The 2009 Cal24 Rally (http://www.cal24.com) has just been announced by Tom Melchild:

The 2009 Cal24 Rally will be held in San Jose, CA on the weekend of June 12th-14th. The exact location will be given to riders in the Rally Pack when their paid entry is received.

The Rally will once again be a fundraiser for Polio Plus (http://www.rotary.org/en/SERVICEANDFELLOWSHIP/POLIO/Pages/ridefault.aspx), part of Rotary International (http://www.rotary.org/). A big thanks to Bob Mutchler (http://www.bmwmoa.org/about/membersprofiles/bobmutchler.htm) for all his support of the Rally. The minimum donations stay the same at $50 for a individual, and $100 for a couple. This is a great organization and the Cal24 is happy to be of help to them.

Fees for this Rally are up slightly from last year. The reason for this is that we have a much better place for the banquet, and it is more expensive than previous years. I think everyone will be happy with the new place.

Mark Crane is still the Rallymaster, and in the Cal24 tradition we will be doing things a little different again. Riders will, as always, be going on some of the greatest roads in California, Nevada, and Oregon. We just have some more fun things to do and see along the way.

I will see everyone in June!

Tom Melchild
President
Cal24

All pertinent info can be found at www.cal24.com. If you check out that site, you might see a striking similarity to www.ninjette.org. Seems they hired the same crappy webmaster, at the same rate ($0). :D I don't know if there are many long-distance rally junkies on this ninjette board yet, but maybe one or two will crawl out of the woodwork over time. The Cal24 is a 24-hr rally, where the riders will put on well over 1000 miles over that time period, chasing bonuses all over California and likely some neighboring states. I've done 5 of them so far, finished in the top-10 twice, just out of the top-10 twice more, but I'd really like to get a top-5 one of these years.

Here are the writeups from some prior Cal24's:

2005 - DNF (electrical gremlins) link to story (http://www.montgomerybikers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=118)
2006 - 12th link to story (http://www.montgomerybikers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11944)
2007 - 14th link to story (http://www.montgomerybikers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20959)
2008 - 9th link to story (http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249533)

O.o that is a long ride...

Alex, you going? :)

:thumbup: I'll be there! It's always a good time. (sadly, not likely to be taking the ninjette though)

curious... why not the 250?

Because it's not the best tool for the job, if the job is trying to ride ~1100 miles in 24 hrs. It can be done; I did one of these rallies on a ZX-12R, and the ninjette would be more comfortable and have better fuel range than that 12R did. Heck, that Leon guy from the other site used a 1st-gen ninjette in the Iron Butt rally one year: 11,000+ miles over 11 days. :eek: But I've got a more suitable machine for the long-distance rally events:

Click for description/pics/video of rally bike (http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249533)

527

Tell you what; if the RT has a catastrophic failure days before the rally and I can't track down a replacement, I'll ask Annie if I can consider her ninjette. ;)

That's interesting to think about. My Concours would fit right in.

Why do you need sponsors? How does that work?

You don't need sponsors (and I don't need sponsors). BARF just said they would pick up the entry fee ($200 last year) if I wrote up my 2008 Cal24 adventure on their site and ran some stickers on the bike during the rally. Works for me!

The rally itself has sponsors that kick in product and $ to help keep it running each year, like Aerostich, Cycle Gear, etc. If you're interested in hearing more about it, and even considering giving it a shot, definitely check out that site (http://www.cal24.com), especially the Past Cal24 Writeups section.

*BUMP* for a great rally! Less than 3 months to go... :dancecool:

*BUMP* again! Only two months out...

Sorry Alex. I'll have just missed this one.

Wow alex...I must say that is one intense bike...looks awesome and it makes long distance riding look like so much fun. That electronically adjustable windscreen is probably the coolest things I have ever seen...I would have never thought of anything like that. Now I'm really excited to ride for the next 10 years and maybe get to that level own a bike like that with all those cool gadgets :)

Bumple. :) Any last minute ninjette entries? Come on folks, you know you're tempted... ;)

Tech inspection done! Here's a pic of the RallyBastard and his evil helper this afternoon:

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/561933036_qjLYY-L.jpg

Had to show all the standard items (tire plug kit, flashlight, etc.) then completed the odometer check. That's a short loop of less than 20 miles that the rally organizers have measured pretty carefully in order to calibrate your own bike's odometer. That error factor is then used to calculate actual mileage during the rally. I did it with two other bikes, and mine was on the low end and theirs was on the high end; there was a difference of 0.6 miles over this relatively short route between our bikes.

Created the rally flag, which is just a small towel with our rider # on it. I got myself signed up early this year, so I'm running the lucky #1. :) Back home resting for a short while, posting up some pics, and will be back for the rider meetings this evening...

http://aciurczak.smugmug.com/photos/561933368_4GWH2-L.jpg

I'll be out of touch much of the weekend, so you kids be good. :)

Good luck!! Ride safe and have an awesome time.

I'll be out of touch much of the weekend, so you kids be good. :)

:whistle:

:whistle:

I'll bring the tequila if you bring the limes! :D

deal! :D

Home safe and sound. Finished 2nd this year, higher than any past one I've participated in! Full results are up at this link (http://www.cal24.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192).

Here's what I look like after 1434 miles in a day. Fresh as a daisy, right? :D

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/563653950_m3Z9u-M.jpg

The route I took below. There was one mongo bonus in Portland, Oregon that dwarfed everything else availble. But it required a 670 mile trip up there, within 10.5 hrs, and then a 670-mile trip right back before chasing other bonuses...

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/563915296_6Lbs6-L.jpg

Go Alex! You rock!

Though... team Barf?? Oro?

Budman (BARF owner) has picked up my rally fee the past year or two in return for writing about it in detail on the BARF site. Turns out he didn't need to cover me this year as Tom gave me a break as thanks for creating the www.cal24.com website for him. But Budman still made up some custom T-shirts and gave me a couple (and even Annie one!) I'll post up some more pics of it, it's pretty funny...

Here's a link (http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=249533) to the 2008 Cal24 thread on BARF, and here's a a link (http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=296682) to this year's 2009 thread.

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/564517097_uXhoR-L.jpg

http://www.ciurczak.com/photos/564515610_tFzvd-L.jpg

hehe leave it to Budman!!

I miss my group meets on Tuesday nights at snell bucks!

I'll give you one guess as to where I will be on June 30th? :D