Eddie James RIP

[Kathy R]

email from Mike Kneebone:

 

Adam Wolkoff from Team Strange, and Eddie James best friend asked us to pass this along this morning:

 

I am writing to inform the LD community that Eddie James passed away last night as a result of injuries sustained in a motorcycle vs. car accident occurring at approximately 7:30 PM on I-75 in Atlanta, Georgia. The magnitude of this loss requires no amplification; there is so much I want to say but find I have no words at this time, only sadness.

 

Additional information will be forthcoming. In the meantime, I ask that you hold Eddie, Lisa and the family in the light of your thoughts and prayers.

 

Adam Wolkoff

for Team Strange Airheads, Inc.

 

[Carlo Rustico]

Really sorry to hear the news. Eddie was just one of those people -- you know.

 

Chuck DeSantis

[Woodie]

Sorry to hear that. I knew that name sounded familiar.

[Rich06FJR1300]

i looked him up, he was a top finisher in the 2005 IBR, not sure if he participated in other years.

[Chris K]

I read about the accident in the news this morning but no name was released. The link to the story is HERE.

He rode in at least 6 Iron Butt Rally's from 1995-2005.

I did not know him, but my condolences to his family.

[RedHot]

I barely knew him from the Cape Fear 1K rallies.

 

Very sad news indeed!

[snod]

I have had the pleasure of knowing Eddie for about 9 years. He was one of the most passionate motorcyclists that I have ever known. The world is certainly a little less crazy, and a whole lot less fun than it was yesterday. Link to a news story from Atlanta. The motorcycling community is much poorer for his passing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[roadscholar]

I used to read Bob Higdon's Iron Butt Rally reports pretty regularly years back and Eddie's name was inevitably in the mix. He was always a contender but his methodology seemed a little outside the box, even by Iron Butt standards.

 

Those guys were larger than life at the time and for some reason, particularly Eddie. I met him at the Mid-Ohio (BMW) Vintage Days in 2004, he was leading one of the vintage rides. I spotted the lime green GS with 11 gal tank and said, "your Eddie James aren't you".

 

He was true character and definitly lived up to the billing.

[DavidEBSmith]

Eddie wasn't larger than life, he was larger than larger than life.

 

You can understand maybe 10% of how people who knew him felt about him from this thread at TeamStrange: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yhgq3kf

[Frank Cloud]

A friend told me about this at work. Said he saw the bike, but not the rider. I had hoped for a better outcome. RIP Eddie.

[roadscholar]

Eddie wasn't larger than life, he was larger than larger than life.

 

You can understand maybe 10% of how people who knew him felt about him from this thread at TeamStrange: http://preview.tinyurl.com/yhgq3kf

 

Thanks David, just sorry I missed the chance to know him better. In the few minutes I did though you could sense the presence of greatness.

 

His friend "wood" was particularly touching in his tribute:

 

"Eddie James is my hero because once he decided a thing could be accomplished, he figured out how to do and then just did it. Scale was irrelevant. Feasability was irrelevant. Nothing was impossible when Eddie was in the room. That is quality worth adopting. That is heroic.

 

I only hope we can all be a fraction as wild, as determined and as brilliant as my hero, Eddie James."

 

wood

 

 

 

[Deadboy]

I just spoke with him a few weeks ago......I am stunned to hear this, he was one of a kind and a hell of a rider....

 

As Eddie said to me once, "there are motorcycle owners and there are motorcycle riders, nothing wrong with either one but good to know the difference".....

 

He was a rider!! He had ridden well over 100 separate thousand miles days (he kept notes) and that was at least 5 years ago.....

 

RIP

[Oldtimer]

He spoke at the breakfast given at the first Great Lakes Challenge for those of us that finished in under 50 hours. One heck of a guy with a great personality. What a shock to read this when starting out the day.