Announcements

**Sun Chaser** · #1 10 Jun 2013

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.

**FT-WA-F8-GS** · #2 11 Jun 2013

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?

And which hotel, motel, campground is planned for Cleveland?

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

Phil & Karen
Ft Washington, MD

**Sun Chaser** · #3 11 Jun 2013

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.”

**Sun Chaser** · #4 12 Jun 2013

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.

**Sun Chaser** · #5 13 Jun 2013

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.

**Digiamo** · #6 13 Jun 2013

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.

**Sun Chaser** · #7 14 Jun 2013

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.