My Cannonball adventure

My Cannonball adventure
Meet "Effie" our 1915 Harley-Davidson Twin 3 speed

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The beginning...

Hi,
Just a little background. I found out about the Motorcycle Cannonball Ride back in November. I mentioned it to my husband, suggesting it might be something he would want to do. It's a cross country ride for pre-1916 motorcycles. It starts in Kitty Hawk, NC on Sept. 10, 2010 and ends up in Santa Monica, CA on Sept. 26th.
Long story short, he couldn't commit to it because of his work schedule and suggested I do the ride. Though we own a 1915 Harley, we had never had time to work on getting it running. My husband had owned it for many years and it sat for the past 20. So, not only would we have to get it running, but I would have to learn to ride it. I have been riding for many years, but this type of bike is whole, other world. It's like nothing I had ever ridden before, but I am always up for a challenge... and this would be the ride of a lifetime for me. I am an experienced cross-country motorcyclist, but again, I had never ridden anything this old. It has a tank shit and a foot clutch, a whole new way of riding.

I looked at the website for the ride. It’s beautifully done with loads of information. There are 3 classes of bikes. Class 1 is single cylinder bikes. Class 2 are twin cylinders and Class 3, ( my class) is multi cylinder with multi speeds. My bike should cruise at 50 mph pretty easily I am told. My bike also has electric lights. First year for H-D electric lights. They made 3,700 of these bikes and the original cost for one was a whooping $310.00!



1 comment:

  1. Love reading your story! Thanks for posting and sharing it! Good Luck in two weeks! Diane Rumbel, Pennsylvania MM

    ReplyDelete