For all intents and purposes, I should have been well suited to be good Endurance Rally candidate. I have the kit, I have the bike, I don’t mind the long days in the saddle, and I have cracked the Basecamp enigma machine. Yet, it has taken me nearly 3 years to get to the start line. My first ill-fated attempt would have been the year Blaster broke his foot 2 weeks prior to the event. Last year, round 2 of tootsie surgery. This year, I attended with joy, and blaster met me at the finish line.
Two weeks earlier, preps began. This was really Dorito’s first outing since I relegated her to commuter/road duties. If for nothing else, it was a good reason to fix all the little things that time and mileage had wore on her. Dear god, I thought that bike would never go back together until it sucked every last penny from my wallet. Aux lights switch froze, head bearings, new road stickies (BTW, the Tourances are much better than the Anakee 2s or Battle Wings), 12K maintenance, gear up the front sprocket, replace the leaking side cover gasket. Honestly, I didn’t think I would be keeping that bike much longer, but all those nagging gremlins are behind me now and I have fallen back in love with her.
Last week, we received the Bonus locations. I loaded them into Basecamp to look at where they would fall. Pretty much area of play was West to Roanoke, North to Gettysburg, South to NC line and East to Williamsburg. My first rookie mistake, and probably the biggest Bozo of the weekend, I didn’t realize that this was the only set of locations. I didn’t bother to even map anything since I thought we were getting “more information” at the riders check in meeting. I realized of the field of 12 or so riders, I was the only one without their route at the riders meeting….and there was nothing that would have prevented me routing in leisure in the last week. And the anxiety mounts...
Since Blaster wasn’t running this, he was very kind to loan me his GPS. You know, a GPS to see the overall route and one to push buttons on. However, my Zumo has been flaky since Canada, and it’s the point that I boot it up to load the track that the speaker starts squealing like a rabbit being eaten alive. And the anxiety mounts...
Friday night was a long one. First I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any new points provided in the Riders Packet than the emailed bonus packet. Hindsight, I wasted too much time here, and I should have saved this time on routing. Then I read the descriptions of the locations. Diligently marking the ones that sounded interesting, the ones that I thought were “easy”. This was sort of another waste of time, because the final route didn’t use any of those metrics.
It’s now somewhere around 1030 (t-8 hrs from launch), and I still don’t have a single point on my route. To some, the series of unrelated points depicts a beautiful picture. I assume these are the same people that interpret art from Salvador Dali's work. To me, it was one of those pictures you need to cross your eyes to see anything. For no good reason other than it's new track for me, I decide that I am heading to Roanoke. And it looks to be a lower congested area. By the same token, I will suspect my rider efficiency will also be lower. I am horrified at my first routing attempt—It’s 13 hours long for a 10 hour rally…And Basecamp isn’t counting gas stops nor stop lights!
My normal trick of just making Blaster ride for 4 days on track 1 won't work here. Sigh.
To Be Continued......
Two weeks earlier, preps began. This was really Dorito’s first outing since I relegated her to commuter/road duties. If for nothing else, it was a good reason to fix all the little things that time and mileage had wore on her. Dear god, I thought that bike would never go back together until it sucked every last penny from my wallet. Aux lights switch froze, head bearings, new road stickies (BTW, the Tourances are much better than the Anakee 2s or Battle Wings), 12K maintenance, gear up the front sprocket, replace the leaking side cover gasket. Honestly, I didn’t think I would be keeping that bike much longer, but all those nagging gremlins are behind me now and I have fallen back in love with her.
Last week, we received the Bonus locations. I loaded them into Basecamp to look at where they would fall. Pretty much area of play was West to Roanoke, North to Gettysburg, South to NC line and East to Williamsburg. My first rookie mistake, and probably the biggest Bozo of the weekend, I didn’t realize that this was the only set of locations. I didn’t bother to even map anything since I thought we were getting “more information” at the riders check in meeting. I realized of the field of 12 or so riders, I was the only one without their route at the riders meeting….and there was nothing that would have prevented me routing in leisure in the last week. And the anxiety mounts...
Since Blaster wasn’t running this, he was very kind to loan me his GPS. You know, a GPS to see the overall route and one to push buttons on. However, my Zumo has been flaky since Canada, and it’s the point that I boot it up to load the track that the speaker starts squealing like a rabbit being eaten alive. And the anxiety mounts...
Friday night was a long one. First I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any new points provided in the Riders Packet than the emailed bonus packet. Hindsight, I wasted too much time here, and I should have saved this time on routing. Then I read the descriptions of the locations. Diligently marking the ones that sounded interesting, the ones that I thought were “easy”. This was sort of another waste of time, because the final route didn’t use any of those metrics.
It’s now somewhere around 1030 (t-8 hrs from launch), and I still don’t have a single point on my route. To some, the series of unrelated points depicts a beautiful picture. I assume these are the same people that interpret art from Salvador Dali's work. To me, it was one of those pictures you need to cross your eyes to see anything. For no good reason other than it's new track for me, I decide that I am heading to Roanoke. And it looks to be a lower congested area. By the same token, I will suspect my rider efficiency will also be lower. I am horrified at my first routing attempt—It’s 13 hours long for a 10 hour rally…And Basecamp isn’t counting gas stops nor stop lights!
My normal trick of just making Blaster ride for 4 days on track 1 won't work here. Sigh.
To Be Continued......