Victoria's Secret

Somewhere out there, there’s a long distance motorcycle rider named Vicky and I’m sure this is her secret.  It’s mine too. 

 

In my early years, I experimented with a fair number of undergarment options.  It didn’t take long to realize that the cotton stuff you wear at work just didn’t work well.   In hot weather it does nothing to keep you dry and it wasn’t any better in the cold.  Plus, the leg cuffs in a brief style short cuts into your nether-regions faster than you burn through single tank of fuel.  This was a no-go.  Next came my bicycle short phase.  This was better.  Seat comfort improved, but I still didn’t have a torso option figured out.  When sweaty, my bare skin stuck to the liner of the Aerostich suit like chewing gum on a shoe sole.  Again, there was significant room for improvement.  Under Armour came next.  This is what I wore during the 2007 Iron Butt Rally.  If I recall correctly, the couple of pair I own are part of the Heat Gear line.  They’re single layer garment that did a good job of preventing the binding of wet skin against suit lining and they helped in keeping me cooler and my skin a bit drier.  I’d probably still be using this today if it weren’t for all the glowing testimonials of LD Comfort gear from riders in the know.  Since trying Mario’s wonderful product the Under Armour hasn’t left the dresser drawer.

I’ll spare you my pathetic attempt at describing LD Comfort to you.  Mario has a series of videos and written description that does a much better job than I ever could.  Point your browser here to find out more.  I will share one lesser known secret, though.  In extreme heat, LD Comfort does a fair imitation of an evaporative cooling vest.  Soak the garment in water and ring it out.  Put the garment on and zip all of your riding suit vents closed.  Then just ride in cool comfort for a few hours.  I carry a one-gallon Ziplock bag on the bike expressly for this purpose.

Double vision

I discovered I needed glasses at the age of 17.  Every time I had my buddies in the car and I’d pull out to make a pass on a slower moving vehicle, they’d start screaming like they were gonna die.  Turns out I couldn’t see well; on-coming vehicles didn’t come into focus until they were a little too close for comfort.  I’ve used contact lens for most of my adult life to correct my distance vision, but as most of us on the north side of 40, in recent years I’ve needed correction for anything closer than an arm’s length to the ole eyeballs. Now I needed double vision correction.

Not wanting to go back to glasses and do the bi-focal thing, I started looking for options that would allow me to continue to wear contacts.  Radian Cheaters to the rescue.  Cheaters are safety glasses with a small magnification diopter molded into the plastic lens.  They allow me to see close for reading and viewing GPS screens and provide a good level of eye protection for those times I have my Multitec chin bar open.  Radian offers a variety of magnification strengths as well as a tinted lens version that serves as my sunglasses.  I’ve used these for years and are on my list of ‘must have’ equipment for motorcycle riding.  There will be a couple spares on the bike during the IBR: I don’t know how I’d compete without them.

Trial by food

If football is a game of inches, the IBR is a game of seconds.  Over the course of 11 days, wasted seconds become minutes which can become hours.  Anything done to save precious seconds can pay dividends later on.  In the 2007 IBR, I wasted a fair amount of time chasing down food.  This included at least three restaurant stops and time standing in line at various convenience stores.  This time around I’m considering eating only what I can carry on the bike and consume while riding.

This week I experimented with my IBR diet.  For 72 hours I ate nothing but what you see in the picture; trail mix, Clif Bars and one high-protein Ensure daily.   My total caloric intake each day was 1720 calories.  I ‘m happy to report there were no digestive tract emergencies and I never felt hungry.  I was however ready for a real meal on the evening of day three.  I got tired of the Clif Bars pretty quickly but looked forward to the trail mix every time (must have been the chocolate).  Still, I think this is entirely do-able for 11 days when supplemented by real food at each checkpoint and supplementing my stash with apples and bananas which should also be readily available between each leg.  I plan another, longer IBR experiment a couple of weeks.

Vision quest

Competing in the Iron Butt Rally isn’t all gut and glory. There’s a lot of thought and problem solving that goes into being able to ride a bike 11 days straight. What GPS model is best for me? What tire gives the best combination of mileage and traction? How much water must I drink to stay hydrated in any given weather condition? These are all important questions that must be answered. Here’s one you might not have thought of: how do you clean a motorcycle face shield while on the move? After all, cleaning your visor on side of the road or at a gas stop is just burning daylight. The photo before you shows two answers to that question. The first is a Nalgene pressurized spray bottle. The second are Windex Wipes. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Its questions like these that dedicated IBR-types lay in bed at night thinking about.

The Friendly Skies

Imagine you're on Highway 327 just out of Easterville, Manitoba. You've just gotten a photo of your bike in front of Griffin's Lucky Dollar Foods and are heading back to rally HQ in Pittsburgh. You're feeling pretty smug thinking that no other rider was brave enough to risk riding in this moose-infested country. Then you meet said moose...at 45 miles an hour. As Bullwinkle wanders off into the night you wonder...how do I get to the nearest hospital? MedJet, that's how. In 2009, the IBR began requiring riders to have medivac insurance. It's another one of the costs that goes along with participating in the world's toughest motorcycle event (obviously, someone has never heard of the Dakar Rally). I could have purchased just enough to cover the rally, but the cost wasn't much more for a years worth of coverage. While I was at it, I splurged and got the bike recovery option as well. There's some piece of mind in knowing that should the worst happen, both me and my bike will make it home.

Ones and zeros, faster.

In the 1990’s, endurance rally routing was done with paper maps. IBR lore has it that a king sized cigarette represents 200 miles on an AAA regional map. But times change. Today if you want to be competitive it takes some basic computer skills, the right software and some computing power. My five year old Dell Netbook just doesn’t have the power to run all the tools I need. The competition is stiff and I can use every advantage possible. The netbook will just wilt running Microsoft Streets and Trips and Excel while simultaneously surfing the Web for weather and road conditions or ferry schedules. Something more powerful was in order. The Acer you see in the photo fit the bill pretty well. The form factor is larger, but with an 11.7 inch screen it will still live a bike well. The big news is the power. This is a full power laptop, with a Core i5 processor and 6 gig of RAM. I’m still getting used to the larger keyboard, but I suspect it will earn it’s keep during the upcoming ride.

Shaking out the cobwebs

Did a little ride over the weekend to shake out the cobwebs and begin the process of getting into riding form. And if you think 500+ miles in under 10 hours is a long ride, let's put it into perspective:  I need repeat that performance about 22 times in a row to even finish the IBR.

https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=6333515658ee70436

The 90 Days of IBR

(photo by Steve Hobart) I've known for months I'd be riding the 2013 Iron Butt Rally. But a severe case of Seasonal Affective Disorder, or some such thing, hit me hard this last winter. I couldn't force myself to do much of anything other than go to work and take care of only the most critical tasks. Now I'm paying the price. There are only 91 days and a wake up until the start of the rally on July 1. Over the next 90 days I'll post daily with my rally preparations. I call it The 90 Days of the IBR. Some preps will be big and other small, but each on will get me a step closer to be ready. If you don't know what it takes to prep for the Superbowl of endurance rallies, well, you won't be able to say that three months from now.

Cortez, CO