Have the SPOT Tracker and used it for the first time on my last trip (3700 miles). Friends and family loved following along and the worry warts (Mom, etc) especially liked the "I'm OK" messages. Here's a sample of one of the features taken from my trip log http://www.spotadventures.com/trip/view?trip_id=201153

 

I have done few it's very physical and mental. My biggest enemy was bad weather couple times other then that tail bone sore real bad.Riding at night time in unfamiliar area is very challenging.Plan all your stops ahead of time and try to conquer majority of the miles in beginning and take it easy as you get tired.

 

Atticus -

Having just finished one myself (the paperwork is still being processed), I can offer a few suggestions:

I did not have SPOT, but it sounds like a really cool thing. I checked in every rest stop (about 80-100 miles) and fuel stop, just to update my wife and boss (YEs, I was actually on a business trip at the time...but that's another story). Just a quick text or e-mail from the crackberry, to let all know I was fine. That alone allayed a lot of worries.

As for pre-ride assurances, if your loved ones know you as a safe, responsible rider, then I think it will be a whole lot easier to assure them than if you are a "wild one". If nothing else works, let them watch the movie "Wild Hogs", and explain how you would react in those situations....

During the ride, like everyone else said, take frequent breaks, eat good food, don't overdo caffeine...and most importantly, make sure your seat is comfortable. Seems that a stock 03 Ultra seat does nto suit my body for long runs, thoguh it had on short runs no problems. I met a guy while in TN the day before starting my IBA run, he had a seat pad made by Airhawk. It was an inflatable one, with a cover, and I tried it on my seat, seemed to work well. It's not cheap, but he really liked it and had it for a few years. I'm going to have one before my next IBA run...

And don't forget to dress for the weather. It seems that the IBA and other long distance riders are in another class, where they dress for long distance comfort over style. I had my leathers and a Frog Togg suit for the rain, full helmet (I will have earplugs next time, took a day before the ringing stopped), gauntlet gloves, waterproofed boots, etc.

Those are just some of my random thoughts, safe riding and good luck!

 

I know you're already on the road by now, but good luck! Now I want to do an IBA ride!

 

Good Luck have a safe trip. All good tips here! When I get my bike going again, I am gonna do one of these.

 

Well, it's done, and we had a good time (in retrospect). This is going to be a long post, but I thought I’d give you a report of how your tips and some things that we did worked out.

First, it was miserably cold all morning. Felt like March weather. Low 40s for a good part of the day. Felt heavenly when it finally warmed up to the 60s. We missed most of the rain, but got wet the last hour or so.

Get a good night's sleep -- um, that one didn't work out so well. With the excitement of doing the ride, and my worry of being late and holding up the other guys, I didn't sleep well at all. I took at Tylenol PM at 8:30 or so. In the past it's helped me sleep great, but I was awake much of the night before the ride. If I do this again, I'll seriously consider taking a stronger sleeping medication the night before.

Leave early – Our group was pretty large (13 bikes) so we split into two groups. The first group left at 4:00, the second group (of which I was part) left at 4:30. I’m glad we did this, though I think it contributed to my sleeplessness. I would leave about the same time again. The group that left first actually had a hard time finding an open gas station in Delta, UT. They didn't get out of there until probably about when we were arriving. We caught up with them in Eureka, NV.

Eat a good breakfast – I wish I would have. I think it might have helped. I just had a breakfast bar, which was fine, but I really wish I’d had some oatmeal or something.

Eat real meals on the road – I took some pop tarts and cereal bars. At most of the stops I ate one of those. They might have been too sugary. Next time I think I’ll take more nuts or something like that for snacks. I did have a “real” lunch – teriyaki rice bowl at jack-in-the-box. Highly recommend something like that. It was not greasy or heavy, but was quick and satisfying.

5 hour energy drink – I took two with me. After lunch, and considering the little sleep I’d had the night before, I was getting quite drowsy. So much so that I considered dropping out of the ride if I couldn’t get perked up. At the next stop I drank the 5 hour energy and ate some peanuts. This was about 11 hours into the ride. The stop itself was immediately invigorating and I did not feel drowsy at all the rest of the ride.

Eye drops – I really meant to do this. I took some with me, but I had decided to wear my contacts and the kind I brought were not compatible. I still think this was a good idea and will try to plan better if I do it again so that I have some drops that can be used with contacts in.

Ear plugs – did this. Glad I did. Need to find an effective way to use i-pod with ear plugs. Have read of some earphones that incorporate a plug. Will consider those. What I did was used Mack’s silicone plugs pressed around the skull candy phones. Worked pretty well, but noticeably louder than using foam earplugs, which I did about half the time (going without music).

Checking in – I texted my location at each stop. Also signed up for google latitude, but because of spotty coverage along our route this showed me as “lost” most of the day. Not particularly comforting to my wife. If I’d had a charger I could have left the GPS feature on my phone and I think it would have given better updates in the areas where we did have coverage. As it was, the Google Latitude feature was a battery drainer that left my phone dead 60 miles from home. I did just check out the SPOT tracker, and it seems like something worth investigating for future rides.


Avoid cities – our route was quite remote except for driving through SLC. We missed the major traffic, but it was dark and rainy as we came through there. The last 60 miles was the most challenging because of that. The volume of cars was not a particular problem but the visibility was very difficult because of rain on the facemasks, mirrors and windshields. I don’t know that I would do anything different there. It was just a somewhat difficult, but mostly unavoidable circumstance.

Get off bike every time – did that. Glad I did. Our breaks were actually longer than they probably needed to be, because of the size of the group. Each break was probably at least 15 minutes. This may have made the ride better, actually, though it did take longer.

Ibuprofen – took this regularly throughout the trip, although I was not in pain. Wanted to avoid inflammation and I think it worked. I would do this again.

Moderate speed – we did not really do this. We rode quite fast. That, combined with the heavy winds throughout the day, burned a lot of fuel. As a result, I needed stops earlier than I would usually. On this trip, it didn’t change the number of stops because I was with a group, some of whom had 4 gallon tanks and needed to stop anyway. However, even riding alone I’m not 100% sure I’d change anything. Although it required more stops, those were beneficial. Traveling fast (where it was safe to do so) helped us “make up for lost time” from the stops. It was definitely more expensive, because I burned more fuel.

Over prepare for weather – I wish I’d done this. I prepared for the weather, but I needed to be overprepared. I did not prepare for 40 degree temps. I was miserably cold for most of the morning. A pair of long johns would have made a huge difference, as would heated gear. I think heated gear is a very good idea for someone planning on doing many long-distance rides. It would have been easy to pack and made those cold temps a non-factor.

Buddy system – I think that traveling in a group of six slowed us down. Our stops were all longer because maybe one guy needs to run to the restroom, so all wait. However, as indicated above, I think that these longer stops were probably a good thing. Kind of like pacing ourselves. None of us were overly fatigued because we’d had good rest throughout the day. Having a “buddy” was also good. Leaving Lovelock, NV two of our group fell behind. We didn’t realize it until we were approaching Battle Mountain and they still had not caught up. We waited about 5 or 10 minutes on the side of the freeway by the exit (so we didn’t lose them) and they did show up. Turns out one guys vinyl saddle bag had fallen onto his pipe and CAUGHT FIRE! Fortunately for him his buddy was there and they got things taken care of OK.

We had an odd number, so one guy didn’t have a buddy assigned. I think he was glad. About 100 miles into the ride he took off doing like 100, maybe 110 mph. I went after him for a while, but since he continued to pull away from me when I was going 95, I decided we’d just see him at the next stop. Nope. Never saw him the rest of the day.

Zip ties – came in pretty handy for tying that guys wires and stuff up out of the way after the fire fiasco.


High fiber meal -- I tried this, but it didn't really work. Maybe not enough fiber, but I tried.


Seat – thought it might be helpful to share what I used, because I stayed comfortable throughout the day. I have a sundowner seat and used a bead rider cover. In addition, I wore compression type underwear, like under armor.


There's actually more, but this is getting longer than I expected. I hope this might be useful to somebody else who is planning an Iron Butt or similar long distance ride. Thanks again for everybody who had tips.