History
The Iron Butt Rally is held in the United States every two years. The Iron Butt first ran in 1984. From 1984 to 1987 the rally started from Montgomeryville Cycle Center near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Iron Butt was not held again until 1991 when it came under the management of the Iron Butt Association. While the basic format of the original rally remained, two important things changed: to ensure the quality of the event, the rally is run every other year, and the starting and ending points are rotated to different locations within the United States.
Beginning in 1993, shorter rides were arranged that lasted in duration from one to many days, and while the Iron Butt Rally is a large, organized event with a plotted course, the other rides are left up to the competitor to accomplish at their own accord. Some riders prefer to complete a ride solo, while some clubs have arranged rides in groups of up to 30 riders. But while the Rally is a monitored event, the riders of other events must monitor themselves. An example is the Saddle Sore 1000, where thorough documentation of the ride must be made, by collecting time-stamped gas and business receipts along the way, and by keeping a trip log recording mileage and location. These documents are then submitted by mail with a fee to the IBA, where it is then processed and an award given if the requirements are met.
The Iron Butt Association also has a UK arm which runs its own rally each year called the Brit Butt Rally. Riders from all over Europe, Norway, Middle East and Australia have entered. There is also a 12 hour teaser rally called the Brit Butt Light. Iron Butt UK has grown from 7 registered riders in 2005 to over 350 riders completing Iron Butt rides within the UK during 2009. Iron Butt Uk also teamed up with the Royal British Legion Riders branch in organizing a 24 hour 1000 mile run with over 175 riders taking part. The previous world record was 152, however the UK riders were pipped to the post by another USA ride of over 400 riders.
Read more about this topic: Iron Butt Association
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“I believe that in the history of art and of thought there has always been at every living moment of culture a “will to renewal.” This is not the prerogative of the last decade only. All history is nothing but a succession of “crises”Mof rupture, repudiation and resistance.... When there is no “crisis,” there is stagnation, petrification and death. All thought, all art is aggressive.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)