The Lindbergh Ride, 2022

[jolsen]

Postcard arrived from when the riders visited the Excelsior factory in Chicago back in Day 2 of the ride.

2-16 Riders at Factory postcard LRes.jpg

[gharper]

Great finale on Saturday September 24th at the Charles Lindbergh home and museum in Little Falls MN. Lindbergh completed his trip here in August of 1921 after having ridden approximately 3400 miles. We completed our ride today at the same spot after 3050 miles. Unfortunately we lost 2 1/2 days of riding so we are off the 3600 mile mark, but it was still an outstanding ride!

Our last day of riding this historic event was relatively short at about 158 miles. We started out just after 8 am from New Prague MN on another cool humid morning in the low 50's. The bikes loved the weather and ran perfectly all day! We were anticipating more rain so we wore rain gear all day. It didn't rain until the very end but the rain gear helped cut the damp wind. We were making great time so decided to stop for a sit down lunch, which we usually avoided because it will kill at least an hour. After we headed out from lunch, we were on track to arrive just at 1:30, right on schedule. Well, of course the last day was the longest construction detour of the entire trip! About 25 miles from the museum, we hit a road closed sign, bridge out. It was not well marked earlier so we had to backtrack about 5 miles south, then about 10 miles west then north again. We took a few dirt roads to get back on the route just about a mile south of the Lindbergh Museum. For the last 10 days or so we have been holding our speed down to about 45 mph which has cut down on our maintenance considerably. Well today, as Hans would say,
"We're late for the movies", so we bumped it up to 50 + to get there by 2 pm. The bikes did just fine and purred right along but I could sure hear my primary chain chattering when we arrived!

We pulled in at the Lindbergh Home to a great reception from about 25 or so local enthusiasts from the AMCA Viking Chapter and their friends, plus a few locals, employees from the museum and a reporter from the Morrison County Record, a local news paper. It was great to see this enthusiastic greeting party! Quite a few of them rode in on their vintage bikes as well. They even had Champaign for us with a Lone Eagle label on it! A big thank you to Duke Lehman for arranging this reception and all the others that came to greet us! We answered lots of questions about the bikes, in fact it was quite refreshing to talk with people that understood the machines and what we were doing with them. It was amazing to hear some of the questions we heard all along the way from people that didn't understand what we were doing, lots of bizarre questions, to say the least! This group was so enthusiastic to see us and the bikes, it was really a great reception!
20220924_143610.jpg20220924_143743.jpg

We unloaded Stewarts 21 X and rolled all 4 bikes in front of the Lindbergh Home for some photos. We sure missed Stewart and wished he could have been there with us! We felt it appropriate to at least unload his bike for a few shots at the end of the ride.

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We drained our oil while the motors were still warm and loaded them in the trailer for the long haul to Chicago on Sunday where we will unload, sort, repack and head out from there on Monday.

The greeting party thinned out a bit but the survivors invited us to a local pub for a few beers after we were loaded up, what a great visit from a very enthusiastic bunch of guys, thanks again for your hospitality!

This is unfortunately the end of a 31+ year dream for me, to retrace Charles Lindbergh's 1921 motorcycle trip on the same model Excelsior he rode. It was a lot of hard work, but I'd do it again in a heart beat! I'm so glad that a few hearty friends took me up on my crazy offer to join me on this trip. It's certainly been a trip of a lifetime.

I hope to fill in a few details as time allows. I simply couldn't find enough time in the day to post all the things I wanted to. Anyone who has done a cannonball knows the feeling, there just isn't enough time to do it all!

A special thanks to my wife Jan and daughters Olivia and Janene, who have put up with me and this crazy idea for a lot of years now. Also a big thank you to our support truck driver Bill Maron, and his ever patient wife Denise. Bill, you're the BEST!!!! You kept all our stuff together and organized, kept us stocked with food, beer, supplies and were always behind us covering our ass, thanks buddy!

[gharper]

A few pictures of the greeting party and their motorcycles.

Duke with his beautiful panhead:
20220924_154656.jpg Kevin with his outstanding 1928 short frame Scout, quietest Indian I've ever heard!
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The lineup at Johnny C's sports bar in Little Falls MN.
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Great bunch of guys, thanks again for your enthusiastic us!, a few beers and sharing your afternoon with us!

[gharper]

A few more pictures of Lindbergh riding his X on the trip from 1921:

Lindbergh #65.jpg "Good roads in Indiana, 35 MPH!"

Lindbergh #298.jpg "Tennessee roads"
Lindbergh #278.jpg Taken from Lindbergh's lap while riding the X
Lindbergh #279.jpg "About 10 miles of mud... I had to slide along on my shoes to keep the bike upright. Shoes held out ok"

[Steve Swan]

What wonderful pictures of Lindbergh and thank you for sharing your journey of a dream come true. Wishing you a safe remainder on your trips to your homes and Stewart to have a speedy recovery. Once you're settled in back home, i am curious to know how the diamond tread tires (Coker's i assume) held up and your thoughts for why primary chain wear was an ongoing consideration.

[Steve Swan]

Postcard arrived from when the riders visited the Excelsior factory in Chicago back in Day 2 of the ride.

2-16 Riders at Factory postcard LRes.jpg

Great picture! i wonder if someone in the building was available to give the fellows a factory tour...

[BigLakeBob]

Thanks for taking us along for the ride and sharing your story. Really enjoyed it. I'm glad you three completed the dream and best wishes to Stewart for a full recovery.

[ihrescue]

Best wishes to the Lindberg Ride crew on completing the last leg. What successful and great trip and documentation. It will provide forum members present and future an idea of the details for planning and executing a big project like this. We appreciate and enjoy the documentation provided by Gene. I am sure that Gene will filter out more of the details as he can reflect and look over notes and photos he has collected but was not able to post yet. Comments and questions by our members will also cause Gene to offer more commentary for awhile. For the rest of us consider the value of a Topic like offered by Gene and the interest it can provide.

Three cheers for your success

Mike Love

[exeric]

I knew all Four of you would succeed because like your motorcycles; EXCELSIOR ALWAYS MAKES GOOD. Best wishes to Stewart.

[jug]

What a great trip you guys just completed. Was nice talking to you at Dubuque and thanks for the knife, light and pen Bill gave me. Here is cheers to all of you and when Stewart is ready you can plan another trip. Really important to keep these old machines on the rode. Thanks for keeping us old timers posted.

[Skirted]

There is a lot to take in on this monumental adventure that started well before the actual ride did on 9/3/22. So many things to comment on but keeping it simple, the one thing I keep coming back to in my mind is man, what a GREAT AMERICAN history lesson! Well done Gene, (the Fab 4) as well as everyone else associated with the endeavor.

[dukekleman]

Congradulations again guy's on your journey and completion of a dream. I feel fortunate to watch you all cross the finish line at the Linbergh home! What an accomplishment!
It was great to meet all of you, hang out and get know one another. I hope we can cross paths again someday soon.

[PanheadFred1]

Thanks for taking us along on your epic journey. It was a great accomplishment that rivals the Motorcycle Cannonball. Well done!

[gharper]

Great picture! i wonder if someone in the building was available to give the fellows a factory tour...

John, we would have asked for a tour of the factory, but being a Sunday, it was closed!

[frichie68]

Very good, Gene, epic ride & write-up with years of preparation!

I can only imaging the painful letdown it was for Stewart, hoping for a rapid return to "normal" for you, sir.