IBA All Yooperland SS1K

U.P.rider

I M A UPR
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Linked below is a IBA ride on June 22nd in the U.P. of Michigan that I signed up for . It's my first IBA event so I'm excited and maybe a little daunted at the time involved; 6 am start to a 4 am end time. One bonus is that we will be driving near my home so if I need a quick nap I can do it without much of a time penalty. I should have my Rigid driving lights installed which will come in handy for the night time riding portion though the wilds of the U.P.
On Thursday night I'm going to ride to the Escanaba area to check out a couple knife maker shops and grab a hotel, then continue on to Iron Mountain to arrive early afternoon Friday. I will probably hit up a pasty shop to grab a couple for the ride.
Here is the link to the ride: http://members.triton.net/vandenbe/2019AllYooperland/2019AllYooperland.html?fbclid=IwAR3P7-KyTItXWkK77NNOVCe_5Ajio2YhJnyoYDH4tuhAb90kwWw6Dhf0AzQ
 
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EricV

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That is a well organized ride. Note that all IBA SS1K rides are allowed 24 hours to be completed in. This is a pre-approved route with special requirements for photos in order to ensure the ride is over 1000 miles. Normally, 1004 would be cutting it way too close for a SS1K route. The suggested overage is more like 30-50 miles just to be on the safe side.

Watch out for critters! Have a great time. Focus on the next requirement/stop, not how many miles/hours are remaining and it will go much faster. I love pasties, but choose wisely. Too much starch and grease will make you sleepy.
 

U.P.rider

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Thanks for the tip on starchy/ greasy foods Eric! I hope to not have to take the nap time as I'm hoping to stay with the group for the long runs in the night time. I've spent a lot of time in my life driving vehicles for long hours for both work and pleasure. I made the trip between Atlanta, GA to Flushing, MI. more times than I care to count and several trips between New Orleans and Traverse City, MI. but only in cages, so this will be one of the longest trip on a bike the other being in 2016 on my '92 Vmax where one leg of my trip to Newfoundland accounted for around 12 hours/ 680 miles of hell through rain at night and half the day from North Bay Ontario to Farmington, ME..
 

EricV

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I've never done a 'group' IBA ride, so not sure how many riders you'll have or how much grouping there will be. Beyond riding at your own pace, there are different gas stop needs, bathroom or smoke stops for some, etc. You may want to discuss with the other riders if anyone wants to make an effort to meet at a spot expected to be when you enter end of twilight for the night leg.

The organized event rides I've done were BBG rides and I rarely saw the other 20 riders during the ride. The rest of my IBA riders were solo. It's more common to see other riders during endurance rallies due to the higher number of bonus stops, but since we all plan differently, there were still long periods, even days w/o seeing another event rider.

The advantage you have is that everyone is on the same route. The disadvantage is you don't want to hold anyone up, or have them hold you up. The average for a SS1K ride is 16-18 hours, but I suspect this all Yooperland route will take longer due to the nature of the roads.

Eric V
#488
 
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U.P.rider

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The two main roads where the bulk of the mileage will be done on are 65 mph speed limit BUT probably at least half of it will be done in the nighttime so speeds will be a bit slower. Add to this the fact that we have had 3 or more moose on the loose in the eastern U.P. which are nearly impossible to see at night so that will be another hazard we'll have to be cognizant of. I have ridden, at different times, all of the roads on this route and in a cage much of the long roads at night.
If this goes well I may do some of the other IBA rides that are focused around the Great Lakes region which should be picturesque and nice roads.
 

U.P.rider

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I have been lax in reporting on this Iron Butt I did recently so I thought I better get to it! As was previously mentioned this was my first IBA ride and as EricV mentioned that it was well organized which it was and that made it pretty easy on me. I was a little nervous as my GPS usage has mostly limited to driving to addresses and to track where I've been but as it turned out there were great written instructions.
We were underway at 5:30am on Saturday and within a little over a hour I was at my first stop where I promptly made my first miscalculation of not filling up, I made it to the next stop albeit with the fuel gauge flashing! Lessoned learned, always fill up the tank. I rode with several different riders at times and alone for other stretches but since it was such a beautiful day it was fun either way.
I did wonder what the last 200 miles would be like at night but by that time there were 3 of us with great lights so it worked out well. There were numerous 4 legged pedestrians observing our passing by very closely but nothing but what I took to be a pine marten/ fisher that crossed our path(20' or so in front of me) but it was at full speed so there wasn't much time to get excited about it.
In the end it took me 20 hours and 20 minutes to complete the route and my total miles were about 1040 ish due to getting off track one time for about 20 minutes.
The S10 did well and was a great asset to making this ride enjoyable. It was a great learning experience and has wetted my appetite to do other similar rides in my region.
 
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EricV

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Thanks for the follow up report. Glad you had a good ride and finished the ride in good time. Beautiful country in the U.P.
 

U.P.rider

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The picture tells the latest chapter from my inaugural IBA ride and membership into in the association of “The worlds toughest motorcycle riders”. I’ll be mounting my plate backer this weekend and adding my first sticker to the S10.
The thing about the Super Tenere is that it made riding this event make sense and pretty easy for me. Unsure of how I was going to be able cope with riding a bike for over a thousand miles within 24 hours yet as the miles and hours passed i realized the S10 was going to make it work out. Starting out at 5:30 am I was trying to work out how to do this but by the time late afternoon confidence began to grow. The sun had just set as two other riders and I turned our motorcycles westward on US-2 for the final leg. Full of confidence by this time made the final 200 miles pass by fairly quickly and before you knew we back in Iron Mountain at our final checkpoint talking and congratulating each other on a successful event.
When I told my friends what had done they looked at me like I was crazy and maybe they may be somewhat right but for me it’s just a beginning. More fun ahead while riding the Super Tenere for miles and miles.


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EricV

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Congratulations on your success! This is how it starts, so enjoy your rides and your S10. Adventures await. The LD riders are a tiny segment of motorcycling, so it's ok if others think we're a little crazy. Like a lot of things not main stream, until you try it, it's hard to imagine it can be safe, comfortable and FUN. Thanks for posting the swag shot to show everyone you did the paperwork to complete the process.
 
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