The Ironbutt Association has a ride series certification available called the Piston Diversity Insanity. It’s not a specific ride, you just need to do an SS1600Kride on a single, twin, triple, four and six cylinder motorcycle in a 12 month period.
I kicked mine off in December 2023 with a ride on my four cylinder Kawasaki H2 SX SE riding one of my favourite day loops I call the Jerilderie Run.
My second ride in January 2024 was on the same route with some company in the form of OX-34 and TigerBill two up on a massive Kawasaki. I rode my twin cylinder Tenere 700 World Raid.
My third ride was in April 2024. I’m submitting my Dusty Butt 1600kms on dirt on my CB125F, the world record for the smallest bike to be ridden 1000 miles in 24 hours on dirt. I rode two other single cylinder rides during the time that would have qualified, one on my DRZ400 and the other on my Honda Forza 300 Scooter. None of these three bikes would be any fun at all on the Jerilderie loop! Having said that it was a special type of fun riding the CB125F for nearly 24 hours straight up and down the Oodnadatta Track.
Now it was time for me to work out how I could access a triple and a six for the last two rides. I ended up approaching Clint at Brisan Motorcycles, Newcastle and he was willing to help out. After quite some months of procrastination on my part he organised a 2016 BMW K1600 GT for my next run at the Jerilderie Loop in October 2024.
Then six days later on 30 October, 2024 I was given access to a 2023 Yamaha Tracer 9 GT to ride the final ride required to qualify for the Piston Diversity Insanity Certification.
Four of the five rides were done on the Jerilderie loop and it was interesting to compare very different bikes on the same route. None of the bikes were bad, they were all different and all had their strengths and weaknesses. I can’t pick a favourite, but the K1600 GT was the easiest, it was effortless, supremely comfortable and completely stress free. However definitely it wasn’t the most fun.
I’m very grateful to Brisan Motorcycles for their support with the six and triple rides, without that help it would have been difficult to access those bikes or an expensive exercise to buy them! The Piston Diversity is definitely a fun goal to knock off!