Nacogdoches
September 23
Lucille and 9 Lives
Today’s ride out of Arkadelphia was great. We had 50 miles of curvy roads and cool temperatures. Bartek was following me on his Indian as we tore up the roads (at 47 MPH!). Our lunch stop was at a Harley dealer today. Doc Hopkins has a yoga instructor riding in his wicker sidecar. Just before we took off from lunch, she and I did headstands in the grass. I snapped this photo from the inverted position. Life is good!
237.7
This was the mileage on the odometer when I took a forced siesta in the shade next to Lucille. Only 20 miles from the finish line and I had to call it a day
I had gotten gas at mile 208. After leaving the station something seemed out of whack with my handlebars, but I could not quite put my finger on it. After a few more miles I finally figured it out when I glanced down at my right fork leg and noticed a break in it. See the photo below
I nursed the bike to the gas station at mile 238 so it would be easy for the sweep truck to retrieve me. The photo below shows the break in the left fork tube after the forks failed all the way
In the earlier photo when I was relaxing beside my bike at this gas station the forks were attached still. Once the sweep truck arrived and we put our hands on the bike to load it the forks instantly collapsed all the way turning my bike into a 1915 chopper! This is where I used up one of my remaining 9 lives (I think I am down to 4 or 5 now). I dodged a bullet. I had considered trying to limp into the finish line 20 miles away. Shinya was helping to stabilize the bike so I could remove the broken front end.
Front end is removed. If I had been closer, I would have pushed it over the finish line.
Here we are on the sweep truck disabled for the first time in 4 Cannonballs. The van was full of riders. One I was more disappointed to see on the trailer was the Neracar. This would have been the first Neracar to make it cross country since Cannonball Baker rode one almost 100 years ago.
Shinya’s Indian was pulling cylinder studs out of the case. He tried to keep the cylinders attached with vise grips and safety wire but ran out of luck
Juergen Ullrich #66 from Germany bent the rod and busted the cases on his 1911 Harley single
Rod wrapped around the crank.
