Only 15 days left until I fly out to the start of the Iron Butt Rally. My bike is almost ready, and I'm getting the rest of my gear in order. It's amazing how many details remain.
The rally itself starts in the early morning hours of August 24th in Spartanburg, South Carolina and ends September 4th in Spokane, Washington. There are two checkpoints along the way" St. Charles, Illinios and Santa Ana, California.
To date, I've spent a few hundred hours specifically dedicated to preparing for this rally. Most of my time has been focused on the preparation of my rally bike, a 1976 Suzuki RE5.
RE5s are very different bikes. They were only made for two years: 1975 and 76. They use a wankel motor which, in theory, is a very simple motor. In reality, they are quite complicated. Had Suzuki continued to build rotaries, they would have certainly become more and more refined. Buy after only two model years, Suzuki scrapped the rotary line at a staggering financial loss. It's estimated that Suzuki lost something in the ball park of $30,000 (in 1976 dollars) on every single RE5 built (almost 7,000 of them).
Mine is just about ready to go- a few modifications remain to be done.
The bike got the luxury treatment over this weekend, when it got to spend the night inside my house while I worked on some electrical wiring. It's just too hot in the garage!
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