Cannonball! Coast to Coast on a '28 Indian

[Rango]

Originally Posted by rtwdoug

This is a wetplate photo taken during the cannonball by Paul d'Orleans from the Vintagent. Its a style from over 100 years ago, where the photo is burned onto metal, with chemicals. The camera is a big wooden box.

Very cool picture. Would very much like to see it in the gallery.

That Cannonball is quite a ride and as demanding as a Dakar, certainly at least as heroic. Events like these hint at the mystique bond between rider and mount as these bikes are still as much alive as the steeds they were going to replace, demanding as much attention at every stage of the ride.

One question: how about flats? I noticed none or missed all. Are pre-30's motorcycles flat proof or is there some trade-off as in 'tinker with bike and have a flat-free ride'?

[rgiroux]

or this one

[pierce]

man, thats some gnarly helmet hair!

[rtwdoug]

thats from the big assed panorama shot at the golden gate bridge. a friend of mine from the CB somehow noticed I was giving the ADV salute, and zoomed in on it

[pierce]

you got the link handy to the whole picture?


edit: heh. you're on this video, skip to 1:40...

[Rango]

Originally Posted by rgiroux

or this one

Notice the affection of #88 for #9
sweet

[OHjim]

Pic: http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/mu...47490482&seq=5



Article: http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-motorcycle-touring/motorcycle-cannonball-endurance-run-zm0z13jfzbea.aspx

[rtwdoug]

Day 4, milwaukee WI to Anamosa Iowa

(and you thought I had forgotten to keep on doin this RR!)

I was up late dickin with my bike & others. Hopefully the magneto is now dry, and I wont have any issues from it. Sunny & no rain forecast, should be a good day.

Bill, who got hit by a car the day before, got his bike back together with a liberal amount of JB weld in the hole in his gas tank, & borrowed a front end from another guy. He was really bruised up, and couldnt start the bike, but he could ride. His friend Sean had to start it for the next couple days.



Sean knows his way around a harley.... and a hammer



Before we left, the bike & I both needed to leak a little bit. what a better place?



Steve was taking this photo, right as the head honcho from the HD museum pulled up. I dont think he found it as humorous as we did. He said 'what are you doing? we even fed you dinner last night!'
I replied 'I didnt get no damn breakfast'



the official start was at the hotel down the road, where the rich guys were staying. I was happy on the soft grass of the museum.

as usual, a madhouse as everyone got ready.



Buck from Texas with his BSA



Paul D'orleans(from the Vintagent blog) and Susan

[rtwdoug]

getting out of town sorta sucked, as did the roads, but finally, out in the countryside it was pretty nice.

we had a free lunch at Kutter harley, I think it was in Madison?
lots of people were there, and some friends of mine even came up to say hello.



polish Sokol a friend of mine has, very cool bike.









the rest of the day was riding into iowa. not much to see there, unless you have some sort of bizarre corn fetish

Still, every time I shut the bike off, it wouldnt start until I pulled the magneto cap off, & dried it out. There must be about a gallon of water in the bottom of this thing!

we ended up for the day at the motorcycle museum that the guy from J&P cycles has there.

they gave us a free dinner, which was nice. lots of people were there waiting for us. As in most of the stops, I met people from on here and from some of the magazine stories I have written.

this seems to be the only picture I took there, some wayward stripper getting her pic with Buzz's bike.

[rtwdoug]

Day 5 Anamosa, IA to Spirit Lake, IA

Iowa. Idiots Out Wandering Around

Well, this idiot got up early & wandered west.

boring ride. dont believe the tourist brochures, cental iowa is booooring!

The night before, I had drilled a hole in the bottom of my magneto to help get any moisture out of it. seems to have worked, as the bike is easier to start now. But, the engine was leaking a bit of oil, and it was really getting bad on the right floorboard, and my foot kept sliding off, the bottom of my boot was slick. it was a pain trying to keep my foot on the board.
So I stopped at a small store, & asked the lade behind the counter where the 'feminine products' were
she showed me, so I got a pack of oil absorbent pads for the floorboard.

As you may know, they have different absorbency ratings, light, medium, heavy, & 'good lawd!'
I got the latter. with wings, so they would wrap around & stick better. I still had to use tape tho. But the oil problem was averted.



another couple hundred miles, & I could feel the bike losing power. no idea why? finally, it died. I stopped, & tried to kick it, didnt want to spin over.
shit!
rear cylinder was really hot, so I pulled the head to see if I could fix it.

wasnt no fixin this with a rock & some corn



wrist pin got loose & ate into the cylinder wall. this explains the oil problem also, the compression blowby was putting too much pressure in the bottom end, forcing the oil out.

So here I am, sitting in bumfuck iowa





Luckily, not long after, the chase truck showed up, & we got picked up. I was hoping I could find something/some way to fix it that evening.

the 'new' indian factory in spirit lake was givin us free dinner, so I didnt want to miss that! I spent the rest of the day in the truck, stopping for other bikes. sometimes I could help get them running, sometimes I couldnt, & they went in the truck.

about 30 miles from the end, we were stopped & helping with an old BSA, when a local guy stopped with a goldwing & sidecar. When we were done, as he was going to the shindig, I hitched a ride in the sidecar, just for something different. it was a fun ride.

[rtwdoug]

Got to Spirit Lake ok, and had dinner while waiting for the chase truck & bike to show up. the Indian dinner was much better than the harley dinner, so I decided not to pee on their wall in the morning.

Then I started hunting for parts. I had borrowed the front cyl from Steve in WV when I galled up my piston, we had fixed my original cyl, but as it was a front, it wasnt gonna do me any good. I needed a rear. The other 101 guys were mostly travelling light, except for 1 guy, who had plenty of parts, but he wouldnt loan anything. I met a local guy who had an extra top end at his house, but he didnt want to get ride of it, as he 'might' need it someday.
I told him I needed it today, & would pay him enough to buy another set, but no go.
So I got on the phone. I finally found out that a guy I know in new hampshire had a new repop topend, made in australia. supposed to be pretty good stuff.
He said he could overnite it to me in sturgis, as thats where we were going to have a rest day, and I could put it together then.
BUT... they need to be fitted to pistons, so I also had to order pistons from another place, & have them overnighted also. by the next day, and alot of time on the phone, everything (I thought) I needed were heading to sturgis......

tinkering on bikes other than my own during the day





chase truck got full (not due to my lack of tinkerin abilities)





my sidehack ride



parking lot pics

[rtwdoug]

Day 6 Spirit Lake, IA to Murdo, SD

I'm stuck in a truck for the next couple days until I get to Sturgis & get my parts. Luckily, a friend of mine, George, who drives the swag wagon (selling CB shirts & crap at the stops) has room, so I just rode along with him.

We took different routes than the riders tho (to keep the chase trucks from helping out their riders during the day) But George also does all the planned lunch stops when we have them, so that was a break in the monotony of iowa. and trust me, anything to add excitement in iowa is welcome.

everyone leaving from spirit lake







I guess I didnt take any pics during the day, but that evening, we stopped in Murdo, south dakota, at the pioneer auto museum. they had a shitload of cars, and several bikes. it was worth a walk thru to see the stuff. building after building full of stuff. most of it had been sitting for years, much of it not in the best condition.





I really want one of these to ride. really nice bikes. too bad most of them I see are just sitting....












they didnt really have alot of bikes, mostly it was cars, with several collectable gems like pinto's gremlins, & a trabant





they had some nice/rare cars also. but we've all seen cars before.....

outside, the riders started gathering, they fed us at the museum, nothing fancy, but free food is always good, specially since I blew my trip budget on parts the day before....





since I couldnt do anything on my bike, I helped with other bikes. Claudio from Italy was having problems with his Sunbeam, the valve keeper was a small pin thru the base, which was broken. so I made one out of a small screwdriver. I liked how easy it was to work on this motor.





I decided to sleep on top of this trailer, as the lot was full of rocks. it was the coldest nite I had spent so far. at 3am I was wishing I had put up my tent. a steel trailer bed doesnt hold the heat very well.

[Gas Hog]

I was hoping you would finish up this monster thread!
Great pics and descriptions as always.
Gary

[rtwdoug]

Day 7 Murdo SD to Sturgis SD

it was a cold morning on the high plains. I walked down to the best western where everyone was leaving from, and to catch my ride.











who thought it would be a good idea to put a fireworks store here? there wasnt shit for 50 miles in any direction!





We got to Sturgis, & I went to Competiton Distributing, where they opened up their shop to us to work on the bikes. I got a good piece of floor space & got the bike ready for the new parts.



perfectly machined groove. too bad I dont want it there.....





my new pistons had arrived at the shop, but the cylinders werent due until tomorrow. I walked to the post office, talked to the lady in charge, & explained to her what was going on. she said she was there early, & express mail arrived at 6 am, & she would call me as soon as it came in.

So now Im at a standstill until I get the rest of the parts, so I spent the rest of the day helpin other guys.

Robert, workin on Brians JD


turns out the bottom end was toast, so Brian was packing it in. He didnt get his fresh motor finished in time, & had just stuck this used one in, it wasnt in good shape, I think he only made about 400 miles total



Paul was trying to get the cam fixed on his velocette, it had been giving him problems since the beginning.

took a little machining, and some new parts, but it got back on the road.





that night, there was a free dinner at glencoe campground, so we all headed up there. they had quite the meal for us!









I made it an early nite, as tomorrow was gonna be a loooong day!

[mrbreeze]