Tayara Travels: SaddleSore 1000 summary

I covered 1060 miles in 14.5 moving hours (on the bike), plus stops, for a total of about 17.5 hours start to finish. Left the starting point (US288 & Beltway 8) about 5.30am, returning about 11pm. A dozen or so riders participated, but it was not a group ride. We left singly and rode our own pace, and I saw only a couple of other SS1000 riders at fuel stops. The route was well chosen with roughly half at speed limit 70mph and half at 80mph (it rises to the West Texas level a little past Kerville). It was all I10, except for a bypass around San Antonio, generally clear riding with little traffic, and we rode facing away from the Sun, coming and going.

I did well on the riding part, averaging 73 miles per moving hour. Obviously I took full advantage, and then some, of the higher speed limits. Normally I'm a pretty conservative rider but I pushed it on this ride, reasoning that riding fast and covering more distance in the daylight on clear stretches of West Texas was safer than leaving more at the end after dark in the approach to Houston. I was uncertain how my bike, an 800cc, would handle the higher sustained speeds. It performed beautifully, running smooth and steady, and without apparent mechanical stress. I'll have to confess a certain un-evolved pleasure in passing cars and other motorcycles.

The part I did not do well was handling the stops. Due to the route specified and the range of my bike, I had to stop a total of nine times for gas. I wasn't efficient in managing the tasks while stopped, and that added a lot of time (3 hours) to the total.

I've ridden a bit over 600 miles in a day previously, and had no complaints about my bike seat. I learned on this ride that is an upper bound. After 600 miles, and certainly by 800 miles, I was hurting. I wished I had brought my Airhawk pneumatic cushion. Except for that complaint (proving the aptness of "Saddle Sore 1000"), there was no major discomfort. Weatherwise we were lucky: no rain, and hot but less hot that predicted. I've learned to ride through Houston summers, so dry/hot West Texas is no problem. The surprising thing about riding a motorcycle a long distance is that it is not very tiring. You accumulate aches and pains as you go along, but you feel alert and engaged the whole time. There is so much going on when riding a bike that you just don't tune out as you might when driving a car over a similar distance.

The SS1000 may seem crazy to some of you, but it is the most sane of an increasingly insane series of challenges by the Iron Butt Association. Consider the 100CCC: Coast to Coast, and back to the starting Coast, all under 100 hours! I'm not interested in extending my efforts beyond the SS1000. It is enough to establish my bona fides as a journeyman long distance motorcyclist, and something only a small minority of riders can claim. But there are better, safer, and more rewarding ways to spend time in the saddle.

Route