On 20 August 2007, 97 motorcycle enthusiasts left St Louis, Missouri for 11 days, facing journeys of up to 11,000 miles. All in the name of fun.
Motorcycling is a minority pursuit, touring motorcyclists are a minority within motorcycling and long-distance riding is often seen as being very particular even within the motorcycling fraternity. So what is the Iron Butt Rally?
The Iron Butt Rally is regarded as the Olympics of long-distance motorcycle-riding. Riders are given a long list of bonus locations and they have to decide which ones they can get to while still making it back to St Louis within a strict time-frame. Points are awarded for each bonus location ‘captured’, with higher points for more difficult / distant locations. Capturing the location usually consists of photographing a personal Rally flag at the location and recording certain details such as odometer reading and time. More points are awarded for keeping detailed fuel logs and taking defined rest-periods. A rider must achieve 190,000 points over the two legs of the Rally to be classified as a finisher.
Run every two years by the Iron Butt Association (www.ironbutt.org ), the Rally is billed as the ‘world’s toughest motorcycle Rally’ and no consideration is given for bad weather or poor road conditions. In North America, bad weather can range from rain to sleet and snow, severe thunderstorms and hurricanes or tornados – in mid-summer – and high temperatures, too. It is usual for bonuses to be located in Death Valley, California, where temperatures can reach over 125˚ Fahrenheit.
Riders in the Rally are selected from thousands of applicants from all over the world. A rider needs to be able to show a record of long-distance riding before being considered for a place on the start-line.
On 20 August 2007, I was on the start-line, a rider from the island of Ireland. This is my story.