The Cannonball!

Yep, that very same one that lurks in any gearhead’s mind!  Coast-to-coast!  No rules!  Whoa!

We all know of it.  Most of the rest of the world first heard about it in one of Burt Reynold’s less-than-stellar road trip movies (I really liked Smokey and the Bandit, but ol’ Burt should have fired the writers who did The Cannonball Run).  Burt’s misadventures notwithstanding, the concept of the Cannonball is something that sticks in any gearhead’s mind…a coast to coast “rally” and all that it entails.

The Cannonball Run is actually named for Erwin “Cannonball” Baker, an early American motorcycle and automobile racer who completed no fewer than (get this) 143 coast-to-coast motorcycle runs!  Yep, you read that right, boys and girls.   143 runs across the good ol’ USA.  That’s about 550,000 miles!   The thing that makes all of this even more interesting is Cannonball Baker did this well before motorcycles attained their current reliability levels…his riding was done in an era of kick starters and baling wire repairs.  Absolutely awesome stuff. 

Cannonballers Extraordinaire...Erwin "Cannonball" Baker, Bill Murar on a California Scooter in the Lake Erie Loop, and Alan Spears of MSILSF!

Wanna hear something even more awesome?   Our good buddies Alan Spears (of Motor Scooter International Land Speed Federation fame, the same folks who sanction the Salton Sea and Hell’s Loop rallies and the land speed trials) and Bill Murar (of Lake Erie Loop fame) are organizing a Cannonball Scooter run.   Arlene Battishill (the Go Go Gear president) is riding her CSC motorcycle in the Cannonball Run, and we’re really excited about that!   Not only is she riding in the New York to California event…she’s riding from California to get to the starting point in Manhattan (as are Alan and another rider named Jeff Corsaro)!  Wowee!  A coast-to-coast run to get to a coast-to-coast run! 

If you’re one of the real riders and you want to test your mettle and your metal, you just might be interested in riding in The Real Cannonball, too!   Check out the event at the MSILSF website!