Danville VA
September 14th
Today we covered 261 miles bringing the total to 1160. The first ¾ of the day was the best riding to date. We got into the mountains. It was cool and foggy with twisting roads. At this point 51 out of 88 riders have a perfect score. At a gas stop we have Bartek Mizerski #48 from Poland rasing his arms in victory as we just conquered our first serious climb.
Keegan Wrieth #22 is a young first timer riding a 1914 Excelsior 7SC. This bike only has a rear brake which is a simple band in a pulley as shown in the red box below. It does not offer much stopping power. Doug Jones knows a lot about band brakes from previous Cannonballs.
So, when you are in the hills and your Excelsior brake is barely functional what do you do? You use your shoes. He wore through the soles of both boots. At the end of the day Keegan picked up a new set of boots at our hosted stop at the Harley dealer. So he is ready for another day.
Tom Banks #21 on a 1912 Harley belt drive single made it up our first serious climb. That was quite a feat!
