Sunday 9/2 - Tuesday 9/4
Beaver Dam, WI to Virginia Beach, VA

And it begins. The trailer and van are packed, the goodbyes have been made, the road trip has begun. We’re on our way to Virginia Beach, VA for the start of Motorcycle Cannonball!

Jonas, Mark, and Dave are in the van, with Chris following behind on his Harley. As of this morning we’ve made it to Lexington, Kentucky. Other members of the team will be flying in to meet us in Virginia Beach.

Some of the random stuff we’ve packed: 3 motorcycles (not including Chris’s); cooler full of beer; LOTS of snacks; 200 t-shirts; laptops, charging cables and batteries; countless tools and spare parts; tents, tables, and chairs; a generator; gas cans; helmets, riding and rain gear; and all the clothes, toiletries, medications, sun screen, shoes, and miscellaneous stuff to support 8 people on a 4-week trip. Most importantly, we have a HUGE kick-ass karaoke system.

Spare Parts: 3 spare tires; 3 original wheels with tires; an additional spare wheel with tire; tire tubes; 3 sets of brakes; 2 spare carburetors; 100 carb jets; 100 other carb spare parts; an extra magneto; 20 spare spark plugs; 50 quarts of oil; 5 quarts of brake fluid; 20 cans of cleaners and lubricants; 20 feet of spare chain; 3 different sprocket sizes that can be swapped in (from 32 to 42 teeth); LOTS of shop rags; mounting brackets and holders; a rally map holder; rubber gloves; flares; fire extinguisher; a lifting jack; spark plug wires; spare suspension dampener; zip ties; tape; first aid kits; batteries to power the headlight. WHEW, that’s a lot of stuff!

States we’ve traveled through so far: Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky.

States coming up: West Virginia and Virginia. As of 10 AM we have about 8 hours of driving left, and we’re trying to decide if we should try to make it all the way to Virginia Beach still tonight or stop somewhere in between.

How is Renata doing? Pretty great. Jonas reports that the engine is running better and better every day. That Our power and speed are now feeling really great. Our top speed used to be stuck in the low 30s, but is now in the upper 40s. Including up hill. That feels MUCH faster on this bike.

The one big challenge is still kick starting. We are working out just the exact right “ceremony” to use to reliably kick start the bike, with the right combination of timing, throttle, advance, and choke. We also might not have used the correct incantations, prayers, voodoo dolls, or animal sacrifices to make this all work. For now, push starting works but we’d rather not depend on that. Any day now we’ll sort it out and it will just work.

I think that’s all we’ll write for now. There will be plenty of other stories in our adventure to come very soon.