Would
YOU ride this in a distance rally?
The Introduction:
If
you recall, last years Buffalo Run Road
Rally resulted in both the thrill of victory, and the agony
of defeat. We all came back with wood, but I came back in more
pieces than I started with, having broken my ankle on the ride.
Well, it's that time of the year again, Labor Day weekend - time
to head back out to Milbank for the final bonus points rally of
the year.
The
Bike:
Never
one who wants to do things the easy way, I had something special
planned for this rally. My normal bike for rallies (and everything
else) is my Kawasaki Concours. This
is a touring/sport-touring class bike, depending on the rallymasters,
and that's a pretty crowded category. What if I decided to ride
a different bike this year?
My
friend Dave Nahan, lead guitarist in our band shoot
lucy, had an old 1980 Suzuki GS1100L sitting in his garage.
It hadn't been ridden in about four years and was pretty much
left for dead. He was moving about 50 miles away this past May,
and I inquired as to whether he'd have any interest in selling
it to me. After about 3 cans of starting fluid, he got it going,
and left it with me to see what I could do. The full story on
the old GS is here.
The Ride:
I
borrowed some soft saddlebags from fellow Team Newbie members
Ron and Carrie Hanson, and the bike was ready to go. I left on
Saturday morning by myself, in case the bike broke down and I
needed to go get the other one, and arrived in Milbank around
3 p.m. Bob "498" Johnson was at the Super 8 visiting with others
and he seemed glad to see me, and that the bike had made it. The
others showed up around an hour later, and we headed to dinner
at the City Limits - the usual pre-rally dinner place. The bike
generated a lot of attention. People asked a bunch of questions,
and the Harley Davidson mufflers I added were kind of a unique
attraction (they don't make stock exhaust for that bike anymore,
and HD stock mufflers are cheap because they usually go for salvage
when people add straight pipes). There were some other old or
strange bikes there, including an old BMW airhead, an old Moto
Guzzi, and a 1979 Kawasaki 440LTD. That was to be my competition.
There
were two options this year, a 12 hour, or an 18 hour rally. I
chose the 12 hour based on the bike I was riding, while Ron, Carrie,
and Paul Sundet chose the 18 hour version. They had to get up
at about 4 a.m. for the 18 hour version, while I got another two
hours of sleep or so (though I did wake up initially when Paul
did). Around 6 am, I woke up, showered, and headed over to the
City Limits for check in. As usual, there were a TON of bonus
locations, and I think they used the same list for the most part,
for both rides, because there was no way you could get to some
of them and back in 12 hours.
The
weather was pretty bad that morning as well, with lots of rain
and fog.Combined with me not knowing the reliability of the bike,
I chose to stick close to home, planning a route that never went
farther than 100 miles from the start/finish. This meant not a
lot of points, but I'd see what I could do. I started out hitting
some of the usual GLMC bonus stops, like Nicollet Tower, the Vinegar
Museum in Roslyn, and Pickerel Lake, before running into some
really scary fog. Visibility was about 150 feet at times, and
I was really concerned that someone would come up behind me and
not see my tail light.
I
headed up to Hecla, Kidder and Hillhead on what was marked only
as a "broken road." It would have been better had it not been
paved at all. There were potholes the size of truck tires everywhere
and slaloming them in the rain and the fog was lots of fun (sarcasm
off). After picking up the bonus in Hecla, I had to make a decision.
There were no real possibilities anywhere nearby, so I could either
head back and look for scavenger hunt items, or head down near
Huron, where I could potentially pick up 2500 points. It was early,
so I headed south. Along the way, I passed the spot near Verdon,
SD, where I crashed a year ago. I decided not to stop and relive
the moment.
The
downfall:
Near
Doland, about an hour north of Huron, the sky got eerily dark,
after about an hour of sun (and me taking off my rain gear). I
headed south, thinking that I could go around it, but the storm
basically surrounded me, and I was caught in a horrible mess of
pouring rain and lightning. I turned around, and decided to head
back towards Brookings, when the wind shifted, and the storm moved
in that direction. By this time I was soaked and needed gas, so
I headed back to Doland to wait it out, since the GS1100 has little
weather protection.I ran into (not literally) Donna Lamme, another
regular rally rider, and talked to her for a bit. She was also
heading south, but she wanted to pick up something else in the
area as well. I had wasted a lot of time with that storm, but
oddly enough, it had now cleared up to the south, so I headed
toward Huron. I picked up the bonus there (a restaurant where
Charlie's Angels star Cheryl Ladd used to work), and went to look
for a big bonus for 1000 points. This was the Noble monument out
in the middle of nowhere, next to a river and down about 12 miles
of gravel.
As
has been stated before, I don't like gravel. However, the old
Suzuki was surprisingly easy to handle in the dirt. For an 1100,
it's fairly light, and it has a low center of gravity, so it was
really no problem at all. Problem was, I couldn't find the monument.
I had the GPS coordinates, but all I saw were fields and cowpaths,
so I gave up. At this point, I realized that it was going to be
really close as far as making it back in time. I'd wasted so much
time looking for the monument and dealing with the storm, it was
nearly 6:00 and I was 110 miles from Milbank. Uh oh. I had to
stop for gas in DeSmet (former home of Laura Ingalls Wilder along
with damn near every other town in the midwest) and get going
quickly again. I took the back roads to Milbank, as the route
is more direct than I-29, but it was no use. I was 16 minutes
late and ended up being time barred. I was a DNF for this year's
rally. I just turned in my ride sheets - no scoring this time
- and grabbed some food and beer to wait for the 18 hour crew
to come in. I was the second to the last 12 hour rider in - another
came in 4 minutes after me, after looking for the same monument
(he found it).
I found out from our friend Kerry "P" Person, who was there but
didn't ride due to a crash a few weeks back, that Ron and Carrie
had cut their ride short because they were overtired from a long
trip the week before. They were at the motel sleeping, and would
be there in a few hours. We waited around, but very few 18 hour
riders came in early. Only Michael Nimz was in, and he showed
up soon after I did.
Finally,
around 11:30, they started to come in. It was getting close to
12, and no sign of Paul. Hootis came in and showboated up and
down the highway to come in with 15 seconds left, but Paul didn't
make it in time. He joined me in the DNF column about 10 minutes
later. Seemed he had gone down on some gravel, which made it all
the worse. VFR's are not dirt bikes!
The
End:
Awards
and breakfast were the next morning. Ron and Carrie tied for third
in their class, despite only riding 550 miles, and as usual, Hootis
won the whole thing. I figured out that my score wouldn't have
been enough to place without that monument bonus, so I didn't
feel quite as bad about the DNF. That and this ride didn't result
in six weeks in a cast! Actually, I didn't mind at all, because
my real goal was accomplished. That was to take an old, non-running
bike, and fix it and ride it in a rally without it breaking down.
I did that - and it worked perfectly, so really, the bike finished
the rally, it was just the rider that DNF'ed. I'm planning on
bringing the Suzuki out for next year's Buffalo Run too - maybe
this time we'll both finish!
Thanks
as always to Bob and Lunatic, and everyone who makes the GLMC
rallies possible! I always look forward to them, and hope to see
you all next year!
