Lamonster signs up for Guts & Glory Rally

[Lamonster]

Well guys I pull the trigger yesterday and through my helmet in the mix for the Guts & Glory Rally. I first read about it here on SpyderLovers and have been kicking it around ever since. If you haven't heard about it you need to checkout http://www.gutsandgloryrally.com

Here's the jest of what it's all about from their Facebook page.

"The Rally is set up as a points-based timed event. Each participant will begin the Rally with 11,000 points. There are 11 checkpoints / legs along a pre-determined route traveling though each of the lower 48 states and encompassing over 9,000 miles. The entire route will take eleven (11) days to complete. Prizes will be awarded for to the winner of each of the 11 legs. The participant with the most points at the end of the Rally wins the Grand Prize of $100,000 plus a custom built motorcycle.

The Guts and Glory Rally is a motorcycle event designed to support Shriners Hospitals for Children and our Military service men & women. Through this event, we will make a difference in thousand of lives across this GREAT nation in which we live and do business!

Their Mission
To support our children and those who defend our freedom through the following charities; Shriner's Hospitals for Children, Able Forces, Not Alone and Project Healing Waters"
Contact email is gutsandgloryrally@gmail.com

I've traveled most of the United States on motorcycles and Spyders. I've been cross country twice on my Valkyrie, once on my Boss Hoss and once on my M109R. I've been cross country three times now on my Spyders and the Spyder is the most enjoyable of them all for the long haul and the RT is hands down the most comfortable ride I've ever been on.

There are a lot of folks that I consider more hardcore than I am as far as putting down the miles on the Spyder. Doc Doru is the first that comes to mind. As most of you know he has over 100,000 hard miles on his Spyder and he was one of the first ones to sign up for this ride. I understand that Repops (Harvey) signed up the day after Doc. I was able to shame BajaRon to to signing up too yesterday but he's still not sure if he can pull it off or not but he really wants to do this ride and he is my good riding buddy. Ron and I have put on thousands of miles together and we pretty much know each others riding style well enough that we know what each other is going to do before they do it. That's the kind of partner you want on something like this.

This ride is no joke and even though there is prize money for coming in at the right time that is the last thing on my list of things to be concerned about. I've done a few 1100 mile days on the Spyder and many 600-800 mile days but I've never done 850 miles for 11 days in a row. This will be a test of machine, man and mind.

My trip will start at the end of April where I'll ride 600 miles to Cuba MO for the largest Spyder Rally in the US, that would be Spyderfest US. I'm looking forward to hooking up with all my Spyder buddies there for three or four days. From there I'll ride about 1800 miles to San Diego where I'll hangout with family till it's time to head to LA to start the race. Then the race is 9,000 miles from LA to Bar Harbor Maine and from there I'll be riding 1200 miles back to East TN. Doing the math I would say this will be well over a 13,000 mile trip when I'm done.

Last year I did a trip on the RT that was over 9,000 miles by myself. The RT did great and that's the trip where I really fell in love with the touring version of the Spyder (still love my RS too). I have no doubt that the RT will get me there and back but I feel like I'm cheating a little bit riding such a comfortable ride. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to have to deal with all the same elements just like everyone else but the RT has great weather protection and traveling through 48 states in 11 days I'm sure I'll be hitting every kind of weather this country has to offer. Last year I got stuck in OK and had to wait out a blizzard for two days. I hope we can do without all that on this trip but you just never know what the weather is going to do and there's no changing it so you just got to deal with it.

I think the real test for me will be if this beat up body will hold up for that many miles and if I can mentally handle the challenge. Two years ago I drove from East TN to Hollywood CA for the Spyder Owners event and on one of those days I had a sick stomach from the start and every fuel stop I thought about getting a room till I felt better but I kept pressing on. We wound up doing over 1000 miles that day so I know about pushing through when you really don't feel like it and I'm sure there will be days like that on this ride. Here's a link to that trip.
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/s...d.php?p=118096

I guess you can say this ride is on my "bucket list" but I didn't know about it till the end of November so it hasn't been on the list long. I will say there is a personal side to this ride too. I have three boys that are serving our country now. My oldest son Lance just did his 5 years in the Marines and is now in the reserves but while he was in Iraq he ran a sweeper crew that would go out and look for IED's and clear them so the Army could setup in different locations. He was just telling me about one of his guys that lost his legs when he was doing a sweep. It breaks my heart to hear that and to know that could have been Lance. My son Nathan is still in the Marines and my son Alex is in the Air Force and both of them will deploy to Afghanistan this year. I am so proud of all our service men and women that signed up knowing they would be put in harms way to help protect our freedom in this great country. I'll be thinking of them when I do this ride knowing that the money raised will help support them and so many other great causes. Many times when I've been on a long ride I remember my boys telling me about Boot Camp and how the Drill Sargent would tell them that "pain is weakness leaving the body". I'm sure there will be plenty of weakness leaving my body on this trip but it will be great to see if I have what it takes to make it to the finish line. I'm pretty sure my Spyder will.

There are ways that you can get involved too if you can do the whole ride. They have it setup now so you can just do a leg of the ride if you want. I know of one SpyderLover that is looking into doing that and maybe that's something you guys would be up for. Check out www.GutsandGloryRally.com for all the details.

[SpyderAnn01]

Very cool. Good luck to all of you on this ride. You will truly be Iron Butts after that trip.

[Firefly]

on the decision to do this!

Sounds like an amazing time. It will be great to 'follow' all you Spyder guys as you participate in this madness...... lol

Do they mount GPS units to track you on the bikes - and if so do they have a site for others to track you by? I know there are units you can buy for a couple hundred bucks and then track that person on the internet-- or maybe you guys could do it with your smart phones? Would be cool to follow you all on the map.

Are they allowing you to tow a trailer? And would they allow a camper unit and still get the extra points for sleeping with your bike?

Good luck. I'm sure we can all line up along your 'flight path' when you pass through our own states and cheer you guys on!

[BumbleBee]

WE "G-Man and I" support the Shriners Hospitals for Children!
We do support many charities here, Shriner's is one of them.

13,000 miles :

and good-luck!

[docdoru]

The Three SpyderLovers/Musketeers:

[DragonLorD]

very well done Lamont, hat down to you, I am supporting many many charities since I can remember. It would be nice if more of you guys can do this and you Lamont may set up a special PayPal account for this purpose and we all might participate by giving some $$$ on it and you will be in charge to divide it fairly to each SpyderLover who will run, just so we can help you guys to cover all or at least some cost and if all really participate , there may be a good bit for charities after we cover your costs. Just imagine if every SpyderLover gives only a $5 - united power, comunity to comunity, people to people, and Vendors might give a $10 or whatever, it's a charity so it's purely voluntary, every little helps. And fun side would be that we-noneparticipants can bet on you guys, who from all SpyderLovers will be the Best, just for fun.What do you think guys? If we pull all togheter on this, I believe that even BRP will help with some change.

[Phil]

WOW! I'm in pain just reading all that! Amazing. I see where the guts part comes in for you guys. Honestly, having never done any bike ride over 50 miles, I cannot even get my brain around STARTING to think about doing that huge ride. And what a great cause.... brilliant... brilliant.

[ARtraveler]

Wow! Way to go. I envy that you are able to go on that ride. I would like to go on a ride like that--but the 11 days plus is just something that work will not permit me doing at this time.

[chillirider]

Very Cool! My hats off to you. Be safe!!!

[Big Arm]

Very Cool! My hats off to you. Be safe!!!

[Eraser]

to the three of you!

[hut1]

Lamont, my hat's (helmet) off to you! While I'm sure that some will be riding to beat the challenge that this is sure to be, it's clear that you are riding for "all the right reasons". Many thanks to you and your sons!

I'll be sure to keep an eye out for you and the other riders as you pass through the tip of Delaware on Leg #10, May 26th.

[rogerb]

You should think of making a list of people from this webbsite in case of emergency. You can things done faster with the help of a local to get you back on the road. Names, addresses and pnone numbers are yours for the asking.

[CyncySpyder]

Lamont, I had GREAT RESPECT for you before I read this post, but now, it goes beyond that, hard to explain it really. I wish you much luck & many as anyone that does this will need them. This is for sure, some of the best causes/reasons in our country to ryde

Ive been toss'n this around in my head since I 1st read about this 2 months ago. I love road-trips & do them quite often. So far with my RT-S, Ive done 1 to FL that was about 2600 miles, done the Hocking Hills Spyder Ryde and that was only about 300 & a couple to Indy a few weeks ago and those were less than 250. But more than 13,000 plus the close to 3K just to get to the start'n line

I need to look at the rules again, cause I have the same questions about if we're allowed to tow our own camper and sleep with our bykes? And how do you work oil changes in every 3000 miles

And you know I'd have to bring Teddy along for the ryde there's no way I could leave the lil guy out of this

Gotta do some research, thats for sure

[retired1]

to you, Docduru, Repops and hopefully Baja Ron(after all, you may need your parts man with you). Hopefully not. If Forrest can do the "Iron Butt", I have all the cofidence you "youngsters" will do Spyderlovers proud!

[NancysToy]

Godspeed to you all!

[Dudley]

Well, my bucket list has never had much in it. The long trip we took on our 2008 SE5 in the summer of 2009 was 13,624 miles and 34 states, but we took 7.5 weeks. That was the #1 in the bucket list. This ride would be awesome. I know I could do it, but now is not the time for me, so in the bucket it goes.
A quick mental calculation: from my experience, an extended daily trip will seldom average over 50 mph if one rides the speed limit. That means one will have to ride 17 hours each day.
Lamont, I wish you and Ron and the Doc the best and God Speed. It's for a great cause.

NOW, if I could just happen to find $5000 falling from the sky...

[venom]

Dont forget to take pictures...safe ryde to you guy's.
your making a lot of quebec'ers jalous

[Yazz]

Glad to see you're scratching something off the bucket list.

Team SpyderLovers is going to do awesome!

Ryde safe...

[jedd]

Wow Bro. this is very cool, Doc, Harvey and Ron That is a Elite class. Be careful and make sure on this grueling journey you do get a little enjoyment

Jim

[Bullet24]

Well guys I pull the trigger yesterday and through my helmet in the mix for the Guts & Glory Rally. I first read about it here on SpyderLovers and have been kicking it around ever since. If you haven't heard about it you need to checkout http://www.gutsandgloryrally.com

Here's the jest of what it's all about from their Facebook page.

"The Rally is set up as a points-based timed event. Each participant will begin the Rally with 11,000 points. There are 11 checkpoints / legs along a pre-determined route traveling though each of the lower 48 states and encompassing over 9,000 miles. The entire route will take eleven (11) days to complete. Prizes will be awarded for to the winner of each of the 11 legs. The participant with the most points at the end of the Rally wins the Grand Prize of $100,000 plus a custom built motorcycle.

The Guts and Glory Rally is a motorcycle event designed to support Shriners Hospitals for Children and our Military service men & women. Through this event, we will make a difference in thousand of lives across this GREAT nation in which we live and do business!

Their Mission
To support our children and those who defend our freedom through the following charities; Shriner's Hospitals for Children, Able Forces, Not Alone and Project Healing Waters"
Contact email is gutsandgloryrally@gmail.com

I've traveled most of the United States on motorcycles and Spyders. I've been cross country twice on my Valkyrie, once on my Boss Hoss and once on my M109R. I've been cross country three times now on my Spyders and the Spyder is the most enjoyable of them all for the long haul and the RT is hands down the most comfortable ride I've ever been on.

There are a lot of folks that I consider more hardcore than I am as far as putting down the miles on the Spyder. Doc Doru is the first that comes to mind. As most of you know he has over 100,000 hard miles on his Spyder and he was one of the first ones to sign up for this ride. I understand that Repops (Harvey) signed up the day after Doc. I was able to shame BajaRon to to signing up too yesterday but he's still not sure if he can pull it off or not but he really wants to do this ride and he is my good riding buddy. Ron and I have put on thousands of miles together and we pretty much know each others riding style well enough that we know what each other is going to do before they do it. That's the kind of partner you want on something like this.

This ride is no joke and even though there is prize money for coming in at the right time that is the last thing on my list of things to be concerned about. I've done a few 1100 mile days on the Spyder and many 600-800 mile days but I've never done 850 miles for 11 days in a row. This will be a test of machine, man and mind.

My trip will start at the end of April where I'll ride 600 miles to Cuba MO for the largest Spyder Rally in the US, that would be Spyderfest US. I'm looking forward to hooking up with all my Spyder buddies there for three or four days. From there I'll ride about 1800 miles to San Diego where I'll hangout with family till it's time to head to LA to start the race. Then the race is 9,000 miles from LA to Bar Harbor Maine and from there I'll be riding 1200 miles back to East TN. Doing the math I would say this will be well over a 13,000 mile trip when I'm done.

Last year I did a trip on the RT that was over 9,000 miles by myself. The RT did great and that's the trip where I really fell in love with the touring version of the Spyder (still love my RS too). I have no doubt that the RT will get me there and back but I feel like I'm cheating a little bit riding such a comfortable ride. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to have to deal with all the same elements just like everyone else but the RT has great weather protection and traveling through 48 states in 11 days I'm sure I'll be hitting every kind of weather this country has to offer. Last year I got stuck in OK and had to wait out a blizzard for two days. I hope we can do without all that on this trip but you just never know what the weather is going to do and there's no changing it so you just got to deal with it.

I think the real test for me will be if this beat up body will hold up for that many miles and if I can mentally handle the challenge. Two years ago I drove from East TN to Hollywood CA for the Spyder Owners event and on one of those days I had a sick stomach from the start and every fuel stop I thought about getting a room till I felt better but I kept pressing on. We wound up doing over 1000 miles that day so I know about pushing through when you really don't feel like it and I'm sure there will be days like that on this ride. Here's a link to that trip.
http://www.spyderlovers.com/forums/s...d.php?p=118096

I guess you can say this ride is on my "bucket list" but I didn't know about it till the end of November so it hasn't been on the list long. I will say there is a personal side to this ride too. I have three boys that are serving our country now. My oldest son Lance just did his 5 years in the Marines and is now in the reserves but while he was in Iraq he ran a sweeper crew that would go out and look for IED's and clear them so the Army could setup in different locations. He was just telling me about one of his guys that lost his legs when he was doing a sweep. It breaks my heart to hear that and to know that could have been Lance. My son Nathan is still in the Marines and my son Alex is in the Air Force and both of them will deploy to Afghanistan this year. I am so proud of all our service men and women that signed up knowing they would be put in harms way to help protect our freedom in this great country. I'll be thinking of them when I do this ride knowing that the money raised will help support them and so many other great causes. Many times when I've been on a long ride I remember my boys telling me about Boot Camp and how the Drill Sargent would tell them that "pain is weakness leaving the body". I'm sure there will be plenty of weakness leaving my body on this trip but it will be great to see if I have what it takes to make it to the finish line. I'm pretty sure my Spyder will.

There are ways that you can get involved too if you can do the whole ride. They have it setup now so you can just do a leg of the ride if you want. I know of one SpyderLover that is looking into doing that and maybe that's something you guys would be up for. Check out www.GutsandGloryRally.com for all the details.

GL! Wish I could do it. Kids wont fit in the saddle bags and they will slow me down by weighing the bike down and thus making me stop more for gas

[Firefly]

You should think of making a list of people from this webbsite in case of emergency. You can things done faster with the help of a local to get you back on the road. Names, addresses and pnone numbers are yours for the asking.

Already available for everyone.....

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...VE&hl=en#gid=0

Their is a link on the home page, but it's a bit hard to find unless you know where it is....

[WaltH]

The four of you are fabulous. I greatly admire what you are doing. This is outstanding in so many ways. You have my admiration and respect.

I have been all over the United States on a motorcycle several times (did 48 states with HOG - not in one trip), but what you are doing is something much different. I am not in your league. After a couple of days, I would be in the hospital suffering from exhaustion.

Good Luck and Thank You for the good you will be doing for others.

[SpyderWolf]

Godspeed to you all!

I wish you all the best. I really wish I could join you, but it just isn't possible for me right now. I am sure it will be an amazing adventure.

[musicarcade]

Godspeed to you all!

I second that!

Best of luck!

wow....