Kevin and I left for the Iron Butt ride at 0300 Saturday and made it back 1028 miles and 22 hours later at 00:50 Sunday. 10 gas stops, two shared with lunch and dinner.
We made a counterclockwise loop around Arkansas, paralleling I-40 on Highway 64 to Marion, just above West Memphis. Then I-55N to Sikeston, Missouri, a couple of joggles back down to pick up Highway 62 in Corning at the top east corner of the state, and all the way across the top to Rogers at the top west corner. We picked up I540S down to Van Buren, then Highway 71 down to Texarkana, at the bottom west corner, and then diagonally back up on I-30.
Time in motion was around 16 hours. 10 gas stops at 15 minutes each added a lot of downtime (my Bandit needs three stops to one on Kevin's VFR), plus leisurely meals. We hit torrential rain near Blytheville, but it didn't last long. Light or moderate rain in a few other places, but the deluge came as we rolled into Texarkana. It rained so hard the pod air filters on the Bandit were clogging, and both sides of my visor and both sides of my glasses were wet, so the whole world turned into haloes of light. We pulled off the freeway in Arkadelphia and waited a while, because I was basically riding blind, then resumed when the storm cell moved a bit. I didn't mind being wet - I'd brought plastic bags for my stuff - but the Bandit's windscreen directed all the rain up under my helmet to I couldn't see, which was very annoying. I wanted to get a new helmet anyway...
The only trouble on the trip was the failure of the Audiovox cruise control on the Bandit, and I wound up with a couple of numb fingers and some blisters on my right hand from holding the throttle open. The Mikuni flatslide racing carbs have the weakest springs they can use; sometimes the slides don't drop immediately when you roll off the throttle. Lots of friction there. That's why I bought the cruise control to start with. I guess it got wet or something; I'll check it out later.
We cruised at 80 or so on secondary roads, 85 or so on most freeway sections, 35-ish on the western part of Highway 62, which was clogged with tourists, 65-70 on Highway 71, which was clogged with cops, slow traffic, and no-passing strips, and 95-100 all the way from Rogers to Van Buren on I-540, maybe 60 miles. And we were in the right lane, and we were *still* being passed by tanker trucks, SUVs, dilapidated pickup trucks, smoking econocars, and other stuff.
Kevin's VFR got about 45 MPG, which is normal for those. A stock Bandit 1200 gets 32 to 34. Kevin had retweaked the carbs on mine before the trip, leaning out the idle circuit a bit, and I pulled 39-40 over a thousand miles. And this isn't a stock engine; other than changing sidepipe to a header with a muffler, it's the same as when he pulled a 6.18 pass in the 1/8 at Emerald Coast Dragway. 1216 big bore kit, ported head, oversize carbs, GSXR cams, and so forth. It's freaking amazing. But the tank only holds a little over three gallons, so you're reaching for reserve at 125 miles or so.
I was okay until the last hour, when I started having trouble staying awake. I made it back home and crashed, didn't feel too bad when I got up, but my whole body locked up after spending a couple of hours on the computer. Note to self: some stretching exercises *before* lockup would be a good idea...
Starting point; Jacksonville, Arkansas, 0300. It was a hot and muggy summer
night.
Freeway to Bald Knob, where we made a fuel stop and turned east on Highway
64 to Marion. 64 was a straight farm road, but it was better than sitting on
Interstate 40 for hours...
Marion. It's still dark, and the bugs are out in force.
Going north on I-55, near Blytheville. We had gone through a couple of small
showers, but now there were major storm cells. We stopped and Kevin put on
his rain suit, and I put my wallet, watch, and hanky in a Ziploc in the
tailbag.
Sikeston, Missouri. Fuel stop.
Corning, Arkansas, making the westbound leg. We've run into light rain on
occasion. I was usually dry within ten minutes or so.
Rogers, Arkansas, getting ready to turn down the southbound leg on Highway
71. There was a bank across the street, with a digital thermometer indicating
105F.
Gas stop on Highway 71. We hit torrential frog-strangler rain shortly after
this.
Cabot, Arkansas, midnight. We made it!
