After Further Review

            The air is crisp and cool as fall fades to winter.  The sky is a crystal blue as I make my way north on I-95.  The bike is again running perfectly and heading home nearly 3 months after the beginning of this long trip.  On my way back from St. Louis, I had left the bike with Roger for repairs.  BMW had to ship a new transmission from Germany for the bike.  Roger also had replaced the clutch, final drive and any number of items.  The RID was repaired and again functioning.  One of the engine guards had also cracked somewhere during the Rally, as well as the center stand.

            People often ask about the cost of the Rally.  It is almost impossible to give an accurate answer.  You can plan for entry fees, gas costs, and to a certain extent, hotel costs.  But there are way too many intangibles to be accurate.  In 2005, my expenses were somewhere just north of $10,000.  John Ryan’s prediction of “11 Days, $11,000” was somewhat accurate. 

            After this year’s Rally, I now miss those now more fiscally conservative days.  I failed to budget for tow jobs, lost money, transmissions, tires, clutches, truck rental, fuel caps, GPS trackers and a dozen other things.  I spoke with Nancy about replacing the bike with a new one.  She replied, “I thought that was what you were doing.  Just one part at a time.” 

            I pulled the bike into the garage where it has sat for the last month.  I still need to do some other repairs.  The J&M headset is still not working properly and the Motolights need to be rebuilt.  Perhaps then I will be able to enjoy my new 5 year old bike.

            After the Rally, the long distance riding community once again feasted upon itself in what is becoming a biannual cannibalistic ritual.  The internet buzzed with allegations of cheating and illegal or improper tactics by riders in the Rally.  Though outside assistance is permitted in the rules, there is disagreement among the community about what is acceptable.  What is perfectly acceptable to some, seems to offensive to others. 

            In many ways this is unfair to any rider.  It is difficult enough to compete in any endurance event.  It is impossible to compete if riders are expected to conform to a standard that is not outlined in the rules.  As I did in 2005, I not only read the rules, I carried them with me during the Rally.  When I needed a clarification, I asked for one and got it.  I would expect nothing more or less than that from every rider.  One of the things IBA President Mike Kneebone told me years ago was that a rider should not do anything the rider would not share with his (or her) fellow competitors.  There is a lot of common sense and wisdom in that statement.

            There has been considerable debate about what constitutes a level playing field for endurance rallies.  Given the nature of the sport, the playing field can only be leveled so much.  I chose to ride a bike that would eventually fail.  Other, wiser riders chose bikes that would finish the Rally.  I also chose to work heavily on routing skills for months leading up to the Rally.  Others chose not to.  Different is not automatically unfair. 

Every rider and every bike in the Rally was different.  The riders made different choices.  Some choices were good, some were not so good.  Once again, they were made within the context of the rules of the Rally.  Every rider starts with the rules of the Rally and goes on from there.  These choices cover everything from bike choice, to gear, to routes, to maintenance and to everything in between.  To expect a rider to adhere to something other than the rules when making those choices, puts the rider in a no win situation.

This is a small sport in very small pool of motorcycle sports.  The overwhelming majority of endurance riders will complete a total of one ride during their lifetime.  Most will never ride in any Rally.  I would guess there are fewer than 1,000 active endurance rally riders in the world.  Yet, we sometimes seem to take great joy in trying to tear the sport apart. 

The IBA, and more specifically the IBR staff seems to be grappling with the advances of technology.  Many riders lament the demise of the earlier rallies, where riders used paper maps and plotted everything by hand.  GPS’s, laptops and cell phones are seen as the enemy.  They yearn for the good old days of man and machine against the world.  And while this certainly has a certain romantic appeal, the design of the modern IBR has grown as technology has allowed riders to do more.  As recent rallies have shown, it just isn’t that difficult for the top riders to ride 11,000 miles in 11 days.  By adding more technical routes, more timed bonuses, the IBR has given the rider more challenges.  Riders have responded to meet these challenges.

In many ways, the IBR organizers got a very predictable result in this Rally.  Having plotted every leg of every Rally, there is no doubt in my mind the two legs in 2007 Rally were the most technical the Rally has ever seen.  If you doubt it, simply sit down and try to come up with a finishing route.  And if you want to have some real fun, do it with only a paper map.  Some people seemed to be genuinely surprised that many riders received outside assistance, when if you look at the design of the Rally, that result would seem to be a logical byproduct of the Rally design. 

More legs with fewer, more definitive route choices would seem to negate the effect of outside routing assistance.  But none of this matters much to me.  It certainly seems to qualify as a large tempest in a very small teapot at best.  I spoke briefly with Mike Kneebone after the banquet.  I told him I believed that should the IBR change its’ rules to not allow outside assistance, there is no doubt in my mind that every rider would abide by this rule.  The issue is not going to subside any time soon, and it certainly will take someone smarter than me to find a solution.

And in the line of outside assistance, I never would have been able to achieve such a spectacular level of failure with the terrific assistance of quite a few people.  In no particular order, I am truly in debt to Vicki Johnston, John Ryan, Bob Woolridge, Lisa Landry, Mike Kneebone, Ray Zimmerman Foothills BMW, Santa Cruz BMW, Salt Lake City BMW and Pittsburgh BMW.  Many thanks also go to Roger Sinclair for all the work done on the bike before, during and after the Rally.   Paul Taylor came to my rescue time and time again.  I could not ask for anything more from a friend. 

And of course, as always, I am in debt to Nancy, who never, ever likes any of these things.  Not only does she help during the Rally, but in the year leading up to it she tolerates quite a bit.  She is probably the only person that can motivate me to ride on, when the only thing I want to do is quit. 

With all that being said, I have nothing but the most heartfelt congratulations for every rider that was able to finish the 2007 Rally.  None of these debates does anything to diminish what they accomplished.  I wish I could have joined the club, but for now, I will stand back and applaud your accomplishments.  So, I say to Marty, Vicki, Jeff, Jim, Brett, Alex, Eric, Rick, Rebecca, and every other finisher, well done.

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