March 28, 2019

In This Issue:

• Less Than 14 Weeks Out!
• New Web Site
• Books!
• Social Media
• Upcoming Events
• Other Tidbits

Greetings from Yellow Springs, Ohio!
Welcome to the first newsletter about my little Across America by Motorcycle project. You’re receiving this because either you subscribed to my “update” list or I manually added you based on prior contact. If I missed the mark and you don’t want to receive these newsletters, there is a link below or you can just reply and let me know and I’ll take care of it.
 
Less Than Fourteen Weeks Out!
In less than fourteen weeks, on July 3, 2019, I will be driving my 1919 Henderson from Herald Square in Manhattan out to Coney Island and back as the beginning of my centennial tribute to CK Shepherd’s ride in 1919. The next day, on July 4, 2019, I will be departing Manhattan for a five-week transcontinental ride to San Francisco via Los Angeles. In addition to preparing my machine for the trip, I have been engaged in the seemingly endless process of logistics, publicity, and related activities. If you have not given this project of mine much thought, this newsletter is intended to give you a glimpse into what I have been doing and give you some ideas about you may get involved.
 
New Web Site
I have professional web developers working overtime on getting my web site updated with all the modern bells and whistles but, while we wait, I have added several features to the existing web site which you can see here:

http://www.acrossamericabymotorcycle.com

I recently added a simple signup form on the site, but you don’t need to complete that because I’ve already added you. However, please feel free to forward this newsletter to your family, friends, and colleagues and encourage them to sign up for updates as well.
 
Books!
It turns out that publishing books involves a great deal of work! Still, my new book, Across America by Motor-Cycle: The Fully Annotated Centennial Edition, is in pre-production with expected release date of May 15, 2019. This new book contains CK Shepherd’s original 1922 manuscript plus a thousand new footnotes, images, and illustrations, all the result of years of my research into Shepherd’s ride. Apart from the challenge of riding a hundred-year-old motorcycle across the country, my trip will be a moving book-signing tour with scheduled and unscheduled stops along the way.
 
If you can’t wait until May (I feel like I can’t), you can now buy my remastered and re-set versions of CK Shepherd’s original 1922 book on amazon.com. These are not just “copies of copies” of the original book such as you might see elsewhere. I produced these by painstakingly transcribing the original book, rescanning the images from my own personal hard copy of the original book, and then resetting it all into modern type and style. The photos on the cover of the paperback and Kindle are from CK’s own personal archives! Moreover, I hired a professional British voice actor to record the entire book to create an audio book that literally brings CK’s story to life. I am not entirely unbiased, but the audio book exceeds my wildest expectations and I hope you will invest in it if you have not already done so.

If you buy any of these books, please go back and write a review! Even if it’s just a few words, reviews help other people know what to expect and improve the visibility of the book in search results, etc.
 
Social Media
It’s no longer enough to have just a web site to communicate. The world of social media has mushroomed to create unlimited possibilities to reach hundreds, thousands, and even millions of people. Although there are probably hundreds of social media services out there, I now have at least an “entry-level” presence on what seem to be the staples:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aabmc2019  This might be considered the hub around which other social media rotates. Please stop by and “like” the page so you can be informed of new additions. In a week or so, I am going to start doing “Facebook Live” broadcasts that you can watch live or later on. I will announce the times on the Facebook page in advance, so you can watch it live and send me messages I can address in real time.
  
  
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/aabmc2019 This is new tech to me, but seems to be a big way for people to share information about things around the world. I’ve posted a few photos and have seen evidence that many people are interested, so visit the site and “follow” it!
  
  
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDz0GD03rvn1bQnrLfmwl_w Until I get a bunch more subscribers, I’ll have to live with this ugly web address, so please stop by the channel and subscribe! The other day, I uploaded a video of my trip to Daytona Bike Week, but I will be adding more (and shorter) videos soon (and you’ll be notified of that if you subscribe).

Upcoming Events
As I wrote about above, I made it down to Daytona Bike Week at the beginning of March. Here are a few things on my calendar:

• April 3-5, 2019: Travel with bike and trailer up to 4th Coast Fours for mechanical review of the bike and some nice test drives, weather permitting!
  
  
• April 25-27, 2019: Travel with bike and trailer to display at the AMCA Perkiomen Chapter Meet in Oley, Pennsylvania (https://www.facebook.com/PerkiomenChapterAmca). You will find me and the Henderson over with Mark Hill.
  
  
• May 16-18, 2019: Travel with bike and trailer to display at the AMCA Southern National Meet in Denton, North Carolina (https://www.amcasouthernnationalmeet.com).
  
  
• June 9-12, 2019: Travel with bike and trailer to participate in the AMCA  Allegheny Chapter National Road Run in Ligonier/Seven Springs, Pennsylvania (http://amcaamc.com)

Other Tidbits

• AMA Charter: I now have an official Charter from the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) and expect to soon have this ride sanctioned by AMA as a “Grand Tour” which provides me with a number of benefits from communications to the ability of riders to register to “ride along” for a leg or two of the trip. More info about this will be on the web site as soon as its available. One thing I do plan on is an extended visit at the AMA Hall of Fame Museum in Pickerington, Ohio, on the afternoon of Tuesday, July 9, 2019.
  
  
• 2019 Route Details: I will be traveling on secondary roads wherever possible, and as close to the route CK took as possible. Unlike a rally like the Motorcycle Cannonball, where it is appropriate for the exact route to be a closely-held secret, I will be producing a detailed route with breakdowns by day and even times within the day. Although there are a few 300-mile days, most are less and will afford a relatively leisurely pace with frequent stops. In the interim, the web site has a map of the general route through 16 states over 4,500 miles.

So, please jump in and “follow me” on social media and let me know if you’re interested in doing something more than spectate (e.g. safety rider, overnight storage, etc.). I am still looking for help with logistics in Manhattan, so if you have specific ideas about how to get in and out of there alive from July 2-4, 2019, I would love to hear from you!
 
As I said at the beginning, if I added you to my “update” list with excessive enthusiasm and you want out from future communications, just reply and let me know, or you can use the link at the bottom to address it immediately.