From Building Machines
to Breaking Records
and Finding Peace
Dan “Axe” DeKruif’s motorcycle legacy: grease-stained beginnings, a 2014 Cannonball-style run, and a 5000 miles memorial ride
Photo credit: Hessong
Interviewed on the 08.03.2026
In 2014, Dan “Axe” DeKruif set a cross country speed record, riding coast to coast across America in just 33 hours and 10 minutes. Covering roughly 2,400 miles at an average speed of 72.6 mph, he pushed both machine and mind to their absolute limits. Today, that same rider has traded the S1000RR for a GS1300 Adventure, shifting his focus from outright speed to something far more personal. This interview explores Axe’s record-setting legacy, his roots in motorcycle building, and the deeper purpose behind what he’s doing now.
Before the records and long-distance rides, Axe’s world revolved around building machines and living close to the metal. As the former owner of Y Chrome Customs in Jacksonville, Florida, he built choppers that reflected individuality and raw craftsmanship. His background was in mechanical engineering, but even his early years in his dad’s blacksmith shop was hands-on, grease-stained, and shaped by years of motorcycle culture.
”After losing my engineering job and marriage in the same week, building choppers was exactly what i needed. It didn’t matter that i was broke and starving and sweating in that hot Florida shop. I was genuinely happy for the first time in years, listening to metal on the speakers while i shaped and painted metal into custom choppers with my technical skills and art skills, hearing them roar for the first time, and watching customers ride away smiling ear to ear on something i built with my hands was the best feeling in the world."
That exact mindset is what he later applied to the S1000RR. Instead of treating it like a stock superbike, Axe turned it into a purpose-built endurance machine. Planning his run for 9 months he equipped his bike with an auxiliary 5-gallon fuel tank linked to the main system for on-the-go refueling, thermal vision system for night riding, and improvised rear peg cushions to rest his legs during the relentless ride. It wasn’t just fast - it was calculated, engineered, and executed with precision.
Long distance speed runs like his are unofficial, often controversial coast-to-coast challenges that began decades ago, with the official Cannonball running from New York City to Los Angeles and dominated by heavily modified cars chasing impossible timelines across the United States. Axe approached it with a different goal: to become the fastest person to ride a motorcycle across the country, choosing a route from San Diego, California to Jacksonville, Florida.
Attempting a run like this on a motorcycle is an entirely different level. There’s no co-driver to share the mental load, no enclosed cabin to shield you from fatigue, weather, or the constant force of wind. Every mile is absorbed directly by the body. See his movie "No Limits - No Regrets", documenting the run here.
It’s exactly this level of difficulty that makes Axe’s approach stand out. Riding a BMW S1000RR, Dan “Axe” DeKruif didn’t just ride across the country - he helped redefine what riders believed was possible. Holding that cross-country record from 2014 to 2018, his legacy sits firmly in the world of Cannonball-style endurance runs.
”I was fascinated as a kid watching the old “Cannonball Run” movie. When i read Alex Roy’s Book and watched his movie about breaking the Cannonball Run record, I was hooked. The biggest difference was I had to do it on a motorcycle instead of a car. I’d survived the first open heart surgery a few years earlier, and i needed a new challenge, so this cross country motorcycle blast was the answer.”
But the ride that would come to define his later years wasn’t driven by competition. It came from something far more personal.
In August 2025, Axe set out on a 5,000-mile journey across 14 states everywhere from the mountains of Colorado to the beaches of Florida. On paper, it was another massive ride. In reality, it was something entirely different.
“This ride was so much more meaningful to me than just chasing an adrenaline rush. It was a way to reunite Baron with Sunshine. With me being terminal with heart failure and at daily risk of death, this ride was not only honoring their memory, but it was also a bit of a vision quest for me to get on the road and process everything with their mortality as well as my own.”
What drove him wasn’t the road itself, but who he carried with him. After losing his dog Baron in May 2025 - and having already lost his girlfriend Sunshine 11 years earlier - Axe set out to reunite them in the only way he could. He scattered Baron’s ashes across four locations in the United States, the same places where Sunshine’s ashes had been laid to rest years before.
The journey came with a weight far heavier than mileage. Axe was - and still is - living with terminal heart failure, facing daily risks that most riders would never attempt to ignore, let alone ride through.
”I’ve accepted my end, so i tried not to think about the health unless i had to. I made every effort to focus on the road, the ride, the moment, meal, or the beauty around me. It was hard to ignore at times I was struggling to breathe, but if I’m thinking about dying, i’m not thinking about living like I should be.”
There were moments when the physical toll became overwhelming. Chest pains rolling into New Orleans. Breathing so strained in Colorado’s elevation that even walking down a hallway felt impossible. Hiking with mini oxygen bottles to reach remote locations where the ashes would be scattered. A nail in the rear tire that turned the second half of the ride into a constant battle. And yet, quitting was never part of the equation.
“This was one of those experiences that i knew could kill me, but I happily accepted that risk as well worth the cost of one last adventure with such purpose driving it."
The defining moment came at the top of Enchanted Rock in Texas, where he completed the final part of his mission. Sitting there, task finished, something shifted. He realized that some questions don’t have answers - and maybe they’re not meant to. Instead of asking why he had lost those he loved, he chose to focus on what remained: the memories, the moments, and the time he still had.
”Once the closure of finishing the final task set in, i remembered back to so many times in my past of trying to figure out questions that have no answers. Instead, i focused more on finding peace with my situation right at that moment, which allowed me to be grateful for the time i enjoyed to that point, the view in that moment, and the life I’ve enjoyed."
Today, Axe’s life looks very different. The high-performance BMW S1000RR is replaced by a GS1300 Adventure.
This new chapter isn’t about chasing records. It’s about creating something lasting. After completing the ride, Axe turned manyof hours of footage into a full-length feature documentary: Baron’s Last Ride and wrote and recorded an original soundtrack to accompany it, channeling the entire experience - grief, struggle, reflection - into something tangible.
“Selfishly, when i’m dead and gone, this soundtrack and movie will remain telling our story, honoring the memory of Baron, Sunshine, and at that point me. There’s also a sense of satisfaction that comes with putting these things out there for others to watch and enjoy. If that means someone feels like they’re not alone in grief or is inspired to live a fuller or healthier life as a result, then i did my job in my time here.”
Even now, with his health continuing to decline, he hasn’t stopped moving. More miles followed - driving across states, riding thousands of miles again to revisit places tied to his past, pushing through cold, distance, and time itself. Because for Axe, standing still was never really an option.
A road trip like this pulls you out of the routine of everyday life - forcing you to meet new people, experience the world more directly, and reconnect with what actually matters. It becomes a way to clear your head, process what weighs on you, and see things with a kind of clarity that only the road can offer.
“Go ride a motorcycle on a trip like this. Even a couple days in the helmet does wonders for peace of mind.”
In the end, after everything - the records, the losses, the miles, the film - his message comes down to something strikingly simple:
"Live for today.“
© 2026 Grit & Dust (From Building Machines to Breaking Records and Finding Peace) Photos © 2026 Dan "Axe" DeKruif & Hessong. All rights reserved. No part of this article or images may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without prior written permission.