Mileage Awards

I am not an LDrider (long distance rider) in the sense of an Ironbutt© Association member. I like to ride, but I enjoy the activity of riding. Adding tons of miles is not my goal, but to ride in interesting places and on interesting roads, is. Therefore, I haven't participated in endurance rides, or even ever broken that first barrier, 1000-in-one. (Closest call was a ride from Seattle to Sunnyvale, which racked up 928 miles on the odometer. I didn't feel the slightest compunction to get the other 72.)

Instead, I ride often, and sometimes to far away places. I put about 20-25,000 miles on my bikes each year. Mileage awards come along for persistance.

BMW gives away a certificate and a plaque for each 100,000 miles ridden on BMW motorcycles. I'm now setting out for my half million mile award, which could happen in 2007. (They've only had to make two of the million mile plaques, so far.)

BMW MOA runs a yearly mileage competition over the course of the 6 summer months. The top scorers there generally accumulate 40 or 50,000 miles, so I'm way off the pace. In 2002 I was 19th in California.

The bottom line is that I ride for my pleasure. Some is good, more is often better, but there is a diminishing return.