45,000 miles in 45 days

EricV

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A guy just finished a 40/40 a week or so before this guy completed his 45/45, IIRC. The original IBA cert ride is called "The longest Month" and is 30k miles in 30 days. There is a very short list of names of riders that have completed that ride. These two took it up another notch to say the least.

Another rider in the FJR community completed his 66th BBG this year in October and will do one more for the Dec Solstice ride to finish up a 100k mile year, just in documented cert rides. He works full time too, so aside from a couple of vacation periods, most were done on weekends. He lost a month to bike break down as well. Again, a pretty short list of riders in the "100k club". It took me a few years to ride 100k on the same bike back in '03-'05. I don't want to do it in just one year!

You have to really want it to do these kinds of things. And be willing/able to spend the money on gas/tires/etc.
 

EricV

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I couldn't do it. No way, no how. He's much more man than I. It took me several bikes, and many years to hit 100,000k miles.
You could do it. It's more mental than physical. You get into a rhythm when you're doing 1k days back to back. You just wake up and go ride, then do it again the next day, etc. I've not done more than 12 back to back 1k days, but the two times I did that I was fine with riding after that and could have just kept going. It's sort of weird when you stop and you get a little annoyed at having to do the mundane daily stuff again, like work! :D

The second time, I ended up meeting up with my wife and riding another two weeks at a more relaxed pace before getting home. (she wanted a riding vacation too)
 

dell835

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You could do it. It's more mental than physical. You get into a rhythm when you're doing 1k days back to back. You just wake up and go ride, then do it again the next day, etc. I've not done more than 12 back to back 1k days, but the two weektimes I did that I was fine with riding after that and could have just kept going. It's sort of weird when you stop and you get a little annoyed at having to do the mundane daily stuff again, like work! :D

The second time, I ended up meeting up with my wife and riding another two weeks at a more relaxed pace before getting home. (she wanted a riding vacation too)
I couldn’t imagine doing that-I have done many 3/4000 mile weeks driving tractor trailers and the cumulative exhaustion would do me in.
 

2talltoo

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How many Iron Butt fatalities have occurred? I know how tired I am after 7-800 mile day in a comfortable vehicle. I just do not get it. You need to be healthy and alert but 50 lbs overweight is no big deal. Just an unnecessary risk to what point. People I ride with would probably question my sanity not applaud me.
 

EricV

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How many Iron Butt fatalities have occurred? I know how tired I am after 7-800 mile day in a comfortable vehicle. I just do not get it. You need to be healthy and alert but 50 lbs overweight is no big deal. Just an unnecessary risk to what point. People I ride with would probably question my sanity not applaud me.
I can't say none, but the safety record is very, very good. Far better than the average motorcycle community. In part, this is because of the focus on SAFE long distance riding and all the education efforts to teach riders to do it safely. Part of this is listening to you body, establishing bench marks for YOU and how you respond to the process. Keep in mind that a 1000 mile day is only an average of 41.67 mph. Most people take about 18 hours to do a 1k day. That's an average of 55.56 mph. It's not about going fast or depriving yourself of sleep, it's about managing your time and staying on the bike.

Life is full of risks. We don't stop living. What we individually do is manage our risks. Part of that for you may be deciding that there is zero reason for you to go ride a 1k day. Part of that for me is deciding there is zero reason for me to try and ride 30 or more 1k days in a row! :p

We're all different. That's a GOOD thing. I don't get some people's hobbies like wing suits and drag racing, but to each their own. They don't get my hobby of long distance riding, (I rarely do it any more now, but did a lot over a 15 year period). Unnecessary risk is in the eye of the beholder. Sort of like Art. I wouldn't pay $150k for a banana duct taped to the wall, but someone did. I think they are an idiot. They likely disagree with my opinion on that. ;)

With what I've learned about myself and riding long distances I know my sleep needs and patterns and know I can knock out a 1k day on just about any bike, if I want to. It's a lot more comfortable on a bike set up to be ergonomically dialed in for me, with water and snacks available while moving, but I've done it on stock bikes w/o any of that too. It's not something you just decide to do and go do. Most people work up to the longer days and learn along the way what works, what doesn't and make changes to dial in the bike for their comfort so they can be focused and alert instead of being irritated by some small things that take their focus off the riding. I'm much more comfortable on my LD bike than I am in the car.
 
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ballisticexchris

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I couldn't do it. No way, no how. He's much more man than I. It took me several bikes, and many years to hit 100,000k miles.
I'm with you.!! I've done my Iron Butt once and it's not fun at all. Even with careful planning, doing 1000 mile days back to back over and over is just taking too much of a risk. I have done multi day 700+ miles in the saddle and it sucked. And that was when I was young and in good shape.

How many Iron Butt fatalities have occurred? I know how tired I am after 7-800 mile day in a comfortable vehicle. I just do not get it. You need to be healthy and alert but 50 lbs overweight is no big deal. Just an unnecessary risk to what point. People I ride with would probably question my sanity not applaud me.
Any kind of extreme riding like that is very dangerous. There is no way that anyone can stay alert and have good enough reflexes to be safe. For the thousands of riders that do this kind of riding and get away with it, there are quite a few that don't.

Just take a look at one of these Iron Butt Rallys and look at the food they try to get you to eat. Greasy, slimy heart popper sandwiches and dripping spaghetti after a full 1000+ mile day. Winners of the rally like Wendy Crockett bring healthy snacks they pack with them. And then there's the sleep. No one gets a healthy 7-8 hours of sleep per night. It's normally like the military with a "Bit Sleep" pattern.
 

Checkswrecks

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I've done pairs of 1,000 mile days, once to get across the Great Plains, and another coming to the east coast from LA, plus a number of individual 1,000 mile days. As Eric wrote, it's largely mental and I just keep myself entertained and try not to eat too much or too often. There is a physical conditioning too though. Coming out of winter, you suffer if your riding muscles aren't practiced and then you get butt and back aches.

Atthis point I just don't have the need to go that long in the saddle and am learning to enjoy just being wherever I stop for the day.
 

Sierra1

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The OE seat on the ST 1300 was HORRIBLE. An hour and a half, and my ass was on fire. The replacement gell seat made a HUGE difference, but still.... And, if it's largely mental....that could explain a lot with me....I'd be screwed. :oops:
 

eemsreno

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I really don't see LD riders being anywhere near as dangerous as the average cruiser rider that rides bar to bar.
The only 1000 mile days that I have done was to get miles out of the way through the plains on the first day of a trip.
I see no fun in doing it for a certificate that just doesn't mean anything.
 

2talltoo

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I have done 2 one day one hundred mile mountain bike rides. It was probably no harder than the Iron Butts although I probably felt better at the end. The biggest pain was working up to 70 mile days conditioning your bottom end to the bike seat more than building stamina.
 

Sierra1

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….I see no fun in doing it for a certificate that just doesn't mean anything.
On one hand, I whole heartedly agree....no fun. But, although it wouldn't mean anything to you and I, it HAS to mean something to the person(s) that did it. Why else would a person put themselves through that? Everybody has accomplishments that has brought satisfaction to THEM....while their friends just don't understand what the big deal is, and are not impressed.
 

EricV

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A lot of people do a SS1K just to see if they can, because it seems like such a stretch from their previous experience. Documenting it with an IBA cert lets them prove to anyone that doesn't want to take their word that they really did the deed.

In many cases, that's the end of it. In others, the realization that they can cover that kind of miles and do it safely and in comfort sparks an epiphany and they want to try more long days and improve their comfort. In some cases they get the bug to ride the named rides or simply realize they can ride to new places farther away and explore them in the same time frame they used to do local rides in.

Lots of hard core LD riders only have a cert or two. Others collect them in quantities that could wall paper a room. <shrug> To each their own.

As Sierra1 implied, if you're doing something you enjoy for your own personal satisfaction, who cares if anyone else thinks it's something they would enjoy or not?
 

tntmo

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I did two 1,000 mile days, didn't really plan for them but did it to see if I could. The Tenere is a good bike for it, comfortable with decent range. It's not overly difficult to do, and I like knowing that we (the bike and I) are capable of it but it's not my preferred method of travel.

Pretty amazing to do them back to back for that many days though.
 

AVGeek

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I'm one of those that has ground out long distances. I did one SS1K on the Tenere (Phoenix to Denver via Las Vegas), and I averaged 61 mph to complete the ride in about 17 hours. And I was ready to keep on going (good thing, as I did it to ride up for a work related function in Denver!). And I've done the Austin to Las Vegas run in my truck, took about 20 hours and I was wiped at the end of it. So it just depends on what any one person is capable of doing, both mentally and physically.
 

tntmo

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I'm one of those that has ground out long distances. I did one SS1K on the Tenere (Phoenix to Denver via Las Vegas), and I averaged 61 mph to complete the ride in about 17 hours. And I was ready to keep on going (good thing, as I did it to ride up for a work related function in Denver!). And I've done the Austin to Las Vegas run in my truck, took about 20 hours and I was wiped at the end of it. So it just depends on what any one person is capable of doing, both mentally and physically.
My son-in-law and I did Anchorage, Alaska to San Diego,CA in 59 hours traveling with two dogs. Talk about wiped out! I like doing long road trips, sometimes have to do them quickly but it's sure nice to be able to take your time.
 
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