Cannonball! Coast to Coast on a '28 Indian

I came back from Europe early this year to do the Cannonball, its a race/run from NY to CA for bikes made before 1930. I've had this '28 Indian about 14 years. it was my daily rider for awhile, and I'd never put a wrench to it, so this past winter I went thru everything, to make sure it would (hopefully) make the trip ok.

Theres about 75 bikes entered. Most of the guys have alot more $ than me, and have chase trucks, RV's, enclosed trailers with machine shops, etc.

Which is fine, but I figured since Cannonball Baker (who the run was named for) didnt have a chase truck, well, I probably dont need one either.

Besides, its supposed to be an adventure, right?

To make it a bit more of a challenge, I decided to ride 1200 miles to the start in NY, then home from CA, another 3k miles. The CB is 3800 miles.
So, about 8000 miles on an 84 year old bike.

theres more info on the route & stuff on the official website www.motorcyclecannonball.com

I'm planning on 5 weeks total, the CB itself is 17 days long.

The bike seems to be all ready, and I'm heading to NY tomorrow.
I hope to meet some of you guys along the route.

I'll have my spot tracker, link is here
http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=2e1b4de3265776584

and heres the bike, pretty much all loaded & ready to go



I'll do my best to update from the road. but we all know how good I am at that......

Doug

Hey Doug best of luck on the ride, looks like another great ride. Any idea if there are pre-CBall events day before or day of and what time on the 7th do riders head out? Their website is rather sparse, I may try to make a run up to NY from DC to see it kick off.

I'm looking forward to this one. Good luck!

Awesome, subscribed
good luck and enjoy every mile of it

Hurry back Douglas for Barbers Vintage Festival Oct 12-14..............

I have every confidence in your ability to complete the race and the ride. Having read your ride reports I'm convinced that, regardless of R/Vs, rolling work shops, etc, if anyone can "make a silk purse from a sow's ear" you can.

Keep us as up to date as you can and feel free to embelish.

Hey Doug,

What a fun damn thing to do! Now I remember what that Indian t-shirt in my closet is all about. :huh

My ass was starting to hurt just reading through your itinerary! That's ambitious, huh? But like they say, "If you're gonna GO to the dance ..... you might as well get up and cut a rug."

Hope those big beautiful leather bags have plenty of "Monkey Butt Powder" in them.

Ride safe, good luck and I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines. GO DOUG GO!!!

Regards, Rob

Looking forward to the report

Wow.

What a fantastic bike!

subscribed.

Good luck Doug! Thanks for bringing us a long.

Embellish? Me? hahahah

It starts in Newburgh, NY, my sort of plan is to go to wheels thru time museum in NC tomorrow, then over towards Norfolk, VA, across the chesapeake bridge & up along the coast. Not really looking forward to NY City, but as its in the way, I'll have to deal with it.

Plan to get to newburgh wednesday.

Yes, it would be easier to go north & west of that area, but I want to make sure I go coast to coast, and for some reason, they didnt start the CB at the coast (even tho its advertised as 'coast to coast')

That eastern shore area is nice, & I havent been up there in a few years.

Believe it or not, even southern new jersey is nice.

The northern part tho, not so much....

Doug

Sweet motorcycle and I don't want to miss this one!

Dang Doug you are already too far east for me to offer a helping hand but if you guys are coming through Kentucky and need anything just let us know! Would be great to see the old machine! Travel safely and have FUN!

I think I'll ride over when you guys roll into San Francisco.

Yeah, this outta be fun - even if I see you before I read about it.

See ya on the Golden Gate Bridge!

I posted about you on our Facebook page and Indian's so more people can visit this thread and read about your epic ride.

mods: like all RTWDOUG's threads, this one is epic once again and should be stickied till he finishes

Doug which way are you going of va beach , you should be passing me and I like to catch a glimpse of that bike when you pass