Video: Riding coast to coast in 50 hours

However, the Saddlesore 1000 is only the beginning. The IBA also offers a Bun Burner 1500, a National Parks tour, and a deceptively named “50CC Quest” event. No, it’s not a grueling scooter tour. (Check out the Lake Erie Loop for smallbore feats of iron buttedness.) “50CC” means 50 hours, coast to coast, and that’s exactly what Abhi Eswarappa and Nathan May attempt in this video.

Using a Honda Gold Wing Tour DCT and a Kawasaki H2 SX SE, Abhi and Nathan slab their way from Florida to California, meticulously tracking their progress to ensure a certified completion. Abhi’s bottles of Atlantic and Pacific beach sand are actually part of a long-running 50CC tradition. IBA legend Ron Major considered “the act of touching the water on both oceans as being a critical and spiritual part of The Ride,” according to IBA’s webmaster Dale Wilson. 

“He led me inside his den and showed me an entire wall jam packed with trophies and finisher plaques. One bookshelf had little 10-milliliter red-stoppered chemistry vials that contained equal parts of sand and water,” recalls Wilson. “Each one was marked with a date/time and either the word "Atlantic" or "Pacific" written on it. Obtaining a sand and water sample at the start and end of a CC ride was also a part of Ron's ritual for this ride. I remember counting 18 vials on his shelf. The shelf below it also had a little cardboard box that was chock full of additional vials, all filled with sand and water...”

Ride along with Abhi and Nathan as they push their limits on two very different motorcycles. Which would you choose, and what route would you take?