NO IDLE TOUR RAAM SELF-SUPPORTED

[tetontodd]

I think Jay is leaving today from Cali to begin his self-supported run on the 2011 RAAM course. Keep an eye on him from trackleaders.com

His Bike is pretty sick! I've only seen it in transit up and down teton pass so no pictures as of yet. How many days will it take em?? I think he wants to

be finished in under or around 12 days. Go Jay!!

[ScottM]

Yep, yep.  He is starting tomorrow, tracker is here:

http://trackleaders.com/ssraam

[Mental-Miles]

He is on the road now for about 90 min. ... Go JP Go!

[Slowerthensnot]

Major Badassery!

[DaveH]

Go JayP! 

Is this ride without precedent?  I mean, has anyone raced coast to coast self-supported? 

FYI he's also got a blue dot page for mobile:  http://bluedot.mobi/nit

[Done]

Is this ride without precedent?  I mean, has anyone raced coast to coast self-supported? 

If he's the only guy doing it, is it still a race?

[bmike-vt]

Anyone know what his kit looks like? Did he transplant his TD gear to the road machine?

[mattinaustin]

Anyone know what his kit looks like? Did he transplant his TD gear to the road machine?

There are some pictures of his kit on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/noidletour

I noticed his name was not on the official RAAM start list and he started before the solo mens group which is scheduled for June 15th.  Will Jay's race be part of the official RAAM records, or is this being done outside of that organization?  Would be cool to see a new category added for self supported, I bet there are others who would want to participate.

Good luck Jay...you are making history!

[bmike-vt]

AFAIK RAAM still has no self supported category, and Jay's No Idle page is confusing. He should have updated that with the decision he posted on his blog:

2 vehicles are required to manage the team and follow me while I ride 3000 miles, which seems very wasteful and certainly not in my mission of the campaign of No Idling of vehicles. A huge budget is needed to do all this and we have reached a doable budget and are always working on generating more funds which ultimately means we can donate more to the Willie Neal Environmental Awareness Fund. But wouldn't it make more sense to not be so selfish to compete in a race that I can ultimately do on my own? Is this about No Idling or a race that takes and wastes so many more resources? There may come a time when racing the actual event (RAAM) is the thing to do. I hope it happens, but only time will tell. Time to get the feet wet and maybe earn some more credibility so I can maybe one day race the race.

I am going to Race Across America, self-supported, as fast as I can following the same route as the actual event. I will be leaving several days before the actual organized event carrying a GPS Spot device that will track my ever move. You will be able to follow me 24/7. I will be carrying all of what I need and a smart phone to keep things updated daily. This also allows me now to help spread the word and bring awareness to No Idling on a more personal level. We will be doing this while I am on the road and prearranged through my awesome volunteers, manager and media dude at home. Technology is a good thing!

So I doubt he'll be listed as official or unofficial. He happens to be 'racing' the course, but that is about it.

[pbasinger]

Riding across the country for time with no support definitely isn't unprecedented.  I know there have even been a few attempts at semi organized races along these lines, but I expect Jay to make pretty good time compared to previous riders.

I think he decided to deviate from official RAAM because it seemed a little contrary to the no idle mantra to ride across the country with 2 vehicles, at least one of them essentially idling behind him the whole way.

I think it's a great idea.  Dangerous, but still pretty cool.  Looking forward to seeing him in 2 days when he passes by.

[Goatrak]

Unless there was some road closure on the main route, it looks like Jay may have been off track going into Prescott and is now backtracking to get back on. That's unfortunate, doing that uphill section twice has got to be a slog, especially in those AZ temps.

[pbasinger]

Jay came through Durango this morning.  Spent a few hours eating, swapping out tires and taking care of some general maintenance to his gear and bike.  He said the heat through CA and AZ was pretty brutal so he found himself stopping pretty frequently to fill up with cold water.

[mmeiser]

have been anxiously following, mostly on facebook, some on twittr, his miles are on the spot tracker board, but I can't find a clock, any idea what he's averaging a day?  Or how he's doing on time?  I'm no racer, but I do love to ride. I've done 120's back to back to back to back, and even a few 140 days back to back to back, but I'm wondering if I could hack a 150 or 150 plus average on a self supported road tour. Notice I did say "tour", I do like to go fast and light on road, off road and backroad, trans wisconsin, trans iowa, and general fast/light touring, but I'm not interested in racing, I'm loving what Jay is doing because I'd been thinking about doing the raam route unofficial and self supported for a long time, I'm curious as to the route quality, to see how many miles a day he can cover, to see how it'll be recieved / rejected /covered by RAAM challenges, and more.  Indeed my biggest question is, is it safe to do the raam route unsupported?  More then anything in the last couple years I've been wondering if it isn't possible to forget the raam route and blaze an E-W bikepacking / backroad / gravel grinder route that others might have fun doing IIT or even perhaps one day an event.  What's more... what's key is that voice in my head that says "who cares if it never catches on, blazing and mapping and promoting and riding and scouting an E-W/W-E backroad / gravel grinder route would just be fun no matter what comes of it."  And it is mostly along those lines that far superior athletes like JP inspire me.  Why bother to mimich the raam, JP probably can post an incredibly respectable time, not me, so why not be completely original, perhaps something original will come of it. Or nothing, but it'll be fun.

[mmeiser]

Re water, anyone know how much he's carrying? I hope he's carrying more then a couple water bottles, those who do the trans iowa and other ultra endurance gravel grinders have taken to carrying 2-3 leader bladders in revelate designs style top tube bags. I couldn't fathom going out in 90+ weather without atleast 2-3 liters and by I ride in relative civilization (Midwest farm country) compare to the SW. Even still I run short in between gas stations and small towns and end up rolling up on some random farmers garden hose/spigot every once in a while.

[Marshal]

More then anything in the last couple years I've been wondering if it isn't possible to forget the raam route and blaze an E-W bikepacking / backroad / gravel grinder route that others might have fun doing IIT or even perhaps one day an event.  What's more... what's key is that voice in my head that says "who cares if it never catches on, blazing and mapping and promoting and riding and scouting an E-W/W-E backroad / gravel grinder route would just be fun no matter what comes of it."

me too, and not to go off track here but I am sort of thinking how a Dual Sport motorcycle would be a fun way to prove out most of a 'coast to coast' dirt route in a much shorter/acceptable period of time--followed by the bike adventure when/if I could ever get the time--

anyway GO JP and be Safe

[bmike-vt]

There is a dirt dual sport route...

 http://www.transamtrail.com/about/

[Slowerthensnot]

 315 miles in 21.5 hours today!  GO JAY!!!!

[mmeiser]

Go JP!

I'm starting to figure out the whole track leaders board, the data's a little hidden.

I need to find his daily splits.

I thought he was running around 250 a day, to pull out a 315 in back to back days is beyond my comprehension.

BTW, this is superb comparison to how hard it is to ride the divide vs. road riding.

I had been thinking one would get roughly 70% of the miles in backroad as they would get doing road. We shall see if JP's effort confirms this.

Even ignoring the weight / speed / efficiency the advantages to riding pavement are tremendous. Resources like water, food, lodging are tremendous... except for that pesky desert portion.  Prepared hot meals anytime and hotel rooms account for a lot of daily recovery.

[goldenboy]

On the home stretch!! Go JayP, go!