Well we just got done with dinner and the awards ceremony. I'm just going to copy and paste the whole field here and highlight a few of the people that might be of interest to local friends and family.
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1 Martin Leir, BMW R1200GSA, 12,460, 344,122
2 Jim Owen, BMW R1200RT, 11,137, 333,471
3 Brett Donahue, H-D XLH1200R, 11,283, 316,707
4 Jeff Earls, BMW K1200GT, 11,059, 309,681
5 Eric Jewell, BMW R1150RT, 10,873, 304,597
6 Tom Melchild, Yamaha FJR1300, 10,025, 299,729
7 Greg Marbach, Yamaha FJR1300, 10,323, 298,492
8 Michael Evans, Yamaha FJR1300, 10,921, 298,077
9 Alan Barbic, Yamaha FJR1300, 9,832, 294,561
10 Peter Leap, Honda ST1300, 10,910, 292,596
11 Jim Frens, Honda GL1800, 12,658, 288,910
12 John Tomasovitch, BMW K1200RS, 10,874, 285,875
13 Curt Gran, Honda ST1300, 11,090, 285,512
14 Vicki Johnston, BMW F650GS, 9,868, 284,724
15 Andrew Mills, Victory Vision, 10,552, 283,621
16 John Langan, Honda GL1800, 10,096, 279,770
17 Matt Watkins, Yamaha FJR1300, 9,857, 272,054
18 Paul Peloquin, Yamaha FJR1300, 10,001, 270,097
19 Gregg Burger, BMW R1150GSA, 10,626, 261,475
20 Brian Roberts, Suzuki DL1000, 9,758, 253,273
21 Dick Peek, Yamaha FJR1300, 10,531, 251,924
22 Michael Boge, BMW R1200RT, 8,924, 250,985
23 Reiner & Lisa Kappenberger, Honda GL1800, 9,849, 250,236
24 Carl Stark, Honda GL1800, 8,644, 246,335
25 Art Garvin, Honda GL1800, 8,826, 245,768
26 Mike Langford, BMW K1200LT, 9,349, 242,524
27 Rick Miller, Honda GL1800 9,026, 242,060
28 Vance Keeney, BMW K1200GT, 9,392, 239,863
29 Terry & Lynda Lahman, Honda GL1800, 9,397, 235,736
30 Jack B. Shoalmire, BMW R1200RT, 9,306, 235,156
31 Jim and Donna Phillips, Honda GL1800, 10,022, 233,202
32 Richard Buber, BMW R1150RT, 10,180, 228,077
33 Kendall J. Anderson, Suzuki DL1000, 9,522, 227,164
34 Tom Skemp, Honda GL1500, 8,669, 225,515
35 Kevin J. Healey, Triumph Trophy 1200, 9,407, 225,439
36 Jim Bain, BMW K1200LT, 8,899, 223,659
37 Steve Branner, BMW R1200RT, 9,723, 223,595
38 Rebecca Vaughn, BMW R1100RS, 9,998, 222,607
39 Jim Winterer, Suzuki DL650, 10,209, 219,488
40 Mike Senty, BMW BMW R1150RT, 10,121, 218,975
41 Bill Watt, Honda GL1800, 10,603, 217,078
42 Doug Bailey, BMW R1150GS, 10,353, 215,467
43 Paul Allison, Honda GL1800, 10,207, 214,733
44 Dennis Powell, Honda GL1800, 8,624, 213,250
45 Ken Morton, Honda GL1800, 10,271, 213,101
46 Tony DeLorenzo, BMW R1200GS-ADV, 8,521 208,659
47 Tom and Rosie Sperry, BMW K1200LT, 9,603 206,879
48 Charles “Tobie” Stevens, Yamaha FJR1300, 8,711 206,332
49 Lisa Stevens, Yamaha FJR1300, 8,719, 206,332
50 Don Catterton, BMW K1200GT, 10,218, 205,393
51 Bill Thweatt, Honda ST1300, 9,999, 205,319
52 Stephan Bolduc, Yamaha FJR1300, 9,897, 203,572
53 Chris Cimino, Kawasaki Concours 14, 7,915, 203,427
54 Karol Patzer, BMW K75C, 8,386, 201,741,
55 Rick Neeley, BMW R1200GSA, 9,354, 200,120
56 Peter Murray, BMW K1200LT, 10,255, 199,693
57 Bob Mueller, Suzuki DL1000, 10,272, 199,263
58 Richard Keegan, Honda GL1800, 8,906, 194,071
59 Fred Droegemueller, Honda GL1800, 10,124, 193,096
60 Dick Fish, Buell Ulysses, 9,900, 191,546
61 Joe DeRyke, Suzuki DL650, 10,095, 191,346
62 Rick Martin, Yamaha FJR1300, 9,595, 191,040
63 Robert & Sylvie Torter, BMW K1200GT, 9,318, 190,964
64 David Bourdeaux, Honda GL1800, 8,570, 187,222
65 Jim Simonet, BMW K1200LT, 10,987, 187,035
66 Chris McGaffin, Kawasaki Concours, 8,690, 176,784
67 Joel Rappoport, BMW R60/6, 8,885, 175,945
68 Bob Collin, BMW R1200RT, 9,050, 157,920
69 Jim Mulcahy, BMW K1200RS, 8,833, 150,023
70 Alexander Schmitt, Honda ST1100, 10,584, 148,232
71 Mark W. Collins, H-D Electra Glide, 7,869, 147,905
72 Maura Gatensby, Honda ST1300, 9,117, 147,868
DNF Glenn K. Pancoast, BMW R1200GSA, 8,981 173,779
DNF David Derrick, BMW R1100RT, 5,399, 112,249
DNF Chris Sakala, BMW R1150GS-ADV, 4,874, 108,861
DNF Mike Hutsal, BMW K1200GT, 4,501, 100,160
DNF Rob Nye, BMW R1200RTP, 4,492, 100,100
DNF Homer L. Krout, BMW R1200GS, 4,278, 83,758
DNF George Barnes, BMW K1200LT, 5,198, 79,131
DNF Gerhard Memmen-Krueger, BMW R1200GSA, 3,995, 77,872
DNF Doug Chapman, Yamaha FJR1300, 4,007, 76,026
DNF Norm Grills, BMW K1100LT, 3,852, 75,998
DNF Donald A. Jones, Honda GL1000, 3,475, 75,782
DNF Robert Joers, Honda GL1800, 3,758, 63,261
DNF Mike Getzendanner, Honda GL1500, 3,884, 60,489
DNF Steve Broadhead, Honda ST1300, 3,337, 60,123
DNF Alan Bennett, Kawasaki Ninja 250, 2,919, 53,225
DNF Arlen Brunsvold, Jr., H-D Road Glide, 4,202, 52,669
DNF Arlen Brunsvold, Sr., BMW R1200RT, 3,849, 51,155
DNF Don Kulwicki, Honda GL1800, 3,462, 50,691
DNF David Hinks, Yamaha FJR1300, 3,594, 45,903
DNF Hans Karlsson, Honda GL1800, 0, 0
DNF Don Wescott, BMW K1200GT, 0, 0
DNF Robert St.George, Yamaha FJR1300, 0, 0
DNF Charles “Chip” Hyde, Honda GL1800, 0, 0
DNF Bill Wade, BMW R1200RT, 0, 0
DNF Tom Loftus, Honda ST1300, 0, 0
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Now it's time to go down and celebrate..
WOOT!!!!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Shut Up and drive..
No I'm not talking about the Rihanna song. That's how I explained to Amy our goals for the last two days when we talked. Up until then I think we had done between 3,000 and 3,500 in all of leg2. Now, starting in Sacramento and ending up here at the hotel we had 2 days and 2000+ miles. Not a problem but unfortunately on the first day we were only able to cover just under 700 miles because of rain, wind, and some unforseen distractions in Nevada .
In order to cover the 1,300 miles we needed to cover we were up and on the road at 4:30am on Thursday from Salt Lake City and headed back to where Rally Central was. The roads were wide open, 70-75mph speed limits and so straight I could have taken a 6hr nap on I-80 across Nebraska.
When all was said and done we had reached Rally Central at 3:30am and even had a chance to sleep in a rest area and grab a few more bonus points as a cushion just in case we lost any points at the table (which I ALMOST did).
My priorities were a bit out of whack when we got back. You see, I checked in, got ready for scoring, took a nap, got scored, and then had a Guiness and Fat Tire. I probably should have had the beverages first ;-) ..
Now I'm going to nap since I'm falling asleep as I typethis, have the rider dinner, and then find out all the standings and listen to some great stories.
More to come later!!
Now I lay me down to sleep....
Well, neither one of us left any points on the table. Paperwork was up to snuff, and we both finished. This was so different from the other 3 rallies I rode. You could ride the wheels off and still not be a finisher if you didn't grab enough points. We both managed to do it, and I really enjoyed riding with Tony. He did well, and if he decides to ride another, I'll support him....but I'm NOT riding with him!! This is my official retirement along with the bike's. More news on the ride later. Now it's time to rest!!
Safe and Sound
Karol and Tony arrived safe and sound at the finish this morning around 3 AM. Both are doing well and completed their scoring this morning. Tony said that they will post more later once they shower, rest, and get a real meal.
It is good to have both of them back safe and in good spirits.
amy
It is good to have both of them back safe and in good spirits.
amy
Close to the finish
It is 1:20 AM and it looks like Tony and his mom have decided to keep riding through the night toward the finish. They are in Columbia, MO (about 1 hour and 40 minutes from the finish in Chesterfield, MO).
I am wide awake in Chesterfield and getting very excited to surprise Tony at the finish. I am so happy that Tony and his mom have used Accutracking so all of us have felt like we have been part of their journey.
In about 3 hours we will hopefully be hearing from the scoring table letting us know that Tony is a "finisher" of his first IBR and that Karol is a 4 time "finisher". In order to be considered a finisher they must acquire a certain number of bonus points along the way.
Welcome home Tony and Karol.
I am so proud of both of you.
Amy
I am wide awake in Chesterfield and getting very excited to surprise Tony at the finish. I am so happy that Tony and his mom have used Accutracking so all of us have felt like we have been part of their journey.
In about 3 hours we will hopefully be hearing from the scoring table letting us know that Tony is a "finisher" of his first IBR and that Karol is a 4 time "finisher". In order to be considered a finisher they must acquire a certain number of bonus points along the way.
Welcome home Tony and Karol.
I am so proud of both of you.
Amy
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Math is Hard..
First off, thanks for all the cool comments from everyone. Amy's been reading them to me as they come in.
If you haven't been reading the official IBA updates you should take a look at them. They have all kinds of cool and fun information. Yesterdays update had some info about the one bonus I went to.
"Several riders commented on what a nice ride it was to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Rebecca Vaughn referred to it as "A pretty hellish little road." (The fact that it was 18,567 points should have been a clue.) Curt Gran had an especially nice ride up and down the mountain. He had a flat tire on the way up and dropped his bike on the way back down.
Mike Hutsal reported that the road to Bristlecone shook the windshield off his K1200GT. That's my old bike, the same one I used to scout the Bristlecone bonus in 2003; the windshield fell off before I got to the top. That's the road that convinced me to buy a GS for scouting Iron Butt Rally bonuses.
Brett Donahue found an even worse road to get back from Bristlecone. He let "Betty the Bitch" from his Garmin GPS route him down a goat trail called Silver Canyon Road. Brett knew he was in trouble when he got to the sign that said, "Four Wheel Drive Recommended After This Point." Six stream crossings later, he finally got back to pavement. "
That made me feel better knowing that it wasn't just me that wasn't too crazy about the road.
The last couple nights it's been hard to add up where we are in the points. Math is hard when you are tired and both of us have been coming up with different numbers every time. Hell, today one of the numbers I came up with was DOUBLE what we needed to finish.
I was happy to see that our hard charging two days had given up positive progress. As of now we have enough points to be considered finishers. That means it's time to try and better our position.
We're heading East again as soon as the sun comes up and we grab a daylight bonus here in Sacramento. We've got two days to get back to St. Louis and the route we have planned will hopefully grab us a few more points. Right now the priority is getting back and doing it before they start deduting points.
Ride on!!
If you haven't been reading the official IBA updates you should take a look at them. They have all kinds of cool and fun information. Yesterdays update had some info about the one bonus I went to.
"Several riders commented on what a nice ride it was to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Rebecca Vaughn referred to it as "A pretty hellish little road." (The fact that it was 18,567 points should have been a clue.) Curt Gran had an especially nice ride up and down the mountain. He had a flat tire on the way up and dropped his bike on the way back down.
Mike Hutsal reported that the road to Bristlecone shook the windshield off his K1200GT. That's my old bike, the same one I used to scout the Bristlecone bonus in 2003; the windshield fell off before I got to the top. That's the road that convinced me to buy a GS for scouting Iron Butt Rally bonuses.
Brett Donahue found an even worse road to get back from Bristlecone. He let "Betty the Bitch" from his Garmin GPS route him down a goat trail called Silver Canyon Road. Brett knew he was in trouble when he got to the sign that said, "Four Wheel Drive Recommended After This Point." Six stream crossings later, he finally got back to pavement. "
That made me feel better knowing that it wasn't just me that wasn't too crazy about the road.
The last couple nights it's been hard to add up where we are in the points. Math is hard when you are tired and both of us have been coming up with different numbers every time. Hell, today one of the numbers I came up with was DOUBLE what we needed to finish.
I was happy to see that our hard charging two days had given up positive progress. As of now we have enough points to be considered finishers. That means it's time to try and better our position.
We're heading East again as soon as the sun comes up and we grab a daylight bonus here in Sacramento. We've got two days to get back to St. Louis and the route we have planned will hopefully grab us a few more points. Right now the priority is getting back and doing it before they start deduting points.
Ride on!!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Rice-a-Roni
Tony just checked in with me.
Not much to report today. they went to the observatory on a fun and twisty road. Alot of riders were there because the point value was 24, 000 for this bonus. Then they headed to Livermore to a firehouse to get a picture of the Longest Continuously Burning Lightbulb ( http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php?tip_AttractionNo==174 ). Tony and his mom had to wait for a length of time at this bonus because the fire station was out on a call for a main gas line break. From there they headed into San Francisco for multiple bonus locations. With all of the stopping and going on hills Tony doesn't think that his clutch will ever be the same. Things were going good because the GPS said to turn down a good street.
Not much to report today. they went to the observatory on a fun and twisty road. Alot of riders were there because the point value was 24, 000 for this bonus. Then they headed to Livermore to a firehouse to get a picture of the Longest Continuously Burning Lightbulb ( http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php?tip_AttractionNo==174 ). Tony and his mom had to wait for a length of time at this bonus because the fire station was out on a call for a main gas line break. From there they headed into San Francisco for multiple bonus locations. With all of the stopping and going on hills Tony doesn't think that his clutch will ever be the same. Things were going good because the GPS said to turn down a good street.
Not much else to report now other than they are heading back to the firehouse. That is a story left for Karol to tell.
Tonight they are not going for anymore bonuses due to daylight restrictions. they will head out early in the morning to hit some of those daylight locations.
More to follow.
amy
Monday, August 27, 2007
News from Tony:
Tony was very discouraged because after crunching their points he realized that they may not have enough points to be considered a "finisher". So, last night they sat up, when they should have been sleeping to try and come up with a plan to get additional bonus points. They came up with a rough idea, but are still worried. Today was a very busy day as they tried to grab some of the larger points in Death Valley and Yosemite.
Karol was a trooper because as much as she hates heat they decided Death Valley was a must for the points. At noon, the temperature was 115 degrees, but the sign at the bonus location said "It's a dry heat" which didn't make it any better.
Karol and Tony split up so tony could grab some points on a mountain pass that was unmaintained and they were warned about the conditions. He went there with another rider that they had met along the way, but that rider turned around because the path was so bad. Tony was nervous when his fuel light went on. by the time that he got down the mountain his gauge read empty and he put 9.8 gallons into his 8.7 gallon tank.
Tony is now heading over to Yosemite to meet up with Karol at another bonus location. From there, they will drive until they can take their 6 hour sleep bonus starting as early as 12:01 AM on Tuesday. After their sleep bonus they will be headed to Lick Observatory in San Jose.
More updates later on.
amy
Tony was very discouraged because after crunching their points he realized that they may not have enough points to be considered a "finisher". So, last night they sat up, when they should have been sleeping to try and come up with a plan to get additional bonus points. They came up with a rough idea, but are still worried. Today was a very busy day as they tried to grab some of the larger points in Death Valley and Yosemite.
Karol was a trooper because as much as she hates heat they decided Death Valley was a must for the points. At noon, the temperature was 115 degrees, but the sign at the bonus location said "It's a dry heat" which didn't make it any better.
Karol and Tony split up so tony could grab some points on a mountain pass that was unmaintained and they were warned about the conditions. He went there with another rider that they had met along the way, but that rider turned around because the path was so bad. Tony was nervous when his fuel light went on. by the time that he got down the mountain his gauge read empty and he put 9.8 gallons into his 8.7 gallon tank.
Tony is now heading over to Yosemite to meet up with Karol at another bonus location. From there, they will drive until they can take their 6 hour sleep bonus starting as early as 12:01 AM on Tuesday. After their sleep bonus they will be headed to Lick Observatory in San Jose.
More updates later on.
amy
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Pull out the heated gear
I Can't believe I'm doing that. After sweltering temps most of the time, we're now at 4500 feet, and heading for Independence Pass early in the AM. First a stop at o'dark thirty in Idaho Falls. Today was pretty much book west! We did stop at the Wizard of Oz Museum, and I will earn life credits for buying Lisa a Wicked Witch of the West trinket. We've been playing hopscotch with RV and Curt, and should have followed them off I-70 instead of following the instructions. We got off one exit later and got stopped by a train. Only 4 cars left, and they decided to stop to connect more cars. Time for a "u" turn, and through town to the Hole in the Wall, boogying to beat sunset. Lots of other bikes there, and I'll get the slowest time for traveling the dirt road. (6 miles, Mike....not 4......one-way) Actually not a bad road, but I'm a woos (sp). Tony left me to make sure he got there before sunset, but that's cool. (he came back). Lots of miles to cover in the next few days. So.....cio for now! (PS No Rain today!!!)
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Off to the Left Coast
I just got off the phone with Tony and here is a ride update.
Like everybody expected the second leg is heading west. They are heading to California via Kansas (holy flat and straight state BATMAN). As I write this they are still in Kansas TOTO and just got done visiting the Wizard of Oz Museum/Gift Shop. They are making a mad dash to a hole in the wall for a bonus that they can only receive during daylight hours.
When they left the Oz museum the GPS said sunset was at 8:08 PM and they would arrive at 8:16 PM. Somehow the directionally challenged Tony remembered that the sun set in the West and figured that sunset would get later the closer that they got. Right now, sunset is at 8:19 PM and they should arrive at 8:11 PM according to the GPS. The tricky part will be that this bonus is down a 6 mile gravel road. They had just stopped for gas because they would be cutting it close by the time that they arrived at the bonus and Tony wanted to burn off a few gallons to lighten the load before they face the gravel road. This gas stop was the fastest that they have made during the whole rally at 3 minutes.
The temperature was in the mid to high 80's today with low humidity, so it was alot more comfortable to ride. Tony is also very happy that he is able to listen to his "angry music" (hard rock), which makes his ride much easier. The XM radio is still cutting out, but for now he still is able to listen to it.
That is it for now.
Amy
Like everybody expected the second leg is heading west. They are heading to California via Kansas (holy flat and straight state BATMAN). As I write this they are still in Kansas TOTO and just got done visiting the Wizard of Oz Museum/Gift Shop. They are making a mad dash to a hole in the wall for a bonus that they can only receive during daylight hours.
When they left the Oz museum the GPS said sunset was at 8:08 PM and they would arrive at 8:16 PM. Somehow the directionally challenged Tony remembered that the sun set in the West and figured that sunset would get later the closer that they got. Right now, sunset is at 8:19 PM and they should arrive at 8:11 PM according to the GPS. The tricky part will be that this bonus is down a 6 mile gravel road. They had just stopped for gas because they would be cutting it close by the time that they arrived at the bonus and Tony wanted to burn off a few gallons to lighten the load before they face the gravel road. This gas stop was the fastest that they have made during the whole rally at 3 minutes.
The temperature was in the mid to high 80's today with low humidity, so it was alot more comfortable to ride. Tony is also very happy that he is able to listen to his "angry music" (hard rock), which makes his ride much easier. The XM radio is still cutting out, but for now he still is able to listen to it.
That is it for now.
Amy
Friday, August 24, 2007
Now that that's done.
Hey guess what, yea we got rained on again. In talking to other riders the weather has really taken a lot out of people. On our way here from Kansas city the weather went from 90' and sunny to 70' and a downpour in about 10miles.Well we are in, scored and packing for the second leg. Both of us shipped a box here with a change of clothes and more food. It's a good thing too because my current stuff is wet and staaanky. By the time I get home I'll be SOOOO ready to enjoy something other than Cliff Bars, Almonds, and tuna at night. I will however have to talk to my boss because I'm getting really comfortable wearing bicycle shorts every day. Maybe I can get them classified as "Corporate Casual"
It's amazing how fast thing change. Wednesday I was dissapointed because when I added our points up we were going to be about 4,500 below where I wanted to be going onto the second leg. Today we grabbed the second of the two bonus location that we had intended on dropping (this time management stuff is next to impossible
Luckily both of us walked away from the scoring table without leaving any points on it. What that means is we went to the scoring table with X-number of points documented and we walked away with X given to us. You get points taken away for things like not having an odometer number on your points sheet, having a bad picture, losing a receipt (you get the idea).
Right now the bikes are prepped and waiting for whatever comes next. Mine had a new rear tire put on it and the oil changed and Karol's had the oil changed and her broken mount fixed (thanks to Ryan Manley). Actually my rear tire is still in great shape but I don't know what the next leg will bring so I'll be carting the one they just took off back home with me.
We have to be down at a riders meeting at 4am where they will give us our packets for the next leg and go over any rule changes or notes. After that everyone will make a mad dash to their rooms, flip on the Do Not Disturb signs, and star planning. I'm guessing housekeeping isn't going to be happy about 100 rooms with DND signs on the doors until 9 or 10.
I don't know if I updated the fact that the EASY button is now working but unfortunately my XM radio is still dead. Evidently when Garmin says that the GPS is waterproof they don't include the connectors. Right now mine is very corroded and I'm guessing it's just a contact thing but after cleaning it twice already I'm not getting any farther.
Time to get back to prep and get some shut eye before the wakeup call comes in. Tomorrow could be a very long day.
Leg 1 is complete
Tony and Karol-
Congrats on completing the first leg of the IBR 2007. I can't wait to see how your scoring goes and to read your upcoming posts.
Get some well needed sleep tonight and plan strategically for leg 2.
I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed for better weather during leg 2.
Keep up the great work.
amy
Congrats on completing the first leg of the IBR 2007. I can't wait to see how your scoring goes and to read your upcoming posts.
Get some well needed sleep tonight and plan strategically for leg 2.
I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed for better weather during leg 2.
Keep up the great work.
amy
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Iron Butt....maybe.....but everything else is falling apart!
Equipment malfunctions!!! In our 2 days of rain, the GPS 2610 got so wet, the screen de-laminated. No problem, after it dried, it flaked away. Now it's extremely difficult to select things on the screen. The old GPS worked fine until today, when the ball broke on the mount. Technical difficulties. Between the heat and the rain, it's tough on bodies and machines. (Tony's holding up great! I'm not handling the 104 degree temps well, especially when sitting in traffic on interstates!
News tonight from Bentonville, AR (the bonus we were going to scrap, but didn't). As Amy reported we set up in Memphis this morning, and decided to forestall the Fayetteville, AR and Wal-Mart Visitor Center (we all know how Tony feels about Wal-Mart) :^) We picked up Superman and Paducah for more points. After heading to Mammoth Springs, we realized that we had a good chance of gettting the Fayetteville (razorback mascot) after all. According to the rules we had 1 hr after sunset. Sun Set at 7:54 PM, and we could make it in at 8:04. Piece of cake.......couldn't find the correct parking lot or Big Red. Heat makes me grouchy, which means I've been VERY grouchy. Tony's trying to be patient. Anyhow after numerous stops and asking students that had no clue, we finally found the statue hidden in a litte park on the Univ of AR campus. Took the pic, and dashed over to the gas station with minutes to spare (Phew!) So looks like we're going for the scrapped bonii after all.
I think the next leg I'll go to Alaska. Maybe it's cool there!!! Cio for now....wish us luck tomorrow.
News tonight from Bentonville, AR (the bonus we were going to scrap, but didn't). As Amy reported we set up in Memphis this morning, and decided to forestall the Fayetteville, AR and Wal-Mart Visitor Center (we all know how Tony feels about Wal-Mart) :^) We picked up Superman and Paducah for more points. After heading to Mammoth Springs, we realized that we had a good chance of gettting the Fayetteville (razorback mascot) after all. According to the rules we had 1 hr after sunset. Sun Set at 7:54 PM, and we could make it in at 8:04. Piece of cake.......couldn't find the correct parking lot or Big Red. Heat makes me grouchy, which means I've been VERY grouchy. Tony's trying to be patient. Anyhow after numerous stops and asking students that had no clue, we finally found the statue hidden in a litte park on the Univ of AR campus. Took the pic, and dashed over to the gas station with minutes to spare (Phew!) So looks like we're going for the scrapped bonii after all.
I think the next leg I'll go to Alaska. Maybe it's cool there!!! Cio for now....wish us luck tomorrow.
Time for adjustments
News from Tony on Thursday AM...
Yesterday they hit all of the big bonuses down south in the triple degree heat and humidity. After leaving New Orleans they stopped to re-group and re-evaluate their route and realized that they were not as well off on points as they thought. They realized that dropping the York, PA bonuses put them behind where they wanted to be in points at the end of the first leg (ends on Friday at 7 PM back in St. Louis). The majority of the bonuses left were daylight only or time windows and that was going to make it more difficult to get them.
At this point they were looking at where they could go at night to stage themselves for those bonuses. they have decided to do Memphis, head to southern IL, then zig through Missouri to Kansas and then back to St. Louis for the checkpoint.
It looks like a lot of zig zagging, but it was the best that they could come up with for the remainder of the leg.
Amy
Yesterday they hit all of the big bonuses down south in the triple degree heat and humidity. After leaving New Orleans they stopped to re-group and re-evaluate their route and realized that they were not as well off on points as they thought. They realized that dropping the York, PA bonuses put them behind where they wanted to be in points at the end of the first leg (ends on Friday at 7 PM back in St. Louis). The majority of the bonuses left were daylight only or time windows and that was going to make it more difficult to get them.
At this point they were looking at where they could go at night to stage themselves for those bonuses. they have decided to do Memphis, head to southern IL, then zig through Missouri to Kansas and then back to St. Louis for the checkpoint.
It looks like a lot of zig zagging, but it was the best that they could come up with for the remainder of the leg.
Amy
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
If days had colors
Well, in for our sleep bonus and after having a grand meal of tuna and crackers I figured I'd post quickly here so you had more distractions. Maybe I'll send Alton some of our meals for his next installment of Feasting on Asphalt ;-)
If days had colors Monday and Tuesday would be the colors Yellow, Orange and Red. If you watch your evening news you know that's not going to be fun to ride in. The picture on the right is from this morning. You can see the faint purple line that takes a hard right at the front. That line is our route AFTER we scrapped the more eastern bonus point. Unfortunately our attempt to stay dry was wasted as we hit more storms.
The bonus points today took us to some fascinating spots like the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. The spot we had to be at to take our photo was a real pain in the you know what to find but with a little help from the local park ranger we twisted and wound down to the site of the original bridge and got a different perspective of something that hundreds of people a day probably take for granted.
Another spot we hit today was a railroad depot house in Cass WV. On the way there we ran into some other riders that had the same agenda when it came to getting points. At one point we were all held for what seemed like an eternity by the flag person on a road construction site. During that time we all shut our bikes off but when it came time to move on one of the bikes wouldn't start. It appeared as if his starter switch had gone south on him so we did what any competitor would do, we left him stranded by the roadside while the rest of us got the points.
OK, we really didn't do that. We all jumped off our bikes and after a few tries got his bike bump started. The next few stops he left the bike running but I hope he finds a way to resolve the problem. You really don't want to go 10days pushing a fully loaded bike with 11.5 gallons of gas around every time you start it.
On a sad note, the Easy button has seen better days. It's still with us in body but not in spirit. After the storms on Monday it no longer reassures me "That was easy" when I get into a bind. I shouldn't be surprised though since better gadgets like my XM Radio and V1 radar detector all went a little haywire after so much time in the rain.
Wed. looks good on paper, too good actually to be true. Lower miles, high points which usually translates into difficult access.
Time to sleep and see what another day of riding brings us.
If days had colors Monday and Tuesday would be the colors Yellow, Orange and Red. If you watch your evening news you know that's not going to be fun to ride in. The picture on the right is from this morning. You can see the faint purple line that takes a hard right at the front. That line is our route AFTER we scrapped the more eastern bonus point. Unfortunately our attempt to stay dry was wasted as we hit more storms.
The bonus points today took us to some fascinating spots like the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia. The spot we had to be at to take our photo was a real pain in the you know what to find but with a little help from the local park ranger we twisted and wound down to the site of the original bridge and got a different perspective of something that hundreds of people a day probably take for granted.Another spot we hit today was a railroad depot house in Cass WV. On the way there we ran into some other riders that had the same agenda when it came to getting points. At one point we were all held for what seemed like an eternity by the flag person on a road construction site. During that time we all shut our bikes off but when it came time to move on one of the bikes wouldn't start. It appeared as if his starter switch had gone south on him so we did what any competitor would do, we left him stranded by the roadside while the rest of us got the points.
OK, we really didn't do that. We all jumped off our bikes and after a few tries got his bike bump started. The next few stops he left the bike running but I hope he finds a way to resolve the problem. You really don't want to go 10days pushing a fully loaded bike with 11.5 gallons of gas around every time you start it.
On a sad note, the Easy button has seen better days. It's still with us in body but not in spirit. After the storms on Monday it no longer reassures me "That was easy" when I get into a bind. I shouldn't be surprised though since better gadgets like my XM Radio and V1 radar detector all went a little haywire after so much time in the rain.
Wed. looks good on paper, too good actually to be true. Lower miles, high points which usually translates into difficult access.
Time to sleep and see what another day of riding brings us.
News from the "prunes"
Don't know if we'll ever be dry. After a stormy, wet Monday, Tuesday was no better. We chucked the rest of the Eastern bonii to head south. The Cass Scenic RR was really neat, and the road (old Route 66) was a joy of twists and turns. A welcome change from freeway. Then we headed for the New River Gorge Bridge for big points. Interesting twist....take a picture of the new bridge from down below on the old one. Don't know if I trust these bridges.
As we were in the mountains in the Monongahela Nat'l Forrest and finally dry....gues what.?? Rain again with high winds and branches blowing across the highway.
We're in Birmingham for our sleep bonus...so that's what I'm going to do. Lots of bonuses tomorrow in AL, MS and LA.
More later.
As we were in the mountains in the Monongahela Nat'l Forrest and finally dry....gues what.?? Rain again with high winds and branches blowing across the highway.
We're in Birmingham for our sleep bonus...so that's what I'm going to do. Lots of bonuses tomorrow in AL, MS and LA.
More later.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Fun in the Rain
I wanted to give a quick update on Tony and Karol's ride.
they started on Monday morning at 10 AM from St. Louis and decided that the best route to travel would be northeast. Hoping that they wouldn't get caught in the storms. Well, let me just say that they got soaked, but Tony was still having fun. Almost the entire ride from 10 AM until 1 AM on Tuesday morning was in the rain. The Aerostitch suits couldn't hold up to the weather conditions so both were soaked. Tony loves his new Oxstar boots because they kept his feet nice and dry. Tony had to stop wearing gloves because his hands were pruny and the material was hurting his hands.
The weather slowed them up and they had to opt out of a bonus location in order to make it to the BBQ place by midnight (time limited bonus location). After this bonus they decided to head to a hotel for some shut eye. They got in about 1 or 1:30 AM (EST) and set the screaming meanie for 4:30 AM to continue their trek to York, PA. Well, they got a slow start this morning because they decided to change their route and head south instead of PA (bad weather predicted).
After hitting some bonus locations along the way they decided to change their route again. Instead of going to Atlanta they are on their way to Birmingham, AL. Once they get to Birmingham (around midnight EST) they will find a hotel and take advantage of a 6 hour sleep bonus.
I have talked to Tony multiple times during the day and he is in good spirits and having fun. He was able to ride in the mountains for the first time today and got to travel through some mountain tunnels.
This is going to be a wonderful adventure for Tony and it is truly an honor to be able to participate with his mom. Keep up the great ride and continue to have fun.
Ride Hard and Ride Safe.
Amy
they started on Monday morning at 10 AM from St. Louis and decided that the best route to travel would be northeast. Hoping that they wouldn't get caught in the storms. Well, let me just say that they got soaked, but Tony was still having fun. Almost the entire ride from 10 AM until 1 AM on Tuesday morning was in the rain. The Aerostitch suits couldn't hold up to the weather conditions so both were soaked. Tony loves his new Oxstar boots because they kept his feet nice and dry. Tony had to stop wearing gloves because his hands were pruny and the material was hurting his hands.
The weather slowed them up and they had to opt out of a bonus location in order to make it to the BBQ place by midnight (time limited bonus location). After this bonus they decided to head to a hotel for some shut eye. They got in about 1 or 1:30 AM (EST) and set the screaming meanie for 4:30 AM to continue their trek to York, PA. Well, they got a slow start this morning because they decided to change their route and head south instead of PA (bad weather predicted).
After hitting some bonus locations along the way they decided to change their route again. Instead of going to Atlanta they are on their way to Birmingham, AL. Once they get to Birmingham (around midnight EST) they will find a hotel and take advantage of a 6 hour sleep bonus.
I have talked to Tony multiple times during the day and he is in good spirits and having fun. He was able to ride in the mountains for the first time today and got to travel through some mountain tunnels.
This is going to be a wonderful adventure for Tony and it is truly an honor to be able to participate with his mom. Keep up the great ride and continue to have fun.
Ride Hard and Ride Safe.
Amy
Monday, August 20, 2007
They weren't joking
Today at the dinner we were given the rally packets and our flags. Of course it was a mad dash for the rooms so the planning could begin.
The rally packet has 38 pages with over 125 bonus locations to try and absorb and decipher the best route. We both took a look at the weather and tried to decide between heat, flooding, and possible hurricane influenced weather and when it came down to it we were both looking at similar routes.
What does that mean for this first leg? Well it means that we decided to ride together on this leg. Canada is out of the picture so it's good old USA for the next 5 days.
But now it's time to sleep.
The rally packet has 38 pages with over 125 bonus locations to try and absorb and decipher the best route. We both took a look at the weather and tried to decide between heat, flooding, and possible hurricane influenced weather and when it came down to it we were both looking at similar routes.
What does that mean for this first leg? Well it means that we decided to ride together on this leg. Canada is out of the picture so it's good old USA for the next 5 days.
But now it's time to sleep.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Hurry up and Wait
Today has been pretty relaxing since all of the preliminary work was done yesterday. For me it's been a day of walking around and talking with other riders, looking at their setups, and re-thinking part of my own setup. Yea, I know rule #5 says not to make any changes right before a rally but nobody ever defined "Right Before"
I wasn't crazy about the idea of carrying my Camelback over my shoulders for 11 days. This gets tiring and is a real headache when it comes time to refill it. Yesterday while shopping at REI Amy and I had an idea on getting a smaller bladder and cooler to work with my tail pack so today it was time to see if it would work.
After doing a rough fitting it looked like this would be a MUCH better plan than the initial one so we took to disassembling the old one, fitting and routing the hoses, and finishing up with the new and improved hydration system. Granted, I'm accustomed to 100oz so it will take a little time to get used to half as much water but I think in the long run I'll be in a better position not having to wear one over my shoulder.
Now we just sit around and wait for the riders meeting to start at 2:30 which will be followed by the starting banquet at 5:00.
I wasn't crazy about the idea of carrying my Camelback over my shoulders for 11 days. This gets tiring and is a real headache when it comes time to refill it. Yesterday while shopping at REI Amy and I had an idea on getting a smaller bladder and cooler to work with my tail pack so today it was time to see if it would work.
After doing a rough fitting it looked like this would be a MUCH better plan than the initial one so we took to disassembling the old one, fitting and routing the hoses, and finishing up with the new and improved hydration system. Granted, I'm accustomed to 100oz so it will take a little time to get used to half as much water but I think in the long run I'll be in a better position not having to wear one over my shoulder.Now we just sit around and wait for the riders meeting to start at 2:30 which will be followed by the starting banquet at 5:00.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
One down.....One to go
Well, we made it through tech inspection, the odometer check (twice for some). Warchild was on the warpath, and tech was not easy for some of us. I think he like to stir up the veterans, and especially the Team Strange crew. He also seems to have it in for BMW riders. Yes, sir....Mr Warchild....sir!!! :^)
Hope the day isn't an indication of things to come!
Video interview done, move from one room to the next, and get the final thumbs up from the "board room". Good to Go!!
Tony made it look Easy, and will keep reminding himself throughout the ride, That this was "easy"
Dinner was courtesy of the BMW MOA with signs indicating the BMW MOA members go the distance. From the looks of the parking lot there will be many Beemer riders going the distance for the next 11 days. Ray Z, Vince, MOA Staffers, and directors were on hand to cheer on the riders heading out on Monday. The Nye Spaceship passed tech with .5 Gal to spare!!!
The room's now quiet, and I think I'll join the smart ones who are fast asleep.
Tomorrow will be another day full of surpises.
The nerves are getting better
Today was a rough day for me. I HATE not being in control of my destiny and that's exactly what today was. With tech and ODO check on the schedule you hope like hell that all of your planning, calculating, and triple checking were good. Did I bring the right paperwork, did I read the rules for insurance requirements correctly, did I cover all my bases?
This day is about hoping that everything is right and that the tech inspectors will pass everything you have done and that all of your paperwork was correct. Tech for me went fairly quickly since I didn't have any extra fuel cells for capacity. I did the filler neck mod on my GS and from a bone dry tank I could get over 10 Gallons in my stock tank so I decided to not compilcate the situation any more by adding a cell.
After the tech and ODO check I went up to Warchild for his
blessing to move on to the next step. As luck would have it, instead I got a "Go get the guy that did your tech and the two of you come back here".
Right there I got a big knot in my stomach and I went and got the tech and returned to Warchild with my nerves a mess. It turns out it was just a matter of him putting some initials in some blanks to verify he checked them so it was back to the bike for another look.
Everything checked out and here is Warchild putting his approval sticker on my paperwork. From there it was off to legal for video statements, video interviews, review of paperwork, more review of paperwork, and finally a handshake with Mike Kneebone as he welcomed me to the 2007 IronButt Rally.
When all was said and done the check in process took a whopping 4 1/2 hours long but I was done and could breathe a lot easier.
This day is about hoping that everything is right and that the tech inspectors will pass everything you have done and that all of your paperwork was correct. Tech for me went fairly quickly since I didn't have any extra fuel cells for capacity. I did the filler neck mod on my GS and from a bone dry tank I could get over 10 Gallons in my stock tank so I decided to not compilcate the situation any more by adding a cell.
After the tech and ODO check I went up to Warchild for his
blessing to move on to the next step. As luck would have it, instead I got a "Go get the guy that did your tech and the two of you come back here".Right there I got a big knot in my stomach and I went and got the tech and returned to Warchild with my nerves a mess. It turns out it was just a matter of him putting some initials in some blanks to verify he checked them so it was back to the bike for another look.
Everything checked out and here is Warchild putting his approval sticker on my paperwork. From there it was off to legal for video statements, video interviews, review of paperwork, more review of paperwork, and finally a handshake with Mike Kneebone as he welcomed me to the 2007 IronButt Rally.
When all was said and done the check in process took a whopping 4 1/2 hours long but I was done and could breathe a lot easier.
Friday, August 17, 2007
Hurry, and Wait!!!
We're here in St. Louis safe and sound. Tony got here about 2:00 and I arrived at 7:30. Seems I just got the bike packed (at the last minute stuffing things in every nook and cranny never to be found again).....and now I'm unpacking to take things into the room.
Now we play the waiting game. Tomorrow morning is Tech inspection, Odometer check and rally check-in. Warchild will give us the thumbs up (or down) on the bike, we'll go off to see how accurate (or inaccurate) our odometers are, and then go through the check-in process.
The parking lot is filling quickly, and tomorrow will be a busy day.
The temperature's dropping to 90 degrees and riders may be sweating from heat and/or tension!
Now we play the waiting game. Tomorrow morning is Tech inspection, Odometer check and rally check-in. Warchild will give us the thumbs up (or down) on the bike, we'll go off to see how accurate (or inaccurate) our odometers are, and then go through the check-in process.
The parking lot is filling quickly, and tomorrow will be a busy day.
The temperature's dropping to 90 degrees and riders may be sweating from heat and/or tension!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Back to the world of electronics
Now I now why I don't like electronic devices. Tony knows me well, and often suggests I not get something, because it will frustrate me. (He's right!!!!)
After the third compact flash card, the GPS now can find it's maps!!
I think I'll be sure to have the paper ones........just in case!
Karol (Mom) :^)
After the third compact flash card, the GPS now can find it's maps!!
I think I'll be sure to have the paper ones........just in case!
Karol (Mom) :^)
Let's see....where are the maps????
Well, I did it 3 times before with maps and no GPS....maybe I should take the MNLDriders advice and go.....unplugged!
The refub GPS arrived Monday (yeah!) Ran to Micro Center and bought a 2Gig card and I'm ready to load. After a couple of hours of indexing the maps, and then transferring the maps it stops and advises it can't load the maps to the "device". Now the GPS has an error reading on it that tells me "Map reading Error-Bad format". Hmmmm. What does that mean? Call my GPS supplier, and they don't know and ask me to call Garmin. Time to buy a different card. Back to MC and this time a different manufacturers card. Same thing. On to Garmin support! While on hold, (it seems to be a standard 30 Minutes hold time.) I check the manual, and it lists possible errors. This is one of them, the answer......return unit! Ugh!
Finally get a very nice Garmin support guy (and he advises me to reformat. What...no card slot on the laptop....back to MicroCenter for them to tell me it's fine.
Reconvened at home and checked the card.....not formatted. O.K. do as the nice Garmin guy said and reformat in FAT 32.
Start from scratch and download the maps again. Cool....it tells me it was successful. Not!!! Can't access the maps. Gave up at midnight and off to get the much needed rest. Tomorrow's another day. I just keep telling myself....maps work, they don't have to be uploaded, downloaded, indexed or rebooted.
The refub GPS arrived Monday (yeah!) Ran to Micro Center and bought a 2Gig card and I'm ready to load. After a couple of hours of indexing the maps, and then transferring the maps it stops and advises it can't load the maps to the "device". Now the GPS has an error reading on it that tells me "Map reading Error-Bad format". Hmmmm. What does that mean? Call my GPS supplier, and they don't know and ask me to call Garmin. Time to buy a different card. Back to MC and this time a different manufacturers card. Same thing. On to Garmin support! While on hold, (it seems to be a standard 30 Minutes hold time.) I check the manual, and it lists possible errors. This is one of them, the answer......return unit! Ugh!
Finally get a very nice Garmin support guy (and he advises me to reformat. What...no card slot on the laptop....back to MicroCenter for them to tell me it's fine.
Reconvened at home and checked the card.....not formatted. O.K. do as the nice Garmin guy said and reformat in FAT 32.
Start from scratch and download the maps again. Cool....it tells me it was successful. Not!!! Can't access the maps. Gave up at midnight and off to get the much needed rest. Tomorrow's another day. I just keep telling myself....maps work, they don't have to be uploaded, downloaded, indexed or rebooted.
Monday, August 13, 2007
That's all I can stand, I can't stands no more!
For the past couple weeks I've been working on getting my AutoCom system to work properly. I've got tolerable volume from the XM Radio and GPS but am not able to hear the phone prompts and the volume through the speakers during phone conversations is very poor.
I've adjusted, re-adjusted, and re-re-adjusted the standard speakers, tried 3 different phones, and been on the phone with AutoCom a few times to try and end my nightmare.
At this point in the game I'm out of time and don't want to deal with troubleshooting any longer so it's time to scrap the stock AutoCom speakers.
So, one more call to AutoCom this morning to place my order for another adapter and I should now be good to go.
I've adjusted, re-adjusted, and re-re-adjusted the standard speakers, tried 3 different phones, and been on the phone with AutoCom a few times to try and end my nightmare.
At this point in the game I'm out of time and don't want to deal with troubleshooting any longer so it's time to scrap the stock AutoCom speakers.
So, one more call to AutoCom this morning to place my order for another adapter and I should now be good to go.
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Been to Hell's half acre
It's not often Mom gets to go out to play with her son!
A Kodak moment (or should I say digital moment) from the BL IIII at scenic Hell's Half Acre, Wyoming. It was hotter than.............................
Countdown
Some much for my promise to myself.....The 2 weeks prior to the rally I vow I'm going to rest.
Oh, wait....I have to work to pay for this. Dealer sales calls, training, and 1700 miles. O.K. it's a great pre-ride test.
102 degrees 80% humidity, no big deal. Gotta figure out how to get to that key between the 2 GPS units. Note to self: Carry a spare for refueling.
The GPS V will simply be for recording miles in case the speedo cable breaks. The 2610 will be for routing. The closest I got to techology in '95, '97 and '01 was a brief encounter with an emap. Now I have 2 GPS's on board, and a tracking device. Will they all function properly?
Not if this is any indication. Hit a bump, and the 2610 turns off!! Great. Pull over, and dink with connections. No luck. Oh, well, better now than next week. Miss one of my sales calls, because I can't find the dealership. Onward! Hit another bump, and it tries to boot. Continues trying and finally succeeds. Great! I have a GPS again (for 50 miles when it definitely fails for the rest of the trip). The GPS V worked great, but it's brain isn't big enough!
Trip's over and I pull into the driveway. Voila! GPS works. I can now find my way into the garage.
Now I'll rest!
Wrong. Major storm damage, dragging limbs tearing apart the downed privacy fence, and feeling every joint in my bod!!
Oh, well.....there's still 6 days to rest.
Oh, wait....I have to work to pay for this. Dealer sales calls, training, and 1700 miles. O.K. it's a great pre-ride test.
102 degrees 80% humidity, no big deal. Gotta figure out how to get to that key between the 2 GPS units. Note to self: Carry a spare for refueling.
The GPS V will simply be for recording miles in case the speedo cable breaks. The 2610 will be for routing. The closest I got to techology in '95, '97 and '01 was a brief encounter with an emap. Now I have 2 GPS's on board, and a tracking device. Will they all function properly?
Not if this is any indication. Hit a bump, and the 2610 turns off!! Great. Pull over, and dink with connections. No luck. Oh, well, better now than next week. Miss one of my sales calls, because I can't find the dealership. Onward! Hit another bump, and it tries to boot. Continues trying and finally succeeds. Great! I have a GPS again (for 50 miles when it definitely fails for the rest of the trip). The GPS V worked great, but it's brain isn't big enough!
Trip's over and I pull into the driveway. Voila! GPS works. I can now find my way into the garage.
Now I'll rest!
Wrong. Major storm damage, dragging limbs tearing apart the downed privacy fence, and feeling every joint in my bod!!
Oh, well.....there's still 6 days to rest.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Garmin isn't making this easy
The plan for the bike is to run two GPS's. The first one is the 478 which is a marine unit that has a screen with great resolution and brightness along with XM radio and XM weather. The second unit is a 2610 which I picked up in June because I really liked the touch screen when it comes to executing finds.
Well, back in July the 478 was causing me some grief and between the tech's at Garmin telling me what to try and my doing what they told me the unit was blank. Totally clean slate with nothing bug the bloody arrow when I'd turn it in. We managed to get it so FUBAR's that it wouldn't even let me upload the maps from my laptop so they wanted it back in house and were going to rush the repair of it and turn it around in under 5 days.
That was July 16th and since I wanted it back fast I shipped it to them next day and got the confirmation that the unit was delivered. Saweet, I figured they would start on it on the 18th which SHOULD mean it would ship out by the 24th at the latest. Being a bit anxious I called them on the 24th to see how it was going and the phone support person said that they hadn't started on it but did show it was a priority and it would probably go out that day or the 25th which meant I'd have it by Friday. Cool, just in time for the weekend so I could get some finishinig touches going on my comm system.
Well Friday came and went and still no box from Brown on my front porch when I got home. So right away on Monday when support opened up I was on the horn with support and again I got the "If not today, tomorrow" story but she at least told me that I could call back in and get a tracking number once it ships. Great, just what I need, a tracking number so I can check on it a dozen times throughout the day thinking that if I keep a watchful eye over the package it will show up faster.
So tomorrow came (now August 1st) and I called back to get the tracking number. Yep, you guessed it "If not today, tomorrow". Well now my blood was starting to boil. How the hell could nobody have any information on the GPS other than the fact that they received it? Don't they have systems that track RMA's once they arrive in-house?
Unfortunately for me this little game of calling and getting the canned response of "If not today, tomorrow" continued on with each support person getting more and more of an earfull. FINALLY on the 7th (just 10 days prior to my departure for rally central) I got a support person who actually gave a damn and admitted that this wasn't normal and that in fact, they didn't show anything in the system since receiving it in. I'm sure when she gave me that news my head was just shaking in disgust and I was thinking about how I was going to get what I needed done in order to wrap the bike up and get some quality testing time in.
She promised me she'd check with the lab, a fictitious land of pocket protectors, soldering irons, and beakers with smoke rolling out of the top of them. This is where my GPS was and I had her word that she would call me back by the end of the day, only after she personally checked to see what the status was.
Surprisingly I did get a phone call back in just a few hours but not so surprisingly she didn't have good news. It turns out that the lab had no record of my GPS ever showing up there. Somehow the unit had disappeared between the time it was received in and it's delivery to the lab.
At this point I went from frustrated to downright pissed. How could my GPS just disappear into thin air without anyone having any record of it? I let the woman know that I wasn't mad at her, but I was furious at the whole process and that I wasn't hanging up until we had this resolved because I was out of time. On hold again while she supposedly went to talk to her supervisor and see what she could do. When she returned she told me that her supervisor had approved a replacement GPS and that they would ship it out 2nd day air so that I would have it by Thur. (riiiiiiiiigh, I've heard this before) ..
Well, Thursday rolled around and when I pulled into my driveway my blood began to boil because I didn't see any package. Luckily when I opened the screen door there was a piece of paper that had obviously fallen from the door letting me know that my package was on the side of the house.
Yehawwwww, It was just like Christmas in August as I rushed inside the house and ripped open the box. Take this puppy out of the box, throw the battery in it, and power it up. GAHHHHHHH!!! They sent me one with the latest version of mapping software (2008) on the sytem and not the V8 that I had on my old one. I had this huge pit in my stomache just thinking of having to call them back and complain.
Now normally having the latest and greatest software is the norm for be but this time it wasn't because, on top of not having the software on my laptop, my 2610 was running the older version. My goal was to keep both GPS's at the same software level so I didn't have one of them telling me to turn right while the other told me to turn left. You laugh but even with the same versions of software I had that happen to me on the Minnesota1000 this year.
Friday morning rolls around and once again I'm on the horn with support as soon as they open and they tell me that they will rush ship a copy of the software for the 478 but for the 2610 I'll have to process a request online. Fine, no biggie, I'll just log into my account and make the request and be done with it. Unfortunately that's not how things work for me lately and the site doesn't seem to want to do anything but error out whenever I try to do something on it.
By now Garmin is in my speed dial list and I call them back and try to talk to someone about the software and explain that I just bought it in June and that I need the latest version 2008. He agrees to send me out a disk but tells me that I'll have to buy the upgrade. When I bought the 2610 I specifically asked if, when I decided to upgrade, the process would be free. They assured me that it was completely free which is in direct contrast to what the Garmin rep was now telling me. We went back and forth on this point and it boiled down to him asking me to call back once I got the software and explain the situation to a supervisor and see if I could get it upgraded for free.
I'm hoping that Monday or Tuesday both software packages show up and I can wrap up this loose end and actually end up with GPS's I can use. If not, it's AAA for a whole lotta maps.
Well, back in July the 478 was causing me some grief and between the tech's at Garmin telling me what to try and my doing what they told me the unit was blank. Totally clean slate with nothing bug the bloody arrow when I'd turn it in. We managed to get it so FUBAR's that it wouldn't even let me upload the maps from my laptop so they wanted it back in house and were going to rush the repair of it and turn it around in under 5 days.
That was July 16th and since I wanted it back fast I shipped it to them next day and got the confirmation that the unit was delivered. Saweet, I figured they would start on it on the 18th which SHOULD mean it would ship out by the 24th at the latest. Being a bit anxious I called them on the 24th to see how it was going and the phone support person said that they hadn't started on it but did show it was a priority and it would probably go out that day or the 25th which meant I'd have it by Friday. Cool, just in time for the weekend so I could get some finishinig touches going on my comm system.
Well Friday came and went and still no box from Brown on my front porch when I got home. So right away on Monday when support opened up I was on the horn with support and again I got the "If not today, tomorrow" story but she at least told me that I could call back in and get a tracking number once it ships. Great, just what I need, a tracking number so I can check on it a dozen times throughout the day thinking that if I keep a watchful eye over the package it will show up faster.
So tomorrow came (now August 1st) and I called back to get the tracking number. Yep, you guessed it "If not today, tomorrow". Well now my blood was starting to boil. How the hell could nobody have any information on the GPS other than the fact that they received it? Don't they have systems that track RMA's once they arrive in-house?
Unfortunately for me this little game of calling and getting the canned response of "If not today, tomorrow" continued on with each support person getting more and more of an earfull. FINALLY on the 7th (just 10 days prior to my departure for rally central) I got a support person who actually gave a damn and admitted that this wasn't normal and that in fact, they didn't show anything in the system since receiving it in. I'm sure when she gave me that news my head was just shaking in disgust and I was thinking about how I was going to get what I needed done in order to wrap the bike up and get some quality testing time in.
She promised me she'd check with the lab, a fictitious land of pocket protectors, soldering irons, and beakers with smoke rolling out of the top of them. This is where my GPS was and I had her word that she would call me back by the end of the day, only after she personally checked to see what the status was.
Surprisingly I did get a phone call back in just a few hours but not so surprisingly she didn't have good news. It turns out that the lab had no record of my GPS ever showing up there. Somehow the unit had disappeared between the time it was received in and it's delivery to the lab.
At this point I went from frustrated to downright pissed. How could my GPS just disappear into thin air without anyone having any record of it? I let the woman know that I wasn't mad at her, but I was furious at the whole process and that I wasn't hanging up until we had this resolved because I was out of time. On hold again while she supposedly went to talk to her supervisor and see what she could do. When she returned she told me that her supervisor had approved a replacement GPS and that they would ship it out 2nd day air so that I would have it by Thur. (riiiiiiiiigh, I've heard this before) ..
Well, Thursday rolled around and when I pulled into my driveway my blood began to boil because I didn't see any package. Luckily when I opened the screen door there was a piece of paper that had obviously fallen from the door letting me know that my package was on the side of the house.
Yehawwwww, It was just like Christmas in August as I rushed inside the house and ripped open the box. Take this puppy out of the box, throw the battery in it, and power it up. GAHHHHHHH!!! They sent me one with the latest version of mapping software (2008) on the sytem and not the V8 that I had on my old one. I had this huge pit in my stomache just thinking of having to call them back and complain.
Now normally having the latest and greatest software is the norm for be but this time it wasn't because, on top of not having the software on my laptop, my 2610 was running the older version. My goal was to keep both GPS's at the same software level so I didn't have one of them telling me to turn right while the other told me to turn left. You laugh but even with the same versions of software I had that happen to me on the Minnesota1000 this year.
Friday morning rolls around and once again I'm on the horn with support as soon as they open and they tell me that they will rush ship a copy of the software for the 478 but for the 2610 I'll have to process a request online. Fine, no biggie, I'll just log into my account and make the request and be done with it. Unfortunately that's not how things work for me lately and the site doesn't seem to want to do anything but error out whenever I try to do something on it.
By now Garmin is in my speed dial list and I call them back and try to talk to someone about the software and explain that I just bought it in June and that I need the latest version 2008. He agrees to send me out a disk but tells me that I'll have to buy the upgrade. When I bought the 2610 I specifically asked if, when I decided to upgrade, the process would be free. They assured me that it was completely free which is in direct contrast to what the Garmin rep was now telling me. We went back and forth on this point and it boiled down to him asking me to call back once I got the software and explain the situation to a supervisor and see if I could get it upgraded for free.
I'm hoping that Monday or Tuesday both software packages show up and I can wrap up this loose end and actually end up with GPS's I can use. If not, it's AAA for a whole lotta maps.
Monday, August 6, 2007
Short people got
Every reason to own a GS Adventure. It's just that with my 29" inseam I had to get a little creative to make the bike a little shorter so that I felt more comfortable on it. The last thing I wanted was a bike that I could only touch with the balls of my feet when I was fatigued at o'dark-thirty.
Actually creativity had nothing to do with it. All I had to do was buy a set of
Ohlin shocks designed to lower the standard GS and walla, a bike I was a lot more surefooted on. The only prolbem was that this threw the sidestand and center stand off. You can see from the picture that after the lower shocks were installed there was a large increase in the distance from the base of the rear tire to the ground.
I remember taking my bike in for the 600 service and when I went to pick it up John commented on how he almost blew out his back trying to get it up on the centerstand. Well, I had planned on leaving it that way but as it started getting a little closer to the rally I decided that I had to do something about it.
First I didn't want to deal with having to lug this pig onto the centerstand when it was loaded for the rally and secondly, at the mid-point I'm having a new rear tire and oil change done on it at a dealership that doesn't know the bike and I don't want anyone getting hurt in the rush.
So to shorten the centerstand I asked Amy's dad (AL) to help out. He and I had already looked at what was going to be required earlier because I had asked him to shorten my side stand some time ago. I headed up to their place one of the weekends of the EAA show so that he could take a gander at the stand to refresh his memory and then left it with him to do his magic.
About a week later he had it done and flew, yes I said flew, it down to me. You see, he's a pilot and every once and a while we get these special delivery packages that probably have the airport employees ready to call in the drug sniffing dogs the next time I show up.
Once he flew it down and dropped it off all I had to do was paint the stand and get it back on the bike. I really didn't know what to expect once I got the stand back on the bike. All that he could lower it was 7/8" because of clearance issues with the sidestand that was shortened and had a bigger footprint put on.
Assembly was a little bit of a PITA because I couldn't get the springs for the stand to do what I wanted them to do. Eventually, after a beer and more tools, I was able to get everything bolted and clamped back where it belongs.
The result was a bike that was a hell of a lot easier to get onto the centerstand which takes one more thing off my hands to worry about during the rally. You can see from the pic that the mod brought the back wheel closer to the ground by the size of a 2x4
Actually creativity had nothing to do with it. All I had to do was buy a set of
Ohlin shocks designed to lower the standard GS and walla, a bike I was a lot more surefooted on. The only prolbem was that this threw the sidestand and center stand off. You can see from the picture that after the lower shocks were installed there was a large increase in the distance from the base of the rear tire to the ground.I remember taking my bike in for the 600 service and when I went to pick it up John commented on how he almost blew out his back trying to get it up on the centerstand. Well, I had planned on leaving it that way but as it started getting a little closer to the rally I decided that I had to do something about it.
First I didn't want to deal with having to lug this pig onto the centerstand when it was loaded for the rally and secondly, at the mid-point I'm having a new rear tire and oil change done on it at a dealership that doesn't know the bike and I don't want anyone getting hurt in the rush.
So to shorten the centerstand I asked Amy's dad (AL) to help out. He and I had already looked at what was going to be required earlier because I had asked him to shorten my side stand some time ago. I headed up to their place one of the weekends of the EAA show so that he could take a gander at the stand to refresh his memory and then left it with him to do his magic.
About a week later he had it done and flew, yes I said flew, it down to me. You see, he's a pilot and every once and a while we get these special delivery packages that probably have the airport employees ready to call in the drug sniffing dogs the next time I show up.
Once he flew it down and dropped it off all I had to do was paint the stand and get it back on the bike. I really didn't know what to expect once I got the stand back on the bike. All that he could lower it was 7/8" because of clearance issues with the sidestand that was shortened and had a bigger footprint put on.
Assembly was a little bit of a PITA because I couldn't get the springs for the stand to do what I wanted them to do. Eventually, after a beer and more tools, I was able to get everything bolted and clamped back where it belongs. The result was a bike that was a hell of a lot easier to get onto the centerstand which takes one more thing off my hands to worry about during the rally. You can see from the pic that the mod brought the back wheel closer to the ground by the size of a 2x4
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Let there be Light II !
Today was the day that I was going to wrap up the driving light install on my bike. I've been tinkering with this for probably 6 months and still haven't gotten anywhere (as usual). I know I know, you're probably thinking that six months to put in lights is a long time. Well, it is but you would be surprised at how fast it goes. Especially when you are like me and are always hunting and shopping for a better way to do things.
Using some scrap aluminum I cut some pieces that I could use to bolt the ballasts to. These pieces would then be bolted to the clamp brackets that I found at the hardware store to secure them to the underside of the front fender.
I've already upgraded both my low beam and my high beam from the stock 55W bulb to some Osram 65W bulbs . I saw these bulbs for the firs time at the Hiawatha rally this year on a friends bike and thought they were HID's when he first pulled up. I had been tossing around HID's but decided I wanted to maintain some lights in a more or less stock form in case my other lights went south on me.
I already had a set of Phillips HID lights that I had taken off my 1150GS so the plan was to install them since I REALLY like the amount of light they put out. The part that I had been tossing around was where to mount the ballasts. I'd seen them mounted over the stock headlight and thought about that. Then I saw this cool ballast mount from Europe that attaches to the oil cooler bolt and tried that but didn't like how the larger ballasts of the Phillips fit and caused the oil cooler to flex.
Next I moved on to fabricating a bracket like I did on my 1150 which would require drilling some holes in the front of the beak to provide a little more rigid mount. And as usual I changed my mind once I started sizing up where I would have to drill the holes to give me the support I wanted to have.
Next I moved on to fabricating a bracket like I did on my 1150 which would require drilling some holes in the front of the beak to provide a little more rigid mount. And as usual I changed my mind once I started sizing up where I would have to drill the holes to give me the support I wanted to have.
So once again I scrapped that plan and moved on to plan C. This time I thought about mounting the ballasts right to the engine guards and driving light bar that came stock on my GS. The plan was to use some clamps similar to the ones used on some of the GS skid plates I've seen IF they came in the right size. So I think this was trip 15 to the hardware store and my chin damn near hit the ground when I saw that they had both sizes I wanted. I guess "Third time Lucky" was true in my case so I grabbed my mounts and my usual assortment of stainless steel hardware and headed home.
Using some scrap aluminum I cut some pieces that I could use to bolt the ballasts to. These pieces would then be bolted to the clamp brackets that I found at the hardware store to secure them to the underside of the front fender.When all was said and done this location ended up a LOT better than I had anticipated and the ballasts are a lot more stable than I would have had in any of the other ways I had thought of.
Now it was just a matter of bolting up the brackets with the lights to the same spot as the stock fog lights (Thanks for the idea Rich), connect the wiring, and then connect the dreaded BMW switch to the lights. The reason I say the "dreaded" switch was that up until now, nobody I asked knew how to get this blasted thing hooked up so the LED would come on when the lights were on and then turn off when the lights were off. People either had no LED or a LED all the time.
Now it was just a matter of bolting up the brackets with the lights to the same spot as the stock fog lights (Thanks for the idea Rich), connect the wiring, and then connect the dreaded BMW switch to the lights. The reason I say the "dreaded" switch was that up until now, nobody I asked knew how to get this blasted thing hooked up so the LED would come on when the lights were on and then turn off when the lights were off. People either had no LED or a LED all the time.
I started off with a cheap (anythings cheap compared to the $70 price tag of the BMW switch) switch and made sure all of my other wiring and soldering was good. Once that all checked out I moved to the BMW switch and sure enough, either I had no light or the LED was on all the time.
I'm a little too anal to wire up the switch knowing it wasn't right so I put the multimeter down, gritted my teeth, and started trying some other combinations of connections. Somehow I managed to find the combination that worked and that stupid little LED came on when the lights were on and turned off when the lights were off. HOT DAMN, I grabbed the soldering gun, finalized the wiring and called it a day.
Here are some shots of the front after mounting and then again with all the lights turned on.
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