You long range guys are studs. I did one saddlesore 1000 on my ultra classic just to get the license plate bracket. 1027 miles in a bit over 18 hrs was enough for me, and that was with a cup holder, loud radio and comfy highway bars!
I've read up on the IBR and am amazed at the prep work that goes into that event. It seems like a lifestyle more than a simple event.
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It's a hobby. From '04 to '11 nearly every vacation time I took was to do an endurance rally. All over the Western US since I was living in Portland, OR at the time. I moved to UT in '11 and continued to do endurance rallies with my wife, she riding her own bike, up to about '22 when she stopped riding. We had slowed down to doing 8-12 hour rallies instead of 24-80 hour ones.
The IBR is the only rally the Iron Butt Association actually puts on, ever other year. But to prepare people ride other endurance rallies. You see an amazing amount of the country and go places you would never think to go while getting bonuses during a rally. There is a focus that comes with having a plan and then riding that plan. Sometimes everything clicks, sometimes the plan goes to complete crap in a couple of hours. Being able to re-plan, recover, deal with what ever mechanical issues or flats happen and continue on to finish the event is a skill set that takes time to develop.
Since '05 and up until the last few years, I was at every IBR in some capacity. Working as a volunteer for Tech inspection, camera/photo checking at scoring or just what ever needed to be done. Wrangle some trash cans and get ice for the beverage bonus people will be coming in? Sure. Take over checking in riders at a checkpoint so the actual staff can take a dinner break, sure. You rally with the people and share the experiences, challenges and sights/struggles and you develop a bond with those people. I have great friends all over the world from riding motorcycle endurance rallies. All walks of life. I've seen BMW final drives swapped in a parking lot of a Senior Center on a Sunday in Joshua Tree, CA. I've straitened a rider's bent footpeg after he dropped his bike at the start of an IBR, replaced broken windshield screws for a rider and much more. I've come across a rider with the bike on it's side or a flat tire during an event, stopped and helped them get back on the road, then continued my own rally. In one 36 hour rally in NV a rider holed his radiator on his FJR. A rock about 3" in diameter made a hole nearly that size. He found a guy that could weld aluminum, tore it all apart, they worked together on a weekend in the welder's garage and fixed it enough that it would hold coolant, reinstalled it and he still finished the rally with enough points to not be dead last.
The certificate rides are a personal challenge and many get hooked on them for various reasons. The rally riding is a whole different level and type of fun. There is crossover for sure, but the rally riding has a more social context to it. Sometimes you just see a ride and think, I can do that, so you do it. I rode a 150cc scooter for 22 hours to ride over 1k miles all on the Natchez Trace. Just because no one had ever done it and I decided I wanted to be the first to document it. Any bike can cover 1k in 24 hours, some are just more comfortable than others.
