MTF  50/100CC Iron Butt Association Ride Jeff Mitchell 100CCC Ride Report March 2003

“Mitch Rider”, my BMW K1200LT “trusty steed”, and I got a late start from Portland Friday afternoon, and headed north on I-5 the 312 miles to the kick off point of our “Border to Border” ride, Blaine, WA., stopping enroute in Seattle to rendezvous with fellow IBA rider Coni Fitch. The weather predicted was marginal and so it was, as we were greeted the next morning with 29 degrees and slight snow flurries. After an early breakfast and after getting the two early morning Denny’s workers to witness our start forms, we rode up to the
Canadian Border and got the Customs Lady to stamp our witness forms as well. On our way back through US Customs, we got the typical “You’re going to do what?!” response to our trip plan and had not only our citizenship questioned, but our sanity as well. They also warned us of a hazardous icy spot just outside of Blaine where there had been a wreck earlier that morning. With that dubious parting thought, we stopped back by Blaine and got
our fuel and receipt and proceeded ever so carefully back onto I-5 and headed south. We rode very cautiously, without incident, through the reported icy stretch just south of Blaine.After that the roads became clear and we cruised along conservatively until we had to go over the hills outside of Bellingham where we encountered serious snow creating a near “white out” condition. We pulled off the freeway to a gas station to discuss our options and
realized that if we stayed there too long we could get “snowed in” so we decided to take our chances and forge ahead. At this point the road was completely covered with snow so we “tip-toed” back onto the Interstate and finally got out of the snow in about 5 miles. The roads then appeared dry, temperature rose to 34 degrees, and daylight was at hand, so we were able to actually go highway speed for awhile. This was especially important to maintain as we had to pass right by the Krispy Kreme exit!

Outside of Everett, we opted for the car pool lane, which normally is a good safe place to travel, but not this morning. Proceeding along about 50 mph I noticed a little wiggle but before I could comfortably change lanes, I was suddenly down and sliding across three lanes of traffic. The bike stayed on its right side and slid about 75 feet beyond where I stopped. I popped right up like I had just slid into home plate and put up my arms to the traffic in case they hadn’t already seen me...fortunately they had and were able to stop. People got out of their cars and helped me get the bike up and over to the side of the road. It was then that I realized just how slippery it was, as I could hardly stand up on the shoulder. In fact, Coni had to pull her bike off the shoulder into the gravel to get footing to keep her bike upright. What we realized was that the cars had melted the ice in the traffic paths, but not on the shoulders or the lesser used carpool lane. My bike appeared to only have cosmetic damage from sliding on it’s right side and the sacrificial tip-over bar appeared to have done its job in bending under impact. I didn’t have a bump, bruise, scratch, or even a sore spot. My rain pants were a bit shredded in the seat and a part of one leg, but that’s all. I definitely had an angel riding with me that day! The phrase Iron “Butt” has definitely taken on new meaning for me.

I very gingerly got back onto the bike and drove to the next exit where we did a more thorough exam of the bike. It appeared to be fine, with no drips, and no strange noises, and other than the ABS warning lights flashing, which they had done once before, everything seemed to be working fine. As this was the first day of a weeks worth of Iron Butt rides, the Border to Border and then the 100CCC, we said hey...everything seems to be working and nothing seems to be hurting...so lets just keep going! So carry on we did, although we weren’t out of the dismal weather. It continued to rain pretty consistently for the next 3-4 hours, so our pace was less than ideal. About the time we reached Eugene, Oregon, we finally broke out of the wet and basically had dry roads the rest of the way. The one real Mountain pass that we had to cross, the Siskiyous (usually the one of most concern), ended up being dry and clear with temperatures in the low 50’s. Needless to say the weather had eroded our average speed up until then, but fortunately clear weather was predicted for the rest of the way down I-5 through California, so our goal was still attainable. To about the midway point, Redding, CA., our overall average speed was only about 58 mph...not an average that would get us to our destination in time. We pressed on, hopeful that the higher speed limit and traffic flow down straight and boring I-5, would give us the opportunity to significantly pick up the pace, and so we did, easily running 10 over until about 12:00am, when, outside of Coalinga,CA., Coni got hit hard by the sleep monster. After about a half hour coffee stop and discussion about whether to stop for the night and give up on the ride, Coni said that she thought she was okay and wanted to give it a go. So off we went. At this point we had another 350 miles to go and less than 5 hours to do it. We hit the road and maintained a very determined pace, in spite of the need for two more fuel stops. Here is where an auxiliary fuel tank could have saved us precious time by eliminating these fuel stops. Up and over Grapevine and through LA was a blur. We needed all of that effort as we pulled into Customs at the Mexican Border with 1440 miles on our odometer and with 20 minutes to spare. We got our gas receipt and one witness at the gas station and then had the Customs agent at the border sign as our other witness. WHEW!! I think that it took about a half an hour for the adrenaline rush of the “sprint to the finish” to pass. All in all, it was quite the trip, and one that gave us a great sense of satisfaction knowing what we accomplished in spite of the uncooperative weather, the unscheduled dismount, and the bothersome sleep monster.

Upon heading back north, I discovered that we could have saved some time if we had taken 805 instead of staying on I-5 where they split north of San Diego. Certainly something for all of you future riders of this route to remember. My trip was not over, however, as I wanted to visit with my son and his wife in Long Beach. As they both work, and it was now Sunday morning, this was my only day to visit with them so I got back on the bike and rode
the additional 120 miles or so back to Long Beach and got them out of bed at 7:30 to let me in. As they were not ready to be awake yet, and with my being awake for 27 1/2 hours, I had no problem enjoying a solid three hour nap on the couch. Visiting with them on Sunday was a great way to come down from the trip and kick back, especially while sitting out on the beach for a couple of hours watching the ebb and flow of the water.

As I wanted to get my bike thoroughly checked before the MTF 100CCC ride on Wednesday, I got up early Monday morning so I could beat the commuter traffic out of LA and headed to the BMW dealer in San Diego. Thanks to David Shealey, who had called ahead, Randy, the service manager at Brecht BMW, was ready for me and was able to work me into his shop schedule. While I was waiting, I had a chance to meet and visit with David Misalhof and talk a bit about the upcoming100CCC ride. The stormy SE weather report predictions he related ended up being most prophetic, as we were to discover three days later. As for my bike, the first thing that the service tech did was to hook the bike up to the diagnostic computer to check out the flashing ABS light issue. What we discovered was that the rear brake reservoir was empty, so...no big deal, we just filled it and figured my little
”lay down” had displaced the fluid. As the tech was resetting the computer to continue the scan I noticed fluid dripping from down by the foot brake. Not good. My initial thought was “Oh S**t, big problem! After removing the mounting plate we discovered that the screw on the top of the brake slave cylinder by the foot brake had backed it’s way all the way out and was just being held by the curved edge of the chrome casing upon which it was mounted. This was good news and good news. One, all we had to do was tighten it to solve the problem, and two, as it could not have been caused by anything other than it originally not being tightened to factory spec, it was covered under warranty. I was concerned that this meant that I had had only front brakes the whole time but he reassured me that thanks to BMW’s engineering and the linked brake system, the only thing that was not functional was the foot pedal and as long as I used the brake handle on the bars, which I do 98% of the time with the linked brake system, I was getting full use of both front and rear brakes. Thank you BMW! As for the displaced and rather loose tip-over bar on the right side, what we discovered, upon pulling the fairing, was that it had done it’s job in absorbing the impact and saving damage to the frame. Again, kudos to BMW’s engineering! Not only had it bent under impact, but the bike had gone down so hard that it had actually stripped the bolt from its attachment point and was hanging loose from the frame at it’s rear mounting point. We speculated that this may have been attributable to the solid mounting piece of the “J-Peg” highway pegs that I had installed and that this solid mounting piece was not flexible and therefore had transferred more of the force to the tip-over bracket. (Because of this, I am considering removing the “J-Pegs” and going back to the sacrificial stock piece.) Unfortunately, the dealer did not have a new tip-over bracket in stock to replace the slightly bent one but the service tech was able to rethread the stripped portion on the frame and resecure it. He pronounced it fit for now and that I could just replace the bracket when I got back to Portland. SO....four hours, and only $67.00 later, the bike was all back together and ready for the next adventure...thank you BMW for great engineering, thank you Brecht BMW for great service.100CCC here I come...but that’s a story for another day!