Motorcycle Cannonball across the USA in September

Kitty Hawk, NC

Concord, NC

Maggie Valley, NC

Chattanooga, TN

Huntsville, AL

Tupelo, MS

Hot Springs, AR

Danville, AT

Ada, OK

Clovis, NM

Albuquerque, NM

Gallup, NM

Flagstaff, AZ

Kingman, AZ

Victorville, CA

Santa Monica, CA

That is the route that the Motorcycle Cannonball will be taking during the month of September.  The details:  pre 1916 motorbikes riding slowly across America from the Atlantic to the Pacific in 16 days, stopping hourly for gas, oil, photo ops and ice cream.   Something like 200-250 miles a day on average, the longest days are up around 300 miles.  Team OcchioLungo will be there, riding from sunup to sundown with some of the regulars of the pre16 runs, plus some new guys too.  There will be a super cool trophy that Jeff Decker has made, but most guys aren’t trying to win that, we are just looking for some fun.

I’m signed up to ride the 13 Premier:  500cc belt drive single cylinder sidevalve, bicycle pedals and chain used for starting, 3 speeds and clutch in the rear hub, tops out around 42mph, around 50 miles between fillups.  A little math shows that there will be 6+ gas stops on the long days!  But I’m not foolish enough to think that the Premier will make it the whole distance before dark each day, or that it will make the full 3300 miles without trouble.  So I’m bringing the 16 Excelsior as backup:  1000cc, chain drive and a real 3 speed gearbox w/ kickstarter and capable of 65+mph.

Do you live along the route?  Know any cool stuff to see?  Leave a comment in the OL inbox (click just below the next photo).  I’ll try to snap pics of various things along the way and post some articles as time permits.

Photo copyright 2010 by Felicia Morgan of Thunder Press.