Now that I have recovered from the surprise stomach bug that greeted me after I returned home from the Butt Lite, I thought I would post some observations until I can finish my trip report: First, I need to say that I should have been a DNS (Did not start). For those that didnt see the posts, I had a catastrophic failure of my rear sprocket which took out my rear wheel. It is only due to two individuals going above and beyond that I was able to make the start in time. One was Chuck from Bikes Built Better in Horsham PA. He left after work on July 3rd and drove 500 miles to Springfield OH to bring me a new wheel and tire. The other is Brian from Mid-Ohio Harley Davidson. He went and picked up a new sprocket from another dealer and delivered it to my hotel so I could get my bike back on the road. Thanks guys!!! Also, Team Strange knows how to put on a rally! Rally book was top notch, GPS coordinates for the bonus locations I chased were dead on, and everything was well organized. Things that went well: I finished the rally, which was my #1 goal!!! I was able to ride 1300 miles out to MN and then ride 5700 miles in 6 days with zero discomfort. I was able to execute my route for Leg 1 fairly well and for the most part rode the ride I planned My routing for Leg 2 was pretty good and I am happy with that Things that I learned or that could have been improved: My route for Leg 1 was planned to be conservative but I rode the first two days too conservatively resulting in my needing to ride through the night to make the checkpoint and I had 2 hours of sleep before Leg 2 which took me a day to recover from. Should have pushed a little harder on the first two days. I need more discipline when rallying, just because I have 6 days does not mean I can relax. I did not get out of my hotel fast enough on several occasions, and wasted too much time at bonus locations. As a result I was unable to ride my planned ride for Leg 2 and dropped 3 500 point bonus locations. Dehydration caught me on day 2 and I lost 30 - 45 minutes sitting in a gas station cooling down and rehydrating. Plus I was off my game for the rest of the day. I know better than that! Preventive maintenance on a bike with 120K on it prevents stuff from breaking!!! I need more lights for driving on back country roads in the middle of the night. I rode right past a marker and never saw it despite having GPS coordinates telling me where it was. I need proper riding gear. I knew this before but it was reinforced during the rally I learned that 1400 miles of interstate riding is much easier than 1200-1300 miles of rallying (duh!!!)
Posted on: Thu, 17 Jul 2014 12:33:03 +0000
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