• ST-Owners and the event organizer(s) are not responsible for the actions taken during any ride. Each member is responsible for determining if conditions are acceptable for riding and for their actions.

80-year-old Long Rider completes Iron Butt Association's Ultimate Coast to Coast Ride.

Good on him - he's only 7 years older (soon to be 6) than me so that means there is hope! ;)
Quite often it is more 'mental' than 'physical' that stops a feller from riding.
 
It is really about the individual. Our riding club has a number of 80+ year olds still riding every week. Some have medical issues, some don't, and one of our guys died at 74 (cancer), but he was logging 40k miles a year on his bike. Some of us age more gracefully than others.
 
This story reminds me of a gentleman I met briefly last year in Tuscany. I was standing at the side of a rural road taking a few pictures and he came walking down towards me with a knapsack and a walking stick. He stopped and we chatted.
He told me he was his 80's and had walked there from Switzerland! My wife is now always telling me I better stay active. I say I'd rather ride. :giggle-2x:
 
SMSW said:
It is really about the individual. Our riding club has a number of 80+ year olds still riding every week. Some have medical issues, some don't, and one of our guys died at 74 (cancer), but he was logging 40k miles a year on his bike. Some of us age more gracefully than others.
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You can obviously do things to trash your health and do things to improve your health.
But a lot of it is just genetics - what you inherited from your ancestors.
 
beemerphile said:
The best way to insure a long life is to pick your ancestors very carefully.
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When you figure out how, let me know and I'll see if I can get a 're-do' ... ;)
 
Article is a bit old, but Jerry is a badass for sure. Great writer too.

I just returned from the Centenary celebration of Ducati at Misano Circuit Marco Simoncelli in San Marino. I had the pleasure of meeting a father and his son, fellow Ducatisti. The son was a few years younger than I, but Dad is 83 IIRC. He had ridden to Misano, much of it in heavy rain, from the greater London area. I suspect he had some battle scars from his long riding career as he didn't walk entirely straight. Guys like him are my new heroes as I transition to a little less pace and a little more distance.
 
If the road to Prudhoe Bay were paved, I would have gone for it when I was long riding, but I'm kind of funny about my bikes being dirty. The Dalton has destroyed many a good bike. My idea was to ride the ST to Montana, by a used Suzuki Bandit for 2-3000k, and ride it to Prudhoe and back, not caring about the bike. Sell it or give it away; on the return, ride south on the ST. But lost interest before I could get to it (built a new house, etc).
 
BamaRider said:
If the road to Prudhoe Bay were paved, I would have gone for it when I was long riding, but I'm kind of funny about my bikes being dirty. The Dalton has destroyed many a good bike. My idea was to ride the ST to Montana, by a used Suzuki Bandit for 2-3000k, and ride it to Prudhoe and back, not caring about the bike. Sell it or give it away; on the return, ride south on the ST. But lost interest before I could get to it (built a new house, etc).
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My experience in the arctic says that paved roads are often worse than gravel. The reason being, when a gravel road is damaged you run the graders over it. When a paved road is damaged you have a damaged road. The reason they were paving the Dalton is that they could get Federal money for paving but not for repairs. That same economic will be there when the paved road is damaged. Some of the locals I talked with around Coldfoot thought the paved road would become a nightmare in the future. You can see this on the Alcan Highway which is almost completely paved (though this is sub-arctic). It gets severely potholed and there will be many gravel breaks where road repairs are either underway, or bad pavement has been removed and graveled until repairs can be scheduled, funded, etc. When I was there in 2012 there was a GoldWing rider around Destruction Bay (aptly named) whose bike broke completely in half in a pothole. The trunk, both sidecases, and the rear subframe left the motorcycle. In my opinion Canada does a much better job of paved road construction than the US does. If Canada decided to pave the Dempster, I would fear it less because I think they would do a better job, but the roadbed would be probably 10 feet thicker and it would take them much longer to do it. My R1150R went to both Inuvik and Deadhorse in 2012 and required a complete suspension overhaul, brakes, new wheel bearings, and repaint when I returned. I think a throwaway KLR would make a good bike for it, though having owned one, I'd hate to ride it that far.
 

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Hmmmm . . . probably a bunch of changes and "enhancements" since I rode up and back in 2016, but . . . I'm thinking I'd rather ride slower to avoid potholes than over the alkaline coated dust and muck the road was maintained with then. My first stop getting back to Fairbanks was a car wash. First job was to pair with a rider to spray each other - head to toe - twice, Second was to clean up the bikes that looked like clay fine art - washed 4 times and still only got ride of it all when I sold the bike!

At that time there was no dry and dusty Dalton. It was mostly mush. Don't know what the section lengths were/are, but there were two vehicles working each section: a road grader and an alkaline spray truck. I didn't experience any gravel until the last 40 miles to the Bay.

The Dalton is a truck hauling road and I doubt pavement will survive long no matter how thick it's made.

The Canadians and Alaskans will tell everyone there are only two seasons: Winter and Construction.

Shuey

PS: Daub is my new role model!
 
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Shuey said:
...My first stop getting back to Fairbanks was a car wash.

Shuey
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Same here. My black riding pants never came clean and I repainted the bike. I rented a cabin at Arctic Getaway just north of Coldfoot and stripped the bike down to basics for the run to Deadhorse and back. It rained most of the way there and back to Wiseman. The calcium carbide residue was found under body panels and it ate the transmission output shaft seal, wheel bearing seals, and the internals of the brake calipers. The shocks were totally without damping.

This is what it took to get the bike back to spec.

https://beemerphile.smugmug.com/Lee/Public/Interests/Motorcycles/Leeta/LeetaRest

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