IBA

History of the Iron Butt Association of America

The Iron Butt Association is dedicated to safe, long-distance, endurance motorcycle riding. Although based in the United States, we have over 24,000+ members world-wide. One of our more popular slogans is, "The World Is Our Playground."

We host several rides, the most notable being the 11-day, 11,000+ mile Iron Butt Rally[tm]. Additionally, the Iron Butt Association hosts the Saddle Sore 1000[tm] (a 24 hour 1,000 mile ride), the Bun Burner 1500[tm] (1,500 miles in 36 hours), the Bun Burner Gold[tm] (1,500 miles in 24 hours), the 50cc Quest[tm] (Cross Country in 50 hours or Less), the National Parks Tour Master Traveler Award[tm] (visit 50 parks in at least 25 states), the coveted 10/10ths Challenge[tm] (10 consecutive 1,000 mile days) and the almost-impossible to get into 100K Club[tm] (100,000 miles or more in one year).

The Iron Butt Association (IBA) does not have membership in the traditional sense. We do not have yearly dues, formal meetings or a monthly newsletter. The IBA is a little more loose knit organization than most clubs. Generally speaking there are several ways to earn membership. The most notable is to be a finisher of the Iron Butt Rally or a successful finisher of one of the other rides we sponsor, such as the Saddle Sore 1000. Rally workers and supporters are also granted membership status.

The Iron Butt Association publishes several documents about the Iron Butt Rally and Long-Distance Endurance Riding, including our hottest title, the "Archive of Wisdom", which contains a list of Long Distance Riding tips from our most seasoned, veteran riders.

We also maintain an e-mail list that will deliver Iron Butt information as it becomes available. Please note that this is not a high-volume mail list. Mailings are typically made once a month. To get on the list, e-mail your request to ibanews@ironbutt.com. Anywhere in the body of your message, enter the following:

subscribe ironbuttnews

and on the next line, place your First Name, Last Name and e-mail address for example:

Mike Jones mkjones@cyclerider.com

For additional information, contact Iron Butt Association President, Michael Kneebone.

How do I become a member of the Iron Butt Association?"

The Iron Butt Association is not your typical "club". We are more a state of mind. We do not have monthly dues, a newsletter, or even a membership card. In fact, the closest thing we have to a membership card is our "World's Toughest Riders" license plate back. On that note, to become a part of the Iron Butt Association, you must complete at least a Bun Burner 1500 (1,500 miles in 36 hours) or the SaddleSore 1000 (1,000 miles in 24 hours). The rules for these rides can be found under the "Rides & Rules" section of this web site.

Completion of a Bun Burner or SaddleSore gets you a certificate of accomplishment, an IBA pin and IBA plate back as well as a listing on our web site as an Iron Butter at www.saddlesore.com/ssbbfin.htm

We do maintain an e-mail news list. We do mail whenever there is news - sometimes that is once a week, sometimes once every few months. To get on the news list, send an e-mail to: kneebone@ironbutt.com and a short note that you want to subscribe to the Iron Butt News

Mike Kneebone

Profile: Iron Butt Association President, Michael Kneebone

Although Michael Kneebone is the President of the Iron Butt Association, he is probably best known as a Contributing Editor of Motorcycle Consumer News. Michael's articles on long distance endurance riding have also appeared in Motorcyclist.

Michael's long-distance credentials include being the first person to break the 60 hour barrier in the coveted New York to San Francisco Guinness World Record, crushing the long-standing 64 hour motorcycle record with a time of 47 hours and 41 minutes; setting the 24 hour endurance record of 1,704 miles in 24 hours; breaking the 50,000 miles in 6 month barrier for the BMW Motorcycle Owners of America mileage contest; and being the first finisher of the 50cc Quest (cross-country in 50 hours or less). He set the 48 state record time of 6 days, 13 hours and 22 minutes with riding legend Fran Crane in 1986. His punishing road tests (imagine riding a motorcycle 10 miles down a set of railroad ties to test suspension, or riding 21,000 miles in five weeks to give a new engine a workout) have inspired two BMW ads.

Michael has completed two Iron Butt Rallys, been Rallymaster of two others and was the Chairman of the 1995 and 1997 events