My 2nd warm-up ride

I have it in my head that I would like to (I need to) do an Iron Butt Association ride. I'm pretty sure that a Bun Burner will be my choice because I think that being able to have a nights sleep in between full days ride will suit me better.

So yesterday I rode from my home in Prescott Valley down to Phoenix, turned right, went over to Quartzite then up to Kingman. From Kingman, I chose to ride Route 66 over to Williams, continued up to Flagstaff and then South towards home. All told I rode 593.6 miles in 10 hours.

The heat issue: It seemed that all the heat from the engine was blown out onto my ankles. While my ankles were not burned, they were uncomfortable enough that is was very distracting. My ST is equipped with MCL highway 'wings' and I used them much more than I expected to. I really don't like the way the way they look and when I use them it causes me to slouch in the saddle.

The saddle issue: I don't think I actually got a sore butt until about 350 miles into the ride. While I would like to have a Russell Day-Long saddle, I don't think one is in the cards for me until sometime next year. Can I please get your thoughts on other (temporary) solutions to a sore butt? I had a Wal-Mart ATV seat pad on my 82 GL1100 and it helped but the seat shapes are so very different that I'm not certain I would gain the same result.

I used a SPOT tracking devise for the first time on this trip. I turned it on at my house and saw all the lights go blinky-blink just like it says it will in the brochure. I pressed the 'OK' button at my first fuel stop and the 'OK' light went blinky-blink just like its supposed to. Nobody on my list received any OK messages or progress notifications. I don't even know how to describe or diagnose any better than that. Any suggestions, comments, remarks or hints?

My intended route for my BB1500 is from Prescott Valley to Colorado Springs, hotel for the night, then back again. 774 miles there and the 774 back again. Can some of you more experienced rider give me any hints or helps for this, my first qualifying ride?

Thank you so much for considering my questions and warm-up ride.

REX

Rexsname said:

Can I please get your thoughts on other (temporary) solutions to a sore butt?

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A bead rider seat helped me before I finally got a Rick Mayer seat that is comfortable for long rides. I didn't want to pay out the nose so I got automobile seat beads from Walmart and customized them for my bike.

I'd suggest starting with the SS1000 to practice the documentation and logging. A BB1500 is basically a 1000 mile day and a 500 mile half day with about 5 hours sleep in between. You were hurting after just 600 miles. Trust me, the next 400 get progressively worse if you run with your same set up.

Ankle heat - wear real riding pants, not jeans. They really help. Same thing with footwear. Over the ankle boots for the win.

I wear Alpine* gortex boots and real tall socks. My riding gear is An Olympia all mesh Onesie. Do you think that a heavier pair of pants (other than the light-weight ones I was wearing) would help mitigate the heat issue? Any thoughts on using the ATV seat pad?

REX

I'm wearing an original Roadcrafter and Sidi B2 goretex boots, but only a few hundred miles running in over 90* since the bike purchase last month. I do have a couple hundred thou in the 'stich over the last 10 years in wildly ranging heat conditions to 100* on a few different bikes though. More insulation between you and the heat can't hurt. It won't be till mid summer that my mesh gear will come into play. Personal opinion - seat pads and the like are make do options. I'm not a fan of something that can shift under me while operating a motor vehicle. My 1300 came with a Spencerized stock seat that didn't work for me. My first farkle purchase was a used Corbin seat.

Get the bike set up for you, then do the long distance stuff. It's much more fun that way.