Posted: 25 May 2012 at 12:57am | IP Logged

The InterNational Meet is less than three months away and more riders register daily. We have long since sold out our original hotel room block but the Marriott is doing a wonderful job keeping pace, so far accommodating every room reservation. July 11 is the last day to take advantage of the special pricing, leaving you procrastinators just 48 days until the room rate will jump to almost $200 per night. Yikes! So get on that and don’t miss out – you know you want to be there!

Mike Kneebone has been putting together the information for both the Colorado 1000 and the Denver Gold Rush Ride In. If you registered for either one or both of these rides, you will receive an email in the next month with all the specifics.

I’ve gotten some private notes asking about registering a spouse after the fact. If you registered for the Meet solo and now your wife has decided she would like to join you, that’s no problem. Just drop me a note and I’ll send you details on how to make that happen and take advantage of the spouse discounted rate. With over 60 wives attending this year, there will be lots of new friends who can commiserate, enjoy spa days and shopping and make sure your long suffering significant other has a great time while you are tire kicking and telling lies.

 This year’s InterNational Meet is the 5th such meeting and each time we work hard to improve, to add things of interest and to tailor it more to what you want to see, learn and do. Many of you requested that the ID badges also show your hometown and state to better connect with other riders who might live nearby. We thought that was a great idea and will also provide a list of attendees in your event packet. One of the things most requested in the exit questionnaire from the 2010 National Meet was to bring in more vendors with products tailored to our group of crazies. If you’ve been into LD Riding for any length of time, you’ve discovered that certain ‘necessities’ for your War Machine are difficult, if not impossible, to find at your local dealer. Each one of these latest registered vendors offers those items a rider simply doesn’t want to be without during those long days on the road and, if you’ve seen my other updates, you can tell that we have a superb gathering of suppliers to feed this habit of ours.

MaPLE (Mike and Patty Langford Enterprises)

IBR Vet Mike “Pete” Langford describes himself as the consummate geek. If you have attempted to farkle a bike, you know that having a geek around can sure speed up the process. Focusing on low cost custom accessory design and fabrication, we are excited to have Mike display his products and services at this year’s Meet. Functioning as a design consultant and utilizing state of the art Computer Aided Design (CAD), Mike can bring your vision to life through machine shop work, sheet metal bending, forming, and punching as well as welding and cutting. He’ll have several of his auxiliary fuel cells and fittings on hand as well as specially designed cockpit task lighting.   www.maplefarkles.com

Motolight

Long hours in the saddle naturally means riding a good portion of that in the dark and we all know that stock lights just don’t cut it. Motolights are designed to be used on virtually any type of bike and Tina Hollaender, another fabulous returning vendor and herself a rider, is a longtime supporter of Iron Butt members. Motolights are easy to install and come in a variety of mounting options, finishes and bulb types including halogens and LEDs. All Motolights come standard with 35-watt halogen MR16 bulbs that produce a highly visible 8-degree light beam spread. This triangular light pattern makes it easier for oncoming traffic to see you during the day and night, making you much more visible. www.motolight.com

FarkleBar

We’ve all done it: bought a bunch of expensive electronic gadgets to add to our motorcycle only to discover that it just isn’t that simple. Too many wires, not enough room for mounts, and on and on. The FarkleBar looks to be the solution to so many of those issues. Developed by rider Doug Shonley, the FarkleBar also allows easy transfer between bikes as well as simplifying security when you do finally stop for rest. Ingenious! www.farklebar.com

Firecreek Accessories

 LD rider Dayle Martin bills his company as offering touring motorcycle enhancements that “go the distance.” From the Windbender screens that improve wind protection to the aux tanks that significantly decrease the number of necessary gas stops, we would have to say we agree with him. Dayle will display a motorcycle sporting his latest and greatest items so be sure to look for him in the hotel atrium.  www.firecreekacc.com

It's obvious we have a fabulous group of vendors attending the Meet. The complete list can be found at http://www.ironbutt.com/national/vendors.cfm  Each one will have a topic on the Vendor Forum if you have questions or requests. www.ironbutt.org

I know times are tight and time and money always seem to be in inverse proportion to one another. But if you’re going to do one fun thing for yourself this year, do try to make it to Denver. More and more riders who had planned to stay home have recently seen the light, saying they just couldn't stay away. The array of vendors, the available rides, basically the whole package convinced them to join us. So you've seen the schedule and read my updates and though I can’t reveal everything, this will be one event talked about for years. If you are new to the sport, believe me, this is THE place to meet riders you only know on the 'net, rub elbows with some of the real Big Dawgs of the sport, ask questions of those who have Been There Done That, learn new techniques, see firsthand the latest in equipment and gear AND enjoy some of the finest motorcycle roads in the world. If you've been around for a while, you know that this is the one opportunity to connect with old friends in a non-competitive environment, sharing stories of great derring-do, meeting the up and comers of the sport and basically just enjoying the camaraderie. It just doesn’t get any better than that.

 Hope to see you all soon!!!!

Posted: 13 June 2012 at 10:40pm | IP Logged

I know I just sent out an update but there is more great stuff happening so here goes…

VENDORS

One of my favorite things is when a member of the community brings a product to the Meet because you know it’s going to be something great. Our latest two vendors are longstanding riders, pretty much known to everyone.

LS2 Helmets -

IBR rider Sal Terranova has expressed interest for months in being a vendor at the Meet, but was a bit late getting his registration in because his new venture has him traveling the world. Tough gig, having to be in Milan working a motorcycle show, right? But in spite of my envy, I am excited to announce that Sal will be showing a brand new helmet in Denver, rounding out the fabulous selection of the latest and greatest helmets. I asked Sal to send me a paragraph to describe his brand:

LS2 brand is owned directly by the largest motorcycle helmet manufacturer in the world,  sold in over 60 countries throughout the world and has been the fastest growing helmet over the last 2 years.  We believe a helmet is the most critical piece of safety gear for a rider and Fit is the most important safety feature of a helmet./end

Sounds amazing, right? And this gives us more opportunity to actually try on the different helmets and find the one that’s perfect for each one of us.

Tankbags by Linda T -

I couldn’t be happier that Linda Tanner is once again able to join us at the Meet. Due to scheduling difficulties, she wasn’t able to join us in 2010 and I so missed her wheeling her bright pink samples through the atrium. If you have walked the parking lot at any LD event you’ve seen Linda’s

masterpieces: tank bags in any color, shape, size and configuration you can imagine, auxiliary fuel cell covers with pockets and sections, bike covers that double as tents, and her famous Rally Books. Yup, the woman is magic with a sewing machine and if you can dream it, she can make it. So stop by and take a look at some of her awesome creations and tell her you’re happy she could attend again!

I know I’ve sent out a few of these updates so it might be hard to keep up with everything. Here is the amazing lineup of our fabulous vendors, who will offer just about anything and everything the Long Distance Rider could

need:

Klim Adventure Gear - manufacturer of the most advanced motorsports apparel JC Motors – Nolan, Shoei, Schuberth, Touratech, First Gear LD Comfort – Undergarments for the Long Distance Rider GearMojo – Warm N Safe Heated Gear, Wolfman Luggage FarkleBar – Accessory Mounting Solutions MAPLE – flatbed fuel cells, CAD design and custom farkles PlugUP – Custom ear plugs and in ear speakers BeadRider – Beaded Seat Covers Motolight – Auxiliary lighting Firecreek – Fuel Cells, Windshields Custom Tank Bags by Linda – Tank bags, Aux Bags, Panniers

LS2 Helmets - the fastest growing helmet line over the last 2 years

SEMINAR UPDATES

No surprise, I was going to get sassy with the description of this latest addition to the seminar line up, talking about butts and all, but all things considered this is going to be of great interest to a lot of folks. We’ve all heard about the glories of custom seats but the price point can definitely hurt (almost as badly as a stock seat!). Those of us who appreciate a bargain or are inclined to the DIY mentality are going to love this workshop hosted by everyone’s favorite Canuckistanian Renaissance

Woman: Maura Gatensby, who outlined her presentation here:

Seat comfort is a critical aspect of rider comfort and therefore essential for high mileage, yet custom seats can be expensive and may require shipping your stock seat away and being without it for several weeks, or an even more expensive 'ride-in' fitting- but this is not the only way to improve a seat for mile-munching.   Learn how to improve a stock seat with simple, low cost materials and tools.  See a demonstration of how the stock foam can be reshaped to your shape and improved with higher grade foam insertion, and then recovered with either the OEM cover or a new custom made leather cover.

These techniques  also offer the possibility of lowering or raising the seat height via foam removal/addition ./end

So this is a must-see if you find yourself jonesing for a new seat that allows you to Sit There Twist That for hours on end but the kids need new shoes or lunch money instead. Or even if you simply cannot believe that an electric carving knife can create magic after Thanksgiving is over!!

And while we’re speaking about Wonder Woman, Maura will also be presenting the Intro to Base Camp seminar to help get us up to speed on Garmin’s latest attempt to mess with our head. I, for one, am not amused that just about the time I get Mapsource almost dialed in, they snatch it away and throw something new at me. I can almost hear the evil laughing in Olathe but I feel confident Ms. Gatensby will get us all up to speed on this new fangled offering. At least I hope so because I need all the help I can get.

There are only 27 days left until our hotel room rate more than doubles. So get on it people. If you can believe it, these lengthy missives are only part of the story so clearly this is going to be an awesome 4 days!

See ya soon-

Lisa

PS Southwest Airlines is having a fare sale for 2 days and there are some great fares into Denver from just about anywhere they fly. Check it out if time and money are tight; it might be cheaper and you know it would be faster to let your Bags Fly Free while you get a discounted seat and a teeny bag o' peanuts. There is also an airport shuttle that can be reserved for