Powerplus or Bust, Eh?

[Shaky Jake]

I got this message from Cory a couple of days ago. I'm sure he won't mind me quoting him here:

"Hey Kevin,

I've been kind of out of touch and without Internet for sometime now. It occurred to me that it was cannonball time a week or so ago, so I decided to do some digging to see how you were doing. For some reason I am not surprised at all at your success. I saw the fire in your eyes when you looked at that PowerPlus and knew that you would see the project through . Not only that but you whistle across the country and clock every mile on A 100-year-old bike. Pretty impressive man!

Congratulations on job well done. It's one helluva check mark on your "bucket list"!

All the best,

Cory"

I really miss Cory on this forum. His love for early motorcycle history was contagious.

[Shaky Jake]

Thanks everybody. Brenda and I just got home last night. It will take me a couple of days to get things in Arden around here and I'll share some pictures and videos.

Thanks again!

Kevin

[Shaky Jake]

I'm back home now. I got called out of town for work for a few weeks. I've been working 13 hour night shifts 7 days a week since a couple of days after we got home from the Cannonball. I'm spending some time now getting my pictures and videos in order so I can share them with you all. I didn't take many, but I'll try to organize them in a meaningful and interesting way. I'll start off with these to pictures of the van in my driveway, all packed and ready to go:










That old Sprinter was our base camp for the next three weeks or so after that. It worked out perfectly. Most of the crews had trailers, we decided not to bring one. My Wife/Driver, Brenda, was much more comfortable driving just the van, and it gave us the advantage of always being able to find parking in the hotel parking lot. The flexibility of being able to park where where we wanted worked out well for us. My good friend and Crew Chief, Paul Hamer, was able to keep all the tools and supplies organized in a way that we never wanted for more space, and we were always able to park the bike inside the van at night.

On of my greatest thrills was when I would run into one of the thread followers from this or the other forum. It always made my day. I was amazed how many I ran into at the stops. I wish I'd have had more time to spend with everybody. Between the organized events that we were required to attend, and working on the bike, there wasn't as much play time as I had hoped. I'll do my best to follow this up with some interesting posts about the ride, and then I want to finish up the build thread and post a little about what I learned and preparations for the next one, if I am lucky enough to do it again.





Kevin

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[panthersteve]

I'll do my best to follow this up with some interesting posts about the ride, and then I want to finish up the build thread and post a little about what I learned and preparations for the next one, if I am lucky enough to do it again.

Looking forward to it Kevin :-)

Cheers
Steve

[BoschZEV]

Looking forward to it Kevin

Me too. I'm also interested in any observations you have about electrical problems with bikes on the Cannonball that you might have seen yourself or heard about in conversations.

[Jim]

I am not sure if I missed it... or it was just forgotten... So, what IS this attachment for??

I made this today, for the Indian. Anybody want to guess what it is?






Kevin

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[TechNoir]

I am not sure if I missed it... or it was just forgotten... So, what IS this attachment for??

The guys on ADVRider know.

John

[Jim]

Thanks for the link! I found out it's a Compression Release. (whatever WAG means though, I'm not sure)

The guys on ADVRider know.

John

[Shaky Jake]

Me too. I'm also interested in any observations you have about electrical problems with bikes on the Cannonball that you might have seen yourself or heard about in conversations.

First of all, I have to confess that I never did finish my Dixie mags. I ran an original Bosch ZEV that a man named Jack Hurt rebuilt for me. I ran it the whole way and it never let me down. It may have dropped a cylinder momentarily in the torrential rain, but not long enough to stop forward progress. The only maintenance I had to do to it was to epoxy a cracked lead tower, but it still ran even with the crack. Here is a picture:






I don't remember a lot of people having electrical or magneto problems though. Some folks had trouble in the rain. I'm sure there were a few mag failures, but most people had spares. I know one of the Rinker boys burned up a coil or capacitor on his mag when a spark plug wire fell off. It was a replica that didn't have a safety gap. He switched mags and went to modern spark plug wire ends and didn't have another problem. I think a lot of learning from previous Cannonballs had been applied to the mags this time.

I WILL finish those Dixie mags before the next Cannonball.




Kevin


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[Shaky Jake]

Thanks for the link! I found out it's a Compression Release. (whatever WAG means though, I'm not sure)

Yes, sorry, I forgot to close the loop on that one. It's a compression release.




Kevin



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[Shaky Jake]

Here's a cute little video of Paul's son Eric, and his girlfriend, sorting out the GoPro for me while Brenda and Paul eat cheetos and I work on the bike in the shop at Triple S Harley Davidson.




Kevin

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[KNUCK]

All I can say is this has been some thread to read. I just found it for the first time. Wow

[Shaky Jake]

Here's a little iPhone video I shot of the Cannonball start in York PA:






Kevin

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[Shaky Jake]

Here are some pictures I took in Atlantic City, before the start of the race. It seems like such a long time ago.

This one is Bob Wooldridge and Bill Kurtz's 1913 Spacke motored Sears motorbike. In my opinion, it was probably the prettiest bike in the 2016 Cannonball:








These next three pictures are of Steve Alexanders amazing 1913 Douglas. Notice the modern bicycle brake shoes that have been adapted to the original brake mechanism. Those leather knee pads are original. Although crusty, you can still see some of the original Douglas emblem on the tank. This bike has no clutch. totally direct drive. When you stop, the engine shuts off. To start, you take three steps forward while seated, the engine starts and off you go. It sounds hokey but people say that they are very easy and fun to ride.












Someone was riding this fat tired bike around. I added the bottle:










This is a picture of Shinya Kimura, custom bike builder extraordinaire, next his and my Indians. Nicest guy in the world. It was a great honor to meet and ride with him and his co-rider.








A picture of Patience parked behind the dirty old white van:








The Rinker clan, and Ziggy of Washington:








Kevin


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[Jim]

Thanks! The Pics were great!