What would the IBR be without a BMW final drive failure on Day 11? Sjef Vanderaa’s 2014 R1200GSA BMW has apparently suffered a final drive failure in NC on the way to the finish. Reportedly, the Ashville BMW dealer doesn’t have parts and told him he just needed to truck it home to Canada. WTH? Forward progress halted x2: Reef AsSadiq’s Indian Challenger apparently has a clutch problem and lost forward…
Winner of the 2023 Iron Butt Rally Poster Hey Lisa, Tulsa was awesome, but we need major weather events here… and here.Ian Crafar Honorable Mentions And he said unto them, “Go forth and rally.”Jess Tayloe And on the 8th day the Rallymaster said “Ride far, be smart, don’t take other riders’ forgotten flags, and stay away from gas station sushi.” Riders rallied. And it was good.Eric James Now… if we…
Bob Higdon is a former IBR scribe and the most entertaining writer I have known. In the forward to Ron Ayres 1997 book, Against the Wind, Bob attempts to answer a difficult question: Why do we ride the Iron Butt Rally? The following is an excerpt from what Bob wrote to answer that question: “The answer could be, in this most sublimely solitary of sports, ironically a question of companionship….
In addition to the daily reports which focus on the riders and rally, we are publishing “appetizers” and “out-takes” and “soup to nuts” during the rally, as time allows. Hopefully, these additional items on the information buffet reveal some of the behind-the-scenes happenings that don’t make it into the daily reports. Whether stories of hilarity within the staff, background info, historical perspective, exceptional volunteer efforts, or perhaps unforeseen “opportunities”, we…
The Marriott in Pittsburgh is enveloped this morning, not in fog, but smoke from the Canadian wildfires. While not as bad as the smoke in Missoula, Montana in 2013, the current smoke maps show red and purple ratings for this area. The fires are north of the Great Lakes, so the riders will not have active fires to ride through to get to the finish like the ’13 riders did….
The following updates are being relayed based on information drifting in from various sources. The information may or may not be entirely accurate, but we are posting the best information currently available to the rally staff. If it proves to be less than 100% accurate, hopefully it at least allows for some speculation… Lionel Ramos hit a huge pothole on I-80 west of Rock Springs in Wyoming. The front rim…
The riders weren’t as chatty on this 4th and final round of call-ins as they were in the previous ones, but the voice-to-text transcription algorithm still spit out plenty of silly messages. The time window for this call-in bonus closed at 2pm Eastern time today, with several riders having missed the time window though they are still moving. “Coal, fire, Brighter Number, 40,Beaumont, Texas.Last bonus was T X T L…
Write a great caption for this image and email it to IBR23CaptionContest@gmail.com along with your name and email address. Entries must be received by noon Eastern Time, Thursday June 29, 2023. The best caption will win an Iron Butt Rally 2023 poster. Winner must be able to receive their poster through USPS mail in the lower 48 US states or by picking it up at the rally hotel in Pittsburgh….
It’s that time in the rally. The days become longer, the finish farther away, the annoyances more pronounced, the suck more intense. Make no mistake, these are hard days for rallyists. And even harder nights. I think about this every time my phone rings at night and early morning hours. The voices all run together and have the same tone, the same ring to them. Fortunately most start with the…
Your scribe is posting a few words here in hopes of assisting folks who do not know much about what is really involved in riding 1000 miles a day for 11 days while routing on the fly and collecting bonuses in remote or high traffic locations. It is understandable that not many people on this planet would understand, because less than 650 people have ever completed the Iron Butt Rally. Our…