Steve Harrisons Iron Butt Ride for RBLR

Saturday 12-13June 2021

I decided to undertake the ride after seeing a post by one of my friends who is also a member of York Advanced Motorcyclists.

It’s been a few years since I set my self a challenge, due to the fact that this was a sponsored event for the Royal British Legion was the deciding factor, it would also give me a chance to put into practice all I have learnt as an Advanced Rider.

I searched for the event on the website, read all the relevant information along with tips and advice given by Iron Butt Association. I decided to ride Route A North Clockwise, just over a 1,000 miles in 24hrs with seven check points along the way, receipts / check in by officials needed at all check points that needed to be submitted when ride was completed to qualify for the Iron Butt Association. If not completed within 24hrs a certificate of completion is still received from the RBLR.

I registered for the ride, paid my £20.00 registration fee and upfront sponsorship of £50.

I received an email with confirmation of my registration.  Everything from start to finish was well organised with plenty of information hints and tips. One of the best bits of advice from the Iron Butt association was planning, plan for every eventuality, 1,000 miles in 24hrs is extreme endurance riding.

The route was pre planned, we planned to stop every 100 miles or so for a stretch take on fluids and eat light snacks, we planned to refuel every 200 miles or so as we both knew we had around 250 miles tank range.

 An itinerary was completed to allow checks on progress, everything on the bike was checked beyond our own POWDERY checks. Back up maps were created in case of Sat Nav issues, spare clothing, gloves, waterproofs, light snacks fluids etc all packed.

We started out of Squires at 05:00 Saturday morning, arrived at all check points, signed in or collected receipts and arrived back at Squires to a warm welcome from Marshalls and officials from RBLR and Iron Butt Association at 04:00 Sunday, all receipts and check points were authenticated, two certificates were received, one from RBLR sating that we had completed the ride, one from the Iron Butt Organisation, authenticating our ride and adding us as members of the Iron Butt Association.

This was a well organised safe event that put all that we have learnt as Advanced Riders to the test, our training allowed us to make good safe progress, show restraint when needed and continually adapt our riding plan to suite weather and traffic conditions and allowed us to deal with all scenarios we encountered.

I would recommend this to all if you wanted an extreme challenge as you learn so much about yourself and your machine.

Steve Harrison

Some images from the ride - click to enlarge