May 7, 2019

Hello again! There has been so much going on that I have not had time to report on it all, but I want to send this newsletter out before its contents get completely stale.

In This Issue:

• AMCA Perkiomen Chapter National Meet in Oley, PA
• Upcoming Events
• The New Book
• The Route and Timeline
• Stops Along The Way
• Mechanical Details
• Antique Motorcycle Magazine

Report from AMCA Perkiomen Chapter National Meet in Oley, Pennsylvania:
 
As I reported in my Facebook Live video on my way home, I attended the AMCA Perkiomen Chapter National Meet in Oley, Pennsylvania, at the end of April. I arrived at the meet on Thursday morning and, in the afternoon, helped Mark Hill and company get situated in a spot he could get to with his big rig after arriving too late in the day to get to where he normally set up. Friday was a rainy day, sometimes very heavy. Between the rain showers, people moved about with some success, but it was very muddy. I wish I had gotten my camera out because one of the highlights for me was watching Pat Murphy ride around on his “original paint” 1919 Z-2 Henderson (same year, make, and model as mine and pictured in the above photo with the acetylene headlight two bikes to the right of The Red One). I put quotes around “original paint” because, in truth, there is not much paint left on Pat's bike. It’s just the light patina of bare metal. But Pat has that bike dialed in and... oh man alive... can he ride it! He was out there in the mud spinning those tires and whipping that bike around like it was nothing. It was very impressive riding. I can only dream of being that comfortable on my own bike!
 
On Saturday, the sun came out in force, but it was cool (around 50 degrees) and windy. Note to self: Bring and use sunscreen no matter how cold it is. Enough said. The theme of the Oley meet this year was “May The FOURS Be With You” so everyone with a four-cylinder bike brought them out for a display of dozens of all makes and models, but the majority were Hendersons or their genetic descendants including a bunch of Indian Fours and even an extremely rare Patria built in Spain. I put together a video of that extraordinary collection which you can see here:

https://youtu.be/r6P9aMHQpD8

Later in the day, after things started slowing down, I took The Red One out for a ride with three others. Leading the pack was Loring Hill on his 1916 Henderson single-speed (“Harlot,” the bike he rode to finish #7 in the 2018 Motorcycle Cannonball) followed by Brian Bossier riding Mark Hill’s 1917 Henderson (who rode that bike as if he was born on it), then me, and Mark Hill on his 1940 Indian 4. Near the beginning of the ride, I was running rough and pulled over. Mark stopped and saw my #3 and #4 spark plug wires were completely disconnected. He reconnected them and off we went. Somewhere along the way, Mark saw an old Dodge truck and stopped to take a look. The rest of us made it back to the meet grounds, probably riding 20-30 miles altogether (yes... I know... I need an odometer!). When we got back to the meet, I had sprung a serious oil leak. Two of the four screws on an inspection plate on the engine were gone, and the other two were very loose, spraying oil onto the hot exhaust pipe. Kevin cleaned up the mess and checked the oil. It had just happened and there was no substantial oil loss.
 
Upcoming Events: Last week, I realized that I simply had too much to do between now and the first leg of my trip in July to be able to go to the AMCA Southern National Meet in Denton, NC. Steve Jessop had graciously given me a nice spot to display The Red One, so I was disappointed to report that "something had to give" and I could not make it this year. 

But when one door closes, another opens. My wife, Laura, pointed out that if I wasn’t going down to North Carolina that weekend, I would be able to attend the 19th Annual Blessing of the Bikes held in Xenia, Ohio, a few miles from my home on Sunday, May 17th. So I will break away that morning and head out to that even.
 
Currently, my only other planned “public” event before July is to participate in the AMCA Allegheny Chapter Road Run in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, a little over a month from now from June 9th to the 12th.
 
The New Book: At long last, my work on the new book, Across America by Motor-Cycle – the Fully Annotated Centennial Edition, is complete. It is now in pre-production and I expect to be able to announce its publication date within the next week (with pre-ordering possible). It has been an unbelievably long journey including hundreds - probably thousands - of hours of work getting this done, but it is an important book because it establishes a “base line” for my trip this summer as well as answering all the questions about C.K.'s ride. Of course, I will have a box or two of the books with me on the trip this summer! I will send a special email when the book is “out” and available for pre-order.
 
The Route and Timeline: Although I have literally crossed the country driving the route I planned to take this summer, it took me until just this week to complete the coast-to-coast “ride plan” that includes “turn by turn” the whole way, with time estimates for key intersections, towns, and cities along the way. While it is unlikely I will adhered to such a strict schedule, it is helpful to know what the leg times are expected to be so that updates can be made mid-day or mid-ride when... not if... things don’t go according to plan. I have updated the general timeline on the web site, and will be producing more detail and graphical maps soon.
 
Stops Along The Way: I have booked about a quarter of the hotels for the planned overnight stops and am looking into the best options for the others. In addition to overnight stops and basic refueling stops, I will be making several planned stops on most days. One of those stops is now firming up nicely and, in fact, caused me to adjust my overnight stop in the Washington DC area. On Saturday afternoon, July 6th, I will be stopping at Daniels Restaurant and Bar in Elkton, Maryland. This is a “biker-friendly” establishment that hosts the AMCA Chesapeake Chapter meetings in the area. Once the details are finalized, I will create a Facebook event page so people can “RSVP” (Daniels has already asked for an estimated number) and put it on the calendar on the web site.

This is just one example of something that happened because someone spoke up and suggested it. So if you know of a place along the way that you think would make a good mid-day stop, please let me know!
 
Mechanical Details: My (non-existent) staff keeps telling me that I need to get my bike out and on the road and do some “shakedown” riding. I have picked up some replacement screws for that inspection plate that came loose at Oley, but it’s in a very inaccessible place on the bike (behind the drive gear, under the chain guard, and in back of the exhaust pipe), and it will take some time to put them in so I can run the bike again. But I have the screws and plan to wrap that up tomorrow. In the mean time I can report:

• John Pierce has received a number of parts I sent to him for painting (I hope to have all those back by the end of the month, but John needs low-humidity weather and then two weeks for curing before he can pack and ship them back:
  • a reproduction Henderson KJ rack with minor mods to fit on my 1919,
  • the horn bracket,
  • the headlight mount,
  • the speedometer ring gear, and
  • mounting plates for my tail lights and license plate).
• David Moore has a second set of wheels built for me. The tires on my bike will be difficult to change on the open road, so I had a set of complete wheels built so I can just remove the wheel and place the new one in. Because I have several sections of bona-fide off-road riding on my trip, I am having David mount Pirelli Scorpion Rally STR tires on the new wheels, giving me better performance in dirt, but not jaw-breaking vibration on the road.
• I have bought a few gizmos to add to the bike including a tire pressure monitoring system to alert me the instant a tire gets low on air (before it blows out or fails on a corner) and a Trail Tech Striker speedometer and mini-instrument panel (which will also allow me to monitor cylinder temperature).
• Additionally, I will be drilling and tapping my gasoline caps to add vents to them, the kind of vents you see on dirt bikes, because the gas won’t flow if the cap is tight and if the cap is not tight, the gas will spill all over the tank and ruin the paint (yes, that happened).

As you can see, there is plenty of operational stuff to attend to beyond just putting some riding in, but this kind of preparation will help me monitor the bike’s operation over the next couple months before it will really matter.
 
Antique Motorcycle Magazine: The AMCA ran a nice piece about my upcoming ride in the “Mike Markers” section of the May/June edition of the Antique Motorcycle (see page 20-21). Observant readers may also notice the incidental appearance of my head and The Red One on the left in the background of the photo on page 22 (taken at the Sunshine Chapter Meet in March). If you’re an AMCA member, you will have received this edition already, but if you’re not yet an AMCA member, this magazine alone is worth the cost of membership.

Finally, while I wait for the new book to come out, I would be remiss if I did not remind you of the availability of the three versions of the original 1922 book I have produced: Paperback, Kindle, and Audio Book. I do not currently know why it is happening, but I have observed a persistent uptick in sales of the audio book. There is no way I will run out, so there is no “rush” but if you want to enjoy this story in a new way, the audio book is a great way to do just that. Get your copies here:

Questions? Comments? Please let me hear from you if there is something you would like to know more about or get involved in some way.

Until next time!