Don Emde

Hi everyone. Looking forward to attending the meeting and sharing with you what we are doing with the Cannon Ball project, and some about my family's history in motorcycling, including me, my dad and grandfather, and our shops in San Diego through the years. See you there! Don

Hi Randy. Nice to be connected here finally. While we get our bikes all setup, I have been mainly doing internet research on the old roads and routes of 1914. We will probably start our "re-con" rides in September and then once we have made a pass to check out photo locations, we'll be re-running the different sections. I think Arizona is going to where the best dual sport riding is going to be. It looks like a lot of Baker's 1914 route is still there, and much of it is still dirt. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks. Dave made so many friends.

Hi everyone. Schwinn: actually Dave was my little brother. We lost him a few years ago on a road crash near Julian. To all, here and on our own pages we will update how it is going. Have been doing a lot of research online about the old roads, plus I spent a day at the San Diego Historical Society library in Balboa Park. It was so cool that they had an actual 1914 road map of San Diego County, so that helped me resolve what Baker's route out of town would have been (basically Campo Road / Hwy 94 east to Imperial County). Most of the California route is now paved, but I think Arizona will still have some dirt to ride. We post the route in sections as we work it out.

Greetings. I am a new member, but not new to motorcycling in San Diego. My family has been involved in the motorcycle sport and business in San Diego and Imperial counties for almost 100 years. My grandfather had a repair shop and did some racing as far back as 1914, then later was a motorcycle patrol officer in Imperial County, then Chula Vista. My father, Floyd Emde, was one of the country's top racers in the post-WWII era, and he won the Daytona 200 in 1948. He and my mom open a motorcycle shop in National City and eventually had three stores in the county. I worked in the shops as I was growing up, got into racing and eventually also won the Daytona 200, the only time a father and son have both won that race. Through the years I have been involved in the sport and business, and now I am starting a media project that the club might find interesting. We are going to retrace the original route of Cannon Ball Baker's 1914 cross country ride from San Diego to New York in 11 1/2 days, a record at the time. KTM has sponsored me with motorcycles to go check out the roads and trails that still exist. We are going to take it in small bites, checking his route for each of the 11 1/2 days. We plan to have a website that we are now working on, and we have a Facebook page called The Cannon Ball Project if anyone wants to check that out. We won't have too much to report until September, but I'll try to keep everyone posted here.