Modern Air Filter – Seat Back rest – Removable rear fender flap

Paul Kosma tackled 3 upgrades to my 1919 Cannonball Motorcycle – I had been studying how to install a modern style air filter, which would also help me if we run into rain and bad weather. The factory design was NO Filter, just a scoop style diverter housing. Paul made me a custom intake pipe with a 4 screw flange, which fits my M18 Linkert carburetor. It uses a K&N 3 inch X 3inch Filter with a 1.75 inch flange.

 

 

 

Next, Paul designed a back rest that would bolt on my Messinger seat frame without altering any of the original framework. We used a late model back rest pad from my 2006 Street Glide.

Last, Paul cut about 7 inches of my rear fender off and fabricated a flap with nuts welded on the underside. With 3 bolts, I can remove the lower part of the rear fender and the rear tire rolls out easily when the bike is on the rear stand. That alone will cut my rear wheel removal time in half 



 

300 mile test day

My next trip was planned out as a 300 mile test ride – This would give me the experience to see what 300 miles in 1 day would feel like – I spent the Friday prepping the motorcycle for the trip. We left Olive Branch Saturday morning at 9:15 am. This trip had only 1 back up “Wing Man” Mark Cantrell rode with me on this test run. We followed highway 57 to Pickwick Lake, then to Cherokee Alabama. Then we got on the Natchez Trace for 75 miles to Tupelo Ms. We ate lunch at O’Charlie’s in Tupelo. Then we followed highway 6 across to Oxford, crossing highway 7, north to Holly Springs, then on to Olive Branch, Mississippi. That total trip was 325 miles – We arrived back home around 5:30 pm
 

2 Day Mississippi MINI-Ball Test Run

I put together 2 different test run trips for my 1919 Cannonball Motorcycle, before the start of the actual event in September. My first trip planned, was a 2 day trip around Mississippi. I mapped out a 500 mile circle; place an overnight stop point in the middle.

Lisa & Kimberly about to run down the road together

I invited a few close friends to join me. Mark Cantrell, Willard Gargis, Ed Dacus, Shane Dorton, Roxanne Spencer, Bob Kenney, Les Cooper and CCM Cannonball Riders #25 Scott Byrd and #54 David Lloyd signed on and the 2 Day Mississippi MINI Ball was on. We left out of Olive Branch Mississippi on Friday morning, around 10 am, after breakfast at Hazel’s restaurant. We rode down Old Highway 78 to Holly Springs. Fellow Confederate Chapter member, Pat Jones rode his Honda Dream critter bike with the group on that first leg of the journey. After running through the Holly Springs National Park, we cut across to Oxford. After that, we cut back across to Pontotoc. Down to Houston Mississippi for lunch, then we went south to Sturgis Mississippi. I had pre-arranged a museum visit at Craig Vech’s BMW motorcycle shop / museum Friday afternoon. Vech showed us around his shop, museum and parts department. When we left his place, we spent the night in Louisville, Mississippi.

Early the next morning, we left Louisville, heading to Clarksdale Mississippi, to meet a couple more friends for lunch and continue home. We met Johnny Whitsett and Bill Walters at the famous Abe’s BaqbQ, located at the Crossroads in Clarksdale MS.

Nice looking Spark plugs after 220 miles

Vech's Museum in Sturgis, Mississippi

When we arrived back in Olive Branch, we had traveled 460 miles over 2 days –

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!!

2014 Confederate Chapter 5th Annual Scooter ride

Our Confederate Chapter puts on an annual Club Scooter ride each spring. This year’s ride was our 5^thannual Scooter ride – We had around 100 scooters. My Grandson, Zeke has ridden several rides with me. This year, we woke up to rain and chilly wind. After Breakfast, the skies slightly cleared, and we took off to see if the thunder clouds could be dodged.

Here are a few GoPro Videos

Ever Boiled Diamond Chains in STP?

Another great friend, Paul Kosma, who is helping me with tons of tricks asked me the other day if I have ever heard of boiling my chains in STP? Of course, I had never heard of that. He told me it was an old trick the dragbike racers used, back in the older days. Paul said, racers could get about 2 passes on a drive chain before replacing them. When they boiled them, they could get 10 to 12 passes. Sounded good to me. You put all of your chains in a steel pan and pour STP over them and cook them. As I did this, I saw little air bubbles coming from all the chains as the fish cooker got the oil hot. After about 30 minutes, I cut the heat off and let the chains soak over night and cool down. The STP get thin and soaks inside the chains. After it cools, it returns to a thick, thick grease. I hung the chains up and pulled all the excess lube off of the chains and packaged them in plastic bags and labeled them each.

1,000 Mile Tear down and inspection

Trying to catch up on the Blog with all of the work preformed over the last couple of months. After I returned from Arkansas with 500 miles on the bike, I continued to make adjustments and ride the motorcycle on 100 to 150 mile trips. My goal was to get 1,000 miles on this motor and bring it back in the shop for a complete tear-down inspection. David Kleptz has been my mentor and coach through out this entire build. He rode in the 1st Cannonball Motorcycle event in 2010 with a perfect score. I have many pages of notes and tips from him. We talk fairly regular and he is keeping a close eye on my progress. He is a wealth of knowledge and many of the tricks I am doing to my bike came from his advice. Here is a picture of David Kleptz 1915 Harley when he rode it in 2010.

As you may notice, my 1919 Harley Davidson reflects the style of his motorcycle. I wanted the rough / patina look of a bike that some people might think doesn't have a chance of completing 4,100 miles. However, I wanted the inside mechanics of the motorcycle to be in top shape. That is exactly what I am looking for!!

As I stated before, I followed Dale Walksler, Wayne Stanfield and David Kleptz during the 2010 Cannonball event when they passed though Arkansas. I was riding 1995 Harley Fat Boy (staying back, clear of their motorcycles) Cris Sommer Simmons rode a book about her 1st Cannonball experience in a GREAT book called, "Cannonball Diary" - You should get her book, if this Cannonball stuff interest you. Michael Lichter took a picture of Wayne Stanfield one day when he was on the side of the road, repairing a flat tire. That picture is in Cris's book. David Kleptz is in that picture helping in the red pants. That's also me in standing behind them in the orange t-shirt, along with Johnny Whitsett and Calvin Burnett. Who would have known that in 2014, I might get the chance to experience this truly awesome epic event. Johnny and Calvin are also instrumental in helping and coaching me along.

This past weekend, March of 2014, I completed 1,000 miles. David K. told me to shake down the motorcycle for 1,000 miles and then disassemble it completely and inspect or repair any needed items. Friday night, beginning around 8:30 pm, Lisa went up on the lift. By 10:00 pm, this is how it looked!

 

By 11:30 - looked like this

It would have been great to stay up all night and continue until it was all back running, just like we were on a Cannonball Event. Jon Neuman, one of my riding team members for Carson Classic Motors has already done what he calls a "Fire-Drill". Jon Neuman and Greg McFarland performed a Fire-Drill on a perfect running Cannonball machine. They started the clock and completely disassembled a J model Harley, including engine and re-assembled it. Re-firing the machine in a record time of 6 hours. So happy to have those guys on my team.

My 1919 did have one issue to address. One of the front primary cover studs was stripped. I took a moment to mount the case in the Bridgeport mill and machine the studs out to replace them. I will have to contact Competition Distributing on Monday to get a new pair.

The cleanup and inspection was AWESOME!! The pistons still look brand new! There are NO signs of any problems. Everything is Cleaned up and ready to reassemble. Dale Spooner of Motion Machine did my blind boring. I had to call him, just thank him for the work he did. Can not wait to put 4,100 miles on this motorcycle

 

Test Miles! Test Miles! Test Miles!

In January, I rode the 1919 Harley Davidson Cannonball Motorcycle over to our cabin on the Little Red River. Sonja was following me in our vehicle. (Notice the barking dogs in the video) She filmed a small video clip of the bike as I rode. I was able to put over 500 miles on the bike while we stayed a week at the cabin.

The motorcycle is running Great! I have been monitoring cylinder head temperatures and exhaust gas temperatures as the motor is breaking in. Got to ride one day with Chris Muirhead. We rode about 110 miles through the Arkansas Ozarks Hills.

After I returned from Arkansas, it was back into the shop to fine-tune other items. For some time, I have been planning to build a rather cool headlight. I have an original headlamp on the bike, but wanted to design a cool LED headlamp, without altering the original lamp. BMW cars have unique lamp called a Halo. It is an LED light ring. With that in mind, I constructed a fiber board and mounted (10) 6 volt LED bulbs in the ring.

We will not be running any of the official event in the dark, but this lamp is bright, even in day time, you will know this lamp when you see it coming!

I also wanted to remount the coil in an easy place to test, repair, or replace it. I added a spare condensor, ready to switch to if needed.

 

A spare 2 gallon fuel tank