Sterling Noren Interview, Electric Motorcycle Exemption, and ADV Cannonball News

Taylor and Aaron discuss the ADV Cannonball Rally, along with general motorcycle topics. Aaron announces a Moto EV or Electric Motorcycle exemption in the regs.

In the field notes section of the podcast, Sterling Noren speaks with Aaron in his studio at The Jonquil Motel in Bisbee, Arizona. They talk about Sterling’s work on the Backcountry Discovery Routes ADV films, his YouTube channel “The Motorcycle Channel,” and his renowned filmmaking with Helge Pedersen and Globeriders.

Join Sterling at the 5th Annual Desert Adventure Rally, taking place from April 8 to 13, 2025, in Bisbee, Arizona.

Transcript

Welcome to the ADV Cannonball podcast, where we discuss all things on 2 wheels, the adventure bike cannonball, and other motorcycle-related nonsense. Alright. Welcome to season 2, episode 4 of the Adventure Cannonball podcast. My name is Taylor Lawson. I am your host, and I am joined here today by Aaron Pufal.

What's up, sir? How are you doing? Where are you? What are you drinking? You know, that's a good way to start.

I have to say, I'm in Sweden. It is, we had such a mild winter. It's nice. It was actually sunny today. It was beautiful out.

The roads are dry. I was like, should I get the bike out? And then I realized that because there's no cloud cover they quit the temperature quickly went below 0. So it's one of those pendulum things. So, yeah, in, in Sweden below 0, so freezing.

When I say 0, I mean, freezing. But, yeah, it's been a it's been a mild winter. And what am I drinking? I'm, I'm just drinking a simple IPA, a a new Sweden IPA, if you will. Very good.

Yeah, man. How about you? I'm in Sacramento, California. I'm just picking up the van. I just rode from, Arizona to Sacramento, 700 and change miles in one day.

That was brutal. And I'm taking, a lot of Advil, and I'm having myself poor man's darkest for me. Nice. Very nice. So, yeah, sounds like you've been crushing some miles lately.

Yeah. It's been a lot, and I'm I'm paying the price. But anyways, you you know you know how it is when it's kind of a work trip, even though it's on 2 wheels. You know, you feel like you need to get it done, and then if you pull into a campsite or something or a hotel at, like, you know, 2 in the afternoon. You're like, I really should be crushing miles.

But then when you think, oh, I could do 750 miles, it's like you arrive after dark, and it's like, why did I do that? You know, we're just we're just never happy. Right? Yeah. No.

Fair enough. You get there and you're like, oh, I can still do it. You know, I just wanna do an aside right now if I can for a moment. I was running a, I was doing a a delivery on a small boat. I think it was a 50 foot, hazmat.

I'm sorry, hazmat. And I was sorry. I was running down the intercoastal waterway, and I was I was southbound, and I was just going through Myrtle Beach. And I was coming up to Dock Holidays, and I think it's out of business now. I look for it recently, but Dock Holidays was a fantastic place.

It was like a a restaurant, bar, pub, marina. There was a West Marine down the street, so you could park. You could go out. You could be in a dock the boat, walk across the parking lot, and you could get things. Anyway, it's a great spot.

And what I had planned I had timed the bridges so well coming out of, out of Virginia, and, and we were just crushing miles going down the ICW, intercoastal waterway, for those of you who don't spend much time doing the boating thing. And the owner of the boat, we we passed, and it was, like, 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I've been at the helm for, like, 10 hours. They let me up once to pee. And then I got there at 4 o'clock, and I was so excited about getting there.

And they're like, Taylor, let's keep going. And then I said, look. I need I need to lay down for a minute. I'm gonna fall asleep at the helm. So I laid down, and then we were we were we weren't even a quarter of a mile past dark holidays, and then the, the star moon propeller turned into a rose.

And, and and then the owner the owner is driving that boat, and he's like because I was sleeping in the salon. He's like, goddamn it, Taylor. It's your fault. Of course. It is.

I told you we should have stopped at Doc Holidays when we had the chance. It's always your fault. Right? Guess where guess where we stopped that night? Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. On the sandbars on the sandbar in front of Doc Holidays. No. No.

We just we just crushed it in the coral reef and then so the owner said, there was a Boston Whaler. There was a 17 foot Boston Whaler coming down the center of the channel. I was like, you're in a 50 foot boat. You got forced out of the channel by a 17 foot Boston Whaler. Anyway.

We used to call those we used to call those the mosquitoes. Just ignore the mosquitoes. Just ignore the mosquitoes. Yeah. That's actually one of the things I was listening to.

Actually, the the when I've been watching these podcasts or sorry. When I've been watching these these YouTube videos about people driving on the roads where we're actually headed in the Himalayas, they're like, yeah. And, actually, it was an Elspeth's book, Elspeth Beard, Lone Rider. And she's like, yeah. If you're on a motorcycle, they don't even care.

You're not even on the road. They're just gonna go right down the middle of the road. So, anyway, yeah, that happens. I just gotta say that happens. We're gonna hap it's funny because just before the rally in Baja, the one of the organizers came over to there was 3 of us that couldn't speak Spanish, and he kinda grouped us up that morning.

He goes, listen. Don't freak out when people don't follow the rules. I'm like, okay. These are the conversations you have with people that don't travel to 3rd world countries, and, yeah. Just kinda go with the flow in the Mexican way.

It's okay. Just, you know, you don't really stop at a stop sign. It's more of a suggestion if if it's necessary, especially when when you're on on a bike, you're filtering, and you're just, you know, you're just getting to where you're going is is do it safely. Everyone's out to get you, and, you know, just take the traffic signals as a suggestion and do what the other people are doing is my advice. Yeah.

Fair enough. Although, that's that doesn't always mean it's a good idea. But I just wanna I just just wanna I just wanna comment on one thing. So I remember one time you were texting me, and you're like, I'm in here. Can I I know you just come into Sweden, and you were stuck in traffic in downtown Stockholm, and you're like, can I lane filter?

And I'm like, what the hell is lane filtering? And And then you're like, you're like, splitting lanes. And I was like, okay. So, if you if if anyone in the listening to the podcast hasn't heard what lane filtering is, it's splitting lanes. Just saying.

Right. Just saying. Sometimes you gotta make it simple for people like me, Aaron. Actually, I think there's a whole podcast discussion is what is lane filtering? What is splitting lanes?

Because there's discussion that they're technically different. And then why is it actually safer for motorcyclists and cars alike? And, how in different cultures, you're viewed as a criminal for just getting out of the way. In some places, you're viewed as a moron for not getting out of the way. There's a whole there's a whole conversation that we don't have time for today, but it is it is something interesting to discuss in a in a in a matter of fact manner.

Yeah. Fair enough. Okay. So we do have let's let's go into let's cover some of the announcements we'd like to, to nail down. So let me first of all, we had a good question.

Why is it in the regs that we need to have a stand alone device? Can you please address that? Yeah. So, really, this is a cover my ass, CYA, cover your ass statement. So technically, you don't have to have a standalone, device.

You don't even have to, you know, follow the route or get checkpoints if you don't want to. But the reason why I have that wording in there, it's actually completely, it says, a stand alone continuously powered device. Moreover, the device should never auto lock. And the reason why that is is I don't know how many times we've been doing important rallies, and there's so much work that goes into preparing for a rally, getting to the rally, getting home from the rally. And the worst thing is and money invested, there's nothing worse that you switch from your phone over to, I don't know, Facebook or TikTok, and you went and closed all the apps, and you close your Rally app, and now you've missed the gosh darn waypoint, the gosh darn, you know, checkpoint.

And I'm sorry, but you messed up. So if indeed you wanna be play it safe, follow the reg, have your Rally app on a separate device that never locks and never shuts off. It's continuously powered and does nothing else but stay on scoring. This way, you will not be pissed off at me or yourself because you're, you know, checking your TikTok account. Alright.

So so, look, I'm winning the rally. I've been nailing every single one of the extra checkpoints. I've been doing most of it on one wheel, and I come flying and I come flying across the finish line. But right before I got there, I, am I'm gonna be the first one of the hotel. But right before I got there, I stopped and I took a selfie to make sure that everyone knew that I was I had just horizon the fleet.

I was so far ahead. I wanted to get a selfie. I posted it on Facebook, and I closed my app. I roll the closs. I roll the closs.

I I I finish, and I don't get the extra points for having finished first. What happens? Yeah. Yeah. Don't be a weenie and don't complain.

You know? So I'm sorry, but that's an awesome picture you got there, and I appreciate the social media post. But, listen. Yeah. So that's exactly why we recommend, have a stand alone app.

You know? And if anyone sees any of my videos, you'll see that I have 2 phones on my on my handlebars, and they're both in RAM mount MagSafe, phone holders, and they're that way for that reason, is that I follow my own advice. And when I'm testing stuff and recording stuff, I I have the devices, they don't turn off, they don't lock screen, they don't nothing. And, And that's the reason why, to cover my ass. Yeah.

Okay. Good. Good. It's a good point. And I think about some of the things that we had done before.

And there were challenges actually in the application when we did Alcan. But, but, yeah, it can really throw things off for you. And if you don't know what's going on, you don't understand it. Or I mean, let me just back up and say, you've made this pretty bulletproof, so it's it's it's really hard to screw it up. You do the checkpoints, you go through them, you go through the toll gate, it verifies that you were there.

And I I I've gotta say compared to what we did before, there's no books, there's no flipping pages, there's no, you know, flying by at a certain speed, and then entering, you know, numbers to the 3rd decimal place to make sure you line up with the right stop sign, you know, the right stop sign. Anyway, you've made it super easy. So I think that's a really good point. Yeah. I also want to mention that, you know, I've been seriously considering something here, and it's for me personally, but I wanted to mention it here on the podcast, is that I'm considering making an actual cannonball attempt, this summer.

So what actually is unofficial cannonball? Yeah. So this is a rally. It's a a friendly competition, the ADV Cannonball rally. But a actual record setting attempt is when you start from I've heard the name of the garage, but there's a garage in, Manhattan, and you go nonstop to the Portofino Hotel, and, and that's timed officially.

And I just think if I'm gonna be the rally master for the ADV Cannonball rally, I think, part of those credentials is making an actual cannonball attempt. The only thing that's really holding me up is my current bike. I've got a 12 50 GSA, and, you know, when you're doing a lot of miles at a high RPM, you just you just you're fully aware that it's a horizontally opposed 2 cylinder. And I'm like, is it is it the right bike for 30 hours to be, you know, having a 6, 7, 8, 9000 RPM? And I don't think so, but maybe it's a great it's a great stress test for the bike.

It is a German bike. It's made for the Autobahn. Maybe it's it's perfectly fine under those circumstances. So, anyways, everyone, you know, keep your ears open this, this summer. I'm gonna definitely, as part of my travels, to do a cannonball attempt.

Alright. Hey. And maybe, just maybe, you can get someone to trade you a a GS for the other machine you're looking for. What are you after? Yeah.

I'd like a a a thousand x r or a thousand r or something like that. Some you know, an actual 4 cylinder, you know, sport bike specifically for this. Maybe someone wants to trade me for a for a week. That'd be great. Nice.

Yeah. And, Bill, I'm just gonna put a couple miles on it. I'll get it back to you in in amazing shape. I'll give you fresh oil change, new wheels. You'll be good.

These bikes are fine. You can beat the crap out of them. They're always fine. So, hey, Aaron. I was, I was looking through the the Internet as I do occasionally, and I came across some some podcast statistics.

And in in the southwest of the United States, do you know what position we hold in the adventure motorcycle podcast genre? Last time I checked, it was 87. Maybe we've we've moved up a little bit. I think we're we're 10 or something. Oh, stop it.

You know that we're number 2. We're always number 2 so close to glory. Why is that? Well, congratulations to both of us for reaching number 2. Where We're getting there.

What was the statistic? The the southwest? Southwest. Southwest, Murca. Murca.

Yeah. Nice. Congratulations. Murca. Yeah.

Yeah. There we go. And, you know, we are we are chasing we are chasing ADV's adventure adventure Adventure rider radio. Yeah. We're chasing we're chasing him.

Yeah. You know, he's holding our number one position, but we're we're, you know, we're second. We're close. We're very close. It's so close.

I can I can chase that exhaust? So close. I can I can smell the exhaust? Alright. You know, one of the things I think that you and I have talked about before, and I think you probably wanna put that on the board right now, is the is the European like, the UK, Europe, Nordic tour.

What do you what do you think about that? Well, we did one this June, and it went really, really well. And I've been working on those GPX files and the accompanying documents for those, and I've posted those, some of those on the Cannonball website for people to download for free. And I've been really enjoying perfecting that that route. And I would like I'm not announcing officially now, but I'm thinking about announcing one for 2026, perhaps, maybe 2027.

A 30 day tour with our bikes based out of London Heathrow in the UK, and basically doing that same tour into mainland Europe and the Nordic States, and then Isle of Man and back to the UK. We may be able to, if there's enough interest, to piggyback a 2 month trip so people can come for 1 month or 2 months, and we can add on the Atlantic, the Wild Atlantic way, I think it's called, in Ireland, and also the, the North 500 in in Scotland. So, I'm trying to figure out dates. I'm trying to figure out, how to make that announcement, but we will be making announcement of another, European tour, soon. Yeah.

So excellent. Having done part of that, I can say it's a fantastic route. I also wanna say that for any of the listeners out there who are potentially interested in that, send send an email and, and express your interest because the more of that we have, then I guess we're just gonna pressure Aaron into into into making that happen as well. So Right. Yeah.

Alright. Thanks for that. Alright. You know, one of the conversations we had earlier, and I'm gonna I'm gonna, I'm gonna intro it, and then we're gonna do a quick break, and we're gonna come back and talk about and what we're gonna talk about after we come back from this commercial break is an EV exemption. And we'll talk more about that right after this message.

Ladies and gentlemen, could 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, 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.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. Alright. And we are back season 2 episode 4, adventure cannonball podcast. Aaron, we left off and we were talking about an EV exemption. And you and I mentioned it before we got into this recording, and I was like, it it was a super interesting conversation.

So let's just let's just chat about that, talk about that for a minute, maybe have a little bit of riff on it, and then we can move into talking about the interview. Right. So I've been watching, German dude. I think it's Mark travels, m a r c travels. He's riding an EV bike basically around the world, and he just knocked out India, and he's into China right now, and he's doing it.

And, you know, you know, the, EV doesn't really give me the fizz, but I'm really enjoying his his struggle and his adventure and the fact that he's actually doing it. Anyways, I got to thinking, I it's impossible for an EV to win the ADV cannonball rally. However, I would like to figure out, and I will announce it today, I'll put an exemption in the regs for EV. An exemption needs to be made because they will need to hot swap batteries if there's someone has that technology, or they will need more than one bike and a support team. So everyone else relax.

We're not talking about infringing on the overall winner. However, it's a good opportunity to to use this as a proving ground. And you can still finish it and get a finishing award. If you want to get the waypoint crusher award, you can do that. So there are still achievements to be done if we come up with a reasonable exemption for EV.

And then eventually, one day, as the technology gets better, we won't need, that exemption. But keep your eyes out for an exemption for EV. Alright. So that reminds me of the, our friends, the Lilienthal's, that we did the the, the race with in the Alcan, and they just did one around the Baltics. I think it was 15 countries, and they did it in a in a VW Buzz, and there was a specific category for them.

You could either be in a car that was like any kind of dinosaur juice, but it had to be at least 15 years old, and then or you could have a brand new EV and they took the EV Buzz and, but they had a separate trophy for their particular category. If somebody enters with that, is that maybe something you can consider? For sure. Anyone who does anything exceptional will be recognized. So, you know, if you show up with a crazy antique motorcycle or something exceptional, and you and you and you do the deal, you will be recognized.

So, you know, do I think someone's gonna be able to pull together for for this year? Perhaps not. But it's my hope that, we're able to use this as a as a proving ground for for someone's project. Yeah. Yeah.

Good point. And also, I I I the reason you say they probably won't isn't because they won't have time to do it. It's because likely the registrations will fill up and and shut down before then. So Yeah. I'm exactly where we are now.

To the party. But, anyways, I I'm I'm still announcing it just to get on the on the rule on the rule boards. Yeah. No. I think it'd be good.

So let's say that you got you've got, you got 2 2 people with identical bikes, and can they and the batteries like, I guess, all the batteries come out of those machines. I'm thinking about the Zero, for example, like the NX 0. I think it's NX. I saw it at the at the show recently. It's pretty cool.

So it's an adventure bike. So if you had that and you got one person's driving in a car with that one on a trailer, and then someone is doing the the rally on the other bike, and then when that bike wears out and they have a charging system on that particular yeah. Somehow when they're driving the car and the bike's in the trailer, they can charge that. Is there the possibility that they could trade that bike out when that when that pick when that bike runs out of juice? So that's exemption has to be made.

And I think the technology is almost there that you wouldn't even need to charge while underway. I think that you could just have 2 bikes and charge them at night. I think I don't think you even have to get that that outrageous. And I don't think and I could be wrong. I'm I'm not really into the EV thing.

But I don't think there's any power systems currently in the domestic market, that has hot swappable batteries. I don't think so. I know that in China, for instance, in Shanghai, the last time I was there, all the scooters were EV. They had paid placed they had passed a law that there were no more scooters or tuk tucks that were gas powered or diesel powered. And they have battery systems where, like a vending machine, you roll up with your scooter, you tap the machine with your phone, it recognizes what battery you require, the battery pops out, you pull it out, you re swap it with your your battery in your in your EV, and then you go on your way.

And while that's sitting in the vending machine, it's obviously charging. So the rest of the world has that system, we're just not there yet. But it would be interesting, if there was, maybe something in development with a swappable battery system, that would be a great opportunity in a cannonball, to go ahead and test and, test the durability of that system in a real world example. Yeah. And showcase that as well.

Yeah. I watched it it was actually, a short I watched a couple of nights ago, and it was about, taxis in China. And they go and it showed the it was a video of what happens. They rolled in, they lift up, the cars get lifted up, and then battery pack comes in, get straightened out. Old ones to the left, new ones to the right, and then boom, they're out in, like, 2 minutes.

It was pretty cool. That's amazing. Alright. So thanks for that. EV exemption.

And so this is interesting. So we talked about having different people on the podcast, and not everybody that we interview on this podcast, or plan to interview on this podcast is makes a living in motorcycles or has written books or has traveled around the world or has, you know, an amazing business that they've, made in running long term, long distance travels around the world with with big camps. It's it's like the everyday person. So we're gonna start a series called the everyday adventure rider, and the intention there is just to you know, we're just regular guys. We're just, you know, just you and me.

Like, we're just 2 guys who used to ride together, and and now we're having a podcast about it. And I want to I want to really showcase the idea that this is this isn't something that this isn't magic. This is people who just put some effort into making sure that they wanted to share their thoughts with other people. And we wanna get other people who are, like, everyday guys like us. And to talk about their questions like like you, like you interviewed with Marco.

Like, what's your first bike? What got you interested in this? What are you riding now? And then, a lot of people that we're gonna the the people that I wanna talk to also are the people who are doing the tour with us in India in September. And the last question that I intend to ask those people is, what was the final thing that went through your mind that made you say, I'm doing that tour with those guys?

So, anyway, that's coming. Yeah. Maybe we should interview some some cannonballers is, you know, ADV Cannonball isn't isn't a walk in the park. Like, it's it's it's pretty intense, and I've noticed that some of the riders are quite experienced. You can tell with their, posts on the Facebook group, and that's fun to see those experienced riders.

But there there are some riders, I'm sure, that are not all that experienced, and it would be really great to interview some of those riders and go, Yeah. You're definitely a badass for doing this. And, you know, maybe that can your stories and the stories with some of the, Cannonballers, can serve as a inspiration to someone who's and and I don't know if I should do this, is, yeah. Just go and do it. You know?

Be be prepared. Be clear eyed about it, but, you know, perhaps some of these interviews can serve as a inspiration. Yeah. I think it's a it's a really good point. So, anyway, I just wanna say that that's something that is, that's something that's coming.

Another thing that's coming is the episode. You know, we keep talking about the European episode last time. I don't think we even we didn't we didn't even get off the ferry. Or we were wait. I think we had to close the episode down as we had just gotten off the ferry after leaving the UK, and we remember that that you had to be on the correct side of the road.

So, anyway, what's coming next? So we have episode 2 and episode 3 of the of the European adventure that Aaron took in part of which I joined him. So we'll talk about that. And, and then the next thing that we're gonna do is, you know, Aaron, you you touched a bit on this, on the last podcast about your your trip and where you spent some some long days in the saddle. So who are you actually going out there to talk to?

Yeah. So coming up right after, that we close this segment is my interview with Sterling Noreen. Sterling Noreen is, a filmmaker, in the ADV space. Before we had the term ADV, it was just motorcycling. You and I know, what's his name, Helge Petersen.

Sterling and Helge worked together back in the day in Globe Riders. They actually made some public television episodes, and this was before people talked about the BDR and things like that. Sterling, is the filmmaker for the BDR group, and, he was really kind and nice enough to spare some of his time for, for our for our little number 2 podcast. And, and coming up is our interview with him. Alright.

And roll let's let's roll that interview. It's time for field notes. Oh. A collection of voice notes recorded on location while we're on wildly exciting motorcycle adventures hacked together for your amusement and our public shaming. It's the end of January, and I'm in Bisbee, Arizona.

I'm sitting down with Sterling Noreen. Sterling is the filmmaker behind the YouTube channel, the Motorcycle Travel Channel. But many folks would know you from your work with the Backcountry Discovery Route. Perhaps you can tell me about your filmmaking work with that foundation. Yeah.

I was one of the founders, and my role has always been to be the filmmaker to make the BDR movies. I don't think it can be overstated how very influential the Back Country Discovery Route films have been on the ADV community. Actually, they've been influential on the motorcycle community writ large. Many people have felt a bit bored with, their street riding and wanted a little more adventure, and this was definitely their foray into the ADV world. Perhaps you can tell us what projects you have on the front burner for the Backcountry Discovery Route project.

So every year, we make a feature length film about a new off pavement route, in a state in the United States. And this last fall, we filmed the Southeast BDR. So that's the 3rd route on the East Coast. And it starts down at the Gulf of Mexico and goes up to connect with the Mid Atlantic BDR. And if you're motivated, you could carry on and do the Northeast BDR and basically ride an adventure motorcycle route along the East Coast.

That's really exciting to hear that you've capped off the East Coast with a new route that is connecting the other routes to really give riders an excuse to take, so it sounds like, a month long journey up the eastern seaboard. You know, the East Coast has always complained about not having enough routes, especially off pavement, and this is really great for everybody. Perhaps you can give us an exclusive. Any news, any, inside scoop on what's happening with the backcountry discovery routes? I believe that what we're gonna film next year is probably the last big route that we can do in the west because we've done almost all of them.

So we're looking at Montana. Big Sky Country is really gonna be fantastic to see what you guys come up with. And we're at your motel. It's called the the Johnquil? It's called the Johnquil, j o n q u I l, because it was built in 1936 by a guy named Johnquil.

And so he called it the Johnquil, dropped an l off the end of it because a Johnquil is a type of daffodil that grows here. And when did you buy this motel? We bought it in 2018 with no intentions of buying a motel. We were just looking for, a second home down here in Bisbee when I moved to Arizona, and we just found this place. It was kind of serendipity, and it seemed like it would work for our lifestyle, and it seemed like it had a really nice big backyard that we could use for events and rallies and parties and things like that.

And that's exactly what happened. The first time I stayed at your motel was last fall. I was on my way to the Tour of Texas rally to be an exhibitor for the ADV cannonball. I thought it was great. There were a couple other ADV riders here just by happenstance, and you came out and gave everyone a little bit of, riding advice, which was fantastic.

What can you say about the ADV riding in the area? Absolutely. So I've been down here for about 7 years now, and I've had a good chance to explore the roads in this area. And I do a lot to kind of get out there and find the best ADV tracks. I publish some of those in my videos.

There's a lot of information on my website, and anyone that comes to our rally in April gets those GPS tracks. In fact, I'm working on the collection of tracks right now, and I just totaled up the mileage. I have over 3,000 miles of roads down here for people to get out and explore. And the desert down here is it's it's its own unique style of adventure riding. We live in the this country known as the Sky Islands.

And so, basically, you have this flat, open desert terrain with mountain ranges in every direction. So you're either going across the flat open desert or you're, like, riding up into the mountain ranges, which get as high as 10,000 feet. And so there's a dramatic transition from the heat of the desert up into the cooler mountain temperatures, and you can go back and forth throughout the day. I actually rode in last night from Tijuana. It's about a 550 mile ride, and because it's late January, I didn't arrive here until after dark.

And you were definitely reminded that we are absolutely in the high desert. And once that sun goes down, it gets cold pretty darn quick. Yeah. Absolutely. And just to give your listeners some context of where we're at, the town of Bisbee is America's southernmost mile high city.

Our elevation is 53 100 feet. We're about 3 hours south of Phoenix, about 90 minutes south of Tucson, and we're just 8 miles north of the US Mexico border. The last 30 minutes or so riding into Bisbee is some great riding. I think the road was called Historic Route 80, and I recall it was freshly paved. And just before Bisbee, there's a fantastic concrete tunnel, which, you know, every motorcycle likes a good concrete tunnel.

Yeah. We locals here refer to the tunnel as the time tunnel because when you go through it and you enter Bisbee, it's like you're going back into the 19 fifties or sixties. This is just a really small out of the way historic town with more great architecture in downtown Bisbee than anywhere in the state of Arizona. And so we've got a rich mining history. And Bisbee is a place that you really you don't really pass through Bisbee on the way to anywhere.

You pretty much kinda have to be coming here. We are at the tail end of January, and there isn't a lot of riding to be had in the continental US. And the small detour down from I10 really isn't that inconvenient to come down here. And it is a fantastic town. Last night, I was at the local brew pub.

And after speaking with some of the staff, one of them mentioned that they got married here, and they knew you by name and your girlfriend, and they really sang the praises of the motel. Would you say that's a indicative interaction with someone here in town? Yeah. Absolutely. It's a small town.

Population, 5,000. And so Eva and I have pretty much got to know everyone in town since we've been here, and especially because we kind of turned the backyard of the motel into a venue. And so we do a lot of community events throughout the year. We'll have music festivals or occasionally weddings, memorials, pretty much anything that that the community vibes with. And then on top of that, we do our our other events, which are more like motorcycle rallies, overland travel.

We have a a a Burning Man style takeover that we do in April that's a a 4 day festival. So a lot of stuff going on in our backyard, and it really puts us in touch with this this community, which everyone that comes down here always remarks on how friendly the people in Bisbee are. And I I think it's a big reason why we're here. And I will definitely put the link to your motorcycle rally down in the show notes for everyone. But I know it's a limited number of tickets.

At this time, are there any tickets available for my listeners? Yeah. So our motorcycle rally in April, has a capacity of about a 120 people or so. We, you know, we just that's about as many as we can handle. And tickets just went on sale.

I think they're about halfway sold up sold out already. So if anyone wants to get a ticket, we really suggest that you get them as soon as you can. Yeah. And there's not much going on in April. And, just based on my riding yesterday, I passed a bunch of big groups of, of riders heading towards California.

So I think anyone who's riding is is down here in this last bastion of, decent, decent weather. And my last question about Bisbee, super important to me, have you met Doug Stanhope? Oh, yeah. I've met Doug Stanhope several times. He's stayed at the motel.

We've drank together. We've been to parties together. That's awesome. He's always been one of my comedian heroes, and and I I don't think I could drink with him, but my hat's off to you if you can keep up with Doug with Doug's Danhope. It's not easy.

It's not easy, but someone's gotta do it. Right? So we have a question we always ask people is it's a bit cliche, but it's kind of important, is what was your first motorcycle, and how old were you when you, when you when you got that bike? Oh, that's a great story. I was 8 years old, and it was my birthday.

I had no idea whatsoever that I was going to get a brand new Honda 50. And it was a gift from my aunt and my mother together and I got this little motorcycle and it it just changed my life. I lived out in the blueberry fields in the woods of western Michigan, about 8 miles from the lakeshore. And, I would take off on that bike and just go ride through the trails in the woods. And, as a 8 year old, I would just throw a backpack over my shoulder with some candy bars and a sandwich and I might go out riding for, like, 8 or 10 miles.

And that just seemed like such a huge distance for a little kid. And so I just remember many, many, many afternoons of out riding through the woods, exploring on that little bike. And I just had no idea that that would sorta set the stage for the future because as after after I kind of outgrew that bike, I did have a another dirt bike, a Yamaha 360 in my teenage years. But then when I got into high school and college, there was no motorcycling until I was 26 years old. That's a great little bike, and it's very refreshing to hear about parents being supportive, when it comes to their kids, getting involved in motorcycles.

And when were you first aware that you could actually take your motorcycle on go on long distance adventures? Today we have great resources at our fingertips like the internet, but that wasn't always the case. So what was your first foray into long distance motorcycle travel? When I was 26 years old, I was living in Seattle and working for Microsoft as a contractor. And I was a young person without a lot of money and I bought a motorcycle because I wanted to get back into motorcycling.

I just remembered the fun I had as a child but also as a commuting vehicle to go to work and back. And after about a year of commuting on it, I realized it worked fairly well for that. It was an old bike. It was a vintage 1972 BMW R50. But after about a year of commuting, you know, I I really got into touring.

And I rode all around the northwest on that old motorcycle and spent probably 3 years doing that kind of riding and really building up my experience in motorcycle touring. And I and I was kind of plateauing at that point. And that's when BMW released the the first 650 GS with a chain. And so it was more affordable than the other BMW, what we call adventure bikes, the 11.50. And so as a young person with limited money, I was able to go out and get a BMW 650.

And that became the bike that really showed me the capabilities of of what a bike like that could do to to to get out off pavement in the woods, in the mountains, and really go exploring and kinda combine that with backpacking. I was a backpacker at the time, and so I could put all my camping gear on the bike. And I tell you what, if you're if you ever wanna kill your backpacking, get a motorcycle because you'll just realize pretty dang quickly that you don't have to carry £60 on your back, and you can see a 100 miles in a day rather than 10. I used to own a very similar bike. I had the Sur Tau 650 BMW.

That was an attempt by BMW to bring back that chain drive, you know, spoked wheel, 21 inch front wheel in the 6 50 displacement. That was a great bike. I noticed you have a 701 down below in your stable. You know, these bikes are a great example of the perfect size bike for adventures on the trail, but sometimes not exactly the perfect bike to crush miles on the open road. Let's talk about big bike adventures.

We both know Helge Petersen. We've worked with him on some private rallies, and he's going to be on the podcast very soon, and we're looking forward to that. What was your first project with Helge? So 1998, I was laid off from my job at Microsoft and kinda felt like it was a transition point in my life. And I wanted to do a project of my own that was more of a documentary.

I'd been making all these videos that were corporate and commercial and software and, you know, making a good living, learning a lot. But I took some time off and decided I wanted to make a film of my own. And because I was into motorcycling, I I kinda went with that angle. And so I started interviewing anyone that would talk to me that was a motorcyclist. And these were mostly street riders, cafe racers.

And during that time period, I just happened to see a slideshow by Helge Petersen, 10 years on 2 wheels. Here's a guy that had just spent 10 years of his life on a BMW motorcycle riding around the world, taking pictures, making a living off of it. And that slideshow was so inspiring to me that I went up to him after the show, introduced myself, and said, hey. I know you don't know me, but I'm I'm a motorcyclist, and I make videos. And I would love to collaborate with you on a project and and help you out if there's anything I can do, and that's kinda how it started.

My interactions with Helge is one of the main factors that I started, the ADV Cannonball, and this podcast for that matter. Is it possible that I saw one of those films on public television in Canada back in the day? Yeah. So the first film that I made, it was part of a documentary production class. And I was one of 8 people that were in this class.

And the whole idea was that we would each make a short film, and together, they would be collectively bundled and shown on public television. And so that little film that I made, it was called Closer to the World, was on PBS in 1998, and that's what started it all. It just goes to show how small the world is, in fact. Besides that documentary, I know you've worked on some adventure bike films with Globe Riders. I remember Africa, Eurasia, Iceland, to name a few.

Perhaps you can tell us about some of those projects. Yeah. So a quick snapshot of my work with Helge and Globe Riders was that we did that short film, and it was successful enough in the sense that he he trusted me. He knew that I could be a good motorcycle traveling companion and make a short film about it. He asked me if I wanted to go on a ride in Iceland in 2,001.

We did a 30 day tour of Iceland, and we produced our our first feature length film, The Iceland Adventure. And then that same year, he started his tour company, Globe Riders, which at the time was leading the longest distance motorcycle tours around the world. We're talking 50, 60, 70 day luxury adventure tours. And he needed help promoting them so he asked me if I would come along and start documenting them. And so, basically, over the next 10 years from 2000 to 2010, I filmed 5 or 6 different GlobeRider adventures.

We did the world tour from China to Munich. A couple years later, we did the Silk Road from Turkey to China. We did an Indochina adventure through all the Southeast Asian countries, an Africa tour. So it was it was this wasn't a full time job, but it was it was like a big motorcycle tour project every couple of years. And then I'd go back home and edit for 6 months while I was doing my other freelance work.

So I was building my business, you know, doing all this motorcycle stuff on the side and in the evenings and working my day job. Folks often underestimate just how much work goes into a good adventure film production and editing. I can't overstate that enough. Just sitting here in your studio, we are surrounded by piles of tapes and hard drives. It's a little overwhelming, if I'm honest.

People often only see the romance of ADV travel and often don't realize the work that goes into your final product. You say that this was a part time job, but that really sounds like a full time commitment to me. Yeah. It really was like working 2 full time jobs. You know?

I I I wasn't able to necessarily make a living doing any of those motorcycle films. So I found a way to to work for documentary production companies in the day as a cameraman, as an editor to continue building my skills, but then produce the kind of content that I wanted to produce on the side. And after, you know, doing that for 4 or 5, 6 years, I started to really get a name in motorcycling and had companies reaching out to me and wanting to make videos for them. And then I just basically stopped working for anyone else and just sort of formed my own company and started doing motorcycle content. Today, you have a successful YouTube channel.

It's called the Motorcycle Travel Channel. You must have been early to that party to secure that channel name. I've watched some of your big bike films on your channel, and I can definitely relate to those adventures or somewhat call some of them your misadventures. Once in a while, you get yourself into some sticky situations on your big GS just like I have. And, you know, we often find ourselves alone, in these situations.

How do you find the courage to continue to do those big bike trips alone? Well, they don't call it adventure riding without some adventure. And, you know, it's interesting because, you know, I've been doing this for so long and I'm, you know, getting up there in the years, mid fifties. And so, you know, my whole perspective has changed over time, and I'm not nearly as focused on adrenaline or proving what I can do or how challenging it is. I just wanna go out and have a good ride and relax and enjoy it and take some beautiful pictures.

And, you know, all the film projects I've done for Globe Riders and Backcountry Discovery Routes over the years, as privileged as I've been to go on those rides to those beautiful places, they're also very stressful, particularly to me as a filmmaker because they're schedule based and itinerary based. And so we're always on the move and we never really have enough time to slow down and really sink into any particular place that we visit on the road. And there's always been a part of me as a traveler and as a filmmaker that really wants to learn more about the places I travel through and be able to communicate something essentially about those places, and that takes time. And so I've found these days that what motivates me as a solo traveler is that I can spend as much time on the filmmaking as I want to. I can relax along the way, and it's just a different pace.

But there certainly are challenges that go along with that, particularly when you get into a remote country or you're doing something that that could be dangerous. And so I am very aware of the kind of places that I'm going and the situations I'm getting myself into and really try to be as as prepared as I can and make good choices along the way. But sometimes, you know, adventure catches up to you and you get yourself into situations and you just have to do the best you can, not panic and do what you have to do. I think that shows in your work. Perhaps, subconsciously, we're just a little more careful when we're riding alone in the backcountry.

But I must take issue with you saying that you're more careful these days. I distinctly recall one of your BDR films where one rider gets carted off in the ambulance, then you broke your hand all before the second act. How is your hand, healing these days? Well yeah. So I don't feel like my hand injury had anything to do with riding hard or being irresponsible.

A deer jumped out of the woods and hit me. And, I I mean, he literally hit the side of me. I had no time to react or anything. And it was it was pretty traumatic. I gotta say it took it took me out from October until about April, and I had 2 hand surgeries.

Like, 9 or 10 bones were broken. I had my the x-ray looked like pickup sticks in my hand. So at this point, I don't have anything metal in there and the hand's working fine. And I consider it, you know, pretty good fortune that that's only my one of my biggest injuries in, you know, 30 years of doing this. That's great.

I'm happy to hear your hand is almost a 100%. It's unfortunate that deer just jumped right out at you, but perhaps it's cruelly fortuitous that it happened while you're with a group and not and not solo. When I pulled into your motel, I noticed that you had a 4 by 4 van. That's a that's a great looking rig for adventure. There must be a Venn diagram out there that both ADV bikes and 4 by 4 vans intersect.

I just purchased a 4 by 4 Sprinter van that I'm fitting out for the ADV Cannonball. What's your plans for your van in the near future? Oh, I get out there all the time with it. And the van is one of the best things I've bought. And I, you know, I picked it up in Seattle used in 2013.

So I've had it for 12 years. It's fixed up and built out just the way that I want it for the things that I wanna do. I can carry a motorcycle on the rear bumper. I can carry a 1200 GS on the rear bumper. But, you know, it just it just works for me.

And I love both motorcycle travel and van travel or or both at the same time. I love the, the ability to go out somewhere wild and remote, take the motorcycle off the back, go riding all day and then come back to the van and not have to set up a tent and have it all there waiting for me. I can be warm. I can cook a good meal, sleep in a nice bed. It just works great.

For sure. For sure. When I'm, camping off the back of the bike, it can be admittedly a little rough after a hard day on the bike to set up camp. Thanks for sharing some of your stories with me and based on your ADV credentials, we have a special ADV badass sticker that we give to certain people who we feel are in fact ADV badasses. It says on it, don't be an ADV weenie.

Be an ADV badass, and you've definitely done that today. I hope you display it with pride. Oh, I love it. That's awesome. And thanks for taking the time to sit down with me.

I know you're you're super busy here at the motel and in your studio putting together these great projects. Speaking of the motel, you were sold out last night, and I had to spend twice as much money, on a room at another hotel and it definitely was not as cool as the John Quill. I encourage other riders to make the trip down and visit your motel here in Bisbee. It's definitely worth, spending a few days in the town, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to get yourself a butler map, for some great riding routes in the area. Again, thanks very much for having me.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me on the podcast, and I hope to see everyone come down to Bisbee and visit us. And if the motel is full, we do have limited, dry camping in the backyard as well. So that's something for folks to consider. They can come down with their their van or their truck or their motorcycle and just camp right out in our backyard.

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. That was a really, really interesting chat with Sterling. What a what a consummate professional and a gentleman. That was that was that was nice to listen to.

Nice guy too. And if I'm not mistaken, you've got a bit of cannonball news to share with us. Yeah. Let's get to some some business. So there are 2 spots available for our shipping service going to the start of the rally, and there are 4 spots open coming from the rally.

We can't accommodate everyone depending on where you need to go, but we will do our best. And if we can't accommodate you and you do need shipping, we can help you, arrange that. And let's do some more sign ups. We have Corinne. Corinne, she is from Vancouver, Washington, and she's on another to be determined.

And, we have Matthew. Matthew is from Battleground, Washington, and he is on a, he's on a Suzuki V Strom 650. Another 650. Nice. Happy to see that.

He's gonna have fun. Vstrom. Yeah. Yeah. He's gonna have fun on the off road sections if he decides to do them.

And we got 2 people clearly coming to do this together. Dave is from Mokena, Illinois, and he is on a Harley Davidson Panamera. And right underneath that on my list here, there's another Harley Davidson Panamera from the same town, and that's John. So John and Dave are carrying it up on 2 Panameras. And we Nice.

We got some HDs in there. Actually, one of the first people to sign up was a guy on a Harley Davidson, and he had been involved with the film for the Big Bend X BDR route. And we met at the Tour of Texas rally, and he was pretty excited about signing up. So, it's nice to see some badass American riders on some American muscle, doing something that is decidedly, you know, American, which is a cannonball. So that's really awesome.

Very cool. Very cool. It's, it's coming full circle, Aaron. You know, it's like we talked about this. It's like if you build it, they will come, and it's amazing.

It's like you're building this community here. So it's it's really nice to be part of that. Yeah. It's fun. Alright.

Any more more news here? I'm sorry. I lost the track there. Please contribute to our, Spotify playlist. Email me with your awesome, songs for doing a cannonball.

And then please remember that day negative one and day at the after the awards bank credit, sorry, is not included in the hotels. So if you wanna book those on your own, I have a discount code. Please email me. And that's it for news. Fantastic.

And if I'm not mistaken, sir, unless there's anything else you want to cover, I believe that is a wrap for season 2 episode 4 ADV Cannonball podcast. 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 buy me coffee dot com slash advcannonball, or directly help save this sinking ship for the price of a pint@patreon.com/advcannonball. Follow us on all the socials with the handle at ADV cannonball. 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@advcannonball.com. Thanks for listening, and remember, don't be an ADV weenie.

Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the banks.