Rally Road Trip

The Great Southwest Scooter Fiesta was held this past weekend. This is the second time it was held and it is hosted by the Greater Phoenix Scooter Club. Our Tucson club has done a few things with the Phoenix club and so, a few of us decided to make the trip to support this rally.

Although Arizona has great weather suitable for year-round riding, (at least for some of us) there are not that many rallies. Therefore, I try to get to as many of them as I can. I think it's important so that people are encouraged to continue planing rallies in the future. Tucson is home to one of the longest running rallies in the nation: the Tucson-Nogales Fall Classic, but that is another post.

There were four of us who decided to make this road trip. Since we all (initially) had all of Friday off, we decided to make a bit of an adventure out of it and take the scenic (aka "long") way to the Phoenix area. Using the most direct route, it is about 121 miles from Tucson to Gilbert. The route we took was approximately 200 miles.

John was having scooter problems and had asked to borrow my Stella. No problem, now I had both of my scooters going to the rally! John met me at my house to load up our scoots for the weekend. We then drove to Catalina, AZ, to meet up with Stan and his Honda Helix, then we headed north. At the last minute, Sean's final exam at school was changed, so he decided he would just meet us in Phoenix Friday evening. there would be three of us riding up together.

If you've seen any of my "Riding SoAZ" posts, I've mentioned taking Route 77 out of Tucson before. 77 is rural and if you take it all the way, it eventually ends in Holbrook, AZ, about 60 miles east of Flagstaff. Our journey only had us taking it as far as Globe, though.

Taking the Stella (60mpg) and the Iron Buddy (70-80mpg) necessitated that we stop relatively often for fuel as well as for butt rests. Also, we had all day Friday to get there and so, weren't in a hurry. I had built some extra time into our schedule for site seeing, picture taking and the like as well.

Outside of Oracle there is a 12 mile stretch of 7% grade downhill. I've done this on the scoot before, but it was even more fun with a group. We stopped for our first fuel in Winkelman, a little mining town. There was a lot of climbing from here to Globe (from 2000' to over 5000') but all three scoots did fine.

Winkelman, AZ

Stan took over the lead in Globe because he had a a couple of places he wanted to show us in Miami, which is just west of Globe on US60. Stan lived there a few years back and he is an excellent tour guide. We stopped for bit in Miami and listened raptly to Stan's stories of Miami's past.

Antique Store in Miami

Looking down Main St in Miami

We climbed again from Globe to Top of the World, AZ. You climb some pretty steep grade as you pass the mine outside of Miami. After Top of the World, it's all downhill to Superior. There are a lot of trucks around here so I was always looking behind me for fear that a truck would lose its brakes and come careening down toward us.

There was additional excitement when we hit the tunnel nearing Superior. The warning signs advised us to turn our headlights on as the tunnel lights were out. They were right. The lights were out and our little headlights didn't light they way too much. It was seriously dark in there.

Superior was a fuel and food stop, but first Stan took us on another short tour. Superior was where the movies "U-Turn" and "8-legged Freaks" were shot and Stan showed us some points of interest. We went to the Buckboard Cafe for lunch. The service was good but the food was not all the good. Our treat here was going to the World's Smallest Museum. It's pretty hokey, but in a fun, Route 66-Americana, kind of way.

World's Smallest Museum in Superior

From Superior, we zoomed toward our hotel in Mesa. It started to sprinkle and bit and the skies had been very dark since before reaching Globe, but those few sprinkles were all we got. The weather for the rest of the weekend was amazing.

From US60 we took Old West Highway to Apache Trail (which is old US60). What a treat, If you live in or visit Phoenix, you should take a drive down Apache Trail. It's like a time capsule from the 50's or 60's. There are lots of cool restaurants and old motor hotels. We passed by the Buckhorn Motel and we all dearly wished it was still open so we could have stayed there.

After checking in and resting a bit, we went over to the rally's first meet-up at Victory BMW and we then rode to dinner at Joe's Real BBQ. It was good seeing some scooter friends from the Phoenix group again. Waiting in line is never difficult when you're shooting the breeze with friends. The food wasn't as good as I remembered last year, but it wasn't bad.

Friday night at Joe's Real BBQ

Sean got out of school later than planned and texted at 6pm to say he had finally left Tucson and would meet us at Joe's, so we waited.... and waited ...... and waited. It takes some stones to ride a small scooter 120 miles in the dark, and that's what he did. Joe's was closed and the parking lot was empty, but Sean arrived around 9:30. We saddled up and rode safely to our hotel.

Stan had written a few places down where he wanted to try to eat while in Phoenix. As it turned out, Matt's Big Breakfast (featured on the Food Network's Diners Drive-Ins and Dives) was on his list AND was a meet up location for the rally. Google informed us that it would take at least an hour to ride to Matt's, so we knew we had an early start coming. Sean and John wimped out as Stan and I set our alarm for 5:15am.

I figured that at 5:30 on a Saturday morning it would be fairly easy to ride US60 on the scoots. I was wrong. There was traffic than I figured and it was a bit scary. An hour and 5 minutes later, Stan and I made it to Matt's. I was pretty pleased with my breakfast, but Stan wasn't impressed with his.

It was "every scoot for itself" for the ride to Joe's Farm Grill (the rally's main event) so Stan and I plotted out a different route than the one we came in on and headed for Gilbert. neither of us knows much about the streets in Phoenix, but it didn't matter. That's one thing I like about the guys I rode with, they are always ready for an adventure.

The Lawn at Joe's Farm Grill

Scooters Lined up in front of the coffee shop at Joe's

We made it to Joe's with no problem, parked the scoots and began to take in the rally activities. In my opinion, Saturday's highlight was the ride to Saguaro Lake. We left around 3:00pm and 20-30 scooters headed out for the lake. Once you get out of town, this ride is beautiful. There are amazing desert views, then cliffs, then you arrive at the lake. We did this ride last years and it is excellent. The road has some nice twists and turns in it as well.

Our bikes at Saguaro Lake

The four of us Sky Island Riders finished the ride and found our way to Vito's Pizza Place for dinner. we all agreed that the food here was very, very good and the prices were reasonable. The service was good, too. An additional bonus is that they have a scooter painted on the outside or the restaurant. How cool is that?

Vito's - Check out the scooter on the wall

Sunday morning's rally ride was another ride to downtown Phoenix. We figured that since we had already ridden there to go to Matt's, we would load up and head toward home.

Have you ever noticed that saddle time, and its associated butt pain, is cumulative if you don't take at least 2-3 days off? I have. As we started riding toward Tucson, I needed to stop more and more frequently to stretch.

On the way out of town we stopped for fuel, then again at the 5 & Diner for breakfast. I think we were all very pleased with our food and Pebbles, our waitress, was a delight. We took Power Road south to Hunt Highway, then southeast toward Florence.

Just outside of Florence is Poston Butte, aka "F" Mountain. We thought about trying to riding to the top, but the trail is too steep and rocky, so we hiked it. We had no idea it was called Poston Butte until I looked it up while writing this. I was raised in Arizona and didn't know that Charles Poston is known as the Father of Arizona. Did you know that? Apparently he wanted to build and Temple to the Sun at the top of this little mountain.

From "F" Mountain, we rode the 2 miles in to Florence, got gas and stopped in the little park to rest a bit more. Since we were in Florence and none of the other guys had ever been there, we then stopped in at the Florence Prison gift shop. It's a fun little place and if you buy something that an inmate made, the proceeds help the inmate pay restitution to his victim(s).

Hunt Highway dumps you out onto Route 79 which eventually dumps you out onto Route 77 which becomes Oracle Road. the more I ride on Oracle, the less I like it. We have had a couple of close calls on group rides. Traffic moves fast and there isn't that much to look at, so I decided to take the Park Link Rd cutoff and come in to Tucson via the I-10 frontage road. this adds a few mile to the trip, but I felt like it would be a bit more fun and possibly safer. Plus, I was the only one of the four of us who had been on it before.

I got home about 7 hours after leaving the hotel. We had logged in over 500 miles during the three days and had had a great time. Both of my scooter ran great. None of us had any mechanical failures. We had some good food and shared some funny stories. To me, that equals a great weekend.

Ride on,

Howard

Pimping My Ride

I have just finished the biggest part of my Buddy's customization. I hadn't posted anything about it because....... uh, I don't know. I was wanting it to be secret, but I'm really not sure why. I guess I just wanted to be able to make a production out of the unveiling.

So, here's how it happened: I badly injured my Buddy a couple of months ago. I was changing variator weights (something which I've done a number of times in the past) and somehow managed to put the variator plate on a little crooked, or catawampus as we say back home. I tightened all the nuts and took off for a test drive. The plate seems to have straightened out. Probably when I hit a bump just right. This caused the formerly tight nut and variator plate, to be just a tiny bit loose, resulting in some wobbling, vibration and gawdawful noises coming from of the aforementioned variator plate.

I got the scooter shut down as soon as I could get off the road. Long story short, the variator plate welded itself (through the wonder of friction) to the crankshaft. I was unable to remove it, now were the fine folks at Scoot Over. So, through every fault of my own, I needed a new crankshaft and variator.

The crankshaft is not an expensive part, in itself, however (Ever notice how that word "however" frequently means that your bank account is about to be assaulted?) it takes a LOT of labor to get to it. The engine case must be split open, hence you spend one amount on the crankshaft and much more than that on labor.

Ron, the mechanic at Scoot Over, and I have discussed modifying my motor for more power and since the entire motor was about to have major vehicular surgery, we decided to do the modification and save me the cost of labor to open the engine case at another time.

Ron did a little research and presented me with several options:

1. Upgrade to the 161cc motor. This is common for the 125cc scooters, but since I have a 150cc Buddy, it doesn't really give much increase for the money spent.
2. Upgrade to the 171cc kit. This option is less common and for a bit more money for the kit, gives me a 21cc boost.
3. Upgrade to the NCY 62mm cylinder kit. I had seen references made to this kit, but have never heard of anyone ever having installed it on their scooter. Hmmm, what might be a one-of-a-kind motor? I had to have it.

So began my journey. I had Ron order the kit. Additionally, I added the 61mm Big Valve Head and the new crank shaft.

After completing the Saddle Sore 1000, Iron Butt ride, we decided to start calling my Scooter "Iron Buddy." So, while Ron was rebuilding my scooter's power plant, I started thinking of how to make my scoot look Iron - esque. I have never liked the blue color of the St Tropez and early on had gotten some quotes to repaint it. A simple, one color paint job was about $400, but a two-tone metallic, mildly customized paint job was quoted to me at $3000! I can't afford custom paint work.

Shelby, at Scoot Over, referred me to Signs Now to look at a vinyl wrap. After looking a lot of images, my wife and I picked out a rusty, rivetted, steel plate graphic image. I had kind of a "Mad Max" meets "steam punk" in mind. After getting a sample printed out, I went to Scoot Over and held it up against the part of the Buddy that couldn't be wrapped. It didn't match at all, but Ron suggested that it would look good with the "Sunset Orange" Buddy body panels. It did.

"In for a penny, in for a pound" as the old saying goes, so I had Scoot Over order the new panels. Now the Buddy would have a "new" motor, new look panels on the front and rear and brand new panels in the middle.

There were some bumps in the road. The 183cc kit wouldn't just "bolt on." The cylinder had to be bored out to accommodate the new piston. That took a while. Sign Now had a printer go down and the other one run out of ink as well as a couple of high profile, high dollar jobs that put Iron Buddy on the back burner for a few days.

Finally, after a bit more than a month, all the parts were in place. Scoot Over was kind enough to let me keep Buddy in their garage and provided with the tools and expertise required to put Iron Buddy back together. Unlike Humpty Dumpty, this was going back together again!

It took about 10 hours, but I did it. Naturally, the first thing I did was to ride over the the GGR scooter club garage to show him off. Then I got the cameras and took some stills and some video. I didn't just want to post a couple of still pics on Modern Buddy and Facebook, so I made a little movie. It's only the second movie I've ever made, but I think it gets the point a cross:

Am I done? Of course not. The wheels are still blue. I think I will just paint them for now, but I am going to look for custom wheels. Ron and I are also looking at a new carburetor.

Ride on,

Howard

Camera Mount Mayhem

As mentioned in my previous post, I have been working a lot the Riding SoAZ series on the Sky Island Riders site. One of the things I had wanted to do, in order to make it different for most travel blog entries, was to put short videos of some of the roads the I talk about.

For this, I purchased a cheap video camera from Big Lots. I didn't want to risk a expensive camera falling off the bike in the middle of a bumpy road. Found this inexpensive Polaroid. It was actually the second one I tried. The quality on the first was so appalling that I returned it and got this one.

Now the problem was how to attack the camera to this scooter:

In order to get the sensation of riding on the road, I wanted to attach to the front of the scooter. Stella has the front rack and it should be easy, right? Wrong!

First obstacle: How to attach the camera to the rack. I could simply tape the camera on, but that gets sticky residue all over everything. Plus, every time I needed to review what I had just filmed, it would be a pain in the butt to take the camera off, review, then re-tape it. I needed something else.

I decided that I needed to create some kind of cradle in which to put the camera. Then I could attached the cradle to the bike and remove the camera whenever I needed. So, I did what anyone else would do: I grabbed an empty cereal box (Apple Cinnamon Cheerios for the record.)

I cut out the front and folded it to the size of the camera then taped it together with packing tape. I wasn't thinking about it at the time, so I don't have pics of the phase of the build. I then cut out a hole for the lens and another hole, on the opposite side, for the controls. I didn't bother with a window in the box for the camera's screen, since I would be riding as I filmed and it wouldn't be safe to be trying to watch the screen.

I made my first attempt to attach my new "cradle" to Stella's rack. I ran in to two problems. First, the bars on the rack are horizontal. I had cut holes on either side of the cradle and inserted zip ties, but in that configuration, I could only attack to something vertical.

Second, I realized that if I did attach to the rack, anything done tight enough to hold the camera securely, would crush the cardboard as soon as I pulled out the camera. So, I kept thinking. I gathered more supplies:

Zip ties, duct tape (You didn't think I'd try any project without duct tape, did you?) bandage scissors, screwdriver and that corrugated plastic stuff. We had some left over from one of my wife's quilting projects.

I decided that I needed a rigid "cradle" to protect the first cradle from be crushed. Additionally, I needed a way to secure this new cradle to a horizontal bar. (Horizontal Bar - Is that a place people who are ALREADY drunk to go and party?) At any rate, I folded a couple of corrugated plastic strips around the bottom of the cardboard box and secured it with duct tape. ( Insert appropriate work grunt here.) Now it looks like this:

The pic on the left shows the back of the box and camera with the controls visible. The middle pic shows a profile view and the last pic is of the front of the whole setup. Now to attach to assembly to the rack. Where are those zip ties?

The pic above who two zip ties facing opposite directions. I wasn't sure how to place them until I got it on the bike. It mounted on pretty well, until I realized that, in my creative excitement, I had forgotten to think of a way to secure the top of the cradle as well as the bottom. Some more corrugated plastic, zip ties and duct tape later and voila':

I cut two short strips of plastic and taped them on either side of the back of the box, then fed the zip ties down through the corrugs (or whatever they call those tunnels in the cardboard.) Likewise I cut slits in the bottom pieces of plastic and fed another pair of zip ties through there. This allowed me to attach easily to the horizontal bars.

The final hurdle was aiming the camera. Lateral placement was a given. The camera is looking the same direction as the scooter. Vertical aiming was a slight problem. If you look at the two pics above, you can see the springs. The part of the rack I have attached to, is spring loaded and you pull it down and the spring helps you secure things you may be carrying. It neutral position is slightly more than 90 degrees. Wait! Let me get some more zip ties:

They we go! I used 3 zip ties to pull the rack forward a bit. I made several test runs down my street to check the aim and carefully adjusted the ties until the camera's view was what I wanted. The camera fits in the box pretty snugly (so it won't bounce out) so I put a hole in the bottom of the cradle and use the small screwdriver to push it up and out between shots.

How does it work? Here is one of my first attempts:

Ride on,

Howard

Busy, Busy

I am certain that the title for this entry "Busy, Busy" has been by many bloggers for a lame excuse on why they have written nothing in quite a while. I am no different. I do have an an excuse, so, please, allow me to tell you what it is. After all, if an excuse told in the woods, and there was no one there to here it, was there really an excuse at all?

As you may know, I also write the blog for our local Tucson scooter club, the Sky Island Riders. Much of the stuff on the website is club specific: photos, video and our forum/bulletin board, for example.

In my mind's eye however, I have also wanted the blog, and it's associated data, to become a resource for people who live in, or travel to, Southern Arizona. Not just for scooterists, either. Motorcyclists, bicyclists or even people who just want to enjoy our state. That is one reason I started the "Ride Maps" tab. It lists maps of various rides around Tucson, but also include routes to Phoenix which don't require the interstate.

Three months or so ago, I thought of another idea. I thought of writing a series of posts about riding/driving in Southern AZ, which I have entitled "Riding SoAZ." I first defined Southern AZ, then subdivided that region into smaller areas to write about. I had decided to make each post about 1000 words long and add photos and hot links to the various points of interest that have websites. Most of the photos are my own. (Which means the quality isn't that great.)

Part VII is posted now and part VIII is almost complete. If you haven't already checked it out, you can find Part I here:

Riding SoAZ

I didn't quite finish writing about riding in Tucson, but felt like people who were reading to learn about outlying places might get bored, so I moved to the rural areas and I will return and finish Tucson later, probably after I finish the rural areas.

So, that is my excuse for not writing here lately. Is it a good one? I've written well over 10k words for Sky Island Riders, not to mention the time on the scooter to go out and get photos.

In other news, the editor of "Iron Butt" magazine had contacted me shortly after I completed the Saddle Sore 1000 and asked if he could publish my story. I thought long and hard about it (about 1 second) and said "Yes!" I have never been in a magazine before, so this sounded quite exciting.

Well, the day before yesterday, my copy finally arrived. He actually used my blog entry from this blog. I don't know what it says about my writing or his editing, but the magazine article is virtually unchanged from my original entry. So, without further adieu, here's the cover:

Naturally, I quickly flipped to the table of contents to find my piece.
There it is! Page 46! No picture here, but I flipped to page 46:
I am kind of flattered that it is called "Extreme Rides."

I really enjoyed the entire magazine. I have always enjoyed long hours in the saddle of my scooter. I don't put in the miles that the motorcyclists do, but I have put in some major hours.

Future Fun

I am really stoked. I have started working on next year's scooter rally. As you may recall, our club hosted a scooter rally, this past May. It was the Tucson May Day Rally. I was a little disappointed at first, but I eventually realized that my expectations had been a bit too high. After a couple of weeks, I realized that it was a pretty darn good first effort. Not wanting to be a “flash in the pan,” we had an after action meeting and talked about what went well, what could have been better, etc, etc, in anticipation of another rally.I had wanted to do the rally as a fund raiser for a local charity, but started too late and couldn’t get it together.

I decided that I would started earlier this year and have actually been thinking about the 2011 rally quite a bit. I have already decided to change the name, but not the date. May Day doesn’t really mean anything anymore to most Americans and so, coming up with some kind of consistent theme for a “May Day Rally” is difficult. Since we are located in the southwest, some kind of western theme seems appropriate. This makes the choosing of venues, destinations, patch/logo designs, games etc, a lot easier. I’m fairly certain that is the direction we will be going.




Regarding charities, I had mentioned my search to the club and asked if anyone new of a local charity that might be interested in working with a rat-tag bunch of scooterists on a rally and raise a bit of money as well. Up steps Paul Tumarkin who mentions that he knows someone at Beads of Courage (hereafter referred to as BoC.), who just might be interested. BoC works with seriously ill children. As a nurse and father of five children myself, this organization appealed to me.

Long story, short, Paul contacted Jean Baruch, from BoC, who expressed interest in the concept and we had a meeting together, today, between the three of us. I think the other two are as excited about this project as am I. Jean and BoC have a network of contacts in southern Arizona that, I feel, complements mine. Our goals and values seem to be compatible. We all have big plans and high expectations from our respective organizaions.

Jean is new to the idea of scooters and scooter rallies, so I told her how the May rally went and why we did things the way we did. She was very receptive and seemed to agree with my ideas of having a family-friendly, community centered event. She asked appropriate questions and when it came time to speak of the 2011 rally, she and Paul, already had some great ideas!

I want to be able to raise money for a charity, but at the same time, I want to be able to host an exciting, quality rally for scooterists. Using BoC’s status as a charitable organization, I think we will be able really get a lot more business to donate goods, services and $$ to make this rally ROCK!

Another exciting idea that came out of this meeting are some ways to integrate artists, scooters and kids into this rally. This way, we will be able to reach people who would never have any interest in something that was aimed at just scooters.

I am very excited about this rally and about meeting and working with new people.

Borrowed Rides, Test Rides and Reviews

As I've mentioned in at least one previous post, scooter people are great folks. In the context of this post, I'm referring to the generous, sharing (and foolhardy) spirit that results in those scooter people who allow others to ride their scoots. I've run into a lot of those in the short time I've been riding. I've also done a couple of formal test rides/reviews lately that I wanted to mention.

Perhaps 6 months after I started scooting, I was at my local scooter shop and my second home, Scoot Over, when a guy riding a Big Ruckus pulled in. I had never seen one up close and was asking a few questions about the bike. The guy tossed my the keys and says "take it for a ride." I hesitated, because no one had ever done anything like that before, but he says "Really, it's okay. Have fun with it." Then he turned around and walked into the shop.

So, I went out and rode it. I was fun, but not as much fun as my Buddy. The Big Ruckus is 250cc and, as you can see above, has a lot to carry around. Subsequently, it is fairly slow accelerating from a stop, but it does have a decent top end. I love the rugged, industrial kind of look to them.

I mention the above incident only because it was the first. In the past month, similar incidents have happened and that's what resulted in this particular post. On Independence Day, Scoot Over hosted an awesome picnic. Some 25 scooters and their riders showed up. Naturally, we were all admiring one another's scoots.

One scooter I am hoping to own one day, is a vintage Lambretta. A young man at the picnic happened to have one and don't you know that he offered to let me take it out for a spin. So I did.

The one I rode in the blue and white Lammy in the middle of this pic. I love the long, low, sleek look of the Lambretta. I'm sorry, but I don't remember the year of this scoot, but it was a fun ride. One thing you have to get used to on vintage scooters, are vintage braking systems. Those drum brakes are a far cry from today's front disks.

A short while later, at the same picnic. I was offered my first ride on a moped. We have a local moped club (Las Tortugas aka The Turtles) and I had commented a few times that it must be fun to ride with them. The moped in question was a J.C. Penney "Pinto."

The moped is much different from a 150cc scooter, but still a lot of fun in their own right. I wast sure what to do with my feet. It felt weird to be moving along under power and yet, have pedals. I guess you get used to it. I am considering the possibility of adding a moped to my stable of 2-wheelers. I think riding with Las Tortugas sounds like a blast.

Last week, I was at Scoot Over when the new 220cc Blur arrived. The scooter community has been eagerly anticipating the arrival of this sporty scooter for a while. It just so happened that Ron finished prepping the bike just after I arrived. James offered me a test ride. There was no way I was turning that down. Here's the new Blur:

I am pretty old school when it comes to scooters, but I still appreciate the look of the Blur. I really like the grey and black. It reminds me of the Volkswagen Scirocco I owned years ago. As you would expect from 220cc, the Blur accelerates well. "Roll-on" acceleration is particularly good. The seat is as hard as a rock and I would be modifying or replacing it or ASAP if I had one. Riding position is forward and aggressive, like a sport bike. This takes some getting used to, but it does make for some nice cornering traits. Thanks to Scoot Over for letting me test ride it.

I stop by a nearby motorcycle shop from time to time because they carry a limited number of scooters from the Japanese companies. I was in there this week looking to see if they had a Yamaha Majesty in stock. (I've decided that I want a maxi-scoot in the stable as well.) While there, I was offered a test ride on the 2010 Can Am Spyder. The Spyder is a 3-wheeled, tadpole-style trike with a 1000cc sport bike motor. They look like this:

It was a blast to drive, uh, ride. I did a formal review of my experience on our club webite, here. I don't see myself ever having one, but if you get the chance to take one for a spin, do it.

I love being in a community where our rides are so diverse. I have nothing against homogenous groups like Goldwing, or trike, or moped clubs, but riding one another's rides is kind of moot, since everyone is on the same thing.

Ride on,

Howard

Iron Butt Ride Reflections

It's been a month since completing the Iron Butt Ride. I won't know if the ride has been confirmed and accepted for another month or two. I have been asked a lot of questions about the ride and I've had time to reflect on it. My wife say it was a foolhardy thing to do. I agree with her. So, why did I do it?

Was it to get my "15 minutes of fame?"

Didn't we all want to be famous when we were kids? Some people never outgrow that desire. But, no, I don't think that was the reason. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy having some degree of notoriety. But, the scooter community is pretty small, so, if it's fame I wanted, I would probably need to try something different.

Because it's there!

This is getting a bit closer. When I was still riding bicycles (I blew me knee out and can't ride anymore.) I was wanting to ride ever longer distances. I finished my first century ride (100 miles) and immediately noted that there were rides of 250 and even 500 miles. I had decided I wanted to work my way toward those. I wasn't wanting to set world records, but I did want to do something that most people hadn't done. I've always been a pretty average guy: average intelligence, average athletic ability, average height, build etc, etc. I did manage to marry a way above average wife, however. So, I guess I saw that Iron Butt ride and decided it would be a chance to do something that the average guy doesn't do.

That Middle Age Crisis thing.

I was a pretty good kid. I didn't take a lot of risks. There were things i wanted to do .....but didn't, girls I wanted to ask out ....but didn't, parts I should have auditioned for .....well, you get the idea. As a young man, I joined the Army. I wanted to be infantry or a tanker, but those skills don't translate well into the civilian world, so I passed. As an adult, I saw an excellent opportunity to start my own business, the need and the demand were there, but ...too risky. These are not things that I regret everyday, or at all, for that matter. They just are what they are. (I did take one huge risk as a young man. I fell in love with a beautiful, intelligent and witty young lady. The risky part was that we eloped when she was only 16 years old! That was over 26 years ago and she's still just as beautiful, intelligent and witty.) What does this have to do with Iron Butt Rides? Well, I knew that there was some degree of risk involved with this ride. Riding at night and on the interstate involved risk. I suppose that drew me to do it as well. Maybe I felt as if I owed myself another risk or two.

So What?
There isn't a lot of "exploring" or "discovery" that can be done by the average guy. It seems, sometimes, that everything has been done. But know what? It hasn't been done by me. I can explore my personal abilities and limits. I don't know that I've caught the Iron Butt "bug" but I will continue to ride. I will ride places to which I've never been. There won't usually be people there to congratulate or take video of me, but it won't matter. I ride because it pleases me and it probably makes me easier to get along with.

Ride on,

Howard