider.

So what do you think makes somebody a true Iron Butt Rider in your eyes?
 

pihlo

12 Days? 12Days!
Premier Member
IBR Finisher
IBR Staff
#3
I think that thoose kind of riders are more "relaxt" - example: they also dont love rain. But they do not fall in Panik.
They think more about ride a bike over a distance than riding a GS, a BMW, a Honda... So, the bike is a tool, a tool to have a good time on the streets.
Also important is that they (as I say relaxt) take a little bit more attention to here enviroment. And I think, or I am shure - thoose rider take every mile as an personell adventure - live in this moment...
(I think all this is thrue - maybe a little bit different in case of a rally) ;)
 

Sneezy

IBAUK Bouncer
IBA Member
#6
I just like riding my bike, its generally only funds that limit my mileage. I love pushing myself, checking i can still get past that stage we all have, where we want to call it a day, (would have been a short army career if id quit when it got hard.)
I love a challenge, i like to look back on my rides, and think about the tough times, when things go wrong, when other people would call it quits, (sand storm in libya springs to mind)
 

Ignacio

IBR Finisher
#7
So what do you think makes somebody a true Iron Butt Rider in your eyes?
Top 13 Signs You Might Be a "True Iron Butt Rider" (or Rally Rider)

13. Sidewalks, picnic benches, cemeteries, and Home Depot storage sheds become perfectly viable overnight accommodations.
12. You have salt stains on your boots after doing a rally bonus because the tide was coming in.
11. You compare and contrast highway mileage marker schemes of state and national two-laners...and later discuss these points with other IB riders like its normal.
10. You find yourself seeing other IB riders that live 2000+ miles away more often than your own relatives.
9. You're asked to drive somewhere, but find yourself so tired and unmotivated you ask your passenger to assign a point value to the destination...and get a second wind because of it.
8. You publish on a forum one day that you'd host wayward IB riders and a person you've never met before is suddenly sleeping in your spare
bedroom...just after you've fed them and signed their 48th state witness form.
7. You listen to the 80's channel on XM and can predict the next song in the pattern.
6. Bob Higdon writes about you.
5. You switch your Garmin voice to Australian Karen and guiltily change back because you feel like you're cheating on American Betty.
4. You fuel your cage up at Costco in a business suit, but still reach into your pocket for a Sharpie to write mileage down on the receipt.
3. You never expected to make it Maine in your pre-IB life, but find yourself sleeping at the exact same Augusta Motel 6 twice in two years.
2. Somebody recognizes you from "Hard Miles" and/or "Hard Miles 2".

And the #1 sign you might be a True Iron Butt Rider:

1. Jim Owen sends you a personal e-mail congratulating you on a ride.
 

GraemeandSally

RBLR 1000
Premier Member
#8
Riding for yourself, not for others. Meeting others at the end who enjoy the same. Riding your bike for enjoyment in all weathers and not just getting it out in the summer when the sky is blue, riding it for fifty miles to where a few hundred like minded people go too
 

FazerPhil

President IBA UK
Staff member
Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#9
I think Ziggy's round trip of around 3500 miles to take Bob his keys in Romania is the mark of a true iron butt rider. We ride alone but because of the hardships we sometimes endure we are one big family and always happy to drop everything and help others when the need arises.
 
#10
What's all this about keys then? Did Bob lose the keys to his bike while in Romania then? I saw Bob"s arrival in Bran but didn't see it move after everyone else left - just assumed he didn't turn it back on for return leg.
3500m round trip for Ziggy in how long? Was he keeping up Sneezys pace on his 5 day saddlesore or was he doing BBG pace?

Be lucky, Iain
 

FJRPilot

Brit Butt Rallymaster RBLR1000 routemaster
Premier Member
IBA Member
#11
It was all playing out on Farcebook Iain, I'm sure Bob will be along to explain but the jist of it is he dropped his ignition key and it disappeared down somewhere in his bike. Despite best efforts by all present it couldn't be found or retrieved, and due to the fact no spare key was taken it became a drama. Thankfully Ziggy went to the rescue :rolleyes: :)
 

saphena

IBAUK Webmaster
Staff member
Premier Member
IBA Member
#13
It's all very simple really.

I arrived at the RTE site at 1558, hot & bothered would be something of an understatement. I ballsed up taking the photo, I couldn't ride my bike up the slope to the hotel, I dropped the keys by the front forks, reached in to fish them out but they slipped through my fingers and into a wormhole. The combined efforts of Mike, Jonathan, Dave and me were unable to establish even that the keys were in the bike at all. It was suggested that they might have fallen on the ground, unnoticed by me, and picked up by an observant prospective bike thief.

To cut a long story short, DHL were for some reason unable to transmit my spare keys to Romania when Ziggy pitched up desperately seeking an excuse to ride his bike. I bribed him with the offer of an offical IBA Castle Bran patch and naturally that clinched it and he was prepping his FJR in Stirling before you could say knife. He whizzed down to see my wife and collect the keys then just popped over to Romania where he sank a couple of beers, had a shower, then rode home again. Just normal stuff for the world's toughest!

I'll start a thread later about where my keys ended up so that actually dismantling the bike was needed merely to locate them. In the meantime I think Ziggy has just set the standard for what makes an Iron Butt rider.
 

FazerPhil

President IBA UK
Staff member
Premier Member
IBR Finisher
#16
On the way back from the Swedish Rally I was wondering if the definition of an Iron But Rider is someone who rides further to the start than on the event!!!!