Alan Leduc's IBA Experiences

The Iron Butt Association is dedicated to safe, long-distance, endurance motorcycle riding.

Iron Butt Association Membership # 8613

Bun Burner 3000 Gold
January 2-3, 2002

The Certificate

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Rules for the ride are on Iron Butt Association Website

The Bike

The Plan

I had planned a trip to Phoenix over semester break to see a friend; however, the schedule was going to require me to miss the first three days of the semester which I couldn't justify. I got to thinking about how few people had done a Bun Burner 3000 Gold (two back to back trips of 1500 miles in 24 hours) and decided it was worth a shot. So the planning begin and a date of January 2-4, 2002 was set. The main concern was the temperatures in the northern loop. The 15 day forecast showed temps above Memphis in the 9-25 degree range. Recognizing that this is a very challenging ride I developed the route so that I could bail on the BB3000 and opt for a SS3000 (3000 miles in 72 hours). In order to get the mileage to work, I had to start the trip about 6 miles the opposite direction from my home and end it at the dealer about 30 miles away. My bike would be ready for a service anyway.

Weather Watch

Trip Date/Time	City	12/22	12/23	12/24	12/25	12/26
1/2 10:00am	New Castle, IN	9-25 Snow	9-25	9-25	12-29	12-33
1/2 03:00pm	Knoxville, TN	17-37	17-37	17-37	17-37	17-41
1/2 05:00pm	Chattanooga, TN	19-38	19-38	19-38	19-38	19-42
1/2 07:00pm	Atlanta, GA	22-41	22-41	22-41	22-41	22-45
1/3 12:00am	Jackson, MS	24-47	38-56	24-47	24-47	24-51
1/3 03:00am	Shreveport, LA	27-46	43-59	25-46	25-46	25-50
1/3 06:00am	Dallas, TX	33-51	44-63	24-45	25-45	24-45
1/3 01:00pm	San Antonio, TX	40-53	49-68	32-51	29-51	29-55
1/3 03:30pm	Houston, TX	33-54	48-65	30-52	30-52	30-56
1/3 07:00pm	Baton Rouge, LA	30-51	43-61	30-51	30-51	30-55
1/4 01:30am	Memphis, TN	28-42	42-50	25-40	29-39	29-43
1/4 03:00am	St. Louis, MO	21-32	27-37 Rain/Snow	18-36	30-31	25-28
1/4 09:00am	Muncie, IN	16-25 Snow	24-31 Snow	14-31	20-25	20-29

Trip Date/Time	City	12/27	12/28	12/29	12/30	12/31
1/2 10:00am	New Castle, IN	17-29	17-32	11-23	12-22	11-23
1/2 03:00pm	Knoxville, TN	23-38	23-41	21-36	20-36	20-31
1/2 05:00pm	Chattanooga, TN	25-45	25-38	22-37	21-40	22-32
1/2 07:00pm	Atlanta, GA	24-44	24-47	19-35 Snow	23-40	24-34
1/3 12:00am	Jackson, MS	33-54	33-57	26-41	25-44	23-41
1/3 03:00am	Shreveport, LA	41-59	26-44	32-43	25-45	22-42
1/3 06:00am	Dallas, TX	44-59	42-46	31-45	26-41	32-50
1/3 01:00pm	San Antonio, TX	44-69	44-50	34-51	31-51	32-54
1/3 03:30pm	Houston, TX	44-68	44-63	34-48	24-46	34-54
1/3 07:00pm	Baton Rouge, LA	41-63	41-66	32-49	28-47	28-51
1/4 01:30am	Memphis, TN	42-48 Showers	42-51 Rain	21-36	22-36	28-42
1/4 03:00am	St. Louis, MO	31-48 Steady Rain	31-46 Snow/Rain	10-29	10-23	22-37
1/4 09:00am	Muncie, IN	29-33 Snow/Sleet	29-36 Snow/Sleet	8-23	11-27	19-31

Trip Date/Time	City	01/01	It's A Go! Hopefully, the snow in Atlanta will be gone by the time I get there. If I hit bad weather, I will abandon the IBA ride.
1/2 10:00am	New Castle, IN	10-23
1/2 03:00pm	Knoxville, TN	21-32
1/2 05:00pm	Chattanooga, TN	23-36
1/2 07:00pm	Atlanta, GA	24-31 Snow
1/3 12:00am	Jackson, MS	20-38
1/3 03:00am	Shreveport, LA	22-46
1/3 06:00am	Dallas, TX	32-46
1/3 01:00pm	San Antonio, TX	36-52
1/3 03:30pm	Houston, TX	34-52
1/3 07:00pm	Baton Rouge, LA	21-44
1/4 01:30am	Memphis, TN	30-44
1/4 03:00am	St. Louis, MO	25-37
1/4 09:00am	Muncie, IN	20-29

The Route

Travel Log

The stop times are estimated as 10 minutes + a five minute allowance for exiting and returning to the Interstate. Arrive time is 10 minutes before time stamp on gas receipt. Mileage Readings from GPS. Note: Odometer readings do not match mileage of GPS, due to odometer error. GPS Mileage used for all calculations

Post Trip Reflection

I had a really tough semester the Fall of 2001. I was taking the last class necessary to finish a Masters Degree from Purdue in Interdisciplinary Engineering and teaching four different classes (Ball State University, Manufacturing Engineering Technology). I had three new texts, one course that I was developing curriculum for, and a course that I had only taught twice. All that means a lot of extra preparation time. Another faculty went out with back surgery about mid-semester and I was assigned to teach AC Electricity which I hadn't studied since the 70's and had never taught. Killer prep, read that more time on the job. A week or so later another faculty members wife was in a critical accident and I picked up some of his classes. Now I am teaching 9 classes and taking one. Basically, I was getting no sleep and the only riding I was doing was back and forth to work. When the semester ended, I felt like someone just lifted the world off my shoulders. I took the final for the class I was taking December 11 and began to recuperate given the semester break.

Having missed a lot of riding time, I really wanted to do a long ride before hard winter set in. Problem was I had a lot of work to do during the break, so I couldn't really take a lot of time. I get this thought about a Bun Burner 3000 Gold. I had completed a Bun Burner 1500 Gold in October and remembered posting to the Motorcycle Tourer's Forum , where several of the members have done IBA rides,  that this was a very difficult ride and I was not sure that the Bun Burner 3000 Gold was feasible by the common Joe. I had a real appreciation as to why so few people had done this ride. I posted a message on December 19, 2002 under a thread called "BB3000 is this nuts?" My idea was to do a Bun Burner 3000 (2 back to back 1500 miles in 24 hours rides) and if at some point I felt like I was pushing my limits, I would bail and do a SaddleSore 3000 (3000 miles in 72 hours). If that was pushing it, I would just have gone for a long ride.  When I made the post, I was really not sure about doing any kind of ride, but I really wanted to go for a long ride bad. 

I had been riding to work everyday (about 30 miles each way) in some pretty cold temperatures. I had even made a trip to Competition Accessories, about a 2-1/2 hour ride, to pick-up some Widder electric chaps on December 15 so I could extend my riding season. I had already been using Widder's System 1 vest and gloves with the variable controller. I have a Tulsa windshield and had added wind wings and mirror deflectors which puts me in a nice little pocket, so cold weather riding had become kind of fun. I decided that I was going to at least plan a trip for January 2-3, 2002.and I put up a web page outlining my plan. I had ordered some boot heaters from Extreme Comfort some time ago. I actually ordered two sets with the intent of wiring them in series so I could plug them into a variable controller. I made a harness and got them wired up and tried them out on a test run. They seemed to work so I ordered an extra Widder variable controller and some extra plugs in order to be able to remove them, similar to my gloves. I put one one pad on the toe and another on the heal of each each foot. I mounted the pad on the top of the insole and then placed a plane insole on top of that so I wouldn't feel the wires. Felt pretty good.

By December 20, the weather was getting really cold. I posted a message on the Motorcycle Tourer's Forum  that I was going to start watching the weather and make a call about 5 days out. By December 22, I was getting depressed that the trip didn't look good and started keeping a weather watch. The temperatures were projected to be cold. I thought I could deal with that, but there was also a forecast of snow and rain. Snow - no way - and the sound of very cold rain was not too thrilling. As the time approached things were not looking good. The December 30 and 31 forecast had no forecast for snow or rain.  Cheered up by the prospect that the ride might happen, I did hour long test rides checking out my equipment on both days. Hey, I was pretty warm. I decided it's a go!!! I called my credit card company and told them to expect a lot of charges all over the south and west over the next several days, so please don't put a hold on my credit card. My wife has always been supportive of my craziness, but I could tell she really didn't like the idea of this trip because of the cold and the predicted snow. Whoa, on January 1, they were predicting snow in Atlanta. Heck, how bad could it snow in Atlanta. My enthusiasm got the best of me and I decided I was going. The post on my weather watch said, "Hopefully, the snow in Atlanta will be gone by the time I get there. If I hit bad weather, I will abandon the IBA ride." 

Because of the rigor and stress at the end of the semester, I had become accustomed to having little sleep and even after the semester ended, found myself waking up in the middle of the night thinking that I surely had something important to do. Realizing that my plan would allow only a 3 hour rest stop, I figured that the end of the semester had just been training for sleep deprivation.  The night before the ride, I got what had become my normal horrible nights sleep. Not good. When I did the Bun Burner 1500 Gold, I had gotten a great nights sleep the night before and was very relaxed. I was relaxed for this trip but would have felt better if I had rested really well.

My planned start time was 10:00 a.m., January 2, 2002. I got up the final time about 8:00 a.m. I had forgotten to get cash (actually, I don't get cash, my wife gives it to me and I had forgotten to ask), so my wife had to go to the bank at 9:00 a.m. I put all of my gear on and told her that I would meet her for breakfast at Ron & Pam's Corner Restaurant (my morning hangout). My wife (Brenda), my son (Chad), and my grandson (Bailey) met me for breakfast. My wife had steak and eggs. I had a bowl of oatmeal and no coffee. I'm a big coffee drinker so that was a challenge, but I knew I would not have time for extra pee stops. I had the restaurant owners (Ron & Pam Broyles) and a regular (Phil Campbell) sign my witness forms. Kissed by grandson and wife goodbye and I was off to the Interstate to fill up and get my receipt. It was a whopping 24 degrees. (Tip: If you know you are going to be pressed for time, get you witnesses and drive to the Interstate to get your receipt. Get as much time on the Interstate as you can.)

When planning for the SaddleSore 3000 I thought it was "back to back to back" SS1000's and thought I needed witnesses at the 1000 and 2000 marks as well as the 1500 mile mark. I posted a note on the LDriders listserve asking for possible witnesses. I received an email stating that it was not necessary to get the 1000 and 2000 point witness. I rechecked the Iron Butt Association  web  site and sure enough the witnesses were not needed. (Tip: read and re-read the rules and make sure you know what the rules are for the ride that you are doing.) The LDrider (not sure that he wants his name divulged as the message said this is not for the list) also told me, "don't waste the time on the others, you are not going to have much time to spare." (Tip: He was right, you do not have much time to spare.) 

I had planned my trip in Microsoft Streets and Maps.  I also decided to keep my stops as short as possible in the early going. Hopefully, this would place me ahead of my planned schedule and provide some encouragement. (Tip: It is much easier to lose time than it is to make it up.) Gas, Pee-Break (only when necessary), and ride. No stretching and dinking around. I planned and logged my stops above at 15 minutes. It is too difficult to time your stops. I am sure that most of my stops were much shorter than this. When plotting my route, I only plot to the exit point, so I consider the slow down time, getting on and off the Interstate to factor into the stop time. (Tip: If you are going to do this ride, make the stops as short as possible. The extra time on the stop is lost sleep time at the midpoint.) 

I was concerned about rush hour traffic in Knoxville and Chattanooga. My plan called for hitting Knoxville about 3:00 p.m. and Chattanooga right in the middle of rush hour. I wasn't sure about Chattanooga, but having spent a week at the Honda Hoot which was in Knoxville last year, I knew rush hour traffic there could bring you to a stop. I cruised through both, so I was feeling pretty good. (Tip: Always make sure you think about rush hour traffic. Check with the forums to get some ideas of the traffic patterns if you are unsure. On a long trip like this, it is almost impossible to avoid all rush hour traffic. You will have some serious decisions and compromises to make when establishing your start time.)

Ok, Atlanta is coming up and it sure doesn't look like snow. I'm thinking this is a good. Just before I get to Marietta (North Atlanta) it starts to flurry. I'm thinking that flurries are no big deal, it isn't even sticking. As Emeril would say, BAM. Within a few yards it went from flurries to about 1" of snow/sleet/ice. Here I am stuck in the middle lanes, it is dusk and I have no real idea where I'm at, and there are cars going off the side of the road. I sure don't want to be sitting on the side of the road looking at a map with all of these crazies. An usually the exit ramps are worse than the roads. What are my options? I had decided, I was not going to pull to the side of the road and  I was not too thrilled about  working my way to the side lanes where cars didn't know how to deal with the camber on the slick roads, and if I made it that far, I wasn't sure I wanted to hit the exit ramps where I was sure to hit stop/start traffic. OK. I'm a Yankee; I know how to drive in snow, unlike these idiots (not personal, just the way I felt at the time. It is not there fault they get so little experience). I just had brand new tires installed before starting the trip and they are scuffed in. I'm just going to hang here and see how it goes. I leave the bike in fifth gear so as to make the accelerations easy; I maintained a gap the best I could; and the only braking that was going to happen was with the throttle. I wasn't sure how it was going to work, but at least I had a plan. After the first wiggle, I dropped my feet to use as skis, in case there was another wiggle. I wasn't dragging my feet but I did feel the pavement a couple of times. One of the biggest hazards was the ice falling from the trucks. I found out the hard way when one of them hit my right foot and darn near dragged my boot off my foot. You can bet that I added ice clumps to my search and scan list. I wouldn't want to hit one of those with the front wheel. The next think you know (time seemed like it was really fast.) In my mind, I had already abandoned the Bun Burner 3000 Gold, so I didn't feel any clock anxiety. My goal was to just get to a point that I could comfortably get out of this mess. I am on I-285. Traffic was flowing about 30-40 mph. I wasn't concerned about a fall, except the thought of sliding under an 18 wheeler was gruesome. Wow. I'm on I-20 and this really isn't that bad. In fact, I am passing most of the traffic in the slow lane and there are some stretches where there are bare roads. Oh, the temperature is only 30 degrees (I have a display on my bike). Darn, I better watch for "Black Ice." The truckers are making comments like:

• Look at that damned idiot.
• Who the hell would be riding a motorcycle in this cold weather let alone snow?
• He's got bigger balls that I got.
• That is one brave dude.

The truckers were right and wrong. I was an Idiot, but thought that I took the best of the options available to me. They were wrong as I was not brave (I could tell from the death grip I had on the handlebars) and I did not have big balls (it was too cold for that). The CB reports said the snow stopped at the Alabama border. Damn I which my CB worked better I could ask. Why doesn't somebody say how far it is to the border. Finally, someone said, "the border is not that far." Great, I think I can make it. (Tip: any advise you get from a CB is subject to suspicion.)  The border was actually about 45 more miles. All in all, I rode about 60 miles in the snow/sleet/ice. I reach the border and no snow. I had a stop schedule soon so I decided to just push it to the scheduled stop and mentally change my pants. When I got to the stop and looked at my log, I realized that with all of that, I was right on schedule. How did that happen? I had really pushed hard on those early legs. The flow of traffic was good, rush hour traffic in Knoxville and Chattanooga had treated me nicely and by cutting my stops as short as possible, I was still on schedule. I have a saying that I use often. In fact, all I have to say to my family is, "You know what they say." and they chime in "When you are dumb you suffer." In this case I was dumb and lucky. I saw 6 (I think) multiple car crashes. It must have been all that riding in the snow on my bicycle when I was a kid that gave the confidence and skill to hang in there.  Forget about abandoning the ride. I still have a shot. Besides the temperatures were starting to get warmer. I must have misunderstood the weather band on my radio, but I thought they said the temperature was 51 in Birmingham. (Should have listened to the weather band before Atlanta (seems dumb but I forgot about it). In actuality it was 36, but this was a high for the trip so far (See Chart Below).

Temperature Chart

I guess my adventure through Atlanta was pretty well marked. I heard a trucker say, "My God, that guy on the bike had to come from Atlanta, he has ice hanging from that thing." Having survived the snow, I wasn't up to pushing too hard. I was losing time on every stop. No big deal. I had decided that I would make a decision at the midpoint, but was thinking that I probably would abandon the Bun Burner. At the midpoint stop (Stop 13). I was only 20 minutes behind schedule. I decided to get some rest, waking up in time to leave according to my schedule which was based upon using 52 minutes of the second leg. Since I started the trip 9 minutes late, I would only be eating up 43 minutes of the second 24 hours. If I feel good when I wake up, I will give it a shot. I had a little hassle with the hotel staff (see comments on the travel log above). The hotel staff was kind enough to serve as my witnesses which saved me a trip to the Police station. (Tip: I have always used the Police as a witness since only one witness is required. However, when I did my Bun Burner 1500 Gold I got some hassling because they thought it was to much. This trip I decided to use regular witnesses since I didn't want the hassle and because I didn't give any other IBA Member's enough time to respond to my request for witnesses. Plan you trip far enough ahead of time so that you can get an IBA Witness for this ride. They understand what you are doing and will be there during a time window that you can work out in advance.) I decided to set my Screaming Meanie (I actually got mine at a truck stop) for 1 hour and 45 minutes. I had my Widder chaps under my jeans and over long johns. They have one elastic/velcro strap around the waste and six on each leg. I had only put them on a few times and it took a lot of time, so I just left them on. I really didn't think I was that cold but during that last leg before the stop, the temperatures had dropped to 16 degrees. (More on temperatures and clothing later). I was shivering which means that there was probably some hypothermia. I pulled the covers up over my head and I was out. The Screaming Meanie went off and when I finally got it shut off I heard someone in the hall say, "Who pulled the fire alarm?" I chuckled, got dressed, casually got reorganized and at 10:52 according to my original schedule, headed out. This was the most sound sleep I had in weeks, even if was short. I felt pretty darn good.

Darn, I-35 traffic was terrible but the flow was good. I pulled into the first stop of the second leg (Stop 16) 4 minutes ahead of schedule. Temperature is 40 degrees, things are looking up. I headed East on I-10 and the temperature was up to 45. However, the winds were cross winds and cutting. I felt colder than the 30's that I experienced during the early part of the ride. Houston traffic was terrible. I was shocked that I arrived at Stop 17 when I did. I was still ahead of schedule. Traffic must have been flowing pretty good, but it sure didn't seem like it. I needed this because the scheduled times were based upon an even speed across the entire route and the speed limits would be dropping from 70 to 65 when I headed back north. Ended up that I was ahead of schedule until I hit Stop 22, at which time I was right on schedule. I was alert, really didn't feel any sleep deprivation, and optimistic that I could finish the ride before 48 hours.

By Stop 20 things are getting cold again, it is 23 degrees and night (10:34 p.m), so I am getting no radiant heat from the sun. Ok it is time to talk about riding in the cold. I have a full fairing and have my bike set up to remove most of the airflow to me. Under these conditions, I was very comfortable at riding with a lined leather jacket, gauntlet gloves and jeans down to about 35 degrees for short periods (about 30 minutes commuting). I could go down to the mid-20's with leather chaps. Wanting to push the riding season I had already bought a Widder vest, gloves and variable controller. I had ridden in the teens and was very comfortable but my legs and feet were cold. I knew I would have to have lots of layers or since I was liking the electrics, electric chaps. I had already decided to fix up the boots as described above. I also bought "The Masque" which is a form fitting face protector. I wear glasses and a 3/4 helmet and this kept my face warm but did not fog up my glasses. The mask replaced a Roadgear handkerchief that I had been pulling up over my face, but tended to fog my classes. I still wore the handkerchief as a dickie. I also got a pair of SealSkinz all season socks for Christmas. I had done two one hour test rides fully wired just prior to the trip and thought I had it covered. NOT! Here are some comments:

Note: I received a negative email stating that I was bashing Widder in the comments below. In my first draft, I probably did make some comments that were a bit strong and could be considered bashing. This was not my intention and I feel that the Widder Electrics will serve me well in the future. Riding at these low temperatures for this extended period of time is extreme. Read my Bun Burner 1500 Gold report. I was shivering at 40 degrees without electrics. During this trip I spent roughly ten hours of riding time below 20 degrees and another 15 hours between 21 and 30 degrees. These are extreme conditions!

• My electrics were fine down to about 30 degrees at a setting of about 4 of 7.

• At 25 degrees, my arms were getting cold.  I had an extra jacket that I added between the vest and my leather jacket at the next Stop. My arms were still cold. I needed electric arm chaps and a windproof jacket.

• In the teens, you can have the heat turned all the way to seven, but it is not enough. I was shivering. I also had to pull the handkerchief up over "The Masque." I needed a full winter riding suit and probably a full face helmet.

• The boot heaters worked pretty good at the low temperatures. However, once they get hot, they are hot and it takes a while to cool down. I had them wired though a controller with the electric chaps. It got to the point my feet were literally on fire. At the midpoint my feet were hot but my legs were cold. (Tip: Make sure that you have controls for each element of your electric apparel.) The foot heaters got so hot, I thought I had blistered my feet so I finally unplugged them and tucked my feet up under the engine which makes for a good toe warmer. I discovered after I got home that I had the controller for the boot heater/leg chaps wired with reverse polarity. No wonder they got so hot. They were on all the time with no adjustment. I thought that the instructions said that if you wire with reverse polarity that there would be no heat. I had heat so I thought I had it wired right. The instructions really said, if you have reverse polarity the heat will be on all of the time. (Tip: Don't try to remember what the instructions say. Find them and read them again. Make sure you know how your equipment works and that you haven't done anything to change the setup since your test.)

• The harness from my boot heaters ran up each leg into a "Y" at the waist ant plugged into the leg chaps. I noticed that I was getting a burning sensation right at my underwear line. I thought that my shirt had ridden up and allowed allowed the vest to touch bear skin. I noticed that when I got home I had a scratch on my lower stomach. Then a couple days later noticed that it was more than a scratch but was a burn also. The shrink tubing that I had used at the why split and had allowed a wire to both scratch and burn my bear skin. (Tip: When you are using experimental equipment, you are likely to have problems.)

• The Widder electric chaps, even with the heat set on high, were inadequate at these temperatures. Actually, since I had reversed the polarity, I just had whatever heat I was getting all of the time. I put the chaps on under my jeans. Good decision. I can't imagine cold my legs would have been if I had worn them on the outside of the pants. The jeans were not the right choice. I needed a wind resistant material and maybe something that was insulated.

• The Widder electric vest when turned on high will burn you at the contact points. At the mid-heat settings the vest was very comfortable. But when I had to turn it on high, I had a hot spot at the bottom of each side of the bottom rib and at the tight spot in the back. I finally put an extra shirt folded double over my ribs and was comfortable. (Tip: Even with research and time on the forums you might not find the real capability of your products until you have to push them to their limits.)

• The Widder electric gloves were very comfortable.

• "The Masque" is a must for cold weather if you do not wear a full face helmet. I cut a strip at the mouth so I could drink. Good plan but since it was below freezing a lot of the time, my water was frozen. This meant the only rehydration I  was getting was at the stops.

• The Roadgear Hankerchief is a must. It is soft and comfortable, blocks the wind, and can even be dipped in water to cool you down during the summer.

• The Widder electric vest had a tendency to ride up. This also pulled up my leather jacket, so I was constantly tugging at the vest to pull it back down and the cool air off my backside. I will rig up an elastic or velcro strap to tie it to my belt loop to avoid this problem in the future.

• The SealSkinz socks were effective. My boots are not waterproof. They are Wellington style made by Dickies. I paid $50.00 for them at a department store and have worn then for over a year. The soles are in great shape which is amazing as I wear them all day every day. I do have them loaded with Mink Oil but in a real heavy rain, you will get a little leakage. My feet were getting pelted with slush and were soaked, but I didn't feel a thing with the waterproof socks. Not sure but, I think they also helped keep the air out. Several people have commented about using insulated boots. They are probably right. However, I wanted to wear the boots that I wear everyday. I knew that I would have enough problems without worrying about aching feet. I think with a little more experimentation on the boot heaters, wiring the control with the proper polarity, and adding a third controller, so the boots can be individually controlled I can live without the insulated boots at these temperatures.

• If you think you are going to be riding in the teens, you better know what you are up against. (Tip: I am an engineer, I should know better than to use equipment without testing it under it's most extreme conditions. Learn this lesson from my failure to follow good practice.)

If you have ridden this far at these temperatures, I take my hat off to you. Would I do it again. Probably, but I would do some extensive testing first. I have summarized the miles versus the temperatures in the chart below:

On the last several night legs, I noticed that when I would approach a hill and I was looking into the horizon, it looked like I was going to be riding into the side of a mountain. I first I thought I was hallucinating, but I wasn't really tired. When I would concentrate, I could pull out the road. This was a bit scary. I did not feel tired. Was the cold and lack of sleep playing tricks on me? I continued to concentrate very hard which tended to cause a death grip and then all the little aches and pains that come with that. In fact more than 24 hours later, my hands are still swollen. Is this normal? I have since received reports that the swelling is normal on long rides and that you may even have numbness in the fingers. I didn't experience any numbness however. When daylight arrived I realized that my windshield was filthy. I had never taken the time to clean it. Mainly, because my cleaning rag (I carry it in a zip lock bag with water) was frozen and it didn't really seem that dirty. (Tip: Clean your windshield. Don't be anal about it like Kent - you know who you are, because you don't have that much time.)

I used a Garmin Street Pilot Colormap GPS on this trip. Up to the start of the trip I was not very happy with the GPS.

• I found the base map to be inadequate in my local area. It did not even show all of the state highways.

• So I bought Garmin Roads & Recreation software and found that you could not enter addresses.

• I then bought Gramin Metroguide USA.

• Garmin told me that since I could only load 50 maps I would only need a 32 meg memory card. I could only get 27 maps on the the card for this trip. (Tip: for 50 Metroguide maps, you need a 64 meg memory card).

• I did not like the routing in the Garmin software, so I did my maps in Microsoft Streets & Maps and then entered Waypoint Longitude and Latitude manually into the Garmin software.

• The waypoints and routes are stored in the GPS and not on the card with the maps. This means that you can't really just snap memory cards in and out and have virtually an unlimited number of maps and routes with the only limit being the amount of money you want to spend on memory cards.

• The memory cards and reader are proprietary and outrageously priced. The unit is of such a size that they should have been able to use a smart card like is used in a digital camera, which is half the price. They have you and know it.

• They have so many products, it difficult to figure out what unit and software you should buy.

• You can enter a major intersection (Say State Road 3 and State Road 38 in Indiana) in the Roads and Recreations software and then in the Metroguide USA software and you get two different longitude and latitude readings. In this case the, locations are about 80 feet apart and when using the unit with both maps loaded (which is allowed), it will not track you along the highway.

• Even though you can load both the R&R and the Metroguide maps at the same time, you have no way to control which map is used and Garmin does not seem to know which map is default. I think it is the R&R map, but not sure.

• When using the autoroute function in the Metroguide software which causes the map to follow the roads, it adds extra waypoints that you don't see. My unit has a 30 Waypoint restriction per route. I limited my waypoints to 24 and got the exact mileage as was on my Microsoft software. However, when I loaded the route, only about 1/3 of it showed. A call to Garmin and I found out why about it loading the unseen waypoints and counting these against the maximum number of waypoints allowed. I have not seen this explanation in any of their literature. This means I had to go with a manual route or have three routes. Since I was interested in keeping average speed for the trip (this was my barometer), I went with the direct route.

How was the GPS in practice?

• The average miles gave me a good feel for how I was doing.

• Most everything that I read, said to leave the setting on about 2 miles. I found that five miles was about right. I could still read the waypoints and had a better view of what the road looked like ahead. I am going to do some experimenting . I think 8 to 10 miles would be even better since when doing a trip like this you know your overall route, you just want to see what is going to happen immediately in front of you.

• If two adjacent  waypoints are on the same road, the GPS routes along the road even in manual mode. This was very effective. This is what I really wanted to see all of the time. I guess some of the newer, more expensive models allow this.

• If two adjacent waypoints are not on the same road, you get an as the crow flies routing. I did not like this at all. Many times I could not even see the marked route in the GPS window. Seems to defeat the purpose.

• If you use direct route, be sure to include a waypoint at the beginning of each road so the road is identified in the GPS routing header. I didn't do this and in the large cities where I needed the GPS the most, I had to dig out my turn guide (a big lettered sheet that I make which tells me each turn).

• I prefer the GPS, but until I become more skilled or the technology gets better, I will have my paper maps stuffed inside my jacket.

• I added a column to the IBA log for GPS reading. This matched almost exactly with my mapping software.

• My bikes speedometer is off by about 4% (4% slow on speed; 4% long on mileage). It was nice having accurate information. I will be installing a "Yellow Box" or something similar to correct this problem.

• I have the GPS mounted on a ram mount it is sturdy and easy to read.

• Don't be messing with the GPS too much while riding. You will run off the road. Have you seen a woman put on lipstick while driving? That is not smart, nor is messing with the GPS while riding. A quick change of page or a tap on the zoom button. Ok, that is similar to changing the radio setting. But, don't be trying to change setting or anything that requires concentrations.

• Many feel that the GPS is too much of a distraction. If used properly, it is no more of a distraction that a tank bag with a map pouch or an arm map holder. You just shouldn't be doing anything while moving that requires a lot of concentration.

A few comments on the bike. I believe in to each is own when it comes to a bike so I will keep it short. The GL1800 is a great ride. Gas mileage is lousy. When you hit the throttle gas miles is more than lousy. Maybe I have the infamous O2 Sensor problem.

A few comments about the body. Iron Butt sounds good but is a misnomer. Iron Legs is more like it . Endurance riding has taught me that the touring bikes are designed with an upright sitting position for a reason, it is the most comfortable for long periods. I moved to the Wing from a cruiser with forward controls and big Cobra floorboards offering lots of different sitting positions so I had to be convinced. Since I could not use my highway pegs because of the cold, I had very little wiggle room and was unable to stretch my legs. They got pretty stiff. The day after, my body is sore (like I overdid a workout, which is easy to do at my age) and my hands are swollen, not sure how much of it is due to the cold and how much is due to other aspects of the ride. It is difficult to drink and eat on the bike at these temperatures. I did most of my eating while filling up with gas because I had a masque over my face most of the time and my water bottle was often frozen. Even though you are not drinking a lot, you still have to pee. Why is that? Pee stops are difficult when it is this cold. First you have the shriveling effect which makes it hard to find. Then when you find it, you have to try to stretch it through all of the clothing. Somebody suggest a stadium pal. However, I can assure you that even if it fit at the start of the ride it would have been much too large after that first few hours in the twenties.

I ended the ride at my dealer, Benson's Motorcycles, Inc. and left my bike for its 16,000 mile service. I had new tires put on the week before and just left my car there. After a cup of coffee, thanks Jerry. An exciting chat and calm celebration. I packed in to the car and took the thirty minute drive home. I called my wife on the cellular and she was ready to eat when I got there. Because of wearing the mask and scraf, my total food intake was:

• Twice I purchased Subway deli tuna sandwich at one gas stop tucked inside my jacket, and eaten at the next stop. That was it for the first 1500

• At the break I had four Oreo cookies that were left as a hotel complement.

• On the second 1500, I had three Quaker Oatmeal bars while on the bike. I just pulled the mask down and stuffed them in.

• I had one bag of beef jerky which I kept stuffed inside my jacket for easy access.

Later in the afternoon my wife asked when I was going to bed? I said, I'm not. I will just stay up until about 9:00 p.m. and try to get back onto my normal schedule. That is what I did. I woke up about 8:00 a.m. the next morning and was back on schedule.

I started working on this report Saturday, the day after my return, I worked on the report all day and at 3:00 a.m. the next morning. I was still stoked about finishing the ride and enjoying the re-experience by putting it into words.

Would I do it again? Probably, not this trip. I have already done it. But I know my passion is in endurance riding, so I will be doing other trips and rallies. I have set my goal on being accepted into the 2003 or 2005 IBA Rally. Would I recommend that others do the ride? The IBA has properly required the BunBurner 1500 Gold as a prerequisite. If you can do the BB1500 ride comfortably, then experiment with how well you function on a small amount of sleep. I have always been able to work at a very detailed level on little sleep. If you can do this, I would recommend the ride. If not, you will understand why at this writing, only 16 individuals (now at least 17 assuming there is no problem with my certification) have completed the ride since the first one12 years ago. As the IBA says, this is an extreme ride. Underline the word extreme. When you try to do the Polar Bear Bun Burner1500 Gold (I made this up, it is not a real ride), it is really extreme.

P.S. I can't tell you how many emails I got congratulating me on the ride. Thanks to all of you who sent me well wishes. I also got a couple of slams. One in particular, commented on how amateurish and foolish it was to do such a ride in these temperature while dressed in blue jeans and a leather jacket. I wasn't thrilled about the directness of the comments, in fact it took away some of the elation that I was feeling about my accomplishment. That said, he made some good points. I admitted in my report, that I made several mistakes and really underestimated the impact of extended cold. I will try to learn from those mistakes in the future and maybe others that read this report will learn from my admission of those poor decisions. I posted here the the negative comment took away from my elation and dampened my spirit for endurance riding. A second email said that I was far too sensitive and that the comments were intended to toughen me up.

I am an amateur. If you read my introduction you will see that when I did this trip, I had only been riding 17 months after an extended layoff. I completed this ride 7 months after my first IBA ride. So I would say that I easily qualify as an amateur. I try to read as much as I can and I participate in forums to learn as much as I can. Obviously, I learned some things on this trip the hard way. It might be the fact that I was an amateur and was willing to abandon the trip at any point, was what allowed me the proper attitude to be successful. I think if you would ask the guys at Benson's Motorcylces, Inc., I didn't ride in looking all beat up and bushed. I was cold, but I could have gone further if necessary.

Maybe I am too sensitive and should not have posted the comment on this web site.  I know that as a manager, a father, and now as a teacher, I have often barked negatives that did more harm than good. As my current boss tells me, I'm a bit of a pit bull myself. I had cancer at age 42 and try to maintain a positive attitude about life. I completed this trip at age 51. I have extracted, the positive comments and suggestions (most were very good) and have learned by posting the comment that I may not be the only one that is sensitive. We all like praise and are harden to accepting criticism. If you have other suggestions that can make me a better rider, please let me know. You can even bark them at me and belittle me if you want. My skin is a little tougher now.

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to email me at amleduc@home.com