Surviving the Motorcycle Cannonball Endurance Run

By Mark Gardiner
Published on December 7, 2012
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Made it: Cannonballer Dave Cafton and his 1927 H-D finished all 3,956 miles.
Made it: Cannonballer Dave Cafton and his 1927 H-D finished all 3,956 miles.
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Buzz Kanter managed 3,687 miles on his 1929 H-D.
Buzz Kanter managed 3,687 miles on his 1929 H-D.
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Doug Wothke’s Indian waits for attention at Lonnie Isam's shop.
Doug Wothke’s Indian waits for attention at Lonnie Isam's shop.
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Buck Carson ended up pushing his BSA across the finish after holing a piston.
Buck Carson ended up pushing his BSA across the finish after holing a piston.
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Mike Wild finished 2,925 miles on his 1925 Rudge.
Mike Wild finished 2,925 miles on his 1925 Rudge.
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The run meanders along, off the beaten track, passing through small towns that have hardly changed since the bikes were new.
The run meanders along, off the beaten track, passing through small towns that have hardly changed since the bikes were new.
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Paul d’Orleans works on his Velocette at Lonnie Isam’s shop in Sturgis, S.D.
Paul d’Orleans works on his Velocette at Lonnie Isam’s shop in Sturgis, S.D.
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Brad Wilmarth’s 1913 Excelsior ran flawlessly for the entire run, giving him his second Cannonball win.
Brad Wilmarth’s 1913 Excelsior ran flawlessly for the entire run, giving him his second Cannonball win.

I remember the youngest casualty. I came across him in the Black Hills of South Dakota, sitting a few yards off the road in the shade of a pine tree, his 1927 BSA single, seized up solid, ticking as it cooled on the side of the road.

“I think I must be about the last one,” he drawled. “This is the third time today. It doesn’t like these hills.”  

He was Buck Carson, from Livingston, Texas. He told me that he’d turned 21 the day before; he’d enlisted in this thing with his daddy. We made small talk for another few minutes, but I had to press on to catch up to the main body of riders in the Pre-1930 Motorcycle Cannonball Endurance Run across the U.S.  

Cannonball the man

In 1914, Erwin “Cannonball” Baker rode an Indian motorcycle coast-to-coast to set the first of many cross-country records. It took him 11 days. Today’s roads are far better than the ones Baker traversed, making a coast-to-coast run somewhat easier on the riders’ kidneys. But better roads are, if anything, harder on old motorcycles.  

Back in Cannonball Baker’s day, when bikes like the Henderson Four, Harley-Davidson JD or Indian 101 Scout were new, asphalt was rare. There were only a few paved roads where riders could even reach 50mph, let alone sustain that speed. Yet on this Cannonball run, to reach checkpoints in time riders have to hammer along at 50mph for hours on end, putting strains on their machines that were inconceivable to engineers like Bill Henderson or William S. Harley. The challenges are even greater for smaller bikes like young Buck’s BSA, which are more suited to jaunts along English country lanes. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that if it couldn’t handle the Black Hills, it was never going to survive the Rocky Mountains.  

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