A few thank you letters we have received...

Damn What a Ride!

After competing in my first long distance rally (NSR 2008) I decided that this was for me.  I finished filth last year, a mere 16 points out of fourth and 50 points out of third.  I realized my efficiency level could be brought up a bit and that was my goal for NSR 2009.  With the limitations on the mileage and the time (with the mid rally checkpoint) this was going to be a challenge.  I picked two good routes with plenty of stops for bonus locations.  These were carefully loaded into the Zumo.  The newly installed fuel cell was in place.  All that was left to do was ride the routes. Right?

On the way to the rally my fuel cell left me on the side of the road.  It seems that a vacuum issue was the problem.  Upon arriving at Rally Headquarters several fellow rally riders offered help to get the problem fixed.  We moved a vent around and I was comfortable with that.  The morning of the rally my Zumo decided to freeze up and only after a while decided to work.  This was a problem that seemed to only show up on the night screen so on Saturday I changed the setting to stay on the daylight screen.  Things were better again.  Oh, back to the fuel cell.  The damn thing had a mind of its own.  Sometimes it would empty into the main tank.  And sometimes it would decide how much gas I needed.  If I rode in a straight line then it wouldn’t empty into the main tank at all.  If I rode the twisties it seemed to work.  Oh well, I got gas when I needed it.

All in all I captured 26 Bonus stops (not including the rest stops and the mid rally check point).  My mileage was 1380 on leg one and 1392 on leg two.  These were two very full days with not much sleep.  However, the pleasure of riding with the rest of the riders in the NSR and working with the Rally Staff was PRICELESS!  Thank you!

Oh yea, winning was fun too <G>.

Hope to see you next year,
Karl Snell
#6

From: Robert Torter <retort01@msn.com>
To: ldrider <ldrider@ibdone.org>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:46:06 -0600
Subject: [LDRider] NSR a Super Rally!
Sender: ldrider-bounces@ibdone.org

To All Superpersons

We have not done a ride report for the 20+ or so rallies we have ridden, but the Not Superman Rally warrants an independent evaluation for information purposes and because many riders may not have focused on it enough to consider riding in it.  We suggest that you consider doing so based upon our very favorable experience and that of others who will be writing to the list and to pencil it in for next year's riding schedule.  We want to thank Jim Puckett, David Derrick, John Frick, Curt Gran and Jackie Evans Jones for a great challenge and experience.

NSR had a great and strenuous rally format that we had not seen before.  It had its clever elements as one would find in the LOE and its macho elements that normally are operative in the 1088 and RWYB.

Consider this:

Format:  54 hours with two MANDATORY three hour rest breaks

1400 miles maximum allowed mileage per leg with escalating severe penalties for riding above 1400 miles and dnf above 1450 miles on a leg

Rally package:  The devious (and brilliant) mind of David Derrick planned the bonii which totaled MORE THAN 100 for a 54 hour rally.  Using the Jim O method of plotting bonii resulted in concentric circles within a 700 mile radius of Cape Girardeau with high point bonii on the outer circle and inner circles having lower points.  The documentation of the package was superb with no questions of what you were looking for, how to find it, and how to score the bonus.  One unique, as far as we know, aspect was that if you could not satisfy the indicated capture method due to something like bad light, you could use alternate means of proving you were at the bonus.  Other documentation was required as normal.

THE STRATEGY AND RALLY APPROACH

It sounds easy to pick up bonii from the outer ring and a few from inner rings going to and from the checkpoint at rally HQ! According to the RM there were an amazing 12 routes of similar point total that were winning routes. However, each of these routes required riding approximately 1400 miles and the use of paper maps. Remember the high point bonii were on the outer ring and there was a mileage cap. As it turned out, if you used S&T, your GPS optimizer or other mechanized approaches with the fastest route function all of those routes exceeded 1400 miles by a wide margin. If you used the shortest function you would never make it time wise. WE CAN NOT IMAGINE HOW LONG IT TOOK TO CREATE 12 SETS OF BONII WITH THIS SORT OF TORTUROUS SET OF CONFLICTS! Thankfully we were given the bonii about ten days in advance. All we had to do was ride two 1400 mile routes to win!

The Venue 700 mile radius from Cape Girardeau

You could find yourself chasing bonii in Ohio, Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Illinois, Tennessee, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Michigan and who the hell know where else?  Hey, we are talking about 54 hours not eleven days! Who the hell is this maniac David Derrick?!!!

So how did we do?

For IBR prep we wanted to see if we could ride a high point high mileage bonus route and we rode 1403 miles in the first leg capturing points in Oklahoma and Kansas.  I think we were the only ones crazy enough to ride to Pratt and Anthony, Kansas and Hydro, Oklahoma.  Why crazy?  The temperature in Pratt where we were supposed to find Hot and Cold water towers was more than 110 degrees and it never got below 106 all of the way down to Hydro hitting 117 on one occasion and hovering around 113!  We kept panting the mantra..."world's toughest riders" and drank by far the most ever in our riding experience.  As an aside, I sent David a text message joke that it was so hot in Pratt that there was no longer a "Cold" water tower. Would you believe that he called 15 people to find out that it was still there? For the second leg we decided to explore Arkansas and to visit some of the really magnificent bonii such as the Jasper Courthouse.  Traffic and two lane roads kept us down to 1100 miles and we finished eighth riding 2500 miles.  I do not know how many actually started the 54 hour rally that had more than 40 registered but 26 finished.

Puckett's Gift(s)

I asked Jim and he agreed to make this forty six page rally package available by PDF to anyone interested in using it for practicing routing.  It really is as good as they come and if you use the Jim O technique for plotting bonii, it is very interesting.  Jim's address is j.c.puckett@gmail.com and David Derrick's email address is David@derrickandlove.net.

Jim's second gift was having John Ryan as a dinner speaker. We are still amazed as his ride and it was terrific to hear about it from him.

Our remarks and those of others to follow were unsolicited.

Bob & Sylvie
362 & 363

My first "real rally" as I had only been in the 12 Hour NSR last year. I told my wife I still didn't know before I went if I really wanted to get into rallying. This rally would determine that. My greatest concern going in, and still is, is riding at night. Doing my firts 50 CC last year across western Texas with only stock BMW lights and Motolights was definitely not enough. Added HID's much better.

I decided I wasn't going to get a fuel cell before the Rally, until I decided if I really liked it. Monday night I was Googling them. Yep I really liked it.

I was also impressed as Peter was with the incredible Rally Book. Wow I cannot imagine the work that took. I knew that Elvis was from Tupelo, but not that Humboldt begat Walter Big Train Johnson. I had no idea there was such a fabulous statue in Birmingham, or that lightning caused a Courthouse to have a apparition in the window.

So in other words thanks to Jim Dave John Jackie and all the others who pitched in.

One of the best things about it was the parking lot after the Banquet, thanks to Bob and Sylvie for the beer, and sitting around the breakfast table the next morning. Then after finally getting out to our bikes, everyone was slow to leave, as leaving meant it was over.

Bob Rippy

 

The 2008 NSR has been a very enjoyable event. I am thinking we have the privilege of watching you on the way to accomplish your goal - producing a premier 48 hour rally. It is evident that great effort went into the rally as well as innovation. Thank you all.

Arlen Brunsvold, Sr

Betty and I just wanted to say thanks for all the work you did on the rally. Both of us are technically inept, but we found the self-scoring extremely easy, quick and much better than waiting around to be scored manually. We are hoping it catches on with all other RMs.

The bonus sites we visited were interesting. We are already planning to make a rally-type ride of our alternate route as soon as the weather cools off a bit.

Again, thanks for all the hard work - and let us know if you need any help picking out the bonus sites for next year's rally!

Mike and Betty Ann Ligons

Many thanks for a great day riding the 12 hour rally. We found places we did not know existed! Very interesting indeed.

The self scoring was simple and effective even for someone as computer challenged as myself. Wonderful banquet meal...the prime rib was excellent. With horseradish even! Keep up the good work! Looking forward to NSR 2009!

Buck and Loudene Lemme

David, first...thanks for all the work you put into the NSR. I can't imagine all the time it took to even type the rally book, let alone come up with the final selection of locations and point values. The rally was different for me...it was set up for the way you and Jim ride. It was 6 1/2 hours and 467 miles to my first bonus!!!! Usually after that time/distance in a 24 hour rally I have visited about 6-8 sites. As IB Pete stated, "this was like an IB rally."

John Frick

2 weeks ago, I had not heard of a long distance rally. A friend talked me into entering the 30 hour rally and Jim allowed me to enter at the last minute. I had a blast.

It had never occurred to me to ride to Florida for the day. Now it does not seem so far. I can't wait for the next rally.

Many thanks to Jim, David and everyone that made this event possible. Where do I sign up for the 48 hour rally?

Thanks again.

John Hearn

Jim and David...thank you. You were not afraid to try a new methodology, and your hard work paid off. I missed the BSing with everyone while waiting to be scored...but certainly did not miss the sometimes long wait in line to be manually scored.

As many have mentioned, there were no routes that jumped off the page and said here is the way to go. Corey found THE route and rode his a-- off to accomplish what he did...Congrats to Corey.

My new nemesis are the Ligons, and they certainly trounced my butt. When you look at the roads they did (not the wide open NE-KS roads) and the miles they logged, they had a heck of a ride...you stomped this old man, and congratulations on a great ride. Congratulations to every one who left the starting line and returned. Regardless of
where you finished or went; you did what many can't even imagine doing or will never try doing. A big "way to go" to all of you.

It was fun seeing people I knew and meeting new riders who share this same passion.

When we first got the bonus locations, I was suprised to see the distances that would be necessary to ride to complete this rally. Many other rallies have the bonus locations in a much tighter circle...the NSR required me to change my mindset. Has anyone drawn a circle from Cape Girardeau on their Streets and Trips mapping program
with a 1000 mile radius? Been to Key West lately? Might be going there in '09.

Maybe next year they will reverse this years layout, and all bonus locations will be within 500 miles of the start, and we will each have about 40 bonus locations to enter into the self scoring. Nah, we'll be going long again!!!

Everyone ride safe until the next NSR. Again, thanks to Jim-David and anyone else who made this happen.

JEF
Cincinnati, OH

You probably don't realize this, John, but you were one of our "goals" for this ride. You beat us in the 2007 and 2008 Cape Fear rallies and the 2007 Void (just by a very few points in the Void) so you were sort of the highwater mark for which we were aiming.

The way I figure it, you're still ahead in the series 3 to 1.

Thanks for the kudos and we'll see you in October if all goes well.

Mike and Betty Ligons

WHAT A GREAT TIME!

Kudos to Jim, Dave and helpers:

Thank you for setting up a good time for all of us riders. When I first saw the bonus listing I thought that it would be easy to pick a route. Then reality set in. There were many good routes, so how to pick one? Well I like long distance riding, so why not go for distance? The choices were either Kansas or Louisiana, where to go???

Kansas, as everyone knows that Louisiana is really hot in July. Good choice made a week in advance of the ride. HA! Kansas was warm and windy last Friday and Saturday, Friday, in Goodland KS had 102.9° and 16.9 average wind speed, Saturday was cooler,100.9° with average winds of 25.1 mph. A warm, windy fun ride for everyone in the area, much better (?) than Louisiana which had high temps in the low 90's.

I haven't ridden in many rallies, finished even less. This rally brought me to interesting bonus points, where else would I be able to see a four foot diameter barbed wire ball? Or, sheet metal caricatures spanning some 40 years hand painted by a folk artist/farmer? I covered over 1700 miles in 30 hours with a four hour rest bonus. A good long ride. I saw several interesting sights, met many new friends, said hello to some old friends, rode many good and some not-so-good roads, had a great time.

Can't wait for the 48 hour rally next year!

Martin Cook, aka Rider 65, aka 1150Rider

Wow what a weekend....

I decided to purchase Jim Puckett's Autocom 7 Plus / Mix-It2 set up. We discussed payment and shipping methods and threw in some really sweet bait at me and said come and get it in Cape Girardeau, MO and I will make it worth your while...

That was Thursday around lunch or so...and said will I be seeing you tomorrow night? I thought about it. My bike was on the lift prepping for a Valentine 1 install that night but needed rear pads too. I scrambled and found a set 20 miles away dropped everything went and got pads in the V8 Cage. Slapped on some pads, and got the Radar run and installed... During which time I said I would be there.

Friday AM EARLY ... depart Atlanta, up 75 to 24 to Paducah KY. Then hwy 60 and saw the Mississippi River and the Ohio River meet and then met up at the hotel around 1 pm.

I get a rally book thrown at me figuratively in pieces. Get a gpx file with waypoints and pretty much start flapping my way around clueless... Other than a little software help here and there I get a route planned in a few hours for the 12 hour rally and decide on a NE Arkansas, N Central Arkansas, S Central Mo, and back to the Cape route.

6 am hits and we are out of there.... Right off the Valentine returns its investment big time.. And the security it gave me at 7 am in SE Missouri flying across the grid of soy fields on a Saturday morning was just heaven.. The world was my oyster!

Later the GPS sends me 40 miles off track down a twisty 50-80mph road (SWEET ROAD!!) MO 163. When i get to where I thought a bonus was it wasn't there. A quick call to the rallymaster proves I'm a MapSourse NEWBIE!!! Lesson learned.. Now knowing I'm late after thinking i was ahead I beat feat 40 miles down I40 to my original destination.. Bag that bonus and beat feet back. Now what's interesting is that going back the way I SHOULD have gone was via a BUNCH of miles on lonely straight soy crop laden US49. A desolate road begging for WOT to happen. I made up much lost time on that road let me tell ya!

Back to a more normal traffic route put me near the onslaught of the Ozarks.. bagged a few bonuses, and feel in love with MO 19. An absolute kiddies ride of a roller coaster. gut tossing ups and downs that would load and unload your suspension fully at every hill.

Bagging another bonus showed me a nasty blacker than black clouded storm to the north.. Guess my direction.... NORTH!! and with HASTE! Well lets see what happens, about 8 miles later shows limbs and debris on a soaking wet road but no rain.. Did I miss all the fun? Kind of... Later the bottom would fall out. But a few more bonii to be grabbed en route.

Well i get a slight drizzle and figure it will be ok with my goretex pants and my RT fairing and mesh jacket. I have my Rain Off Glove covers and goretex jacket but it has been a 95 degree day all day. So I take a chance... Moments later I move my Valentine back away from the bottom of my windshield to cover my tach.... Too late.. Its wet.. It stops talking to me during a power cycle test. Ok ill have to dry it out for a few weeks and stow it in my tank bag amidst the storm. Miles further with a few hydroplane episodes i back it down a notch or two and start having trouble with fogging
glasses management. (Forum Thread #1 to start). eventually I am looking over my glasses, breathing down on my chin, and looking under the crack in my cracked open face shield. Thinking... How does a rider safely ride looking through 2 water saturated shields, and foggy glasses? There has to be a way.... Cause I'M NOT STOPPING!!!!!! By now still feeling dry with my mesh jacket but realizing my gloves and mesh are already wet Ill pay what ever consequences later. But another lesson learned.. Feel a drop. Stop and goretex up if its going to be a biggie. The fairing does well in the light rain but not a monsoon.

Rain lets down and I grab a couple post office bonii. Then the gps sends me down 5 miles of peagravel road right after a rain... Now that's a strange feeling on an RT! I bag my last bonus as I'm out of time. One last quick opportunity... grab a comic book in 7 minutes... how? where? one try... Walmart... strike out! that's it I'm done. beat feet home....

I make it back with about 675 miles in 12 hours. about 30-40% of it in the mountains. I feel accomplished, pushed, challenged, satisfied and filled with life long memories, and a new relationship with the RT.

The computerized software though in its infancy is very functional as we load our data and photos and results are to be given shortly. We have our banquet, enjoy some amazing prime rib and make new friends.

Next day I try a new idea someone told me about... changing the preferences in the GPS (2610) to stay off the interstate. I did that and had a great county/state/and US hwy route home.

But then question for the list #2 hit me when the bottom fell out from the sky at sun down. HOW DO YOU TURN DOWN THE BRIGHTNESS on the 2610. Literally I had to cover the light with my left hand and ride in the rain one handed. I bared with it and kept rolling... Arriving home with a sun/wind burnt face, a smile and heat rash on my BUTT. And a weekend full of memories and a
need for a new front tire that Arkansas got the best of.

Today I found I was 5th out of 12 12 hour entrants

http://www.notsupermanrally.com/12-hour%20rally.html. I figure a fair first time showing considering my 2 hours lost on my initial GPS 'faux pau'.

Guys.... I'm hooked....

Robert P. Reil