Stage 2: Traverse City to Battle Creek, Michigan. 253 miles

After a parking lot rebuild with a lot of friends and three hours of sleep, we set off on the second full day of the Motorcycle Cannonball riding with our good friend Shane Masters and the 1925 Indian Chief he's riding. Today’s route was long and sent us primarily through the flat farmlands and hunting retreats of Central Michigan, which was perfect to break in the new front cylinder and matched piston that we installed last night, but not particularly exciting country for three people who slept only a couple of hours the night before.

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Late in the day, our friend Jacob Martin caught us at a gas stop on his killer JD bobber and rode the rest of the way with us to our hosted dinner stop at Battle Creek Harley-Davidson. Thanks to the AMCA Wolverine Chapter for pulling things together at the stop.

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Uneventful mechanical day for us, with just a nut and bolt check for tightness, rear spark plug replacement, and a new set of points and condenser to replace the original set which had enough miles on them to wear down to almost nothing.

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The 1925 Chief that Shane is riding is suffering from a crushed roller bearing in the rear wheel hub, which caused the hub to blow out all the grease and let the outer hub nuts put too much preload on the other remaining bearings. Tonight he pulled the rear wheel and heavily packed it full of grease to try and nurse it the 240 miles to our destination and his hometown in Dayton, OH where he has some replacement parts waiting to get the hub back in shape.

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Thankful for our crew Ben Brown and Art Frank and the opportunity to be on this race representing our new business Motor Maker.