Ultimate Coast to Coast to Coast

fljab said:

However, what good is this forum if there aren't dissenting opinions??

LOL it's all good!

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Jim understands my goals and reasoning (Or lack of reason) better than most.

I selected the cert rides that would give me experiences that I thought would improve

my riding ability and let me understand what farkles I really needed to have on my bike.

I have MAJOR weaknesses in some areas. Just to name a few: Canadian riding, roads that

are not perfectly straight and heavy population centers ie: NE USA. and riding in cold weather

(Anything below 60 degees)

That is why I feel the UCCC is a must ride for me. I think the time I spend on this ride will

be a great experience. I am just not willing to blow 3 weeks vacation doing it. I want to free

up the summer for learning to rally. I am even considering dropping my 4 corners ride in

July. OR move it up to June with a Trans Canadian for the northern leg. For the moment I just

need to make it through the Christmas season in the post office and decide which bike is taking

me north. I never thought I would be trying to keep the miles down on the FJR, but I wouldn't

trade my situation for any other- It's all good !!!

Too the dissenters I say this....

Unless you've met this guy you really don't understand just how driven he is. The guy is cut from the same cloth as the old west cowboys. Tough, resilient, resourceful, and a damn nice guy. I look forward to knocking out more miles with him someday.

101stpathfinder said:

Jim understands my goals and reasoning (Or lack of reason) better than most.

I selected the cert rides that would give me experiences that I thought would improve

my riding ability and let me understand what farkles I really needed to have on my bike.

I have MAJOR weaknesses in some areas. Just to name a few: Canadian riding, roads that

are not perfectly straight and heavy population centers ie: NE USA. and riding in cold weather

(Anything below 60 degees)

That is why I feel the UCCC is a must ride for me. I think the time I spend on this ride will

be a great experience. I am just not willing to blow 3 weeks vacation doing it. I want to free

up the summer for learning to rally.

Click to expand...

Ahh, now I see. You're wrong. You have a '13 entry is what I'm gathering. The UCCC is not for you at all. Not to say that it would not provide useful experience, but it's far too focused on one ride's goal. Prudhoe Bay is a sucker bonus, at best. If you want to learn to rally and learn what you need for rallies, you need to ride in rallies. Don't piss away this time on one cert ride. Cert rides are EASY. You get to choose your routes instead of having them dictated by the RM and points.

Spend your time and money riding as many multi-day rallies as you can in '12. The NSR is a 100 hour format this coming year. The ButtLite is a 6 day format, the Ten 'n Ten is a ten day format. Choose your poison. If the NE is a concern, there are shorter rallies up that way like the Void, Cape Fear & Minuteman rallies. Do one or more of those and the NSR at least. Better still, add one of the longer multi-days to that. You have to rally to learn what works. Just going for a long ride isn't the same. It's not the same because you're choosing the parameters instead of being handed a rally pack and having to work within it's structure.

This is not to say that you may do just fine w/o more rally experience, but the UCCC isn't going to be as beneficial as multiple rallies and multi-day rallies will be.

Ok, so now with some very PERTINENT new information - that you are planning to run the '13 IBR.......

FORGET about the UCCC!!! You have NEVER run a competitive rally before, correct? THAT is what you need to be doing. On an FJR, since that is the bike you will be running in the IBR, correct?

Seriously Tony, you have done some outstanding long distance Cert rides. You know only have a summer and a 1/3 to prepare for the biggest ride of your life - the Iron Butt Rally. Priorities, my friend. You REALLY need to start running one day and multi-day rallies for practice. And fine-tune that FJR and your bond with it.

Word.

OCfjr said:

Ahh, now I see. You're wrong. You have a '13 entry is what I'm gathering. The UCCC is not for you at all. Not to say that it would not provide useful experience, but it's far too focused on one ride's goal. Prudhoe Bay is a sucker bonus, at best. If you want to learn to rally and learn what you need for rallies, you need to ride in rallies. Don't piss away this time on one cert ride. Cert rides are EASY. You get to choose your routes instead of having them dictated by the RM and points.

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i'd have to agree with this. single-focus cert rides are fine for what they do but they don't teach the critical skills needed for rallying that you need (beyond gas-and-go and data logging). while rallying will teach you the same things that a single-cert ride will the same isn't true for single-cert rides wrt rallying. if you were talking about the '15 IBR it'd be different but your time is limited for '13.