Hard as it may be to believe, riding 1000 miles a day for 10 days straight can actually be fun.

When friends ask me about my experience competing in MERA’s inaugural 10-n-10 Rally, I’ll admit that I tend to lead with the dramatic stuff:  hail, gale-force winds,and triple-digit temperatures.  Riding 18 hours a day while surviving on a diet that consisted mainly of Clif bars, salted peanuts and beef jerky.  That sort of thing.  And, when I sum it all up by saying that I honestly can’t remember when I’ve had more fun, I get to laugh as they back away slowly shaking their heads and mumbling something about me being off my medication again.

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Here’s how to follow along as riders in MERA’s 10-n-10 Rally hit the road.

As I sit here in my Salt Lake City Hotel room reviewing my planned route for the Motorcycle Endurance Riders Association’s first-ever 10-n-10 Rally one last time, it occurs to me that my three previous installments in this series overlooked one of the coolest parts of this 10-day/10,000-mile celebration of motorcycling masochism.  Namely, the little orange Spot satellite-tracking units most 10-n-10 Rally competitors will be using to help rallymaster and MERA founder Steve Chalmers—not to mention our friends and loved ones back home—keep tabs on us during the event.

While this nifty little GPS-based communication gizmo has undeniable safety benefits—not the least of which is its ability to summon help in an emergency in all those places in this country where cell phone signals are virtually nonexistent—it’s the gee-whiz factor of Spot’s Track Progress mode that most intrigues me.  While folks have been riding these kinds of endurance rallies for more than 20 years, this is the first time the public can follow competitors progress in real time on a Spotwalla-powered Google map.

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The one thing that matters more to competitors in MERA’s 10-n-10 Rally than a strong finish.

When the 35 men and women entered in the Motorcycle Endurance Riders Association’s inaugural 10-n-10 Rally roll out of our Salt Lake City hotel’s parking lot next Thursday morning, each of us will be attempting to ride a minimum of 10,000 miles in just 10 days.  Which, in case you don’t keep track of such things, is roughly four times the number of miles the average motorcyclist racks up in an entire year.

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Making a good long-distance bike better.

While the field for the Motorcycle Endurance Riders Association’s 10-day/10,000-mile 10-n-10 Rally includes bikes from nearly every major motorcycle company, walk through the parking lot outside our Salt Lake City hotel on the morning of August 26th and you’ll find as many Yamaha FJR1300 sport-tourers in the lineup as any other single model.

The reasons for the Feejer’s popularity among hardcore long-distance riders boil down to its unique balance of performance, handling, fuel economy and reliability. As for the FJR AE model Yamaha loaned me for this event, I’ll admit that its complete lack of a clutch lever took some getting used to.

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Attempting the MERA 10-n-10 Rally

A few years ago I managed to string together three 1,000-mile days in a row and, I have to say, it was one of the toughest things I’ve ever done on a motorcycle. Which is why Cycle World contributor Alan Rider’s offer to tell the story of a 10-day/10,000-mile endurance rally he’ll be riding later this month caught my eye. — Mark Hoyer

They say you’re not having a true adventure unless you’re at least a little unsure of its outcome. By that measure, I suspect most of us entered in the Motorcycle Endurance Riders Association’s  10-n-10 Rally are in for a two-wheeled adventure of epic proportions.

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