MY 20 TIPS AND SUGGESTIONS

The Iron Butt Association’s web site, (www.ironbutt.com), contains a list of 29 tips for successful endurance riding.  The nearly one million miles I have ridden in the last 30 years have allowed me to learn a few more.  Also, not all endurance riders adhere to the Iron Butt Association’s (IBA), list 100%.  Here are some items I find useful and a few that are contrary to some of the IBA’s tips.

1)   Break up your stops?  The IBA states, (tip # 16), that you should separate your gas stops from your food stops.  The point being that, if you stop once for gas, and then, 100 miles later for food, you are getting two “rests” from riding in 100 miles.  This is a good practice if you’re not too concerned about making good time.  In this day and age of fast food restaurants being located inside gasoline service stations, it makes more sense, at least to me, to get both tasks accomplished during the same stop.  If fast food isn’t to your liking, most major truck stops, (Petro, Loves and Flying J to name a few), have good restaurants as well as convenience stores and gas pumps. The time getting off the freeway or road, un-suiting and re-suiting, and getting up to speed account for a lot of time at stops.  Minimizing the number of stops will minimize the amount of time spent on these tasks.

2)      Make your bike the most comfortable place in your world.  If it is, you won’t need as many rest stops, you will feel better on the bike than walking around or sitting in a restaurant.  Granted, getting off to stretch your legs and “get the kinks out” is a good idea, but it shouldn’t be necessary for several hours, (see my article Love Your Bike elsewhere on this web site).

3)      Make everything on your bike convenient.  All accessory controls should be easy to operate and lighted at night.  Why get used to using something during the day, (a bicycle computer comes to mind), and then not be able to see it at night?  It makes no sense.  Get a gooseneck style map light that you can shine on any un-lighted piece of equipment.  Hard mount communication cords to the bike.  In other words, install a solidly mounted outlet on the bike that will allow you plug in your headset cord with one hand.  The same goes fore outlets for electric clothing.

4)      Pack efficiently.  Many people put items that they might need in a hurry in their tank bags, (i.e. tools, first aid kit), but they rarely ever need these items.  Yes, they should be easily accessible, but they don’t need to be right at your fingertips.  Put them in a lower compartment of the tank bag or in a fairing pocket or saddlebag, then commit to memory exactly where they are.

5)      Don’t over-pack.  It may take years of practice, but learn to take along only what you will need.  Packing large bags of “stuff” on the back of the seat will lead to greater fatigue as you lift your leg over them to get on and off the bike.  On the ‘Butt I will keep my seat completely clear.  Another advantage of this is that it allows me to scoot back to the passenger section of the seat to stretch my legs and get a different riding position for a while.

6)      Develop routines for all stops.  Far and away the most time wasted on endurance rides is while the wheels are stopped.  Develop scripts and routines that will allow you to get in and out of gas stops quickly.  Practice these routines over and over.  Then, don’t be tempted to change them.  When getting gas, park the bike on the same side of the pump every time.  Get off of the bike the same way, every time.  Put your gloves in the same place, every time.  Keep your wallet in the same place, every time.  After these routines are completely ingrained in your subconscious, you will do them without thinking, even after many days on the road with little sleep.

7)      Think ahead.  Try to keep the big picture in mind.  On competitive rallies, always be thinking two or three bonuses ahead.  When you pull in to a stop, always know where you are going to go when you leave.  And get down to details; know which direction you will be going when you hit the road; know about how far it is till the next stop; go over in your mind what you will need to find out or do at the next stop.  Going over all of this information as you ride will not only prepare you for your stops better, but it will also serve to keep your mind alert and on the task at hand.  Competitive events are designed to be fun, but they take a great deal of commitment and practice to do well. 

8)      Set parameters for yourself and stick to them.  I have a general rule that if I am going to stop for two hours of sleep or less, I find a rest area or city park.  Getting a motel room is reserved for the times when I can afford 4 hours of sleep.  Keep in mind that it can take 20 minutes or more to get checked into a room.  Add to that the time you will spend finding the room, taking the gear off of the bike that you don’t feel comfortable leaving on, getting into the room, etc.  It may be an hour before you actually hit the sheets.  If you only wanted an hour's worth of sleep, you're wasting too much time getting a room.

9)      Get a ground cloth.  Much has been said and written about the “Iron Butt Motel”, where the rider will lay his or her head on the tank bag or lean back against a back rest and sleep on the bike.  Yes, it works.  However, I have found that lying on the ground, even if it's concrete or asphalt, is much more restful than sleeping on the bike.  I use my EZ Touring cover as a ground cloth to help keep my Aerostitch clean and to keep me dry if I’m on grass.  If there is grass within 10 to 20 feet of the bike, I will try to lye down there.

10)  Get a sleep timer and learn to use it.  Most major truck stops sell timers that allow you to enter the number of hours and minutes you want to sleep.  They have very loud alarms and, almost always, will wake anyone within shouting distance.  The most common, (and popular), brand is the Screaming Meanie.  It has multiple volume settings and is an excellent unit.  I use a timer made by Wesclox.  It has only one volume setting, about 105 db, but it has another feature I have come to love:  it beeps once ten minutes before it is due to go off and twice five minutes before.  I have gotten used to this and will wake up at the ten minute beep every time, without being shocked awake from a deep sleep.  In fact, I have gotten to the point where I set the timer for ten minutes longer than I want to sleep since I will be wakened by the first beep. Once you get your timer, use it regularly at home before a trip.  Memorize its functions so that you can set it correctly no matter how tired you might be.  Also, practicing at home will convince your subconscious mind to trust the timer.  You will be able to fall asleep more easily and will sleep longer and better because you have the peace of mind of knowing you will wake up on time. 

11)   Learn your limits.  Be realistic.  If a proposed route requires an average speed, with stops, of 70 mph, are you capable of that?  (70 is a very difficult average to maintain for more than 24 hours).  How about 65?  Or 55?  The only way to know is to practice.  If you are preparing for the Iron Butt or other multi-day rally, don’t delude yourself into thinking that the speed you averaged on the Utah 1088 or other one-day rally will be sustainable.  This is why most people do better on their second multi-day event, they spend the first one finding out their own personal limits.

12)  LEARN YOUR BODY’S SIGNALS.  This statement is in all caps and bold type because I feel it is the single most important item you can learn for safe endurance riding.  Here again, get specific.  Find out how long it takes from the onset of the first symptoms of extreme fatigue, (long, almost painful yawns, inability to maintain speed or concentrate on the road, etc.), till you have to stop.  I know how long I can go from when my first signs of fatigue start, (that sign is different for everyone), and then I start planning my rest stop.  If I know I have 45 minutes of safe time left, I start looking for a place to sleep in twenty minutes. 

13)  Don’t wait till you’re totally exhausted to sleep.  Once the signs of fatigue start, try to stop sooner rather than later.  I have found that I can get by with shorter periods of sleep if I don’t wait until I am totally exhausted to stop.  Also, if you are totally burned out when you stop, you won’t have the ability, either physical or mental, to deal with any unforeseen problems, (difficult motel clerks, no vacancy signs, no place to safely park the bike, etc.).

14)  Practice route planning.  This is where many contestants in competitive events really hurt themselves.  You need to be able to find locations on a map quickly and accurately.  You need to know what type of road each of those different width lines represents.  A straight line on a map that turned out to be a small, secondary road that took much more time to traverse than expected has fooled many a rider.  Learn to connect the bonuses in the most efficient manner.  Sometimes this can only be learned from practice with an actual route, but picking hypothetical bonuses, and then plotting them on a map, can help you learn some of the skills.

15)  Electronics or paper?  With the cost of lap top computers coming down and the sophistication of mapping programs rising, many rally participants are moving away from paper maps to electronic ones.  Is this good or bad?  The true answer may never be known, but rest assured, the number of riders using electronic aids will only increase.  Personally, I feel that computers are of marginal value when laying out routes for a 24-hour rally.  Unless you have absolutely no knowledge of the local area at all, you should be able to find all bonus locations on just one or two maps in very little time.  If you have practiced and know how to quickly calculate the mileage and do the time/distance math, you should be able to have a route plotted in less time than someone who enters every bonus into a computer.  On the Iron Butt or similar rally, computers can be of great benefit.  All riders will, most certainly, be riding in unfamiliar territory for much of the rally.  Finding bonuses on a leg, (sometimes there are 20 pages of bonuses on a cross-country leg of the ‘Butt!),  will be much quicker with a computer than spreading out multiple maps.  Further, a United States map may not give sufficient detail to allow you to find what you need.

16)  To GPS or not?  GPS units are great!  They can completely take the worry out of whether you are going the right direction and of where you actually are.  They will not navigate for you and they are not infallible.  In my opinion, the most valuable feature of a GPS is the ability to track your “Overall Average Speed”.  This number is absolutely critical.  Once you know how many miles it is to the next bonus or check, and you know how many hours and minutes you have to get there, you can come up with the necessary miles-per-hour number that you must maintain.  Once underway, the GPS will tell you, at a glance, if you are on, ahead of, or behind schedule.  If you are ahead, (the best way to be!), you can afford to stop and rest or take a meal break.  If you are on schedule, you need to keep moving .  If you are behind schedule you need to make up time, either by shortening your stops, picking up your riding pace,  trying to find a shorter route, or eliminating some bonus or other stops.  These calculations were all done in the heads of the “Old timers” and, frankly, were done very well.  However, as the use of these devices becomes more commonplace, riders using them will find they have more time and energy to focus on other issues which, in the long run, makes the ride less fatiguing.

17)  Should I download from a computer to a GPS?  If  mastered, this can be a time saving skill.  I personally don’t do it for a number of reasons.  I don’t want to be locked into a set course, even if it is one I developed.  I don’t trust the accuracy of mapping software sufficiently to blindly accept that it will route me the most efficient way.  Also, the process of reading the route the software calculated and writing the major roads and turns onto a steno pad helps me visualize the entire route.  I also don’t ever want to be in a situation of committing my route to an electronic device that might fail, loose it’s program or get stolen or be lost.  Notice I said in the first sentence, “If mastered”?  This is also key to the equation.  If you can’t download a route quickly and accurately every time, then don’t trust it anytime.

18)  To change or not to change?  One other item that I have a different opinion on than the IBA Archives of Wisdom is in the area of making changes or modifications to the bike shortly before a ride or event. I believe that some work, if done by a competent owner or mechanic, can be done before any event or ride.  On the other hand, some jobs should not be done.  My general rule of thumb is that any job that, if it fails, will not totally disable the bike, can be done.  Adding accessories is the most common job undertaken shortly before an event and is done successfully dozens of times every year by many participants.  Major mechanic work, I believe, should not be attempted unless there is sufficient time to fully test the job.  I wouldn’t, for example, want to lube the splines on the driveshaft and clutch hub on my BMW the day before  I left for the ‘Butt.  A mistake in re-assembly could be catastrophic and there would be insufficient time to repair it before the rally. 

19)  Know your bike, part 1.  As the sport of endurance riding matures, riders are adding more and more accessories to their bikes.  Many of the problems riders encounter on rallies have to do with these accessories.  I believe that a thorough knowledge of how the individual accessories function, and how and where they are connected, is vital.  I have met riders that didn’t know where the fuses were that controlled their electric clothing because a professional mechanic did the wiring.  Being able to diagnose and correct a problem without having to get the bike to a shop can be the difference between a good finish and no finish.

20)  Know your bike, part 2.  Many bikes have inherent problems unique to them.  Try to get as much information about your particular bike as you can.  Find out about any recalls or service bulletins issued by the manufacture.  Get on email lists that pertain to your bike.  Find out what are frequent problems and also find out the symptoms and cures.  For example, if an ignition lockout switch on the sidestand is prone to failure in the rain, be aware of it and know what to do about it.

Well, that’s it, my 20 Tips and Suggestions.  If you have any comments or items you think I might want to add, please let me know.