(Ed. Note: The Single Overhead Cam Four/Forum, an online community devoted to Honda SOHC/4 bikes of the late 1960s and 1970s, has loosely organized a relay/rally ride that will triple-transect the lower 48 states and all Canadian Provinces. The ride began in mid-March 2011 and continues into the early fall. Learn more and join the ride when it passes your area . )  

There have been some great rides during this forum member relay crisscrossing the continent, and even as I write this blog entry another is taking place over the continental divide amid freezing temperature and snow covered mountain passes. But until those ride logs are posted - soon I’m sure - you can sit back and enjoy a lengthy but highly enjoyable ride log by Sean Condon. Scondon, as Sean is known on the forum, racked up 2,000 miles from April 26-April 30, covering California from both north to south and west to east. His ride log is a look inside a true vintage bike enthusiast.

Sean doesn’t ride showroom bikes; he rides fast bikes - vintage fast bikes. He’s his own mechanic and a riding veteran. And you’ll see clearly the joy of his passion in reading his write-up of four days on the road meeting and riding with fellow forum members, visiting the legendary APE motorcycle race part manufacturer and taking some laps at California’s Willow Springs race track.

This post is not to slight any riders who’ve been covering miles of pavement the past couple weeks. There have been, as mentioned, some great rides and cool stuff happening nearly every day of the week. So Scottly, Fatmatt, Mr. Breeze, and Mooshie, to name a few, I’ll circle back to you soon. And you’ll read about ride originator Jerry Griffin’s crossing the Rockies in very questionable weather conditions. Promise.

To get you going on Scondon’s tale, first grab a beer and read “bookends” of his ride log below. Then click on the link and enjoy the whole story and great photos.

 
Sean Condon snaps a photo of his odometer before leaving home in Walnut
Creek, CA, headed for 29 Palms, CA.  

Tuesday- 4/26/11 
Alarm goes off at 3:15a.m. and I'm hugging the coffee pot while I do a mental checklist of everything I packed the night before: cell phone, camera, wallet, and hotel info in riding pants - check;  tool roll, fuses, spare Dyna S, 1qt 10-40w, visor spray, road maps and water bottle in tank bag - check; 2 days of fresh clothes, road snacks, reading glasses, pen/paper, nic gum, and fistful of Tylenol in Timbuktu msngr bag - check; chain lubed, full tank, oil topped, cables lubed, and nuts/bolts checked for tightness - check.

I kiss the sleeping girlfriend goodbye, say a prayer to the motorcycle gods, and it's off into the darkness for a solo burn from Walnut Creek, CA to 29 Palms, CA to meet with Scottly and the Denver Choppers crew (KayJohn, Chopper Jim, and Kenny) at a location yet to be determined.

Nothing to do now except eat as many miles as I can before the sun gets high and the traffic gets heavy. I settle into the fast lane of Hwy 680 and keep the speed about a "slow jog" faster than the occasional car. My speedometer kinda stopped working last year, and the needle bounces between 60-130mph so I have adopted this method of gauging speed to go fast yet avoid tickets. So far, so good ...

 
The Handoff from Team Southwest to Team California. Team SW leader
Scottly, Denver Choppers Crew KayJohn, Chopper Jim and Kenny, along with
Scondon (arms folded). 

 
Team California leader Fatmatt, Moosie from Santa Barbara and Scondon
on the beach at Morro Bay, CA. 

Saturday 4/30/11 -  Homeward bound 
I wake up to the sound of voices in the parking lot below. It's the fellas, and though I can't make out the conversation I can tell they've been awake for a bit. Damned if I'm going to hold things up, so I dress quickly and head downstairs. This morning I feel different than the days previous. Don't know how many of you do long rides, but for me, the last day, the one that finally gets ya home, has a different feel. For me, the senses sharpen, and each step, each move, and every plan made is all about the business of getting home, and getting home safe!

--- --- ---

Got that beer? Ready for the whole trip report? If after reading and savoring Scondon’s ride log you aren’t ready to plan a trip this weekend, well then I don’t know what will get you going.  

See you down the road. - Steve Shanesy  

Steve Shanesy is SOHC/Forum member and can’t wait to meet up with the relay/rally ride when it comes through his home in Cincinnati, OH.   

Bored at the grocery store, I ventured to the magazine rack. I noticed the BSA Gold Star on your cover, which sparked memories of my father, who raced flat track in the late Forties and mid to late Fifties.  

Awesome article! My father never spoke much about his motorcycle racing days, so when he did I listened. One quote I remember: “If I would have been able to ride better, nobody would have touched me. That was the fastest bike in America!” Here’s a picture of the real deal, Bill Lane at Daytona Beach 1957 aboard his BSA Gold Star. 

  
Bill Lane at Daytona Beach in 1957 aboard his BSA Gold Star 

 
Flat track racing in 1954/55 at Pecatonica, Ill. Fairgrounds 

A story from my mother’s uncle, who introduced the two: 
Daytona Beach 1957. Back then the track was half on the beach and half on the road. The wind had blown sand on the paved corner. As usual my father came flying into the turn. The front wheel inverted, sending him head first over the handlebars. Don said he hit so hard it split his helmet in two, driving his chin into his chest. Damage: Broken thumb, broken wrist, broken chest plate and all his top teeth were driven up into his gums. At the hospital the doctors said they would pull his teeth out and stitch up his gums and that was about all they could do. A dentist was needed and they had to head back to Wisconsin anyhow. A quote from my mother’s uncle Don: “Your dad was tough as nails, but he was a hurtin’ soldier that night in the gin mil, drinking beer through a straw and holding his head with his hand in a cast.” His sponsor and pit man, Francis “Shack” Shackelford, once said to me, “You dad’s a real tiger. That spill he took in Daytona would have killed a normal man.”  

1956 Daytona beach. "Shacks", #37 and Bill Lane. Notice the fancy trailer and toolbox. Only the best back in the good old days. 

Maybe that’s why he never wanted me to own a motorcycle? Ha.Ha. 

(Ed. Note: The Single Overhead Cam Four/Forum, an online community devoted to Honda SOHC/4 bikes of the late 1960’s and 1970’s, has loosely organized a relay/rally ride that will triple-transect the lower 48 states and all Canadian Provinces. The ride began in mid-March 2011. Learn more and join the ride when it passes your area. )  

 
The colored states represent territory covered already by the 2011 SOHC/4
Forum Honda Relay Ride Across America. 

Big spaces just require big rides, or those guys out west have nothing better to do, or maybe they just have their priorities straight.

Call it what you will, this cross-country motorcycle relay/rally ride by members of the online SOHC/Four forum logged 3,000 miles in little more than a week after spending nearly a month getting the first 2,000 miles in the log book. It started with Bike Week in Daytona on April 12, 2011 and moved up the southeast coast to Virgina, cut east over the Appalachians through West Virginia to Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama arriving at the Barber Museum on April 15. After that the relay was on a tear across the south to Texas and the Southwest arriving in California little more than a week later, April 26.

One hero of this two wheeled treck is forum member CBGhia, or Joe, who logged 1,100 miles in four days on his café’d CB550, a bike he says he never put more than 100 miles on in a day. After picking up the ride mascot, banner and log book, Joe met up with a group of forum members in Austin for a ride through Texas hill country in what he describes as the best roads Texas has to offer. On the leg from Houston to Austin, Joe was joined by Chris, Anthony, Reagan and Tom. And in Austin they met up more forum members, Aaron, Gordon and Cole, at Billy’s BBQ.

 
A proper collection of vintage Honda SOHC/4 bikes. 

Gordon, Joe and Tom headed west from there and somewhere west of DFW Gordon peeled off to head home. Joe and Tom did a lot of west Texas miles, over-nighting at an RV camp and arriving in Lamesa the next day for a handoff to Justin, jarthel to Forum members.

 
Here's the wide open spaces of west Texas. 

 
Joe, Justin and Tom handing off in Lamesa, Texas. 

Then it was up to Justin to take the next leg into New Mexico, doing another 1,000 solo miles (round) trip to meet up with riders from Arizona. Sadly, New Mexico couldn’t muster a rider to join the rally/ride. That handoff took place in Lordstown, NM with Justin Scottly, RAFster1225 and climbingaz. The Arizona group decided to tap Justin The Lone Ranger of the ride. 

 
Justin and climbingaz.  

 
RAFster and Scottly. 

The Arizona crew fought big wind gusts up to 50mph across the New Mexico and Arizona deserts cruising back home. But the big winds were no problem for Scottly’s bike, a totally customized cb750 bored out to an 836. Said climbingaz, “If Satan ever rode a SOHC/4. I have no doubt this would have been his bike - the thing just sounds EVIL.”

 
Scottly's EVIL-sounding totally customized bored out 836. 

After a short rest in Arizona, the Southwest team moved the ride to Rosamond, CA via Joshua Tree, CA. In Rosamond, the crew hands off to Team California and enjoys a victory lap or sorts at Willow Springs International Motorsports Park.

This advanced pace is planned to continue in the coming weeks, up the California coast to San Francisco before turning back east to Nevada, Utah, across the Colorado Rockies and on to the Great Plains. Great folks, great rides and a little piece of motorcycle lore is what this rally/ride is all about.

See you down the road. - Steve Shanesy

(Ed. Note: The Single Overhead Cam Four/Forum, an online community devoted to Honda SOHC/4 bikes of the late 1960’s and 1970’s, loosely organized a relay/rally ride that triple-transected the lower 48 states and all Canadian Provinces. The ride began in mid-March 2011 and continued at elast into the early fall. Learn more and join the ride when it passes your area and beyond. ) 

You might remember the record setting number of tornadoes that ravaged the south in spring 2011. In the midst of it all, SOHC/Four Relay/Rally riders headed into the storm and kept the ride schedule on track. While no tornados were encountered during their seven-hour trip from Nashville, TN to Birmingham, AL, torrential rains were the order of the day. The payoff? A memorable visit to the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum outside Birmingham.

Forum members and relay riders Tugboat, Spanner1 and MidTNJasonF left Nashville at 6 am Friday, April 15 with no idea of the heavy weather they’d encounter. Rain, sure, but torrential rains and winds, not a clue. And little did they know that vicious tornados were touching down all around them.  

It was quite a different story from the prior weekend when the Nashville crew met the Lexington, KY crew at Lake Cumberland, KY handing off the ride mascot, banner and log book. Fair weather and good times marked that ride.

From left to right: Irish Johny, Chicago Ben, Bill, Silverback (Chris), Spanner1 (Ray), Joe, Joe's buddy, Me (Tugboat), Doug. 

The drenching ride to Barbers “was the worst 200 miles” Tugboat had ever ridden. But arriving at Barbers and the tour proved to be a truly memorable experience. Sure, the planned and much-anticipated pace lap around the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum track didn’t happen, but a  behind the scenes tour made the visit special nonetheless. The tour was lead by museum executive director Jeff Ray.

And to top it off, the riders were invited to park their rides overnight inside the museum front doors due to the terrible weather. Who wouldn’t want to say their bike was part of the Barber Museum?

Check out this extensive photo tour of the amazing Barber Museum 

Following the historic weather of Friday, the following few days were marked by fast progress as the ride headed west. John Baldridge. JTB to forum members, along with Kirk Pierce (kpier883) and Jason Farley (MidTNJasonF) did half an iron butt to move the ride along to Jackson, MS. JTB, leader of the Team South group reported Tuesday he was “still recovering” from the long miles.

From left to right: kpier883, JTB, MidTNJasonF, Spanner1, yo2001 and Tugboat
in foreground. 

Some more hard riding from Arkansas bikers took the handoff in Mississippi and advanced the cross country ride to Little Rock, and Van Buren , AR. Credit Forum members Coke, Radam and Wixil for logging some heavy miles and assisting member Cody who encountered electrical problems on his leg of the ride.

As of Monday evening, April 18, 2011 the Arkansas crew had traveled north to Oklahoma before turning back south to Dennison, TX for the official handoff to team Southwest. The relay/rally ride was now getting up a head of steam as it cruised through Texas, then crossed New Mexico and Arizona in just a matter of a few days. Unlike the ride so far, now in big country, big rides were happening almost every day. It was a sprint to California and up the coast to San Francisco before turning back east and handing off to team Central Rockies at Spanish Fork, UT on May 2.

Check out the latest update to this amazing ride schedule:

It’s never to late to join in (even if you missed the ride through your area, the forum si still roganizing relays in 2012). You can jump on the forum and get involved, join the ride by clicking on the link at the top of this story.  - Steve Shanesy