Confirmed Cannonballers!

Welcome to the 2014 Motorcycle Cannonball

110 years ago one man set out to become the first person to cross the North American continent on a motorized vehicle. George Wyman's bold sense of adventure took him and his small motorcycle from one ocean to the other, forever setting the standard of endurance for rider and machine. The perfect measure of worth for two-wheeled contraptions and the people who built them.

We would like to invite you to join us for an adventure across America. On September 5, 2014, one hundred Motorcycle Cannonball riders will start a two-week journey across the United States on motorcycles built before 1937. This run will be coast-to-coast. The route will start in Daytona Beach, Florida, and end in Tacoma,Washington. While planning a relatively direct route, we also made sure to take in some of the best scenery this country has to offer. This route will be scenic, yet more challenging than any that has come before. Averaging 300 miles per day and topping out at 11,990 feet, this will be a true endurance run. This route will not be easy by any means.

The run will start at the world’s most famous beach on the east coast of Florida. Daytona Beach is rich in motorcycle racing history and will be a fitting Official Start. The route will then take us through the lakes and forests of northern Florida and into Georgia and the Great Smoky Mountains. In Chattanooga, Tennessee, we will be treated to a fantastic hosted reception at Coker Tire World Headquarters and Museum. Traveling through the heart of Tennessee we will visit the Cyclemos Museum in Red Boiling Springs. After riding through the "Land Between The Lakes" region in Kentucky, we will cross the Mississippi River at Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Crossing the Ozarks in Missouri will bring us to the wide-open plains of Kansas, where we will have our one rest day. Our riders will meet the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains at Colorado Springs where we will be stopping at the Rocky Mountain Motorcycle Museum. Famed motorcycle artist David Uhl will be hosting a big event for us at his studio in Golden, Colorado, the night before we climb 12,000-foot Loveland pass to cross the Continental Divide the first of three times. The entire route through Colorado promises to be spectacular. Entering Utah through Arches National Park in the Moab region, we will make our way to Springville, Utah, where riders will be treated to a private tour of Jeff Decker's personal studio where he creates his motorcycle masterpieces in bronze. The newly opened Legends Motorcycle Museum of Springville will also be hosting a reception for our riders. As we leave the shores of the Great Salt Lake we will travel out into the desert with a brief stop at the world famous Bonneville Salt Flats. The High Desert of Utah and Nevada will give way to the mountains and forests of western Idaho as we follow the Little Salmon River all the way to the Washington border. From the Columbia River Basin we will enter the Cascade Mountain Range and Mount Rainer National Park. The Grand Finish of the Run on the shores of the Puget Sound in Tacoma will be at the world-class LeMay Museum.

Our preliminary schedule will be 17 days, with 16 days on the road and one day off in Junction City, Kansas. The event will start on Friday, September 5, 2014, with registration, motorcycle inspection, and an optional Practice Run on Wednesday and Thursday, September 3 and 4 in Daytona Beach. The day off will be September 12, a Friday when shops are open. The Grand Finish will be in Tacoma on Sunday, September 21. There will be a Welcome Dinner in Daytona Beach on Thursday, September 4 and an Awards Banquet in Tacoma on Sunday, September 21. There will be a hosted event and reception at many lunch stops and nearly all of our overnight stops.

This diagonal route across the country could certainly include all types of weather, from tropical storms and 90-degree temperatures in the South to freezing temperatures and snow in the mountains and the North. With 12 hours of daylight, we will average around 300 miles per day, culminating in approximately 4100 miles. All bikes will run the same route in an allotted time schedule. Motorcycles will need to maintain at least 50 mph on straight, flat roads. We estimate less than 300 miles will be run on interstate highways, and less than 10 of those miles are urban interstates.

The 2014 Cannonball will be a competition endurance run. The competition will involve correctly navigating the route using each day’s Course Instructions. The winners will be the motorcycle/rider teams that cover the most on-route mileage over the 16-day run, within each day’s specified time schedule and in compliance with the Event Regulations. Their will be three classes of competing motorcycles: Class 1, motorcycles 700 cc. and smaller; Class 2, motorcycles 701 cc. to 1000 cc.; and Class 3, motorcycles over 1000 cc. The winner will be chosen based on miles traveled within an established time schedule. Ties will be broken by class of motorcycles, then age of motorcycle, then age of rider.