Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 IRON BUTT MAGAZINE | Winter 2014 50CC QUEST RECONSTRUCTED In planning this ride, I looked at research published last year in this magazine (Fall ) based on questionnaires com- pleted and sent to me by cc CC Quest finishers, all of whom completed the ride within the last two years. So I knew how often folks stopped, where they stopped for the night, causes of delays, and other important matters. I knew that the average rider traveled for . hours, typically stopped  times or more for gas, spent about six hours in a hotel, and likely did not to eat a meal — one in four survived on snacks and do stop to eat breakfast or any other meal. We ended up being at least two hours quicker than average mainly because we stopped less often for gas, but more often to eat. So what did we do to make our ride safer and less stressful? Here were my rules: RIDE ON THE WEEKEND Things are a lot easier if you do not have to deal with week- day rush hours in key metro areas. More traffic means more delays and more opportunities for accidents to cause delays. Even so, we were surprised at the traffic in the big metro areas even on the weekend. MAXIMIZE DAYLIGHT In my case, that meant shifting my wake up time by about two hours so I was ready to ride just before first light. I did that for a week before the ride. We wanted to leave Florida no later than  a.m.We were also riding in the middle of May,so we had more daylight than those choosing to ride in, say, March. REST UP AND HYDRATE BEFOREHAND Being safe means staying sharp.So hydrate in the days before the ride. Don’t start out by being tired and dehydrated. Also, get plenty of rest in the days before the ride. BY DANCIN' DAVE CWI I am not going to deny it. It’s fun to see folks’ reactions when you tell them what you did. So, imagine you are on the ride back home. A guy walks up to you at a gas pump or a hotel desk clerk asks, “So, you guys are on a ride? Where are you going?” Peter or I would respond: “Yep. We started out Saturday morning in Jacksonville Beach, Florida at  a.m. and ended up in San Diego at  p.m. the next day. We are now heading home.” The cc Quest is one of the most popular IBA challenges. My riding partner for this east to west trip was Peter Campbell and we were testing out an approach that could potentially lead to a safer ride with a lot less stress. As it turned out, we were quicker than average on two or three key metrics. But that was not the goal. A Better Average