Cannonball! Coast to Coast on a '28 Indian

Let the good times roll!

And we're of again
Have a nice ride home

Pete, good of ya to host Doug, I also want to test drive your triumph next time in town. Doug, met you at the bike show in San Mateo, if you're through Oklahoma give me a holler, place to stay, truck, etc. Stephen

Much thanks for the commentary and pictures along this ride .

I had the HUGE HONOR of being Doug's personal chase vehicle for the leg from Crescent City, down to Fortuna, CA.

I was at a gas station in CC hoping to catch him rolling by...and he pulled up right next to me!!
...and by the number of bikes going by, this was a real stroke of luck!!
so I asked if he'd mind if I chased him down south, and he said "no problem...but I ride pretty slow."


lessee....ride with RTW Doug, a rider whom I have a ton of respect for, through the Redwoods of NorCal, on a beautiful sunny fall day, at a nice leasurely pace??? Is this a trick question???

HELLS YEAH!!!

hardly any of my pics I took while down there even turned out!! (Damn digital cameras that I don't know how to operate!!)

but I DID get this 'action shot' of Doug buzzing along through the Redwoods...




It was a pleasure meeting and getting to ride with you Doug.
I lost track of you when you took off to fix your rear rack, and then I missed seeing you off Saturday morning too! (which sucked!)

GodSpeed on your ride home to Alabama...and to wherever the road takes you!!

Hey Patrick

It was fun to hang out with you. Sorry i didnt see you later, i was workin a deal on an old harley a local had. :)

The next morning i was the 1st bike out, so i could stop and take pics. I was the last one in that nite :)

Today i took an 84 year old motorcycle over a 10k foot pass.

Remind me not to do that again..........


:huh

so you made it through Yosemite?

there's no way east from central California that doesn't go over a high pass. South of Tioga Pass (9943 ft), you have to go all the way down to Bakersfield and cross the Mojave Desert to avoid passes, and even that is 4000 feet (Tehachapi Pass) and worse, its all freeway.

North of Tioga Pass. there's SR 108 aka Sonora Pass (9623 ft), SR 4 aka Ebbets Pass (8730 feet), SR 88 aka Carson Pass (8652 feet), and US 50 which goes over Echo Summit at 7382 feet en route to Lake Tahoe.

108 and 4 are incredible motorcycle roads, but they are steep as all hell on the east side, and full of narrow hairpin turns.

Where are you? You make Lee Vining? You must have if you cleared Tioga pass.

I hear a lot of talk about Doug riding slow. So how slow is slow?

the bike is happy at about 45-48 on flat roads. it'll do a little over 50 ok, but it gets an extra vibration that I dont like. It may be because there was never a top motor mount on it, just one bolt in front, & one in rear. I'm gonna make a top mount & see if that helps

Ok, forget riding around Death Valley, It's going to be too hot!. Head south , past Bishop, to Big Pine, Take 168 E. there is nothing but road, rock, and supposedly some herds of wild mustangs in these canyons north of Death Valley. Eventually this road will become NV 266 or you may see it on your map as Lido Pass. Highly recommend this way to get from where you are ( I think east Yosemite, to where you want to be Vegas) If you have the time, Route 66 from Kingman AZ to Seligman AZ would be a proper background for the old Indian. LIdo pass is only 7480

I think if I was in Doug's place, I'd be heading east on 120 to US 6 to nevada 375 and the Extraterrestrial Highway skirting the north side of Area 51... some serious Desolation Alley stuff.... US93 to NV 319 to whatever gets you to Cedar City, Utah. take the scenic route past some of Utah's national monuments and parks (Cedar Breaks, Bryce Canyon, etc), and now you've wandered out of my mental maps, time to consult with the Rocky dudes for getting across Colorado...

What's all the whinin about Death Valley. I rode through there about a month ago and it wasn't that bad. 107 as I recall but I was through by noon. It was 104 when I camped at Lake Mead the day before and a couple days later I was over by Bakersfeild and it was 108 there. It's hot, so suck it up and go, just get a early start or ride through at night if you can't handle it. I'm a old man and I made it through without heat stroke. Not addressing this to Doug. I haven't heard him whine.

I bet she was runnin' just a touch rich.....they shouldn't have to worry about skeeters for the rest of this year in the Sierras.

i was gonna say 108.... that's an incredibly beautiful road, but as you say, the east side of sonora pass is pretty steep.... had trouble last year on a ZRX going up it, dunno about that torque monster Indian, though he would be going down to 395..... it would be epic, though....

We gotta remember that Doug doesn't carry all that much gas with him, and the ETH is like 130 some odd miles between gas stations.

I would love to go all the way across the country - and back again - at 45 mph. Well, maybe without the need to replace a cylinder or two along the way.

It seems all the long-distance riding I do is on the highway at quasi-legal speeds and is just not very interesting that way. Gently tooling along the backroads would suit me better, but my schedule usually doesn't allow it. Gotta git wherever it is I'm gittin' to in a hurry, then git back home again in a hurry. Would be nice to slow down a little and soak it in.

Thanks for taking us along and have a safe trip back home

It's farther than that....like 170 I think.....but the Aleinn out there near Rachel keeps gas in cans for bike riders. Also don't forget to stop at the county hot springs in Ash springs (across from the gas station).

Have a good trip Doug. It was great meeting you at Cotati.

What old bike are you dealing on now?

....about riding an indian through DV?

DV INDIAN