Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Ironbutt '84: , - Marathon Motorcycling, controversy, sore butts, more. controversy, the making of legends . . '. and more controversy ~ ~ CIl w ~ ~ ~ 0 ~ > '" 0 ~ 0 r lL ~ 00 0') ,....; ~ r,....; .... V ..0 0 ...... U 0 By David D. Mallet The l'O-day, 8400-mile TransAmerica Ironbutt was billed as the world's toughest motorcycle competition. After the fact, there are 10 riders who would agree. That few people that knew of the event before its running did not diminish the toughness or stiff competition of the race (which was politely called a "road rally"). The particulars? Take 10 panlysponsored ,motorcyclists of dubious sanity, a variety of long-distance streetbikes' (the only requirement being a stock gas tank), and have the 10 riders race around the four corners of the U.S.A. in 10 days, competing to see who could come clqsestto zeroing the five checkpoints. And, in case more than one rider zeroed all checkpoints, the rider could acq uire bonus points by rolling up additional mileage through specific towns off the straightest and quickest route (read: Interstate highway) between checkpoints. If the Ironbuu was unique in the running, the basic idea was not new .. Circa 50 years ago, marathon motorcyclist Cannonball Baker was tenderizing his flesh by seeing how quickly he could "do the transcontinental." This eventually led to the fast-car Cannonball Run, which led to Hollywood, and then the tame, double nickle-inspired One Lap of America (same basic four corners route as Ironbull, only with multiple drivers making the tour in three fewer days), Though One Lap was primarily a race for four-wheelers, four motorcycling crazies co-rode a Harley-sponsored FXRT, finishing within the allolled time, but losing out to a rented Chevy due to irrelevant mile.age rules. All these went into the low-budget, unheard-of, motorcycles-only Ironbutt '84, which began and ended in Montgomeryville, Pennsylvania. But those who received what little advance publicity there was were mesmerized by the $40,000 scheduled prize money. With 65% of the purse going to the winner, it seemed as though there were more dollars for the winner than Kenny Roberts made at Daytona. Had more people known about Ironbu u and the potential dollar POt, it migh( have attracted thousands. It was not to be. And,thecrudiments of non-promotion were to permeate the entire running of the race. To closely paraphrase one rider: "I've been in every kind of enduro and have run my own tours for years, but this is the most poorly-organized event I've ever seen!" From the beginning, it was cockroach motel. This reporter arrived in Philadelphia expecting dancing females, fanfare and instant fame. So did the other ri.ders. Instead, we found a motel with bugs, a promoter (Mike Rose) who did all the dancing, when, the night before Ironbull, riders started questioning him about prize money. What it came down to was '! riders' flat-out walkout. But first, a few of the [aces and places (maybe): Tied for first with perfect zeroes plus 10 bonus areas: Kim Davis (Yamaha Venture Royale); George Egloff (1975 Suzuki RE-5 Rotary); Alan Pease (BMW R80RT); Ed Thompson (BMW R80/GS). Tied for second with perfect zeroes pi us eight bonus areas: Roy Eastwood (BMW R IOORS) and George Swetland (La verda RGS 1000). Third with perfect zeroes plus 10 bonus areas (but lost points due to a tire-changing penalty): Jim Newberry (Honda V65 Sabre). Fourth with perfect zeroes plus one bonus area: David Mallet (HarleyDavidson Softail). Fifth about an hour off the Seaule checkpoint: Chuck Aughinbaugh (Honda Gold Wing). Sixth about an hour off the San' Diego and Daytona Beach checkpoints: Richard (aka "Pharaoh," aka "Pawnee Warrior," aka "King'futof the Ironbuu") Sommers (butchered, stroker 98-cubic inch, what once was a 1975 Harley-Davidson somethingor-other). It was an odd aggregation of riders who quickly formed strong bonds of friendship and political solidarity. Meeting the night before the race 'in my bug-populated room, the disgruntled riders cussed, offered solutions, elected Pease and this reporter to try to find out whether Ironbutt was going to be run or not. The $40,000 of prize (money) was all of a sudden the mere $500-times-10 entry fees put up by the riders themselves, plus a few contingency goodies. , What it came down to the next morning, twO hours before the scheduled 9:00 a.m. send-off, was a riders' demand that Promoter Rose equal the riders' own money. Rose's response was to offer to refund the riders' entry fees and this meant cancellation of the Ironbutt. Diehards that all of them proved to be, the riders intended to run their own version of the race, but before this happened, Gary Patterson (owner of popu lar Montgomeryville Cycle Center' where the Ironbull originated and ended) anted up the $5000 (which Tough dudes: (from left) third-piece Newberry and tied-for-first Peese. Thompson. Devis end Egloff with trophies but no $40.000. Rose later indemnified). The Ironbull, from that point on, was principally run by the riders. The political meanderings had delayed the start, there were substantial questions about the safety of the Montgomeryvi lIe- to- Bos ton -toSeaule leg, and the riders finally decided to delete the first leg. This was the way it stood: Montgomeryville-Seattle in three days; Seaule-San Diego in tWO days; San Diego-Daytona in three days; Daytona-Montgom'eryville in one brutal, final day. Just how brutal was this World's Toughest Motorcycle Competition? The legendary Pharaoh (bootleg cafe Harley that could tOP 140 mph) ran into metabolic and minor mechanical problems. Maybe the toughest s.o. b. among us, even King Tut of the Ironbuu admiued that running 8400 miles in 10 days was a mindbender. Two of us fell asleep at the victory dinner bash. I started to doze at least three times while riding the Harley Softail, and this was a typical phenomenon among riders, who also had some great fatigue-induced hall ucinations along the way. This reporter (who was once a long distance trucker) never met a trucker who had the endurance any of these riders showed. Kim Davis had the tricks: singing, shouting, pounding his helmet in an auempt to stay awake. All the Ironbuus showed "significant signs of visible damage," to quote Chuck Aughinbaugh, who was specifically referring to his graunched posterior. The most asked question: How manv speeding tickets? Pharaoh was undisputed Cop Collector, racking up nine speeding tickets and fleeing arrest nine other times (although this may have been more, since Pharaoh ran fast enough he wasn't paying great allention to his rear-view mirrors). Newberry also had some quality tickets, securing six, with three of them over 100 mph. The rest of us received an aggregate of warnings and not-so-numerous tickets. And when all was said and done, the controversy continued: Pharaoh has raised the bone of contention that riders did not adhere to the rule that they check in and check out on their zero hour; that because of this, other riders left early and gained minutes' advantage over Pharaoh and Aughinbaugh. At this point, the dispute is unresolved, the prize money paid out, the results semi-official. If Pharaoh's protest is upheld, no one is certain what it would do to the results. (One view has it that the Harley Softail would finish first, Pharaoh second, making it a clean Harley sweep. Another 'view would place the . Softail last, Pharaoh first, Aughinbaugh second. These conflicting views underscore the management difficulties). In this reporter's opi,nion, the standings are not as significant as other things. The most important, perhaps, is that, despite promotional and management difficulties, Ironl;>uu'84 was an (unqualified) success. More money would have been nice, but this was a "guts" event. If there were botch-ups about the rules (bonus points, eightway then four-way tie for first, uncertainty about Pharaoh's protest, idiotic tire-changing penalty that kept hardrunning- Newberry from tying for first), there is the miracle that all 10 riders finished, with eight of them zeroing all the checkpoints. The unq ualified success of I~onbuu '84 is merited by the fact that the original Ironbullers plan to organize, plan, promote and ride the 1985 IronbUll next August. The bond of friendship formed between these 10 - the only ones who knew what grit it took to keep riding, riding, riding when all you could think about was neverever riding a motorcycle again in your life - more than overshadows the lillie quirks always inherent in a first-time event. Besides, next year the riders and Rose (who showed himself to be a true gentleman by working with the contentious riders) will work jointly to change the rules, make the race tougher, obtain a larger purse and make the Ironbulla true original. In 1984, it was a hiStory-making motorcycle race, the forerunner of greater things to come. And the final, most-asked question: Why the Harley-Davidson Softail? It comes about from a late-1960s induced "Let's Go See America." An American race demanded an American bike. It was pan Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, tottling to cathouses in New Orleans; it was partly the desire to go primitive, without the frills of sheepskin seat, do-everything suspension and gonzo-horsepower motor. For every rider:it was a different method of madness. We rode, we saw, we conquered. And that was what Ironbull '84 was all about. • 21

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