SS1K Success!

[FJRJeff]

Holy smokes what a ride! Talk about a LONG day.

Had everything loaded on the bike the night before - was staying with a friend, and he was going to get up early with me to ride a bit on the way out. Set my cell phone alarm for 4:25 to be on the road by 5am. At 4:50am, my buddy bangs on the door and goes "You up?" Thanks, Verizon. Stupid alarm has failed to go off twice on me now.

So, rushed to get ready, and managed to hit the road by 5:15, stopped for gas to get my start time receipt, then headed out. This was Sunday, because I wanted to avoid traffic in LA. It worked. I totally breezed through LA, without even slowing down. Early excitement came when the car in front of me had their THULE rooftop carrier pop open and blow their belongings all over the highway, right in front of Disneyland.

I knew the heat was going to be brutal, and the early start helped me get some time/miles in before the furnace turned on. I had a liter sized Camelback full of water in my tank bag, 4 bottles of Propel, and 2 liters of emergency water. The heat turned every gas stop in to a chore. Fill the tank, buy a small bottle of water to down, and a liter of Gatorade to fill the Camelback. Soak the cooling vest. Ride some more.

So, these are the temps of the places I went through yesterday:

Santee (start), CA - 103

Castaic, CA - 103 (EDITED: Weather.com reported 130 the day after, then later corrected it)

Firebaugh, CA - 112

Woodland, CA - 107

Redding, CA - 114

Grant's Pass, OR - 107

Albany, OR - 104

Gresham, OR - 101

Obviously I didn't hit them all at the heat of the day, but I think I caught the upside of Castaic's oven like temperatures. And it wasn't just hot. It was humid as hell. The vest was worthless in that humidity. Worst moment came after heading out of Woodland post lunch/fueling. A few miles up, I-5 was closed for construction. I saw the traffic jam for the detour and panicked because of the heat (it was a serious mental battle to stay calm in those temps). I lane split a bit to keep moving, then got up to the detour with minimal time standing still. The bike was so hot yesterday, it was hard to touch anything. The levers, the tank, the trunk - everything was baking. The sun tan lotion I brought for my neck turned to water like consistency, and my Carmex lip balm melted. My gas was boiling at one stop.

Upon coming through the Siskyou's into Oregon, there were some VERY menacing looking clouds exploding into the atmosphere. I wanted to make it through the pass and on to flat ground prior to dark. As I was going through the pass, I looked to my left to see several discharges of lightning. Opened the bike up a bit to get out of there. I looked down and noticed my GPS had a message on the screen for me - "SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING." Luckily, I got out of there without incident.

At 10:27pm, I turned my 1000th mile near Eugene, OR. :yahoo:

A little north of Salem, my check engine light came on for about 5 minutes or so before going back out. No idea what that was about. Maybe it had something to do with pounding on the bike in insane heat for hours on end. Seemed odd that it picked a cooler time of day to do that.

I live a few hours north of there, and wanted to sleep in my own bed, so I stopped to asses my condition, and felt good enough to finish the ride. I also wanted to make certain I got the full 1K and that I wouldn't get hosed by any errors. I think the hardest miles were the last 10 on I-205 before my exit to go home. There's a gas station within a half mile or so of my house where I wanted to get a receipt, but for my final surprise, they were closed. This extended my ride about 20 minutes while I went in to town to put some gas in for the receipt. Pulled in around 12:30 am.

According to the odometer - 1,114 miles.

According to the GPS - 1,107 miles.

Since last Wednesday, I've done over 2,500 miles. I may take my car to work on Wednesday...

 

[pawtracks]

Nice report!

You are a brave man going out in that heat, glad you made it home safe.

 

[FJRJeff]

Nice report! You are a brave man going out in that heat, glad you made it home safe.

Thank you.

Brave, or stupid. <_<

I had to get home one way or the other. Sitting in traffic on Monday and Tuesday was not going to work for me. On the way down Thursday, I got a taste of a 39 mile long backup in LA. Live and learn, I guess.

 

[Warchild]

A little north of Salem, my check engine light came on for about 5 minutes or so before going back out. No idea what that was about.

:blink: Didn't you pull over to at least give the motor a cursory look-see? Brave man....

 

[Geezer]

Nice report and congratulations. I don't think I could have done it in that heat.

 

[SkooterG]

Outstanding! Well done!

Wow, you really picked some weather to do your first SS in, didn't you?

Congratulations on your SS! You will never forget it.

 

[FJRJeff]

A little north of Salem, my check engine light came on for about 5 minutes or so before going back out. No idea what that was about.

:blink: Didn't you pull over to at least give the motor a cursory look-see? Brave man....

I didn't feel safe doing that on the side of the highway in the dark, and by the time I got to the next exit, it had gone out.

 

[airboss]

Burtal temps, Fjrjeff, 102 in Western MO. almost did me in. You Da Man :yahoo:

 

[Bounce]

Coolness!

 

[650cent]

Way to go Jeff, you must look like your avatar when you got back.

 

[SkooterG]

Way to go Jeff, you must look like your avatar when you got back.

You mean that isn't really him in the avatar? I am soooo disappointed.

 

[FJRJeff]

Way to go Jeff, you must look like your avatar when you got back.

:lol:

There's an episode of the Simpsons where Homer's running a marathon and dehydrates in to his father until he gets some water.

 

[Blueliner]

Great ride jeff! Thanks for the report.

When is the next one?????? BBG perhaps?

 

[FJRJeff]

Great ride jeff! Thanks for the report.
When is the next one?????? BBG perhaps?

Don't know, but it won't be in the heat.

 

[TheAxeman]

Congratulations Jeff!

I'm contemplating doing one in the fall in New England. Hartford CT to Concord NH to Buffalo NY and then back to Hartford. Any advice now that your a veteran? I was going to try and leave around 4 AM and then knock off as many consecutive miles without stopping as I can over the shortest period of time while I am still sharp. Is that a good or bad idea? Did you run tank to tank or did you take numerous short stops? I'm still running on the stock seat so I wouldn't even consider it before I swapped it out. There is no way I could have done it in that kind of heat though which is why I'm waiting for late Sept. to roll around.

 

[Feejer/Weejer man]

Well, for us at WFO that have chosen to do the SS1000, it sounds as we will be scorched as well. But this time of year, particularly this year, its hot almost wherever you are riding. At WFO3, temps in Moscow topped 100 everyday. Some of us rode some long days while we were there, not counting getting there and riding home. Congrats, counting on getting my certification in Reno.

 

[FJRJeff]

Congratulations Jeff!I'm contemplating doing one in the fall in New England. Hartford CT to Concord NH to Buffalo NY and then back to Hartford. Any advice now that your a veteran? I was going to try and leave around 4 AM and then knock off as many consecutive miles without stopping as I can over the shortest period of time while I am still sharp. Is that a good or bad idea? Did you run tank to tank or did you take numerous short stops? I'm still running on the stock seat so I wouldn't even consider it before I swapped it out. There is no way I could have done it in that kind of heat though which is why I'm waiting for late Sept. to roll around.

There's probably people far more qualified than me to give advice. However, here's a few things that I think helped me (YMMV):

1) Custom seat (obviously)

2) Camelback in the tank bag. Didn't have to stop to get a drink when I got thirsty (in the heat especially, this saved my bacon (mmmm, bacon) - I drank a TON of Gatorade).

3) Carb load the night before. BIG bowl of plain noodles. Allows me to eat light snacks (nuts, granola bars, etc.) quickly at gas stations without being hungry all the time. Stopped for lunch, a Chef's Salad at Denny's, very little protein since it generates more heat when burned. No dinner (though if I had stopped earlier, I'd have eaten). I wasn't doing a long drawn out endurance ride, just trying to save time and get home as early as possible.

4) Sunday morning travel. Because of where I went (LA/Burbank/Sacremento), the early Sunday start helped me dodge traffic problems. Aside from some construction on I-5, no slowdowns due to traffic. If I were taking a scenic route, a weekend day could have been a mistake.

5) Ibuprofen

6) GPS - not so much for the directions in this case, but the XM/MP3 player really help the miles roll on by. At one point, it went crazy from the heat and rebooted 6 or 8 times in a row before settling down. All I thought was "Damn, there goes my tunes"

7) Cruise control - it's a long day, save your wrists

I felt fairly sharp most of the day, despite the heat. Only time I got a little tired was around 10pm or so when it cooled a bit. A stop at a rest area for a few minutes helped. There was a couple there that had been on a R1 tour of California and the wife wrecked. A nice little chat with them and a little walk cleared my head to finish my ride. They knew Iron Butt, and wished me luck. It helped keep my brain in the game to talk to someone else about something other than the heat.

I think it's possible that pushing too much early on may cost you later. I just maintained a steady pace to try and keep my head clear, and did what I had to do at the gas stations to keep cool.

#1 question of the day - EVERY PLACE I stopped, someone came up and asked if I was hot. YES. Yes I'm hot. I'm wearing a black jacket, gloves, black jeans, and my bike is cooking me alive (I have first degree burns to prove it). One person phrased it differently - "Does riding that thing keep you cooler on a day like today?" No. No it doesn't. Sitting in your car with the a/c blasting would be a significantly more enviable position, and in fact, I hate you for doing it in front of me. :angry2:

Early in the morning when it was cool, I ran tank to tank. After 10am or so, I stopped when I needed to, either to go to the bathroom, soak my vest, or hide in some shade for a couple of minutes. If it had been cool all day, I probably would have continued to run tank to tank with bathroom/snack breaks as necessary.

I wouldn't suggest anybody try to ride distances in that kind of heat unless you are really prepared for it. It was probably stupid for me to go. That aspect alone consumed a lot of my focus. I had to come home, though, and it was going to be two days (Mon, Tue) originally. If I had left Monday, the traffic would have killed me, so I made the choice to try the SS on Sunday.

 

[FJRJeff]

Well, for us at WFO that have chosen to do the SS1000, it sounds as we will be scorched as well. But this time of year, particularly this year, its hot almost wherever you are riding. At WFO3, temps in Moscow topped 100 everyday. Some of us rode some long days while we were there, not counting getting there and riding home. Congrats, counting on getting my certification in Reno.

EDIT: Just saw the weather forecast for this weekend in Portland. 77 glorious degrees.

I wish everybody safety and success.

Drink lots of Gatorade. I started with Propel, but that didn't work. Much better luck with the Gatorade.

 

[Claymore]

Excellent write-up, thanks Jeff!

Inspiring.... I WILL do this thing.... :dribble: