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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
