While working on the Sunday the race started they ended up coming through my county, as the race officials didn't want the racers knowing where the route was so bikes couldn't be planted, they didn't know until the start of the race. There must have been 7 or 8 accidents at one corner in the county I work. So many accidents at one time the dispatcher was asking the highway patrol to double check the area and verify if the accidents being called in were the same accident or different ones. They were different ones.
Two people were med flighted out, one with head injuries and one with a compound fracture of the femur.
You should have seen the video of the bikes crossing the 7 mile bridge in the Keys..WOW, lots of bikes.
There were intelligence briefings put out by FHP also dealing with possible 1% clubs sponsoring riders. Apparently the officials were not making them take off their colors.
I am also surprised the winner got the money, good for him and the race promoters

 

I thought I saw a picture of the two guys crossing the line together.

 

Still more of a twist. Did he get polygraphed and by whom? Now he gets paid before he was suppose to.(the organizers said the payout would happen in/during Sturgis and supposedly at the Broken Spoke) Wonder if there was some pressure on the organizers from investigators that got them to pay up?

 

One of the two had missed a check point.

 

I rode with the www.rftw.org group this year on the CR - My platoon leader was in this race - I talked to him after it was over - If ONLY HALF of what he told me was true - this race was full of fraud and problems from the get go.

 

He had my admiration until he said he was reading multiple text messages while riding at full speed. In a race? Whether racing the clock, or another rider, reading text messages is ludicrous. To me, anyway.

 

I rode the Challenge, met and talked to the organizers at Daytona before I entered, talked to them on the phone before race, read the contract. Never lied to, never purposfully deceived in any way. I am very experienced in contract law unfortunately, it was pretty standard language. I have to say, I do not doubt Will is the rightful winner.

There were only two major accidents in S Fla, I attended to the first group made sure they got taken care of and seen the aftermath of the second group, the Fla cops were cool the whole way, Did not really see any one % ers, and who cares if they sponsor riders anyway its a free country. Good group of riders all around.

If they do it again I will run it again, we have an amazing country with amazingly nice people you all should get out and see as much of it as you can as soon as you can..

 

Congratulations on your achievement, MB. Don't mind the haters, you are one of a very few.

 

Don't really think anybody is a 'hater', Most folks just don't see giving a $1K for a ride that anybody can do for free(not including gas and such).

MB just curious on your thoughts about the things that the promoters didn't come through with(which is what I think got a lot of people turning against this) ie; GPS tracking for bikes and riders, line up according to registration, no drug test/polygraph at finish line. Also the charity thing, several Vet charities were suppose to get $$$, then it turned into being for an Indian Reservation that didn't know anything about it.

Good on ya for making the ride, I plan on doing it some day too but on my own course and time.

 

Sorry, but I just an not buy into 194 hours riding with less than 10 hours of not moving. If you buy into the 3 minute fuel stops (and I don't), that adds up to over 2 hours just for fueling. How are you going to open the tank, pump the gas, pay for the fuel, collect the receipt in that time? Was there no waiting at any of the approximate (my estimate) 50 stops?
Then what time for about normal body functions? None for 10 days?
How much of that 10 hours was used to replace the tires he said he needed?
What about the time to replace the five headlight bulbs he said he needed? By the time you add all of this in it starts to be another 2 hours or more off his 'non-moving' (and sleeping times leaving just 5 or 6 hours for actual sleep.

This still leaves the "mis-speaking" from the organizers about the GPS for the bikes, the so-called charities that never heard of him, and the may or may not FBI administered polygraph tests.

To be clear, I am not taking away from those that rode and had the trip of a lifetime, I am just doubtful of some of the claims and changing official guidelines.