 |
Profile: Iron Butt Association Communications Officer
Ira Agins
"Where's my ride certificate?" "I’m Brazilian. How do I join?" "Can I
qualify for membership on my trike conversion?" "How do I volunteer to work
the Iron Butt Rally?" "Does Mike ever answer his email?"
These are just a sampling of the questions that come in to the Iron Butt
Association Web site. And since July 2002, Ira has been the one with the
answers. As the IBA Communications Officer, he fields all manner of questions from far
and wide on such diverse topics as acceptable routes and documentation,
certification status, membership qualification, volunteer opportunities, and
Web site problems. And if he doesn’t have the answer, he know where to get it.
Ira has covered most of North America and southern Africa in his 35 years and
quarter-million miles of riding, including IBA individual rides and competitive
rallies. He is a 1999 Iron Butt Rally finisher, and is the Routemaster of the
Land of Enchantment 1000 endurance rally.
You can contact Ira at: ira AT ironbutt DOT com, or simply use our contact us form.
|
 |
Profile: Iron Butt Association Rallymaster
Lisa Landry
Relatively new to Long Distance Riding, since 1999, Lisa has completed several Bun Burner GOLDs - including her first one on a stock Harley!
She is also a successful finisher of one of the toughest Cognoscente Group events ever held: "BLISTER", where she rode her Gold Wing a staggering 3146 miles in less than 48 hours. She has also completed the 50CC, coast-to-coast in under 50 hours. Lisa was a finisher and Staff Photographer in the 2001 Iron Butt Rally and her most recent ride - 48+ in 7 days, 7 hours, 29 minutes.
As Rallymaster for the 2003 and 2005 Iron Butt Rallies, Lisa spends a lot of time on her Gold Wing scouting bonuses to insure 11 days of hell for the entrants - and besides, if she can ride it on her Wingabago, the riders would be foolish to whine about them! At home, she is a mother to 3 (almost) grown children.
Lisa can be reached at: lisa AT ironbutt DOT com. |
 |
Profile: Iron Butt Association Webmaster/Chief Technical Inspector
Dale "Warchild" Wilson
In mid-1998, Warchild assumed IBA web developer duties for the Iron Butt Association. Dale studied Endurance Riding for several years under the late, great Ron Major, and honed his time-distance skills on the vast, lonely highways of Nevada. This combination has resulted in a formidable competitor with a ferocious attitude, as seen by his impressive 5th Place finish in the 1997 Iron Butt Rally, and during 2007, the most consectutive number of back-to-back BunBurner Golds.
Dale is well known throughout the Endurance community for his mechanical knowledge and endurance-riding expertise, and is a recognized subject-matter-expert and webmaster for the Honda ST1100, the CBR1100XX Super Blackbird, and the Yamaha FJR1300. Semi-retired nowadays from active competition, Warchild still performs duties as the IBR Chief Technical Inspector, and serves in a wide variety of volunteer Staff positions within the Endurance community.
Warchild can be reach at webmaster AT ironbutt DOT com, or at FJRTech.net.
|
 |
Profile: Iron Butt Association Technical Advisor
Tom Austin
Tom Austin is a consulting automotive engineer whose clients include the
Motorcycle Industry Council and many manufacturers of motorcycles, passenger
cars, and trucks.
Tom has served as the IBA's Technical Advisor since 1998, and is solely responsible for the development of several technical standards used throughout the Endurance community. He is the author of the Exhaust Noise standard and measurement procedure, the Fuel Capacity measurement procedure, and the Minimum Performance standard that applies to all IBR entrants beginning with the 2003 Iron Butt Rally. Tom has designed and developed a variety of accessories for his
personal motorcycles including aluminum fuel cells and auxiliary light
brackets. He routinely shares what he has learned developing and evaluating
various accessories with the members of the Long Distance Riders list
(LDRiders.com), which he helps administer.
Tom's endurance riding
experience includes numerous rallies and IBA-recognized individual rides. He finished in
the Gold Medal category during the 1999 Iron Butt Rally and earned a
10-10ths certificate for averaging more than 1,000 miles per day.
Tom can
be reached at austin AT ironbutt DOT com.
|
 |
Profile: Iron Butt Association Route Masters, Jim and Donna Fousek
For the past five years, Jim and Donna Fousek have been scouting
North America for some of the most interesting places for Iron
Butt riders to visit. They have traveled the
lessor-known highways for years taking thousands of pictures and
countless detailed notes to help riders find the odd-ball places
the Iron Butt calls home.
Although they have ridden several thousand mile days, Jim and Donna
perfer to spend their time developing new Iron Butt Rally leads.
As route masters, it is a good bet that where ever Jim and Donna are
spotted an Iron Butt Rally bonus cannot be far away!
When they are not riding, Jim and Donna work relentlessly on the rally
behind the scenes. Donna has created the design for the rally
identification towels for the 1997 and 1999 Iron Butt rallies as well as
rally banners and other vital signs to get riders where they need to be.
While Donna is dreaming up new designs, Jim is busy toiling over the
thankless tasks of bringing her ideas to life.
While everyone is talking Iron Butt, Jim and Donna are out making it
happen! |
 |
Profile: Iron Butt Association Artist, Paige Ortiz
Paige Ortiz, owner of
AeroFlow, a manufacturer of BMW windsceens and other neat
accessories, has been turning out some of the neatest Iron Butt Rally
logos since the rally began in in 1984.
Paige has been studying the dynamics of air flow and the interaction
of rider and machine longer than we can count. An industrial designer
by trade, Paige just loves to dream up new ideas to allow riders slice
through the wind. Long before any of the big manufacturers thought about it,
Paige was seen out in the California desert experimenting with plastic
adjustable wings to tailor air flow around a rider.
A dedicated rider, Paige, along with his number one assistant,
Julie Nichols will pack their BMW and travel cross-country to
visit dealers across North America and get in some valuable
real-world R&D work along the way. |
 |
Profile: Iron Butt Association Moto-Journalist
Robert Higdon
After 15 years of owning an R75/5 and an R65, in the process struggling to accumulate barely 50,000 miles, in 1987 District of Columbia trial attorney Bob Higdon bought a new K75T. It changed his life.
From never having ridden more than 450 miles in a day, in August of that year he broke Jeff Brody's 48-state solo record, hitting each of the contiguous states in 10.8 days in a 750 mile/day pace.
Though the record was shattered the following year by Fran Crane and Mike Kneebone, Bob wrote a lengthy story about the adventure that was published in the September 1988 issue of the magazine of the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America (BMW MOA). He subsequently competed on the Nevada 1100, circumnavigated Australia in 28 days with his frequent riding partner Mike Kneebone, and won the BMW MOA mileage contest in 1990 with 51,000 miles in six months.
Never a fan of 1,000 mile days, Bob prefers to do shorter rides under more difficult conditions. He set the record for the earliest finisher ever on the Four Corners Tour, completing the 7,500 mile ride on February 2, 1993 and surviving -55F wind-chills in Maine.
He is the past vice-president of the BMW MOA; a former member of the board of directors of the BMW Bikers of Metropolitan Washington; a member of the activist Motorcycle Riders Foundation; and writes a monthly column for On the Level, the magazine of the BMW Riders Association. In 1993 he was named the AMA's Road Rider of the Year for his work in helping to open Virginia's high-occupancy vehicle lanes to commuting riders. He is a regular contributor to Rider, Motorcyclist, Motorcycle Consumer News and other national motorcycle magazines.
Now nearing 500,000 miles on BMW saddles, Bob is planning a trip around the world on a 1986 R80G/S. Realizing that his inability to change a flat tire or adjust valves might be a hindrance on the ride, he enrolled at the American Motorcycle Institute in November 1994, graduated from the five-month course, and is a certified BMW mechanic.
The owner of three R80G/S motorcycles, Bob claims he is trying to amass the world's largest privately-owned collection of such machines. He says that they are easy to fix.
Robert Higdon can be reached at higdon AT ironbutt DOT com
|
 |
Profile: Iron Butt Association President, Michael
Kneebone
Although Michael Kneebone is the President of the Iron Butt
Association, he is probably best known as a Contributing Editor of
Motorcycle Consumer News. Michael's articles
on long distance endurance riding have also appeared in Motorcyclist.
Michael's long-distance credentials include being the first person to
break the 60 hour barrier in the coveted New York to San Francisco
Guinness World Record, crushing the long-standing 64 hour motorcycle
record with a time of 47 hours and 41 minutes; setting the 24 hour
endurance record of 1,704 miles in 24 hours; breaking the 50,000 miles
in 6 month barrier for the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America mileage
contest; and being the first finisher of the 50cc Quest (cross-country
in 50 hours or less). He set the 48 state record time of 6 days, 13 hours and 22 minutes with riding legend Fran
Crane in 1986. His punishing road tests (imagine riding a motorcycle 10 miles
down a set of railroad ties to test suspension, or riding
21,000 miles in five weeks to give a new engine a workout) have
inspired two BMW ads.
Michael has completed two Iron Butt Rallys, been Rallymaster of two
others and was the Chairman of the 1995 and 1997 events.
|
|
|
 |
Please respect our intellectual property rights. Do not distribute any of these documents, or portions therein, without the written permission of the Iron Butt Association!
|
