Ride Report Europe 1 of 3, Spring Plans for Skog in Sweden, GPX/GPS Motorcycle Routes, "Hells Angels" novel chat.

Taylor has secured his ticket for Skog 2025! In this discussion, we cover several important ADV (Adventure) topics, such as beer prices in Oslo, Norway, and motorcycle ferry protocols in the UK and mainland Europe. We also address some security questions related to the ADV Cannonball. 

Additionally, we chat about Hunter S. Thompson's "Hells Angels" The Woody Creek Tavern, and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." We delve into the details of GPX/GPS routes and tracks compared to turn-by-turn GPS directions. Taylor's biography is now featured on the homepage.

We also reminisce about our first motorcycles, our initial experiences with motorcycle licensing, and some of our regrets as young, inexperienced riders. The main topic of our conversation is shipping our bikes to the UK with Motofreight, along with a discussion about UK traffic cameras.

Transcript

Welcome to the ADV Cannonball podcast where we discuss all things on 2 wheels, the adventure bike cannonball, and other motorcycle related nonsense. And here we go. Welcome to the pod season 2 episode 2. Thank you very much for joining. My name is Taylor Lawson, and I am your host.

And tonight, we have Aaron Poufahl with us. Hey, Taylor. What's going on? And, where are you? What you drinking?

I'm sitting over in Sweden. Pretty much for the most of these have been sitting in Sweden. And, you know, at least until we start, we start getting things going here, you know, actually riding out of the out of the cold. Happy to say it's above freezing, which is nice. We've had a really mild winter here.

And as far as, so it's above freezing. That's a good thing. And, as far as what I'm drinking, I have to say I've gone back to my sort of old standby. It's a Depa Double IPA, the mighty Double IPA from 2 o' Lesitti. Explosively aromatic, fresh, and I know you hate this part, and fruity.

Well, yesterday yesterday's last week's was was overly fruity, if I remember correctly. Oh my god. That was that was, like, a that was so bitter. Oh my god. I couldn't believe it.

That's awesome. Yeah. And what are you up to? I'm at HQ today in, Port Angeles, Washington, and, it's deadly cold out there. And I'm gonna have one out of the same cooler, Juice Force IPA, Imperial IPA, 9.6, I think, percent alcohol.

So I'm gonna have 2 of these, and that's my limit today. Okay. Fair enough. You know, I don't have a let me hear that good sound. You got a good sound?

Alright. I, I was gonna, you know, crack into the microphone and do that sound before we started recording. I opened it, but I I kinda fell back to that old theory that, you know, I saw it, and I had to open it. It was a natural thing. And, as I say, 1 in 1 in hand is better than 2 in the fridge, and so I had to go with it.

Beep. Alright. So I've got some interesting I got something interesting to tell you. Mhmm. Since since we last spoke, I actually got a ticket to Skoog 2025 Nice.

Which is yeah. It's, it's one of the rallies. It's it is a rally event, like, very unlike the the ADV cannonball rally. And you go to this event. It's a 4 day event.

It's at the end of May, and it's about 4 hours in the 4 hours south here, south of Stockholm, really down in the bottom of Sweden. Like, it's 6 hours driving. You can make it 7 hours driving, you can make it to the bottom of Sweden, before you have to cross, into Denmark or catch a ferry over to Germany. But, anyway, this is event. I think it's the 3rd or 4th year they've been running it.

It's at basecampnorth.org, and, tickets are really hard to come by. I think they had a 125 tickets to release this year. And I was waiting there at 8 o'clock, ready to press the button with my credit card already in copy, ready to go. So, anyway, that was, yeah, I got a ticket. So it'll be the 1st time going there, and I'll be able to get some, I'll talk a little bit about the prep that I do for it and sort of some things that'll be coming, talk about, things I'm gonna take with me, some other guys that I'll be riding with.

Also, one of the guys that I'll be riding with will be one of the guys that, actually, we will be riding with in India. Nice. So maybe we'll even have a chance to chat with him. Anyway, we'll we'll, these are some things that we'll talk about down the road. But that's what's, so I was super excited to get a ticket.

So that was the good news. Nice. I just Googled that. So what the heck does Skog mean? And Skog is, is, old Norse, and it just means forest or wood.

And, that is an apropos name because I've watched a couple of videos from Skoog, and it literally is a bunch of motorcycles, in the woods. And I really liked I really liked the food service. I think it's one of his buddies or something, and it's just, you know, it's a carnivore's paradise. It's big racks of meat over open flame, and, they've done a really good job of, taking care of everyone who goes. I I would go just to hang out and drink and eat, to be honest with you.

Yeah. It's interesting. I read the I read the, the the details about this one in in great detail, and they did a great job of putting out information about it. And, apparently, the comments last year said, as you said, it's a meat lover's paradise, and they're like, you know, there's some people here who are really more into the having a bit of vegetables with our meat. So they did make a point of, changing it up a bit to, yeah, to get a bit more vegetables in the mix.

But we'll, we'll find out when I'm there. I'll I'll, Yeah. You you could always rub garlic on your on your steak, you know, if you want some vegetables. I'll find them there. I'm not sure that's exactly what they're talking about, Erin.

But I can appreciate, having having most recently traveled with you in Norway, I can recognize that the, I think we considered the grain in the hot dog bun of the of the hot dog that was wrapped in bacon. That was the, that was the vegetable portion of what we were eating most of the time, wasn't it? That's all I can afford was the was the hot dog the the gas station hot dog. Otherwise, there's no way you can afford anything. I tell you what.

Yeah. You know, all all kidding aside, I do remember when you were going through Europe, which is something we're gonna we can talk a bit about here in this in this particular, pod. When you were going through Europe, you were talking to me as you were moving from the UK all the way through. One of the things you were talking about where you were, we're kinda judging how you how how the the the dollar was in terms of the economy is to how much it actually cost in US dollars in for a pint of beer. And I remember when you got I think you got to, like I don't know.

Maybe in Finland, it was, like, you know, $10.50 for a pint of beer. And then I was like, dude, wait till you get to Norway. Wait till we get to Norway. And then you're like, how bad can it be? So I remember we went, and we got, like, 33 centiliters at a microbrew in Oslo.

And they weren't even big beers, but it was a they specialize in in in microbrews. And I remember I came back, and I was like, did I make a miss? Did she double charge me? And I thought it was a total mistake, but we ended up paying $22 a beer when we were there. Oh my god.

It was outrageous. It was absolutely outrageous. I actually have that. If you go to the Cannonball website and go to the free GPX, area, I have shared that GPX file, and I actually put that pub, that beer garden to be precise, in in the Google Doc. So, you know, that's just the way it is.

It's just crazy expensive. But I also put in that Google Doc that if you go to the, to the hotel that we recommend, they also sell pints bottles of, sorry, bottles of beer in the lobby, which is about half the price. But still still not cheap. Very, very expensive. But let's, let's, if we don't mind, can I an because we're gonna get right into Europe?

Can I answer an email question that I had Yeah? Yeah. Sent me. Jump in. Because I don't forget, and I don't pontificate for hours about riding motorcycles.

Someone had, had written in and asked, what exactly is a security system for, the nighttime, hotel security for the Cannonball? So every night, everyone goes to the same hotel. And I had said in the last podcast that there's a security device that goes on every motorcycle. Well, it's a little bit more basic than that is that there is a, steel wire, like, aircraft wire that goes through all all of the motorcycles, and then that goes back to the van. And that's why everyone has to park together.

And then if someone were to cut or tamper with that wire, it would it would set off an alarm. Plus, whoever's in the van, one of the security cameras is pointed at the motorcycle. So if someone were to mess with that wire, it would wake up whoever's got got stuck with us, security duty, which is which is probably me, in the van. So that's it's a very basic thing, but it's, highly affected sorry, highly, effective. Yeah.

No. That makes sense. And the the fact that there's deterrent there, more than likely I think about the when we had the when you had the FJ, when you tripped out that FJ that we did the rally in, I remember you had ditch lights. You had we had, like, I don't know. We had a whole dashboard.

We had a whole console just for exterior lighting. And, I can imagine with this, the Sprinter that you're checking out right now that it will probably be, dare I say, similar? Yeah. So the we call those, scene lights. So on each side of the van, there are 3 amber scene light scene lights.

And I have the battery sitting here, so I'll have enough battery power to leave the scene lights on to illuminate the area. And then there are, cameras hooked up to a DVR. But we're never gonna need to review the footage. Now talking about security, I've never had anyone mess with a motorcycle at a hotel parking lot because I usually leave my motorcycle under the entrance to the hotel parking lot. But, when you're doing a huge group of motorcycles, you know, 35, 40 motorcycles, that's not possible.

So this is the solution, that I've come up with just to make sure everyone's everyone's rides are safe. Yeah. Hey. Speaking of bikes riding together, I was listening to Hell's Angels, the, the book who Hunter s Thompson. Yes.

Exactly. Hunter s Thompson. And he back in the, I guess, the sixties, they had a law that said that no they were trying they had had a bad experience with Hell's Angels before, and they were trying to people were putting ordinances in place in order to keep them from coming in together. So they said any more than 2 motorcycles riding through Reno was going to be considered a, you know, a a ticketable offense or a imprisonable imprisonable offense offense. So I just wanna make sure that are we going through Reno on this?

Or I'm gonna end up in jail. You know, it's funny. I just recently, reread that book, and there are 2 things that stood out to me. First of all, what you're talking about is clearly a civil rights violation. You can't make a local ordinance for something.

You know, the free that that infringes on your first amendment right, free freedom of assembly. Right? So it is shocking the amount of you know, my blood is boiling halfway through this book of all the civil rights violations, just blatant civil rights violations. Right? And, the other thing that was hard was, you know, the how do you say it?

The speech. You know, they're dropping n bombs, and it's not like, oh, that didn't age well. You know what I mean? Brutal. It was just brutal.

Yeah. Just brutal. So, anyway But it's interesting. The the local the local municipalities, they put a lot of thing I'm I'm sure those things have been rolled back by now. But they, I mean, it was written a long time ago, so it was pretty Yeah.

You know? A lot a lot of shocking things in there. But it was interesting just about how much how much effort people went through to try to keep the Hells Angels from from participating in their particular area. Yeah. I'm a I'm a big Huntress Thompson fan.

Obviously, fear and loathing in Las Vegas is is the first thing that comes to mind, which is which is epic. And then sandwiched between those two was the Gonzo papers. So Hell's Angels, very well written. He you know, it's interesting because he he really rides. And the premise of going to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is him and his lawyer, are on their way to cover a motorsports.

I don't know if it's motorcycle rally or it for sure it was a desert rally that they were gonna go cover. So if anyone in American lit literature really personifies the the cannibal spirit, albeit in a little bit of a rough manner, is Huntress Thompson. You know? And it it drives me crazy because I think everyone has a fantasy of, you know, writing a book or something. And you're like, nope.

Not even gonna bother trying. This is an amazing writer. And even even from back in the day, I I don't know if I took you there, Taylor, but when you and I would spend time in Colorado for our rallies there, one of my haunts was always the Woody Creek Tavern. And maybe I'll post it. I have a photo and of me sitting in the booth in the back corner where Hunter s Thompson would hang out.

So he he lived in the Aspen area just outside, and I think one of his family members still owns that that home. And, and I have sat many a time, at his table. And if people would come in to ask for an autograph, he used to take their book, bring it outside, and he would pull out his revolver and shoot the book. And he'd go, there. There's your f n signature, and then he would go back in and finish drinking.

So, are there any autographs that you're gonna be looking for here when you're in this particular rally? Yeah. No one's no one's no one's that cool anymore, unfortunately. But Yeah. Yeah.

Alright. Hey. Like, as as I said before, we, we we can see each other. So I see sitting behind you a, I mean, dare I say, Stanley Cup esque trophy. You got anything to talk about that?

Yeah. That's the, the new perpetual trophy. And I had posted some pictures of the samples we got for the actual trophies that people will take home in, the cannonball. And those are on the website, and they're on the newsletter. But I haven't posted yet a photo because it's really actually hard to photograph because it's all it's silver and it's made of metal.

And, anyways, it's the actual perpetual trophy. So people don't take that home, but that travels around as we go to different events and such. And the winner's name gets embossed on the side of it. But I'm really excited to, have finally, received that, and, we will definitely bring that. The first time the public can see that is when we go to the, what's it called, to the Touratech West rally when we have our new displays up there so people can come see the perpetual trophy there.

So it's gonna be it's gonna be really cool to watch over the years as as that trophy gets, gets placarded with, all the, overall winners. You know, you there was a, I was just thinking about, like, when we used to walk the docks looking for boats, you know, looking for boat gigs. You know, you're meeting owners and things, trying to get a job running a yacht. And, my wife and I had our shirts made up, and it said, your boat name here, where you'd have a so so, you know, where the boat name would go. Anyway, we, we we had that.

And I was just thinking that could be your slogan. Like, you have that on the on the, you have the trophy there, and you could say your name here. That's a good one. Sign up, and you could have your name here. I gotta think of a creative way to make that a social media post.

That's awesome. Alright. You did mention earlier that you had the, the GPX route. First of all, coverage just just just humor me and cover the disc the difference between a GPX and a GPS. Yeah.

So I think we're all used to what a g a GPS is a physical device, and a GPX I don't even wanna say route. A GPX file is one of 2 things. It's the little breadcrumb trail that gets dropped as you ride down the road. We're all familiar with that. That's the actual file.

That's the actual data. And what that is is little breadcrumbs that get strung together, and that is that is where you have been, or you can put a file like that on your GPS and you can follow it. One of the issues that always comes up is when I share the GPS routes, people think that they can just tell their GPS to do turn by turn directions, and that's not how that works. Each GPS has a different algorithm for giving you turn by turn directions. So turn by turn directions are fantastic if you wanna go to an address, but a GPX route, if it's something specific, especially like a motorcycle route, we wanna take the route that we wanna take based on the best motorcycle roads or some other objective, but not necessarily what is the most efficient way.

So, anyway, so we have shared the the Colorado, GPX route, and we've also shared the Norway GPX route. And, some of those come with a detailed guide. So very happy to share that GPX file for whoever wants to go to, Colorado on on their own and also, Norway. We call it a Norway south loop, and, it's fantastic. I got a question for you.

Yeah. First of all, let me say yes. It is fantastic because I did that trip with you. But going back to this. So so you've got a hardware you've got a piece of hardware, and then you has have a a file which displays a line on your hardware.

That's exactly right. Can you so if I've got a iPhone, and I'm using, like, an iPhone for my my navigation system, can I on that, can I download the GPX and then tell my iPhone to follow that GPX route? No. So you need to physically test well, I say no, but there may be a system that comes up. There is nothing right now that will do turn by turn directions to give you that will give you turn by turn directions based on a on a line on your on your on your phone or your GPS system.

It it just doesn't exist. And this is trouble that everyone gets into. And it drives me crazy when I'm riding with a group, and everyone's got everyone has this this, OCD of having to have the lady in the box tell you where to turn. And that's fine if you're just going down the highway to get to the fastest route. And there are also some apps out there like CaliMoto and this and that that feel, that the more twisty road is, the better road, but I don't necessarily share that opinion.

Just for the record, I like the lady in the box. Ew. I want I want the lady in the box to tell me how to follow the route. How do we make that happen? What do what do I need to do?

It it it's not possible. So if you take one of our GPX routes, take for some take for instance something very reasonable. So I'm I'm about to leave and go down the Pacific Coast Highway, and if you stay on 101 the whole way, that may be the fastest route. But in one section, I wanna take one of the state park roads temporarily for a couple miles. The GPS will not will not nav will not give you turn by turn navigation down that little side road because it is not efficient.

It doesn't make any sense. So that GPS has an algorithm that says, no. That that's stupid. So that's the issue right right now with, GPS systems is they will not translate a GPS file into turn by turn directions in the exact way that the GPX file appears on your phone or your GPS, device. Okay.

So that said, how do, like, how how do how do people show up and do this rally and follow your GPX file? Well, they have to use their eyes. Right? Like, you know What? They I know it's crazy, but you actually have to make your own decisions.

And the world isn't handed to you on a silver platter. They're actually gonna have to adult and, and do whatever is required. This is why it's a competition, and this is why it's not a tour. It is a friendly competition, and whomever can follow the line on their GPS and make those decisions are the people that are gonna succeed, in this in this cannonball rally. Aaron, you didn't you didn't you know, you should have told me in the beginning that thinking was required.

I don't know if I had been involved. I know. The world is so easy these days that it's a bizarre thing to think that you actually have to think for yourself. Alright. I really wanted to belabor the point because some of the questions that we've had have been in a sort of around that.

So I thought that we could have a bit of, silly banter so that you can make the clear point about the questions that we've been getting that have been coming in from yeah. Pretty much asking the same thing. Like, why can't the lady in the box just tell me how to get there? Right. Right.

Yeah. Because the lady in the box isn't that smart. That that's why. Not yet. Not yet.

Yeah. But it will be. Like, there's no reason why it shouldn't. Just no one has no one has, you know how do I put it? A fraction of a fraction of a percent of people that use a GPS put a GPS file into it.

And even fewer of those want to follow that line specifically. So it's not something that that is that is common. It's not a common, it's not a common use of a g of a GPS. I wanted to tell everyone that I received your bio and some of your pictures from back in the day that I'm gonna post on the website. Thank you for that.

And it really got me thinking. Like, you come from a back a background of of dirt bikes, and I came from a background of of street bikes when I when I was a kid. And I never asked you, what was your first motorcycle, and how old were you when you had your first bike? Oh, good question. Let me see here.

So Why is there smoke coming out of your niche? Yeah. Good question. I was 22, 23. I just finished at University of Maryland College Park in 1990.

Had a birthday yesterday at 57. Yes. I figured no one needs. I'm just gonna make it so that and, you know, to the same theme of earlier not having to think. I thought I'd just do the math.

Okay. So and I bought a when when I was I was I was out and I was living in a in a shared house, and I was like, I was like, wow. All those years, my parents were like, thou shalt not ride motorized vehicles with 2 wheels. I went, wow, I can do that now. And no repercussions except whatever I can do to myself on that sheet.

I can do what I want. I can do what I want now. So I went down to the So I have a super tight budget, but I was like, I can afford a Suzuki DR250 S. So I went down and I I don't know why I bought a new machine, but I did. And I bought I walked in the dealer and I they they were like, I'm sorry.

You can't you cannot test drive this machine. And I was like, man, I really couldn't afford the 350. And and the 650 was out of reach for me. But I so I bought the 250 and then signed the paper. My payment was $109.99.

And anyway, so I bought this machine, and then I got it on the road. And then within 30 seconds of of getting it on the highway, I realized that I should have bought the 350. So that's my first bike. Oh, you bought a 250, and there was a 350 bevel. 50.

Right. And there was a 350 and a 650. 650 was out of reach for me financially. Right. But I probably could have put a squeeze the extra whatever and gotten the yeah.

So, anyway, I I bought a a 250, which is a great machine. Absolutely great machine. I did a lot of, yeah, off road riding with it and ended up yeah. Sold that, and then next machine was the 650. Moving on up.

Yeah. Moving on up. How about you? You know, we should get the psychiatrist here for this conversation. But when I was, when I was 16, I was I grew up in Toronto, and, it was the middle of January.

It was January, and I had skipped my plan was to go at the end of school, and I could walk to the licensing, department. And I remember that I I just couldn't wait anymore. And I left at lunch and I said, screw it. I'm leaving. And I went down there.

I skipped school half the day, and I got my my learner's per permit. I think it was called an r, so restricted license or something. And then we had a a newspaper called the buy and sell. It was literally looked like a newspaper, and it would had literal, you know, column inches on it, and you could write in. You had to physically write in.

Oh, no. No. You call and you'd phone into an operator, and they would list something for you, and your phone number would be on there. And I didn't know what the heck I was doing, but I ended up buying a CB 750 Supersport. And, I've been selling there.

Honda. Yeah, man. It is. Yeah. It's the legendary bike.

They made so so many of those. It's just they're they're just they're just everywhere. And I bought that, and, I had my first little accident on that, the classic going around the corner too fast. And my left knee is is constantly, reminding me of that, of that that dumbass mistake. But, anyways, yeah.

So it was a CB 750, and I was 16 years old. And one of my biggest regrets was there wasn't YouTube. There wasn't podcasts, and, you know, I just used that to get around and to misbehave. And no one ever told me that by the way, Erin, you can leave the province of Ontario with that motorcycle. And, like, I don't know why that never like, what a missed opportunity.

Like, when I'm on my deathbed, that's the one thing I'm going to, you know, pontificate about is, gosh, darn it. No one told me that I could leave I could leave the country with this motorcycle you bought for $600 or whatever it was. I'm like, you dumbass. You should've went somewhere. Yeah.

It's like transit for freedom. You can get out of there. Yeah. No. Like, I don't know what happened anyways.

Hey, Levi. Yeah. How do you know? Yeah. I remember when I was when I was 19, I graduated high school.

I was a January baby. Right? So I'm a year ahead of most of my class, at least a number. And, for for a graduation present, my parents said, what do you want? And I said, I want a one way airline ticket to the Caribbean.

And they were like, What about university? And I was like, One way ticket to the Caribbean. So they got me, for my graduation present from high school, I got a return ticket Yeah. To the Caribbean because they're like, you're coming back and going to school. That's well, listen.

You had to, you had to literally dip your toe into those into those blue waters for the first time. People people may not know this, but Taylor was a, charter boat captain down in the Caribbean for years years. And, maybe, maybe next time, he'll, he'll tell us more more about those adventures. Yeah. They were fun.

I say just just the one thing I do wanna say is having grown up in the Chesapeake Bay where the at the time, the average depth was 3 feet. Now in the shipping channel, it's deeper, but there's a lot of really shallow areas. So the average depth of the Chesapeake Bay is 3 feet. And the water, just like the way the reason wine is red is because they take the the the leaves and the grapes and they take the stems, and then they let them ferment, and then it's the it's the the, the process of those stems and the leaves and then grapes peels breaking down that creates the color in the wine. Anyway, it's the exact same thing when you have a a body of water that's surrounded by oak trees.

Those leaves fall in there, and then they ferment, and then it turns the water brown. It's not because the water's dirty. It's because that's just what happened at the bottom of the of the of the water. So Right. I came from an area where, like, you know, a meter or 3 feet visibility was, like, a really good clear day.

And then I went to the Caribbean when I was 19 years old, and I was like, man, you can see down you know, you could see you could see 20 meters down on a bad day. You know? Nice. And it was usually about at 82, 83 degrees. It's warmer now, but, you know, it was, it was awesome.

I loved it. That's awesome. Why don't we take a commercial, and then we will, we'll start talking about, the Europe trip. How about that? Yeah.

And we'll be back after this message. Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story, and I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball. Hey, Cannonballers.

Thanks for subscribing to our podcast. We appreciate it. If you're not a cheap Canadian and want to buy us a coffee, head on over to buy me a coffee dot com, or better yet, buy us a case of sweet ass craft IPA. We'll visit on patreon.com. Links are in the show notes.

Now back to the riveting podcast in progress. And we are back. So we, we started we hinted at the idea that we were gonna actually talk a little bit about the, the European trip, and I think we should jump into that. And I'm gonna give this 20 minutes, Erin. You and I have never we have never been able to honor any time because we always just go off on a ramble.

Some of the comments I have to say some of the comments that we have had have and the emails we have had said, we like that. We'd like to hear a bit more of that. But this time, I'm gonna try to try to maintain Let's do it. About a timer set. So, that said, so we're gonna talk a bit about Europe, talk about the European trip.

And based on how we don't keep time, I think that it's looking like a 3 part series At minimum, absolutely. At minimum. Alright. So, I do wanna I do wanna mention this thing that I've heard. Before we jump in here, I wanna talk to you about Pillion.

Pillion. Pillion. Pillion. How do you pronounce it? I don't know.

I just say the passenger because I'm old. I you know, I say the passenger. I say saddlebags. I don't know where all this language came from, but it's, it seems it seems to be that it's left it's left me behind. But I think people say pillian.

Okay. And, you know £1,000,000. So For for the record, the one bike I have now, I have thrown out my rear seat, and, and I have removed the pegs. So there's there's no chance of a £1,000,000,000 on my bike. But Alright.

No pillion there. I have to say that you did say that because you're old. I have to say that you are not old enough because the history of the word pillion is that it is a secondary pad, cushion, or seat behind the main seat or saddle on a motorcycle or a moped, in case you happen to be interested in the scooter cannonball, which this is not. We'll talk about that. A passenger in this seat is said to ride pillion.

The word is derived from the Scottish or Gaelic little rug, pillion, from the Latin pilis, animal skin, or pelts were often used as secondary sheet on the back of a horse. The usage has carried over to motorcycles. So there you have your history. I had no idea. Yeah.

There you go. Alright. So, having having gotten a piece of history out of the way and letting you know that you actually weren't that old, you might gotta feel good about that. Why don't you, why don't you tell us a little bit about what you wanna mention about European trip? Yeah.

So I had shipped, all the motorcycles over by sea using motor freight. We had a whole episode about about that, so I won't I won't get into that. But we ship the bikes over by sea simply because we ship them in the heart of wintertime. So there you know, we weren't riding them anyways, so we could save save a few $100 a bike by shipping them, by sea. So we use a company called Motofreight, and they're fantastic because they will collect the bikes, and they will, set them up on the in their warehouse.

And they will, you know, make sure the batteries are charged and make sure they started them. You know, they're all they're all, you know, bike freaks, so they're they understand what what we need to, and they understand that we're on a tight schedule. So, they're just behind London Heathrow Airport. So you land into, London Heathrow, and it's no more than a a a 10 a 10, $20 Uber ride over to their facility. Go there.

Drop off your bag with them. Load up your bike. And the interesting thing was I left my bike there because the number one concern in the UK is motorcycle theft. So Yeah. And I was most concerned about it there.

And being in downtown London or close to the airport, hotel rooms are super expensive. So I just left, the motorcycles with them overnight, and I had Ubered over to a hotel nearby. And, in Europe, Booking dotcom is the service that, most people use. And I think you're familiar with that, that app and that website, Taylor. Yeah.

Actually, no matter where I'm traveling, that's usually the first place I go. Yeah. Exactly. We're just it's it's not the the numb the number one thing over here, in in North America. And then, you know, when you're riding through the UK, there's a the UK has a really great motorcycle culture, and they're really into their classic bikes, and they're big in the, ADV scene.

They just have a diverse motorcycle, culture, and there's a bunch of places that that are important stops in that area. When I left there, I went directly to the ferries, and I didn't take the tunnel. I took the ferry, and I stopped at Bolt Motorcycles. They're in East London. It's kind of a a cafe racer, retro motorcycle shop.

Super, super cool cool people. That's kind of on the way. And then I went and stayed in, Dover, the Heath Imperial Hotel and and Spa. And, you know, again, worry about the motorcycle getting stolen. And, so I just left my motorcycle up front.

No one no one said anything. And, and then in the morning, I took the ferry. I wanted to I wanted to tell everyone, if you do take the ferry, the p and o ferry, make sure that you book the the best lounge, because I took the morning ferry. The lounge is only, I think, 20 or €30, sorry, pounds more. Not only are there no kids there, which is the main reason why you why you booked that.

Mhmm. They actually have a hot a la carte menu. Nice. Yeah. So if you're going in the morning, don't eat breakfast at the hotel.

Go there, get off your bike, and, and go enjoy that that lounge, and and it and, you know, take full advantage of it. So it's not a surcharge you're paying. You're you're literally getting back all that that value. Is it more comfortable than there then? No.

It's fantastic. It's, it's exactly like airport lounge, but it's, it's it's on a ferry. Oh, cool. And there's room for your bags. You can just spread your gear out.

Yeah. It's great. Just plenty of just buy ins. Yeah. And, also, maybe this is a a good time to talk about ferry etiquette for international ferries.

So every ferry experience that I had there was they always put you to the front of a lane. If you are the first person there and it's your first ferry, have the courage of filtering down, or lane splitting, excuse me, to the front of the lane that they've told you to go because they want you on the ferry first. They want you out of the way. So take those directions to heart. Go to the front of whatever lane they they said.

If you're not sure, just say, do you want me to go to the front of that lane? And they will they've either got a lane designated for bikes, or they'll want you to to go to the front of that lane. If you're not the first person there, always just ride up towards where the other bikes are. It was the same thing when we were in Norway. Like, we go up to the front.

Mhmm. And, generally, we were there early at the ferries, you know, assuming we made the ferry. But we we usually we usually get to the ferries. And then, we'd wait there, and then all the bikes would sort of come up with this. And I remember going into a line one time.

We actually weren't there in line, and we went by a couple of people who were on bikes, like, waiting in traffic. And we just you know, we went by and stopped, and we, like, collected them. We're like, come on. Come on. Come on.

With us. Yeah. And then and then and then and then everybody got to the front, and then that's where they were supposed to be anyway. It wasn't like we're like, hey. Let's go be badasses together.

It's like, hey. Let's just do what's being asked of us. Because they realize you're fastest and you're first off the ferry. Like, boom, you go, and you're up the mountain. You're gone.

It also saves having to pass all the, well, I'm thinking fair. I'm thinking I'm thinking Norway now. Because at the end of every ferry, there is a mountain. Right? Right.

So, yeah, I just want you to get out of there. Yeah. For the crewmen sorry sorry to cut you off, Taylor. There's a bit of there's a bit of delay when we then we do this. So so we're not we're not just being jerks.

There's a bit of a bit of a delay. But they also want the motorcycles to fill in the little gaps in the ferry. So by getting you on first, they either have on this P and O ferry, they happen to have an area in the back where they specifically for motorcycles. But the smaller ferries, let's say in Norway, they want you to fill in those gaps. So you're actually doing everyone a favor.

There's always that that social thing, which is if you go into a parking lot or a lane and you're by yourself, some people go, look at that jerk taking up that whole parking spot. And then if you don't park in a parking spot, they they will they will inevitably give you shit for for not, for not, you know, getting out of a parking spot. So, you know, you can never win with people. But on a but on a on a ferry, they're often sticking you in a place they know they can they can accommodate a bike without taking up, someone's someone's ferry spot for a for a for a car. Yeah.

Good good good point. That brings me to an interesting story. So this was the first time I got on a ferry, and they do things a little bit different. So when you go on a ferry, you park between 2 deck fittings, 2 two eyes on the deck, and they will provide you with a ratchet strap and often a ratchet strap with a little pad on it. And what you do is you park you park in the center between 2 of these these these pad eyes that are on the deck, and you grab one of the ratchet straps and you put it over top of your seat, with the pad in the middle.

And if you don't have a pad, what I would do is just take my my jacket and put it on the seat and then put the ratchet strap over my jacket, and then I would ratchet strap it down. It it was a running joke. I would call my wife and I said, I had to help 3 men, 3 grown men, how to use a ratchet strap, which was which was endless entertainment between me and my wife. I'm like, I don't understand how a man does not use a ratchet strap. So save yourself the, the potential embarrassment of buy yourself a a cheap $3 ratchet strap.

Make sure you know how to know how to use it when you go on a ferry because every ferry you go on, you'll have to ratchet strap, your your bike down. So why do you put the, other than I guess, maybe it's a it's a dirty you don't wanna, like, drag this thing across your seat. But why do you put the the jacket on there as a pad? Why don't they give you the pad? Yeah.

Because you're gonna cinch down the the ratchet strap. So instead of damaging your seat, just put something between. Often, they'll give you a pad. And often, these these these straps have been there for 20 years, and they're, you know, they're covered in row, you know, road dirt and oil and stuff like that. So just make sure you have something be between the ratchet strap and your bike, if you just wanna prevent, you know, damaging your seat.

That's all. Alright. Good. Next point. What's your next point?

I'm I'm I'm I wanna I'm just gonna do a time check with you and let you know that when I when I started this, when it came out of commercial, I said we're gonna have 20 minutes. And and how many minutes do you think we have left now? 18. 8. 8.

And I'll I'll say it now before before I forget that when you're coming from the United Kingdom or going into the United Kingdom and you come off the ferry I did it coming back into United Kingdom, but I I was always the first guy off the ferry. Right? And and I'm going off there and I go, oh, man. We have to change what side of the road we're on. And if you're out front like you normally are in a motorcycle, there isn't a parade of of people who do this often to fall, but you're now gonna go to the right hand side of the road.

So I I had a I had a moment, a serious coat code brown moment when I'm riding along. This guy's coming right at me. I'm like, oh my god. Did I go the wrong way? No.

No, stupid. You're just on the wrong side of the road. So remember the wrong side of the road. Yeah. Yeah.

When you come off the island, you're gonna change which side of the road, which which side of the road you're on. Just just as a, there's a guy that I I watched the video on. It was Aaron's video, about doing Himalayas. We referenced his video earlier and put a link up. But in there, one of the guys on his trip now they're from the Philippines.

And, and one of the guys on his trip, he took a a surgical glove, and he blew it up, and he rolled the fingers back so it was pointing. And he taped it on the inside of his windshield so it was always pointing to the left, so we knew how to just ride on the left hand side of the road. And it gets even more wonky that we used to go to Oktoberfest a lot, and we had a friend that lived in UK. And we would fly in there, grab his car from the UK, and then drive, to Munich. And what's even worse is when you're on a right hand drive car driving now in mainland Europe, it is dangerous to make turns.

You're constantly almost driving over the curb. It it is even worse. So on a motorcycle, you just have to remember. But when you're in a car, it's, in when you're driving a right hand drive car to mainland Europe, it gets a it gets a bit, it gets a bit sketchy for sure. Yeah.

Yeah. No doubt. And, actually, why don't we we're probably not gonna make it to main to mainland Europe here. So I'll talk about a couple of important things when you're in the UK. The first thing is, and this translates to a lot of Europe, is the traffic cameras.

The UK is listen. I thought being in Canada is fun police, but they have the biggest surveillance state in the world. So there's plenty of riding to be done in the UK, and we'll talk about that in a couple of podcasts in the future. But there are average speed cameras everywhere, and there are speed cameras everywhere. And the biggest thing about shipping your bike over there is you are not getting those tickets.

Now I'm saying, you know, my rule is don't don't be a douchebag. Right? So don't, you know, don't do wheel stands past the past the school kid's bus. I'm not saying that. But I'm saying if inadvertently you are speeding, by accident, especially through an average speed zone, you are not getting those tickets.

So that is a huge plus for shipping shipping your bike over because it is constant. I don't care if you were on a seaside village in the middle of nowhere. There are average speed cameras. Or you were on a main motorway. There are average speed cameras everywhere.

It was terrible. But, anyways, that's a big plus. And I said Hold on. Before you go Yeah. Before you go, I wanna I wanna mention because our trip to Norway, we heard that the actually, we heard that the police there are extremely first of all, the sea limits are quite low for the roads.

I think on, like, on some of these highways, I think they're up to a 120 kilometers an hour, some of them. But, on most of these roads that you and I potentially did more than that on, the, like, the top speed is 80 kilometers an hour. What is that? 50 or something in miles per hour? It's nothing.

Yeah. It's it's not very much. So, all I gotta say is that if you go over in June, like when you and I went in June, I think all the police were on vacation or at least based on the fact that I didn't get home and have a whole mailbox full of tickets because they just they mail them to you. Oh, the other day I opened I I have a Norwegian I have a Norwegian bank credit card, and I got a I got a mail the other day, and it came in from Norway. And I was like, oh my god.

Mail from Norway. It's a it's a ticket. They finally found me. But, no, it wasn't. It was just my credit card, the new credit card being sent.

But, anyway, so there are a couple of things. 1 is that they have they have these speed cameras, but there and also in Sweden, you need to be able to for for global data privacy regulation requirements, you have to be able to match the you have to verify that the person on the machine that you're giving the ticket to is the person who you're giving the ticket to who's actually doing the crime on you know, doing the speech. So what they'd be to do that, they have to be able to verify your face, wearing helmets, your face against your the machine registration. So first of all, the camera's 2 things. 1, they can't do that because most people well, in Sweden, you need to be wearing a helmet.

Norway, you need to be wearing a helmet. I wear a full face helmet. So even if you have a clear full face helmet, they can't see the ticket. They can't see your face and verify that you're who you are just from the from your eyes. That's one reason.

And the second reason is that the cameras verify you coming up with your speed, and they they pop the picture and the flash on the front of you. Mhmm. And I don't know about you, Aaron, but I do not have a license plate on the front of my motorcycle. No. But I believe in in it used to be.

I don't know if it's still the case, but in the UK, do they have it on the front the front fender vertically, straight up and down? I don't I don't know. I don't know. It's old school. It's it's like old school stuff, but I'm not sure.

I I don't know the answer to that. But, anyway, I wanted to mention one of the speed things that they're doing now in Sweden, I have not seen it, but I saw it in the news, is that if you come through an area and you're going faster than you're supposed to be, then then then this than the posted speed, then in instead of giving you a ticket, they have a speed bump, which isn't a speed bump. But if you're doing the speed limit, nothing happens. The road stays flat. But if you come across it and you're and you're higher than whatever the limit is, that speed bump drops.

It it recesses into the ground. So now you have a ditch that you've gotta drop through. If you're doing the speed limit, it'd be like, boom, boom, boom, boom, on your tires. It wouldn't be a big deal. Mhmm.

But net but this but the road drops down about 3 or 4 inches. And now if you're doing excessive speed, that's a big deal. That's a speed bump. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. A speed a speed a speed trough. A speed trough. You know? And I found that I found that outside of the UK, out out outside of the fun police, I found that all the speed cameras were in logical places.

Like like I said earlier, I I just live by the rule as don't be a jerk. Right? So if you wanna do some spirited spirited or dynamic riding, however you wanna put it, you wanna, you know Yeah. Go go live like an adult. You can do that all over Europe.

They're not putting speed cameras in in the middle of nowhere, like in a in a in a in a mountain pass that no one goes on. They're doing it on the approaches to towns, which don't be a jerk. Slow down anyways. Right? Like, no one wants to ruin the reputation of guys on bikes.

And they had speed cameras in the middle of town, which, you know, don't don't go fast through town. This is this is general rule anyway. Makes sense. Yeah. You got kids.

Right? So I found yeah. So I found I found I found the cameras were in reasonable places. And I found the more rural rural you got, there were less cameras. And and you and you mentioned that once is we we did this this trip, for a month in June, and that is really the secret sauce.

The secret sauce is going in June. Not only are the police not out in full force, there is not the fleet of RVs, these, these 70 year olds who can't see. They're driving a a a 32 foot RV climbing up a a hill, and the gas is so expensive that they, you know, they wanna do 20 kilometers an hour because they can't afford the gas. And they're afraid this hairpin turn. They're just not really there in June.

So the right time to plan this trip, albeit a bit cold and you may get a bit of snow in the odd pass, is absolutely in June. Maybe Norway bit. That's the Norway bit. Even everywhere, I did find that we'll have to talk about in the next episode is that I did find it a bit I like having people around when I stop in for the night. So some of the places I'm gonna talk about in the next episode, like in the Netherlands and in Germany, and Belgium.

I went to seaside towns, and they were quite, sparsely populated with, with holidaymakers. So, you know, it's kind of this paradox, which is you don't want anyone on the road, get out of my way, but also you wanna have some some action when you get into town. So that's one of the the paradoxes of, of going in June. Yeah. I I'd have to say, to do it again.

And, you know, we had friends, the the Lilienthal's, who went after us, and they were doing a rally in a in a VW buzz. And, and they said that the police are very strict there, doing that rally. And there was a lot of caravans, a lot of caravans at that time. And that was only it was only, two and a half weeks after you and I came back because we were like, oh, well, we had a chance to catch up with them, and we actually didn't. But, yeah.

In their rally, they had some people who had that, who had challenges with the, you know, just a few kilometers over. Yeah. You know? And and then they're extremely expensive. Like, they, they reported that someone from their rally received a 1,000 US dollar ticket for going, 12 miles over the speed limit in a 50 zone.

Yeah. That's it's it's just outrageous. Yeah. It's outrageous. And, you know, talking about motorcycles, one of the reasons I I love riding, a motorcycle is you can regulate your speed constantly.

So if you can see that there's no car on the side of the road or no approaching cars, you can roll on a bit of throttle. And then if a car is coming over the horizon, just just throttle off. You're usually, scrubbing off speed so quickly that you can go on and off closer and and further away from the speed limit according to everything, sight distance, if you're going into a town, or if you're just coming up to a car. Is that a cop? Is that is that is that not a cop?

Okay. I'm gonna roll on some speed. You can constantly adjust your speed so dramatically and so quickly. Plus, you don't have a passenger that you are dealing with, well, why are you doing why are you driving like a maniac? And cars are so much more heavy.

There's so much more effort to get them going, and there's so much more effort to to scrub off that speed to slow down. So I find riding a motorcycle, you can definitely regulate your speed according to, you know, what's what's coming up. Yeah. And to your and to your point earlier, it's like, you know, when we went over there, we were not we weren't, like, you know, ripping around the mountains being crazy. We were, you know, in straightaways or in places that were nice and you could see I mean, if you're coming down a hill and you can see for the next, you know, 2 miles across a lake district, for example, and you can see the entire road you're gonna ride and you know that there are no cars on it, yeah, I can see going a little bit over.

But it's not like we're we're condoning going out and being absolute idiots out there. It's just the idea, be smart. You know? If you if you're coming you know? And and, and also on on Google Google Maps, like, I don't know about in the US, but in Sweden, it tells you where the speed cameras are.

Right. So it's because and I I read a bunch of information about speed cameras and learning about them. And the truth is that they put them where they have the most accidents, and they do work. They do slow cars down. People are it's like behavioral based science.

People are people will perform a behavior based on the consequences. And if the consequences are quite negative, they just won't do that behavior again. And getting an expensive speeding ticket is, I guess I guess I gave away a bit of that. I work with safety for a living. I guess I I threw a bit of that in there then.

Yeah. You can if you if you cattle prod a man enough, he'll stop doing what he's supposed to be doing. Right? What he's not supposed to be doing. Yeah.

Did you wanna pick a a commercial? And then, the next time we have a podcast, we'll we'll do mainland Europe. We'll commercial out right now, and we'll pay some bills. And then we'll come back, and we'll talk about the, yeah, the mainland Europe. Actually, gonna on the next one, I promise we're actually gonna get to mainland Europe.

Right. So with that, we'll we'll take a commercial break right now. Registration is now open to the public for the next ADV Cannonball rally. All riders on any motorcycle are welcome to join the adventure. Whether you're looking for an exciting and highly organized coast to coast ride with a group of like minded riders or a friendly competition for cannonball glory, it doesn't matter.

Everyone can participate. Head over to advcannonball.com to secure your rally starting position today. Now back to the podcast. And we are back at the ADV Cannonball podcast. So, Aaron, you promised first of all, I wanna say that we blew the time by double.

Nice. Nice. Well done. Yeah. Okay.

That's an improvement. Alright. So let's cover some cannibal news and then wrap it up, and then we'll cover mainland Europe, on the on the next on the next podcast. Yeah. Let's do that.

I wanna say thanks to the Overland portal. They put up a nice article, about the ADV Cannonball. Thank you, guys. I can see that we got some traffic from that article, so thank you. I also wanted to mention not if I shared if I mentioned before, but we're now offering shipping for the Cannonball.

So we'll pick up your bike and bring it to the start line and or we'll pick up from the finish line and bring it back to wherever you want it. Let's talk about new sign ups. Let's see here. Alright. We got Hans.

It's not Christmas until Hans Gruber is falling from the from the Nicotome towers. But, Hans from, from North Carolina signed up, and he is on a r 1200 GSA. And then Mark Turner from Jerome, Idaho. I wonder if he's really from Jerome because that's the beginning of I think that's the beginning of the Idaho backcountry discovery route, and we were there last summer. Really, really cool spot.

Cool. Yeah. And that is he's on he has a choice between a KTM 1190 Adventure r or a, r13 1300. And then we got John. John is from Fort Worth, Texas, and he is on a 1300 GSA.

Do you have any more sign ups? There's a bunch more, but we're gonna save them, we're gonna save them for next time. Yeah. So I wanted to say, you know, as as we so you've got spots. Like, you have rooms for 30.

Right? And then people can double up in rooms, and, potentially, there could be more people based on that. But the the but the it's capped at 30 bookings of rooms. Correct? Right.

Because I only wanna take financial risk for, you know, $80,000. Right? So we have 30 rooms across the country. And then when people sign up, they can choose double occupancy or single occupancy. If you choose double there are some people that are signing up with friends, which is super cool.

So I have those blocked into a room together, or we'll just assign you with someone, when you when you do check-in. And that's and that's fine also. So, yeah, you have the choice of sharing a room or having your own room, and that does save you save save you some cash. The major cost of this is the is the the Hilton rooms is the major cost. Yeah.

Okay. That makes sense. So I feel like a broken record at the fact that so many people have signed up so early in this. So I wanted to ask you. One of the questions that we had was, someone said in one of the emails, they said, I'm not ready to to sign up for this shift because I've got some financial commitments, and I might be leaving the country, blah blah blah.

They had a bunch of things going on. And they wanted to know if it happened to get full. They also happened to come with some statistics saying, roughly, based on how they book airlines, 10% of the people don't show up. That's just why they oversell flights. And this particular potential entrant said, hey.

Is there the possibility of actually being on a wait list? So maybe you could address that. Yeah. That's a good idea. So when we fill up, I will make a wait list.

There'll be, I don't know, some sort of refundable deposit that you can get on that wait list. And if someone doesn't show up, we can give you the option by telephone to take over take over that slot. That's a that's a great point. We're getting close to, to filling up. But as soon as that happens, I will I will create an option during the checkout process to join join the wait list.

Yeah. That's that's good that's good to state that as well. And, and the truth is that, you know, I think about the the email that came in is like, I think this guy might work for the airline because he had a lot of really specific facts about how, you know, how we we overbook at this particular he didn't say he didn't give any names, but he did say that we overbook. And, but it made me that's human nature. Right?

People you know, life life happens. Things happen. So things change. So, but in terms of what are people signing up for right now, you mentioned I would just wanna make the distinction between what is a you said, potentially, if they're on a wait list, they could have a refundable. What's the situation with the current deposits?

Yeah. As I understand Yeah. So when you sign up, there you you there's a nonrefundable $500 deposit. And then you must pay, the balance within 31 days of the beginning of the rally. And the reason why that is because we're stuck with your hotel rooms.

Right? And we have to give the opportunity for people on the on the wait list. So there is no grace period here. It has to be tough love. And you and and it says that it was clearly outlined in the legal in the, in the registration process as everyone is has to act like responsible adults here.

So there is no, we'll give you another day. No. That's it. There is there is not a grace period of even of even one one minute. And then that's when we'll quickly go through the the the wait list, and those people have to make a decision in real time.

Yeah. That that's fair. So are you gonna come out, like, 60 days before the start and say, there's 30 days left until your payment is due? Exactly. Yeah.

It's gonna be 90 days, 65 days, 60 days. There's gonna be a lot of and then if you don't respond to an email, I'm gonna send a carrier pigeon over. You know, I'm gonna do whatever whatever is needed, to make sure that you have every opportunity to make sure that you you pay up, man. You gotta pay up. Yeah.

But the truth is that we want we want Yeah. You want people to work. Fun people there who wanna participate, and there's a lot of people who do want to. So Yeah. I think it's awesome that we've got as many sign ups as we do already.

And I imagine that you may have to, I don't know, within a couple of months, I imagine you're probably gonna have to enlist that that wait list policy. Yeah. So, anyway, with that, I think we have we have well doubled down on the amount of time we said we would have from the beginning, and we still haven't gotten to mailing here. But I just wanna say, thanks once again for making the time for the podcast. It's always a pleasure to to host and have you as a guest.

And, yeah, thank you very much. Yeah. Thanks for doing it, and, roll the outro. Thanks for listening to the ADV Cannonball podcast. Please give us a 5 star review on your preferred podcast platform.

That really helps us with the algorithm gods. All hail the algorithm gods. You can buy us a coffee on buymecoffee.com/advcannonball, or directly help save this sinking ship for the price of a pint atpatreon.com/advcannonball. Follow us on all the socials with the handle at advcannonball. If you'd like to send us a question or comment for the air, or if you are a musical artist and want your royalty free music played on our podcast, or if you'd like to contact us for advertising opportunities, email us at podcast at advcannonball.com.

Thanks for listening. And remember, don't be an ADV weenie. Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the banks.