decisions,
decisions.....(part II)
August 12 2006 at 1:51 PM |
Rev. Eddie James |
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At 8pm AZ time (note—AZ is not on daylight saving time as many riders
were surprised to learn on leg I)
the riders received BLIIII routesheets for leg 2 of the event.
The parameters are simple:
Next checkpoint: BMW Motorcycles of Atlanta
Checkpoint time: 6-8am
Sunday, August 13
Time until checkpoint opens: 55 hours
Riders were given two different routing options.
Rally Master prediction for a solid competitive Leg II ride: 9000+ points
Notables to note for those practicing their route planning at home:
Large bonuses.
A) By far the largest bonus on either leg was to have your bike custom
painted with the ButtLite IIII logo by legendary artist/pinstriper Steve
Kafka.
Steve’s work is legendary in the pinstriping world, (he was called in to
stripe the casket of Ed “Big Daddy” Roth a few years back) and we felt
the opportunity of huge bonus points and artwork on your bike by a legend
would be an irresistible appeal and souvenir to riders and ensuring that
everyone would be visiting our friend Steve.
B) Pick up a bag of pistachios from Eagle Ranch just outside of Alamogorda,
NM
C) Get sauced at Coopers BBQ in Llano, TX
D) Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, TX (a perennial TeamStrange bonus and David
E.B. Smith demanded its inclusion or he was walking from this event).
E) Unknowingly retrace the route driven in Jasper TX when societal dregs
Lawrence Brewer, John King and Shawn Berry murdered James Byrd.
There were huge loops on both routes that offered riders the opportunity
to bag thousands of points before visiting the Kafka bonus between 10 am
and 4pm Friday.
The bonuses offered to riders looking to start off with this huge loop
included Palominas, Ajo, and Nothing, AZ as well as Essex, CA. Still got
some free time before running over to Steve’s? The Bob Crane murder site
5 miles away offered yet another bonus add to your growing point
collection.
Long story short—a rider running an 800+ mile route in the early Friday
am could have 4500+ total points down by the time they left Steve
Kafka’s place around noon Friday.
The plan then would have to include structuring ones time to achieve as
many timed bonuses as possible (i.e Eagle Ranch, Coopers, Dr. Pepper, etc)
along the way to Atlanta.
Some riders argued that the Kafka bonus required 200 miles of backtracking
to Phoenix
and a 14 hour delay until the bonus opened.
Surely, they argued, it would be better to head east, get the guaranteed
daylight bonuses mentioned above and add to it from there.
There are a huge array of bonuses once a rider gets east of central TX.
Navasota, Galveston and Jasper come to mind, along with many in the LA, MS
and AL states such as Hot Coffee, Ebenezer, Natchez, Buzzard Roost, Rosa
Parks Museum, Jayne Mansfield death site, etc.
The trick on this leg is simply this: does one go for the big score at the
beginning and then add as much to it as possible, or blow off the first
big loop in favor of getting everything else along the way?
Each ride has it’s own pitfall: a rider doing the big loop before Kafka
could outscore everyone initially, but they could also end up so far
behind that they have to bypass every later bonus in a rush to Atlanta.
A rider going east first could theoretically outscore the Kafka visitor,
but only if the Kafka visitor couldn’t obtain anything they did.
In short, if the rider can get all of the early bonuses and Kafka AND can
then add any of the remaining list to my collection as well, another rider
may not be able to catch them.
Does the loop before Kafka confuse people?
“Absolutely” maintains Ira Agins. “The whole mental concept of
running hundreds of miles west on a route going east goes against the way
many people run choose their routes”. I don’t think you’ll see many
people at the Kafka bonus no matter how much it’s worth.”
Another factor pointed out by David E.B. Smith is the obvious: What do you
have in you? If you’ve spent your personal bank on leg I and don’t
have any reserve and need to charge your batteries awhile, your big ride
on Leg I may have you so far back that you’ll not catch up.
Add in some out-of-the-way but still very tempting bonuses, and you have a
route sure to leave the riders scratching their heads in confusion.
Visitor center in Sanderson, TX
Contrabando movie set in Big Bend?
Worlds Deepest Hand Dug Well in Greensburg, KS?
I think that if I had just ridden 11 kazillion miles getting to Tombstone,
I might just say “heck with this, I’m getting some sleep”. On the
other hand, I think I wouldn’t be able to ride with many of the folks on
this event, most of whom are probably on the road right now again proving
all of my scoring theories wrong.
We’ll know more tomorrow.
See you at the Atlanta checkpoint.
Rev. Eddie |
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