OzSTOC
General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: CallMeSteve on July 16, 2020, 06:43:41 PM
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Once upon a time, a long long time ago in the BC era (BC = Before COVID), the most honourable Biggles suggested I go on an IBA ride with him. On Saturday Feb 29. "Why that date?" I asked. "Because you only get a chance to do a ride on that date once every 4 years". Hard to argue with logic like that.
I had thought about trying a shorter 1000km Far Ride first, but the next FR wasn't until April. So I decided to take the plunge and join Bill on his 1640km adventure, figuring that in the worst case if I ran out of steam I'd have to spend Saturday night in a motel room out the back of goodness-knows-where listening to the sweet song of a window-rattler.
So we departed Carseldine in the crisp night air at 12:10am, then treated ourselves to a hearty breakfast in Rockhampton, followed by a cruise up over the twisties of Mt. Morgan, 'lunch' at Taroom, 'dinner' at Goondiwindi, then home for supper and bed around 9pm.
Highlights of the trip:
- Whizzing up the Bruce north of Gympie with nary a car in sight. Soooo much better than the usual crawl behind the inevitable caravan while looking for a spot where one could pass without getting killed.
- Macca's breakfast at Rockhampton. Yep, at that time of day Macca's tasted unusually excellent. The coffee and carbs did an excellent job of chasing away the cobwebs. As we hit Rocky I was getting dangerously fuzzy in the head, and in hindsight I should have pulled over earlier for a break.
- The trip up Mt Morgan, while not as long as I would have liked, was a lot of fun.
- 'Lunch' at Taroom where, as I seated myself comfortably at a picnic table, dearest Biggles gently reminded my that LD riders don't lunch at picnic tables - they snack while standing.
- The stretch from Goondi towards Warwick, with the afternoon sun setting behind us, was magical.
Apart from the fuzzy bit at around 5am, I was amazed at how much I enjoyed the trip, and how fresh I felt at the end. It was an absolute blast. I used an AirHawk over the OEM seat under the sheepie, pumped up quite high. I don't like the AirHawk around town, even when inflated correctly, butt on this long trip it really helped. The highway pegs also were invaluable in giving me three distinct seating positions I could rotate through, again really helping with the tail end and legs.
Would I do it again? You bet I would.
(https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-dsvBkGz/0/X2/i-dsvBkGz-X2.jpg)
(https://photos.smugmug.com/photos/i-TmZPNdQ/0/X2/i-TmZPNdQ-X2.jpg)
(https://photos.smugmug.com/Posting/i-jxsBR49/0/bdffbf60/X3/SS1600Feb292020-X3.jpg)
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Well done. A Great first big ride
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Congratulations! Good effort.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
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Congratulations to Steve & Biggles for completing the Iron Butt 1640 km in the 24hrs
Well done :hatwave
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Congratulations Steve on the great mental and physical achievement of your first IBA, and also to Biggles for your umteenth IBA ride. :clap :clap
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Well done on your first of many :whistle should wander on over to the 'asylum' & post your glorious ride report... http://forum.ironbutt.org/index.php?forums/certified-ride-reports.66/ (http://forum.ironbutt.org/index.php?forums/certified-ride-reports.66/)
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Hey- you didn't tell me your certificate had arrived! That's great. Good to read your perspective on the ride. We'll certainly do another one... maybe when the temperature gets out of the single digits during the night.
Non-Ironbutters might wonder about the "1000". Normally our rides in Oz are recognised for their kilometre distances, but the USA-based Ironbutt Association ran this challenge with just this specially produced certificate, so it's recognised as a 1000 mile ride. They always include both measurements on our certificates, similarly for the other metricated countries who participate (i.e the rest of the world :grin).
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Thanks Bill, yes it finally arrived just yesterday. As you know, my first email submission in early March just went missing. But after I resent it they processed it very quickly at their end.
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Be warned!
It's addictive. :thumbs :thumbs
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Good effort Gents.
Rgds
GB
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Awesome work Steve, congrats on completing of your first IBA ride :hatwave
It's great that an experienced rider like Biggles was able to join you in this achievement, isn't he an absolute legend :thumbsup
Also that certificate looks awesome :thumbs