I thought you might like to know more about the other two BMWs that are entered into the Cannonball. Both entries hale from Florida, and both are 750cc bikes: a 1928 R62 and a 1929 R11.

Entry #23, chosen to represent the 1923 entry of BMW into motorcycle production, is Team HMS (Historical Motorcycle Society, a loose knit group of vintage bike fans). Norm Nelson, the rider, is a retired fighter and airline pilot who is not only a vintage bike collector, but last year rode his 1958 Harley Sportster to Alaska and back.

They will be employing a 1929 R11 owned by Jack Wells. Jack, member #1081 of the VBMWMO, has an extensive collection of BMWs, including all of the air cooled singles BMW has produced. Jack just recently won the Prof. Dr. Gerhard Knöchlein BMW Classic Award for preservation and sharing BMW’s history with the public. Jack will also pilot the team’s support vehicle, an 18 wheeler that Jack uses to transport his bikes to shows up and down the east coast and points further when the interest strikes.

Team HMS has nine members in total. Besides Norm and Jack, there is team manager Bill Robinson. He is a member of the Iron Butt Assoc., as well as the BMW club of North East Florida (BMWNEF), the AMCA and a founding member and past president of Riding into History. Larry Meeker is the road manager and another Iron Butt member. Webmaster Alan Singer, an IT specialist and amateur car racer, will oversee the website.

Chief Tech Chris Alley and Tech Neil Fogelberg are charged with keeping the R11 on the road. Alley is a retired Mercedes Benz mechanic who did the wrenching on a 1969 Triumph Trident that completed the 2011 Iron Butt Rally. Fogelberg has spent over 30 years working on Porsches and BMWs. Technical Advisor Ed Miller and Legal Advisor John Duss round out Team HMS. Handy with a lathe, mill and a multimeter, the most interesting bikes to Miller are those that do not (yet) run. Although his day job is as an attorney, Duss is heavily involved in the vintage scene, working at events like Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance or judging at Riding into History.

On the other end of the spectrum from Team HMS, is rider #62, Joe Gimpel, Jr. Joe was fascinated by the 2010 event and, when the 2012 event was announced, determined to join in the fun. He is a capable guy who retired early after developing and patenting a class of quick closing valves for nuclear and steam turbine applications, has restored many vintage autos, such as an air cooled 1929 Franklin, of the type driven by “Cannonball” Baker in a race against the 20th Century Ltd. passenger train on its run from NY to Chicago; a 1925 Bentley GP and a 1934 Graham. Joe is the current president of the AMCA Sunshine Chapter.

In order to participate in the 2012 Motorcycle Cannonball, Joe started searching for a suitable mount. He found it in the collection of well-known BMW collector and dealer John Landstrom, owner of Blue Moon Cycles in Norcross, GA. The 1928 R62 had been in John’s private museum for years, after he bought it from one of Dr. Wernher von Braun’s team members in Huntsville, AL. Now it is apart and soon it will be renovated and ready. Joe has done extensive motor work, to ensure he has every one of the original 18hp available, including new pistons and main bearings, and he has updated to modern seals from the original felt items. The magneto has been overhauled and he turned a new driveshaft.

Joe has long experience with the so-called Airhead BMWs from the 1970s, but those are very modern bikes, especially in comparison to the R62, with their overhead valves, four and five speed foot shifted transmissions and modern niceties like 12V electrics with electric start and centrifugal spark advances. None of that will be on the R62. Its three speed hand shift transmission requires the same right hand, which must also manipulate the air and throttle thumb levers, to grasp the ball end of the shift lever and change gears.

Lonnie Isam has said that the entry list is now complete. There are 72 entrants on board, which makes this year's event nearly 2/3rds bigger than the original run in 2010.

It's not much of a surprise that the bikes are dominated by Harleys. There are 32 of them entered -- almost all Js and JDs. Those big engines will be the least stressed of the entrants, except maybe for the sixteen Henderson 4s that are also entered. There is no replacement for displacement, so the little bikes, like mine, the solitary Triumph and braces of Rudges and BSAs, will be spinning up the RPMs to keep up. (The Rudges are race bred OHV engines, designed to rev higher and run harder.)

This is not to say that there won't be a grand selection of marques and models to see and hear, with a few that are less often seen. There are two Sunbeams entered, one to be ridden by The Vintagent himself, Paul d'Orleans. (If you haven't seen Paul's blog, you are truly missing out.) JAP, which stands for Joseph A. Prestwich, a firm that made motorcycles in the first decade of the 20th century and then switched to focusing on building engines for others, has a representative, as they did in the last Cannonball. And a Husqvarna, now a subsidiary of BMW after 20+ years of ownership and manufacture in Italy, whose original works on the shores of Lake Vättern conveniently close to a coal mine in Jönköping, was the royal forge and an arms manufacturer before making bicycles and motorcycles and then proceeding on to making white goods, chainsaws and sewing machines, has been entered as well.

There are three BMW entries, and I will be writing more about them in the future, but let me introduce them to you for now: Besides rider #52 (me) on my 1928 R52, a 500cc sidevalve making 12hp, there is #62 Joe Gimpel, Jr. on a 750cc 1929 R62 and Team HMS featuring rider #23 Norm Nelson riding Jack Wells' 750cc 1929 R11.

Joe's R62 is, with minor differences and 250cc more displacement, the same bike as mine. The running gear, excepting the final drive ratio, are all the same. The R62's motor has a "square" bore and stroke, 72x72mm and produces 18hp. Joe's bike was in Blue Moon Cycle owner John Landstrom's collection, and Joe is going through it now.

Team HMS, which stands for Historic Motorcycle Society, is composed of seven individuals led by Bill Robinson. All are veteran riders and collectors. Rider Norm Nelson is a retired pilot, and an Iron Butt Assoc. member with many riding exploits as well. Owner Jack Wells is a long time VBMWMO club member and he bought this R11 eight years ago.

I hope you've read my Cannonball intro piece at the top of the first page of this blog, and visited the Cannonball web site. Lonnie Isam, the organizer of the event is constantly updating the site to add new history, video and event information.

One of the things on the web site is a list of the contestants' blogs. A link to this blog is there, of course, but you can read blogs from a lot of the other riders, and see what they're doing to get their own bikes in shape.

Some, like Jeff Alperin's blog, are pretty tightly focused on the event on getting his 1929 Indian 101 Scout, The Beast, ready. Jeff is Cannonball entry #101 (a natural choice, but the entry forms said choose a number between 1 and 99 - what's up with that? ) from Florida.

OTOH, Tim Drennen's blog emphasizes beautiful shots of all kinds of vintage iron, even though he is also campaigning a 101 Scout (but a 1928 edition). That's not to say that he doesn't show anything about his Scout, just that his posts are unfettered by the mere relevance to just the Cannonball.

Although I've mentioned a couple of Indian riders' blogs, it's the Harleys that are the huge plurality of entries. So, it's almost natural that Buzz Kanter, who is running a 1926 Harley Davidson Model J, has two blogs listed! (Links to blog #1, a real blog, and blog #2, a thread in the forum. Both are located on the Classic American Iron magazine website.) Classic American Iron magazine is one of two magazines that Buzz publishes, so it seems that a lot of what he does comes in pairs. Check out the video introduction to his J.

Jeff Alperin has just introduced another blog, which is not yet listed on the Cannonball site, but I'm sure it will get up there soon. Steve Rinker, entry #7, is also riding a 1929 Indian 101 Scout. Check out his site as well!