I saw someone with the nick name "STPilot" posting frequently on the ST-Owners forums. Particulary I noted that he was from Roseville, CA which is about 2 hours from where we live. His personality came across as easy going, fun loving, and excited about the long distance touring aspect of motorcycling. One day I noticed he mentioned he was anxious to knock out a SaddleSore 1000 ride, so I replied to his post letting him know that when he was ready to put it into action to contact me. Any excuse to ride the long miles works for me!
For those of you not familiar with the Saddlesore 1,000 (SS1K), what the heck are you doing at this site?? Just kidding! The Iron Butt Association (IBA) prides themselves as the "Worlds Toughest Riders." Sometimes I think these guys forget that the joy of long distance motorcycling involves what you see and do along the way. But then I remember that challenges cross our paths and somtimes simply meeting those challenges gives quite a feeling of accomplishment. So why not knock out some of those challenges on a bike? The IBA honors riders that accomplish certain long distance types of runs with a certification process. You need a witness at the start and finish, documented maps and logs, and receipts along the way as proof you actually made the journey. You send all of this in with some cash and they will verify your accomplishment and send you a certificate (along with a license plate cover and a pin if you want) honoring your deed.
Three rides that have interested me are the SaddleSore 1000, The BunBurner Gold, and the 50CC. The SaddleSore 1000 is a ride that covers 1,000 miles in under 24 hours. The BunBurner Gold is a ride that covers 1500 miles in less than 24 hours. The best ride of all in my book is the 50CC where you ride from coast to coast in under 50 hours. Why am I interested in these over all the other rides that the IBA certifies? Well, I've done the first two without certification and the 50CC simply intrigues me. These are all rides that a motorcyclist may have encountered a need for before there was ever an IBA. I know my first SaddleSore 1,000 ride was in 1973 when I rode from Austin, TX to San Diego, CA non-stop. I did it because I was in the Air Force and just wanted to go home for the three day weekend. My first BunBurner Gold style ride was a couple of decades later when I needed to get from Seattle to Dallas as fast as I could, and didn't get tired enough to stop for sleep until I had made it to Phoenix about 1500 miles and 23 hours into the trip. So these rides are not simply challenges, they are realistic rides that I have taken for real purposes. The 50CC ride seems easy enough. After all, San Diego to Dallas is more than halfway between San Diego to Jacksonville, FL, and I've done that ride non-stop several times.
So Tim (aka: STPilot) pulled the trigger and wrote me a note suggesting we start planning on the SS1K. I had already figured out a route so I sent him a link to this map. He looked it over and the snowball started to build. I talked to Carole about it a couple of days later. She said, "I have no problems with you doing that ride under one condition... you document it and send it in for a certificate to add to our wall of fame." I sent news of her reply to Tim and the planning started.
First Tim and I needed to meet. We needed to find out if our personalities were compatible and to talk over some of the preliminary concepts. Two weeks later Carole and I rode to Concorde and met Tim at the Spaghetti Factory. Believe me, anyone that meets Tim falls in love with the guy. His enthusiasm for life is infectious, his kind spirit warms everyone around him, and his passion for riding oozes from his pores. Ten minutes into lunch I had no doubt that Tim and I were going to pair up well on this ride. So we enjoyed our spaghetti lunch while discussing the route, gas stops, where the technical areas would be versus the super-slab, nutrition and hydration, and communication. He had just purchased a CB (JMCB-2003) for his bike and would be installing it over the next couple of weeks.
Plans were set, personalities worked, and we were ready to ride!