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 Post subject: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 3:01 pm 
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Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2011 5:38 am
Posts: 111
Location: Ludvika, Sweden
Hi
I just want to give a short report from my H2 Iron Butt ride and the problems that showed up during the ride.
A H2 Iron Butt ride has been in my mind for a while. Google tells that at least one guy has done this before, Jeff Gootblatt in 2006, his ride was 1100 miles.
Anyway, I prepared my 98% stock H2 for the ride by replacing all cables except the speedo, new plugs and cleaning/oiling the pod air filters.
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The tank box contained rain clothings and oil. The rear one some tools, 2 liters of spare gas, spare throttle and clutch cables, spare sprocket nut and a spare battery.
The bike was slightly modified, all about the right handle. I added a a bar end weigt to reduce wibrations and a hillbilly cruice control.
The cruice control really helped since I was able to rest the right hand once in a while.

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I left home just before 5 am, the first leg was 153 km and everything went smooth. Next stop was Stockholm were I meet with Per Olofsson for some photo shots.

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Two problems occurred on the ride to Stockholm. One caused by me, fuel starvation. I did extensive preparation by finding the exact locations for my fuel stops.
My H2 mileage is normally about 0,8 liter per 10 km, 30 MPG and with a tank volume of 18 liters, 4.7 US gallon...... it should be possible to run up
to 190 km, 120 miles per leg with some margin.
BUT I did poor homework, the H2 usable tank volume is actually 16 liters, 4.2 US gallon and the mileage at continous highway speed is more 24 MPG.
On my way to Per I suffered from fuel starvation at I guess the single spot in Sweden with the highest traffic density, Essingeleden, and off cource at morning peak traffic.
Luckily I was able to find an exit seconds before the bike was totally dead.

The second problem was a sudden loss of quite a lot of power, I barley could maintain highway speed at 5:th gear.
I believe I completely lost one of the cylinders. After a while I could figure out that closing and opening the throttle made the power came back again.
This problem happend maybe 20-30 times during the 22 hour ride. Sometimes just minutes after each other and sometimes several hours.

Has anybody experienced something similar, sudden partial loss of power, closing and open the throttle restores the full power?

Anyway, the ride continued without any events worth mentioning.
I reached the turning point at Östra Ljungby after 11 hours at 4 pm and felt quite confident to be able to fulfill the full distance.

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In Norrköping, after about 1200 km, 750 miles, I meet Hasse Eriksson, another member of the Classic Kawasaki Sweden Club and his son, Gustav who took some really nice photos of me and the H2.

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Next stop was Stockholm and a meeting with the editor of the Classic Bike Sweden magazine, he also took some pics and did a short interview. Up on the bike again for the three last legs, I started to feel some fatigue.
Hands and butt felt supringsingly OK but another issue start to cause pain. The H2 tank is narrow meaning that my knees are not in contact with the tank,
that makes the wind trying to bend my knees apart. The first 10 hours was OK but eventually I start to feel pain in my groin. The pain was quite strong the last hours.

I did the last and final fueling at my home gas station at 3 am after 22 hours of ride. It ended up to be 14 refueling stops including the first and last.
I send my documentation to IBA and they approved my ride to be 1707 km, 1060 miles.
It seems that we are 2 on the planet having done an approved 1000 mile IBA ride on a Kawasaki 2-stroke triple, Jeff and me.

who will be next?

Regards / Bjorn, H2 IBA biker.

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 Post subject: Re: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 4:22 pm 
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Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 3:35 pm
Posts: 562
Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Incredable! I have ridden 200 miles on the H2 can't imagine over 1000! I had a miss like you describe it was a bad CDI box. Sounds just like my problem. New box, everything was fine.

Again congratulations for an incredible feat.

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Using a poorly conceived idea along with bad mechanical practice is not an upgrade but rather a recipe for disaster.


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 Post subject: Re: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 6:03 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:23 pm
Posts: 3821
Location: Colorado Springs, CO. USA
Good show! Be proud and thank you for sharing this incredible achievement. :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

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This is true. Where I grew up the hills were so steep and long, when your ball rolled down the hill you just said "screw it"...


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 Post subject: Re: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 8:48 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:08 pm
Posts: 1901
Location: Campbellville Ontario
Thanks for sharing - I love those epic rides! Some of us went from Toronto, around lake Huron through the Soo and via RB's - then back to Toronto. We did it over 3 days, but it felt great.

I had a problem similar to your description - it turned out to be a sticking fuel needle valve. The carb bowl would over -fill with fuel, then when you went even slightly down hill, the carb would drown the cylinder..slightly up hill and it would clear up and run fine.


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 Post subject: Re: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2016 10:49 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:34 pm
Posts: 9826
Location: North Central NC
Last time I had a float needle leaking badly, that cylinder would drop out, and to get it back I had to open the throttle fully for about ten seconds. I went 45 miles to reserve that tank, and fixed the needle before the next fill up.

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If it surges, that's normal, upshift.


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 Post subject: Re: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 12:16 am 

Joined: Mon Aug 06, 2012 2:57 pm
Posts: 847
Location: Monterey Ca
Congratulations.

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Current bikes: H1 69,71,72,76 KH 500, H2 72(2),73,74,75(3) , 77RD 400, 08 KLR 650. 76 KZ 900, Yamaha RZ 500, ihave so many triples gave up listing them.
Have seversl tons of H1/H2/S parts for sale, http://www.triplestuff.net dhg1337@gmail.com


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 Post subject: Re: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 2:50 am 
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Joined: Thu Jun 09, 2011 3:06 am
Posts: 4364
Location: PARIS FRANCE
Congratulations and temptation even if I never run more than 1100 kilometers on K triples H1 and H2 on the same day :shh:
The petrol tank from the factory is given for 17 liters with central stand on (or something under the side stand to straight the bike) the full tank is around 16.75 liters on all my H2s.
Big tank and a fairing would help a lot with a silent block engine
:thumbup:


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 Post subject: Re: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 5:25 am 
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Joined: Tue Jun 21, 2011 10:09 am
Posts: 579
I've never done an Iron Butt ride, but I did do 800 miles in a day. After that I was so confident that I could do one, that I was freed from feeling the need to actually do one. CONGRATS!!



Lane


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 Post subject: Re: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 7:16 am 

Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2011 7:46 pm
Posts: 1334
Location: Kingston, N.Y.
Nice and cool pics too :thumbup: , I did just over 1,000 miles Cheyenne Wyoming to Chicago Illinois on a nice comfy GS750

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1975 S3 project bike
1974 H1 project bike
1972 Yamaha R5
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 Post subject: Re: My H2 Iron Butt ride
PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2016 9:59 am 
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Joined: Sun Jul 01, 2012 3:07 pm
Posts: 1073
Location: Pollocksville, NC
Congratulations, for an amazing feat, I did a ride in July this year of 800 miles in 20 hours (on a Kawasaki Voyager) and I couldn't imagine doing it on an H2. My trip total was 2200 miles in 8 days, but the Voyager is a pretty comfortable ride!


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