2021 Ironbutt Rally

[bikerbill]

With Great Fanfare I announce that I have been selected to ride in the 2021 Iron Butt Rally!!

I will be riding Hidalgo.

The Iron Butt Rally is an eleven day 'digital scavenger hunt' kind of competition that is held in the summer on alternating years. The previous rally was held in 2019 so the next one is in 2021.

My exploits in these type of events has been documented here and elsewhere. To date my longest event has been 60 hours. For practice I have another to ride in two weeks that is nearly 4 days.

I will use this thread to announce pertinent information regarding my preparations and rally news.

[bikerbill]

This past week I rode the Heart of Texas 4-day rally to help me practice/prepare for next year.

More to follow.

SpotWalla track of our ride. https://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id ... 644f2c9c08
password: HoT2020

[bikerbill]

A photo blog is up for my participation in the Heart of Texas Rally

https://bikerbillsvulcan500rebuild.shutterfly.com/1068

This link is to a video of the Rally start. I and Hidalgo pass by at about the 1:52 mark.
https://vimeo.com/user11449478/review/4 ... O_Xi0NeM3A

[bikerbill]

I have my cell phone mounted where I can access it while riding. However I haven’t found an easy way to operate it without resorting to removing a glove so the phone can sense my fingertip. (I have tried coatings to the glove fingertips but they didn’t work.) Working it via the gps interface is limited as well. While perusing Walmart the other day I found these novel stylus’ to try. Maybe with their bulk I can manipulate the phone screen to do my bidding.

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[Triangles]

I have some gloves that have a special finger tip material that works but to be honest, it's like trying to write fine print with a marker than has a 2" felt tip.

[bikerbill]

I’ve been working on a solution that will help reduce what I take into a hotel/motel at night.

During the Heart of Texas Rally in October on the first and second nights I took my duffel bag and tank bag into the room. Unstrapping/restrapping the duffel bag takes a bit of work due to the two straps and cargo net that hold it in place. See the pic below for reference:

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On the third night I was very tired and only took in the tank bag. What a difference it made the next morning in not having to strap on the duffel bag for the day.

I took an inventory of what the minimum I would take in for the night and think that it will fit into the space of a small ammo can. There is enough space between the backrest and aux fuel tank to put an ammo can so that’s what I did. A few weeks ago I purchased a plastic ammo can style box from Harbor Freight to check fitment and it fits perfectly. So today I formed a frame out of 1 1/4” aluminum angle and secured it to the aux fuel tank mount with 3M 30lb double-stick tape. With a single bungee across the ammo can it is very secure. I’ll be testing it in the next few weeks for functionality.

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I will probably still have the duffel bag on the rear but only take it off at the checkpoints.

[bikerbill]

Final maintenance of Hidalgo has been done, all pertinent paperwork has been filed, that just leave packing the bike for the trip up to Provo this week. The Iron Butt Rally begins promptly at 10:00am on June 21st from Provo, UT.

Daily reports can be found here: https://ironbutt.com/ibr2021/index.html
or here:
http://ibr.wvi.com/

[Triangles]

Have fun!

[bikerbill]

Friend Christopher Ross took this as he followed me to Albuquerque.

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[bikerbill]

I'm Back!

https://ironbutt.com/ibr2021/Final_Standings.html

For the entire trip (to/from the start plus the rally itself) I covered over 11,000 miles in 19 days.

Link to Spotwalla tracking: https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/7ad9-9f6 ... &showAll=1

[Triangles]

Wow that is A LOT of riding!!!