Motorcycle Cannonball?

Running errands yesterday and a large swarm of pre-war motorcycles thundered... okay puttered and in a few cases sputtered past me.  Obviously a rally of some sort, I caught a glimpse of the event placard and <HOLY POOP> this is a cross-country event on antique bikes.  Sadly they had already left town by the time I was able to figure out who they were.

https://motorcyclecannonball.com/

I think I watched a video documentary of a prior Cannonball a couple of years ago, and it looks like it's now on YT...  All bikes are pre-1918, IIRC!

I used to think of myself as being pretty hard core riding a modern bike 800-1000 miles per day when riding cross country, but these guys are at a whole 'nother level.  

Been wanting to participate in this for a long time now.

One of our local guys Conner who owns wigwam motors is doing it on a 1930s Indian. 

The late, great Dale Walksler was a regular competitor in this. If you are ever in western NC, you MUST visit the museum. https://wheelsthroughtime.com/  The racers stopped there yesterday as part of the route.

I was watching a YouTube video about a swap meet and a guy was talking about a 1950s Italian something-or-other he had considered buying to do a similar rally in Italy. But, he decided against it. "I did the Cannonball a couple years ago. That turned out to be not fun, so I don't think I'll do this, either."  That is one tough ride to do.

My butt doesn't have enough iron in it to do this event.  But it would be fun trying, for a while.

So, when I was 14 I got a moped and was unleashed on the roads legally. I kind of miss touring back roads on it. Wouldn't go faster than about 35mph, but I did over 100miles some days. Mom didn't realize how far I was going until I was talking about this hobby shop I found that was over 40 miles away. 

Still have the moped, put a pipe on it, so it's a bit faster, but my old kid having behind is too afraid of the drivers where I live to go out on the roads with it. 

To say it short, there's something about speed limited touring of back roads...  would be a bunch of fun

In reply to Apexcarver :

Pete Egan wrote an article about touring on a 50cc Honda mini-bike.  It's pretty hilarious.

I think my next project is going to be fixing up my dad's 1968 Triumph T100C.  With it's gearing, 55 mph is about top speed.

Oh the places i saw on a Honda 90 in the late 60's.

In reply to ddavidv :

Awesome museum for sure. We stopped there on the way home from my sister's wedding a couple years ago. 

Couple of sweet bike engined cars, so you know I had to capture those:

But possibly my favorite was the knob on this "handlebar GPS". I think this was on one of the cannonball bikes.

That's called a "roll chart". Rally community has used those since forever. 

I'm usually spent from an four or two on track or a few hours of mountain roads, on a modern bike. These guys must be straight up masochists! Super hardcore. Probably have to do a ton of long distance riding beforehand just to get your body used to it.

I agree with spedracer, that would be tough on a modern bike, well except maybe a Goldwing type bike.  Might as well do the Iron Butt challenges as well.  Iron Butt Association