sportrides
Well-known member
Team Lyle Alamo Express BBG attempt on CBR1000RR by Ted Bosch
Greetings all this is my first ever ride report! I did my first SS1000 last August. I didn’t do another certified ride until January 2012. Since January, I have done 7 rides. I was looking at the IBA website searching for an organized ride that would fit into my schedule. I came across the TLAE that was being put on by Doug Barrett and Brian Casey. That is how I came to know Doug.
Having done only SS 1000’s, SS 2000 (on a Sportbike), and a BB 1,500 I didn’t know how more involved a BBG was going to be; but I did find out. My friend Bruce Beck and myself planned to ride together. We did the SS2000 together and live about 20 miles from each other. I did my planning and realized that I was not going to be able to carry all the “stuff” that I needed for a ride of this magnitude; especially when the starting point was going to be 500 miles from home. Anyone ever try to outfit a Supersport for touring? What, no other idiots out there – just kidding! Outfitting the bike consisted of a “large” tailbag, a tank bag, new tires, HID headlights, wiring for my Gerbings, and one of Bruce’s side cases on his RT. I want to express my thanks in public to Bruce for allowing me to pack a few of my necessities in his RT.
We met and set out from my house in Visalia on the Friday before the rally. We left my house at 5 a.m. heading to Barstow to meet Doug and Company. I started down the road and got about 10 miles from my house, realized I left my SPOT on the back of my truck and had to go all the way back. I called Bruce, told him about my Homer Simpson “move,” and we decided to hook up in Tehachapi.
SPOT collected and we met in Tehachapi.
Onwards to Barstow. Met up with Doug, wallet less Fisch, and Gary. Quick stop, a chat, and we started for Alamo. We left Jean and Doug told me, “you’re doing a good job leading, so keep it going.” We were about 30 miles outside of Alamo when a NHP was just cresting a hill heading toward us. I was already coming off the throttle as I was approaching a slight hill. He hit his lights and pointed for me to pull over. I did just that and everyone in our group did the same – on the side of a fast highway. The trooper told everyone but me to get moving. I got a little reward for my actions. He didn’t understand that my 2008 CBR1000RR was barely above idle! What’s wrong with these guys. He told me he would have written me for what I was actually going instead of a lesser speed because I didn’t make him “chase me down.” All in All, thank you Doug for letting me lead! I owe you one….
From there checked in to hotel, riders meeting, witness form signed (thanks Brian!). Very little sleep the night before. Up at 0330 and ready to go. Looked at my bike and realized I would be pretty much naked out there if something went wrong. Have the SPOT and Cell Phone (which died about 8 hours before the ride finished and I forgot to bring a charger with me).
Got my gas receipt at 0542 and started up the highway. A little cold as I have no wind protection, but my Gerbing jacket and gloves were adequate. I had no GPS or radar detector – my timing mechanism was my brain – and we’ll all see how well that held up when the going got tough. Pretty ease stint up to Tonopah. Then the trip to Battle Mountain was pretty easy. The leg to Wendover was also pretty easy just cruising east on I-80. Cruised along with Jerry White for quite some time. I’m thinking things are going good and on schedule. At this point I was on schedule. Stood around Wendover for too long eating a sandwich and chit chatting. Then on down to Ely, pretty uneventful. Gassed up without getting off the bike and on to Tonopah. I was a little concerned about my fuel range especially for this leg of the trip, but I knew I could get 170 miles out of a tank even running at a decent clip. About halfway to Tonopah I saw a headlight in my mirror. It took a pretty long time for the rider to catch up to me. It turned out to be Mario on his RT. Rode with him to Tonopah. Got to Tonopah and took too much time also eating and chit chatting (what did I know I thought I was making excellent time and I was, but that was in ideal conditions) as I thought I had time to spare. Why I didn’t get a clue when I observed Mario gas up and take off without much lolly gagging I couldn’t tell you.
On to Fallon. Nice ride, but I goofed off too long in Fallon thinking I was 2/3 done. That was true by miles, but in riding difficulty it was not true. This is when my ride took on a degree of difficulty that I didn’t anticipate. Started to get dark just outside of Fallon and that is when my speeds went way down. Shortly after it got dark Bruce and Gary were running at a pace I was uncomfortable with (not that they were at warp speed or anything, but I was slow). They started pulling away to where I couldn’t see their lights anymore and I just settled in to my own pace. They stopped, waited for me, and we started off together to Eureka where we got gas. This is when it sunk in that it was 11 O’clock and we were behind. My pace was so slow that I lost most of time that I had banked. I was cold at this time and put on my heated gloves and headed toward Ely.
Shortly outside of Eureka with Greg right behind me I had a deer jump out in front of me. I got on the front binders very hard and avoided a collision. Ok, dodged that one. Less than 10 miles later it happened again and this time it got in my head. I just sat there for a few minutes contemplating my next move. At this point I waved Greg on and knew he had to keep moving in order to make the time limit and if he stayed with me his chances of completing the BBG would be compromised. I sort of gave up on finishing in 24 hours. Don’t ask me how I knew that without a GPS, but that is what I thought. It turned out to be incorrect reasoning, but I was not thinking right. I have over 300 miles to go and I’m cold and feeling dejected about not being able to finish. I kept moving on.
Got to Ely and it got worse. Still very cold. Got turned around and couldn’t find my way to the 50 to take me to Baker. Up, down and around Ely I went. Seemed like I was going in circles around and around. No GPS. Nobody around to ask. Wasted about 25 minutes trying to find my way and saw a set of HID lights coming from the west into Ely. Great, I thought, that is likely Bruce as he wasn’t too far behind me and now we can push on to Baker. I spoke with Bruce for a couple minutes and asked him if I was on the correct rode to Baker and he said yes. Boy did it look dark up that stretch of the 50. At this point I chose to push on to Baker alone. I wasn’t sure if I had enough gas to get there, but I knew it was about 35 miles up from the 95. It was a cold and lonely ride to Baker. As I was heading up to Baker I was passed by Greg and Chris Purney, and the couple on the Goldwing coming down from Baker. I knew I was on the correct road. They were about 40 miles ahead of me. At this point everything that moved was a deer or elk in my mind. I rode the last 4 hours of this ride with my right hand covering the front brake and my left hand covering the clutch. That was exhausting, but I kept going. I had nothing with me at this time except a SPOT, a dead cell phone, very little of anything if something went wrong and I knew there was likely nobody behind me heading to Baker. I knew I would need gas in Baker and would not have enough to get back to Ely if I couldn’t get gas in Baker - for whatever reason. I remember hearing about a gas stop across the border in Utah – that was my back up plan, but I wasn’t even sure that would work out.
I made it to Baker and got my gas receipt. Now started the last leg to Alamo. At this time my heated gear stopped working and I must have stopped 5 times on the way to Alamo to adjust this or that to try and get it to work. See, by now I had given up on making the ride – with absolutely no objective evidence to suggest I wouldn’t make it in time. I was relying on my distorted mental calculations. I stopped numerous times trying to make adjustments to get comfortable Things never got comfortable despite all those stops. Heated clothing was working intermittently, something in my helmet changed allowing cold air to get into my helmet. The simple things became so complex at this point.
It started getting light before 5 am and at this time I could pick up my speed safely. I think I saw a sign that said Alamo 70 miles and I had about 35 minutes to make it. I didn’t feel comfortable whicking it up to make those miles in that amount of time. I knew I was not going to successfully complete the BBG.
I pulled into Alamo and got my receipt at 0622 almost 30 minutes over the 24 hours – dejected!
Rode over to the Alamo Inn and pulled up to Chris Purney (the Harley Guy). I saw all the bikes out front and nobody, but Chris was out at that hour. I told him how I felt about not completing the BBG and missing it by only 30 minutes. His response has stuck with me and I often reflect on what was said to me. He said that he was glad I made it back, that me and the bike were in one piece, and that I probably learned a lot from the ride. He also told me that there were going to be many more opportunities to do more rides. At that time I didn’t realize just how true his words were. After time to reflect on what was said the wisdom of what he had to say finally sunk in. I couldn’t see past my “failure.” Is failure defined as riding a super sport 1,522 miles in 24 ½ hours – and learning a whole lot along the way? I thought so at the time, but now I have nothing but gratitude for being able to accomplish the miles and getting an all Nevada SS1000 and BB1500 with nothing major going wrong and learning a lot.
What did I learn?
1. Setting up sport bikes for touring is difficult
2. Riding a sport bike for many miles hour after hour is not so difficult and
is downright enjoyable
3. Never give up until the clock has ran out and it’s officially over
4. Must be self-sufficient by caring one’s own “gear”
5. Keep your cool at all times and really think each decision over carefully
6. Difficult to accurately calculate arrival times, overall average in the brain and with an iphone
7. When it’s really dark and the ride will end at 0545 in the am there will be a window of daylight allowing speeds to increase for about an hour (give or take)
8. I always carry 2 debit cards and 2 visa cards for gas
9. Getting in line with a big truck in deer/elk territory in the darkness can increase your speed by 10 – 15 mph or more depending on the speed of the truck (that was my observation, but I didn’t take advantatge of this “safety net”)
10. Really think about all the legs of a route, especially the roads that will be ridden at night and how the mph will be affected
11. Don’t dilly dally at the stops – I did plenty of that
12. Even when “I was sure” I wasn’t going to make it back to Alamo in time (still in Ely) I really had no way of knowing that and if I had just pressed on and not stopped so much for silly things I would have made the deadline
13. Saving 3 minutes at each stop would have been all I needed to make it in 24 hours
I probably learned more, but those were the main points for me.
I went back to Nevada with a TLAE rider (Greg) and I successfully completed a BBG with about 30 min to spare – that ride had it’s share of drama also….ride report to follow!
Thank you all for reading!
Thanks to Doug and Brian for putting on this ride and I look forward to many more such events. I also made friends on this ride and got to meet wonderful people.
Ted Bosch
Greetings all this is my first ever ride report! I did my first SS1000 last August. I didn’t do another certified ride until January 2012. Since January, I have done 7 rides. I was looking at the IBA website searching for an organized ride that would fit into my schedule. I came across the TLAE that was being put on by Doug Barrett and Brian Casey. That is how I came to know Doug.
Having done only SS 1000’s, SS 2000 (on a Sportbike), and a BB 1,500 I didn’t know how more involved a BBG was going to be; but I did find out. My friend Bruce Beck and myself planned to ride together. We did the SS2000 together and live about 20 miles from each other. I did my planning and realized that I was not going to be able to carry all the “stuff” that I needed for a ride of this magnitude; especially when the starting point was going to be 500 miles from home. Anyone ever try to outfit a Supersport for touring? What, no other idiots out there – just kidding! Outfitting the bike consisted of a “large” tailbag, a tank bag, new tires, HID headlights, wiring for my Gerbings, and one of Bruce’s side cases on his RT. I want to express my thanks in public to Bruce for allowing me to pack a few of my necessities in his RT.
We met and set out from my house in Visalia on the Friday before the rally. We left my house at 5 a.m. heading to Barstow to meet Doug and Company. I started down the road and got about 10 miles from my house, realized I left my SPOT on the back of my truck and had to go all the way back. I called Bruce, told him about my Homer Simpson “move,” and we decided to hook up in Tehachapi.
SPOT collected and we met in Tehachapi.
Onwards to Barstow. Met up with Doug, wallet less Fisch, and Gary. Quick stop, a chat, and we started for Alamo. We left Jean and Doug told me, “you’re doing a good job leading, so keep it going.” We were about 30 miles outside of Alamo when a NHP was just cresting a hill heading toward us. I was already coming off the throttle as I was approaching a slight hill. He hit his lights and pointed for me to pull over. I did just that and everyone in our group did the same – on the side of a fast highway. The trooper told everyone but me to get moving. I got a little reward for my actions. He didn’t understand that my 2008 CBR1000RR was barely above idle! What’s wrong with these guys. He told me he would have written me for what I was actually going instead of a lesser speed because I didn’t make him “chase me down.” All in All, thank you Doug for letting me lead! I owe you one….
From there checked in to hotel, riders meeting, witness form signed (thanks Brian!). Very little sleep the night before. Up at 0330 and ready to go. Looked at my bike and realized I would be pretty much naked out there if something went wrong. Have the SPOT and Cell Phone (which died about 8 hours before the ride finished and I forgot to bring a charger with me).
Got my gas receipt at 0542 and started up the highway. A little cold as I have no wind protection, but my Gerbing jacket and gloves were adequate. I had no GPS or radar detector – my timing mechanism was my brain – and we’ll all see how well that held up when the going got tough. Pretty ease stint up to Tonopah. Then the trip to Battle Mountain was pretty easy. The leg to Wendover was also pretty easy just cruising east on I-80. Cruised along with Jerry White for quite some time. I’m thinking things are going good and on schedule. At this point I was on schedule. Stood around Wendover for too long eating a sandwich and chit chatting. Then on down to Ely, pretty uneventful. Gassed up without getting off the bike and on to Tonopah. I was a little concerned about my fuel range especially for this leg of the trip, but I knew I could get 170 miles out of a tank even running at a decent clip. About halfway to Tonopah I saw a headlight in my mirror. It took a pretty long time for the rider to catch up to me. It turned out to be Mario on his RT. Rode with him to Tonopah. Got to Tonopah and took too much time also eating and chit chatting (what did I know I thought I was making excellent time and I was, but that was in ideal conditions) as I thought I had time to spare. Why I didn’t get a clue when I observed Mario gas up and take off without much lolly gagging I couldn’t tell you.
On to Fallon. Nice ride, but I goofed off too long in Fallon thinking I was 2/3 done. That was true by miles, but in riding difficulty it was not true. This is when my ride took on a degree of difficulty that I didn’t anticipate. Started to get dark just outside of Fallon and that is when my speeds went way down. Shortly after it got dark Bruce and Gary were running at a pace I was uncomfortable with (not that they were at warp speed or anything, but I was slow). They started pulling away to where I couldn’t see their lights anymore and I just settled in to my own pace. They stopped, waited for me, and we started off together to Eureka where we got gas. This is when it sunk in that it was 11 O’clock and we were behind. My pace was so slow that I lost most of time that I had banked. I was cold at this time and put on my heated gloves and headed toward Ely.
Shortly outside of Eureka with Greg right behind me I had a deer jump out in front of me. I got on the front binders very hard and avoided a collision. Ok, dodged that one. Less than 10 miles later it happened again and this time it got in my head. I just sat there for a few minutes contemplating my next move. At this point I waved Greg on and knew he had to keep moving in order to make the time limit and if he stayed with me his chances of completing the BBG would be compromised. I sort of gave up on finishing in 24 hours. Don’t ask me how I knew that without a GPS, but that is what I thought. It turned out to be incorrect reasoning, but I was not thinking right. I have over 300 miles to go and I’m cold and feeling dejected about not being able to finish. I kept moving on.
Got to Ely and it got worse. Still very cold. Got turned around and couldn’t find my way to the 50 to take me to Baker. Up, down and around Ely I went. Seemed like I was going in circles around and around. No GPS. Nobody around to ask. Wasted about 25 minutes trying to find my way and saw a set of HID lights coming from the west into Ely. Great, I thought, that is likely Bruce as he wasn’t too far behind me and now we can push on to Baker. I spoke with Bruce for a couple minutes and asked him if I was on the correct rode to Baker and he said yes. Boy did it look dark up that stretch of the 50. At this point I chose to push on to Baker alone. I wasn’t sure if I had enough gas to get there, but I knew it was about 35 miles up from the 95. It was a cold and lonely ride to Baker. As I was heading up to Baker I was passed by Greg and Chris Purney, and the couple on the Goldwing coming down from Baker. I knew I was on the correct road. They were about 40 miles ahead of me. At this point everything that moved was a deer or elk in my mind. I rode the last 4 hours of this ride with my right hand covering the front brake and my left hand covering the clutch. That was exhausting, but I kept going. I had nothing with me at this time except a SPOT, a dead cell phone, very little of anything if something went wrong and I knew there was likely nobody behind me heading to Baker. I knew I would need gas in Baker and would not have enough to get back to Ely if I couldn’t get gas in Baker - for whatever reason. I remember hearing about a gas stop across the border in Utah – that was my back up plan, but I wasn’t even sure that would work out.
I made it to Baker and got my gas receipt. Now started the last leg to Alamo. At this time my heated gear stopped working and I must have stopped 5 times on the way to Alamo to adjust this or that to try and get it to work. See, by now I had given up on making the ride – with absolutely no objective evidence to suggest I wouldn’t make it in time. I was relying on my distorted mental calculations. I stopped numerous times trying to make adjustments to get comfortable Things never got comfortable despite all those stops. Heated clothing was working intermittently, something in my helmet changed allowing cold air to get into my helmet. The simple things became so complex at this point.
It started getting light before 5 am and at this time I could pick up my speed safely. I think I saw a sign that said Alamo 70 miles and I had about 35 minutes to make it. I didn’t feel comfortable whicking it up to make those miles in that amount of time. I knew I was not going to successfully complete the BBG.
I pulled into Alamo and got my receipt at 0622 almost 30 minutes over the 24 hours – dejected!
Rode over to the Alamo Inn and pulled up to Chris Purney (the Harley Guy). I saw all the bikes out front and nobody, but Chris was out at that hour. I told him how I felt about not completing the BBG and missing it by only 30 minutes. His response has stuck with me and I often reflect on what was said to me. He said that he was glad I made it back, that me and the bike were in one piece, and that I probably learned a lot from the ride. He also told me that there were going to be many more opportunities to do more rides. At that time I didn’t realize just how true his words were. After time to reflect on what was said the wisdom of what he had to say finally sunk in. I couldn’t see past my “failure.” Is failure defined as riding a super sport 1,522 miles in 24 ½ hours – and learning a whole lot along the way? I thought so at the time, but now I have nothing but gratitude for being able to accomplish the miles and getting an all Nevada SS1000 and BB1500 with nothing major going wrong and learning a lot.
What did I learn?
1. Setting up sport bikes for touring is difficult
2. Riding a sport bike for many miles hour after hour is not so difficult and
is downright enjoyable
3. Never give up until the clock has ran out and it’s officially over
4. Must be self-sufficient by caring one’s own “gear”
5. Keep your cool at all times and really think each decision over carefully
6. Difficult to accurately calculate arrival times, overall average in the brain and with an iphone
7. When it’s really dark and the ride will end at 0545 in the am there will be a window of daylight allowing speeds to increase for about an hour (give or take)
8. I always carry 2 debit cards and 2 visa cards for gas
9. Getting in line with a big truck in deer/elk territory in the darkness can increase your speed by 10 – 15 mph or more depending on the speed of the truck (that was my observation, but I didn’t take advantatge of this “safety net”)
10. Really think about all the legs of a route, especially the roads that will be ridden at night and how the mph will be affected
11. Don’t dilly dally at the stops – I did plenty of that
12. Even when “I was sure” I wasn’t going to make it back to Alamo in time (still in Ely) I really had no way of knowing that and if I had just pressed on and not stopped so much for silly things I would have made the deadline
13. Saving 3 minutes at each stop would have been all I needed to make it in 24 hours
I probably learned more, but those were the main points for me.
I went back to Nevada with a TLAE rider (Greg) and I successfully completed a BBG with about 30 min to spare – that ride had it’s share of drama also….ride report to follow!
Thank you all for reading!
Thanks to Doug and Brian for putting on this ride and I look forward to many more such events. I also made friends on this ride and got to meet wonderful people.
Ted Bosch
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