I have been trying to do a Bun Burner Gold (BBG) ride (1500 miles in 24 hours) for the last couple of years It is the next major step in my Iron Butt Association progression. Early this year the Cognescente Group announced Mass Gold in Gerlach Nevada, a group ride qualifying for the associations BBG level of endurance riding. I thought "Here is my chance!". Not only will I achieve that level but I'll do it with 50 of my closest friends most of whom I don't know but they ride and I ride and that makes us friends. The fact that we do endurance rides makes them close friends.

As the end of May approached the Cognescente Group announced that we would be riding more than 1500 miles, A LOT MORE! This is when I got a bit concerned. I have never ridden in Nevada and this was not going to be interstate riding where 1000 mile days can be completed in 16 hours. It turned out this was going to be 1609 miles on mostly two lane roads - Hmmmm.

A month or so before the event, I started dialoging with Ron Ayres about riding out there together. Our plans finally came together and we left home the Sunday before so we could take our time and get some pictures along the way. After all, the ride out could be a leisurely ride since we had five days to get to Reno.

As it turned out, we arrived in Reno a day early in order to get some needed work done on Ron's bike, thanks to a buzzard he center punched on the first morning, still in Texas.

Pre-Mass Gold at Chuck Hickey's was a good time with friends, old and new and excellent pork chop sandwiches - thanks Chuck.

Arriving in Gerlach Friday morning, I was tech'd, verbally and mechanically (actually the bike got the mechanical tech), then I got the "newbie" speech. Now it was time to stand around, BS and get tired of not riding. Got the packet after an excellent meal and back to the room, out with the PC and lay out the route. Uploaded the route into my E-Map and a few others' StreetPilots then it was off to bed. I was still concerned about completing the 1609 miles in the allotted time but had no trouble sleeping. I felt unusually relaxed the night before a big ride.

Rick Rohlf and I agreed to ride together unless we found our riding styles different. Leaving at 6:34am we headed out towards Lakeview, Rick leading. After the obligatory gas stop in Lakeview, we headed for Denio Junction. Getting up on 140, and in the curves I was in the lead. After a bit, I did not see Rick back there. I got to Denio and got my picture just as Rick arrived. He later shared with me that his bike just was not handling well in the curves. I stopped for gas again (I misunderstood that I needed to gas up in Denio) but Rick did not. I wanted to explain to him that our paces were different and we needed to split but he was gone by the time I finished paying for gas. I passed him a few miles up the road and never saw him again. I felt badly about the way we parted and apologized when we got back to Gerlach.

In Burns, I opted for a different gas station than that PITA Shell station that others suffered, then it was on to Ontario. All along the way I kept meeting up with Roger VanSanten and Brian Boberick and this would prove very beneficial later....

Out of Ontario and down I-84 I must have been really lucky. No LEO's to bother me and Idaho drivers were not a problem. Arriving in Snowville in eleven hours, I remembered Don Moses' comments about what would be good, OK and questionable times at this point and knew I was in good shape BUTT I was concerned about the night time. I don't like 24 hour rallies. I start fading at about 20 hours and need a couple of hours rest or at least Iron Butt Motel breaks but that is hard to do in a 24 hour rally. Out of Snowville, my V1 went off for miles. It turned out to be a LEO and, after I passed him it was clear sailing into Wells. While gassing up in Wells, four other bikes pulled in. When I came out of the restroom, one of Nevada's finest was there, clearly agitated and asking who was riding with the guy on the R11RS. When I explained I had been at the station for ten minutes he moved on and so did I.

After a good ride down to Ely, I stopped at a Chevron station for gas only to meet up with Roger and Brian again. They were running a couple of minutes ahead of me. It was 9:30pm and I was starting to feel sleepy - MUCH too early. Realizing that I needed to ride with someone, I hurried up, gassed and rode to catch up with them. This proved to make all the difference in the world. As we rode towards Tonopah, I keyed up the CB and sure enough, Roger responded. By talking to each other it perked both of us up. Then here comes Kerry Church and he chimed in. Getting to Tonopa, we gassed again. This time, I lost my wallet until the attendant found it. Kerry took off, followed shortly by Brian and Roger. I played catch up again, joining them not far down the road.

As we crested a hill in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night the V1's blipped. We thought, "Oh Oh!" and yup, he had Kerry. Kerry got a warning and had soon caught up to us. The ride to Austin and then back into Fernley and Gerlach was uneventful. Just after Fernley Kerry took the lead and we all followed him into Gerlach (yes, read between the lines folks), arriving at 4:17am. I had finished in 21 hours 43 minutes for an average of 74mph.

If you saw the finishing times, you know where I stood. If I had to ride all 24 hours, I would have been in trouble. I needed off the bike at 22 hours. Had I been by myself, I would have taken an Iron Butt Motel break but, thanks to Kerry, Roger and the CB, it was not necessary - lesson learned!

Thank you guys for helping me finish without the break, even if you did not know you were helping.

Here is the route involved in completing the Mass Gold event

Coming home, I did get a performance award outside Eureka NV. It was Sunday, I had only a couple hours sleep since Saturday morning and was inattentive. The sheriff was very nice about it and after explaining his options and granting the less painful one we had a short discussion on what speeds would keep me out of trouble with law enforcement, I was on my way.

I had a GREAT ride home going down the Silver State Challenge series road, 318, then over to Cedar City Utah and down through Tuba City to Gallup before getting on the freeway for the last 800+ miles.

All in all, it was a GREAT trip. The roads of Utah and Nevada are AWESOME and the scenery, something else (hey, I enjoy West Texas too - what can I say). I probably won't do too many more hour rides that require 24 hours of non-stop riding but I am proud to be one of the 38 contributors to the Mass Gold world record.