| Author | Message | ||
     Fasteddieb |
I decided last week to blitz up to Lake City, FL to greet the '03 Iron Butt competitors at their Sat. AM checkpoint. I rode my K1200RS (my Firebolt is in N GA) and left at about 9PM Fri for the 400+ mile jaunt. I arrived at about 4AM and just hung around socializing and meeting the riders as they came in. Stayed up all night and headed home about 10:30AM. Had to power-nap briefly at a rest area near Tampa and I'm gradually getting back in sych now. I think everone knows, but the Iron Butt rally is held every other year and consists of a route that covers roughly 11,000 miles in 11 days. Checkpoints are set up and mandatory, but bonus points can be had for various locations visited. This year the FL checkpoint could be missed if an alternative in some godforsaken place like Labrador or somewhere was visited instead. Details and daily ride reports are available at www.ironbutt.com. Anyway, at least one Buell rider was among the victims, er, participants this year. I don't know if any others may have headed north and missed the FL checkpoint. I have a TERRIBLE memory when it comes to names, and I didn't write this fellow's name. (I just found it on the Iron Butt site - it's James Hickerson and he was in 74th place out of 117 riders as of the FL checkpoint - I don't see any other Buell's entered.) edited by fasteddieb on August 17, 2003 | ||
| Fasteddieb |
here's the image I meant to post:  | ||
| Stubby |
Which model is that one? I want one. Stubby. | ||
| Mbsween |
Stubby, that'd be an S3T, a DDFI model (meaning 99 - 02), amazingly enough the exhaust appears stock. | ||
| One |
That is one very nice bike! Almost identical to mine. The 2002 S3T has a different design for the rotor. Oh yes the exhaust does appear to be stock...that's because it performs best. | ||
| Arbalest |
James and the S3 made it to the checkpoint in Maine. He had to replace his battery. He has had the bike about a year, has logged 25,000 miles. He said he contacted Buell about doing the Iron Butt, and never even got the courtesy of a reply. | ||
| Whodom |
At the end of leg 3 in Maine, James was in 64th place overall. Looks like he was still in the hunt as of yesterday (the rally finished today, but no results posted yet). I found a photo of the bike here: http://www.american-thunder.com/?owner The photos were taken at Donahue Harley Davidson/Buell in St. Cloud, the last bonus for the rally. Looks like his bike is getting some work; nothing too serious hopefully. It would be pretty cool to see him finish the Iron Butt after all the crap Buell catches about reliability. A LOT of Bimmers have bitten the dust this year according to the Iron Butt site. | ||
| Anonymous |
James never contacted me! I wish him the best, and have to say he darned well might finish it, since he left it alone! I mean, all he really needed was an aftermarket pipe that would throw off the calibration to overheat the motor, deafen him over the miles, and then break off. A stock 2003 S3 is one hell of a good motorcycle. | ||
| Court |
>>>He said he contacted Buell about doing the Iron Butt, and never even got the courtesy of a reply. That sounds quite suspect. My choice, for the best IB configuration, would be to roll the thing from the factory door, have it properly set up and just go ride the motorcycle. I have some experience in this regard and, based on that experience, am irrevocably convinced that each time you touch the bike you run a risk of diminishing the reliability. I will add that in 31 days of 1995, I took a stone stock 1995 S-2, rode the piss out of it (and allowed over 250 other people to "test" it in places from the Dunlop factory in Buffalo, Orange, VA, Phoenix, Ortega Highway, Mount St. Helens and Jackson, WY) while riding in (30 of the 31 days) 100oF temps. Absolutely NO PROBLEM. A stock 2003 S3 is one hell of a good motorcycle. Court | ||
| Whodom |
Hey, he finished 54th! Final results are up at http://www.ironbutt.com It says when he was called up to get his trophy a, heckler made rude remarks to the effect that his bike should have been placed in the "Hopeless Class". Hickerson fired back and asked the guy "How many BMWs failed and how many Buells failed?" :-) Looks like 10 BMWs were DNF based on the final standings. Of course, a BMW won the thing too... |
