Any Iron Butt Association riders here? | Page 3 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any Iron Butt Association riders here?

BunBurner 1000

Lower Great Lakes 1000

and the coveted "Bun Burner Gold "

The Gold one was the hardest ... Had to average 100km per hour for 24 hours ...
 
Did a "Canada Saddlesore 1000" by accident last summer coming home from the Madeline Islands. IB member 69126.
I had booked an 8pm ferry from the Madelines to PEI, tried to get on the 8am ferry as I wasn't looking forward to riding at night after the 8pm ferry ride. The morning ferry was full so I had to take the night ferry. It drops you in Souris PEI at exactly 1am. Riding at night in PEI is not a problem, no deer or moose so at 1am you can make good time. New Brunswick, across the bridge is a different story with long skid marks and stained highways reminding me of the nighttime danger associated with riding on the mainland. So a few tense hours in the dark. As soon as day breaks it's an enjoyable ride again. I slept the entire 5 hour ferry crossing so I was fresh for the ride. I had read about the iron butts and I keep all my gas receipts anyway. I didn't need a starting witness as I had irrefutable proof that I started where and when I said I had. Ferry booking confirmations, receipts from on board the ship and the pass you must present to leave the ship. It wasn't until I reached Quebec city around 1pm and still felt great, that I started to think about making it an Iron Butt ride. I called a buddy in between Quebec and Montreal and asked him to check the mileage from Souris to Scarborough, it was right around the 1600 km mark, cutting it a little close, so I took the longer route around Montreal to make sure I had enough km's. Made it home, to a gas receipt, and beer receipt and witness around 9pm. It took me about 21 hours and I didn't decide to do it until well past the halfway mark.
I have to say, that was a relatively easy way to do the ride. Sleep, start early in the morning and finish at a reasonable time at night. It worked well for me.
 
Iron Butt to me is an organization while meaning to suggest adventure and challenge is basically a misguided organizatioin that escentially promotes riding huge distances on public roads, in an allotted time without killing yourself or others. I wonder if anyone has tried to shut them down?
 
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Why ever ???...entirely voluntary....

Yes voluntary but I look at it this way.

IBA and any such organization that suggests that it exists to promote individual dreams or challenges has a flawed framework. Once you use public roads for this test of individual mettle, you involve everybody else and put them at bodily risk.

If you want to ride around a private track like the 24 hours of Lemans, then do that and make it like a Guinness Record or beat a previous benchmark time. But stay off the roads where you might through fatigue hit and kill me. If you want to kill yourself with some trivial goal, then do that on your own time and property/track. There are enough drunks on the road without adding this group of misguided adventurers fighting fatigue to get to a goal. Many scientists will tell you that driving fatigued is as bad as driving drunk.

I know that message is a buzz kill but so are speeding tickets.
 
The IBA is HUGE on safety. They are constantly encouraging riders to quit a ride if they become fatigued or feel unsafe in any way. I can tell you on the IBA Facebook page and forum that tales of "I was 2/3 of the way there but had to quit for X reason" get the most comments of encouragement and support from fellow riders. I can't speak to any of the "silver", "gold" or "insanity" levels of the specific rides, but any of the base levels do not require speeding or exhaustion to complete. 1,600km in 24hrs is very doable. If you don't muck about or get caught in traffic, most will finish it around the 20hr mark. That means they had 4hrs of stopped time if they are completing the ride on a highway.

I'm 10x more worried about the fatigued driving of your average commuter Monday-Friday than I am of an IBA rider who meticulously planned their ride and is monitoring themselves the whole way for safety. Plenty of folks on their way to work in the morning running on 4hrs of sleep because they stayed up to watch GoT or the Leafs then slept in and are speeding so they get to work on time. Then they do their 8hrs of work which is either mentally or physically exhausting then they climb in their car and commute home. I guarantee they are a much bigger risk to public safety than any rider trying to travel long distances they've planned ahead for.
 
I've done a few rides that qualify. I don't collect stickers and badges when I travel, never saw a need to collect IBA badges. It's a bit of a feat, but not out of reach for most motorcyclists, and certainly not a challenge for any experienced tourer.
 

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