My first Iron Butt Long Distance Ride

[VanCityValkyrie]

I totally forgot to post this, so here we go....

Last Tuesday, July 9, there was a Moto Social here in Vancouver and I met a guy who just participated in an Iron Butt Association long Distance Ride the weekend before. I had no idea something like this exists and of course I had a couple of questions. After I got home I started reading about this all and it totally got me. Riding the bike with a little challenge? Accepted!

So basically without a lot of planning or whatsoever I decided to jump on the bike early Saturday morning to finish my first Saddle Sore 1600km. 1600km within 24 hours. I was pretty confident to get it all done. Even on Canadian roads, this is a lot of time for 1600km. Here's my route:



Surrey, Hope, Williams Lake, Prince George, then heading East and down to Kamloops and then finish strong on the Coquihalla, Hope, back to Surrey.

I left my first fuel stop at 4:35am in Surrey




Riding towards hope I had this scenery:



It all went well all the way to Prince George. The weather forecast said there will be thunderstorms in Prince George early afternoon, so my plan was to be on my way South before that. Well, sometimes plans don't work out. Starting at Purden Lake I hit one thunderstorm after the other. Further South at Blue River I had lightning hitting the ground about 600m in front of me. Time to stop, safety first. I stopped at the last house in Blue River, stepped away from the bike and looked for shelter next to the house. Within 20 seconds the owner opened up his door and invited me in and told me to put the bike in his garage. After a nice talk and some hot tea, I was on the road 40mins later. Thanks, Gary!!!! I will be forever grateful for that!!!!





Right at dusk I arrived in Kamloops, fuelled up and prepared for a fast rip down the Coquihalla by night. And what a rip that was! When the big trucks go 130kph and you go a bit faster to make up some time that was lost with all the stops and wet roads... it was a thrill for sure!

One last fuel stop then in Hope and soon to be home, Valerie and I just kept going with a big smile!

I hit the last fuel stop to get my last receipt at 1:05am on July 14.



Here is my total riding and stopping time for a total of 1710km.



It was a great little adventure and I am planning my next SS2000K already. This should be doable without too much stress as well. After that I wanna do the SS2500K, which will be a totally different experience and hard to do on Canadian roads and the Valkyrie's distance on one tank.

For this one now I got distracted by nice sightings and stopped a lot.



But hey, 1600km in 24hrs is not a race. There is enough time for sightseeing, too.

I did some long distance riding before in Europe. But doing it on a German Autobahn is different from what we have here. I like the challenge to myself and the bike. There is a lot of planning involved in the next rides and I think I will have a hard time to just stay at 3000rpm and save some fuel tog et more kilometres between each gas stops. But hey, we'll see....

One down, many more to come 

[gordonv]

Good for you. Was always wanting to do that, but never want to drive when tired, and I like going to bed early.

I don't have a fancy GPS, looks like you can put your route in and it gives you back all that?

I remember following those semis in the Fraser Canyon at 2 am on my drive up to 70 Mile House Green Lake cousins cabin. I'd pass them going up the hills, and just followed them going down. This was when it was 80 Kmh speeds, and we where going over 100. I made it before dawn, slept in the car till the sun came up and and I find the key and open up the cabin on the lake.

[Deerslayer]

Good going Van,

earlier this month my son & I  completed a saddle sore.. 1,000 in 24 hours.
We left the Seattle area at 3am.. we rode to Lolo pass in Montana & back ...1,000 miles & change. Got back home around 11pm.
we also had a threat of thunder storms on Lolo Pass. We could see the big storm developing but we missed it. There was rider came in to the Lolo gas stop just as we were leaving. He got caught in marble sized hail.

it's a good time. most of our ride was a little subdued at about 10mph over. we were digging the landscape.
I know what you mean about speed vs mileage...  the speed limit in Montana was 85mph... we were running at 95-100 mph with a head wind to make up some time. at the next gas stop (104 miles) I pumped in 5.5 gallons... so we were running on fumes.

..Slayer