May 1, 2025

Jim and my good friend Jimmy Allison passed away two days ago.

Jimmy was a kind, caring, giving man. He never had a bad word to say about anyone. He was truly one of those souls who would go out of his way and do anything to help someone in need.

We first met Jimmy around 2003 when we were promoting a motorcycle race in Albuquerque , the Sandia Classic. Jimmy was a sponsor, but also a participant. Jim and Jimmy both rode dirt bikes and quickly bonded.

We ended up traveling across the country to race motocross, mostly we’d meet at the races, but also occasionally would travel in Jimmy’s motorhome.

Jimmy was a music lover, as we are, and we’d swap music, stop places for live music and enjoy introducing each other to new artists. I can never listen to R.L. Burnside with out thinking of Jimmy and saying “It’s bad you know.” I’ll let you look up the tune. it is quite unique, as is R.L. We were traveling from Alabama in Jimmy’s motorhome and were all so cracked up listening to this song and realized how ahead of it’s time the song was. It was a new artist for all of us that we’d discovered at Cat Head Records in Clarksdale, Mississippi.

We became very close to Jimmy when we rode the Motorcycle Cannonball in 2012. Neither Jim or Jimmy really understood what we were in for. If we had, we’d not have done it. The event is riding coast to coast on pre 1930 motorcycles that are substantially “original”. The bikes Jimmy and Jim would be riding were 5 horsepower bikes with a top speed, if lucky, of around 40 MPH.

Jimmy ended up living with us for a month while we got both bikes ready for the event. Literally, he moved into our house as he lived 200 miles south, while we built the bikes.

We crossed the country from New Mexico, again in Jimmy’s motorhome, to begin the rally in Newburg, NY, working on the bikes each night when we stopped as they were not yet ready to ride coast to coast.

17 days later, after riding these tiny 5 horsepower bikes across the country, we were in San Francisco! Jim won his class and I was able to ride about half the trip with him two up. Jimmy came in 2nd. The bikes were pretty much trashed by the end and both engines had been replaced along the way. We were exhausted.

This ride tightened our connection to each other; It was one of the hardest things we’d ever done.

If you want to know more of our time doing the Cannonball, here is the first post where I begin writing about it. Entries while the bikes are being built, and then a daily log during the journey. Often they were written very late at night after having ridden for 12 hours and then worked on the bike for another 6 or so hours. Jim had several friends that would hound us if they did not see the daily post to see how it was going!

And now Jimmy is gone. We are still on the boat so had not seen Jimmy in many months and did not see him regularly as he lived 200 miles from us. He always had a comment on each of my journal posts and sometimes would include a mention of a time he’d been in the Caribbean, or somewhere else we were traveling. He was glad we were doing these travels so he could continue to enjoy our time together.

We have lost a piece of our heart and will miss Jimmy greatly. Safe travels Jimmy!