It’s going to be a challenging ride. I have just completed my first (of two) cross-country course runs laying out the route from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, to Santa Monica, California (my final pre-event run will be in August). The good news is that the total distance, 3272 miles, is slightly less than our previous estimate (3325 miles). And, as promised, all the roads are paved, and the total distance we travel on interstate highways, 58 miles, is well below our earlier estimate of 100 miles; in fact, we don’t travel on any interstate until Stage 12, 2385 miles into the Run.

None of this means the ride will be easy. There are long, steep grades, both up and down; these are, perhaps surprisingly, mostly not in the West, but early in the Run as we cross the Appalachians on Stages 3 and 4 from Concord, NC, to Maggie Valley, NC, to Chattanooga, TN. It is important that your engines and brakes be in top condition.

Although we have tried to keep riders on back roads, by which we mean local roads and county and state highways with little traffic, there are places where the only paved roads are major state and U.S. highways. Some of these roads have wide shoulders, but some are busy two-lane roads without shoulders. We have tried to avoid these roads wherever possible, but we can’t get from coast to coast without some distance on such roads. It is important that your motorcycles be as visible as possible. We are going to require head lamps, tail lamps, brake lamps, and an orange “slow-vehicle” warning triangle on each vehicle; we encourage you to burn your head lamps and tail lamps at all times.

Most of the roads are in good repair, but some, in particular portions of Historic US 66 that we use to avoid interstate highways, are rougher (bumpier) than we would like them to be.

Be prepared for all types of weather (September can be hurricane season in North Carolina). We have to keep to our schedule rain or shine. On our March course run, we encountered torrential rains in North Carolina, snow in Mississippi, and strong crosswinds and headwinds in Texas and New Mexico (and an encounter or two with tumbleweed). Add to that mix the possibility of 100+ degree temperatures across the desert southwest in Arizona, Nevada, and California.

Fuel range will be a consideration. We have tried to have refueling stops no more than 50 miles apart, but occasionally the distance is as much as 70 miles. Determine your fuel range, and consider adding an auxiliary tank if necessary, or carrying an extra gallon of fuel with you on certain days.

We encourage all teams to consider having a support vehicle, or sharing one with another rider. Support vehicles will not follow the same route as the motorcycles; they will be given the fastest route to the next overnight city, where your crew can check in to your hotel and be ready to work on your motorcycle if necessary when you arrive at the day’s finish. This means that your support crew will not be available to work on your bike during a day’s run. If you break down and cannot make repairs, our sweep trailer will be available to pick you and your bike up and carry them to the overnight city where your crew will be waiting. (At some lunch stops, our shop truck may be available with tools and equipment to help you effect repairs.)

On a brighter note, this is going to be a fun and historic ride. We have arranged for hosted lunches for riders in 6 of our mid-day cities, and hosted dinners for everyone in our entourage (including support crews) in 8 of our overnight cities (in addition to the welcome dinner in Kitty Hawk and the farewell dinner in Santa Monica). Half of these hosted stops will be at motorcycle dealerships, where the service managers will allow you to work on your bike in their shops. At the cities with hosted dinners, we will ask riders to keep their motorcycles on display for an hour or two for publicity and promotion purposes for our dinner hosts. We will allow all motorcycles to return to the hotels before sunset (which, in September, is fairly early).

We have arranged group rates and reserved blocks of rooms at hotels in Kitty Hawk, our 15 overnight cities, and Santa Monica. In each city, our selected hotels are either the day’s finish location or close to that finish location (in most cases, within 1 mile), and each morning’s start will be from one of our selected hotels. We have also arranged with a travel agency, Covington International Travel in Virginia, to make your hotel reservations for you; you will receive an e-mail next month giving you access to register your hotel requirements on-line using a secure web site.  There is no cost for this service. We encourage all riders and crew members to book with Covington and stay in our selected hotels for several reasons: the rates we have negotiated are lower than those you will be able to obtain for comparable properties on your own; the convenience of securing 19 nights’ hotel reservations with a single registration; and the convenience of being with the rest of our group and being at or close to each evening’s finish location and each morning’s start location. Also, in most cases our selected hotels either have adequate parking for support vehicles, or have made arrangements for support vehicle parking at an adjacent location. The average cost of our selected hotels is less than $85 for 2 persons (plus tax); the total cost for 19 nights (2 nights each in Kitty Hawk and Hot Springs, one night in each of the other cities, including Santa Monica) is about $1600. (Covington travel can also arrange air travel for you or your crew to an airport near the start in Kitty Hawk, and home from the Los Angeles area.)

Each day’s Course Instructions will be available to each rider at his/her group’s start time at our start hotel. An example day’s Course Instructions is attached. We encourage you to print the attached copy and plan for how on the road you will read the Course Instructions, keep track of the active Course Instruction, turn the page when required, keep the Instructions dry in the rain, etc. (A photo of a period motorcycle with a mounted clipboard is attached). The average number of pages for a day’s Course Instruction is about 8, but one day has 13 pages, and another has only 5. Notice that the Instructions include official mileages. We encourage (but do not require) you to have an odometer (calibrated in miles, not kilometers), but even if you don’t, the mileages let you know whether the next instruction is 0.2 or 2 or 20 miles away. Odometers do not have to be period units; aftermarket odometers are relatively inexpensive.

Click HERE to download an example Stage Sheet.

We plan to have a set of Event Regulations available by June 1. The Event Regulations will, among other things, define allowed and required motorcycle modifications; specify the exact nature of the Run, including how daily leaders and the event winner are determined; and define exactly all of the symbols used in the Course Instructions. In the meanwhile, here is a preview of what will likely be included:

The event is an Endurance Run. The winner will be the motorcycle that travels the most miles from North Carolina to California without breaking down or accumulating any penalties. Penalties will be assessed for, among other things, arriving at the finish any day either earlier than, or more than 30 minutes later than, your group’s target time; a support crew violation; a substitute rider on a day’s run; replacing a major mechanical component such as a motor; etc. If there is more than one vehicle with a perfect score of 3272 miles (Lonnie thinks this is unlikely) a tie-breaking procedure will apply. Substituting a replacement motorcycle will result in a score of Did Not Finish (but we still want you to continue riding with us).

All participants (riders, support crew, staff) must sign a liability waiver.

All riders must have a valid driver license with motorcycle endorsement valid through at least September 27, 2010.

Each motorcycle must have a current registration valid through at least September 27, 2010.

Each motorcycle must have current liability insurance valid through at least September 27, 2010. If you need insurance, Hagerty Insurance, a Motorcycle Cannonball sponsor, can give you a quote. Hagerty is the world’s leading insurer of collector vehicles. Contact Hagerty at 1-800-922-4050 or online at Hagerty.com, and tell the agent you’re with Motorcycle Cannonball.

Coker Tire has announced their sponsorship of Motorcycle Cannonball. A press release is attached. Contact Coker Tire at 1-800-251-6336 or online at www.cokertire.com for all your tire needs, and tell the agent you’re with Motorcycle Cannonball.

I know this is a lot to absorb, but we want you to have a better feel for the adventure you will be embarking on in less than 5 months. Feel free to E-mail Lonnie or me with any questions or concerns.

John Classen

Course Master

Motorcycle Cannonball

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Lonnie Isam

Event Promoter

Motorcycle Cannonball

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