Daytona and Back

This is a tragic adventure motorcycle ride that I went on with 3 other rider. One of us never made it home again.

There is a long distance rider association call IronButt Riders. You can win bragging right for accomplishing long distance rides in a short time. One such is 1000 miles in 24 hr.

Another is a 'Coast to Coast ride in under 50 hr' (2400 miles). This ride is what the 4 of us were going to attempt as we would leave LA early one morning and end up in Jacksonville Florida where we would also take in Bike Week at Daytona Beach. Here is the story mostly told by Mike Daugherty, one of the riders.

Mike writes:

The nuts and bolts of an Ironbutt 'Coast to Coast' in 50 hrs or less ride [me, Pete, interjects] This ride took place back in '03, I think. Story by my good friend Mike Daugherty. 4 of us drove our motorcycles From LA to the Fl coast and then on to Daytona Beach.

Story begins here, Mike writes...... Back in Dec. or so I told Pete that I wanted to go to Daytona for Bike Week. I had no idea that Norm was hosting a gathering of rider near there. I guess I was just watching too much speed channel...Harleys, bikinis, partying and such. Pete didn't say much of anything till January or so when he threw it back in my face. I was stuck. We were going. Jimmy B. and Doug Chapman joined the party. I think Jimmy just joined in because it was somewhere far away and someone else was doing it. Doug already had plans to join the FJR motorcycle group and attend the IronButt party in furtherance of his quest to do the next IB rally.

I had no idea what a ride over 1500 miles was like. My butt has always been large and the weak link as far as LD riding. I recently had a Daylong Daylong seat custom made, and it was breaking in well for the shorter rides, but I had not done any serious riding on it. I threw out the idea of a CC50 ride (Coast to Coast in less than 50 hrs) because it was a topic raised by Roger Sheldon, Halfway Harry Irvine and others as of late.

My time off of work is brief, so it seemed like a good plan to get there quickly. Pete had done a 'CtoC50' already and the route was easy, so we decided to give it a go. Doug and Jimmy from WA and Or also cam along by riding down to LA from Wa where the ride would begin. Things went smoothly until we got into the early AM in TX.

[me, Pete] interjecting: I was the oldest and was getting tired as we entered Tx. I was lagging and found myself about a 1/2 mile behind. Ok, it's time for me to catch up. I'd been running 85mph and wicked it up to 90 (remember we are heading to Fl in only 2 days).

It was 1100pm west of Ozona. Damned if I didn't get lit up by a Tx hwy patrol going the other way. He stopped me and I pulled my geezer card and got off with a warning. We managed to regroup in Ozona. Mike again:

We were all getting tired, but wanted to beat Houston rush hour morning traffic, rest, and then coast the last 1000 miles into Jacksonville with the hard part to Houston over with.

TX was cold in the wee hours of the night. High 30's, low 40's. The electric riding gear saved our hides. We stopped at a rest stop for 30 minutes of winks. Everyone woke up chipper and ready to ride again except me. I was stumbling and fumbling around my bike as everyone drove off towards Dallas. I made no attempt to catch them and told them not to worry if I didn't catch up. I would stop and sleep if I was too tired.

I woke up quickly on the bike and Pete was waiting up the road for me 15 miles or so. We decide to ride as a pair as the North Wet guys were too fast for us. We moved well through the night, but never saw Jimmy and Doug. They were well ahead.

San Antonio traffic was no problem. We ran into some rain somewhere before Houston and I had to stop. My sleeping bag and such were not rain protected and I was pissed at my lack of preparation. Plus, the road was slick and Pete and I had both felt our traction slip when we went too fast.

We slowed down. It rained harder as we gassed up, so I told Pete that we had to sleep for real and ride after the rain cleared. He agreed.

Within minutes, Doug and Jimmy pulled into the motel next to our gas station. They didn't see us at the gas station. Pete went over and gave them crap about how we beat them. Turns out that Doug missed an offramp and it cost them some time. Small Small world that we should stumble onto each other like that.

We showered, got warm, and slept for 4 hours or so in one room, and Felt great when we woke up.

WE took off for Jacksonville in the AM. Traffic was heavy, and Jimmy and Doug were hard for me to stay with. Pete and I let the boys go and hung back (for fear of dying, I think). We rode all day and all night again with one hr long nap along the way somewhere.

We thought we were the clever tortoises outsmarting the hares. As we approached the coast, I became confused about which coast I was on and where I needed to be to get my Ironbutt certification. Pete followed me like I knew what I was doing until it was evident I did not. We laughed about it later.

We called Doug and Jimmy from our final gas station stop on the coast and found out that they were a few blocks up the street at the "official" IB gas stop on the coast. They had been there an hour and let us know it. We'd made the Ironbutt 'Coast to Coast run' in 43 and 44 hrs. We were all happy and headed off to breakfast.

Doug and Jimmy shared a motel room in St. Augustine. Doug had a Yamaha event to attend and an IB dinner that conflicted with Norm's gathering in Eustis. Jimmy was set on going to the Keys. Pete and I were too tired. We went to our campground not far from Daytona Beach to be with the Harley crowd.

Jimmy and Doug headed for the keys the next day and Pete and I met Pete's old buddies from Ohio who caged it down for some general sight seeing. 1/4 and 1/2 mile flat track races were in the plans and some general sight seeing on Main St at Daytona bike week in Daytona Beach. The races were awesome. I am hooked. Main St. was like I expected. Neat, but not too different from other Harley events that we;d been to.

After spending time with Pete's buddies, we were grateful to ride and be around riders, so our biker friend Norm's gathering in Eustis Fl was just the ticket. Damned, if Norm and Patty weren't great hosts. Too nice for us moto scums. WE had enough food for twice the # that attended.

I was pleased to meet new faces associated with old internet posts, P Dan, Kent Matthew, Greg M, to name a few and old familiar faces like Tom Blum and Zimbob. We BS'd about our ride and sniffed bikes a bit. Jimmy drank a little Crown Royal and claimed he was going to misbehave, but never did.

I told Pete that I wasn't leaving Florida until I saw some real live gators. So Pete, Jimmy and myself left Norm's in the early Sat. AM to head over to Titusville where all of the airboat pilots hang out. Jim Schwamley (sp?) clued us in on the location and we had no trouble finding the spot. Damn if we didn't see a bunch of big ol gators laying around on the banks. And there were a lot of cattle out there swimming around as well. The airboat guy called them swamp burgers. We got very close before the gators were pissed and splashed into the water.

Off to the races. Pete and I sniffed bikes at the exhibits at the Daytona speedway. I liked the VFR with the bags and the FJR. Pete is still intent on a Kawi ZRX modified with a huge shield, pulled back bars, etc, to suit his taste. The races were cool, but not as fun to watch at Daytona speedway as say Laguna Seca.

I was impressed by the strategy, saving of tires, and short pit times. Somehow the whole week had blown by and we had to go home! The amazing thing was that my ass didn't hurt. My seat was worth double the price I paid for it. The Sabres had performed well, but I was a bit nervous about the ride home. Pete and I both have over 90K on our motors. We added oil every thousand miles or so and they just kept humming.

Pete convinced me that I needed to ride the Dragon and I just do whatever he says, so off we went. We didn't make it to our campsite on the dragon. We had to stay the night in Greenville, SC due to wind and rain. Pete was groaning about not being out camping.

I was pissed that the dragon was only 11 miles and it was a good bit out of our way, but the scenery made up for it. Then we hauled hiney through TN towards TX. Breakfast in Ft Worth was interrupted by a phone call regarding Jimmy from Norm.

Jimmy had left at 4am, about 4 hrs before Pete and I left Fl. He was going to 'one day' ride it to see his mom in Kansas. He had about a hundred miles to go at 10pm when he ran into the black bottom of an overturned truck on the FWY at 80mph. His death was instant.

I have never been good with losing people close to me ever since I lost a buddy to suicide in HS. Plus being young means most people around me are still with me. This was a terrible shock. Zimbob helped me work through it all I think. I think I am getting there, but man is it hard.

TX found me with so much on my mind as did AZ. My fuel pump crapped out in NM, but a quick swap with a spare pump that I was carrying had us back on the road. Two 90K mile Sabre's hauling butt and only one fuel pump problem. Damn good. Once in CA, I was so glad to be home.

I thought Pete would stay the night, but he rode home to SD like the tough guy he is. Plus his gal was waiting for him.

I appreciated a quiet few hours to reflect on my adventure and rest up. Jimmy, Pete, Doug, Norm and all maggots, thank you for helping me make a dream come true.

You will be missed but not forgotten Jimmy. Mike D--