Stage 7: Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to Spartanburg, South Carolina.

This morning we headed to upstate from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. While preparing to start the ‘28 this morning, it was discovered that I had left the ignition switch on last night following the generator replacement, and thus the brand new lead acid battery was dead. More often than not the tiredness and fatigue caused by the stress of this race leads to simple oversight on things like this.

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Either way, we jump started the bike off of a lantern battery and figured that the new generator would charge the dead, new, battery back up during the day. Shortly after take off, I realized that the solid state electronic regulator providing constant voltage charge to the battery was as dead as could be and that our main power supply to the ignition points was out of commission.

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With a set of jumper wires and alligator clips from the lantern battery to the battery terminal of the regulator and grounded on the front cylinder fin, Nikki Hancock and I set off through the seemingly never ending traffic lights of Myrtle Beach and US-17. Although we stalled a few times when the temporary clamps shifted, we finally made it out of the city and wound our way through the Midlands of South Carolina. Shortly after noon we were caught in yet another rainstorm around the capital city of Columbia, which luckily our temporary power supply held on through until almost the end before failing.

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Thanks to Jacob Martin supplying the sealed 6 volt battery out of his magneto-fired ‘29 JD, we got the ‘28 fired back up with the same setup plus a caveat—the roads our course maps took us on this afternoon were too rough and bumpy to allow the emergency battery power supply to ride in a saddlebag without coming off. So in true Cannonball fashion, for a hundred miles Nikki physically held the battery and temporary wiring in one hand while hanging on for dear life with the other. Several bumps were hard enough to throw one of the temporary wires off the battery and kill the power to the bike, but Nik was immediately in action to hook the power supply back up while I popped the clutch as we coasted. The Cannonball never ceases to be the origin of lifetime memories and today was certainly no exception. Even with some minor troubles we are having a great time and are definitely enjoying the challenge.

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Shortly before 5pm, our group rolled in to The Wicked Wrench Motorcycle Co. in Spartanburg for a hosted dinner provided in conjunction by Wicked Wrench and the AMCA Legends Chapter. We would like to thank Bud Blair, Ken Berry, HdLiz Ustinoff, Mike McCloud and any other of our dear friends in the Legends Chapter, who I may have forgotten to mention, for the fabulous hospitality. Tonight’s schedule was regular maintenance on the bike, as well as changing out the dead regulator for a new one. All is well in the world, and our charging system now functions as designed. With any luck, the temporary wiring can go back in the saddlebags.

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Tomorrow we travel a short 130-ish miles from Spartanburg to re-enter the state of North Carolina en route to Maggie Valley, where our summer home is located. Scenery should be spectacular as always, with many familiar roads. We are looking forward to seeing many friends and family at the hosted end of day stop at Dale's Wheels Through Time.