Bun Burner Gold Ride This Weekend

[Sport Rider]

I have been sticking my toes in the long-distance-riding waters lately. I have done a number of Iron Butt 1000 mile rides on various bikes I've owned.

my latest venture is to complete a Bun Burner Gold ride. That's doing 1500 miles in 24 hours. In order to accomplish this, I need to keep an average speed of about 64 miles per hour, including my breaks. No easy feat when you consider I have to factor in my pee breaks....which at my age are FAR too often!

I'm leaving Saturday at 10 AM heading north on 77 from Mooresville NC. I'm heading up 77 to Cambridge OH, then west on 70 to Indianapolis. From there south on 65 to Birmingham and then head back east through Atlanta and back to the Charlotte area. leaving at 10 AM will put me going through ATL at about 6 AM on Sunday so as to avoid traffic. If all goes as planned, of course.

I've done several SS1k's. my goal with this is to at least make 1250 miles in 24. I feel good about making the 1500 though. I'm doing it on my 94 Kawasaki Concours 1000. I expect to get about 225 to 250 miles on a tank of gas. that's more mileage than my bladder allows. This is a prep ride for a planned Coast-to-Coast 50 hour ride I'm doing in the spring. (another Iron Butt Association milestone)

Weather forecast shows I may have a good weather window. Subject to the whims of weather geeks though, so I'll be prepared regardless.

I'm using my SPOT 4 for the first time to actually track a long distance trip. hopefully this link would allow anyone to view the track and follow along.

https://new.spotwalla.com/trip/25d1-...ve=1&showAll=1

[cheesy]

Good luck.

[Emerikol]

If you need anything between Birmingham and Atlanta, look me up! Carrollton is just off I-20 (about 10 miles south of Villa Rica). I'd be happy to meet you somewhere and offer any help you may need (even liquid refreshment, if necessary!)

[minimac]

Good luck and be safe. What will you be riding?

[Sport Rider]

Originally Posted by minimac

Good luck and be safe. What will you be riding?

Not a Hawk! LOL

I have a 94 Concours 1000 that I disconnected from my sidecar. it's only got about 38k miles on it and should be up to the challenge. I've put lots of miles on these bikes over the past 14 years, so if something comes up, I hope to be able to handle it.

if something happens it'll kill my chances at the 1500/24. my real goal for this one is to cover at least 1250 miles in 24. it's really a prep ride for a Coast to Coast ride I plan to do next sprint. my goal is to get from JAX Florida to San Diego in 50 hours.

[Sport Rider]

Now that I've had a day or 2 to recover and get back to "normal", I thought I'd post an update. I completed my ride in 23 hours. pretty much to the minute. I started at 10:04 on Saturday morning and arrived back home at 9:04 on Sunday. I started out with cloudy skies as the rain from the night before we just moving off to the east. I managed to catch a bit of the tail end of the rain when I rode through VA and southern WV on my way up I77. Fortunately, my C10 offers really good weather protection, so I didn't stop to put rain gear on. I knew it would be short since I had checked weather maps prior to my launch.



I made very good time and was about 1/2 hour ahead of schedule by the time I reached Cambridge OH at my second stop. I had made my first gas stop in WV just below Charleston, but forgot to get a receipt. it was my first attempt at a quick gas/go stop and I just forgot some of the steps.



Once heading west across I70 I hit another small spot of rain. then came Columbus where I took a wrong turn due to construction/changes in the map. quick adjustment and I was back on my way toward Dayton OH. I stopped in Spiceland IN just prior to Indianapolis for another fuel stop. I lost my riding glasses there.


Onward to Indy, and yet another wrong turn due to construction. No worries. 15 minutes of looping around and I was back on track. Heading south on 65, my next stop was in Memphis IN just prior to reaching Lewisville. I stopped a little short on my mileage this time to better time out a fuel stop in Birmingham later. This tank was only 175 miles. That carried me through to Goodlettsville TN for my next stop just prior to Nashville.



At this point in my ride, I was up about an hour on my overall time. I decided to take the next leg easy to see how well my fuel mileage improved when not pushing the quad carbs so far into the main jets. I did better, getting more than 225 miles before arriving at Leeds AL right by Barber Motorsports Park.



next up was my run through Atlanta. As I had planned, doing it in the wee hours of the morning eliminated most of the traffic problems. On through to Jefferson GA heading up I85 for my next fuel stop. At this point I was 1 hour ahead of my 24 hour deadline. I had only 211 miles to home, so I dialed back the throttle a bit on this leg to make it all the way in.



my overall odometer reading was 1566 miles. Google maps put the ride at 1511 when I measured it prior to my ride. I'll have to plug in the actual address stops and see if it's different, but either way, it was a mission accomplished.



I learned a few things from the ride. first, I did the initial 1000 miles in 14 and 3/4 hours. I was at 1200 miles in 18 hours. Those things gave me confidence that when I attempt my CC50 ride next spring I have a good chance to be successful on that one too. My bike needs a bit of TLC at this poinmt prior to next spring. my butt, hips and knees were mush by the time I finished the ride. gotta figure out some exercises along the say to help with that. Time out of the seat at each stop did help. when I got back on, my butt was feeling better. I used seat beads. I'll stick with them.

[JerryHawk250]

Thanks for the report. My butt is hurting just from reading. Although I wouldn't mind doing something like this. My longest ride is around the 500 mile range. That was on my Yamaha Route 66 and the speed limits were only 55mph. We made several trips along the coast to Orange Beach, Fl. during the summer.

[Sport Rider]

from your place to Key West would make a great Iron Butt ride!

[JerryHawk250]

Originally Posted by Sport Rider

from your place to Key West would make a great Iron Butt ride!

Maybe 20 years ago. lol That would be one heck of a ride though. Definitely would need to hook up with members along the way so i could rest my old body. Only about 1100 miles. One way.