Travels with Ernie: V7 850 USA coast-to-coast loop

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

Be warned this is a media heavy trip report thread and photos may be slow to load.

Last weekend was the first leg of a coast-to-coast loop ride I have planned to ride this year on my 2022 MG V7 850 E5 Stone Centenario.

It was off to a concerning start as I found that at the recent service the dealer way overfilled the final drive oil, which I posted about here:
https://wildguzzi.com/forum/index.php?topic=123836.0

My father is riding a 1925 Harley-Davidson JE in the 2025 Motorcycle Trans Am and I'm his support crew for the event, so I will be making the same stops and helping out with maintenance on his motorcycle. In recent years he competed in the 2022 Cross Country Chase which was an unsupported event but I tagged along to make a vacation of it and rode Route 66 on my V7 850 shortly after buying it, and then he also competed in the 2023 Motorcycle Cannonball Run where I was part of his support crew and followed along coast-to-coast on my 2021 Honda Trail 125. A trip report from that ride can be found on the Honda Trail 125 forum. The 1925 Harley JE is largely the same bike that he ran in the 2023 Motorcycle Cannonball, he just purchased a 1925 JE engine, had a specialist shop rebuild it, and then we swapped the engine. The JE engine required some electrical changes as well as a different exhaust setup.

The itinerary for my tour is as follows:
Home base in Colorado to the other home base, my parents' house in Illinois. In the books ✔️
Illinois to the start of the Trans Am in North Carolina this coming weekend.
North Carolina coast to the Oregon coast following the Trans Am event's stops.
From the end of the Trans Am event to Portland to visit with friends.
Finally, return to Colorado and get an answer to the question which has been nagging me - Did I leave the stove on?

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.08.23
It had rained early in the morning as I loaded my kit onto the V7, but the timing worked out well where by the time I got on the bike it was just a light mist. Could hardly see the Rockies through the fog. As I approached the I-25 on-ramp there were cars driving the wrong way down the shoulder of it where they had turned around and were getting off I-25 as traffic was at a standstill. I detoured around I-25 and jogged south down to I-70. First gas stop I pulled over for the card reader was down and I had some gas to go, next gas station I stopped at was new and hadn't opened yet. Made it to Limon for gas 23 miles after the low fuel light came on. Phew. Seeing cars going the wrong way down an on-ramp wasn't the end of the bad driving I saw for the day, as a semi-truck driver pulled forward with the diesel hose still in his tank at a TA station and the staff had to shut the pump down. Later while riding I smelled burning rubber and then caught up to a Jeep Grand Cherokee rolling at least 50 mph down the shoulder with a flat front tire. It's crazy out there!

A faint view of the Rocky Mountains in the distance












Kansas is quite tropical this time of year!




This was the first stop where I noticed oil on the rear wheel.




I made it to Salina, Kansas for the night and decided to call it a day so I could book a hotel room and spend some time researching the issue of oil seeping from the final drive.

While traveling I often send postcards along the way so I was excited to see stamp vending at one of the gas stops.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.08.24
The workshop manual for my bike said to warm the final drive oil before draining, so I started the day eastward and decided on Junction City, Kansas as my first stop. I found an O'Reilly Auto Parts within walking distance of an AutoZone and hardware store, so it seemed like a good place to work on the bike and have resources available to me. Sure enough I ended up needing something from each of them. With the final drive oil drained it was clear that it was just very overfilled as noted in the other thread. I was relieved as it would have really stunk to have a real problem this early into the trip. After losing time to that issue, I decided to call off work for Monday and take my time getting to my destination in Illinois instead of trying to make it there that night, which wasn't looking possible as I didn't leave the auto parts parking lot until afternoon. I sent a text to a friend (and fellow Honda Trail 125 long distance tourer) in Kansas City and decided to meet up with him and hang out a bit, grab lunch, and then plot out a more leisurely route to IL that included seeing some Muffler Men and similar roadside attractions.

Civilization! The Sap Bros truck stop in Junction City had washlet toilet seats. I think these may be the only ones I’ve seen in a public washroom in the USA.


My morning workshop setup


There’s a new fiberglass giant in Kansas City


This space man is the sign for Atlas 9, which wasn’t open yet but as I understand it, it will be a similar immersive art experience to Meow Wolf


Another giant on the other side of the Atlas 9 movie theater


The ideal adventure bike.


The roads in KC are rough, but surprisingly everywhere I encountered tram tracks was a smooth ride and not as sketchy as I expected on two wheels.


Following the yellow brick road...


To a great lunch at Pigwich


As it got dark a medium size dog, perhaps a fox, crossed the road in front of me and that was my cue to find a hotel and call it a night. I rode just a few more minutes to Macon, Missouri and got a motel room.


A neat trick I learned from a friend years ago is to give your helmet visor a spa treatment. Just drape a damp towel or paper towel (though paper is more likely to scratch) on your visor and leave it for a few minutes. Most bugs come right off with it so you hardly need to wipe the guts off the visor.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.08.25
My first stop of the morning was the Mark Twain Cave in Hannibal, Missouri. I've done the cave tour a few times over the years and decided to walk through it again. It is a "dry" cave, so not as much beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, and flowstone as you'll find in wet caves, but it has an interesting history and of course it's the same cave that appears in Mark Twain's writings. My route incorporated a lot of Muffler Man-ish roadside attractions that I mapped out on the Roadside America website, though there were still quite a few I skipped just to save time. Route 66, especially in Illinois, is loaded with roadside attractions.


Hannibal, Missouri has some great murals



Entrances to the Mark Twain Cave


It’s difficult to see, but this crack is the “lifeline” of the cave along its ceiling, and there is a small bat pouched up on the right side of the crack. There used to be thousands of bats in this cave but white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that came over from Europe, has largely wiped them out and they’re down to thirty-something bats in the cave this year.




My Goose with the Mighty Mississippi behind it


To celebrate my return to Illinois, I grabbed a dog dragged tru da garden.



The first real Muffler Man of the trip in Illinois.



A pink elephant and a goose walk into a bar…


This one was a Big John grocery display


A carpet viking turned spartan as a school mascot


And a Uniroyal Gal who moved on from tires and is now a pie lady


In Normal Illinois it’s normal to see a 15ft Carl serving ice cream and a burger







I had missed the bulk of the fiberglass giants along the route, which are in Atlanta, Illinois, but I did get to see the Gemini Giant, recently moved and freshly restored by American Giants.

[GuzziNZ]

👍 Excellent, thanks for sharing.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

Have been busy on the trip so probably won't get around to updating this thread much until it's over, but it's going well. Here are some US129 Photos I bought of my dad riding Tail of the Dragon on the J yesterday.










For anyone interested to see more 100+ year old motorcycles in those slow twisties, you can go through the Sept 7 photos on these sites.


https://xtremesportsphotography.photoreflect.com/store/store.aspx


https://www.killboy.com

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

I had mentioned that there were some changes to the Harley-Davidson J after swapping the JD engine for the JE, one of the more significant ones is the electrical system. The difference between a J and a JD is that the J engine is 61ci (1000cc) while the JD is 74ci (1200cc), but the E stands for Electric meaning it's a 61ci engine with a 3 brush generator instead of a magneto and would have had factory electric lighting. A concern with the 3 brush generator is that it is supposed to adjust output based on demand, and if that doesn't work correctly it can kill batteries. With the previous JD engine running a magneto we ran a small rechargeable battery as a total loss electrical system for just the lights and brought the battery into the hotel room to plug in and recharge at night. Now that the bike has a generator, my dad found two AGM batteries that fit nicely in the battery box. One for ignition and brake light, the other for headlight and running lights. With SAE plugs on them they could easily have their connections swapped or be removed from the bike and brought into the hotel at night for charging. If one battery were to die, the other one is ready to go as a back up. Another electrical change was the wiring and switches. The bike had the ignition switch on the handlebar dash area, but a problem with that is the cable routing. One side of the gas tank halves has clips for running wires under the tank and along the frame. On a Cannonball bike you want as simple and accessible of an ignition system as possible for troubleshooting and repair, and you don't want the ignition wires to be damaged when removing the fuel/oil tank if it needs to be removed. In 2023 the tanks on the bike did get a leak and need to be pulled, which is a two person job with the wires in place. To avoid the hassle of burrying the ignition wires, the ignition switch was moved to right next to the battery box, with the headlight and running light switch on the dash where if those wires got in the way or chewed up from tank removal they aren't as essential as ignition and brake light. The bike also got a new set of gas/oil tanks for this event. They're reproductions same as the set run in 2023, but higher quality. My brother patina'd and clear coated them to match the tool box on the rear carrier.









After a week in Illinois and helping with final preparations on the 1925 Harley, I got back on the road. I would ride to the North Carolina coast in three days, while my parents would leave a day later and trailer the Harley there in two days.

2025.08.30
Chicago suburbs to Gallipolis, Ohio
In the morning I was quick to hit traffic as it's pretty unavoidable wrapping around Lake Michigan the first half of the day. Right over the Indiana border a mini van nearly clipped me merging into my lane and it was clear the driver didn't look before changing lanes. The Indiana welcome sign was a neat photo op that many others were getting their pictures with, and they had information in the welcome center on how Indiana make use of a lot of wind power with a Don Quixote silhouette sculpture. The interstate in Indiana was awful. There were warning signs for windy areas and they weren't kidding. I don't think there was more than a mile of road that wasn't rough grooved or patchwork. I had to be careful around semi trucks as catching the dirty air buffeting behind them slammed my bike side to side and made it speed wobble pretty bad on the rough grooves. Ohio was a a welcome change as the roads were in excellent condition, smooth and a lot less truck traffic. Riding over a ridge after Chillicothe the scenery suddenly changed and I was riding into the foothills of the Appalachian mountains. There was a scent of burning leaves or bonfire that sparked mixed emotions for me as someone who loves midwest bonfires but has also evacuated from fires in Colorado. I got gas right before the West Virginia border and a guy at the gas station asked if my bike was a Triumph. I told him it was a Moto Guzzi and did the pinched fingers hand gesture as one does. 🤌 He'd never heard of Moto Guzzi. I got a room at the hotel next to the gas station as I saw a few bikers leaving there for dinner. I stepped on a Lego brick in the parking lot, luckily while wearing motorcycle boots, and decided to add it to the collection of charms and trinkets I carry while traveling. I don't think I'd ever been to a Bob Evan's before, so I gave it a shot for dinner and of course ordered a breakfast. The hot chocolate was great, food was mediocre.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.08.31
Gallipolis, Ohio to Waynesboro, Virginia
Being on the Ohio and West Virginia border, I've been craving Tudor's Biscuit World. I decided against it this morning because the hotel included a breakfast voucher (Guzzi content) where you make a selection of three items in the dining area, the wait staff put in your order, and bring it out to you. It wasn't a half bad breakfast. My first stop for the day was right across the Ohio River, the Mothman status in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. My Iron Butt unfortunately doesn't hold a candle to Mothman's stainless steel posterior, and that's why I'm riding on an Airhawk pad.









A rail-to-trail in Oak Hill, West Virginia




New River Gorge Bridge. I made the mistake of not changing out of my riding boots when I parked at the visitor center, so I only went part way down the stairs to the lower overlook.








Thurmond Road had been repaved since the last time I rode into Thurmond, West Virginia, which was a pleasant surprise as it's a narrow road and dodging deep potholes put you into the oncoming half before. Thurmond is possibly my favorite "ghost town" that I've been to and it was also a filming location for the movie Matewan (1987) which is a favorite of mine. When I parked at the Amtrak station in Thurmond a guy standing next to his pickup truck in the parking lot said "What kind of bike is that? I've never seen anything like that." It's a fun change from "I used to have a motorcycle. People don't pay attention on the road these days though!" yada yada.














The chin mount for my action camera has unfortunately given up again. Usually it is heat that causes the 3M tape to sag, but this time I think it was just interstate speed and wind.




It rained on and off and while planning a next stop to warm up I realized I'd better find a Tudor's Intergalactic Biscuit World before I leave West Virginia and there aren't any more of them. I found myself at the last Biscuit World in the state heading east, in Lewisburg, West Virginia, and when I approached the counter I heard the staff tell the lady in front of me in line that they were all out of biscuits. Jesus wept. John 11:35








Beautiful mural at the Waynesboro YMCA. There is a campground between the YMCA and the river that I stayed at several years ago while backpacking on the Appalachian Trail. At the time anyone could camp for free after checking in at the YMCA, but the signs indicated it was now for AT hikers only.




I got a motel in town and walked to dinner.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.01
Waynesboro, Virginia to Nags Head, North Carolina

After breakfast I walked to an Ace hardware next to the hotel and picked up some replacement double sided tape for my chin mount action camera. It's failed a few times on me now, so I'm not holding my breath for it to hold up this time.




For a future trip I would like to ride the 105 miles of The Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park. This trip I just got a taste of the southern end of the park, riding in far enough to get to a nice overlook to get off the bike and take in the sights and sounds, and then head on out again.








While I was on I-64 leaves rained down on me as wind gusts knocked them from the trees. For lunch I stopped in Colonial Williamsburg and had a sandwich at a cafe there. It was my first time visiting there and I was in awe of how large the living history museum is. I was expecting it to be a few blocks like a typical historic district, not 301 acres. There were horses to pet and I stumbled into a carpentry shop where a gentleman was working on wagon wheels and barrels for customers all up the east coast. Most of the walking surfaces were gravel or brick, but some of the old cobblestone was especially slick even on a dry day.





On the way to the outer banks I saw signs for a tunnel and had the stomach dropping realization that there were no mountains to go through... I took the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge Tunnel under the James River. I have no problem with Lower Lower Wacker Drive in Chicago, but there's something off to me about riding a motorcycle through a tunnel over 100 ft under water. Riding through the outer banks was beautiful though. I enjoyed riding down the road with ocean water on one side, fields of corn or even sheep on the other. I beat my folks to the hotel and then once they arrived we walked along the beach and grabbed dinner. It was exciting to have made it to the Atlantic Ocean. Now just need to ride across the continent and part way back again.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.02

First thing in the morning we unloaded the Harley and returned the U-Haul. My dad's support supplied for the trip consist of five 17 gallon totes. Quarts of SAE 50 oil take up about one and a half totes, one tote is daily items such as clothing and chargers, and the rest are spare parts, tools, and shop supplies. These will be traveling in another team's trailer that had the space for it. For the Motorcycle Trans Am event today we rode a short distance to Outer Banks Harley-Davidson where participants were encouraged to put their bikes on display and we got the first glimpse of the 100+ year-old motorcycles that will be competing in the event. Many of the riders, crew members, staff, and photographers are folks who I met during the 2022 Cross Country Chase, the 2023 Motorcycle Cannonball Run, or have run into at other motorcycle events, but there are a few faces that are new to me and I'm excited to get to know people.

Mobile workshop







A plane over Kitty Hawk




Jennette's Pier, where the event will be starting from




Outer Banks Harley-Davidson










Jared working on Tyler Golletti's 1921 Harley J. This bike is a great representation of some modern upgrades that are easy to glance over, such as Harley Sportster smooth wheels that look similar to clincher rims, and a Honda front hub that adds a front drum brake and speedometer.










Dave Currier's 1911 Harley single. A prior Cannonball winner and the second oldest bike in the event.




Bill Page's 1925 Harley J with sidecar. It is the only bike in this event with a sidecar, and his daughter will be the sidecar monkey and navigator.








There will be some long stretches between gas stations so some bikes have a secondary fuel tank plumbed in. Others will be carrying fuel jugs.




First fuel up of my dad's '25 JE for the event.




My V7 has a (temporary) sticker for this event. Connor is sweep staff on this event, meaning if someone breaks down or has an issue they're to call him and he'll try to help get them back up and running, but if not the sweep trailer will catch up and pick them up. For the last Cannonball someone had these stickers made up and handed them out, I felt better putting one on my bike this time since it was Connor who gave it to me.




Badges for the event and the roll chart for tomorrow's shakedown ride. The bikes in the event are not permitted to use GPS for navigation, so each day's ride has a rally chart that they load into a box with two dials to scroll it. Few bikes have a working speedometer or odometer, so bicycle computers either with GPS or spike magnets are used to display speed, odometer, trip, etc so they can read the chart and know their next turn is in X number of miles and count that off. There is also an app they can use where they load the day's route and it uses GPS to run the trip meter and they can tap to zero it out again at each turn.




Here's a photo of that setup with the end of the 2023 Cannonball Run's map loaded.




Walked the beach at night and encountered a styrofoam pumpkin with what I assume was its launch date written on it. I'm not familiar with what this is for, but tried launching it back into the ocean a few times only for it to return to shore just a few waves later.




Some of the OBX wildlife, crabs on the beach. They have great camouflage.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.03

Riders were given a shakedown route for today, a short route to a local lighthouse for them to become familiar with the roll map navigation. Many riders have participated in other events that have used them, but these were made with different software so there's slight changes to how they present information. My dad had already put in a good amount of miles on the Harley in Illinois dialing in the oiling on the fresh '25 JE engine with oil pump shims, and having already used roll chart maps before he asked that I just guide him right to the lighthouse where Olivier, one of the event photographers, was set up to take photos of riders with their bikes. He'd rather not do more riding than is necessary, especially before the event has officially started. We rode out to Bodie Island Light Station and got photos taken and talked with other riders, staff, and crew. I controlled the pace a bit and did 50 mph in a 55 so my dad wouldn't feel obligated to push the JE early on. It's capable of more than 55 mph, but he says it often feels like it's in a good spot between 45 and 50. In the evening there was a banquet dinner at Jennette's Pier where event staff introduced this inaugural Motorcycle Trans American ride and went over what to expect from the event. The event has quite a few sponsors but it's put on by Competition Distributing who make reproduction parts for early Harley models. The company was started by the late Lonnie Isam, who also founded the Cannonball Run event, and their hope is to reconnect those two things just with a different name for the event. The Motorcycle Cannonball Run, put on by different people after Lonnie, didn't announce an event for 2025 so many former cannonballers signed up for this event in hopes that it will be as much fun.

Matt Miller's 1916 Harley J with a great patina paint job


Pat Olson showing me how the lights are powered on his Harley J, he bought a cheap Milwaukee battery adapter so he can use a rechargable powertool battery for the lights. Todd Cameron, who won the 2023 Motorcycle Cannonball Run, had a similar setup on his 1909 Indian single except he ran his ignition off that battery as a total loss system.


I had mentioned the vast amount of engine oil that we brought with for this trip. The Harley J engines run around 4 - 4.5oz of oil in the crankcase and have a total loss oiling system so oil gets splashed in the crankcase but it does not recirculate. At a regular interval - some riders do every gas stop, every hour, every 60 miles, or once per day, you dump the crankcase oil, add 4 - 4.5 oz back in, and the oil pump will keep up draw from the tank to roughly maintain that amount of oil if dialed in correctly. These engines didn't originally have oil rings on the pistons, though many of the ones in this event do, so some oil gets burned up in the combustion chamber, some oil leaks, and some oil intentionally gets vented out the breather onto the primary chain. So as often as it's joked that Harley's leak, these ones are old enough that they were designed to do that. Here's my dad using his syringe system to put oil back into the crankcase after draining it. There is a hand pump on the oil tank (combined with the reserve gas tank half), but the amount that it pumps is not consistent so many J owners prefer to measure how much oil goes in. The hand pump can also be used under heavy load or high RPM if there's concern the oil pump might not be keeping up. Many riders also add Marvel Mystery Oil or 2-stroke oil to their fuel to help lubricate the top end.


Lunch fajita


Bodie Island Lighthouse


My folks behind the 1925 Harley JE, and me in front of my 2022 Moto Guzzi V7 850. Photo credit Olivier Touron




I really liked this view up the spiral staircase.


Mike Butts and his 1913 Henderson. I talked to him a bit about the bike and he only just got the bike from having it commissioned a few years ago, so he's still getting accustomed to riding it coming from a Harley JDH. Also pictured are Olivier, my great friend the moto photo journalist, and Kelsey Jackson, who is largely responsible for putting this event together.




There are a few American 4-cylinder bikes in the event so it's interesting to see their evolution. My favorite things from this era are the unusual foot board, and the twist-grip linkage that comes out of the front of the handlebars.



Not pictured here, but Mike said the one issue he's been having with the bike is that the clutch hand lever kept popping out of engagement, so he's been placing a pen in the notch in the gate after engaging the clutch to hold it in place.


Jennette's Pier again


The kick-off banquet

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.04
Nags Head, NC to Apex, NC

Today was the first day of the inaugural Motorcycle TransAmerican Endurance Run! The bikes are divided up into groups where the single cylinder motorcycles leave first, and then all the other bikes are broken up into 3 groups that will get the green flag 5-10 minutes apart to break up the 30-something bikes in the event. This morning is an early start as they want to get photos of the bikes all lined up at Jennette's Pier, so we were ready to go at 5:30 though the start time is 7am.



Some of the 4 cylinders. The group riding them are called the "Wolf Pack" because in a prior event someone had commented on how they were right behind them like a pack of wolves.


David flying a camera drone overhead to get video of the bikes and the ocean. David is from Italy and here as crew and media for Samuel and Luca who are also from Italy and riding in the event. I was very excited to see that they had come all the way from Italy to travel across the USA again after having last seen them at the 2023 Motorcycle Cannonball Run. As much as I am a big fan of theirs, they are also fans of mine and loved that in 2023 I rode my 125cc Honda Trail across the country as crew for that event.


In these events there tend to be three categories of motorcycles other than cylinder count, and they are Harley-Davidson, Indian, and "other makes". This is one of the other makes that is cool to see, a 1919 Excelsior series 19.


Hands down the most stylish bike in the event, a 1910 Thor 500cc single-cylinder engine paired with an Indian Prince frame and forks, with a hand made tank and of course it has a cheetah print paint job!


The 100+ year old motorcycles lined up for the start of the event.


When I travel I don't like staying in one place very long unless I have a busy schedule, so I was happy to get back on the road again. Leaving Nags Head I rode through some scenic wetlands. Here's a canal along US64.


Muffler Man in Wilson, North Carolina that bears a striking resemblance to Elon Musk


The finish line for the bikes today is at John Brown Community Center in Apex, North Carolina. Taking faster paced roads and a shorter route, I beat the antique bikes in and hadn't eaten yet for the day so I was delighted to find Thai food within walking distance.


My dad was the first Harley rider to cross the finish line for the day on his 1925 Harley JE


Frank Westfall's 1914 Henderson Model C


Lucile, Erik Bahl's 1915 Harley-Davidson 11F. I believe this is one of two pedal start motorcycles in the event, with the other being a Harley single.


The touring setup on Lucile looked very familiar to me as Victor Boocock had similar oil bottles on his 1914 Harley Davidson 10E in the 2023 Cannonball Run. I talked to Erik a bit and learned that him and Victor are good friends. One of the bottles is a dropper for oiling the rockers, and I forget what he said the other is for but the joke was that they're different condiments and one is hot sauce. Most other Harley riders in the event use grease on the rockers, so it's interesting to see the other variations in maintenance.


Dave Currier and his 1911 Harley single, the other pedal start bike.


GearWrench had a truck set up at the gathering and having time to kill, my dad and I checked it out. I wasn't very familiar with GearWrench, but learned that they're part of Apex Tools who make products under tons of labels including the store brands of Kobalt and Husky. Their staff were friendly and they had some pretty trick tools, but nothing we needed.


One of the failures of the first day, the headlight broke off Dave Currier's bike. Luckily someone picked it up so they didn't lose it, just the bracket.


For dinner the event had a ton of pizzas delivered.


As a small bore enthusiast, I may have been one of the only people drawn to this Honda S65 when there were much rarer bikes nearby.


The only "exhibition" bike in the event is a 1929 Henderson KL. It doesn't meet the 100 year requirement, but was welcomed into the event non-competitively. I get a kick out of seeing the Schwinn bicycle headtube badge on a four-cylinder motorcycle


After the bikes were dismissed from the community center, I rode with my dad to the hotel as his navigator. The roll maps are missing the final stretch from the finish line to the hotel, which isn't a problem for most of the other riders as they have trailers with and loaded their bikes at the community center to haul to the hotel for the night.


Pat Olson broke a pushrod on his 1921 Harley J earlier in the day and swapped it out. The company putting on the event, Competition Distributing, sell those pushrods and had them on hand.


The only issue on my dad's JE for the day was the tail light cutting out, which was a simple grounding issue that just needed to be tightened up as it's a chassis ground.


Rodney Sterling had the primary sprocket come off on his 1919 Harley J. Luckily that was the extent of it and no major damage, he got it reinstalled and added some threadlocker.


Team Butts have a few bikes in the event and a whole family of crew with which is great to see.


Team Dakota dialing in the 1911 Harley. In addition to being pedal start, it's the only belt drive motorcycle in the event. The black bags wrapped in duct tape are spare belts, as it can go through a few of them in a day. Both sides of the leather belt are used until worn smooth and it starts slipping.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.05
Apex, North Carolina to Statesville, North Carolina

After the antique bikes took off in the morning I went back into the hotel for breakfast and talked with Kazuo for a while. He is a professional photographer who is shooting photos of and driving the chase van for Mitsuhiro and Kat Kiyonaga of Kiyo's Garage. Kaz lives outside Osaka, Japan and rides a Harley shovelhead and a Honda Super Cub. We talked a bit about mini motos. He met Kiyo at a motorcycle show after having followed Kiyo's custom builds.

I pulled up a map of where I'd be going today and didn't see too much of interest so I decided to take the highway route and just get there. The last bit of the ride there were some good curves into Statesville and I was behind a semi truck that was carving the curves way over the speed limit, but I didn't mind as anything that truck could do I could follow. I passed by the motorcycle shop that the finish line is at and had to turn around to go back to it. It was low down from the road and looked like a warehouse, but there it was, Westside Twins. Since I was there early I asked Kelsey, the main event organizer, what needed doing and I helped set up the inflatable archway and the roadside flags that are meant to direct riders in. Some still passed the shop and had to double back same as I did. Pat Murphy was the first one in on a 1917 Henderson. He wasn't far behind me, so even though I had left after them and had breakfast, he had to be hauling. I talked with him a bit about the bike and told him he made it look effortless to ride. He's a very tall guy, so he was able to easily walk the bike around with the engine off. He said he owns a Henderson so he's familiar with them, but this one is a loaner that he's riding so he's still getting used to it.

As the other motorcycles rolled in I started to check out the mechanical failures for the day. Westside Twins opened their service area to event riders and crew to work on their bikes indoors and in A/C which was greatly appreciated.

Larry Butts said that his 1920 Harley J started to have a bad steering wobbly a few miles before the finish, they pulled over and found the frame had a crack at the neck.

The 1919 Excelsior lost the retaining bolt on the rocker and lost a pushrod on the rear cylinder.

Bill Page's 1925 Harley J sidecar rig had ignition issues as well as an issue I didn't fully catch with one of the valve pockets, but I think it was that a valve retainer was limiting the movement of the valve.

I talked to Kat for a while and learned that both her and Kiyo hold land speed records. She said she is mostly a racer so riding on the roads in traffic is something she's not very used to other than having ridden in Japan, so when Kiyo's bike (the Excelsior) broke down and she didn't have him to ride alongside they decided to load up both bikes for the day even though hers is still running great. We talked about bikes a bit and she mentioned that she had recently rented a Honda Dax in Japan and done the Shikoku Pilgrimage which is a tour of 88 temples. I put that on my list of things I'd like to do, and also got a lot of other great tips from her for my next trip to Japan. Their shop is just outside Los Angeles and they extended an invite to stop by next time I'm out that way, and that they sometimes go to the Mooneyes show in Japan and I should join them for that sometime. Mooneyes was already on my list, so hopefully it's something I can make happen.


Riding behind Dave Currier and a former Cannonballer who sponsored one of the dinner stops for the event.


The sales floor at Westside Twins. I tried to pitch the Hayabusa to a few of the riders without any luck.


The shop owner brought this Harley J out. They'll have it running in no time!


Peak biker culture. I was prompted to take this photo because of how kitsch and funny the gnomes were, and right after I did one of the crew members picked them up and bought them for the same reason, and to cause trouble with a spouse.


Here's the crack on the neck of that J frame.


The Motorcycle TransAm bikes on display.


Connor showing his skills as a YouTube certified Indian Motorcycle mechanic. Indian Motorcycles lent them a few Pursuit models for the event, and they were due for oil changes. Of course I'm the only one riding a metric bike with tools, so the Guzzi tool kit got put to use on a metric Indian. In all seriousness, Connor makes a living restoring certain models of *vintage* Indian motorcycles and is a skilled mechanic.


Some familiar oil! Indian call for 15w60, but this same 10w60 that the Guzzi V7 850 calls for is what was available at the local auto parts store. The drain plug on these bikes is a design I'd never seen before, and Indian's own parts website doesn't accurately display the threads on it in their rendering, so here's a link to a product page that has an actual photo of it: https://buywitchdoctors.com/products/plug-oil-drain-by-polaris


My dad's JE is still running well with no significant issues, just regular maintenance.


Adjusting the valves. Based on what the JD engine needed in the 2023 Cannonball, we're checking the intakes every day, exhausts every other day. So far it seems that less adjustment is needed on this JE engine, which might have to do with the base gaskets not compressing as much as the ones that were on the JD.


The aftermath of tire slime in a modern-ish Harley's tubeless rear tire. The tire had a gash in it so the slime didn't hold well, as can be observed by the spray, but it held enough to limp the bike in with a slow leak. The shop owner called in the youngest staff member and tasked him with cleaning the Slime. It builds character.


Danger Dan, live and on the air for a local radio station. He dropped a few swears by accident, but a minute into meeting him they should have known to expect that.


Mike Butts working on disassembling his brother Larry's Harley J so a local welder can repair the crack in the frame. As a little history lesson we took a look at slightly newer model years and saw that Harley had added gussets to address this issue. Unfortunately the motorcycle is out of warranty.


The cockpit on Dave Currier's 1911 Harley. After reading his notes I realized there's an exhaust gas temp sensor on the bike and that's one of the things he monitors as the notes show various mph, rpm, egt, and oil readings so at each of those speeds he has reference numbers to see how it's running compared to a good baseline.


Full shop at Westside Twins. The staff were really into having all these vintage bikes in their service area and helping people work on them, even if it was just finding tools or shop supplies for regular maintenance.


The cracked frame cleaned up for repair.


Kiyo's mobile workshop.


The front end off the J that is getting the frame repaired.


A local welder working on the frame.


The end result. It's a "Cannonball" repair. They're happy with it and plan on ordering a reproduction frame after the event, as Competition Distributing recently got into 3D printing the metal castings for frames that they build.


Bill Page applying sealant to a valve pocket.


New hardware to hold the rear cyl rocker on the Excelsior. You'll notice the pushrods have safety wire around them, which is a common trick to retain them when there isn't a pushrod tube. It was recommended to Kiyo by others who've lost pushrods so after he replaced the missing pushrod he wired them up with enough room to permit their range of motion.


Kat's Thor & Indian Prince custom, running like a top and just in for regular maintenance.


How many motorcyclists does it take to reattach a sidecar? The more the better!

[skippy]

Great read. Lots of fun, personal,  narrative. Can't wait to see someone with a hundred year old Guzzi take up the challenge. I know I would be first in line to offer support, if not try and ride a 100 year old Moto Guzzi across a continent. (So long as someone loaned me their bike).

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

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=vlyu7wnMbGA

One 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.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.07
Cherokee, North Carolina to Columbia, Tennessee

It was another beautiful foggy morning in the smokies. My Moto Guzzi was so wet from the dew and fog that if you sprayed it with a hose you couldn't get it that wet. Luckily I wear a Roadcrafter suit, so I just brush off the seat pad in the morning and that's enough for the moisture to not soak through my suit.



Unlike earlier in the trip where the Goose was handling very poorly at highway speeds on the rough and windy roads of Indiana, it's been very smooth riding through Appalachia even rolling 80 mph. The bike is a blast in the mountains. Early in the morning I stopped at the Nantahala Outdoor Center, or the NOC, so I could get off the bike and take a few steps on the Appalachian Trail where a footbridge takes it over the Nantahala River. The NOC is known for being a great white water location and in 2017 while backpacking on the Appalachian Trail I camped nearby for a few days with friends so we could catch a freestyle kayaking competition.



A short ride out of the NOC I spotted Kat on her cheetah print Thor, an unmistakable motorcycle.

Crossing into Tennessee.


I headed to Chatanoogah for lunch and enjoyed riding along the Tennessee River for some time. In downtown Chattanooga a dog darted out and started chasing me, of all the rural places I've had dogs run after me, this was a first for it happening in a city. After grabbing a sandwich for lunch I continued on to the finish line for the Motorcycle TransAm today which is Columbia Motor Alley, Mike Wolfe from American Pickers' place.




I arrived early again so I helped set up. There was time to kill so me and one of the staff members walked to the welcome center and picked up some post cards and pins. The riders had done Tail of the Dragon at Deal's Gap today, and luckily the brakes held up on my dad's Harley JE. One of the riders did a bit of offroading and aparently waved off help out of embarassment when folks stopped to see if he needed help getting the bike up and back on the road. Some of the photographers got some really great shots today, and of course there were photos from Killboy and 129 Photos which have photographers take photos of just about every vehicle that passes through US 129 during daytime hours. Mike Wolfe gave a tour of some of his collection, which was open to the public for the day. Something I appreciate about his collection is that most of the motorcycles are hardly what would be called a motorcycle, they're such early models that they're either literally bicycles with engines fixed to them, or the first iterations after that toward the design of a motorcycle.












Dream bicycle shop setup here with the full Park Tool catalog and a tandem!


My dad and his 1925 Harley-Davidson JE.


I've balanced tires, but never an intake.


Ghost signs in Columbia, TN


It was a long day and it's starting to catch up to people, even the crews.


Someone picked the picker.


We had tacos catered for dinner and I helped the Italians place a phone call as they were having trouble dialing a USA number to Wheels Through Time. An old friend from Illinois and his wife had come out to meet us, so my dad and I ended up being some of the last people to leave the motor alley.

Back at the hotel parking lot Dave Currier told me he had put in 12 hours of saddle time today on his 1911 Harley single. His motorcycle has what is basically a bicycle saddle by necessity of needing to be able to pedal the motorcycle to start it, and to assist it at times on inclines or pulling away from a stop.


Rodney Sterling troubleshooting a valve pocket on his 1919 Harley J.



I checked in with Samuele and he said that he had heard a noise from behind the JD's timing cover, like a bearing going out, so he had just pulled the cover and found the intermediate gear was walking out. He tightened the bolt for it and was very relieved to have caught that as it likely saved them from a disaster tomorrow.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.08
Columbia, Tennessee to Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Our hotel breakfast was interrupted by an older woman spazzing out and yelling at the news they had on on the TV, not something I was willing to tolerate first thing in the morning so I grabbed a wrapped muffin and decided I'll snack on the road.



My route dipped into Kentucky for a bit on today and I saw barns full of tobacco strung up to dry, and the resulting condensation that looks like smoke pouring out of the barns as if they were on fire.






Part way through the day I found myself riding alongside Olivier the photo journalist for a bit which was fun because he's usually riding full throttle trying to leap frog all the riders to get ahead of them for pictures, and then gets back on his bike and passes them all again for the next scenic photo opportunity. He's an incredibly skilled rider, as some of the photography he does while rolling down the road at 50 mph is pretty much stunt riding.





After he'd lost me, I got stuck behind a funeral procession which I didn't mind as I wasn't in a rush, but it was an interesting reminder of cultural differences that can be observed on the road in America, in that cars pulled over for the procession. Not just cars, an oncoming semi truck pulled off onto a grass shoulder for it to pass by. Southern hospitality.

As I approached the Mississippi River I spotted a park to pull into alongside the river. Right after turning into the park entrance which sloped down to the river I nearly dumped the bike after hitting loose aggregate in a pothole. I was a bit shaken by that, but found relaxation taking a break off the bike and looking out over the big river.



Back on the road again I caught up with some of the Wolf Pack again and paced them rolling 55-63 mph according to my GPS! Those Hendersons fly, they just don't brake as well as they roll.



At Cape Girardeau my dad was the first vintage bike rider into the event. Our friend Andy, the owner of St. Charles Motorcycle Museum in Illinois, rode out to meet us so we grabbed a late lunch with him, his fiancé, and two of his friends to hold us over until the hosted dinner.



Back with the bikes at the parc fermé, there was also an antique car show going on and the city had hired a DJ. I got up to no good and requested the DJ play The Boys are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy, and then passed that mission on to others at the event. The DJ was a good sport and played it a few times with other songs mixed in between.




Olivier joined us at dinner and him taking off his cameras to sit down is like watching a comedy where someone checks their guns and just keeps pulling pistols out one after another.



Another support crew member dozing off.


Old map of Cape Girardeau inside of the Port Cape restaurant.


Mississippi River


I love ghost signage, but it's also great to see one restored.


One of the mechanical failures of recent was Matt Miller's 1916 Harley J had seized up. He had it apart at the nearby Grass Roots BMW dealership and it seemed that a piston wrist pin keeper had come out and gouged one of the jugs. With the engine out of the bike he'd arranged to send it back to his machinist and have the rest of the bike hauled home. The rider in the event that he had paired up with for sharing a trailer was hauling a Harley VL, so he'd continue the ride on that though disqualified.






Luca Geron's 1925 Harley-Davidson JD has a band brake up front. I think it's the only motorcycle I've ever noticed one on.



Dave Currier's 1911 Harley had the engine out for rebuild and repair. A cam-stay broke and they welded it.


Erik Bahl doing some solder repairs on a fuel line for someone else's bike.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.09
Cape Girardeau, Missouri to Branson, Missouri

My brother had rode out yesterday from around Chicago on his Yamaha FJR1300 and met us in the evening to see the antique motorcycles being worked on in the hotel parking lot, so I had breakfast with him and my mom this morning. He'd liked to have tagged along for more of the trip, but had work and family to get back to after seeing my dad off at the starting line for the day.




On the road right off the bat I saw a deer on the shoulder, then three more crossing the road, then another on a hill in the distance. Deer in the road are a better wake up call in the morning than coffee!

For the second time on this trip I ended up behind a commercial truck, this time a box truck, that was "hauling the mail" through the curves and hills. I had a lot of fun tailing it, but from a good distance as it was frequently grazing the shoulder and kicked up gravel and dust.

Andy, his fiance, and their two friends passed me on their BMWs and looked very comfortable rolling at least 85 mph. I think their bikes are the BMW K 1600 GT model which my brother has been eyeing as a potential replacement for his FJR1300 that has gone through two engines because the countershaft has a tendency to shoot through the side of the cases during wheelies. One would think Yamaha would have done better product testing of that, especially with it being a common police bike in the international market. 😆




Joe Preston, one of the crew members for Team Butts, recommended I hop on MO-76 so I detoured back up to it. He was right and it was a great route that went to the peak of hills for a great view, and then dropped down like a roller coaster. My stomach dropped through some of the ups and downs. The Guzzi was a blast to ride today and very stable, there was only mild wind and roads were mostly smooth.






I watched my dad roll by as I got gas about 23 miles out from the finish line for the day, Table Rock Lake in Branson. At the finish line the vintage bikes did not need to stay so we left and went to the hotel early to relax.




The slight variations between years on the Hendersons are interesting to see, such as this twist grip where quite some length of the bars turn with the grips.




There was not a lot of work being done on the vintage bikes other than regular maintenance.
Pictured here are some pliers my dad found that fit into the very tight space around the exhaust pushrod tubes to loosen them and get access to the pushrods. Since buying this motorcycle in early 2023 he's put together a nice kit of specialty tools for working on it, including some handmade wrenches that him and my brother made for it.


I talked to Erik Bahl as he went through the maintenance on his bike and learned that he runs less than the usual amount of crankcase oil, 2 oz instead of 4 - 4.5 oz, and just has a strict regiment of changing it more frequently, with the idea being it's less drag and results in more power. Erik lives in Huntsville in an area where Wernher von Braun and many of the scientists and engineers from Operation Paperclip were relocated to after WWII, and we had a great conversation about that bit of aerospace history which I have some exposure to through my own work supporting space science.

The Italians rode for 11 hours because Samuele's 1924 Indian Scout did not have the right oil level. To be cautions, he stopped every 40 miles to dump oil and make sure it was not too much or too little.

Team Butts had a beautiful workshop location for the night with a view of the Ozarks outside the hotel.


Tyler Goletti's 1921 Harley J, "Debra J", has been nothing but trouble so him and his crew hauled the bike ahead to Kansas where PVP Cycles who helped go through his engine earlier in the year will be meeting us at Twisted Oz Motorcycle Museum tomorrow, and they'll try to sort out the engine there.

Kat made all 278 miles today on her 1910 Thor and was ecstatic about that and gave me a hug. It was the first day of the event that she made all of her miles, and she had done it riding solo half the day after her husband Kiyo's 1919 Excelsior ran into issues and was swept about halfway through the day.

The hotel had Road Burners in their arcade, but my butt has had enough saddle time this trip that I passed on playing it.

[Pescatore]

2025.09.08
Columbia, Tennessee to Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Wow, this is an amazing experience. Even more precious going with your dad.
Which gps are you using, or is it an add-on android auto device?

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

Wow, this is an amazing experience. Even more precious going with your dad.
Which gps are you using, or is it an add-on android auto device?

It's been great getting to spend more time with him working on motorcycles and touring together in recent years. I'm glad we ended up with that hobby in common. For 2026 we're hoping to do a long distance tour on vintage bikes with my brother.

The GPS is a Garmin Zumo XT2. I have the Moto Guzzi OEM accessory USB port installed under the seat of my V7, and the Garmin's power is spliced into that for switched power so when I turn the ignition off the GPS prompts you that it's shutting down due to power disconnect unless you press Cancel on the screen to stop the shutdown. It keeps me from accidentally draining the battery that way. The Garmin is accessorized with a screen protector, a "GlareStomper" sun shade, and a 3D printed "bumper" case for when I inevitably drop it.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.10
Branson, Missouri to Augusta, Kansas


After the vintage bikes set off, I had breakfast with some of the event staff and learned that Team Dakota and the 1911 Harley single had packed up and headed home. The event had set a cut off time of sunset that the bikes need to make it to the finish line before, which is much more relaxed than the Cannonball Run's timing was, and Dave Currier crossed the finish line 3 minutes past sunset last night on his 1911 Harley single, so he received a 3 point deduction which cost him the lead. With how the scoring works, there's no way to make up that loss of points, the only way to place in first would be for everyone else to at least miss miles or points, which is highly improbable. People are in this event for a multitude of different reasons, and Dave was here to win, so it wasn't too surprising that they left the event after losing the lead.

Early in the day I saw a wide variety of animals from the road. Cattle, a donkey, sheep, and some turtles crossing the road that I'd have stopped to move across but there wasn't a good opportunity to turn around.










Here it is! The needle in a haystack!


There was a lot of wind on US 400 into Augusta and oncoming semis were just a lane over so it was a stressful ride. Eventually traffic slowed for road construction and it rained a bit, then I arrived at Twisted Oz Motorcycle Museum.




Inside the museum Tyler Golletti's 1921 Harley J, "Debra J", was on a lift being worked on by the Unruh family who operate Pocket Valve Performance and had gone through Tyler's engine ahead of the event. They're the same specialty engine building shop that had done the top end on my dad's 1927 JD engine, and they did the rebuild of his 1925 JE engine.


Rat Fink!




One heck of a Cannonball sidecar rig.


I like that the Twisted Oz twister is made out of barbed wire.


It might not show well in the photo, but this Indian 4 engine is sitting in a chopped down frame and with smaller wheels. It reminds me of Honda's "Little Cub" bikes where they swapped out the 17" wheels for 14" wheels to make them even more accessible.


My second Cleveland four sighting of the year. This one is very original and has beautiful patina while the one at the St. Francis Motorcycle Museum is a nice restoration.



One-of-one JJ Wood motorcycle





Both Indian and Harley had their trials with opposed twin engines early on.


12 inch gauge 4-6-0 steam locomotive adapted to run on compressed air.




The rain had brought out some frogs and toads in the muddy grass in front of the museum, and I walked over to the entrance after parking because there was a Nimbus Type C sidecar rig parked out front and I imported a Nimbus from Denmark last year so now I'm more attentative to the details I see on them.




It's not often that you see a bike with a sidecar also fitted with an aftermarket side stand. My 1952 Nimbus Type C only has the factory center stand so I've been looking at options for adding a side stand. Most that I've seen obstruct access to the oil filter screen, but this one looks like the filter could be removed with the side stand down.



The vintage bikes took a different route and stopped at Big Brutus, the world's largest electric shovel, so I still had time to kill. I was talking with the event staff and found out they had a TV for displaying the riders' locations, but had lost the stand they intended to mount it on. We cleared some space on the merch table and I got to setting it up. Even as a lifelong IT professional, I'm not much of a gadget person and tend to dislike dealing with mobile and IoT devices, but I managed to get Kelsey's iPad displaying the Life360 app on the TV screen so folks could see how far out the riders were, for the riders that had opted into setting up the app for the event staff to locate them.


Again my dad was one of the first Trans Am motorcyclists across the finish line for the day. He hasn't been pushing the bike to go fast, he just spaces gas stops as far apart as is comfortable and doesn't stop for long.


A friend who met up with us earlier in the trip handed out American flags for the upcoming 9/11 anniversary, and the rain had stopped, so I set Ernie up with the flag.


Gary and Michelle. Gary is a nurse and the medic for the event. I've been joking with Michelle about cooking meth every time it rains because her rain gear reminds me of the hazmat suits from Breaking Bad. She's been a good sport about it.


The owner of Twisted Oz, Kelly Modlin, is a former cannonballer and made it a point to try to host the best dinner of the event same as he's done when hosting a stop for the Motorcycle Cannonball event. It was an excellent dinner and for dessert I ended up having all three flavors of homemade ice cream. There was great conversation at dinner and I got to know Frank Westfall and learned about his work. He's one of the maniacs on a Henderson 4, and his doesn't have gears. He's a second generation tailor out of Syracuse, New York who makes high end leather goods such as jackets and purses at his shop Middle Earth Leather. He's just as boisterous as one would imagine of a New Yorker and I got a kick out of picturing him representing his goods at ritzy fashion events, surely not in the Henderson 4 "Wolf Pack" t-shirts he sells off of his bike at the parc fermé each night. What a character.


My dad's 1925 Harley JE is still chugging along with just regular maintenance and minor repairs. The crankcase breather tube was trimmed to clear the primary chain that it breathes oil out onto, but it seems the chain is loose enough to rub it now and knock it loose so the breather tube is floating around a bit too. The chain slapping the breather tube makes a ticking sound, so it's been bothering my dad as that's a worrisome sound to have coming from the motorcycle. We slid the transmission to take up slack in the chain, and wrapped the breather tube in tape where it punches through the primary cover to snug it up.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.11
Augusta, Kansas to Dodge City, Kansas

Yesterday the locals who came out to see the bikes at Twisted Oz asked where our next stop was and when I said Dodge City they mentioned there wasn't much to see between the two places. I had done this stretch on my Honda Trail 125 in 2023 so I knew what to expect and remember enjoying some of the rural back roads that the small bore bike pushed me onto, but otherwise being bored to the point of wanting to doze off.


Tim Burns and his hot rodded 1925 Harley JD


Matt Miller on a loaner Harley VL from Tim Burns as Matt's 1916 Harley J seized up earlier in the event.


The Italians. David, Samuele on his Indian Scout, Luca on his Harley JD, and Zappa. They shipped their bikes and all parts and tools to the USA ahead of the event which required an extensive manifest for customs. At the end of the event they will ship the bikes back in the same crates which are carried in their rental box truck.


My old man, Bob Jesernik, and his 1925 Harley JE.


Olivier Touron the photo moto journalist on his trusty Harley-Davidson Road Glide 117ci. He tells me that the faster this bike goes, the more stable it is.



The goose in front of Twisted Oz



I decided I'd take US 400 and just get from point A to B fast and spend most of the day at Boot Hill. There were long stretches of grooves on US 400 but they weren't a problem for tramlining like the ones earlier in the trip in Indiana. Most of the bother for the day was gusts of wind from trucks blasting by.

M.T. Liggett's political totems in Mullinville, Kansas, and Tim who's been following the event on a 5th gen Gold Wing




I had caught up to Kelsey in the staff van and she waved me over, hopped out, and then explained that she had panicked because she thought my bike was one of the vintage ones way off course! They did have course corrections for the day and Kevin had to blast ahead on his Harley FXR Pursuit to catch the Henderson 4s and direct them to the detour route.

The finish line for the event was at the Dodge City visitor center and when I got there I helped the event staff set up their flags and the merch table. When my dad arrived we walked over and grabbed some Mexican food for lunch.

Two roaring locomotives at Boot Hill in Dodge City, Kansas


Doc Holliday watching the trains roll by


Fuel tank repair on one of the Hendersons






Another goose, and it's not in a museum or a dealership!


From the visitor center I watched trains roll by and got to see new Boeing fuselages being shipped by rail from Wichita to Seattle for assembly. Apparently they tend to show up to Seattle with bullet holes in them.


Dodge House Hotel and Convention Center. I'd passed by this a few times before and this was my first time staying there.




The place definitely had character, but encapsulating a motel courtyard resulted in the central area being uncomfortably hot as all the motel room wall AC units pumped hot air out into it. The Italians loved the western theme and managed to remain cool in the pool.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.12
Dodge City, Kansas to Trinidad, Colorado

Ryan Allen, a prior cannonballer and sweep rider, out to see the Trans Am riders and their bikes.


One of the nice things about having such early starts is catching the beautiful sunrises.


Bart Grelinger's 1925 Harley JD getting a leaky fuel tank swapped out.




Hit the road and stopped at Texaco signs.


Quickly caught up to some bikes and got gas by them. Looked like Pat Olson might be fixing something by the side of the road.



I rode behind Olivier the photo moto journalist for a while and he must have had some good tunes in his helmet because he was standing up on the bike and dancing hands free when he wasn't shooting photos.



We passed by tons of cows today, and in one of the fields a dog ran alongside the bikes on the other side of a fence but more playful than menacingly. There were also crows picking at a dead deer in the center of the road.

Erik, Matt, my dad, and Olivier crossing into Colorado.


Olivier took this photo of me and the Goose in front of the Colorado welcome sign.


Payphone! No dial tone unfortunately.


Fuel stops are starting to be more sparse.



This gas stop was a pain. The pump took a while to get flowing and then was dispensing pennies worth at a time. With the range of these bikes and the fuel they're carrying, most needed to use it. To be safe on my range to the next stop, I fueled up a bit too even though it was only regular octane.


Olivier filming with a drone as the motorcycles roll down the road.



The next stretch of road my boots and legs kept getting hit with something. I looked down and realized it was grasshoppers as they splattered on my boots. It didn't matter if I rode the center line or by the shoulder, they were jumping up from the road and kept pelting me.


Dusty's Steak. I didn't stop in as it looked like the steak would be a bit too dusty.



Arrived in Trinidad, Colorado



Bryce, one of the event staff, spotted a praying mantis in rough shape and relocated it to some greens.


We heard that the city is rehabbing a historic building nearby, the Fox West Theater, so we walked over hoping to see the inside, but it was closed.


Steam Engine 638, this was the last coal-burning steam engine used by the Colorado and Southern Railroad (C&S)


Tyler Golletti and his 1921 Harley J "Debra J". After struggling with mechanical issues the whole event so far, this was the first day of the event that Tyler made all his miles.







Before the event's dinner, my dad and I walked over to a restaurant nearby and had salads with some of the other riders. Travel tends to result in a lot of gas station snacking, so good salads are always appreciated.

The event had a great Mexican dinner though and cake for dessert.


Tomorrow will be one of the more challenging days for the vintage bikes since the Smokies, as we'll be crossing the Continental Divide.

[eldointheweeds]

Good times! I am jealous...

[Mayor_of_BBQ]

This is awesome, following along. Thank you for the excellent post!  This is good stuff!

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.13
Trinidad, Colorado to Durango, Colorado

This was the coldest morning of the trip so far, low 50s expected to be mid 50s by the time I got on the road. Below 55° tends to be my uncomfortable range without proper winter gear, which I hadn't planned on bringing on this trip. My thought was that if I needed something warm, I would buy it along the way rather than carry stuff I might not use. Gary the medic had a bunch of "hot hands" packets so he gave me some. I activated two of them and stuck them in the chest insulation pad accessory I have inside my Roadcrafter.



More early morning troubleshooting and repairs on Bart Grelinger's 1925 Harley JD. He might have a slow start from issues, but he's persistent and has been getting on his way.


There were great winding curves right off the bat, but they were shaded by trees so it took a while to get into the open sun and warmed up. The road was broken up and loose at some points where the front tire on my bike washed out a bit which was a good way to shock me out of feeling how cold I was. In Monument Park I watched a bald eagle fly over a lake, but even better was when I pulled over I could hear its call! If you've never heard a bald eagle in person, they sound like seagulls. Movies tend to use the call of a red-tail hawk because it sounds more badass.


Bill Page and his daughter Amy on a 1925 Harley-Davidson J hack


First gas stop of the day. It's great to see the Sinclair dinosaurs out in their natural habitat.


Around Lavita Pass I came upon a bunch of the vintage bikes parked on the right side of the lane on an uphill. I rode by real slow trying to figure out what the concern was, but they were giving thumbs ups. I later found out that Mike Butts' 1913 Henderson, which is a single speed, simply didn't have the power to make it up that hill with a rider on it. Team Butts tend to ride together, so they had stopped to get the bike up the hill. Shortly after that pass on US-160 the weather got real bad. It started to downpour and I had to crack my visor open to see, but visibility on the road wasn't far in the rain. I normally have a pinlock in my helmet to help with fog, but earlier this year on a particularly hot day it started to droop from the heat and lost its shape that keeps it sprung to the inside of the visor. The temperature, according to the instrumentation on my V7, had gone from 54° to 64° when it had warmed up, now down to a soaking wet 40° followed by sleet! I have been wearing gloves while riding, but they're perforated leather gloves that quickly soaked through so I warmed my left hand on the left cylinder head while riding. The bikes that were ahead of me I spotted pulled over either on the shoulder or in Alamosa or Monte Vista waiting it out at gas stations. I got gas in Monte Vista and Danger Dan complimented me on my space suit. He was soaking wet, but enthusiastic that the bad weather had just cleared up and we were seeing the sky again.

Olivier the HI VIZ photo moto journalist


Bryan Helm (photographer) and Danger Dan on a 1921 Harley JD


I detoured into the Wally World where I found other motorcyclists in the same situation as me, upgrading their gear. I bought some cheap snow gloves and a load of hot hands packets. The gloves weren't motorcycle gloves so they bunched up when making a fist, but they were dry and warm so I was happy to be wearing them.

Wolf Creek Pass Tunnel


I crossed the Continental Divide at Wolf Creek Pass, 10,856 ft elevation, and had to turn around to catch the sign because I actually hadn't realized that was the summit until I saw the road start to descend again in the distance.







Last fill up before the finish line.



The finish line for the Motorcycle Trans Am today was Durango Harley Davidson. Once I got there the weather kept jumping back and forth between being nice and warm, and cool and raining. It was good business for the merch tent as the drain drew a crowd under its cover! In Durango there was beautiful color in the trees, especially for not yet being into autumn.



A few Starbucks riders came out to see the vintage bikes.


Escaping the rain and listening to Frank tell stories of past endurance runs he'd done with his Henderson.


Mammatus clouds


The Durango Harley Davidson shop actually had some decent merch. I bought a postcard and a poker chip, and talked myself into some Harley-Davidson gloves with skulls on them as a more comfortable alternative to the cheap snow gloves I had picked up earlier in the day. If I was going to buy an article of Harley-Davidson gear or clothing, it needed to be as over the top as possible so these fit the bill even though they cost the GDP of a small nation. My dad had bought some "screw it" socks at a gas station as his socks got soaked in the rain.


A Screaming Eagle (red-tail hawk scream, not seagull scream) Harley-Davidson V-Rod! In the year of our Lord 2001 Harley-Davidson brought the space age material of aluminum to motorcycling with this bike /s


Harley-Davidson (rebadged Armstrong) MT500


Erik Bahl giving a tour of his 1915 Harley-Davidson 11F to one of the shop staff.



We had dinner outside as the rain held off for a while, and everyone had a story to tell from the day. Olivier watched a deer run along side him for a bit today where he thinks he had a soulful connection with it. Olivier's wife is native, so I think he may have been predisposed to this. He said that after a road sign with a picture of a cow, he saw a cow which was funny. Earl Bahl said an eagle flew very close to him early in the trip and they exchanged bodies and he flew 100 ft over his bike and watched the eagle rise his bike. Erik's probably got some great fishing stories.


One of the smallest meditation circles I've encountered.



At the hotel for the night as everyone was working on their motorcycles the Moto Guzzi's metric tool kit got put to use again on a metric Indian. Two of the modern Indians had done a bit of rubbing and they wanted to take some of the body panels off to identify the scope of the damage for ordering replacement parts.

My new HD skull company gloves. I also picked up a container of marshmallows because it seems every hotel has hot chocolate, but just hot chocolate, no mallows for them.


Tim Burns is obsessed with Indian food and ice cream. There hasn't been much Indian food on the route so he was excited to look up Indian food and find Himalayan Kitchen, a Tibetan and Indian restaurant, in town. We  commandeered one of the event vans and Connor drove us there. Connor missed every turn while driving us there, and now I understand why the stickers say "Connor, you suck!" In his defense though, Durango was a nightmare to get around. You have to hop on the highway, pass your destination because there isn't an exit for it, and then circle back to it, to get just about anywhere across town. It was its own adventure and it paid off as the food was delicious.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.14
Durango, Colorado to Moab, Utah

It was another cold morning, 38 degrees on my weather app. With no heated grips, I stopped early and often to warm my hands. Luckily on the Guzzi you can just warm them above the cylinder heads.


Stopped at a few sights along the way and took photos.
Entering Utah


Church Rock


Wilson Arch


HOLE N THE ROCK




Jeep statue made out of license plates, tools, odds and ends



The biggest lizard I've seen outside of Japan


In Moab I stopped at the hotel, checked in, dropped my luggage, and then rode to Arches National Park. I didn't have a timed entry reservation, but was able to social engineer my way in.





In the park I changed out of my motorcycle boots and into my trail runners and did a very short hike to the upper Delicate Arch viewpoint.
Delicate Arch is on the left side of this photo.


The desert was full of life around the washes that were still damp from recent flooding. I spotted tons of dragonflies, and a few mule deer.
You can see the white rumps of the mule deer in this photo, otherwise they blend right in.


Balanced Rock


The Hepco & Becker engine guards on my V7 can be used to engage La-Z-Boy mode, turning the V7 into a cruiser.




I rode back to the hotel and Tyler Golletti was first to cross the finish line on "Debra J."


Patrick Murphy got lost and still beat most of the bikes in due to how fast he rolls on that Henderson.

My dad rolling in on the 1925 Harley JE


The crankcase breather that we had to mess with earlier after it was rubbed by the primary chain is still doing well without any chain rub, and the duct tape has kept it from rattling around on the primary cover.

We checked the spark plugs and the ones he started the trip with still looked great. In 2023 the JD engine my dad ran on the Motorcycle Cannonball Run fouled plugs regularly and went through a ton of them on that ride. He thinks the main difference is the ignition, and that the generator setup is resulting in a cleaner burn than the magento did.

The hotel we stayed at, Springhill Suites Marriott, is one I passed by several years ago as the lot was being developed and the hotel built. It was a really nice hotel right on the Colorado River. Not really walking distance to anything, but a beautiful view from the hotel and the parking lot.

I rode over to Antica Forma for dinner. My friend Cait is a Moto Guzzi ambassador and has been sharing photos from the Moto Guzzi open house in Mandello del Lario as well as photos of all the delicious food she's eating on her Roman holiday, so I found the best I could in Moab, Utah.


Back at the hotel pits, Team Butts have "fun meters" on their bikes.


Tim Burns draining the oil tank from his 1925 Harley JD to pull the tank off.


Indian Motorcycles lent a few Indian Pursuit motorcycles to the event staff and Sean Jackson's racked up its first confirmed kill.


For a day that started out freezing cold, the red rock and parking lot really held heat as the sun went down and it was a nice evening.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.15
Moab, Utah to Springville, Utah

Though the Colorado River was a beautiful sight yesterday, it smelled like sewage from the hotel parking lot in the cold morning. The antique motorcycles have a zero day today, meaning there's no riding. The motorcycles are to be trailered to Rick Salisbury's Legends Motorcycle Museum in Springville, Utah as there wasn't a reasonable route there avoiding interstate or heavy traffic. Since our team doesn't have a support trailer, my dad's 1925 Harley JE was loaded onto the event's sweep trailer and he rode in the sweep van. My first sight of the day was a gas stop with a UFO theme. It also included a probing as premium was $5.899 per gallon.


On today's route the Guzzi really got to boogie again as there was a very western speed limit of 80 mph on I-70, with traffic going much in excess of it. I passed by a whole lot of open range. In one of the long sweeping canyon curves on US-6 I must have hit something slick sweeping through a left corner as the rear tire slid out a bit at around 65 mph. I was able to keep the bike in its lane and ended up bruising my knees I squeezed the tank so tight. There's always some excitement! It was a beautiful view riding between a railway, river, and road in a valley.

A photo op at Rocky Mountain ATV/MC in Helper, Utah. I don't buy many parts through them, but they're often the best price and availability for specialty motorcycle tools and shop supplies.


When I arrived at Legends Motorcycle Museum quite a few of the teams and their trailers were already there, but my dad was still on the way. As the crews and their bikes showed up, they were encouraged to get a portrait taken by Olivier out front if they hadn't already had one taken at Bodie Lighthouse. I ran into one of the Legends employees in the parking lot and he gave me the lay of the land pointing out the restaurant, coffee shop, tattoo studio, barber shop, movie theater, art studio, live event space, sweets stand, and where they were looking to add a wood fired pizzeria. I stopped in the Sidecar Café and grabbed a bite to eat. My dad phoned and said they'd stopped to tour a private collection of vintage Harleys and a massive inventory of parts. I was disappointed that I'd missed out on that, but I had fun checking out the bikes in the Legends museum.

The Ferris wheel was operational and they started it up after dinner for us.



I've seen a lot of interesting things made by Harley-Davidson, but this was my first time seeing a HD rocket engine! From the literature it is a Rocketdyne LR-64 built by Harley during the AMF years which were used in Beechcraft AQM-37 Jayhawk target drones.



The patina'd paint job on this Henderson made it one of my favorites in the collection.

Another Von Dutch bike sighting, a XAVW. If you study this frankenbike close enough you will find a bit of Moto Guzzi in it, the front end is from a Falcone.


A rare Harley XA, which inspired Von Dutch's XAVW.


Another rare military model that was onto something, an Indian 841.


Evel Knievel's Harley-Davidson XR-750


Some of the Michigan Madman, EJ Potter's, "widowmaker" small-block Chevy powered drag bikes.




Some of the very first Harley Davidson motorcycles, from the strap tank era.


Hendersons. The second one from the front of this photo had previously belonged to Bryan Bossier Sr. who is riding a 1923 Henderson Deluxe in the Motorcycle TransAm, so he shared a bit of its history.


Indian Camelbacks


The evolution of the Flying Merkel




The first million-dollar motorcycle ever sold at public auction, Rick Salisbury acquired this 1915 Cyclone V-Twin at Mecum earlier in the year for a cool $1.32 million.


Since the antique bikes aren't running today, many are catching up on more extended maintenance, such as tire changes, while Rick opened up the Legends shop to them. A few ordered and picked up tires from the Rocky Mountain ATV/MC that we had passed earlier.


"Mr. Henderson Motorcycles", Mark Hill, tinkering on a Henderson


Pat Murphy was dealing with loose spokes when he lost his bearings. Literally dropped the wheel bearings into the trash can. He had a good sense of humor about it.


Samuele's Indian Scout has a stripped spark plug thread on the front cylinder. He's been using a strip of aluminum can to seat the plug, but since there's a day for maintenance he's discussing helicoil and time-sert options with Connor.


There is a wasteland vibe to some of the other businesses at Legends that are housed in shipping containers.


The Hills picked up this Cleveland Four from to bring back to New York and go through at their shop, 4th Coast Fours. As THEE shop that specializes in Hendersons, Mark said they were looking forward to their first Cleveland.


The Motorcycle TransAm bikes, including a few down for repair, were lined up in front of the museum for photos.


The riders and their 100+ year-old motorcycles that made it this far.


A sweet treat from "The Sugar Shack" after a grand dinner.



Samuele stopped into the tattoo shop that's on site, Buffalo Nickel Tattoo, for a tattoo of the Motorcycle TransAm logo. My ribs hurt just thinking about having a fresh tattoo with four more days of riding to go for the event.


I went back into the museum as Gary (the medic) and Michelle Pohl had arrived late and not gone through it yet, so after dinner they requested a speed run of my favorites since I'd been there most of the day. After showing them most of what I've shared here already, I spotted this very interesting belt drive on a 1903 Thomas Auto-Bi. I've never seen a belt like that before.


Sunset ride to the hotel.


The Italians' "dibs". While their rental box truck is at the museum, they held their parking spaces with their workshop that consists of a bench and a rug. One of their significant others is probably missing that rug and wondering where it ran off to.

[Dr. Enzo Toma]

2025.09.16
Springville, Utah to Twin Falls, Idaho

This morning the motorcycles got loaded up and trailered again. This time it was to a late start at Rees Pioneer Park in Brigham City, Utah so that they could avoid the congestion of riding through Provo, Salt Lake City, and Ogden. I really like the area though and had a nice time riding though. Wish I had more time to visit SLC and go for a hike, but I'll be back this way some other time.

There was road construction around Rees Pioneer Park, and even with the aid of my Garmin and Google Maps I couldn't figure out a good way to get to the park, which was particularly frustrating as I could see the park itself in the distance! I ended up riding around some wooden horses and down a stretch of dirt where a road had been torn up for construction. Any bike is an adventure bike if you take it on adventures!

There will be more long stretches between gas stops today, so most of the bikes are carrying their spare tanks.


Luca Geron and his 1925 Harley JD


My old man, Bob Jesernik, and his 1925 Harley JE



Scott Bernardson's 1922 Harley J was really smoking this morning.

The maintenance reminder wrench finally came on for my V7. At the end of the Motorcycle TransAm event I will be spending a week with friends in Portland, Oregon, so I've already scheduled ahead to have the bike serviced when I am there. It will be about a thousand miles overdue by then, but looking at a map of Guzzi shops, that's how it'll have to go.




I took the local road, I think it was Highway 38, along the mountains for a slower paced scenic view, then hopped up to the interstate. Again the bike did fine on the rain grooved roads here in Utah and rolled 80 mph with me catching myself creeping up to 85 mph on occasion because the bike was rolling along so smooth. I've often come across "wig wags", or semi trucks pulling two trailers, but this area in particular was the most trucks I've seen pulling three trailers at a time.


Snake River Canyon


Rode over Perrine Memorial Bridge.





One of the main attractions to this bridge, other than the view, is that you can base jump from it without a permit. Fast Eddie, one of the photographers covering the Motorcycle TransAm event for a team, gave us the tour as he's base jumped here before. We walked out on the bridge and watched two people base jump, which was exciting to watch.


Eddie said one of his friends has done over 1,000 base jumps. I was surprised that they jump from parts of the bridge that are over land and not water, but they did land on the land. There was even a target on the ground for them to steer their parachutes down to. There are kayaks stashed along the shore for folks to help them if they do land in the water, intentionally or unintentionally.


This of course is also where Evel Knievel attempted to jump the Snake River. They had a nice sign for it.


In this photo you can see a dirt mount on the horizon, and it's what's left of the ramp.


Perrine Memorial Bridge visitor center


Can I pet that dog?


My Moto Guzzi V7 is still leaking oil from the final drive. At some point I had drained it and refilled it with an amount lower than the spec to see if that would help, 140 ml instead of 160 ml, but that didn't solve it. When I get to Portland the shop will have a look at the final drive, and I've ordered some heated grips to the shop for a more comfortable ride home now that fall has arrived. I was holding out for OEM heated grips, but it seems Moto Guzzi isn't going to come through with those, so I ordered Koso Apollo ones with the integrated button instead of a separate control box like my older Oxford heated grips make use of. I've been cleaning the oil off the rear tire and wheel with brake cleaner on shop towels, and made the mistake of wiping my dirty license plate with one of those shop towels. Whoops! It wiped the letters right off the plate. Sameuele told me he's made this mistake before too and had to replace his plate. I considered picking up some paint to put the letters back on, but settled for using permanent marker instead.



Mile munching modern machines!


Frank talking my dad's ear off.


Frank Westfall's 1914 Henderson Model C was recently fitted with a bit of shielding to keep rain off the magneto.


I hadn't realized that Zappa also got a fresh tattoo at the Legends Motorcycle Museum yesterday. His knuckles read "YOU SUCK" with a bottle of Jack Daniels after the "YOU". I asked him how they felt and he said they've already been washed in gasoline and are doing fine.


Kelsey, the event organizer, and Bryce, who's been running the merch table, saw there was a Swig within walking distance of the parc fermé, so we walked over to get some dirty sodas. They watch "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives" which exposed them to dirty sodas, and they were disappointed to not have time to get them in Utah, but the opportunity returned in Idaho. My order was a "Life's a Peach." Dr. Pepper, Vanilla, and half-and-half. It was good enough that I might try making one when I get back home again.


Mike Butts' 1913 Henderson developed a gas leak.


Samuele's fresh tattoo


My Moto Guzzi's metric tool kit put to use again on one of the metric Indians.