Quite recently I learned about Iron Butt driving, which is a sort of long distance driving slash manhood test for bike enthusiasts. About the Iron Butt Rally:
The Iron Butt Rally is a competitive motorcycle road rally held in the United States. It takes place in odd numbered years, usually in August. The rally lasts 11 days, and riders often travel nearly 11,000 miles (18,000 km) in that time. During the rally, entrants earn points by riding their motorcycles to various “bonus” locations in the U.S. and Canada. A bonus is a task or destination with a point value. In order to earn the points for a bonus, a rider must provide evidence by photographing an object or scene, purchasing a particular item, or by various other means specified by the organizers.
Iron Butting is not really my cup of tea, but it’s an interesting case example of a phenomenon that’s being redefined by changes in culture, and quite predictably, even.
Now that that whole world has gone green (or likes to pretend it has), it makes “pointless” joyriding (meaning that there’s no real destination for the travel) like this seem a bit wasteful, even immoral. But on the other hand, it might also make it a bit taboo, a protest gesture even. Culture has a tendency to swing like a pendulum sometimes; a change in society at large will invite a counter culture to oppose it. Polarization is in our blood, especially when confronted. If Iron Butt is indeed deemed “bad” by society at large, it’s not going to stop. More likely its core is going to embrace it even more.
In the future, if gas prices will continue to climb, iron butting will also become less attainable to most, making it seem like even more of a waste. And more special to those who love it.
Culture is constantly changing views, or “redefining” itself as the world changes.
Fur for example was simply used because that’s what everyday people had available to make warm clothes from, then as the culture grew and society became more dense, other materials became cheaper and more available, it became easier to use cloth, and fur became less common, then rare, and subsequently more expensive, and a societal symbol of wealth, then eventually has become frowned upon as “waste” by some, even though the commercial fur industry is by far a sustainable industry as opposed to the open hunting of the past.
The Sunday Drive is time immortal in American society. Yet, that is just as much of a “pointless joyride” as any other traveling not absolutely necessary, and done by hundreds of thousands more people that the tiny segment that participates in Long Distance riding.
Not to mention that the average motorcycle gets double the gas mileage of most of the cars on the road today.
Change is constant. Perhaps at some future date long distance riders will be using electric motorcycles? The desire to challenge one’s self in an individual manner is something humans will never outgrow, the venues will simply change with time.
I have never ridden in an IronButt Rally, but do enjoy the freedom of motorcycle touring. I also enjoy the hypocrisy of the green movement. If you were to add the fuel from every IronButt Rally ever run, it would less the the fuel used in one of Al Gore’s jaunts in his corporate jet.
i enjoy ld riding very much. sometimes in the winter time i release r134 freon in.to the air in hopes to bring on global waming faster.so as i can ride more miles and be alittle warmer
You really should educate yourself more about you topics before you spout off in public.
Hi Henri, So I’m a little confused, I get that way. You say the Iron Butt is a wasteful thing and you cast a few other nasty little stones because the whole world fancies itself as having gone green. Well, maybe not the whole world or even a whole any part of it, but that’s another discussion. That would mean there’s a whole green world out there. How best to see it? Maybe on the most fuel efficient vehicles available, good idea. Now just where to go. Overseas is out since you need to run a 2500 gallon per hour airplane all day to get there, and back. There are a lot of great places I’ve never seen within 3000 miles of my front door and most everybody speaks something close to the English we speak in my home town. Maybe I’ll go there. Lucky I happen to love motorcycles. Should I go, by myself? I’d rather go with friends with common values (safe riding, legal speeds, stock pipes meaning low noise, etc) and get some ideas on a good time and a good trip. Now, planning. I’m probably limited to 2 weeks. Structure is good and surprises are fun, but I’d like the flexibility to go on a bunch of little side trips if I want to. Let’s throw in a couple of group dinners to tell some stories and enjoy the company. If you have any ideas that meet these criteria better than the Iron Butt, please pass them along. Cheers !!!
Hi everybody.
You shouldn’t see my writing as an attack post on Iron Butt driving. If it came off that way, I apologize. I’ve covered a lot of topics in this blog (feel free to browse), spotting things in culture that I feel might have an impact in the economy and especially consumption habits. I try not to judge on this blog, just examine and ask questions. But I see if how my post could be interpreted that way. Again, apologies.
We (a collective we) dodged a bullet with this recession because it caused the ridiculous oil prices to drop to more bearable levels due to excessive demand. But the way I see it, we’re just bracing for the inevitable. Oil prices will go up, and gas prices WILL go up, even higher than they were before the recession (somewhere around 2012 is my guess).
High gas prices will have an effect on consumption habits, naturally, as people won’t be able to afford to drive as much. And yes, I feel that this will cause some hostility towards any “joyriding”, to which I count Iron Butt as well. Imagine it: “I can’t afford to drive my kids to school and people are driving just for the fun of it!” I don’t think that’s too far fetched. But again, I’m just speculating.
When I said the whole world has gone green I explicitly said “or pretends to be”. I’m very cynical about people’s consumption habits: it’s very easy to be “green” when you can’t actually afford to drive, for example. Also, green consumption as such is most likely a fad, and the real achievements in ending America’s oil addiction, for example, will be either politically or by sheer economics.
But like I said, I’m interested in social movements and consumption habits. I found Iron Butt as an intriguing subject that I feel will see its cultural meaning redefined in the near future.