2025.09.06
Statesville, North Carolina to Cherokee, North Carolina
I was excited for today's ride as I know it will be beautiful. This is one of my favorite parts of the country to ride in, and the first two days weren't too exciting of scenery for me but I always enjoy the Smokies. Sure enough the day started off very wet and foggy.
I stopped a short way out to check out some rusty old vehicles and VW Beetles turned into giant spider sculptures.
The finish line for the Motorcycle TransAm today is at Dale's Wheels Through Time in Maggie Valley. I've been to the museum a few times, but am excited to know that it not hosts some of the motorcycles from the National Motorcycle Museum that closed in Anamosa, Iowa, so this will be another chance to see them. Riding a modern bike and a more direct route, I of course beat the antiques in again and helped set up for the event, this time unloading merch for the merch table.
Pat Murphy was once again the first one in by a long shot on a Henderson.
My mom had drove out to meet us again after having stayed the past two nights at a cabin she really enjoys relaxing at in Asheville. She had good timing and we didn't need to wait long for my dad to roll in with a few other bikes. I ran into a few riders who I knew from the 2023 Cannonball Run, and I finally met Dakota Don of Iron Dinosaur Racing in person. He was enthusiastic to meet me and my dad and see the Harley J we'd put together. Don's Iron Dinosaur is a belly tank lakester landspeed racecar that has set ECTA and SCTA records and was displayed at Wheels Through Time a few years ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlyu7wnMbGAOne of the former Cannonball Riders I really enjoyed catching up with was Keith Kardell who has shared some great bits of philsophy with me. Keith's "krazy" background is that he used to be a professional stunt rider, and managed to still be riding motorcycles decades later.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fez7kBzt_0Q
Keith on the left
One of the late Dale Walksler's Cannonball bikes.
This 1910 Harley single was cool to see as Dave Currier is running a 1911 in the event, though his is heavily modified and this is a restoration.
Other than an interactive display, one of my favorite things to encounter at a museum is a mechanical cutaway. This museum has a few.
The Chopper area
A Pope! My dad had originally hoped to buy a Pope at Mecum and go through it for this event, but was outbid on the bike. I think him later finding a 1925 JE engine to have gone through worked out for the best though as the bike is already very dialed in and we're familiar with the Js.
One of my favorite Harley-Davidsons, a XA (eXperimental Army). Opposed twin and shaft drive.
A double Hummer! I'm also a fan of the DKW spoils-of-war 2-stroke Harleys, and really appreciate how well someone pulled off this build where you might miss it at first glance and then do a double take.
Another one of Dale's Cannonball bikes.
This is the motorcycle I had last seen at the National Motorcycle Museum and was looking forward to seeing again, one of William "Wild Bill" Gelbke's ROADOG motorcycles.
Ner-A-Car, Nearly A Car
My dad had asked me to take photos of him next to some of the motorcycle he's owned over the years. Not the exact bikes, but the same model and paint.
The scale of this museum is massive. It's best known for being the "Museum that runs" as most of the motorcycles run and staff go around giving an oral history of the bikes and starting their engines on the museum floor. Something I really appreciate about it though are all the odds and ends and memorabilia, it's not just a collection of motorcycles, but of the artifacts that go with them.
Another one of Bob's old bikes. He lived above a motorcycle shop in Chicago when he was younger, so he had the opportunity to dibs bikes that were taken on traded in but needed work before the shop could resell them, so he'd buy them, fix them up, and flip them.
My second Crocker sighting this year! The other one was at the
St Francis Motorcycle Museum in Kansas.
After walking through the museum again we came out to a downpour of rain so my dad moved his bike and we grabbed dinner from the food tent.
The damage for the day is that the Harley JE has lost the rear brake, leaving only the retrofit front brake. What a heck of a time to lose a brake riding into the Smokies. The rear brake is a band brake, which my dad had relined with new clutch fabric material since the 2023 Cannonball Run, and he suspects it's washed out with oil as it often was on the Cannonball Run. We checked the linkage adjustment and there's no issue there, so next I took the can of brake cleaner I'd been using to clean the final drive oil off the rear tire of my Guzzi and we cleaned the brake band up a bit with it. As we tested the brake again with me spinning the rear wheel and my dad applying the brake, I noticed that when the brake is applied it grabs the drum like it's supposed to, but the drum is then stopped while the hub and wheel are still spinning! That's our problem. There's a large nut that holds it in place to the hub, and that had backed off. We tightened it back up with a hammer and punch, tested the brake again and it worked like new again.
With brakes working again, I lead the way to our hotel in Cherokee for the night. It was 19 miles and a significant twisty mountain descent down to Cherokee. I hoped that the brake fix was holding up as my dad carried speed through the corners and stuck right with me on the descent though my plan had been to get ahead in the corners to give him space and then let him catch up in the straights. I was really impressed with how fast he went through the twisties, especially on wet roads.
At the hotel parking lot we walked around "the pits" and checked out what issues were being worked. The Italians pulled the transmission on Luca's Harley JD as it was difficult to shift and they had a spare.
A local had brought some spirits to share with riders and crew, and she had been expecting there would be some Chicagoans so she brought a bottle of Malört! I rarely drink, but Malört is my celebratory drink and this is a special event so I did a shot with her.
Pat Olson's is lucky to have the greatest crew chief around, his wife Monica. Each night she works through a maintenance checklist with him and details the bike.
The Italians had MacGyvered a decent looking rain deflector out of duct tape to help keep the front spark plug dry on Luca's JD.
After swapping transmissions and moving the sprocket over, the clutch was bound. I assisted Samuele with clutch removal and reinstall and he found the issue was with a different thickness of washer, so we carried that part over from the other transmission as well.
Similar to Monica, I am also a very detail oriented person when I want to be. Nearly any time I go on a long trip I put together a packing list to help keep me organized. Here's what that looks like for this motorcycle tour.
Recent Posts
Of course, at only 20HP, you don't need to FAST anywhere on those roads! 
