Photos from the 2012 Motorcycle Cannonball...
The Cannonballers passed through my town Monday as they crossed the Mississippi river as part of stage 4. Their overnight stop was the National Motorcycle Museum in the little town of Anamosa Iowa.
After his work my friend “Bicycle Bill” joined me for the 50 mile drive to Anamosa to check out the bikes, and of course we took ours!
Half way there we were flagged down by a fellow with a newer Yamaha dirt bike stranded on the Hiway. Turns out he was the mobile part of a chase team and had run out of gas. A empty Gatorade bottle and a little fuel from Bill’s bike got him to the next town, and we figured it was good biker karma for us!
We arrived in town and parked at a motel across the street and unloaded our bikes there so we could ride them over to the Museum. We were a little late for the nightly line up of the Cannonball bikes and some had already headed back to their lodgings, never the less I still got photos of a lot of them.
We hung out for awhile and meet some of the riders, and there was quite a lot of interest in our own bikes parked nearby.
I was on a side quest to get detailed photos of the front end of a Indian Tri-car I had seen in the museum before, but couldn’t find it. Even though we didn’t really send much time in the Museum it had gotten dark when we left, and already pretty quiet out front.
It’s quite a place and I really should return sometime soon with a better camera and post a bunch of photos here!
Turns out that back at the motel where I had parked my truck was where the real action was!
Several of the riders where feverishly repairing their rides in the parking lot. Ranging from some with elaborate mobile machine shops to some with just simple hand tools laid out on the pavement!
We ran into SoJo Gardella and his 1914 Harley Twin (#14), he remembered us from the Davenport show and referred to us as “You crazy bicycle guys”, Ha! I see he’s currently in 3rd place.
Just across the isle from my truck was Shinya Kimura and his 1915 Indian PowerPlus (#80) He was in the middle of what looked like a intense engine rebuild and I didn’t want to disturb him.
But just before we were about to leave he approached us.
He spent quite a bit of time checking out our bikes, since he doesn’t speak English well he would simply point to a detail and his lady friend helped with the translation, actually she didn’t speak it very well either.
Seems they had only got a hour’s sleep the night before, but were nearly finished with what must be a routine nightly repair session. Watching them work I noticed they’re pretty rough and beat on things a lot harder than I would ever dare.
He turned out to be a really cool guy and gave us some of his team’s Tee shirts (karma?).
http://imgur.com/a/YK3nx#502012
If the Cannonball is coming anywhere near your home I highly recommend checking it out!
The Cannonballers passed through my town Monday as they crossed the Mississippi river as part of stage 4. Their overnight stop was the National Motorcycle Museum in the little town of Anamosa Iowa.
After his work my friend “Bicycle Bill” joined me for the 50 mile drive to Anamosa to check out the bikes, and of course we took ours!
Half way there we were flagged down by a fellow with a newer Yamaha dirt bike stranded on the Hiway. Turns out he was the mobile part of a chase team and had run out of gas. A empty Gatorade bottle and a little fuel from Bill’s bike got him to the next town, and we figured it was good biker karma for us!
We arrived in town and parked at a motel across the street and unloaded our bikes there so we could ride them over to the Museum. We were a little late for the nightly line up of the Cannonball bikes and some had already headed back to their lodgings, never the less I still got photos of a lot of them.
We hung out for awhile and meet some of the riders, and there was quite a lot of interest in our own bikes parked nearby.
I was on a side quest to get detailed photos of the front end of a Indian Tri-car I had seen in the museum before, but couldn’t find it. Even though we didn’t really send much time in the Museum it had gotten dark when we left, and already pretty quiet out front.
It’s quite a place and I really should return sometime soon with a better camera and post a bunch of photos here!
Turns out that back at the motel where I had parked my truck was where the real action was!
Several of the riders where feverishly repairing their rides in the parking lot. Ranging from some with elaborate mobile machine shops to some with just simple hand tools laid out on the pavement!
We ran into SoJo Gardella and his 1914 Harley Twin (#14), he remembered us from the Davenport show and referred to us as “You crazy bicycle guys”, Ha! I see he’s currently in 3rd place.
Just across the isle from my truck was Shinya Kimura and his 1915 Indian PowerPlus (#80) He was in the middle of what looked like a intense engine rebuild and I didn’t want to disturb him.
But just before we were about to leave he approached us.
He spent quite a bit of time checking out our bikes, since he doesn’t speak English well he would simply point to a detail and his lady friend helped with the translation, actually she didn’t speak it very well either.
Seems they had only got a hour’s sleep the night before, but were nearly finished with what must be a routine nightly repair session. Watching them work I noticed they’re pretty rough and beat on things a lot harder than I would ever dare.
He turned out to be a really cool guy and gave us some of his team’s Tee shirts (karma?).
http://imgur.com/a/YK3nx#502012
If the Cannonball is coming anywhere near your home I highly recommend checking it out!
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