Boethius, you'll know LONG before you need to! You don't really think we won't tell anyone what's needed to find it?

Relax, she'll be right mate! (spoken with an Aussie drawl...) :)

First post so I'd better make it count. Seems to me that selecting a username based on some ancient philosopher is more than a little pretentious, more like having a grand opinion of ones self when the reality is you probably couldn't find your way out of your masturbation room without a GPS.

FFS, blowing out a ride because you don't like the fact that one of the organisers/participants uses a title that he earned and automatically labelling him a BS artist? WTF?

Did Clancy have all the details of his route in advance? I think not, You're probably doing the other participants an immense favour by bailing - at least then nobody has to listen to you whinge and moan.....

Pikey.

Yeh I was gonna say that (and point out the spelling error) but hey, we all need the consolation of philosophy ;)

Off into the dark abyss of the unknown
 

PRESS RELEASE received April 18, 2013

In Glasgow, Clancy declared the people individuals to a man and the accent almost unintelligible from the red-nosed, bare-kneed women who gathered around them at every stop, rolling their r’s and sounding like Harry Lauder.

Storey was still too nervous to ride through the heavy city traffic, so Clancy gave him a lift to the city limits then went back for his Henderson .

By this time it was almost dark, and before long they were lost in the gathering gloom, made almost infernal by the lurid glare of countless iron foundries, and were forced to stop for the night in the unprepossessing Black Bull in “the dreary town of Stonehouse ”.

Still, at least it only cost them $1.15 each for a hearty supper, a big feather bed and breakfast the next morning, during which a clergymen, as Clancy puts it, “told us that although he had been a weekly visitor at The Black Bull for several years, we were the first guests he had met; the bar being the inn’s principal mainstay and pure whiskey its principal staple”.

Naturally, it could only go downhill from there: a peeling monochrome pile on a windy corner, it’s finally been closed because of the inability of its customers to pop in for a small glass of sherry without finishing the bottle then breaking it over their neighbour’s head.

Warmed, fed and watered, we found a hotel and fell gratefully into bed. Gary and I took turns at keeping each other awake by snoring in shifts, and we rose at seven and were on the road at eight, heading for the balmy south.

Indeed, the snow looked ever so slightly warmer as we rode into Northwich in Cheshire, where Clancy and Storey had stayed at the Crown and Anchor, which had closed in 1960 and was now Madison’s Bar and Restaurant, the forthcoming attractions of which included the Playboy Bunny Party on Friday, with free bunny ears and a prize for the best costume.

“I can just see Clancy and Storey rolling up the street on their Hendersons and saying: ‘Playboy Bunny Party? That’ll do us’,” said fellow biker and journalist Peter Murtagh, who was riding with us as far as Spain , and whose hands had gone a funny shade of blue which matched my nose.

It was time to find somewhere warm to stay the night, and after riding around for a bit, we found the Blue Barrel, a pub with rooms and a sign outside advertising a Psychic Evening.

Funny, I had a feeling we were going to stay there.

The next morning, we rode between the frozen fields the next morning to stand in the exact spot where Clancy had a century before when he took a photograph looking up St Werburgh Street towards the cathedral.

It hadn’t changed in all that time, apart from the large Chrysler parked on the double yellow lines. And the double yellow lines, come to that. Still, at least Clancy would have been pleased that it was an American car.

In Birmingham , we took shelter from a blizzard in the Witton Arms, which turned out to be the worst Irish pub in the world, a cavernous hall occupied by a gloomy Mexican and an inexplicably cheery Jamaican watching the horse racing on a giant screen.

Things got much better in London, where two mornings later we pulled up at the stroke of nine outside the Ace Café, which Clancy didn’t visit for the simple reason that it only opened in 1938, to accommodate traffic on the new North Circular Road.

Because it was open 24 hours a day, it started to attract motorcyclists. It then became popular with the Ton Up Boys and girls in the 1950s and the Rockers in the 1960s and many bands and motorcycle enthusiast groups such as the 59 Club formed there.

It was, you’ll be glad to hear, exactly as it should be: down one end was with three Triumphs, a Royal Enfield, a BSA and a Brough Superior; the first time I had seen in the flash the machine favoured by Lawrence of Arabia up to the point where he met his death on one.

Down the other was a jukebox on which Mick Jagger was complaining yet again that he couldn’t get no satisfaction, and in the middle, a bunch of grizzled chaps with faraway looks in their eyes were sitting at scrubbed wooden tables, tucking into bacon butties washed down with mugs of tea.

In the circumstances, it seemed impolite not to join them, then buy an Ace Café sticker as a memento and a Castrol one because it reminded me of the metal one that once turned in the wind outside my dear old dad’s motorcycle garage.

All stickered up, we rode into London , where Clancy and Storey spent several happy days at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall planning their route east.

Clancy had joined the RAC associate organisation the Auto-Cycle Union of England before leaving the States, and called into the RAC, which had only been built the year before, to enlist the help of the RAC's resident experts in getting maps, GB numberplates and international passes, although only after having his riding skills approved by an examiner in the street outside.

He was deeply impressed by the magnificent building and interior, and he had every right to be, for it is a soaring hymn to tasteful opulence, from the richly carpeted reception room in which someone had carelessly parked a Bentley Continental, through the swimming pool, saunas, steam room and gym to the St James’s Room in which we were expected for a press conference; an appropriate venue, since it was named after the saint whose bones had inspired centuries of pilgrims to set off on their own adventures to Santiago de Compostela.

In deep armchairs all around, the descendants of the same chaps who had sat in the same chairs when Clancy was here were busily unscrewing their fountain pens, just as their grandfathers had, to write letters of withering erudition to the Daily Telegraph about the state of the nation’s roads. [End Of Text Of Release]



(An unofficial update has Geoff and Gary not being able to secure visas in Paris for Algeria due to poor timing and paperwork barriers. Rumor was they were last seen rolling around southern Italy with hopes for entering Algeria from Tunisia in the east instead of from the west. In the true flavor of the original Clancy ‘rtw ride, they are vectoring into the dark abyss of the unknown with no designated layovers, GPS waypoints, chase vehicles or handlers to schmooze their adventure into one more often taken from an armchair or keyboard).

The Clancy Centennial (CC)
 

Thanks for the update, Greg. Looking forward to further news, history and information.
It was great meeting you by chance at The Riders Corner in Chiang Mai a couple of months ago.

Left to right, I am with Joe Simpkins of W.Virginia holding a ST Owners Club (STOC) Memorial Travel TAG with Greg.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-t...80-o/photo.jpg

Location of Start of San Francisco CCR June 2 here
 

June 2, 2013 Clancy Centenary Ride Start Location

Alan R. Lapp, a CITY BIKE contributor, and Bay Area GPS Guru, Thor Anderson, have shouldered the boots-on-the-ground responsibilities for aerial photographs and maps of the downtown and wharf area of the Official Start Point.

The first map below shows a blow-up of the lower city. The Start is at the end of Jefferson St. in a Park area, nearly halfway between the many wharfs.


The second photograph is an aerial view, showing the public area for the photo ops in blue. See below.


The third map below is a close-up of the area at the end of Jefferson Street. For those paper or plasti-coated mapped challenged, the coordinates are: Lat:37.8907506, Long: -122.421896. There is metered parking at the junction of Jefferson Street and Hyde Street for those who have portfolio beta factors supporting feeding city revenue sources.

The plan is for interested parties to arrive between 10:00 AM and 10:30 for tire kicking, swapping of tale tales and being close to their motorcycles in case moving them around is required. A group photo is planned for 11:00 AM. Bring celebratory and positive spirits to mix or join with the riders who will be setting off towards Sacramento and then on to New York City as they follow Clancy's 5,500 mile journey.

A final word of caution to digitalized and GPS followers: If you get lost or disoriented in downtown San Francisco on Sunday, fall back on the Clancy solution, paper maps. AAA gives them away free to members.

On May 1st Geoff and Gary made it to Sri Lanka. On May 2nd, we made a quick trip to Colombo. The next day, we departed on a 3-day discovery of Clancy's tracks. As of today, May 11th, Geoff's story is being told on the website of Adelaide Insurance. It was a lovely experience to be part of the team for a couple of days.

thanks for your help and support Alfonso, it's much appreciated!

If I wanted to join this ride in progress, say in Butte or Billings or Bismarck, how would the EXACT location of the meeting place be known? I'm planning a trip from California to North Carolina and would like to ride along for awhile. Cannot leave at the start in San Francisco on 6/2.

EXACT Locations
 

Yellowing:

EXACT evening location for Butte, Billings and Bismark are:

Butte, June 6: Hampton Inn
Billings, June 7 & 8: Residence Inn
Bismark, June 9: Fairfield Inn & Suites So.

At the Residence Inn in Billings, June 8, from 7:00-9:00 PM we will be making a presentation for interested parties on Riding the World and the progress of The Clancy Centenary Ride to date.

Generally expect our group to trickle in after 5:00 PM and be in and out of the location for eating, shopping and personal matters. Departures between 8:00-9:00 AM.

Like Clancy and Allen, on their portion of this leg, they were on a loose daily schedule, so we have adopted a similar travel philosophy.

Pertinent Details
 

This is starting to get more interesting now, Sun Chaser. June isn't too far away all of a sudden. :clap:

Along a similar line, before the date arrives, we'd like to know where ya'll will be hanging in Detroit on 16 June. We/I are keenly interested in riding over to Cleveland with the gaggle. :scooter:

I for one am glad you discovered and documented Carl Clancy's Ride. We look forward to meeting with the entourage, and taking in the scenery in northern Ohio [before we drop down into Kentucky for a family wedding]... :mchappy:

Godspeed Ya'll!
Phil & Karen
Ft Washington, MD

Detroit Area, June 16
 

Phil and Karen:

June 16, Detroit (area) finds Richard Livermore, myself and ? booked (just now confirmed) at the Dearborn Inn, Dearborn, MI, again likely arriving after 5:00 PM, out by 9:00 AM June 17. That is the loosely slated "plan," subject to various winds, motorcycle maintenance and pilots being able to vector in according to the "plan."

Thanks for the Info
 

Okay Greg:

Got our reservation in for the 16th. For a 4PM check-in and an 8AM check-out, that's a good chunk of change! doh

I'm guessing the Ten Eyck Tavern is also upscale... Hope they have something good on tap besides Detroit's own Stroh's... beer

Why this particular inn, if I may ask? Are they rolling out the red carpet to the C-Cubed Globetrotters at the Henry Ford Museum? One hopes that is the case.

Hope your travels are both enjoyable and not exceptionally eventful. :mchappy:
Sláinte! (Gaelic)
Phil & Karen Ager
Ft Washington, MD

Secrets of a frugal traveler budget
 

Yes, the motel is a bit upscale. The secret is we're on a bit of a budget, so are cashing in some points for travel miles (the kind you bank using credit cards and on certain travel purchases for car rental, airlines, food, etc.), and we are doubling up in one room, splitting room costs. Also taking advantage of free hotel services when we can, like free breakfasts, wifi and use of business centers (several of us are trying to keep our jobs and/or businesses alive while riding 8-12 hours a day). One of us has been known to stuff breakfast fruit and bottled water in their Darien riding gear pockets for a noonish nosh while traveling thus saving more dosh by not restauranting for a mid day meal.

We suspect where our budget will get hammered is evening meals accompanied by house swill. Another one of us (unnamed) has been known to buy his evening meal at a local super market, in a can or plastic container, and use the motel in-room micro-wave to heat it and then washing it down with store purchased swill. He objects when called a cheap traveler, prefers the word frugal.

On a journey like ours two of the costs we can control are the price we pay for eating and sleeping. Other costs, such as gasoline, tolls, and entry fees we consider a fixed travel or road tax.

We believe Clancy and his travel pals were pretty frugal as they crossed the USA, with the exception of the noted ice cream which they seemed to favor at the end of a day versus a nip or two.

Greg ... I'll be joining you 10:30am on Sunday June 2nd from the San Fran starting point ... but sadly only riding along for a day. Ride safe and see you soon .. Geoff bier

Heading East
 

Greg and crew,
Safe travels through the country. Looking forward to meeting on the East coast. Promise to buy at least the first round to aid in travel budget.
I can wager a guess who the frugal one might be… :taz:
(Closest thing to a monkey I could find)

clancy ride
 

Hi Greg

where are you staying in Medford or Portland I will join
up with you in one or another of the places?>?
Barry 1616

Medford and Portland Oregon
 

Mr. Barry:

Medford, OR:

Hampton Inn

Portland, OR:

Courtyard Portland North Harbor

Registered both nights under "Mr. Livermore"

CCR Telephone #
 

Rolling Cell Number:



(303) *** **** is our USA Clancy Centenary Ride cellular telephone # from June 2 through June 21 as we follow Carl Stearns Clancy’s tire tracks from San Francisco, CA (June 2) to Portland, OR, and then across the USA to Penn Station in downtown New York City, NY (June 21). During the day (mornings from 8:00 AM) it will be in a tank bag, and evenings on a person and turned ON until 21:00 (local time). At $1.00 a minute do not expect to engage in long conversations as the owner is known as being significantly frugal.


Chief, World Adventure Affairs Desk, CITY BIKE Magazine

Route Map
 

I just came across this thread.Great stuff!! I am in the Baja but may be wanting to catch you along the way east. Is there a routing iteniary? This makes a quick ride to Nova Scotia sound like fun!

Itenerary and Road Map For Fast Freddy
 

Fast Freddy:

Go to page 6 above and you will find the answers to all your questions regarding Map and Schedule. We tried to call you back in Mexico but your phone was not accepting calls.

Maybe see you on the road(s) as we streak across the USA (compared to length of time to Clancy's ride 100 years ago).

Was good to meet up with Geoff & Gary, and Greg and Richard this morning on Fisherman's Wharf ... enjoy the journey across the USA and meet you all again sometime on the road .... Greg probably a little earlier than the rest of you

Ride Safe and Smile :scooter:

clancy ride
 

HI greg

I have had a glitch but can meet on the way from Portland to Spokane
where would you stop for lunch?
and where are you staying in Spokane??
Coming from Vancouver Canada
cheers
Barry 1616

Lunch and Sleeping in Spokane
 

No idea or clue where we will stop for lunch at this date...that's usually decided by the hunger of whoever is in front of our group of ? They are the "leader" for those decisions :-) Your suggestion of the Rainbow Cafe in downtown Pendelton might work - interesting that it has been open since 1921 as you noted, a well-known cowboy restaurant, 209 Main Street. We'll suggest it to our day leader.

As for sleeping in Spokane, we have booked and confirmed reservations at the Hampton Inn Spokane, 2010 Assembly Road, to likely check-in after 5:00 PM.

Thanks Blue 88, Feargal O'Neill and Joe Walsh
 

Sawadee Khup Blue 88!

Thanks, danke, gracias, Khop Khun Khap, for the most honored blessing of our motorcycles for a safe journey with the string good luck pieces from the Lak Si Temple in Bangkok.

Also special thanks to Feargal O’Neill and his colleague Joe Walsh for the pennant pictured in the attached photo. It was received today from Geoff Hill and Gary Walker on the Wharf at the Start of the USA leg of The Clancy Centenary Ride. I will carry it with honor and the safety of Blue 88's blessing across the USA to our end point in New York City.

Great fun so far!

Next stop: June 3, Medford, Oregon, likely after an ice cream stop along the way. Clancy and Allen seemed to have tagged the best ice cream places along their route. Sadly, the one in Tracy, California had long since gone out of business, but we'll keep our eyes open between Sacramento and Medford today.

If I can swing it, I'd like to meet up in Butte on the evening of the 6th. When and where do you expect to be?
Kyle

Butte, Montana for Torch 1969
 

Kyle:

June 6 see's a couple of us with confirmed reservations at The Hampton Inn Butte, 3499 Harrison Ave. Time? Usually arrive after 5:00 PM, check-out 8:00 AM or 9:00 AM the next day.

Ice Cream for the Irish Guys
 

Like Clancy, the two Irishmen in our group seem to have a liking for ice cream. In the book, MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER, Clancy and his riding pal Robert Allen stopped numerous times for ice cream, sometimes almost making a meal of it.

Pictured here are Irishmen Gary (with non-Irishman Richard watching) and Geoff in Irish Traveler's Bliss June 3 at an ice cream stop in Dunsmuir, California, a place noted in the book where Clancy and Allen had stopped 100 years earlier.

Of course, since both Gary and Geoff are riding BMW Adventure motorcycles, possibly the ice cream thing is part of the BMW lifestyle. Richard, on a Honda, does not appear to be so afflicted.

Anamosa, Madison, Chicago
 

Would you post any details you have for the visit to the museum in Anamosa Iowa? Also where you will will be staying in Madison and Chicago. I'd like to ride from Amamosa to Chicago with the group and hear the presentation in Chicago. Thanks

Clancy ride
 

Hi Greg and co.

My glitch has turned into an issue.I own a fishing lodge and have had
a staff injury,worse than expected.I am of course negatively affected
and will not be able to join you.Thank you for all the updates and help.
Safe travels
Barry 1616

Madison and Chicago nights
 

Rapidsrider:

A couple of our group have booked rooms in Madison and Chicago:

Madison, WI: Sheraton Madison Hotel

Chicago: Chicago Marriott at Medical District

FYI: June 13 is not back in Madison, is in Janesville, WI at Hampton Inn Janesville, WI

Tentative plan is for a formal presentation at The Nation Motorcycle Museum in the morning of June 13. We replied to your request regarding the Chicago show in a personal note.

Cow Creek Adventure June 4
 

One of the toughest sections of road, or track, that Clancy experienced was from Glendale, Oregon to what is now Riddle, along Cow Creek. He crashed numerous times and the road was more of a mud track than a road.

Today we engaged a secret guide to lead us over this section, Bart Madson, Managing Editor of Motorcycle USA (Motorcycle News and Motorcycles - Motorcycle USA). A "local" from nearby Medford, Oregon, he knew this nearly hidden section of now paved roads designated as RT 27 out of Glendale and then RT 39 into Riddle. We exited at Exit 80 off of I-5 and spent hours wandering in the secluded woods over a mix of high speed twisties, broken pavement and even some gravel.

Madson, on a Kawasaki KLR650, showed us how he could skillfully manage knobby tires on the edge while the BMW 1200's and the two Honda 650's followed.

The real trick of the day was not getting lost in the maze of forest roads the vectored along or off our desired route. In Glendale a "DEAD END" sign fooled us into thinking it was wrong, and then later the GPS reader was misled into making a right when we should have gone left.

Our guess was that 100 years earlier Clancy did not get turned around as did we because there was likely only one main track through the deep forested area.

Pictured below is our group taking a break on a gravel section. We we not lost as we all knew were were in Oregon, or at thought so until Madson educated us by telling the unbelieving that we were really in a state once called Jefferson, or the State of Jefferson, a section of northern California and Southern Oregon that in the 1940's broke away from the rest of the USA.....a great story for another forum.

The morning of June 5 will find The Clancy Centenary Ride group making a right turn at Portland, Oregon, and heading east over another section of road that caused Clancy and his riding pal Robert Allen to "toughen up" numerous times, Clancy once falling so many times he could not lift upright his downed Henderson motorcycle, he was so worn out.

The day of June 4 ended with Livermore leading the group through the lower bowels of Portland three times Livermore, a self-proclaimed techie, focused on his GPS and kept passing where once was a gas station the group was looking for to top off their nearly empty tanks. In the heat exceeding 90 F, during the madness of Portland's rush hour, the Livermore GPS adventure finally came to an end when Walker wisely asked a car driver where the nearest gas station was and the group was directed to one a block off the route Livermore had been leading them over. There was one offer from the group to take Livermore's GPS and toss it into the Willamette River as they passed over it the last time. A further offer by one of the Irishmen was to have Livermore attached to the GPS when tossed. One of the Irishmen, Geoff Hill, said that when Livermore admitted he was in unknown territory without his GPS he was truly a lost man.

Mud and Ice Cream June 5
 

100 years earlier Clancy and Allen tossed their Henderson motorcycles and luggage on a train in Portland and rode the rails to The Dalles due to poor road conditions, solid mud due to heavy rains. Today our adventurists rode the dry and smoothly paved I-84 at high speeds until they got off the super slab at Arlington and followed the Clancy tracks through "farm country."

In the small town of Ione, today with a population of less that 500, the 2013 CCR hardened adventure team stopped for lunch. The quiet town during the time Clancy passed through had a population of 5,000, people somehow attached to the wheat fields. Today equipment does what the workers did by hand 100 years earlier.

Not to miss a known Clancy and Allen stop for an ice cream sundae, the team later stopped where Clancy stopped 100 years earlier in the town of Echo for root beer floats with extra root beer. Tough riders, the Clancy Centenary Riders.

Following the Clancy route found the riders in the middle of huge expanses of wheat fields like pictured here:

Revised Schedule for June 6-22
 

June 6: Spokane, WA – Butte, MT


June 7: Butte, MT – Billings, MT (with side trip/return from Livingston, MT to Entrance of Yellowstone Park following original Clancy route)


June 8: Billings, MT (Rest Day – Saturday: Evening multi-media show at The Residence Inn, 956 South 25th Street West, Billings, Montana, starting 7:00 PM. Free to general public: Title: LONGEST, MOST DIFFICULT, AND MOST PERILOUS MOTORCYCLE JOURNEY EVER ATTEMPTED)


June 9: Billings, MT – Bismark, ND


June 10: Bismark, ND – Minneapolis, MN


June 11: Minneapolis, MN – Madison, WI


June 12: Madison, WI – Anamosa, IA (Side trip, off Clancy original route, to visit the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa – donate some Clancy items to the museum. Formal presentation at the museum the morning of June 13. Photo ops of Clancy riders and media display.)


June 13: Anamosa, IA – Janesville, WI


June 14: Madison, WI – Chicago, IL



June 15: Chicago, IL (Rest Day – Private evening presentation, Adventurer’s Club of Chicago, Saturday PM, Reservations required for members and guests.)


June 16: Chicago, IL – Detroit, MI


June 17: Detroit, MI – Cleveland, OH


June 18: Cleveland, OH – Buffalo, NY (side trip following Clancy route to Niagara Falls)


June 19: Buffalo, NY – Albany, NY


June 20: Albany, NY – Newburgh, NY (Side trip off original Clancy Route, to visit the Motorcyclepedia Museum in Newburgh, New York)


June 21: Newburgh, NY – New York City/Penn Station photo op and media event about 2:00 PM -2:30 PM for "END OF Clancy Centenary Ride.



June 22: Jessup, MD – BOB’s BMW 12:00 PM - 4:00 PM for “schmoozing” and chilling with adventure and travel customers of BOB’s BMW and any interested general public. Frazier to be re-united with his 240,000 mile tired, ‘rtw 1981R80G/S donated to and on display at BOB’s BMW Museum. This is a “wrap-up” afternoon for the general public to meet and greet, swap tall tales and kick tires.

Buffalo
 

Please let me know if you need anything while you are in Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

Indian and Bad Roads June 6
 

Today was Spokane, Washington to Butte, Montana. Part of the team vectored off to Murray, Idaho, over the original Clancy tracks (now Forest Road 456) which Clancy noted as more bad roads. The other part of the group of adventurists pounded I-90 at 75 mph, except for the several 35-45 mph constructions areas, into Butte, Montana for the night.

The group split at 2:00 PM in Wallace, Idaho. It was in Wallace they found the Oasis Bordello. Now a museum, they pondered and opined what it must have been like in 1913 when Clancy and Allen passed through. Those of a conservative religious slant took one route out of Wallace, and those of another religious belief wandered next 200 miles in wonderment, both groups to later meet in Butte, Montana, described by Clancy 100 years earlier as "the most unattractive city either of us had ever visited."

While in Wallace The Clancy Centenary Ride adventure team were grabbed (enticed?) off their parked motorcycles with an offer of looking at what a local motorcycle themed hotel and bar owner described as a "real adventure Indian." Expecting to possibly possibly a member of an Idaho Native American tribe, the group was mildly surprised to instead discover a pristine 1948 Indian Chief motorcycle. The lack of bluing of the header pipes suggested it may have only been started once or twice, a fact which was confirmed by the art gallery manager where the rare adventure motorcycle was on display.

Below is a picture of this antique gem, in Wallace, Idaho. $30,000.00 to $35,000.00 USD can still purchase one of these adventure models from the 1940's in this condition.

Butte, Montana to Billings, June 7
 

A late start from Butte was caused by one of the group who was vodkaized the night before and deciding to purchase an older motorcycle that was For Sale on the street, a 1982 Honda Goldwing with full Vetter accessories, including tape deck and radio.

Once on the road part of the team took the original Clancy route from Livingston to Gardiner, Montana and the entrance to Yellowstone Park. 100 years earlier Clancy and Allen made the same trip, becoming the first motorcycles to ride to the Park entrance.

When Clancy and Allen made the trip the road was in such horrible condition that they both tried riding their motorcycles between the train rails which ran parallel to the road. This was an ugly choice, banging the unsprung motorcycles and rider.

Below is pictured one of the 2013 Clancy Centenary Ride team giving a sign of what he though of train track riding and being hammered even on a motorcycle with spring suspension - thumbs down:

Longest, Most Perilous Ride Ever, June 8, Billings, Montana
 

June 8 was a layover day for laundry (much needed by one of the team members delegated to ride in the back of the group), submitting magazine articles and photographs some much needed general Internet work to keeps wives and relations happy. One of the team needed an hour and local auto parts shop to glue his motorcycle's broken turn signal together while another dashed off to a local mail drop point to collect some books and DVD's as well as several blown up posters of Clancy and Allen on their trip through the USA.

An evening media event was schedule for local Montana motorcyclists, a free 1 & 1/2 hour multi-media show by Geoff Hill, Gary Walker and myself. The show was titled RIDING THE WORLD - LONGEST, MOST DIFFICULT, AND MOST PERILOUS MOTORCYCLE JOURNEY EVER ATTEMPTED. Initially the event was slated for 20 local motorcyclists but a feature article in the Friday edition of The Billings Gazette, Montana's largest newspaper, alerted 57 attendees, with standing room only for late arrivals to the Saturday night for their wild Montana evening in the western town of Billings. Some rode or drove their motorcycles and sidecar outfits over 500 miles that day to attend, showing what a Montana motorcyclist would do for a free motorcycle event. Wind buffeted and rain soaked attendee Ronnie Weinzapfel, from Munster, Texas, said he had ridden his BMW R75 over 400 miles to attend this day. In the true spirit of hardened riding, Weinzapfel said he will be joining The Clancy Centenary Ride Team for their next four days on the road to Anamosa, Iowa.

Geoff Hill gave an overview of the ride around the world he and Gray Walker had made over the last 10 weeks following Clancy's original route from Dublin, Ireland to Billings, Montana with photographs by Gary Walker showing numerous travel points they had tagged. Richard Livermore had successfully spent hours on June 8 editing the photographs and multi-media show to tailor it specifically for the Billings, Montana attendees.

At the end of the evening show Hill surprised the audience by pulling out of a well travel plastic bag the original boots worn by Clancy on his world tour in 1912-1913. The boots had traveled over the original Clancy route starting from Dublin, Ireland in Hill's pannier and are destined for a presentation at the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa June 13.

Below is a photograph at the beginning of the multi-media show as guests were introduced like well-respected local author and journalist Ed Kemmick (The Big Sky, By and By book published in 2011), Joe Whalen, famous former mayor of Miles City, Montana (a city traveled through by Clancy and Allen in 1913) and globally regarded BMW motorcycle guru Bob Clement (Roberts, Montana). The AV system allowed for the multi-media show images to be viewed on three screens in the conference center at one time, with the soundtrack playing over an high tech audio system, a treat for the audience as well as the presenters.

OIT Applied To German Technology, Bismarck June 9
 

As we left Billings, Montana I saw the large Rocky Mountains fade to small in my rear view mirrors. Ahead of us was nearly 1,000 miles of prairie and rolling hills, a section of Clancy’s ride 100 years earlier he said very little about.

One town Clancy mentioned, Sanders, Montana, we sped through without knowing we had been there. Over the last hundred years the population and buildings had dwindled to nothing more than green grass and a few cows. Our GPS guy said we were there but it was general opinion his GPS had found a cyber ghost town.

What lay ahead of us was 300 miles of boring Interstate 84, a well paved road with a steady vision diet of mile after mile of same-same.

At a short pit-stop Gary Walker applied a technique he had seen me use to make a throttle lock for the Silverwing, making a MacGyver throttle lock for the BMW GS Adventure. He had ridden halfway around the world while having to keep his right hand on the throttle. At speed, if he took his hand off the throttle, it would slam shut with German authority.

He asked for one of my cable ties to close around the handle bar between the rubber throttle grip and plastic it butted up against. The first attempt failed because the cable tie plastic was slippery. We applied two wraps of duct tape and circled the bar resulting in enough stickiness to keep the throttle open when he took his hand off.

I applauded his success in MacGyvering a throttle lock, telling him in was an OIT I had learned for the German BMWs after the company quit making nice screw locks to meet some governmental rule or regulation. When Gary asked, “What’s an OIT?” I replied in my best Native tongue-in-cheek, “Old Indian Trick.”

The two photographs below first show Gary fabricating the OIT/MacGyver throttle lock, and then how Gary utilized the new application at speed on the Interstate, which we drove over until reaching Bismarck, out destination for the night.

Lovin' the ride guys. Keep the story and pics coming.

I told a rider in Minneapolis you were coming through but we don't know where to meet you on some of your itinerary.

Please post where you are whereever possible so riders can meet you. Thanks!


GS3 on TapaTalk

Minneapolis location June 10
 

We're bunking at a private residence on the western outskirts (suburbs) of Minneapolis June 10, out through Minneapolis proper in the AM. No definite touch point in the bowels of Minneapolis planned, other than a duck-and-weave through traffic as we vector south to Madison, WI. Have your friend try to call us in the PM if wanting to join our group of the five on our pass through: 303 868 0662 will be On for messages throughout the day, and if not too wind blown, holder of the phone might even hear it ring in the PM before the little buckeroo goes to sleep :-) We're off the Net through the day, knocking down the next 450 miles.

Road to Cleveland
 

Hey Greg, Geoff & Gary:
Way to go on your Tales & Trails thus far! Sure wish we could be tagging along.

When you can, please give us a preview of where we're headed to from Dearborn. It really isn't all that far to Cleveland. Will we be on some scenic byways along the lake shore (por favor), or will this crossing stick to the main super-highway? :unsure: And which hotel, motel, campground is planned for Cleveland? :helpsmilie:

Appreciate any info & all your cross-country updates! Enjoy The Ride! :thumbup1:

Phil & Karen
Ft Washington, MD

North Dakota and Minnesota Adventures – June 10
 

Clancy did not have much to say about North Dakota, other than he and Allen had passed through it. As we too passed through it I also had not much to say, as most of the road from Bismarck to the border of Minnesota was description less, other than to note mile after mile of nearly flat green fields with a few brown smudges and water spots.


The flat green fields reminded me of a pool table top. As I conjured this at 70 mph I made the gray matter comparison with a pool table I had once seen in a restaurant and bar located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Not the most upscale bar, the pool table, although green felt, had some brown spots from unknown sources, possibly dirty hands or a dropped slice of pizza. There were wet spots too, those attributable to spilled swill.


What was significantly different from the pool table in Phnom Penh and the fields of North Dakota were the several Khmer working ladies that brightened the scenery by leaning over the table trying to make a distant eight ball drop. The pool table like flat green fields of North Dakota had no two-legged dears upon which to focus, and the four-legged North Dakota deer were sleeping deep in the grass as we passed.



The first photograph below shows how the flat green countryside of North Dakota reminded me of a Cambodian pool table in the Walkabout Bar.


One of the things Clancy did note as he traveled was the character of the people he met. In the spirit of that Clancy element and engaging in conversation with local peoples, today one of our team did the same, had a roadside verbal exchange. The second photograph below captured his adventurous roadside moments.


The third photograph shows how beneficial it was for Ronnie Weinzapfel on his BMW R60/6 (converted to a 750 cc’s) to be traveling with our team members on their BMW 1200 Adventure models with their 33 liters of gas and 100 Horse Power of grunt. Weinzapfel’s 1974 BMW was gulping gas while fighting the head winds across North Dakota. His 5.7 gallon gas tank ran dry at just over 160 miles, 300 yards short of a gas station. One BMW 1200 Adventure rider offered to let Weinzapfal suck some gas through a straw out of the Beemer tanker’s gas tank, but Weinzapfal wisely declined. Instead, he asked to be towed to the gas station. The third photograph below shows the 2013 BMW Adventure towing the 1974 BMW, adding a new element to the 1200 Adventure sales pitch: “Can be used as tow truck-like motorcycle.”

Motorcycles in Minneapolis and to Madison –June 11
 

Clancy and Allen noted the lack of motorcycles as they passed through Minneapolis on their way to Eau Claire and then to Madison, Wisconsin. Our ride to Madison started with one less BMW, Ronnie Weinzapfel choosing to wander the countryside towards Anamosa, Iowa on his converted R60/6. While our team missed the 1970’s BMW, it was replaced by a Minneapolis based 1983 Honda GL650I.


Thus far we have had a Kawasaki KLR650 join us, and then the BMW. Now another 1983 Honda. With all the Harley-Davidsons seen on the road from San Francisco to Portland, and now into Madison, I started to wonder why none from The Motor Company had hooked up with us. We have had quite a bit of media play about our ride across the USA and The Clancy Centenary Ride and motorcyclists often recognize us when we stop and chat, but so far none of the Milwaukee iron has joined.


While pondering the lack of American iron in our pack I was reminded of how Clancy had stated he had, as published in MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER, “established the supremacy of the ’four’ over the ‘twin’ forever, in the eyes of all present” when his Henderson with “14,000 miles in its bones” had beaten a motorcycle dealer on “his well-known twin” in a hill climb challenge up a “35 percent grade” outside of Sacramento.


I concluded it was possible the unnamed twin’s following 100 years later still remembered the whipping Clancy’s well worn Henderson four had given and were staying away from another lesson by German and Japanese models hammering the roads across America. Then I thought that possibly the unnamed dealer was riding an Indian motorcycle, also a well-known twin in the 1913 era.


Either way, the tale was a good one and gave road food for motorhead thinking as we rode into Madison, Wisconsin for the night.


The photograph below is of the Honda that joined us in Minneapolis, Minnesota and rode some miles south towards Eau Claire, piloted by Steve Livermore, brother of my GL650 riding pal Richard Livermore, also in the photograph.

Madison, Wisconsin Madness to Alamosa, Iowa Old Iron – June 12
 

We vectored off the original Clancy route today to tourist through the National Motorcycle Museum in Anamosa, Iowa. The museum had on display the only original 1912 Henderson motorcycle I had discovered through my research for the book about Clancy's ride around the world. Tomorrow we will do a photo shoot and media event around the display with some of the items we are carrying that belonged to Clancy when he rode his 1912 Henderson around the world.

Before reaching the National Motorcycle Museum we made a pit stop to check air pressure in our tires. It was here I discovered the new technology for the BMW 1200 Adventure model was so technologically advanced that checking the tire pressure, and then adding air if needed, required the hose operator and two assistants, as pictured below in the first photograph, picture # 1.

The National Motorcycle Museum was housed in a former Wal*Mart store, with over 400 motorcycles displayed and 1,000’s of bits of motorcycle memorabilia. For the minor fee of $8.00 we could, and did, wander through the displays for hours. It was a visual adventure that included some of the wildest, fastest, and weirdest motorcycles on the planet. How weird or mad? I found the 2001 Kawasaki KLR650 that I had donated to the museum some years ago with which I had circled the globe. It was cosmic madness to stand there and look at it as a display instead of being on top of it or under it when it had fallen over somewhere on the planet.

Pictured as # 2 below is the entrance to the museum where a very nice lady warmly greeted us with a “Welcome to The National Motorcycle Museum,” much the same as a greeter would at the former Wal*Mart. I thought I heard her add, “the world’s largest candy store for the true motorcycle motorhead.”

Wandering through the racing section I found a 1930’s Indian race motorcycle that looked much the same as my own 1936 Indian Sport Scout racer, even wearing the same color paint. Picture # 3 shows what we used to throw around dirt tracks and ride with on the high banking of Daytona International Raceway. Mine, on a good day with a tail wind while drafting some of the faster guys, might have reached 98 mph. With no rear suspension and the pistons vibrating the handlebars at least an inch up and down, the Indian racer had an adventure just trying to stay on it.

This Indian racing machine was so nearly a match to my own that it too leaked oil from the same part of the engine. Picture # 4 shows how it, and mine, seldom required draining the oil for an oil change – we merely added oil as needed.

enjoying the centenary ride
 

Thanks for the continued updates, Greg and everyone.
I don't know how I managed to not get to this museum with all the times I've been through Iowa.

I'm still planning to connect with this centenary ride for a bit later in the week, maybe after this storm passes NYC.

Anamosa, Iowa to Janesville, Wisconsin: Henderson Motorcycle Day – June 13
 

Our day started with Geoff Hill and me displaying a poster at the National Motorcycle Museum of Carl Stearns Clancy and Robert Allen taken in San Francisco, California on June 2, 1913 with their Henderson motorcycles. Both Hill and I are working on book projects that incorporate aspects of the 1912 Henderson motorcycle that Clancy had ridden around the world. Picture # 1 below is of Hill and me with the poster, and resting next to us on the cement block are the boots Clancy had worn as he circled the globe 100 years earlier.

Photograph # 2 below is of the only original 1912 Henderson I have found in a global search over a period of 19 years. Atop the glass case that housed the Henderson are the Clancy boots and a pith helmet he wore on the African leg of his global ride. Also hanging from the top of the case are two pennants Hill had carried to me from The Clancy Centenary Ride founders Feargal O’Neill and Joe Walsh, all of which we presented to the National Motorcycle Museum.

Photograph # 3 is John Parham, president of the National Motorcycle Museum, holding my book MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER. The book has given rise to The Clancy Centenary Ride, a plus for media exposure of Carl Stearns Clancy’s incredible ride around the world 100 years earlier. The book was also a positive contributor to the various spin-offs from the 2013 event, like our meeting John Parham, one of the great contributors to our motorcycle adventuring world. On the downside, all of us who have forsaken jobs, significant others and personal financial responsibilities can be jealously accused of having too much fun and adventure as we followed the original Clancy trail across the USA with the side trip to the National Motorcycle Museum.

To cap our Henderson day, a new member joined our Clancy Centenary Ride Team, Tim Henderson. Using his 2004 Moto Guzzi “California Touring” model, Henderson showed us some secrets of the Iowa countryside following a route recommended by John Parham. Pictured in # 4 below is Tim Henderson who led the too-much-fun-team through Iowa to Wisconsin on our Henderson Day.

Janesville, Wisconsin to Chicago, Illinois: Indian Guide Needed Today – June 14
 

Clancy’s route 100 years earlier took him through Beloit, Wisconsin, where he spent a week visiting his brother. From Beloit to Chicago our team knew he went through Rockford and Elgin because he complained about the poor road conditions, signpost foolishness and heavy traffic. However, with the multitude of roads and pavement in 2013 it was difficult to follow what would have been his route in 1913.

Geoff Hill, engaged in a unique form of Irish scholarly research for his tome covering our leg of The Clancy Centenary Ride, noted that even Tonto, the Lone Ranger’s Indian guide, would have had his tracking skills tested in 2013. Photo # 1 below is Hill, looking for Clancy’s Goodyear tire tracks under a rock Hill hoped had not been moved in 100 years.

Gary Walker is pictured in photograph # 2 below holding a rental electronic gizmo that allowed him and Hill on their BMW 1200 Adventure models to pass through toll booths, of which there have been many, without stopping. The application of some form of Motorbiking Irish Economic Theory concluded the money saved by renting the devices could be applied to the swill bill at the end of the day, a fine sample of how Ireland has been weathering their economic woes of the last years.

Photograph # 3 shows my 1983 Honda CX650 and Hill’s 2013 BMW Adventure resting during a pit stop. My 30 year-old 674 cc Honda, at 478 lbs. and 67 horsepower, has been staying with the 1200 cc Bavarian 580 lbs. pulled by 110 horsepower. The Honda is less fuel efficient, with mileage ranging from 35 mpg to 50 mpg, depending upon speed. Compared to Clancy’s 1912 Henderson, which had only 7 horsepower (and no front brake), it’s easy to see how we can knock down long miles in an easy day that took Clancy a week to ride 100 years earlier.

Photo # 4 supports Clancy’s complaint about the poor highway signage. To see a sign for an oasis, as pictured here, on the concrete highway slab through the lush green of the middle of America had us shaking our helmets in wonderment. Clancy would have seen an oasis or two as he passed through Algeria or Tunis but we doubted there was one here, ever. Like the modern day elasticity of the word “adventure” we felt that an “oasis” near Chicago, Illinois was also a wide stretch of the word.

June 15 is a layover or rest day in Chicago. Some of us will be working while (hopefully) other members of our team will be either shopping for new underwear or at least doing a load of laundry. I will leave unwritten which of our team members place a priority on the bill for swill.

Chicago, Illinois: Adventurers in Chicago – June 15
 

Clancy told the tale of how he had stopped to help two “twin riders,” likely Harley-Davidson or Indian owners. In, as he said, “silent amusement,” he listened to them expound about their “exciting adventures upon the tremendous 200-mile tour upstate.” I suspect he did not rain on their parade by telling them he had been looping the globe for the last nine months, a journey that had taken him nearly 17,000 miles.

He spent a couple of days in Chicago while the Henderson factory branch on Michigan Avenue displayed his service-scarred machine in the showroom window. Today there is no vestige of that Henderson showroom on Michigan Avenue.

Clancy was ferried around town in a sidecar and noted the “40 miles of boulevards for local motorists,” which today is likely 4,000 miles. He spent an evening with the Chicago Motorcycle Club. Upon leaving Chicago he said he “couldn’t find any ‘Great White Way’ in Chicago, nor any of the characteristics that make New York the greatest city in the world.”

While not spending time with Chicago Motorcycle Club in Chicago, I was honored to be the guest speaker Saturday night at The Adventurers Club of Chicago, a private membership club founded in 1911. I invited Geoff Hill and Gary Walker along to give them a peek inside this exclusive club. Since they had seen my presentation “RIDING THE WORLD - LONGEST, MOST DIFFICULT, AND MOST PERILOUS MOTORCYCLE JOURNEY EVER ATTEMPTED” before in Billings, Montana, they agreed to be my shills for the evening by laughing, cheering and clapping when prompted by my touching my right index finger to the right side of my nose.

While at the Club I spent time researching the Club archives for history on motorcycle adventurists. I was pleased to find that Slim Williams had been a member of the club. Photograph is # 1 below caught me doing research in the Club library, in the presence of a lion, albeit it skinned.

In 1939 Williams, along with John Logan, set out from Fairbanks, Alaska to ride two BSA motorcycles from Alaska to the Lower 48, an adventure that took them six-and-one-half months and proved that it could be done. I found Williams’ photograph on a wall in the library, photograph #2 below.

I had researched the Williams and Logan adventure for my book, ALASKA BY MOTORCYCLE and featured their feat in a film about motorcycling to Alaska. Hanging in the Adventurers Club of Chicago was a flag commemorating that 1939 adventure, shown in photograph # 3 below. It brought back memories of researching a real adventure ride 20-30 years ago before the motorcycling community was badging everything from guided motorcycle tours to buying a branded model of motorcycle an “adventure.”

The Club humbled me at the end of the evening by presenting me with a Certificate thanking me for exemplifying the Clubs motto “To provide a hearth and home for those who have left the beaten path and made for adventure.” To carry forth the Club’s recognition, our Clancy Centenary Ride Team will return to the roads of America June 16 as we work our way east towards The Clancy Centenary Ride final destination of Penn Station in New York City.

It's fantastic that the trip is going so well Sunchaser. Really enjoying the updates - keep them coming!

It's great to see that Clancy is getting a bit of well deserved fame at last.

And please pass on my best wishes to the guys. :thumbup1:

Detroit, Michigan – June 16
 

Clancy thought not much of the miles between Chicago and Detroit, nor did I. 100 years ago the road seemed to have been as boring as it was today.

Photo # 1 below shows how most of the countryside looked through Indiana and Ohio, and then driving north to the Detroit area where we will spend the night. The most interesting aspect of the nearly 300 miles covered today might have been reading the advertising on the road signs, or looking at the types of cars stopping in the service plazas where I filled the gas tank.

The most boring section is shown in photograph # 2, where the Toll Road had been under construction and speed slowed down to 50 mph.

Like Clancy, I did not think much of the area I was passing through. On the upside, there was plenty of time to allow the brain to focus on the research to be done tomorrow.

Centenary commemorative haiku
 

Packed and prepped to roll
we'll meet with CarlStearnsClancy
A century hence

Detroit, Michigan to Buffalo, New York: Stinky day - June 16
 

Our team was joined today by two fascinating BMW riders, Phil (photograph # 1 below) and Karen (photograph # 2 below) Ager. Retired military, both brought considerable research and investigative assets to our efforts to unearth tall tales, fishy claims and outright lies as we hunted the greater Detroit area.

Research had been assisted earlier by numerous other professionals. My sources included contacts with some individuals at one time associated with the former DETROIT FREE PRESS, a well respected publication dating back to 1831. I had long known that if these types were investigating or following a thread they were like starving Doberman Pinchers digging for a buried bone.

One of our goals for the day was to find the original Henderson Motorcycle Company factory location in downtown Detroit, to where Clancy returned in 1913 and showed off his well traveled 1912 model. He claimed his motorcycle was “looked up to in mute admiration by its many younger brothers who had appeared upon the scene during its long and brilliant absence.”


Photograph # 3 below shows what our team found where the former factory had been, the tall dark glass buildings known as The Renaissance Center. We knew it was the right location, nearly on the water, at the corners of East Jefferson and Brush streets (N42.32997, W83.03382). A slight wind coming off the water of the Lake Erie seemed to confirm that at one time there was the hustle and noise involved with manufacturing the venerable Henderson motorcycles, the wind whispering “Yes, Clancy and his 1912 Henderson were here.”


Also blowing in the wind were some of the other truths we were seeking, ranging from sordid politics and corruption to why the city is today considered one of the most dangerous in the United States. It may have been the birth of some of this urban sickness that prompted Henderson Company owner Ignatz Schwinn to long ago move the motorcycle manufacturing facility from Detroit to Chicago.


Our team made a pit stop during the day of adventure at a service area well away from the lower intestine of Detroit, pictured in # 4 below. While they parked their bodies in the shade of a tree and reflected on the findings of the day (photograph # 5 below), I too reflected on discoveries and promised results of further investigations. While the group was trying to decide whether Clancy had been sitting on the exact spot where they were sitting, I was reflecting on various leads my sources had been following, they telling me some information I had been given years earlier was suspiciously stinky.


Stinky became real as I approached our June 17 Clancy Centenary Ride Team sitting or reclining in the grass. They asked me to join them. I politely declined, telling them that while they may have found a Clancy resting spot of 100 years earlier, they were in fact sitting in the exact spot known 100 years later as the Pet Exercise Area. They did not appear to believe me, so I went back to the sign I had seen and took photograph # 6 below.


When our team departed for Buffalo, New York, our next stop, I offered to stay near the front of the Pet Exercise Area reclining group as we drove the 350 miles, respectful of the sensitivity my journalist’s nasal passages have to stinky stuff, whether verbal or natural.

Cheers to the Centenal riders
 

Thanks for the update, Greg.
I'm in Buffalo currently trying to take you up on the offer you made at TheRidersCorner to ride with the Clancy Centenal ride but having trouble getting your location.
What an Adventure just finding you. I can imagine the fun you're having finding Clancy's trail.

We Really Enjoyed Our Time Together!
 

We were privileged to join the Carl Clancy Group Ride from Dearborn, MI to Cleveland on Monday. They’re a genial troop of very well traveled ADV riders. Thanks for allowing us to tag along for such a "short jaunt" guys! Best wishes as your wonderful 100th anniversary Carl Clancy circumnavigation concludes in NYC. We had to bugger off to KY for a family gathering, and we sadly won’t be at Bob’s BMW in Jessup, MD for the small post-conclusion ceremony.

Picture 1 taken as we departed the old but charming Dearborn Inn.
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/...ps87c50835.jpg

Group shot taken at a petrol stop in NW Ohio.
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/...ps472dd39e.jpg

The CC Riders following Richard Livermore and Dr Greg Frazier toward Cleveland and then up to Buffalo.
http://i1213.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4efe9078.jpg

Here are 2 not-so "Action" videos of Monday's ride along I-80 east in Ohio...

First Phil Passes the Group:
Phil Rides Up Beside Carl Clancy Riders Video by philager | Photobucket

Then the CC Riders all pass Phil:
CC Riders Then Pass Phil Video by philager | Photobucket

Sláinte! (Gaelic)
Phil & Karen

Well it was well worth the effort to connect with the ClancyCentenalRide at Niagara State Park overlooking the Falls. George and I are on the far right side....
Attachment 10142

We are seeing a view similar to what Carl saw a century back minus a few feet. One hundred years of water damage subtracted some of the falls but none of the height.

We rode Clancy's route east after George broke off to go get a replacement rear tire. Route 5 is nothing like it was all thise decades ago and we payed the price of those "advancements" in the form of stop and go traffic for almost and hour in order to get out of the Buffalo area and out into open countryside.
Then the lunch stop.
Attachment 10143
...woops! They don't serve food at this bar.
Lets try again:
Attachment 10144

It was really great meeting you guys. Have a fun and successful rest of your ride. Sorry I can't make the media event at Penn Station in NYC.

GS3 on TapaTalk

Buffalo, New York to Watkins Glen, New York - June 18
 

Two new researchers joined our team June 18, connecting at Niagara Falls, where Clancy visited a century ago. George Catt, from Kingman, Arizona, was on his 174,000 mile young 2001 Honda ST 1100A. A retired “Documentation Specialist,” Catt added a new element to our research group, that of someone who could verify the veracity of documents.

The other addition was Daniel DiGiacomo, from Staten Island, New York, a former Environmental Conservationist for the state of New York. I had met with both Catt and DiGiacomo earlier in the year halfway around the globe at the Rider’s Corner Restaurant and Bar in Chiang Mai, Thailand where the seed was planted for some of our mutual research projects.

After his pal Catt vectored off early in the day in search of a new tire 600 miles away, DiGiacomo, on his 2008 Suzuki DL650 stayed with our team over state Route 5 as we moved eastwards. He was often pointing out environmentally significant locations that Clancy would have passed, like 150 year-old trees.

DiGiacomo, pictured on the left in photograph # 1 below, was being reminded by Catt, on the right, before Catt headed west, not to accept any undocumented old wooden nickels as he wandered with us over the Clancy Trail.

Route 5 was the “Old Buffalo Highway,” therefore the one Clancy had used 100 years earlier to leave Buffalo and drive east. I found the Diegelman Motors shop, shown in photograph # 2 below, just off Route 5, having long been closed. At one time it was obvious the repair shop had been a thriving business. Today all that was thriving were the mosquitoes, which, along with a barely readable Private Property sign, ran me off the property.

Once Catt left us the rest of the day was a meandering competition between the 1200 cc Bavarian Adventure behemoths and the three significantly smaller 650 cc Japanese models (two 1983 Honda CX650 twins and Suzuki DL650 single). As we hammered Route 5 at speeds never exceeding 55 mph, and often in the 15 mph and 30 mph range, I reflected on how we were often traveling at the same speeds Clancy had on his 934 cc Henderson.

The breath taking speeds required nourishment for some of the pilots. The lead motorhead decided that a roadside restaurant named Scooters was deserving of the groups dollars for a mid day pit stop, shown in photograph # 3 below. While noshing they opined why the day before the Pope had blessed a certain brand of motorcycles. In the spirit of Clancy, this writer will refer to the other brand as Clancy did, “a well-known twin.”

Our day ended in Watkins Glen, New York, well off Route 5, but a town mentioned as purportedly on the Clancy Trail. Another town nearby was also mentioned, that of Reading, New York, little more than a spit in the road today. Why Clancy vectored off the direct route to Syracuse, New York to drive south to Reading and Watkins Glen remains a mystery. One theory put forth was that Clancy, the ever curious, wanted to see the southern tip of Seneca Lake. Other theories were that he visited another Henderson dealership or a friend. My favorite theory was that since Clancy had been from sea to sea and had time and the Henderson was running well enough, he could easily make the detour to see what he could see.

Watkins Glen, New York To Albany, New York - June 19
 

Our day started clear and cool on the shores of blue Seneca Lake, a perfect day for motorcycling, as seen in photo # 1 below.

The June 19 tour took us back north to Route 5 through rolling hills and rich green farmland fields as pictured in # 2 below.

Once on Route 5, traveling east towards Albany, we discovered a cement and macadam road-world that Clancy would have undoubtedly shaken his head at in wonderment, as did we, seen here as photograph # 3.

We found a free motorcycle touring map of the area we were traveling through, shown in photograph # 4. Viewing the suggested routes in the map (photograph # 5) we found some included Route 5, and sections of congestion and ugly traffic were wisely avoided. 100 years earlier Clancy could have used this map for its many points of interest and suggested pit stops, including those of motorcycle dealerships for a “well-known twin.” Clancy might have stopped at the dealerships and challenged owners and riders to a competition with his Henderson, or sell them a Henderson dealership.

Albany, New York to Newburgh, New York - June 20
 

Clancy vectored off the direct route to New York City to visit for one night with his family in the Berkshire Hills, but left the social event void of any description.

Today we did much the same, although not as a group. I needed some alone time, a time to refresh my cranial batteries from the last 18 days of fun and adventure traveling with a group instead of in my normal solo mode. I also wanted to reflect on the highs, lows and in betweens Clancy had experienced, like the bad roads, drunkards in Butte, Montana, numerous crashes, bad or no food, lack of amenities with no safety net and traveling into the unknown. Picture # 1 below shows how I chose to do my solo cranial hard drive defragmentation while reflecting at speed.

A stop at a gas station found me looking at a coin operated ice cream machine. Remembering how Clancy and Robert Allen liked to stop and eat ice cream, I smiled when looking at photograph # 2 below. I wondered what Clancy or Allen would think of the coin operated ice cream machine of the 21st Century.

I came upon a group of riders on the “well-known twin” machines as Clancy had described the brand of motorcycle in his references to them. Photograph # 3 below shows how I followed them at their legally sedate speed.

Photograph # 4 shows how I had morphed with the cosmic spirit of the Clancy adventure 100 years earlier – I passed all of the well-known twins, giving them a friendly wave as I left them behind.

This day closed with a private party, a secret celebration with the members of The Clancy Centenary Ride Team. Under a media blackout, the evening was spent in The Center Of The AViD Motorcycle Traveler Universe And Farewell Celebration For The Clancy Centenary Ride. The only members of the media allowed in, other than those represented by Team members, were Editors from BACKRAODS MOTORCYCLE TOUR MAGAZINE www.backroadsusa.com , which exclusively reports on Motorcycles, Travel and Adventure.

Private Dinner and Stuff
 

Great to see you again Greg, as well as meet all the riders and friends in attendance. Good tales shared and catching up done. bier

Congrats on your most prestigious award - treasure it; it can be used as a weapon in hostile environments.

John, thank you so much for the goodie bag I took home :clap:

Safe journeys into the bowels of NYC and passage out. Hope to catch up with everyone at some point in life.

Finally, a parting shot of the mascots of Monkey with a Gun wishing the Irish bon voyage.
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...1&d=1371822627

Newburgh, New York to New York City – Mission Accomplished and Media Frenzy - June 21
 

Two members from the Board of Directors of the Motorcyclepedia Museum served as our guides into the lower intestine of New York City, Larry Mosca, photograph # 1 below, and Pete Miller, photograph #2 below. Miller, a retired Chief of Police from Highland Falls, New York, blessed us with his 2011 “well-known make,” a 2011 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide.

Our group managed to finish the USA leg of The Clancy Centenary Ride, 5,600 miles from San Francisco, where we had left on June 2, with a “Mission Accomplished” feeling. Soon after we parked we were surrounded by well-wishers and photographers, all wanting quotes, photographs or autographs. It was a media frenzy which lasted about 20 minutes until we had to leave the unauthorized parking zone we had taken over. Photograph # 3 below shows our group at Pennsylvania Station, from where Clancy and Story departed in 1912 on their global circumnavigation.

Photograph # 4 below is me holding the pennant from Feargal O’Neill and Joe Walsh which had been carried around the world. When Anna Livermore, also holding the pennant, asked what I was going to do with it, I told her I thought it was deserving of another trip around the world, which is what Richard Livermore and I are beginning.

While The Clancy Centenary Ride is now officially over, Richard and I will keep working our way around the world on THE GREAT AROUND THE WORLD ADVENTURE RALLY http://bit.ly/1QhmgA1. My next destination is Florida, where my motorcycle will go into an extended sleep on long pit stop.

Clancy Authors Meet In Hanoi, April 2016
 

Geoff Hill and I connected in Hanoi on April 6 & 7. Since we had parted at Penn Station in New York City, June 21, 2013 two new Clancy books had been published.

The first, IN CLANCY’S BOOTS, was written by Hill and recounts his and Gary Walker’s ride around the world following Clancy’s tracks while carrying the boots Clancy wore 100 years earlier.


The second, THE GASOLINE TRAMP or AROUND THE WORLD ON A MOTORCYCLE (1912-1913) was the result of finding an unpublished Clancy manuscript, editing, adding to and re-writing some of the original chapters of MOTORCYCLE ADVENTURER, the 2010 book which spawned the Clancy Centenary Ride described above.


Both THE GASOLINE TRAMP and IN CLANCY’S BOOTS are available in e-book or print copy form.


Hill was in Hanoi to start a motorcycle ride south over some of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. I was in Hanoi researching an elusive thread (read that as “a wild rumor”) that a 1912 Henderson similar to the one Clancy piloted around the world was hidden in the back of small motorcycle repair shop.