AMCA Texas Road Run – Kerrville Texas - April 2014

This year in April of 2014, several of the Carson Classic Motors 2014 Cannonball Riders decided to attend the AMCA Texas Road Run in Kerrville Texas. Jon Neuman (Numo) headed up the event. Not only was Jon a CCM rider, he also took on the responsibility of leading the way for a national Road Run. Anyone with any aptitude understands the enormous task to pull off a successful Road Run – Jon had a Great team of Cherokee club members who jumped right in and help tow the load. Top that off with Mr. “Master of Ceremonies” himself, Steve Klein, and then bring nearly 150 antique motorcycles to Kerrville Texas and you have what goes down in history as one of the most organized Road Runs ever!

Mike & Buck Carson, Jon Neuman, Greg McFarland, and myself, 5 of the 8 CCM 2014 Cannonball riders, along with several Confederate Chapter members enjoyed this weekend of Texas Hill Country. We used this event as a test train for our Cannonball machines.

I had just re-installed my motor from a 1,000 mile inspection – My 1919 Harley ran very good that weekend and logged just under 500 total miles. I also got to experience some roadside repairs. On the first day of the road run, my rear brake backing plate was rubbing the edge of the drum and causing the rear wheel to drag. Mark Cantrell helped me pull the rear wheel, while we were at a gas station fuel stop and I place a thin shim washer inside the drum, which gave me another .004 clearance of the drum and backing plate. The motorcycle ran great the remainder of that day.

Buck gets close to the Ground

Mike Carson - What he calls a POWER NAP!

I rose early on day 2 and went out to prep and maintain the motorcycle for another day of riding. I have a check sheet of items to check off when going over the motorcycle. One thing I noticed, was my back tire was slightly low on air – I had been running 34 lbs in both tires and the rear tire was 28 that morning. I pumped the tire up to 34 and began our day two of the Texas Road Run. At lunch that day, I checked the tire pressure and saw it down to 31 psi. I knew there had to be some sort of very slow leak, and realized pulling the rear wheel again that night was probable. That was about 1pm, so getting back to the hotel seemed a safe bet. Around 3pm, I began to feel the bike getting loose in the rear. We pulled into another gas station and when I saw the rear wheel, I realized the leak had become larger – It was flat. I was riding with Calvin Burnett and Peter Guldan that day. As you can see from my past post, Calvin has been deeply involved with the preparations of this bike and the path of getting her ready for the Cannonball. He also has challenged me to plan my spare parts and tools for a run like this – I will never forget Calvin’s response when we surveyed the options. We were only about 20 minutes from finishing day 2, we were clearly ahead of the sweep trailer – The easy route would be, call the sweep trailer and get it back to the hotel and fix the rear tire so that I would be ready for day 3.

This Carson Bunch sure like to nap on the side of the Road?

I was in full Cannonball mentally – Calvin asked me these questions:

Well, do you have a spare inter-tube with you? I said, yes

Do you have the needed tools to change the tire here? I said, yes

Do you have an air pump? I said, yes

Then he said, “Crap”, let’s do it here

It took us about 45 minutes to 1 hour to completely pull the wheel, break it down, put the new tube in and re-install – One of the things that made it harder, the rear fender is a fixed fender with no hinge. Getting the rear wheel out is a bit tricky, because you have to lean the bike over on the side and wedge the wheel out – You will see in a later post how I address this issue.

This Texas test run gave me some “hands on” road repair time, so that the concept “Ride, Wrench, Repeat” could be fully experienced!

A couple of OLD Timers

Bike Line up with Texas Hill Country as the Back Drop

Little rest Stop!! - MIKE, you are standing too close to Buck!!