Every two years, a handful of motorcycling’s hardiest riders undertake a 17-day cross-country trek across the United States. Known as the Motorcycle Cannonball, the next event kicks off September 10. And I’m looking forward to riding it—for the third time.
Cannonball Diary by Cris Sommer Simmons | Photos by Michael Lichter
There has never been another ride like the Motorcycle Cannonball. The brainchild of vintage motorcycle enthusiast Lonnie Isam Jr., the grueling 17-day cross-country endurance ride isn’t for everyone. It takes a certain person, one whose love for old motorcycles requires more than an occasional ride across town. I guess I am one of that small group: in 2010, on the first Cannonball, I rode my 1915 Harley-Davidson, named “Effie,” some 3,000 miles, from Kitty Hawk to Los Angeles, coming in 20th out of the 45 riders that year. I was one of only two women on that ride, and one of just four on the 2014 Cannonball. This year I will be riding again, in the 2016 Cannonball, which takes place in September.
Since 2010, the Cannonball has run every two years. That first year, the bikes had to be from 1915 and older. In 2012, the route was from Newburgh, New York, to San Francisco, and the age cutoff for the bikes was 1929. The most recent run went from Daytona Beach to Tacoma, and the bikes were “newer”—1936 and earlier. This year, the fourth running of the Cannonball, will again go back to the early motorcycles: 100 years and older. We will leave Atlantic City on September 10 and arrive in Carlsbad on September 25.
Anyone can sign up, although the Cannonball fills up fast with riders from all over the world. The entry fee of $2,500 includes directions for the route and a staff of support sweepers. Riders are expected to carry tools, but they can also get help from other riders or one of the staff. If riders can’t fix their bikes, the sweepers load them up and take them to the next hotel. There are also two banquets, as well as hosted lunches and dinners along the route at many of the local motorcycle shops.
Support teams can include friends who come along to help and even professional mechanics, but they are not allowed to accompany riders or help along the route itself. Instead, they have to follow more-direct alternate routes to the day’s destination or wait at the hotel to work on the bikes at night for the next day’s ride.
The course is set the year before, and the riders know only where they start each day and where they finish. There is no GPS allowed, and you get your course instructions the night before on a piece of 8-by-10 paper. You have to navigate yourself from the hieroglyphic-like directions. It can be very confusing at first.
While it is a competition, it is not a race. Rather, it is scored by how many miles are ridden, not who arrives first. All ties are broken by the age of the bike and the rider. All ages are represented. Seventy-one-year-old Victor Babcock ran the race in 2012 and again in 2014. Out of the 98 riders in 2014, 70-year-old Dottie Mattern was one of four women and the oldest.
Though there were no Texas riders on the first Cannonball, there is certainly a Lone Star presence now. The youngest rider to ever ride the Cannonball, at age 20, hailed from Livingston: Team Carson member Buck Carson rode in 2012 and 2014 and will ride again this year.
Along with Buck in 2012 were fellow Texans Clyde Crouch and Mike Bell. In 2014 riders included Buck and his dad, Mike Carson, Crouch, Bell, Alan Stulberg, Dennis Leggett, Greg McFarland, Robert Gustavsson, and Jon Neuman. For 2016 Texas riders will include the Carsons, Crouch, Bell, Stulberg, Leggett, Neuman, John Pfeifer, and Victor Hugas.
The finale of the 2014 Cannonball was thrown a curve when the truck and trailer belonging to Neuman (with four Cannonball motorcycles inside) were stolen from the hotel parking lot in Tacoma. Thanks to Facebook and the Internet, the truck and trailer were recovered with all four bikes still inside. Missing were a parts bike, some tools, and many other items. Hopefully, that will never happen again.
All For One And One For All!
Depending on what day it is, the Cannonball can be the most fun or torture on two wheels. We ride rain or shine (though once, in 2014, it rained so hard the roads flooded, and we all got to skip a morning ride). It can be freezing cold and foggy in the morning and by noon it can be in the 90s. The word “endurance” is what it’s all about. It can be as hard on the rider as it is on the motorcycle. It takes a toll after a week or so, when everyone looks worn out from keeping their bikes on the road. There are often very late nights spent in the parking lots of hotels making repairs and getting ready for the next day’s start. After the first few days you can feel the camaraderie build as we travel across the country like one big family. The spirit of the Cannonball is all for one and one for all. We help one another and cheer one another on. Close friendships are formed when you go through that type of experience together. Wherever we stop, people are amazed that we are riding such old motorcycles—and even more so when we tell them how far we have come and where we are going.
I am looking forward to September and riding Effie again, and my husband, Pat, and I will be riding together. The Cannonball mantra, “Wrench, Ride, and Repeat,” says it all. Here we go again!
