Erwin “Cannonball” Baker began his record-breaking, transcontinental motorcycle trip in 1915. Wearing leather riding trousers and carrying a one-gallon canteen, he mounted his V-twin 1000cc Stutz Indian motorcycle and headed east toward Yuma, Arizona, with a raging sandstorm at his back.
To combat thirst, Baker used the old Native American method of carrying a small pebble under his tongue. On the second day of the trip he ran out of fuel just a few miles short of Agua Caliente, Arizona, and was forced to push his bike in the 48 C (119 F) desert heat.
Equipped with a Smith & Wesson .38, Baker fought off a pack of dogs in Fort Apache. Dogs continued to hamper his trip; in Ellsworth, Kansas, a shepherd dog attacked his bike. “This dog seemed to have a great desire for the Goodyear rubber of my front tire,” he explained. “The dog took a fall out of me which put me in bad shape, as I slid along the road on my elbows and knees. I kept the tire and the dog lost his life.”
Baker travelled 3,379 miles (5,438 kilometers) in 11 days and 11 hours across the U.S. Due to the poor roads and primitive “cradle-spring” shock absorption of his bike, he rode most of the way standing up.
A writer from New York gave Edwin the nickname “Cannonball” from the Cannonball Express, a train famous for running great non-stop distances.
