The Lindbergh Ride, 2022

[gharper]

Great riding today despite the rain! Bikes seem to be dialed in and humming along beautifully. We've settled into a routine of rolling out at 7:30 with gas stops every 60-70 miles or so. Each gas stop is a flurry of activity: Gas up, find a dry spot to dump the crankcase oil, add 1 oz/ gallon of 2 stroke oil to the gas, reset the crankcase oil level with the hand pump, measure and discard the old oil, oil the intake valve stems, rocker arms and primary chain. Meanwhile try and take a leak, get some water and a snack down, do a quick look over the bike, adjust your riding gear, lather on some sunscreen, answer questions for inquisitive folks and pass out bling (thanks Stewart for arranging all that) and be ready to go.
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When we get in to the hotel at the end of the day, we're still busy. Find some real-estate for the trailer, unpack tools and supplies, get room keys, drain and reset the crankcase oil (while it's still hot), oil the rockers, valve stems, fork rockers, lnkage and primary chains. Then adjust chains, linkages, check spark plugs, tires, transmission oil level, wipe things down, dry our gear, the list goes on.

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THEN, fix anything that's broken or damaged, put everything away, eat, get a shower and hopefully some sleep.

This is our routine, one every cannonballer is familiar with. It's a hard pace, but its a lot of fun, especially when the machines are running so well!

[gharper]

Another great day today and no rain, for the first time!!! We reconnected with Lindberghs route today and traveled through some of the same towns, who's names I cant remember at this late hour.

We started out from Forsythe GA just after 7:30. My engine was not happy, a new knocking noise appeared and it was not pulling as well. A thousand things went through my head and I was most concerned about the fact that I've consistently been using less oil that the others. I thought for sure I've damaged the motor. About 10 miles in Hans pulled along side and said he needed to stop, his motor was not running right and wasn't pulling well.

We pulled over near an ababandoned building to investigate. Interestingly, we both found the same problem. We each had done a poor job of adjusting our intake pushrods the night before. I had almost 1/4" of clearance on my front. Hans had about the same on his rear intake. Once we fixed that, we were off and running. The motors were singing along beautifully and we had a great ride through the Georgia countryside. The temp pushed 90° near the end, plus very high humidity so we were glad to stop for the day.

This evening, Alex appeared to have solved an annoying missing issue. The rear plug wire was coming loose in the high tension pickup of the magneto. Unfortunately, his muffler is beginning to discentigrate, sort of like Stewart's. Baling wire has solved the problem for now.

We also had a couple calls from Stewart today. He is doing well, surgery was succesful. He is working through the side effects of Anesthesia and pain medications but is on the mend! We miss Stewart and wish him a speedy recovery!

Just over 100 miles tomorrow to Lake City FL. Plan to meet up with longbtime X enthusiasts and friends, Charlie Carter and Eric Smith.

[gharper]

Another great day of riding and, NO RAIN second day in a row!

We left Blackshear GA early, travelingbthe 114 miles toLake City FL. Rode through miles and miles of yellow pine plantations. Beautiful scenery and mostly quiet roads.

We arrived at the Lake City hotel about 11 am and met up with my old friend and Excelsior nut Charlie Carter and his new bride Rita. Eric and Kathy Smith also cane up to visit and Eric brought a much needed Excelsior muffler, originally planned to replace Stewart's muffler, but Alex will put it good use as his has broken as well.
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Afternoon was spent servicing the bikes, visiting with our guests and preparing for a downpour, which thankfully never came! In addition, Alex sorted out some oil leaks and changed pushrod springs, making valve adjustmrnts easier. Hans lost a pivot bolt on his hand clutch linkage, fortunately there was one spare in the X parts boxes! He also made a new clutch control rod which was a bit longer. Making his hand clutch control work much easier.

Yesterday we reconnected with Lindberghs original route gornportions ofbthe day. Today we crossed his route again. He went to Jacksonville to meet up with his father but missed connections and turned home, heading west along the northern border of Florida. Tomorrow we will follow this route almost all day, 216 miles.hanschas slso worn out a boot so some gorilla glue was put to use in that snd my footboard.

The bikes are running amazingly well and continue to settle in to a nice rhythm.
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[gharper]

Another great day of riding, 3 in a row without rain!!!! We started out this morning jut after 7:30 and said goodbye to our friends Charlie, Rita and Eric. We headed west on Hwy 90 and remained on Lindbergh's route for the bulk of the day. We traveled to Madison FL then north to Quitman, west to Thomasville, Bainbridge, Blakely and then Dothan AL. Great scenery and cool, foggy early morning riding. All 3 bikes are humming along very nicely. They are amazing machines and are quite happy to run all day at 48-50 mph, much faster than they were designed to run.

However, the day was not without a few bumps.... First issue was at our first gas stop around 9:30, a sheared woodruff key on the starter gear. We had to dig deep in the trailer to find Stewarts stash of keys he bought earlier when his clutch loosened up on the shaft. We had to do some special grinding to make it fit properly, it's an odd stepped affair. After that, a slipping clutch put a bike in the trailer for the last 1/3rd of the day. Turns out it was an over greasing issue. The throwout bearings are lubricated with grease and too much can work it's way into the clutch plates. A simple cleaning was all that was needed, the readjust and test ride.

Once we got into the hotel we grabbed some shade and se to evening maintenance. We met a few locals that saw the bikes, Berry Wardlaw, a local antique bike builder and chase rider whos shop is Accurate Engineering. He offered up his shop if we needed anything. Fortunately we were getting along fine with what we bought so instead he bought our dinner at the best BBQ place in town: BBQ King in Dothan, GREAT FOOD!!

Heard from Stewarts family tonight. He is continuing to improve but slowly. He is expected to move to a Rehab facility shortly, which will hopefully work more aggressively on therapy and preparing for a flight home to Canada.

Tomorrow's ride is north to Birmingham where we will have a rest day to catch up on more maintenance and take a tour of the Barber museum.

[gharper]

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[jolsen]

Working thru a backlog of some images from when the Ride visited the Wheels Through Time Museum in Maggie Valley, NC. Most of the collection are excellent Harley-Davidsons; however other American iron is also represented. This is one of the Excelsior Super Xs from the late 20s. A 45 cu.in. fire-breathing hillclimber, for sure. Many thanks to Gary and the other staff there for a great experience.

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[jug]

Just wondering if a stop is planned for Dubuque. Many thanks to you guys for such a trip and keeping us up to date every day.

[gharper]

Just wondering if a stop is planned for Dubuque. Many thanks to you guys for such a trip and keeping us up to date every day.

Jug, No stop planned for Dubuque, but we will skirt the NW side of town and gas up there i believe. I'd have to fire up the computer or my Garmin to find the exact location. I'll try to remember andvthen let you know.

[gharper]

Yet another great day riding, Dothan AL to Birmingham AL, 234 miles. Cool morning and sunny afternoon with no rain!

Our efforts to pull out by 7:30 were thwarted by yet another woodruff key being sheared off at the started gear just as we were starting up to depart. Almost a 1 hour delay as we drug out parts and tools to specially grind half a dozed dares, plus one for today. Once underway, the remainder of our day was perfect, no isduesxstcall. We had our usual gas stops with oil change and other lubrication. Otherwise, just a lot of nice riding through winding, hilly back roads most of the way. We paralleled Lindberghs route all day and were directly on it a few times, riding on old US Hwy 31. 20220914_073030.jpg20220914_073030.jpg

We fid have one hiccip today, navigational. The route I laid out keeps us on parallel paths to Lindberghs route but avoids heavy traffic. It's also supposed to avoid dirt and gravel roads, but sometimes it doesn't follow that rule! Twice today we were directed down a short paved road that suddenly turned into a sandy farm toad. Nice folks there came out to inspect the gomotion and informed us it was about a 2 mile dirt (sand) road then hit a paved road. Hans said "I'll take that road!" So we did.... 1 mile of freshly graded sand road and a mile of non graded sand road. The end was the best condition, where I snapped a quick photo. That 2 miles of sand totallu trashed our bikes, sand everywhere! It jammed the nicely restored and fitted hand clutch controls, just 2 miles! Lindbergh must have disconnected his linkage!! Oil and wiping away the grease snd sand fid thevttick! I still can't wrap my head around the fact Lindberghý made the 3500 mile trip in roughly the same amount of time we are planning. He was an amazing rider back in the day! We laughed after the 2 mile road, saying it was probablh a great toad for him! 20220914_085652.jpg

[joe fxs fxr]

Good point - back then that was an improved road! Good to know your bikes are still up to the challenge. Thanks for keeping us in mind and posting your travels.

[gharper]

Rest day in Birmingham. Laundry, chasing down supplies and maintensnce,, lots of it! All the regular things such as, valves, chains, linkages to adjust, tires to check, oil and fuel to reset, repack gear, look for missing or broken parts etc.

In addition, we each discovered other things that needed attention, such as cracked horn bracket (2nd repop one to break so far), stripped or missing fasteners and sand, everywhere, from our 2 mile jaunt on a sand road yesterday. Amazing how quickly that stuff gets into places!

This afternoon we went to the Barber Vintage MC museum and were treated to a personal tour of the restoration shop, what a treat!!!!! Once again, instant overload! So much to see there. A big thank you to Denis Mccarthy and all the staff there for their wonderful hospitality!!!!

After that we hit Bass Pro shop, looking for better rain gear and gloves, though we've been blessed with a spell of nice dry weather!

Tomorrow we head to Dixon TN and catch up with the Music City Chapter Road Run as they finish up their final day of riding.20220915_132600.jpg20220915_153123.jpg20220915_142959.jpg

[gharper]

I've been so busy I haven't had time to fire up the computer and post info on Lindbergh's ride in 1921, so here is a little of that.

When Lindbergh and his buddies with the Model T were done with ROTC field training at Camp Knox, they departed on July 20th, heading north to Louisville, KY, then east to Lexington. It was on the road between these towns hat he mentions the only major mechanical issue of the trip. This letter describes it well:

Letter to Mom dated July 21, 1921
Dear M,
Have been delayed 36 hrs on account of overheating machine. Nothing wrong with it, just dirty (carbon) had to grind valves etc and believe me a motorcycle engine is like a Chinese puzzle dipped in glue to get apart. Got it going ok now and will start again early in morning.
Am 18 miles from Shelbyville KY (east) and 13 miles from Frankfort. Under an old elm tree with about 150 ft shroud. Get eats from an old farmer,
CAL


This picture says a lot as well!

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Notice the entire engine was removed from the chassis in order to remove the cylinder. Apparently he didn't know the trick of removing the fuel tank with lower frame bar attached in order to remove the cylinders! This could have saved him a huge amount of time. This removable frame bar came out in 1918 sometime and was a huge time saver, making de-carboning of cylinders a much easier job!

A few days later, he wrote again to his mom:


Letter to Mom, no date written, assume July 25” 1921

Dear M,
Just a line to let you know I am O.K. Have had no spills or anything. Am striking rain in Southern geo. But as I am now 90 miles from Jacksonville and it has quit raining I feel fine. Taking out the engine trouble I will have made Jacksonville in 4 days from C. Knox. Over is a list of towns passed in their consecutive order. I am writing this on the side of a wet clay road 15 mi. N. of Waycross Geo. I am in a sort of swamp where the spruce trees or whatever they are have the
Page 2
Bark taken off of one side and so that the sap can be scraped off as it forms.
CAL


Kentucky: Camp Knox, Louisville, Frankfort, Lexington, Richmond, Mt Vernon, Loudon, Corbin, Williamsburg.
Tenn.: Clinton, Harriman, Rockwood, Chattanooga Georgia: Rome, Atlanta, Hampton, Griffin, Barnsville, Macon, Perry, Hawkinsville, O cilla, Waycross.

This is the last letter I'm aware of that Lindbergh wrote to his mom on this trip. There were a few post cards written in haste and dropped in the mail, probably just to let her know his location.

Postcard postmarked July 25, 1921 Chatanooga TN 9 am
Addressed to:
DR. C.H. Land (Lindbergh’s grandfather)
140-W-Elizabeth St.
Detroit Michigan
Postcard shows waterfalls and caption reads: Rainbow Falls, Walden Ridge, Chattanooga Tenn.

No text, signed only: CAL

[BigLakeBob]

Great stuff Gene, thanks again for the updates and I hope things continue to go well for your group. Any saddle soreness yet?

[gharper]

Bob. My butt is fine, my back is talking to me though!

[gharper]

Sorry for all the typos. Im trying to post something every day but the days are long and its late, working with sausage fingers on my phone...fsllibg asleep.

Long day, but not a lot of riding. We unanimously agreed to bag 3/4 of the days ride, instead trailering back to Nashville to visit Stewart. He is out of ICU and into a private room, getting a little bit of herapy and waiting for a bed to become available in Canada, then he will get flown home.. sure hope that happens sooner rather than later!! Stewart is in pretty good spirits but still in a lot of pain and obviously quite uncomfortable. Hang in there buddy, we're all rooting for you and hoping for a speedy recovery! A LOT of folks asked about you today and are sending prayers and good wishes !

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We then trailered backwards to Mt Pleasant TN. This was our 3rd scheduled gas stop for the day. We unloaded, gassed up and started from there. It was only a 45 mile ride but we are all tired! Right out of the chute, another sheared starter gear key. Hans did Indy style pit crew work and got it changed out in about 15 minutes! We worked with Keith Kizer and a film crew to get some footage of us riding. Hope to see that somewhere in the future as promo footage for the AMCA.

We arrived in Dxon TN as the Music City toad run was winding down. Great to seea lot of old friends there! We squeezed into the vacl parkingng lot znd dtaryed on our daily maintenence.. tutnednoutvto be a lot more than expected for some of us. Replaced another primary chain. About 1000 miles since new. This jobb can take a couple hours eafily. Hans fashioned a custom key for the troublesome starter gear, hoping to get a tighter fit. As we were widingn up, we noticed Hans's brakevdrum was loose on the splined hub. So, wheel and brake off for inspection. Seems the old splines are just worn, so nothing to do for it now. Bearings packed and all back together. Had some help from the road run participants as well!! Thanks to AL, former Badger president.

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Tomorrow is 220 miles, ending in Vincennes IN.

We may try and drop our speeds a bit, the bikes are getting beat pretty hard, running 48 -50 mph. The motors are fine, but the chains are getting chewed up and vibration is breaking things! These are amazing motorcycles but very complicated and require A LOT of careful maintenance, every day!
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