Cal24 2008 - BARF style [Archive] - BARF

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aciurczak

05-26-2008, 09:49 PM

I want to thank Budman (and BARF!) for sponsoring two folks on the Cal24 this year (June 14th/15th), myself and Silversvs. (more info here (http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=228160) and here (http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=230350)) The Cal24 (http://www.cal24.com) is a motorcycle rally that has been going on for some time now, at least 15 years or so. I believe 1993 may have been the first running of the event. Participation is open to everybody, but no more than 50 or 60 folks tend to show up at the start line each year. In my view, the point of the event is pretty simple. Ride hard, ride swiftly, ride long, ride smart, but most of all ride safe. Considering the millions (yes, millions) of miles the competitors have traveled during the event over its lifespan, the phenomenally low incident rate speaks for itself.

Each year the rules change significantly enough that planning for next year's rally using last year's winning strategy is a waste of time. Something will be different, whether it is the number of checkpoints, the amount of time they are open, the thread bonus, whatever. All we can be sure of is that it isn't going to be the same as any prior event. Every year. One thing that has been reasonably consistent the past few years is the start point; the rallies have started and finished in King City or Dunnigan (alternating), for the past few years. This year it is up in Dunnigan.

Riders don't know anything about the route until we receive the instructions early Saturday morning, typically 1 hour before we are allowed to leave the parking lot. But what we can count on is that the base route will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 miles, and as little as possible of the route will be on the interstates. To have a chance at finishing on time, a rider must be comfortable moving quickly through twisty roads, hundreds of miles at a time. One good example is Highway 36; known to many northern california motorcyclists. We were on 36 at dark two years back, needing to make great time all the way from the coast to Red Bluff, while looking for a variety of bonuses both near and far from the main road.

Folks can bring just about any type of bike they like on the rally, as long as it is street-legal. Fuel capacity is important, and a bike with less than 150 mile range will be a limiting factor. I did one Cal24 rally on a ZX-12R, with a range of right around 150 miles, so I carried some spare gas cans in my luggage in case. So while there certainly are some folks on sportbikes, more and more of the field has gravitated to some type of sport-touring mount. FJR's are popular, BMW GS's are popular, and to a lesser extent the rest of the BMW line (K-bikes, RT's, LT's etc). Honda's ST1100 was very popular for many years, but there are less of those and many fewer ST1300's than FJR's, for whatever reason. And there are always a few Gold Wings thrown in for good measure. Without going into great detail, my body didn't feel, uh, normal, for several days after the 24-hr rally on the ZX-12R, even considering the corbin seat and helibars I had on that machine. Since then I've had a much easier time of it on an 1100RT, and now a 1200RT.

So here's the bike I'll be taking, for the 3rd time (on this bike, this will be my 5th Cal24), on this year's rally:

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/301896856_R4owC-L.jpg

It's a 2005 R1200RT. I picked it up new as a leftover in 2006. It has just about every option BMW offered at the time, save for heated seats. While the bike would be reasonably comfortable and likely competitive in the rally right off of the showroom floor, what fun would that be. So I've added a few gadgets and farkles along the way to make it just a little more capable.

From a comfort standpoint, I've got a Rick Mayer seat, which is truly all-day and all-night comfortable, compared to the stock seat that can't claim as much. The bike has a Gerbing heated clothing controller installed on the dash, with the pigtail for my heated jacket liner coming out right at the front of the seat. I can dial up anything from a little extra heat to nuclear. Between the Gerbing and the heated grips, cold simply isn't an issue. I've installed a Cee Bailey windscreen, which is significantly taller and wider than the stock BMW screen. The screen is electrically adjustable, so when it is in the all the way down position I can easily see over it, and am never looking through it in the twisty bits.

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/301906283_SM5Dx-L.jpg

But when the road straightens out and I want some peace and quiet, or at least zero wind noise, I can move it up on the fly:

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/301905276_CgRfz-L.jpg

There are a few gadgets on the handlebars. From the left I have a Valentine One radar detector, a Garmin 60Cx GPS, the iPod Nano, and finally another Garmin GPS, the Zumo. The V1 needs no explanation, but the reason I have two GPS's may. Initially I had meant to replace the older 60Cx with the Zumo, but it turns out that the Cx has some very useful features that were left out of the newer gadget, so I just kept it on the bike. Also, having 2 GPS's on the dash allows me to aim them at different points during the rally. I typically have one always aimed at the next checkpoint, and the other at whatever bonus location I am currently searching for. This lets me know how I'm doing on time compared to the checkpoints, so I always know when it's time to drop everything and head straight for the barn. All of the audio from these gadgets is wired to an Autocom unit installed under the seat, so a single wire coming from there to my helmet allows me to hear all of them at once. The Autocom prioritizes the devices, so for example everything else is immediately muted the second the radar detector sounds an alert. The Zumo connects to my cell phone via Bluetooth, and allows me to make and receive calls on the fly; the audio is piped right through the Autocom to my helmet speakers/microphone. The clarity is surprisingly good, it's easy to hold conversations at speeds much faster than it may be recommended to have conversations at. :teeth This does allow for decent communication during the rally, which can certainly come in handy. It's probably a good time to note that all of this is completely and thoroughly legal, there is no restriction against getting outside advice/help along the way. (EDIT: See posts below, a change has been made for this year's rally in this regard) But the rider must in all cases actually ride to the bonus location himself/herself, there is no way to do this by remote control. At each bonus, you need to record the time and mileage on your bike, which serves as a reasonable log for the rally organizers to confirm afterwards that you really were where you said you were.

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/301901308_DaGmD-L.jpg

From a performance standpoint, I've swapped out the BMW's ESA shocks, which had worn out by 15k miles, and replaced them with Ohlins front and rear. The spring rate is set up for a larger than average bear, who likes to ride faster than average on twistier than average roads. It remains a smooth highway cruiser, but it is also surprisingly capable when the going gets twisty. I've got a reasonably new set of Pilot Road 2's on the bike, and the way it looks I won't need to change them out prior to the rally. The RT has a 7.1 gallon fuel capacity, and rarely gets less than 38 mpg. I usually fill up between 200 & 250 miles on a tank, but if I'm in fuel-saving mode I've gotten over 315 miles at a single stretch (on last year's Cal24, in fact, the leg before the checkpoint in Lone Pine). The trip computer has a miles-to-empty feature, which comes in quite handy. When it hits zero miles, which it likely will at least once during the rally, there are still 20 miles or so of gas left. Lighting is pretty important on these 24-hr rallies, so I've made some pretty substantial upgrades. Each of the 3 H7 bulbs has been swapped out with Ultrastars, which gave a nice bump in brightness and distance. I also installed two Touratech auxiliary lights; one HID on the left and one fog on the right. The HID is absurdly bright, while the fog is actually more useful for folks to see me rather than lighting up the road.

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/301902617_f6iFb-M.jpg

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/301903478_wws9R-M.jpg

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/302094729_ozdmb-L-1.jpg

From a safety and reliability standpoint, I've added Hyperlites to the back of the bike to augment the standard brake light, these are two banks of LED's next to the license plate that flash continually when the brake light is engaged. When the 3 bags are installed on the bike, I feel that the stock light isn't as visible as I'd like, and these help. In the glove box on the top right of the fairing, I've stashed a maglight (there will be several flashlights in different places on the bike), a reasonable set of tools for minor roadside fixes, a tire plug kit, and an electric air compressor that plugs into the BMW's auxiliary power sockets.

I've saved one of the neatest gadgets for last, the SPoT Satellite Messenger. This is a small hand-held device that communicates with the Globalstar satphone network to report position, and a few different types of alerts. It sits right inside the top of my tankbag. I will have it configured during the rally to send up my position every 10 minutes, so people here can track the bike throughout the day. Here is a link (https://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.jsp?glId=1foeV36JjO4xKIUcQpvQtYF7KFKuelmbF) to that tracking page, the password is cal24. Each page on SPoT's site has a rather low limit of 500 hits per week, so I will set up 8 or 10 different guest pages, all with access to the same data, so we aren't likely to hit that limit during the rally.

But just in case all of the electronics get hit with a solar flare, I can always rely on some human assistance stashed in the topcase. Remind me to poke some holes in the plastic...

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/301979752_zvFxm-L.jpg

I've posted all of these pictures (in full 10 mp resolution) , as well as a short video, up at this smugmug gallery (http://www.ciurczak.com/gallery/5028051_h5STJ#301931372_vZ3ge). During the rally, thanks to the Zumo, the SPoT, and an incredibly patient wife, this thread will be updated with my current whereabouts and how the rally is going so far.

Thanks for taking a look at the machine, and I'm really looking forward to this year's rally. I hope Silversvs and I can fly the BARF banner in a way that doesn't entirely embarrass either us or the board. :laughing Wish us luck...

budman

05-26-2008, 10:40 PM

Sooooo.... :cool

What a great intro into your bike and set up :hail

Really some great insight into what you can do to be a real 24HR man.. and yes.. thanks to the Mrs.. and the really cute little human hanging in the topcase :teeth

I am stoked to watch this years 24 from a comfy couch, but imagining how much your bootie hurts and of course your cheeks... from satisfaction (smiling). Your bike looks primo and ready for action:Port

Go get 'em boys!

:smoking

slowpoke

05-26-2008, 10:53 PM

I love the last pic:laughing

aciurczak

05-27-2008, 12:32 AM

Here's a low-res video of the bike:

JnuEvP45WXI

Higher res video is right here (http://www.ciurczak.com/gallery/5028051_h5STJ/1/301931372_vZ3ge), click the play button in the middle of the pic on the right; once it is playing it can then be expanded to full screen by hitting the white rectangle at the bottom right.

NoGall

05-27-2008, 09:56 AM

Looking good! Go get 'em! :thumbup

aciurczak2

05-28-2008, 08:30 AM

Hello! Just wanted to post and say hello to everyone. I am who aciurczak referred to as the "incredibly patient wife". I participated by riding on the back of the RT in the 2006 CAL24 when we placed 12th! I was hoping for top ten... but I guess that will have to wait until I am free to do it again.

Last year's CAL24, I helped out as "Houston", "Central Control", or whatever you want to call it as I was very pregnant. With the Zumo gadget that Alex described, we basically spoke on the phone for most of the 24 hr. Some of our conversation was about the rally, but once we had a plan/strategy in place, it was more about keeping Alex awake and focused, especially around 4 am which is about when he starts to see, I think he calls them, space bunnies (?).

Anyway, I'll be playing role of "Houston" again this year since leaving baby Kyle for 24 hours isn't really an option. He'll be helping out as much as he can between naps and if Dunnigan will allow dogs, Valentino will be there as well.

My plan is to update this thread as the rally progresses so you can keep up to date with how Alex is doing.

slowpoke

05-28-2008, 08:47 AM

Excellent! Maybe in a couple of years, you guys can get a sidecar and take the little one with you!:laughing

*Subscribed*

NoGall

05-28-2008, 09:55 AM

plumber

05-31-2008, 09:15 PM

I just noticed this thread. Give 'em hell guys.:thumbup

aciurczak

06-06-2008, 05:10 PM

My high beam lamp went out a few days ago, so that means all 3 bulbs (2 low-beam and 1 hi-beam) have blown and been replaced in the past 2 months. This is a good thing, as now it's a bit less likely that any of them will go out during the rally. And it's pretty much impossible (for me, anyhow) to change those bulbs out at the roadside in the dark.

Bronto

06-08-2008, 09:21 AM

So, if I get this right. CAL 24 makes you pregnant. :teeth

Safe ride everyone.

Final weeks before the rally. Best stay away from Ppl who's got something contageous :D Might catch a cold or something serious like getting pregnant :D

Razel

06-08-2008, 07:22 PM

Space bunnies...ghost bunnies...yeah, they exist. Only have seen them, though, on the Cal24. I think Tom recruits them.

owlflavored

06-09-2008, 10:22 PM

I've saved one of the neatest gadgets for last, the SPoT Satellite Messenger. This is a small hand-held device that communicates with the Globalstar satphone network to report position, and a few different types of alerts. It sits right inside the top of my tankbag. I will have it configured during the rally to send up my position every 10 minutes, so people here can track the bike throughout the day. Here is a link (https://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.jsp?glId=1foeV36JjO4xKIUcQpvQtYF7KFKuelmbF) to that tracking page, the password is cal24. Each page on SPoT's site has a rather low limit of 500 hits per week, so I will set up 8 or 10 different guest pages, all with access to the same data, so we aren't likely to hit that limit during the rally.

Alex - we've removed the 500 hits/week restriction for the 5 SPoT units that were donated to BARF. if you're using one of those units, there should be no problem.

i ran into our marketing guy in the parking tonight at work, and he had some pretty good news. here are the things i was able to remember:

the 500 hits/week restriction should be removed for ALL user accounts soon ... within the next few weeks.

Globalstar will be issuing a press release in the coming days, with a link to the Cal24, and i think your efforts in particular!

SuperCool:

as part of the upcoming promotional campaign we will be offering FREE tracking service to all BARF members.

in addition to discounts to BARF members to purchase a unit directly, Globalstar will be donating money back to BARF for each unit sold. it sounds like it'll be a fixed amount per unit, and the amount is TBD, but still i think it's great to be supporting the forum this way.

finally, i asked about the outage in reporting trackpoints online. i still don't have a definitive answer, but that timespan in question was during a sizeable backend hardware upgrade. it's likely that was the cause; not anyone's SPoT unit or anything involved in the air interface or call processing.

i do now have a contact that i can fast track tech support questions to, so feel free to PM me with any issues you have. i'll pass them on immediately. to speed things along, please PM me your email address and full name.

rock on!

:ride

NoGall

06-10-2008, 12:46 PM

Wow, thanks for the update!!! :thumbup

plumber

06-10-2008, 12:59 PM

Ride smart and hard people. :thumbup

budman

06-10-2008, 12:59 PM

Cool stuff owl one :thumbup

I am stoked to help offer a safety device like this too our community.

Razel will be sporting one for the rally as well :banana He is picking it up tomorrow.

Barfers can have a :Party and check out the guys doing their thing. :cool

Really looking forward to this event and launching the program!

:smoking

aciurczak

06-10-2008, 01:59 PM

Reading through the thread, I realized I hadn't fully completed the rally geek equipment discussion. As I get the new worksheets at the checkpoints, I will be working to get the key points into the GPS units. Sometimes it's more effective to just put in the town as a waypoint rather than struggling to get an exact point; it's a rare bonus that will actually have a street address that can be plugged in easily. To program the GPS's in the morning, we will have a couple laptops in the room. Once I leave on the bike though, I'll still have one laptop (a tiny Dell X300) stashed in the topcase. At the checkpoints, that laptop can be used for mapping software, GPS loading, but also electronic communication back to home base of any new information. The laptop has a high-speed Verizon card that has reasonably decent coverage here in California, I was able to connect at all of the checkpoints last year. But if I find myself in a zone where that data card doesn't work, I can also hook the laptop up to my Blackberry for a bit slower access, and that works just about anywhere there is cell service. This connectivity allows for home base to send updated GPS files as well, in case Annie finds something that I wasn't able to and she has a good bead on the location. The advantage of home base is a much faster internet connection, a comfy couch, and air conditioning while searching for bonus locations. As comfy as the BMW is, it doesn't compare. :) And all of this communication will make it easy for Annie to post up to this thread to keep BARF up-to-date. I should be able to get pictures out of the checkpoints, at least, while the rally is still going on.

Some of the Iron Butt Rally folks network all of this capability into a touchscreen on their dash so they can do much of this en route, but mine is a bit lower tech and just stashed in the topcase. While this tech helps, it's not fool-proof. There isn't enough time to sit and wait for all of the communication that you'd want to have, and by the time I get a file sent to the bike, I may be well past the area where that bonus would have been anyway. But, there may be a few large-point bonuses late in the game where knowing exactly where they are will be a significant advantage. Last year, while I was chasing a large bonus up over Mt. Hamilton, I was out of cell range up until Patterson. In the time it took me to get up and over the mountain, to the Junction, and out to Patterson, Annie was able to come up with quite a few of the bonus locations for that leg, get it into a GPS file, and send it over the air. But when I stopped for gas in Patterson and started to see how long it was going to take me to get to Lone Pine, I realized that I had completely screwed myself and I wasn't able to take advantage of a single one of the points she sent. I needed to go straight to Lone Pine as quickly as possible, and I still only made it within a few minutes. Sucked. :laughing But it was bad routing on my part thinking I could do Mt. Hamilton fast enough and still get back on the main route with enough time left. 2 years ago, someone getting us the GPS coordinates remotely helped immensely with 2 large bonuses, one at Lighthouse Beach, and another at the Rancho Seco nuclear plant, so it certainly can come in handy...

What's interesting is that there are top-notch rally folks, multiple 24-hr rally winners, that find little value in this. They have such a great knowledge of the area (area defined as west of Oklahoma, evidently), that they intuitively know how long it takes to get anywhere, what it will cost them in time for various bonuses, and how they are going to maximize their points. Up until a year or two ago, even basic GPS's were on half the bikes or less, and the top-ranked bikes were no more or less likely to have one. But in 2008, I'd be surprised if there was a single bike without at least 1 GPS mounted, they are just too useful. But even with them mounted, it's possible that some of the top-ranked bikes will use the tech less than some folks may expect.

aciurczak2

06-10-2008, 02:10 PM

The advantage of home base is a much faster internet connection, a comfy couch, and air conditioning while searching for bonus locations.

Comfy couch? From what I remember about the hotel in Dunnigan, there's no couch! And the internet connection was kinda iffy... although, yes, there is air conditioning.

aciurczak

06-10-2008, 02:22 PM

:laughing I guess anything that's not a motorcycle seat seems like a comfy couch after riding that long. A soft plank will do. :thumbup

drizz

06-10-2008, 02:22 PM

Looks awesome... as long as Silversvs is riding his patrol bike to clear a path, you should be in good shape :p We'll be rootin for you!

DanZX9R

06-10-2008, 02:36 PM

Go get them guys! show us how its done!

hapamoto

06-10-2008, 09:56 PM

Good luck to both! This is the kind of stuff I would love to get into! Later in life I think? Best riding and come home to that wonderful looking kid of yours...That is what drives me home each day!:thumbup

Cheers Hapamoto

SLOW10R

06-10-2008, 11:21 PM

Such a badass thing to get to participate into. Be safe and kick ass!

AndyM

06-11-2008, 03:14 AM

aciurczak

06-11-2008, 11:01 AM

Well, I just read all rally packs from 2005 through 2007, and that line doesn't exist, the phrase was just added for the 2008 version.

Rules for 2005:
Rules
It is understood that riders must ride to the scoring locations themselves to
receive points. Riders cannot ride as teams and share answers, pictures etc. to
increase their scores. Riders will be required to log time and mileage figures at
each scoring opportunity. If it is determined by the Rally that a rider has not gone
to the scoring locations, the rider will be disqualified.
No behavior that is determined to be unsafe, or not in the best interest of
the rally and riders will be tolerated. This is meant to be a fun event, and any
individual’s behavior that undermines this will result in disqualification.

Rules for 2006:
Rules
It is understood that riders must ride to the scoring locations themselves to
receive points. Riders cannot ride as teams and share answers, pictures etc. to
increase their scores. Riders will be required to log time and mileage figures at
each scoring opportunity. If it is determined by the Rally that a rider has not gone
to the scoring locations, the rider will be disqualified.
No behavior that is determined to be unsafe, or not in the best interest of
the rally and riders will be tolerated. This is meant to be a fun event, and any
individual’s behavior that undermines this will result in disqualification.

Rules for 2007:
Rules
It is understood that riders must ride to the scoring locations themselves to
receive points. Riders cannot ride as teams and share answers, pictures etc. to
increase their scores. Riders will be required to log time and mileage figures at
each scoring opportunity. If it is determined by the Rally that a rider has not gone
to the scoring locations, the rider will be disqualified.
Rally personal are NOT there to help you get bonus points. They will help
with information related to safety on the route, road conditions etc. They will
NOT help you with route planning or locating bonus locations. Everyone is given
the same set of written instructions.
In the case that you cannot a bonus location with the written instructions
you must document by photo or time/date stamped receipt that you were in the
location. If all riders attempting to the get the bonus find the same thing, (i.e.
your looking for a sign or plaque that is not there.) All riders that document they
were there will be given credit for the bonus. However, if one or more riders do
find the bonus, no riders who did not find it will be credited.
No behavior that is determined to be unsafe, or not in the best interest of
the rally and riders will be tolerated. This is meant to be a fun event, and any
individual’s behavior that undermines this will result in disqualification.

and finally, rules for 2008: (bolding is mine)
Rules
It is understood that riders must ride to the scoring locations themselves to receive points. Riders cannot ride as teams and share answers, pictures etc. to increase their scores. Riders will be required to log time and mileage figures at each scoring opportunity. If it is determined by the Rally that a rider has not gone to the scoring locations, the rider will be disqualified. Outside routing help is considered not in the spirit of LD rallying and will result in disqualification. Rally personal are NOT there to help you get bonus points. They will help with information related to safety on the route, road conditions etc. They will NOT help you with route planning or locating bonus locations. Everyone is given the same set of written instructions. In the case that you cannot locate a bonus location with the written instructions you must
document by photo or time/date stamped receipt that you were in the location. If all riders attempting to the get the bonus find the same thing, (i.e. you’re looking for a sign or plaque that is not there.) All riders that document they were there will be given credit for the bonus. However, if any other riders do find the bonus, riders who did not find it will not be credited the points. No behavior that is determined to be unsafe, or not in the best interest of the rally and riders will be tolerated. This is meant to be a fun event, and any individual’s behavior that undermines this will result in disqualification. As previously mentioned, this in NOT a race. The rules of the track do NOT apply. If you think you can go out and pass other riders in corners or commit other acts of stupidity, you need to think again.

That certainly changes things for us this year, and means Annie will likely get a little more sleep. Though Kyle will do his best to prevent that, I'm sure. It's an interesting addition, it became a bit of a controversy in the 2007 Iron Butt last year, when the vast majority of the competitors had significant outside help in planning their routes around the country. (Full story here (http://www.ironbuttrally.com/IBR/2007.cfm?DocID=45) on the IronButt site). I'm a bit disappointed, but considering I placed highest in all of my Cal24's when I had none of the communication gear, it will just make it a little less fun for me rather than making me much less competitive. The Iron Butt folks says they are thinking of clearer rules in 2009 to lay out what folks should be doing in terms of any outside help in that 09 rally, but there are many questions about how they will work to enforce that. In the Cal24 rally, which is just a fun rally, enforcement is easy, it's up to the rider to follow the rules to keep his reputation intact; in the 11-day Iron Butt, perhaps there is more incentive to get closer to the line.

Razel

06-11-2008, 12:46 PM

Picked up the SPOT "messenger" this morning from Budman. Got the thing registered and I'm pretty sure the batteries are installed correctly (otherwise, doing the CAL24 would probably be too much of a challenge).

Getting the GT serviced today and asked for a "Endurance Rally" inspection. Service manager was :wtf

Ok, so BMW doesn't offer that...but they'll look it over a bit more.

Rally pack that is given out discusses what you should bring. AAA maps, flashlight, tools, tire repair kit, and a flag.

Alex, you didn't mention the flag...why is that? :teeth :teeth :teeth ...and where did you end up getting yours :wow

A flag is basically a means to photograph that you were at a bonus point. Little flag, stuck on the ground, with your rally number so you can take a picture of it and the bonus point, pretty much proving you were actually there.

This year, it's different. After reading the rally pack, I contacted a good friend of mine for help shopping at Wal-Mart. Good sport that she is, she agreed. Got the right size...44D.

Has to be worn for some bonus check points. Trust me, you don't want to be seen in any store trying these things on for fit. Got one that connects in front, making "assembly" much easier.

Got a GPS (Garmin 276c) and will be bringing the laptop just in case some re-mapping is needed. The laptop also provides a much bigger screen for viewing an area while keeping details (like small roads) in the picture, so when planning the next leg, you can see what might be a good opportunity, as well as finding sucker bonus points to avoid (I hope...).

Radar detector for insurance. Don't plan on needing that, but it is good to have so you can be sure to wave at the appropriate time.

Two-way radio that's probably good for, oh, say a mile or two. Don't really know if there's a FRS channel assigned, but since the rally is pretty much an individual effort, may not be used much. If there's no rally channel, I'll leave it on the last channel (15/22). Not that there's much chance of anyone else being along the rally route outside the participants.

The rest is just gear. Leather gloves and winter gloves. Heated jacket, padded bicycle shorts, and a long-sleeved lycra shirt (I think it's lycra, it's the same material as the bicycle shorts) for when it's warm, and some phase-change undergarments for cooler weather. I remember from 5 years ago where the temps on one of the paths (through Death Valley) was 100ºF at 1:00AM. Then, coming up the backside of Yosemite, thermometer said 35ºF at 5:00 AM. I'd rather carry the heated jacket and not need it. The bike has heated grips and a heated seat, but the jacket was what was needed on that road outside of Yosemite.

SPOT link. Track me (https://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.jsp?glId=1VSASDXvzovLOH2WqEMKx7YBmupI8snqC) with the password of CAL24 (unlike Alex, mine is ALL CAPS). Maybe the powers that be can link both on the same page, I don't know. Hopefully, no one notices the icon on my map going around in circles from time to time.:nerd

budman

06-11-2008, 01:34 PM

Sweet Ray!!

Go get em! and have a blast :thumbup

:smoking

aciurczak

06-11-2008, 01:43 PM

Alex, you didn't mention the flag...why is that? :teeth :teeth :teeth ...and where did you end up getting yours :wow

Uh, slipped my mind. :laughing I ended up getting two of them. A friend picked up a couple and made some modifications with velcro. Turns out it wasn't quite right, so I picked up another one last weekend and made similar modifications (thanks Annie!). It's quite stylish, and even matches my jacket. :cool A friend coming down from Oregon for the rally found one with tassels. Showoff. :rofl

aciurczak

06-11-2008, 01:51 PM

SPOT link. Track me (https://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.jsp?glId=1VSASDXvzovLOH2WqEMKx7YBmupI8snqC) with the password of CAL24 (unlike Alex, mine is ALL CAPS).

My SPoT can be tracked right here (https://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.jsp?glId=1foeV36JjO4xKIUcQpvQtYF7KFKuelmbF), with the password cal24 (lowercase). Tried to change it to uppercase so we'd match, but no way to do so after the page has been created.

Figured I'd get them both in one post to ease things for folks quickly browsing the thread.

AndyM

06-11-2008, 02:10 PM

Replaced my front tire today and am starting to load the bike. GPS, radar detector, Gerbring vest, winter and summer gloves, aux fuel tank, HID driving lights, 100oz Camelback, 3 flashlights, paper maps, highlighters, grease pencils, cameras, stapler, envelope for receipts, 1st aid kit, tire repair stuff, Cliff Bars and beef jerkey. Got a rally flag from a friend and then went and bought a bigger one at Walmart. Want to be sure I can get it on over the Aerostich in the middle of the night.

Should be a fun rally...again :ride:ride

This will be my 4th in the past 5 years. So far I have been a finisher in all of them. Trying to keep my streak alive..

aciurczak2

06-11-2008, 04:33 PM

This all sounds good except for the part about Annie sitting at home helping find bonuses and communicating them to you. I suggest you go back and read this line in the rally pack again,

Outside routing help is considered not in the spirit of LD rallying and will result in disqualification.

See you Friday, good luck.

Well, bummer! :( I was looking forward to experiencing CAL24 remotely. It's going to be a while before I'll be able to do it 2-up again, so this was our way of making a family event out of it since baby Kyle, the dog, and I were all going to be in Dunnigan at the hotel this weekend. I guess this just means more time to hang out in beautiful Dunnigan, "spotting" Alex to see where he is, talking with Alex via cell phone to make sure all is well, and posting updates here so folks can "watch" the action semi-live.

NoGall

06-11-2008, 06:19 PM

Razel

06-11-2008, 07:17 PM

Well, bummer! :( I was looking forward to experiencing CAL24 remotely. It's going to be a while before I'll be able to do it 2-up again, so this was our way of making a family event out of it since baby Kyle, the dog, and I were all going to be in Dunnigan at the hotel this weekend. I guess this just means more time to hang out in beautiful Dunnigan, "spotting" Alex to see where he is, talking with Alex via cell phone to make sure all is well, and posting updates here so folks can "watch" the action semi-live.

You know, Annie...you might be the "contact" person for all the BARF participants. It may (or may not...the rally gods can be fickle) be ok with the folks calling the shots that you get calls from time to time for posting info on BARF. Might be in the form of voicemail messages instead of two-way communciations to avoid the "appearance" of assisting. And, since you have your son to take care of, voicemail might be a good compromise. Just tossing it out as an idea.

Mudda Focker

06-11-2008, 10:29 PM

niiice!! good luck! :thumbup

silversvs

06-11-2008, 11:16 PM

So totally frickin bummed that work got in the way of this for me (and cost me my $200 entry fee).

The FJR isn't even talking to me right now :(

Alex and Ray make us proud!

Razel

06-11-2008, 11:33 PM

So totally frickin bummed that work got in the way of this for me (and cost me my $200 entry fee).NOOOOoo!

The FJR isn't even talking to me right now :(

Alex and Ray make us proud!Will give it my best shot...

egrep

06-11-2008, 11:57 PM

I can't wait to follow aciurczak and Razel's trek online and in postings from aciurczak's "incredibly patient wife" It sounds like an incredibly arduous and exciting odyssey!

I see AndyM has a camera on his list, what of the others? Pictures or it didn't happen! :teeth

I saw the SPOT units at HRO (Ham Radio Outlet) and considered getting one. Now I'm sure I want one. I've checked both pages but there's nothing there yet I guess? Are y'all transmitting data yet? It would be keen to see it working before you go on the journey.

Best wishes for a great :ride!

AndyM

06-12-2008, 12:00 AM

So totally frickin bummed that work got in the way of this for me (and cost me my $200 entry fee).

Same thing happened to me in 06. Sucked then too.

AndyM

06-12-2008, 12:04 AM

I see AndyM has a camera on his list, what of the others? Pictures or it didn't happen! :teeth

Actually I'll be taking at least two cameras (three if you count my cell phone). Some of he bonuses are picture bonuses where you are required to take a pic of something to get the points. Usually you, your bike, your rally flag, or a combination.

egrep

06-12-2008, 12:11 AM

D'oh! Sorry about that, I searched the thread for 'camera' but I should have searched 'photo' as well. Will you be taking more than just the bonus and qual photos? Like with the camera on a cord on your neck or a bike mount? You could use your track log to geotag them later too I suppose. I'm sorry, I'm a geek and a rider. I geotagged my track day photos to the turns they were on. :teeth

I think what you're doing is something lots of us (certainly I) wish we had the ways or the means to attempt. It takes great ability and dedication. Go get 'em and do it for us! :thumbupActually I'll be taking at least two cameras (three if you count my cell phone). Some of he bonuses are picture bonuses where you are required to take a pic of something to get the points. Usually you, your bike, your rally flag, or a combination.

Razel

06-12-2008, 12:18 AM

I saw the SPOT units at HRO (Ham Radio Outlet) and considered getting one. Now I'm sure I want one. I've checked both pages but there's nothing there yet I guess? Are y'all transmitting data yet? It would be keen to see it working before you go on the journey.

Best wishes for a great :ride!
Uh...no? Right now (and it may have to stay that way) there are two pages, one for Alex, one for me. Mine doesn't have much right now, two tracks and one "Ok" message. But, it's there when I go to the website my device is pointing to.

egrep

06-12-2008, 12:30 AM

Yes, I see now on your page three points! Before on both pages it just said no messages and showed the world map. Nice to get to see a bit more 'in action' stuff from it. Cool! Looking forward to seeing the CAL24 unfold there :)

AndyM

06-12-2008, 12:34 AM

I think what you're doing is something lots of us (certainly I) wish we had the ways or the means to attempt. It takes great ability and dedication. Go get 'em and do it for us! :thumbup

I have exactly the same thoughts about you guys that do track days :thumbup

aciurczak

06-12-2008, 12:52 AM

You could use your track log to geotag them later too I suppose. I'm sorry, I'm a geek and a rider. I geotagged my track day photos to the turns they were on. :teeth

Any pictures I take will be geotagged (I think geotagging is pretty cool as well), but I don't think there will be too many pictures en route. I'll certainly take pictures of the ride start, the ride end, and the checkpoints, but during the ride itself there is precious little time to be taking out the digital camera and snapping shots. There is a polaroid camera that I'll be taking for the actual photo bonuses, and if there is time I'll try and take some of the same pics on the digicam.

AndyM

06-12-2008, 04:37 PM

Hope everyone has a plan to stay hydrated...

Weather forecast for Dunnigan

260722

Razel

06-12-2008, 06:01 PM

Bring something warm, too.

Lee Vining (Eastern Sierras)
Saturday Night
Mostly Clear
Lo 43°F

Razel

06-13-2008, 10:39 AM

CHP Project Aims To Reduce Accidents On Hwy 108
Thursday, June 12, 2008 - 01:20 PM
BJ Hansen

Jamestown, Ca -- Thanks to a $308,832 grant from the State Office Traffic Safety, the Sonora area CHP Office will be able to make a strong push to curb the accident and death rates on Hwy 108 from the Stanislaus County line to the Pinecrest turnoff.

CHP Commander Mike Ayala says the "Sonora Pass Gateway Traffic Corridor Project" will allow for 200 hours of overtime for Sergeants and 1,870 hours for Officers.

There will also be overtime funding available for CHP pilots, dispatch and clerical workers.

The grant took effect June 1st and will continue until May 31, 2009. Between 2004-07 there were 41 fatalities on the 59 mile stretch of Highway 108 and 1,042 traffic related injuries.

____________________

Don't know the route(s), but heads up.

aciurczak

06-13-2008, 01:53 PM

Leaving for Dunnigan in a few minutes... SPoT will be up and running...

owlflavored

06-13-2008, 03:51 PM

Looks like Razel arrived in Dunnigan about an hour ago. good luck guys!!

:thumbup

heh ... if you select "hybrid" map and zoom in, you can see where he parked at the Best Value Inn.

Razel

06-13-2008, 04:13 PM

Yup. I are here in Dunnigan. Passed by AndyM and IronButt during my odo calibration run, so they're here as well. SPoT working like a charm, too, I see. I can see where I stopped for lunch in Hayward :teeth

Bike passed tech. Room A/C is wonderful here. Went by the Bay Bridge and it was a bit chilly...maybe 55 degrees? Here? Hot...

Time to wander out and psyche everyone else out into quitting before the start...:twofinger

Rally flag, decorated with rider number and in the process of drying

owlflavored

06-13-2008, 04:42 PM

Cool! looks like Alex just got there too.

aciurczak2

06-13-2008, 11:22 PM

Well, here's Alex's spot track today from home to Dunnigan. I got to decorate his flag... pictures in the process of uploading. Stay tuned!

budman

06-14-2008, 10:03 AM

Sweet :thumbup :banana

:smoking

budman

06-14-2008, 10:06 AM

Alex appears to be freeway bound.. and Ray has cut off.. pretty damn cool stuff! :thumbup

:smoking

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 11:05 AM

This year's theme is BITE THE BULLET and so it looks like there will be some kind of firearms activity. The riders received their packets this morning around 7 am which meant an 8 am start.

Here's a photo from yesterday's rider's meeting. We took pics of this morning's meeting, but Alex has the camera for the rally...:

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/314019943_WJhGB-M.jpg

From what I could see reading over Alex's shoulder, there are 8 bonuses in the first leg. Each bonus is labeled as a "Bullet". From the rider's meeting this morning, it was communicated that each bonus gives you one bullet to shoot into your CAL24 shirt! Here's a picture of the bullseye on the back of this year's CAL24 shirt that I guess they get to shoot at.

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/314027812_wz8gL-M.jpg

In the spirit of the theme, I heard something about one of the bonuses being paint ball. I guess this will be another opportunity to shoot stuff. It should be interesting to see if folks return home covered in fluorescent paint.

Alex called shortly after Bullet #1. It must not have been too far from Dunnigan since I got the call at 8:43 am. He told me all was fine and that he was riding with our friend, Don Beaton, and would check in again probably after Bullet #2.

As promised, here are a few pics of Alex's flag (he's rider #34):

#34 and Kyle
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/314017624_U6f8b-M.jpg

Left side of each cup has a flower!
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/314018312_ghUVu-M.jpg

Right side of each cup has a message! The GO!!!! message is a copy of Rossi's GO!!!! on his leathers... Alex is a HUGE Rossi fan, which is why our dog is named Valentino.
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/314017850_Rtnq5-M.jpg

Bottom side of each cup indicates the WHAT and WHO. I probably should have put the WHEN (2008), but forgot.
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/314021029_v3MfH-M.jpg

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/314021234_Gtbni-M.jpg

While I was decorating the flag, the rally gods were debating on whether or not it was considered "outside help". The conclusion was made that for the arts and crafts portion of the pre-rally activities, it was OK, especially since the resulting product would enhance the style of Alex's bra. Alex, we are looking forward to the pictures of you wearing it with great pride!

Need to take a break... dog needs a walk. Keep checking here for updates!

budman

06-14-2008, 11:14 AM

:laughing :thumbup

:smoking

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 11:55 AM

In case you aren't logging in to the Spot guest pages... Here are some snap shots of a few of the folks in the rally (Alex, Don, and Ray):

As was the case 2 years ago, the internet speed here at the Best Western is pretty slow... The Spot pages take FOREVER! For this reason, I don't plan to update folks on their location going forward, so just click on their guest pages and you can see where they are real time +/- 10 minutes.

UPDATE:
OK, I give up! I can't upload the screen shots I took of the 3 spot pages. Internet SUCKS HERE!!!! :mad:mad Please go to their respective spot pages for updates.

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 02:04 PM

I just spoke with Alex. All is still well and he's having a great time! He and Don are still riding together. They got Bullets 1, 2, and 3, and headed to 4, but aren't sure they are going to make it in time, so they may have to bail on it. He didn't tell me what any of them were as he was in a hurry or something. I guess there's no 20 minute rest to talk to the wife on these things :rolleyes.

Spot didn't seem to be working for about an hour. It stopped tracking Alex at about 10:15 am. It's working now and he looks to be headed towards Truckee, CA. I'll write again later if there's more news.

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 02:13 PM

One of the new twists this year is that there are CAL24 Police. This was shared at last night's rider's meeting and then explained in more detail this morning. It looks like the CAL24 rally folks are setting up Speed traps to enforce the philosophy that this is a rally and not a race. If any rider is caught speeding there is a significant time and points penalty dependent on how fast they were caught going. I'm sure if folks are caught, we'll hear about it tomorrow when they return.

budman

06-14-2008, 02:40 PM

Well... I guess you can thank us for that.. :p

Hopefully the Cal 24 Police miss our boys.. er men.

I had noted a lack of pick points for Alex.. and was a little worried actually.

I feel mo better now!

:smoking

owlflavored

06-14-2008, 02:48 PM

:wow

looks like he's in Incline Village right now

budman

06-14-2008, 03:10 PM

Lots of miles cover already... fun stuff..

Big thanks to Alex's Mrs. for adding to the fun! :thumbup

:smoking

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 05:03 PM

Alex just checked in again. He missed Bullet #4 by 1 minute! The bonus closed at 2:00 pm and he got there at 2:01 pm. :mad Oh well... he had expected that he may not make it. So after leaving #4 with nothing to show for it, he bailed on Bullet #5 and went for Bullet #7 which is taking a dip in Grover Hot Springs!

I've never been there (somewhere near Markleeville), but from their website and what Alex mentioned, it looks to be quite the HOT spot for tourists. He said he had to dip his toe in the water and get a picture taken with his "FLAG". The lifeguard took his picture and lots of onlookers laughed :laughing. Wish I could have been there to see the spectacle! I guess there is a picture out there to prove it, but if this one is anything like the previous CAL24s, the rally master won't let you keep the pictures :(.

Since Alex skipped #5, he's going a bit off route and heading to Bullets 6 and 8. I wanted to ask him more questions, like "what did you have to do for Bullets 1, 2, and 3?", but he was in a rush to gas up and get on his way, so no luck with anymore tidbits of information. More to come...

plumber

06-14-2008, 05:06 PM

Keep it rolling boys.:thumbup

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 05:10 PM

Here's a good look of where Alex was at the Hot Springs. From the "Spot", looks like he was here for almost 30 minutes to earn the points for this bonus.

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 05:43 PM

Lots of miles cover already... fun stuff..

Big thanks to Alex's Mrs. for adding to the fun! :thumbup

:smoking

No problem! I guess it's my way of being a part of it when I can't. Alex and I had a great time doing the CAL24 together in 2006, but since then it just hasn't been possible to do it 2-up again.

Anyway, here's an update. I noticed the SPOT was missing Alex again, so I gave him a call to make sure all was good. He answered! He's headed towards Bullet #8 and if time permits, he'll then go to Bullet #6.

I asked him what Bullets 1, 2, and 3 were and he said they were:

Bullet #1 - Paint ball! He shot a paint ball at the bullseye on his shirt. What color was his paint ball? HOT PINK of course!

Bullet #2 - Had to take a picture with some dam in Oroville.

Bullet #3 - A bunch of rally organizers were at this check point dressed as Hare Kishna people. You had to buy "karma" from them to receive a rose.

Baby and Dog are both napping. :zzz:zzz:shhh See you later...

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 06:59 PM

AHHHH!!!!! This is now feeling like last year! Alex is going for Bullet #8 with barely any time to spare to get to the check point. If he doesn't make the check point, he'll DNF the rally!!!!!! Don decided to turn around a while ago and went straight to the check point. Alex decided to risk it and go for Bullet #8 which he said is worth LOTS of points. Hopefully he won't be speeding since the CAL24 police (and CHP, well, since he's in NV, it would be NHP) is out there making sure people aren't speeding.

I wanted to take Kyle to the pool, but I decided to wait a bit to see how Alex tracks and see if he'll make it in time for the checkpoint. The checkpoint closes at 8pm. I'm not sure how long and on what kinds of roads is #8 to the checkpoint.... ahhh!!!!

OK, hopefully the KARMA purchase from Bullet #3 will help him here.

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 07:59 PM

I got a phone update from Alex at around 6:30 pm. He got Bullet #8... something about a Foot Tree or Shoe Tree. Whatever. He said it was nothing great... not sure why it was worth so much. He started talking about how maybe he should have skipped Bullets 1-3 and gone straight to doing Bullets 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. The latter would have gotten him more points... hindsight is 20/20. Like with all past years... you always seem to go for #1 and go in sequence, forgetting that maybe you should look ahead and plan for something different. Oh well!

His GPS tells him he'll get to the checkpoint around 7:45 pm, but that's without a gas stop and he needs to stop for gas. He plans to just fill up and go, no taking off the helmet, which breaks one of Alex's CAL24 rules. In order to keep himself hydrated, his rule is that whenever he stops for gas... drink an entire bottle of water (~16 oz). This way he's sure to keep hydrated... especially this weekend with temperatures in the 100's. Anyway, he'll skip the water break and then plan to take a longer rest at the checkpoint, once he makes it in time. CROSS YOUR FINGERS!!!!

I'm tracking him and seeing how he's progressing. He says the checkpoint is in the middle of nowhere somewhere near the intersection of 95 and 208 in Nevada. Let's all send good KARMA his way!

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 08:49 PM

Hello!

I just got a call from Ray and got a great report of his (and others) progress! Alex did make it to Checkpoint 1! This is where everyone got to use real firearms and shoot bullet holes into their shirt - one bullet for each bonus obtained. Ray reports he got to shoot 4 bullets. I even got to "hear" the gunfire through the phone. He said most folks were getting 5 shots... some 6.

Ray did report some very interesting facts... apparently at some of the bonus locations - I'm guessing Bullets 4, 5, and 6 since those are the ones Alex missed - you had to at one location paint your fingernails (on one hand)! 4 of the nails the color was chosen for you and the 5th nail's color was your choice. At another location, you had to put on lipstick! I'm sure the rally folks chose the color for you. :laughing I'm hoping someone took pictures of all of this and will post them somewhere so we can all share in the experience.

egrep

06-14-2008, 08:52 PM

Is this a Drag Race?

:rofl

budman

06-14-2008, 08:58 PM

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 09:00 PM

As I hit submit on my last message, I wondered how Alex avoided all the DRAG RACE bonuses? Was it Karma?

I wonder what they made the women do (???)... For the female riders, the flag had to be a jock strap. Will have to ask tomorrow...

aciurczak2

06-14-2008, 09:06 PM

Nice!!!!

Go Alex... wish we had a MS. Razel given us play by play toooooo!
Well I guess we know.. or do we what color nail polish Ray has on.. lipstick :rofl

These Rally guys are :loco

SO very cool. Risking the DNF for points.. true barf ish!

:smoking

Ray reported that the color chosen for him was pink... he chose for his 5th nail, RED.

I don't know Ray very well, so what color did you expect? :)

owlflavored

06-14-2008, 10:52 PM

these guys are clearly insane. :rofl

:ride

plumber

06-14-2008, 11:48 PM

Keep truckin'.............

It looks like Alex is heading north from Reno on 395.

aciurczak2

06-15-2008, 12:12 AM

Alex called again around 10pm. He was heading over to Susanville, then Fort W-something, then Doris, CA. He said he was hitting the BIG bonuses, so would be off the main route versus the others.

He reported that a whole bunch of people got caught by the CAL24 police as you came into Bullet #6, which is one of the bonuses Alex had to skip. Once again, KARMA is on his side.

I found out what he missed out on for Bullet #4... the one that he was late for by 1 minute (2:01 pm versus 2:00 pm). It was a sandwich stop. Basically the rider who arrived to the bonus before you had made a sandwich that you had to eat. Then, you had to make a sandwich for the next rider... sounds OK? Well, the deli meats selection ranged from things like Sardines to Cow Tongue! There were some weird cheeses and breads as well. So what sandwich did the first rider eat? Well, the Rally Master (Mark Crane) made the first sandwich for the first rider. I wonder if that meant the last rider made a sandwich for the Rally Master?? Probably not!

I guess in all the confusion of the morning rider's meeting, Alex didn't quite understand the scoring for the first leg. He now believes what he did was just fine. Skipping Bullets 1-3 wouldn't have helped. Basically, as you get each bonus, each subsequent one is worth more. Alex got 5 Bullets, so I believe that means he earns 100 + 200 + 300 + 400 + 500 points. He had originally thought that Bullet 1 was 100 points and so forth with Bullet 8 being 800 points. Whatever... your brain doesn't always work clearly during these events, but all gets sorted out once you get back and go through the scoring process.

I wonder if he'll be going through Lassen at midnight again. We did that in 2006. It was beautiful, but spooky! There was a full moon that night as well, which helped with lighting, but made everything a bit surreal.

On another note, there was an accident. I'm hearing this 3rd hand so I'm sure I don't have all the details correct, but two Rally riders went down. One of the riders was making a U-turn. The second rider came upon the person making the U-turn and ran into the U-turn rider. Folks believe the second rider may have fixated on the U-turn rider. I hope they are OK and on their way to a quick recovery. Who were the riders? Unfortunately, I don't know the details.

It's starting to get late and yet Kyle is still awake! I plan to read for a bit and hopefully fall asleep for a little, but I'll probably be woken up by a phone call from Alex for a short update. If I'm awake enough after he calls, I'll be sure to post an update here for those of you up late tonight.

PitHo

06-15-2008, 12:24 AM

This is so cool ... what a blast. Go gentleman.

Wish you sucess...I know your having fun :thumbup :Port

I hope every one is OK.

PitHo

06-15-2008, 12:37 AM

This is budman hangingwith pitho.. have a :Port and following the guys...

Ray and Alex seem to be way apart as in different states! and I have no idea who is doing it right :p

but this is some cool shit for sure!!! What time does the pub close :laughing

keep it up boys!

:smoking

cycle61

06-15-2008, 12:52 AM

Ray appears to be flying north along 447 to some little town Gerlatch-Empire, and then god knows where. Perhaps he's chasing space bunnies at this point :laughing I sincerely hope he's got a route back towards California in mind, because the next road I see will put him somewhere north of Lassen Park, unless he backtracks!

Edit: Found it, Smoke Creek Ranch road. Doesn't even show up on the map until you get down to the lowest few levels... Good luck, guys!

plumber

06-15-2008, 12:53 AM

PitHo

06-15-2008, 12:56 AM

oh fook.. Ray is going fishing

pitho

plumber

06-15-2008, 12:58 AM

Ray appears to be flying north along 447 to some little town Gerlatch-Empire, and then god knows where. Perhaps he's chasing space bunnies at this point :laughing I sincerely hope he's got a route back towards California in mind, because the next road I see will put him somewhere north of Lassen Park, unless he backtracks!

447 will take him up by Alturas in about 112 miles and maybe a quicker route to Dorris.

cycle61

06-15-2008, 12:59 AM

447 will take him up by Alturas in about 112 miles.

He better stay on it, that smoke creek trail isn't paved!

budman

06-15-2008, 01:48 AM

Ya know maybe getting to Doris is the deal....

It would be so coooooooool to know the route and be able to track every rider...

What do you say Cal 24 ... lets make this deal a full on real time piece of FAS!!!

fun ass shit

Tracking every rider and having feedback from MRs. or Mister everyone (Designate a communicator) would be WAY fun,, :teeth

:smoking

budman

06-15-2008, 01:50 AM

He better stay on it, that smoke creek trail isn't paved!

Riding dirt in the dark :wow

Balls up going for it... ride on Ray. :thumbup

:smoking

cycle61

06-15-2008, 01:57 AM

oh fook.. Ray is going fishing

pitho

Ray's been in Gerlatch for an hour now :| Hope everything's okay for him. :ride

Alex is rolling north on 395 at a good clip after what may have been a gas stop...

plumber

06-15-2008, 02:04 AM

Ray's been in Gerlatch for an hour now :| Hope everything's okay for him. :ride

Alex is rolling north on 395 at a good clip after what may have been a gas stop...

I've been watching Ray too. He doubled back to the same spot. It looks like he's across from a Shell Station according to my MapSource.

budman

06-15-2008, 02:29 AM

Shizza.. hope Ray is all good...

Me.. I am sleepy.. what a wimp.

Sleeping on the couch just so I will wake up.. and can check in.

Ride safe guys.

:smoking

aciurczak2

06-15-2008, 02:52 AM

It looks like Ray is heading north on Nevada 447. I'm still trying and figure out what Fort W.....something could be. There is a Fort BidWell up in the northeast corner of the state. Dorris, CA. is also way up near the Oregon border.

Fort BidWell! YES! That does sound like what Alex was saying as his cell phone cut in and out. He said it was way north and all the way on the other side of CA from where I was... so Northeast would make sense.

cycle61

06-15-2008, 02:55 AM

Ray's rolling again, back on the road ~1/2 hour now. Alex turned off 395 to the west toward 139. Gotta sleep. Audi just spun their #2 car on intermediate rain tires and locked up the trans in 2nd gear.... Wait, wrong event...

cycle61

06-15-2008, 04:16 AM

All this midnight GPS stuff has inspired me to start my day's ride about 4 hours early. I'm off, have fun and ride safe guys!

(Wherever the hell it is you're going :laughing )

johnparjr

06-15-2008, 07:52 AM

Any updates??

aciurczak2

06-15-2008, 08:23 AM

I did get a couple of calls in the middle of the night and early morning, but I was beat! Sorry! Alex is pulling in shortly here... going to go out to greet him. I will post afterwards!

aciurczak2

06-15-2008, 08:43 AM

Ray and Alex are both back!

CORRECTION: They chose Red polish for 4 of his nails. Ray chose a frosty pink. Hmmmmm... what does this say about Ray? Please feel free to post your interpretations!

Alex says his brain is fuzzy, but he's eager to get scored... More to come once we're all settled.

Bronto

06-15-2008, 08:46 AM

Whata ride, SPOT shows Alex finishing up. Sure was neat way of following process. Caught the tracking just North of Reno up 395 before ZZzzz. Indicated the route it would likely follow after that.

aciurczak2

06-15-2008, 09:15 AM

Well, I got many calls last night, but don't remember too much. Here are a few things I do remember:

1. Alex called around 4 am to say that the Space Bunnies had arrived. He was also noticing that he was doing the Microsleep thing, so he had to pull off the road (he was on highway 5) to a large gas station so that he could run around his bike and wake up.

2. Alex said he was hanging his foot off the bike a bit (can't remember if it was left or right, but I think left) and his toe ended up hitting a BOT DOT on the road. That REALLY WOKE him up! And he thought his big toe might be broken. I forgot to ask if it was when he took his boots off.

3. Alex was marked as arriving back at 7:38 am.

4. Ray and I spoke briefly. He said that he was going for some BIG bonuses. The first one he was chasing, he never got. So he decided to go for another one, but that one took him down a dirt road, but his GPS said 1.8 miles. He figured that was OK, but at one point, there was a fork in the road and so he continued on the one that the GPS was pointing him down and then all of a sudden the GPS said something like 28+ miles more of dirt road! He had to abandon that bonus as well.

5. I can't remember what else Alex told me last night, but I'm sure he'll have lots to post tonight!

plumber

06-15-2008, 10:11 AM

Congratulations to everybody who participated in this years event.:thumbup

johnparjr

06-15-2008, 10:28 AM

That's cool glad they are back in one peice made me feel like I was a kid watching the gumball rally in the movies and I cant wait to get my spot now.

Razel

06-15-2008, 10:42 AM

When they gave us the packet for the second leg, I did something different than last time (5 years ago). I read all of it first.
Yerington, the town we'd just come through before the "Gun" checkpoint, had a 600+ point question. 600 points is a lot, and it's a slam-dunk! Unless, (you have to understand the rally-master mindset), you look at the first page, Bridgeport, and see 16 points, followed by 27 (or something small) for the Sonora Summit. So, off you go to Bridgeport. By the time you start reading the last pages (with the big points) you're too far away. So, Yerlington...snagged that. Gerlach, where the "Bite the Bullet" rally in 1993 was held, was 500-sumthin. Woohoo! Bag three or four large points, and pass on the itty-bitty's.
Headed for Gerlach. *sigh* Should say, headed for Gerlach after getting gas in Yerington. About 40 miles (half way, basically) between Gerlach and the last 24 hour gas station, I decided that if the only gas station in Gerlach wasn't equipped for 24 hour service, I'd be waiting for the station to open, and miss not only the Saddlesore deadline, but the hour grace period and be a DNF. SilverSVS would be doing all he could to not shoot me...so back to Fernley and gas. Naturally, when I got to Gerlach, the Shell station, while empty of people, would work 24 hours if you had a credit card. Hence, my tracking loopback before Gerlach. Naturally, the item to be found was nowhere you could find it at night, unless you knew exactly were to look for it On a dirt road called Guru Lane, that no map I could find had any record of. Wandered through the town a couple of times...no joy. It's not in town. It's on a dirt road outside of town. As you will see, I don't do dirt roads, so I certainly can't see them. Took a picture of the post office as a last-ditch attempt to earn the points I probably wouldn't be getting anyway.

Mr. Garmin told me if I wanted to get the big points in Susanville, to take the county road out of Gerlach (somewhat toward Alturas) and hang a left on some road that would take me to 395. Brockwood Rd.(edit: Buckhorn), I think. 50 miles sorta east of Gerlach. Blew right by it. 50 miles of 35 MPH twisties with lights that were good for...35MPH twisties...including the high beam. :mad

HTF did I miss a road on the left??? Came back, dirt road. Now, a couple of you know I don't do dirt roads, and many know the K1200GT does not do dirt roads. Ok, Mr. Garmin says "1.8 miles". Eh...ok. 1.8 miles and the display changes just as the road forks. I'm to go left. Not happy, but both forks are dirt roads. Mr. Garmin now gleefully states that the next "segment" is 28.3 miles. 28 MILES? :wtf 48 minutes? :wtf:wtf 2:00AM? :wtf:wtf:wtf Wasn't gonna happen. "So, Mr. Garmin, how 'bout you just plot a route back to the start/finish point?" "Arrive at 6:43 AM". So much for Susanville Prison's large point package. Lesson learned? When you bring paper maps (you have to bring paper maps if you want to do this right), look at them before throwing your trust into Mr. Garmin's lap. He don't read those maps, either.

Got back to Fernley, got some fuel, got more water for the CamelBak, had an energy bar, 5 hour energy boost (without the crash...yeah...) and headed back to the start point. I-80. Over the summit. Yes, I brought the heated jacket, and yes, I put it on in Fernley. Thank gawd for that. Damn, it was cold...heated seat, heated grips, both on high. Jacket didn't warm me much, as neither did the seat or grips, but wow! Opened my face mask to scratch my nose, and it was COLD!. Could feel some heat, but let's just say I wasn't cold, but still not feelin' the love.

Ok, banquet in couple hours, I've had one beer already, so to avoid any PUI incidents (huh? Yeah, try going 24 hours without sleep, 20 hours of that on the bike riding at (legal...have to say that) speed working your brain at 95%, and then have a beer. Tell me that beer doesn't affect you at all. Well, maybe not at first, but I wanted to take a nap before the ceremonies, and it was the easiest crutch I could find.) :teeth

budman

06-15-2008, 10:51 AM

:wow
Can't wait to hear more... snooze well Ray .. you deserve it.

:smoking

PitHo

06-15-2008, 02:09 PM

:thumbup

AndyM

06-15-2008, 04:25 PM

Fun ride. Congrats to Alex for being top barf finisher.

Ironbutt

06-15-2008, 05:29 PM

Fun ride. Congrats to Alex for being top barf finisher.

Thanks for everything dude!

aciurczak

06-15-2008, 05:57 PM

Fantastic rally! Really had a great time this year. The layout suited me pretty well in the way I like to work these, and it took us over some pretty great areas. The bullets (bonuses on first leg) were very GPS friendly, and before setting off I had a pretty good idea where every one was. On the second leg I ignored the base route and locked onto 6 or 7 very high point value bonuses all the way out in the middle of nowhere, and just tried to collect as many of those as I could. I only got 4 of them, but that along with a fair amount of bullets in the first leg was enough for 9th place. I ended up with a little over 1200 miles in the 24 hr period, about 150 - 200 miles more than I usually do in these rallies, so I definitely covered quite a bit of ground. Need to unpack, clean up, and get my head together, but I'll post in more detail (with some more pics) soon.

DogBoy

06-15-2008, 06:15 PM

Congratulations on the great finish. I really enjoyed the updates from your dedicated support staff. Looking forward to hearing more.

aciurczak2

06-15-2008, 06:31 PM

Detail 1 - Alex did not break his left toe, but it might be bruised.

Detail 2 - Bullet 6 was the nail polish and also the location of where the CAL24 police set up. Bullet 5 was the lipstick and I believe it was somewhere near Walker Lake.

We're home and tired. I'm sure Alex is much more tired than I am, but with all the calls last night, I'm pretty tired too. The banquet was good fun with good food and lots of laughs.

Tune in again next year! :Party

lionserpent

06-15-2008, 07:58 PM

Sounds like a hell of a ride. Congrats!

aperture8

06-16-2008, 12:01 AM

Congratulations! :applause :Party

budman

06-16-2008, 09:03 AM

Welcome home guys..

Great job :thumbup

Looking forward to hearing more.

:smoking

silversvs

06-16-2008, 11:11 AM

Nice work gentlemen. Congratulations on finishing and riding safely.

Will you both be at the Barf Bash? I'd love to get a copy of the checkpoints etc. so I can see what I missed out on, and listen to some stories about the rally.

aciurczak

06-16-2008, 12:05 PM

Well that was fun! I'll try and lay out many of the details of the rally in the next few posts. I'll likely forget a bunch, so some updates may be put into this post later, maybe some will be in posts after this. And at this point, if any of the details are a little off, forgive me and my tired, fuzzy brain. (which is getting less tired and less fuzzy as time goes on...) :teeth

The rider meeting on Friday night is typically split into two parts. The first hour is for newbies, where the rally folks (Mark Crane, Rallymaster, and Tom Melchild, Cal24 head honcho) lay out in broad strokes what new rally riders can expect. This year Eric Jewell shared a bunch of his rally experiences as well. Eric is a past winner of the Cal24, and has also run the full Iron Butt rally a few times. Most folks, even those who have done this before, end up attending both meetings anyway.

The second meeting is the second hour, where the rally folks go through some of the new details in this year's rally. For example, they let us know that there was only 1 checkpoint in this rally. To be a finisher, all you needed to do was be at that checkpoint (which turned out to be about 11 miles south of Yerrington, NV) during the time it was open, and get back to Dunnigan before 8 AM (9 AM drop-dead time with penalty), and you would be classified as a finisher. Last-place finisher, of course, but a finisher. :laughing Everything else on the rally was a bonus of some sort or another which would increase your score. Some of the other rules that they went over were the picture rules (yes, the rally flag needed to be in every picture you took, and if it says that you need to be in the picture, you need to be wearing that flag), and the fuel log rules. They also described how the scoring process would work. All of this is laid out as clearly as possible so there is no question later about what they meant. There is pretty much no leeway in these rules later, and no crying about it allowed. For example, if you take a picture of the right bonus at the right time with the flag in it, but it says that you need to be in the picture and you're not, you get zero points for that bonus. No partial credit. Binary. If you have 3 of the 4 fuel log receipts, but lost one, zero credit for fuel log. Not 3/4ths. Everyone is scored this way, and everyone knows the rules going in.

The final rule discussed, and the newest addition to the Cal24 rally, is the presence of the Cal24 police. I didn't think the rally had much of a speeding problem in the past, most folks realize over time that going overboard on the speed tends to tire you out much faster, and you're likely to finish worse off than if things were a little more moderate. My first Cal24 5 years ago I was on a 12R and ended up with a performance award on Highway 70, which cost me a couple hundred dollars and 30+ minutes on the side of the road, which utterly and completely negated any advantage I would have received for going that quickly. (of course that 30 minutes on the side of the road meant I had to go even faster the rest of that leg if I wanted to make the checkpoint in time, which I ended up making). I haven't gotten a ticket on the rally since, and haven't even had many close calls. Anyway, sorry for the sidetrack. So even though most folks probably weren't breaking many speed records in the past, perhaps some of the newer rally riders were from time to time. And the new rule means that somewhere out there, there were an unknown number of Cal24 police on the road, with the ability to accurately measure your speed. If you were 20 mph over the posted limit, you're busted. The specific penalty wasn't discussed in the evening meeting, but was detailed in the morning meeting when the packets were handed out. If you were busted, you would be held in Cal24 jail for the number of minutes you were over the posted limit. And the kicker was that your total score would be reduced by the same percentage. So if you got busted for 75 mph in a 50 zone, that's 25 minutes at the side of the road going nowhere, and 25% removed from your overall score. Ouch. And because there could be multiple Cal24 police either on or off the base route, there's nothing that would keep you from picking up multiple citations, and getting your score all the way back down to zilch. There was very little belly-aching over the rule, less than I would have expected, in fact, and I didn't mind it much. Some others minded it a bit during the rally, but most folks who ended up getting caught were in good enough spirits. Cheaper than the highway patrol. :laughing

So that was the evening meeting. After the meetings, Annie and I headed to dinner at the restaurant next to the hotel. Decent burger. :thumbup When we got back to the room, I started to pack the bike for the next morning, and make sure everything was in the right place. In doing so, I couldn't find any of my flashlights, pens, or lanyards to hold them. Ugh. Though we have several checklists which we went through multiple times before leaving the house, something we were both positive we packed somehow didn't make it to the hotel room. So it's 10:30 PM at night, and I need to go buy supplies. Luckily, the mini-mart next door happened to be open late. I bought the last highlighter that they had, a bunch of pens, and a couple of LED flashlights that they had at the front counter. I always have a backup mini-maglite hidden in my bike's glove compartment, but it's a pain in the neck to keep getting out and putting back in. The rally folks had handed out a lanyard for one of the bonuses (never found out which one), so I re-used it to attach to one of the LED flashlights, and I was back in business. Turns out that the new lights were significantly brighter (10+ LED's instead of 3) than my older lights, so this ended up being an upgrade anyway. So all was well again, and we were asleep by 11ish. More to come...

AndyM

06-16-2008, 12:15 PM

I had an interesting rally. The 1st half was some of the most fun I've ever had on a bike. Made every bonus and picked up six bullets. Rode some fantastic roads. Got nabbed by the Cal24 Police for 65 in a 35 :laughing.

Second half of the rally was a night mare for me. I had some mechanical issues with my bike that If I had a brain I would have cut short my ride and called it a day. But seeing as I'm pretty much brainless I kept going.

I went off the planned route to try and nab some high point bonuses. I grabbed a bonus in Gerlach Nevada cuz I had always wanted to go there. Leaving Gerlach I though I was on 447 but in actuality I was on 35. I was crusing along at ~85 when the speed limit dropped from 65 to 45. I slowed to 65 just in case the Cal24 popo were around. I passed the 45 speed limit sign doing 65....and the pavement ended :wtf. Scared the crap outta me going from pavement to gravel at speed. I continued for a couple miles before I turned back.
Finally found 447 and headed for Alturas. Rabbits everywhere at night must like the road cuz it's warm. There are two less bunny's in Nevada now :( the left leg of my aerostich is covered in bunny guts.

My bike was out to fuck me. It decided to overheat, ran just below the red on the temp gauge. This caused the fan to stay on using enough juice that I could run my driving lights or my heated gear but not both. Warm and blind or cold and able to see. And I had to shut everything down a couple of miles before any stop to get enough battery to start the bike.

After Alturas i got too tired to safely ride. I pulled in to a Post Office parking lot,m set the alarm on my cell phone and slept next to my bike for 15-20 minutes. That got me an hour and then I had to sleep again. This time just off the road sleeping for 15 minutes leaned up against a pile of dirt next to the bike. This got me another hour on the bike.
I had to sleep again. I was falling asleep on the bike on 299 east of Burney when I found a wide enough turn out. As I was postiong the bike I dropped it :mad:mad. At an odd angle with the wheels uphill and at such an angle that I couldn't pick it up. I was well and truly fucked. This was just after sunrise and I would see one car every five minutes or so, and no cell signal. i started waving at folks going by as I was standing next to my downed bike maybe 100 feet off the road.
Some folks were really nice and waved back as they kept going :rofl. Finally one guy waved and then must have did a double take because he came back two minutes later and helped me lift my bike. Yay I was back on the road again.
Pulled in to Redding to get enough gas to make it to the finish in Dunnigan, Filled the radiator overflow with water and added a quart of oil. And the bike wouldn't start. Between a flat parking lot and how tired I was I couldn't bump it by myself. Some 19-20 year old kid was walking by and I said I'd give him $20 to help push my bike. Fired up and back on the road again :Party.

After Redding the bike ran fine. Temp stayed well below midpoint and all the electrics worked perfectly. Fucking bike.

I made it back to the finish with 10 minutes remaining in the penalty period before I would officially be DNF.
Somehow I still ended up in 14th place :shocker but damn that second half was a lot of work.

aciurczak

06-16-2008, 12:21 PM

The next morning I overslept a bit. Damn snooze button. But I got ready quickly, and was happy that the bike was pretty much fully packed the night before anyway. Went to the rider's meeting a little before seven, which was held right out in the parking lot. Some pics... These folks will not look nearly this fresh 24 hours from now.

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/314002801_q9jrD-L.jpg

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/314002986_m2PU3-L.jpg

Mark and Tom are on the right of this pic:

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/314003609_mzLwx-L.jpg

Valentino bored with this whole rally thing:

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/314004694_q4haT-L.jpg

Some information was given at the beginning of the meeting, like emergency numbers and some small typos that they had found in the leg 1 packet which they were going to hand out. They discussed that there would be a thread during the rally. A thread is a series of bonuses that the more you get, the more points they are worth. 1st would be worth a small amount, but if you got 4 of them, the 4th would be worth 4 times as much, etc. More the better. I promptly forgot this. :rofl There was a discussion that firearms may be involved in the rally (hence the "bite the bullet" designation), and there was one more warning not to act like a knob around them, it would piss off the people in charge to no end. And they had guns. :cool

Once the Leg 1 bonus sheets were handed out, I got back to the room to start planning.

NoGall

06-16-2008, 12:29 PM

Congrats on finishing the Rally, guys! :thumbup

aciurczak

06-16-2008, 12:46 PM

Planning went pretty damn well. There were only 8 bullets in the first leg, 6 of them with time restrictions, plus the checkpoint. I was able to find the locations of all of them reasonably quickly. Some of them weren't exact, but I knew they'd be within a few miles of where I placed them, so close enough for government work. :laughing I have never, ever been able to get everything from a leg into a GPS before, I always just get the checkpoints and then as many of the larger bonuses as I can before time runs out and I need to get going. So I was feeling pretty good about how things were going so far. I loaded up both GPS's with the data from the laptop, and got myself and my gear onto the bike. On the way out of the parking lot, a rally volunteer takes down your mileage and the time you left. We were able to leave at 8 AM, I was on the road before 8:15.

I headed to the first bullet, which was only a few miles away at a paintball range. We got to fire at our rally shirt (luckily we didn't have to be wearing the shirt at the time) and were on our way. Had a bit of a scare, the range was down a short but reasonably challenging gravel road. Parts were deep, and the front end moved around a bit more than I like. But when I went to get off the bike, my sidestand went so far into the gravel that my bike almost went all the way over. It was balanced precariously at about 45 degrees, steeper than I could get it back up with my left leg, so I yelled for some help and another rider nearby quickly helped me right the bike so it didn't go all the way over. Found a better parking spot, and calamity averted. A friend that was doing this rally for the first time met up with me at this first bullet, and he asked if he could tag along for awhile. He wasn't feeling great for the past few days, and wasn't sure if he would be able to finish the rally, but I hoped he could and didn't mind a bit if we rode together for awhile. We both knew that in these types of events, it's pretty much understood that if 1 rider is holding up another, most folks will end up separating rather than staying together for the group's sake. But if people end up riding a similar pace and aren't holding eachother up, it can be more fun and even easier to ride in a group of 2 or 3 at times. So we were on our way out of paintball. I aimed one GPS at bullet 2, and the other at bullet 3, to keep track of how we were doing on time. I knew that getting all bullets in a row would be pretty much impossible, so I needed to know when it looked like we'd have to skip 1 to make the next one in time. Right away, the GPS found a quicker route to get to bullet 2 than the base route. Unfortunately that meant getting back on highway 5 instead of what I'm sure was a more fun road, but quicker is quicker. And better. :thumbup So even though Don and I weren't the earliest leaving bullet 1, I hoped we'd make up some time on the way to bullet 2.

As soon as we got on the highway, I went to put my windscreen up, and rose a bit funny and was sitting at a weird angle. I leaned forward and saw that one of the front mounts had broken. Damn. The large windscreen stresses the support arms, and I have broken the upper mounts multiple times, and replaced them with heavy duty parts that are specifically made for this purpose. The heavy duty mounts have been fine for thousands of miles. But this time one of the lower mounts was the one that broke, which shouldn't be as stressed, but who knows. I had to put the windscreen all the way back down, and then it was fine. Reminds me, I need to order replacement parts after this post... So my ability to make the wind noise go away was out the window, but that's not huge in the scheme of things; I use earplugs and an iPod, so there isn't much wind noise getting to me anyway. And it was starting to get so freaking hot already that I doubt I would have wanted the screen in full-up mode much anyway.

On the highway I set the cruise a little over the limit. Cal24 police would allow me 19 over, but in a 70 mph zone on 5, 89 mph will likely get you a discussion with the the CHP, so I didn't press my luck. 2nd bullet was right near the Oroville dam, and we made it in decent time. When we got close it turned out that the location I had in the GPS was off from the actual spot by a few miles, but there were enough bikes around that it was easy to find out way to the right location. We made it about in the middle of the available time, so things were still on track. Here's Tom Melchild at bullet #2:

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/314007186_QGvBm-L.jpg

No good pics of the dam (which was pretty cool when we got to ride right over the top of it) but heres a gratuitous shot of bikes in the lot. That's Razel at his bike (2nd from right):

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/314006915_5v9DF-L.jpg

After Tom snapped a picture of me and Don with our rally flags in front of the dam, which I'm sure I will be blackmailed with in future years, we were back on our way toward bullet 3.

Ironbutt

06-16-2008, 01:51 PM

I had a great time.. Andy and Ray are the 'great enablers' and talked me into calling Tom and signing up for the rally at the last minute. I was #42... last person to sign up.

Andy was a huge help for me, he gave me maps, a spot in a cool hotel room to sleep and even let me follow him around on Saturday until he got that wild hair to go for the big bonus, which by the way paid off in spades for him. Don't let him play this down, you have to have some serious conviction and intestinal fortitude to finish as well as he did. I'm very impressed with Andy, he's got some BIG balls.. and I'm disappointed in myself for a whole bunch of reasons.

I was under prepared in so many ways and was lacking the needed sleep to finish well.. so after we split up I went for the next bonus at the lake.. Around 3:30pm on Saturday; the lack of sleep the week prior, a mild case of heat exhaustion and a case of loosing my cool and bearings, led me the wrong way... so I missed the last two bullets on Saturday and decide to saunter 11 miles back through the same town that I had filled up my fuel tank three times prior.. yes.. I was literately riding around in circles.. or so it seemed to me..

After what seemed like hours of distress and being lost.. I made it to the first check point of the day and found out that I wasn't as far behind as I had thought.. HAH!

The funny part was seeing everyone who had made the last two check points, was wearing lipstick.. hehehe.. one guy was even upset about getting pulled over by the cal police and he had a "heat tantrum" as I would call it.. except he was wearing lipstick.. It's hard to take the guy serious.. hehehe.. that made me feel better.. I wasn't the only one up shits creek.. and cranky.. anyway.. he DNF'd ... nice guy.. he lost his cool though.. which is really hard not to do. I wanted his bra but I thought asking might make things worse.. ;)

Andy and I met back up at the shooting range and by then I had regained my cool, so I waited for him and he I plotted out the next 8 hours of bonus. Andy decided to go big..Girlack, NV! Me.. I was feeling not so good.. and I know myself pretty well.. so I decided to take the 'easy' route' down 339? over to 108 and onto 49 to 16.. then SLEEP!!!

Andy was nice and didn't come right out and call me a pussy.. but I knew he was thinking it.. ;)

Anyway... I made it as far as Angles camp and by then my eyes couldn't focus and I was making some really stupid decisions.. Like.. 75 in a 30... and putting my feet down in corners.. ohhh.. shit.. so I decided to take a hour long nap.. WOW I felt great after that.. but not really well enough to have the will to do anything but head back that that nice cool hotel room and get sleep. and that's what I did.. I mentally lost.. bummer..

I arrived in Dunnigan at 4:40am.. plenty of time to pick off more bonus's but I wasn't feeling safe at that point so the only regrets I have is not being better prepared. This was a good experience for me, learned that I have what it takes but piss poor planning bit me in the ass.. ALL weekend long.

My rally cheery has been popped! Next year... I'll give you guys some competition.

The Cal24 is not for the faint of heart or the ill prepared, I can tell you that.

aciurczak

06-16-2008, 02:58 PM

On the way to Bullet 3, the time started to creep up on us. I was monitoring both Bullet 3 and Bullet 4 on my 2 GPS's, and it looked like we were getting close to time-barred on Bullet 4. Here's where I misunderstood the rules. The sheets listed the 8 bullets in order, then they listed the points for each bullet. 1 = 100, 2 = 200, 3 = 300, etc. This was explained in the pre-ride as a thread, so the 1st bullet, no matter which one you get, is 100; the 2nd you get is 200, etc. Total brain fart, and I equated bullet 1 itself = 100, bullet 2 itself = 200, etc. So what I was planning is that as soon as it looked like I couldn't get to the one after the one I was going for, I was going to bail on the current one and go for the next one, because I thought the next ones would be worth more. That strategy makes a hell of a lot of sense if the bullets were scored the way I thought they were. Makes a little less sense since it was a thread, but it generally works anyway, because if you're going to be time barred on one, you're already behind the curve and should be trying to jump up anyway.

So on the way to bullet 3, we were almost going to miss bullet 4. I stopped by the side of the road to do a mapcheck, and Don and I tried to figure out whether it made sense to bail on 3 and go straight to 4. The GPS was routing us backwards to get to 4, so the time kept growing well past the time-barred point. But Don was convincing, noting on the map that the quickest way to 4 was likely in the direction of 3 anyway. We got back on the road, still aiming for 3, and it turns out he was right. After a certain point, the GPS's started routing us more directly, and instead of expecting us to show up at 2:20 or later for bullet 4, now it was showing closer to 2. That fourth bullet was only open until 2. So we made Bullet 3 on time. The GPS took us right to a dirt road that may or may not have been open to the public, but we could see the Bullet location (Quincy Chevron) on the other side of the short path, so we took a slight shortcut to get us where we needed to be. At the bullet, we were greeted by the rally volunteers dressed as, well, I'll let you see yourself. Here's Dale (Warchild) Wilson:

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/314007479_rEfTa-L.jpg

We were encouraged to "buy karma" for a $5 donation. I picked up some karma for both me and Don (I still owed him for the first edition of my rally flag), and we were given two flowers, which we were told to hang on to for later. And we were on our way to Bullet 4, Daggett Pass.

When we left Quincy, it looked like we were going to be about 10 minutes late for the 4th bullet. The next bullet after 4 from a geography standpoint was definitely bullet 7, at the Grover Hot Springs. So even if we missed Bullet 4, we were going in the right direction for Bullet 7, and 7 had no time restriction so we were going there no matter what. And I thought Bullet 7 was worth 700 points, remember, because I was :confused.

aciurczak

06-16-2008, 03:07 PM

On the way to Bullet 4 the rally gods did not shine brightly on us. The ETA on the GPS started at about 2:13 when we left that Chevron, and it needed to be 2:00. And the route was all the way around Lake Tahoe, with weekend traffic. Ugh. Don and I got held up when we turned ourselves around for a minute in Truckee, so the ETA for me was still after 2:00 PM. I set my limit at +19 on the speed limit and did that wherever possible all the way there, but this involved passing quite a few cars, riding aggressively (but not unsafely), and generally knowing that I couldn't stop or slow down for even a minute if I had any chance of making this. Don was in front of me for awhile on the road around the lake, and we were in some pretty heavy traffic. One of the GPS's was routing me off the main road, so I peeled off and took the back road, which allowed me to make up some more time. It got me back on the main road about 5 or 6 miles later, and then there was no traffic. Wasn't sure at the time if I made up time or lost time compared to Don, which is exactly where I'd be if I hadn't have peeled off.

As I got closer and closer to the bonus, one of my GPS's had an ETA of 2:01, the other was saying 2:03. When I got to the last intersection, only 4 miles away, it still said 2:01. Which was actually 2 minutes late, because even if I showed up at 2:00 and 10 seconds, I would be late. But, it didn't matter because I got held up for what seemed like 2+ minutes at that last traffic light where I had to make a left. Too much traffic to run the red and cut left, and it looked like there may have been a camera on that intersection anyway. So when I finally turned on that road I knew I'd come in about 2 minutes late, and that's exactly what happened. Wasn't sure if Don had made it, but he came in just a few minutes behind me, so I wouldn't have made it either way.

That bullet involved making a sandwich with some interesting ingredients for the rider behind you to consume. Since we got there late and didn't get the bullet, Don and I didn't have to make or eat any of that. Probably worth missing the points, in the long run. :laughing So we had a quick drink and a quick powerbar and were right on our way to bullet 7.

aciurczak

06-16-2008, 03:27 PM

I should add, that while at Bullet 4 (Daggett Pass), the GPS already confirmed for me that there was no chance to make Bullet 5 in time. So we were planning the rest of the leg this way. We'd shoot for Bullet 7, which had no time restrictions. After Bullet 7, we'd go for 6 & 8, then head toward the checkpoint.

The ride to Grover Hot Springs was a blast. Great roads, great weather, limited traffic, just fun all around. When we finally got to the Springs, there had already been quite a few riders there, so we were not the ones who had to first explain why grown men had to wear brightly painted bras and get into the hot spring. Other people had paved that route for us already. :rofl So the cute lifeguard was more than willing to take pictures of both of us, and we appreciated that she wasn't giggling too loudly. We suited up and were on our way to the next bullets. Don and I worked both the map angle and the GPS angle, and the GPS's were convinced that 395 and 50 through Fallon was the fastest way to get to both Bullet 6 & 8, which were somewhat close to eachother. The main route didn't include those, of course, but again, fastest is fastest. And bullet 8 was actually on Highway 50 anyway. So we aimed to 395, and made our way to 50. At this point we were looking close to being timebarred on Bullet 6, and with my addled thinking, I thought that Bullet 8 was worth more points anyway. It was clear that we weren't going to make both, so I decided to go for Bullet 8 only.

We were cruising along on 50, with alot of time to think and plan while riding along. I played with both GPS's for much of the time, trying to figure out when we'd get to Bullet 8, when we'd likely make the checkpoint, etc. The problem with Bullet 8 is that the location was given as a range from the intersection of 361 & 50, and Cold Springs, which is up about 14 miles on 50. Our time was so close, that if the shoe tree turned out to be right next to Cold Springs, that extra 14 miles * 2 may be enough to time-bar us at the checkpoint. But if it was closer to the intersection of 361, then we should be fine. I figured this out when we were still about 60 miles away from the intersection, and pulled over to lay it out for Don. I let him know that we needed to drive out for an hour, get the bonus, drive back for an hour to that exact same spot, then it was about an hour more to get to the checkpoint. If the location of the bonus was somewhat favorable, we should make it back to the checkpoint with about 20 minutes to spare.

I was glad I stopped and we had this discussion, because with that information Don decided to hang a u-turn and head straight to the checkpoint. He would get there about an hour early, which would pay dividends later as he would be able to leave that checkpoint very early.

I continued alone on 50 heading toward the Shoe Tree. I started to pass more and more riders who were coming west on 50, either from the Rawhide bonus (Bullet 6) or the Shoe Tree (Bullet 8). As I came up to the intersection, I saw even more riders coming from that same direction. Seeing that I would have just missed the Bullet 6 timing anyway, I kept on cruising East on 50 heading toward Cold Springs and hoping that the shoe tree showed up sooner rather than later. 50 turns into an incredibly lonely place out there, the landscape is quite unique. All you can see for as far as you can see in any direction, is this lonely road that is raised off the surface, and just this empty playa with some moderate mountains in every direction (but awfully far away). It's one of those places where you can truly see every living thing within 10 miles, and pretty much confirm that you're the only living thing. Or at least the only living thing that would be interested in a radar gun. So knowing that, this was the only time on the rally where I opened the throttle a bit more to find that doggone shoe tree. As luck would have it, it was closer to the intersection than it was to Cold Spring, so it was promising that I'd be able to make it back to the checkpoint as planned. I was monitoring the GPS the whole time, and if it had ever reached an ETA past 7:50 PM, I was going to bail and head back without Bullet 8. But it only got to 7:40 PM, and that was enough leeway for me to get what I needed, grab a picture of the tree (with the flag, of course), and get back on my way. Here's a picture of that shoe tree that I've since found on the internet (my own pic was a polaroid and collected at the rally finish):

http://www.smugmug.com/photos/314719454_XUxNG-L.jpg

Now it was just a matter of riding for a few hours with no stops/rest/mistakes/mechanicals and I should be alright. Since the ETA had leveled off around 7:40, I did make a quick stop for gas as Mark had let on that the checkpoint was nowhere near gas, and without filling up I would have only had 30 - 40 miles left in the tank after hitting the checkpoint. Filling up took that worry away. As I got closer and closer, I realized that I was going to make it pretty easily, so I dialed the speed back from +19 to closer to +10, I knew that would be more than enough to get me there in time and lowered the likelihood of any unintended roadside conversations. When I got within a few miles of the checkpoint, I saw Don heading back in the opposite direction, so he had already made the checkpoint, completed the activity, and was on his way well before I would arrive. Riding through Yerington (http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADBF&resnum=0&q=Yerington,+NV,+USA&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&resnum=1&ct=title), I had a realization that I had been through there before many years back on a project that I was working on out in Nevada. Before the rally I would have bet any amount of money that I'd never heard of Yerington, let alone been there. But I forget alot. :laughing

Here's my GPS track from Leg 1: (Full res available right here (http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/314026041_i8pPp-X3.jpg))

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/314026041_i8pPp-L.jpg

aciurczak

06-16-2008, 03:56 PM

At the checkpoint, I signed in with Tom and his son, and took some time to drink a bottle of water, and find a nearby bush. Was awful nice to be able to take a few minutes after not having that luxury for hours. Tom signed me in, checked to make sure that I had "Karma", and collected my paperwork for leg 1. He gave me the envelope for leg 2, but instructed me not to open it until I completed the activity a short ways down a nearby dirt road. Tom and Jack also let me know that there had been an accident on the rally, which was really too bad.

It had happened out on Bucks Lake road, early on in the rally, when a rider (2-up) who was making a u-turn got hit by another rider coming around the curve. Hearing those details generically seems to shoulder the blame on the u-turn rider, but more details from those who were there change that picture a bit. Not like it matters in the scheme of things, both bikes were out, and 2 riders were now heading to the hospital via air. Ugh. The passenger looks to have gotten the worst out of it, with a broken leg; the single rider had such a concussion that he was out cold for 5 minutes (hence the air taxi), but turned out to be OK, as did the pilot on the 2-up bike. He in fact rode that same bike back to LA, immediately, picked up his girlfriend's car, and drove it back to meet her at the hospital in Chico.

On to the checkpoint activity... After heading down the dirt road and parking on the side of the road, I saw that we were walking out a bit one by one to ventilate our rally shirt with the number of bullets that we had gotten so far in the rally. I hadn't fired a pistol in many years, but still managed hit the shirt each time, and even the target on the shirt itself a few times. Unimpressive, to say the least, compared to those nailing the 10 ring on the shirt time after time. But what the heck, it was fun. :thumbup

I went back to the bike, opened the leg 2 packet, and started to plan. The packet was much longer than the