V-day with VJ - Adventure Motorcycle Talk - Stockholm to Bangalore - ADV Cannonball News

VJ and Taylor sit down for a beer and dinner in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss motorcycling in the "Everyday Adventurer" segment. They engage in a broad conversation about VJ's past adventure rides in South India and their upcoming plans for a big trip to the Himalayas, which is scheduled for September 2025. They also ponder what an adventure bike trip from Stockholm to Bangalore might entail. Additionally, they talk about the SKOG 2025 rally, which is set to take place in the spring of 2025.

ADV Canonball News, announcements, Electric Motorcycle Talk, Zero and Cake Motorcycles, and tech tips for the 2025 coast-to-coast rally. 

The Motorcycle Book and Film Clubs are now available to get you through the winter season. 

ADV Cannonball Swag Shop

Transcript

Welcome to the ADV cannonball podcast where we discuss all things on two wheels, the adventure bike cannonball, and other motorcycle related nonsense. Welcome to season two episode five of ADB Cannonball podcast. My name is Taylor Lawson, and I am your host. And tonight, my tonight, I am joined by Aaron Pufal. Hey, Taylor.

What's happening over there? You know, I'm just trying not to freeze. It's, you know, I I I, you know, I always have to start with the weather. First of all, that's just what you do in Sweden. And and I thought we were really gonna go for some, like, warm weather.

I saw some people out there riding bikes this weekend. It was sunny. It was beautiful. It was dry. I was like, man, are we churning the corner on this?

Of course, I had forgot that I I had forgotten that I had booked a ski trip for a few days later. But, up until that crossed my mind, I was hoping winter was over. And, anyway, now it's like negative five. So it's negative five. So that's probably around 25 ish in Fahrenheit.

Yeah. It's still the February, so we're in the heart of it now. So, motorcycle weather, I don't wanna say it's just around the corner, but, sooner rather than later, I guess. Yeah. Fair enough.

Alright. What are you drinking over there? It's morning for me, so I'm doing an iced coffee with a splash of Baileys. I was gonna say it. You'd be if you didn't, like, have a little something in there, I was gonna be a little bit sad, but sorry.

I'm, I went with sort of a classic here, but I am sticking with the IPA theme. So I've got a a Brooklyn Brewery, East IPA. Nice. Yeah. I start my evening off with that.

All done. Alright. So, let's do a little bit of a chat. Hey. You know what?

And I didn't mention before is, I probably should start this with every podcast, but so ADV cannonball. So follow ADV cannonball on all of the socials. And the handle for all of the socials is adv cannonball. And also join our Facebook group, please. Great.

Thank you. Aaron, we had a chat recently, and we talked about electric motorcycles. And I said, you know, you could have one. If they got into it, you get these people with a, like, a factory to enter, and they probably need to bring a bunch of bikes or at least bring a recharging kit and be able to charge bikes or charge battery packs and have a follow vehicle. And if they were gonna use it for advertising it, advertising purposes for the Cannonball, they could also have a film crew.

They could do a lot with that. Anyway, a little bit of research on bikes. And I I just want you to talk about the range on these bikes and how you think that might go. Yeah. So I did some research.

I don't know anything about electric motorcycles except for I follow one dude on YouTube. It's called Mark Travels. And, you know, he's actually doing it. He's going around the world on this sport electric bike, which is which is bonkers, but it just goes to show if if you can do it on a on a Honda fifty, you can do it on a on a, battery powered bike as well. But I looked at the Zero motorcycles, and there's a DSRX, which is kinda like their high end ADV bike, and that only has a 75 miles range.

Now I say only, but, you know, if you're running around town and stuff, that's that's fine. But, you know, I thought for sure they would have more range than that. And there are some days that are five, six, seven hundred miles on this particular cannonball. So I think my my idea of having several motorcycles is a bit is a bit out to lunch. So they do have a one of the only ones in our market with a swappable battery or batteries, and that's called the Zero FX.

And that only has a hundred miles of range. So theoretically, you're you're right. You could have a vehicle that is charging batteries as a support vehicle, or you could have a whole bunch of batteries on onboard, which you would need seven or eight of them, which is quite costly. Yeah. But you could you could theoretically do it, by just stopping and switching out batteries.

Yeah. That's a good point. Would you have to so in terms of the actual regs, I know you're making an exemption for EVs or or electric motorcycles. Would you have to finish and start with the same chassis? Yeah.

So that yeah. They would so the exemption that I have excludes you from, from the overall winner award. Now do I think anyone's gonna show up with an electric bike? No. But it is fun to go through the academics of it.

So I you know, we we we would offer a lot of exemptions just to have it as a proof of concept, you know, just kind of moving the ball forward with technology. Right? So I have it rolling around in the back of my mind of of having a electric based cannonball perhaps starting next year, but I I just don't have the bandwidth for it. There's just so much to consider. But, anyways, I just put it out there.

If someone, someone had a had a bigger budget, we could definitely, accommodate them, but it looks like, we're gonna run out of spot shortly anyways. Yeah. We'll get to that, we'll get to that after the interview. Alright. But it's good.

I think it's an interesting conversation, and one of the things that I do understand from following motorcycles, there's a there's a company here, in Sweden called Cake, and they make this really cool retro World War II looking electric scooter. They actually recently went out of business. Everything was made in Sweden. They also made lightweight dirt bikes, and they said that, our company actually had a collaboration with them, and they they said that I saw an interview with the designers, and they said that the they tried to use bicycle parts, but they weren't strong enough Mhmm. Because of the weight of the machines and the speed of the machines.

And then they used motorcycle parts, and they were too heavy. So they every single piece, brake caliber, shock, every single thing on these machines was built specifically for their machines. So if every piece was customized and they couldn't take anything off the shelf, it would make sense that their r and d expenses were extremely high, they wouldn't be able to do anything with that. Yeah. I actually met, met a guy when I was taking the ferry from Sweden over to Finland on my last trip over there.

There was a dude with an electric bike, there, and he he was going on about it. And, doesn't really, you know, doesn't really, do anything for me, but, you know, it's it's interesting to see that people are actually out there, and doing it. Yeah. And and Range is one of the things they're trying to prove in these things. So I think it would be awesome for a for a company to show up for this.

And, like, I mean, they have to plan for this. Right? This isn't something they can do overnight. But if they planned it in in the following year's budget and said, we're gonna do this, it would be a good opportunity for them to showcase what their bikes could do. And and by the way, when I was at the last motorcycle show in Stockholm last year, I sat on the Zero DSRX, and it's a really comfortable machine.

It's a bit like the CF Moto in terms of the shape, look and feel. So it's quite nice. Nice. Anyway. Yeah.

Nice machine for sure. Alright. So, announcements. You've been doing a little bit of work there on the website. You've got a couple of clubs going on.

Why don't you talk to me about what those are? Yeah. Because it's the middle of winter. People are looking for you know, things to do. So I created two two big pages on the Cannonball website.

One is the motorcycle book club, and one is the motorcycle film club. And, obviously, you know, we have some relationships with with some of these people, and, they're they're up there. And so it's just a collection of, books that I've been I've been, I've been enjoying and also some films and YouTubers that I've been enjoying. And if anyone has any, you know, some recommendations, they can email me at podcastadvcannonball dot com. So take a look.

If you're looking for something to do in the middle of winter, take a look at the book club and the film club. Yeah. And, I know I've mentioned this before, but Elspeth Beard's book, Lone Rider, was really interesting. And I especially enjoyed reading the part about her going in through the Himalayas, where we are gonna go. And, that's also something that we touched a bit on when I talked to my friend, Vijay, who is actually also gonna do the Himalayas trip with us, and he's gonna do the SCOOP as well.

So, I had a nice chat with him, which we can we can roll. Yeah. If if you don't mind, I'm actually reading right now Far and Wide. It's by Neil Peart, and he is the drummer from Rush. And, I had read, his most famous work, and I moved on to this one.

And it's just as good. It's more related to his band, but he does go on a big motorcycle trip there as well. But it's also fun. I also wanted to mention before we go to the interview is that we launched our partnership with Teespring. Teespring is a company, a reputable company that does, swag and t shirts and and and and other fun things like that for influencers.

Not that we're influencers, but anyways, they reached out and offered to put a put a little shop together. So I just priced everything at cost. So if anyone wants any ADV cannonball gear, we did some artwork for the back, which is super awesome, and it's kinda it's kinda cool and funny. So if anyone wants any, cannonball swag ADV cannonball swag, it's up on our website, which you can find, just by googling ADV cannonball. I was doing a bit of research online.

You referenced earlier to following other YouTubers or things, but I was doing some research earlier this week. And do you have any idea what place we are right now in terms of podcasts in the Pacific Northwest of The United States? Well, should be one by now, no? You know, we are chasing number one, but I have to say, Aaron, we are not number one yet. We are still sitting at number two.

One of these days, man. I don't know what we have to do. I got to go viral. I got to pull a stunt somehow. I got to come up with a a wheelie challenge or something, or I got to break the law really bad and get taken away in handcuffs with someone filming.

I got to do something to get us number one. I'm going to try harder, Taylor. I feel like Willy Wonka watching Blueberry get taken out of the factory. Stop. No.

Please don't. It's all good. Why don't we roll your interview with VJ? Yeah. Fantastic.

Enjoy this interview. I had a by the way, dinner was excellent. So, it was the interview was followed by a really nice meal. So with that, let's roll the interview. 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.

Alright. So I am sitting in Downtown Stockholm with my friend, Vijay, and we are at the Prime Burgers and Smokehouse, and we're gonna have a little chat about motorcycles. Welcome. Taylor, good evening. So good to see you.

How how have you been? Yeah. Things have been good. It's, you know, I got a little bit excited about the fact that we might have some warm weather. I saw some bikes out this last weekend riding, and I was like, is it time?

And then I realized that when it was snowing this morning where I am in my part of Stockholm and it was, negative five yesterday, I thought possibly I can wait a bit longer. How about you? For someone who grew up in the tropics, Taylor, it needs to be above 20 for me to feel comfortable. Can't wait. Can't wait for that.

So when you say 20, just for our listeners here, you mean Celsius? Absolutely. Centigrade or Celsius. That's what it is. Alright.

So, you know what I think is really interesting? So in, in all transparency here, you and I have met before. We've ridden together before. We met through some, some friends of friends at a party. I guess it was about a year ago.

This past summer, maybe a year. Would have been that, Taylor. That's true. Yeah. So what I'd like to I thought when we first met, we talked a bit about your origin story.

So, maybe we can start with that. Tell us where you're from. Hey. Sure. So Bangalore, which is now famous for IT, that's where I was born.

That's where I was raised. That's where I learned to ride a bicycle, eventually a moped, and then a motorcycle. I've been outside of Bangalore for about half my life, though, trying to ride motorcycles around the world, but also living and working in a few different countries from then. Alright. So how long have you been living in Sweden?

It's exactly three years and ten days, I believe. I I keep I keep track because it's it's easy to start from the day day you come into Sweden. But I also count the winter days as I've said. You know, 20 and above is what's comfortable for me, but the winter days, waiting for them to be over so we can start riding again now. Yeah.

Fantastic. I'm absolutely with you on that. So, let me ask you. Tell me a little bit about your your origin story in terms of, like, what was your first bike, your moped, your how did you get how did you get into motorcycles? Interesting, actually.

So, growing up in India at that point in time, motor cycling or using a moped was a way of commuting. And it was less a way of entertainment or an excursion that you take, but it just was a daily mode of commuting. So it was a moped I started off with. I believe it was an Austrian made, moped called the Puch, p u c h. It was an interesting single cylinder two stroke, which was literally a straight line from cylinder to exhaust.

Very light bike though, but very fun to ride. My second bike was a with another true stock single cylinder. It was a Suzuki Shogun, a 10 cc and all. But also that point of time, it was one of the faster bikes for want for better word in India growing up and had a lot of fun. A lot of fun riding that bike, commuting every single day, to university, to work eventually.

But that was a really, really fun bike. I then had a Enfield Bullet or a Royal Enfield as we call them call them now. That was a really fun bike to ride as well. And then, yeah, I eventually moved on to other bikes when I left India, but those were my first few bikes growing up in India. Nice.

The, you know, when I looked at some of the bikes that we are there were potential candidates for bikes to use on the India trip and sort of a spoiler alert for the the rest of the podcast here is that at the end, I'm gonna get BJ to talk a little bit about, India and about the trip that we're taking together. So we'll, we'll ask some questions there. But one of the bikes that you can rent quite easily and quite, readily available in India in any place that rents motorcycles is the Bullitt five hundred, the Royal Enfield. Absolutely. And now it's closely followed by the Himalayan, say another bike from the same company.

It's the four fifty, which I believe, they launched a new model last year, Extremely popular all over the world now. Yeah. I have a friend, actually. He's gonna go with this well, James. We mentioned him earlier.

Hopefully, we'll get him on the pod. He hadn't ridden for a while, and we got him inspired. And he's like, we're gonna rent what when we're over there? And I said, yeah. We're gonna take the new, the four five twos out.

And he's like, boom. Next thing you know, he had one in his driveway. That was an amazing story, Ashty. Does he enjoy that bike now? Yeah.

He's, yeah. And the I saw him most recently and he was riding past the neighborhood and he had his daughter on the back. So yeah, I think the family is quite enjoying it. And his wife actually did admit to me, and, Megan, if you're listening, I apologize in advance, but, you know, she she did say that it's been nice to have an extra vehicle for the commuting. And, yeah.

So I think the whole family is enjoying the fact that James has a motorcycle maybe as much as James, but I doubt it. Interesting. Interesting. So when you were travelling so, yeah, as you say, when you were in India and you were riding your bike, it was like, that was what you rode for transportation all the time? No.

We also had a car at home, but for personal transportation at least for where, you know, I needed to go, wanted to go, it was a motorcycle. When it effectively was a family or, you know, trips with more than two people, the car would have been used. But predominantly, I mean, I was on the bike every single day. That's the way to go. Let me ask you.

So when you were when you were doing that, I know one of the things that Aaron actually talked about was that there was some at some point, like, when he was younger, it wasn't until he got older that it crossed his mind that I can actually take this motorcycle beyond the county line. I can do something else with it. So when you were young and you were riding motorcycles, was that something you were traveling, like, all over with? Is it mainly local? Or were you like, I'm gonna get on this bike and go?

Taylor, you you you you you've, okay. You touched on something there now. So every other week, I end up looking at the map to see what it would take to ride from here in Stockholm back to Bangalore. Right? So there's there's always been that urge to explore and and see where the bike can go.

But when I was young in in in in India, when you commute on a daily basis, you know, you don't think too much about riding too far. But eventually, you do have that desire to explore and see what else the bike can do and how far it can take you. So, yes, I did have a few small excursions when I lived in India. But it was a few years after leaving India that I went back, and my brother-in-law and I did a fairly long trip across South India. I think we covered close to 3,000 kilometers, which probably is about 2,000 miles in about ten days.

Saw a lot of India, saw a lot of the scenery, amazing amazing locations, amazing rides. You know, it was was a wonderful trip at that point in time. It hasn't stopped since then. We've just been going on longer rides and, you know, exploring other places as well from that point onwards. Nice.

I just wanna say for the, for those who are listening, when BJ started talking about taking his his, his GSA from here back to Bangalore, his eyes lit up. I just got I just got to admit that. It was pretty nice to see that level of energy. So let me ask you, did you when you did that long trip with your brother-in-law, who will also be joining us in India at in, in the September, was it on the Bullet 500 or what what were you riding then? So I was in a Bullet 500, but, no, he was in Harley Davidson, a little fancier than the Bullet 500 at that point.

Were you just absolutely crushing him because it the the Bullet was designed for that type of terrain? I'm sure he's gonna be listening to this Taylor. So for the sake of family relations, no. I'll, let's, let let's just say we both had fun. So Alright.

Fantastic. I, it's important when recording these not to step on each other, and I have to say that was that was a near miss there. So, anyway yeah. Absolutely. Well well stated.

Let me ask you. So of your of your eventual travels, is there anything any stories that really stand out for you about your travels on that particular trip that were that that were interesting? Or no. So many things I think. But every long journey, every long, you know, excursion we went on had their own unique memories and the own, you know, everything that you think about when you when you finish it.

That trip though, I think and all trips in India involve a fair bit of riding and a wonderful scenery, but it also has a lot of good food involved as well. So and I do remember the food, the pit stops for beverages along the way, fond memories of that trip overall. South India is in the tropics, so you have tropical weather overall, but we also went into the hills and high elevation locations. So we did have everything from sweltering 38 degrees centigrade in this case, you know, all the way down to about single digit centigrade temperatures as well. So a wide variety of temperatures, a wide variety of terrains as well, all the way from the sea coast to hilly areas with tea plantations and coffee plantations along the way as well.

So good mix of a lot of things, actually. The terrain, the food, multiple different things for us to see along the way. That's nice. When you're doing that, when you're traveling these different terrains, what type of accommodations were you staying in? Were, like, packing camps on these by camping tents and camp kits?

Or were you staying in hotels? Or what talk to me a bit about what that traveling looks like. So we stayed in hotels more often than not. I don't believe we had tents with us, and camping wasn't really an option. I mean, for multiple different reasons.

You also have, you know, wild animals and reptiles and other things around as well. So unless you really, really know where you're gonna be and where you're gonna camp, it's advisable, I guess, in South India, especially to be to be staying in hotels. It's also convenient from the perspective of food and everything else that goes with it. So, no, it was predominantly hotels. We tried our best to find locations that were scenic enough, you know, by bodies of water, by the coast, you know, with the beautiful views and and, also locations that that provided, provided access for our motorcycles to be parked safely, which was the other aspect that was important to us as well.

So with those factors in mind, no. There wasn't any camping involved. It wasn't as adventurous, you know, from from that perspective. But, no, it was was good accommodation that was really comfortable and safe overall. Yeah.

You make a really good point there. You know, if I talk to anybody, I think about in the, in the previous podcast that we've done with Aaron, like, when he was in Mexico. He talked about making sure that he could either take his bike into a courtyard or he could put his bike in a place that was safe. Actually, I think about the Itchy Boots. So when she was, doing the it was a trial.

I guess she was she took out, like, the first version of the the four five two of the Himalayan, and I remember seeing her covering it. I think it was partly for brand security, so people weren't, like, taking a picture of the bike and putting it out before it was time to be released. I don't know that for sure. I'm I'm just I'm I'm speculating. But I know also part of this is the security aspect.

And then even in one of her most her most recent ones on her, her Tenere, dare I say, 600. I know there's gonna be some people out there who are mad at me for that, but it's a tenoray. Anyway, I got that bid right. It's an oh, it's a classic. And then they they they try to steal it and they cut a bunch of pieces off of it and and hurt it.

But, anyway, I know the security on machines is is, is very important. Interesting you see that, Taylor. And I didn't watch that episode of Itchy Boots, but that's exactly exactly what we did. You know, we had the bikes, but we could travel with covers for the bikes. And every night, we'd put a cover over them so they looked innocuous and not not something that would attract too much attention from anyone.

Yeah. Cool. So so that was the one the one long trip that you did. But, like, on the weekends, you would take as you say, you would you would be like, where can I go? And you would blast out and you would Very true.

Very true. So, this was when I started working in Bangalore. So, you know, that'd be working hours in those days were quite long. You know, you'd end up working fourteen hours a day at times, you know, five or six days a week. And so the weekends are quite important and precious, and you'd try and get the most out of the weekends.

So it wouldn't be too longer weekends. It wouldn't be like a four day weekend, you know, with Monday and Friday at the other ends of it. So we would try and see where we could go. They would roughly be about trips, roughly be trips with about 500 kilometers start to finish. So kind of ride out in the morning, come back in the evening.

And we'd look for hills, and we'd look for twisties because that's really where you can enjoy the bike as much as you can. But always, I mean, it goes back to India. I think it may be my love for food. It always would involve a nice meal at some point in that ride. I think about the, you know, food comes up quite often, and, having a place that's, that's comfortable is nice and making whether you're camping or whether you're in a place that you have a nice bed, that's important.

But the food comes up a lot. And, for those, for those listeners, I have to say, Vijay is also going to go to the Skoog together with me. So we're gonna ride from here down, and that's at the twenty third, '20 fourth, '20 second, '20 fourth, I don't know, May, somewhere in there. And, we're gonna it's about a four hour ride. So maybe you can swing by, pick me up, and then we can ride down, because it's closer to me on the way down.

But food is a huge aspect of what goes on at this goog, which essentially is you go in, you camp, you set up, and then you go out and you go do tracks, you go do adventures, you basically go back to the one camp that night where they're spending a lot of time. And I mentioned this on a previous podcast, is that there was a request. Like, the people who they're they're amazing chefs. Like, they're cooking brisket for days, and they bring it down, and they're smoking everything. And then there was a request.

They're like, maybe we could get a little bit more vegetables in there. So I think they're gonna have a better a better mix of that this year. But nonetheless, I'm really looking forward to the food, and, food is always a a huge aspect of that. Tell me about your, your experiences that, your culinary. Like, have you ever gotten on your bike and gone, I'm going to that restaurant because that one rocks.

So just as much as we talk about food, I mean, you know, without sounding too awkward here, but there's a question of input and output. And when the food is incorrect, there's a little more output than you'd like to have at the wrong time on a long bike ride. So, something to watch out for, and I don't know how you can prepare for that. But, you know, that did happen once. Yeah.

I I I don't know what I learned from it apart from, you know, just trying to be really careful to ensure it doesn't happen again. In terms of what to do, I think Aaron has got that covered. He did get in a podcast. He's like, what's in my toiletry kit? And he had a medication for facilitating that or shutting that down or whatever whatever you've got going on.

He's got a he's got a trick up his sleeve for it. So, just we might just need to reference that with him when we're traveling in India and go, hey, Aaron. This happens to be this is how I'm presenting. How shall we how shall we fix this? It's an important practicality.

I'm glad we laugh about it now, but, know, maybe when you have this podcast published, a little footnote on how best to to address it. It's a practicality. Trust me. At some point, someone's gonna thank us for that. But, yeah.

Yeah. At a very minimum, we'll get some really good comments that we can that we can reply to. And by the way, it's really nice. This is a a really, it's a really amazing sets of community that we've created here since we've been doing this. And, no.

Really, we've we've been on we've been on a few rides together as well. And if you think about it, there isn't much we have in common apart from our motorcycles and our love for what we what we do. Right? Does there does there need to be more? No.

But I think as well from, from perspective of Sweden where we live right now, motorcycles aren't as common as as at the case as I've seen in Paris and London, the cities I've lived in before. I think the weather's a lot more accommodating for motorcycling a few more months in the year. But here, I think, specifically in Sweden, there's a certain level of kinship and community amongst motorcycles. And I kind of got to witness that when I rode all the way to Northcab and back last year. But that was really, really interesting.

You'd see another motorcyclist. There are conversations that don't normally happen with other commuters in the road, but when it comes to motor cyclists, there's always something really, really interesting to speak about. Yeah. It was interesting, when you talked to me about Norcap. I remember when when we went riding, you had this this Ducati suit on.

And and I'm by the way that you're responding, I'm thinking that you probably still own that. And I asked you, I said, what is the deal with the Ducati suit? So why don't you share what that's about? Yeah. Interesting.

So it was a BMW GS that I was riding then and, you know, Ducati suit, two things that just don't make sense or go together. But, no, it was on this ride up to to Northcab, you know, we rode through this massive, massive storm that we hadn't anticipated, and I was soaking wet from head to head to door. I have no idea where the water came from. It really couldn't have come from, you know, from top to down. It genuinely came from somewhere up the road.

I have no idea how it managed to find its way, you know, all through my clothing. So halfway through the trip, you know, we found a motorcycle shop selling selling gear. And I really had to stop, get myself a new set of gear, and have the wet gear put in a box to ship back home. And the only gear they had at that point of time that fit me was the Ducati gear. I must say though, it survived the next storm we encountered.

It was extremely warm through the trip. I don't know if I'm making a commercial here for Ducati wear, but, you know, it did the job and I still have it now. Yeah. That's it's, that was interesting because that was my comment. I was like, you're on a Beemer.

Why is it that you're wearing the Ducati? But for those of you who aren't familiar with riding in Norway, Nordkapp is the northernmost, you can help me out here, but it's the northernmost point in the European Continent? Exactly, Zieland. That's the northernmost tip of Continental Europe. I think there's some debate about a small little piece of land that you can hike up to that's a little further up north.

But I think in terms of motorable roads, that's the northernmost motorable road in on Continental Europe. I, I was just reflecting back to that being a very popular place, and you always see, you always see globes. There's a globe there, which is a statue. You can see through it. It looks like a oh, yeah.

It's a statue that you can you can take a shot there. And, we had friends of ours, the Lilienthal's, who entered a, it's a 15 country round the Baltic rally that they did last summer. And, and they took video, and they they had their, their wind measuring device out. And I can't remember what it was, but I just remember they were leaning they were leaning into it to and and you couldn't see anything. Like, I think, Andy was just a little bit further ahead of Mercedes, and that was in the camera like they were gone.

They couldn't see him. But on your trip, tell us about your trip in Norway when you finally got there. If I recall, you had some pretty amazing pictures from there. So it it was it was indeed amazing. I mean, you know, we did it for the ride, just to see what it felt like and, you know, the scenery and everything else that we were hoping to find along the way.

But North Cap itself, there was something special about it, and I still can't put my finger on what it was. We got there, I think, close to sunset, which was a little after midnight or around midnight, but the sun never set. It literally just came down and you could you could stand there at Nordcap and see what was happening, but the sun literally just kissed the horizon and then rose up again. So for the first time in my life and you get to see where the sun set and the sun rose and it's the same point. Right?

So you also have to stop and ask where east is and where west is and it effectively was almost like, you know, you were seeing east and west at the same point over there. With this, you know, phenomenon, I guess, of the sun just kissing the horizon and going up, everything just looked golden. So you were literally basked in golden light for five or six hours. That's that's my first recollection or my first memory of Nordkam that will stay with me for a long time. We didn't get the wind as you as you spoke about, but the weather there changes very quickly and very fast.

We went back again in February. So the first trip in Northcap was in August to July, and then we went back in February, but this time in a car. And, of course, scenery was completely different. It was iced over. There were mountains of snow that that were plowed into and, you know, parts were made for us to get to Northcap.

It looked very, very different back then. There was absolutely no sun contrary to, you know, sun all the time the first time we went there, but not as much wind as you say. However, though, the roads to Northcap in winter are controlled. You can only get there on on a convoy. So you have a snowplow ahead of you, a snowplow behind you, emergency vehicles that take you to Northcap and back.

Fortunately, we didn't have to drive the convoy and, you know, wait in line. The weather was really, really good. But you could see evidence of storms and, you know, tons of snow all along the way there. So I can imagine the weather there is, you know, is is very, very changeable and can be extreme at times. But if you haven't been there, and I don't think you have been, Taylor, I mean, I highly, highly recommend a trip and you you have to do that to to take that off your list at some point.

I think I may have to take you up on that advice. We'll see if the, the TF7 is up for that trip. I wanna circle back to one of the things that you said earlier, and you said you've looked every now and then you pull up Google Maps and you go, how would I ride this GSA from Stockholm to Bangalore? Tell me kind of what you're like, how long is it? How many like when you when like, what does that look like?

When what runs through your mind when you see that? Talk to me a bit about that. No. I think firstly, it's just that whole notion of, you know, can I get to my bike just ride from my doorstep to, you know, another doorstep in Bangalore? It's just that idea, that thought that that that sounds really appealing rather than, you know, from my doorstep onto a plane and sit in the plane for many, many hours and then land up, you know, with another mode of transport and probably another mode of transport before you get home.

So just that whole aspect of can I ride doorstep to doorstep, you know, on my own steam? A huge part about this is is the planning aspect of it. I know when we talked about, the things that were important to us in, in in planning for the India trip, a lot of that had to do with your health, going into high altitudes, you know, 19,200 feet or 5,200 meters at the highest motorable road. But I wanna I wanna go back and and, and talk about people who don't plan. And I was, in 2023, Aaron curated this ride in Colorado, and he had a special guest fly in, and it was the first woman who in 1982, she's the first British woman to circumn yeah, navigate, to drive her motorcycle around the world.

And she had a BMW seventy five stroke seven or I think, and she took this around the world and then Erin, she came in as our special guest into Colorado and rode with this group of people who, you know, a garage full of GS's, and we went out and had a great time. And she said it was really, you know, inspiring. And she said, you know, sometimes I just like to ride where I think it's fun to ride to. And then if I can't make it out, then I turn my GPS on and figure out how to get home. That's amazing, isn't it?

I mean, that's that's something, at least at my level of riding, I'd be comfortable doing on the weekends. But to be in a completely unknown place, that would be a little adventurous, I think. Just to clarify, I think on her trip around the world, I just listened to her book again, which was really good. It's called Lone Rider, and that was really good. I think she was very planned, very focused there, and I think more of her references were to she just bought an old BMW that she's been, that she keeps in, in, in Italy or Southern Europe, And she I think he was more inclined for that.

She likes to go out and ride an adventure. But I think when you have a destination and you gotta get you gotta, you know, you gotta crush miles as Erin says, I think it's I think I think her her exploration and her, I think that was more reserved for after she was at home. But she still has that sense of adventure, which is wonderful. Very true. Very true.

And speaking of Stockholm, where we are now, so there are many, many locations that kind of would fit that bill. Just, you know, head off in a certain direction, and you'd almost certainly come across some beautiful roads, beautiful scenery, you know, few dirt tracks as well along the way. So there is some of that aspect around Stockholm. But, again, that would be one of those ride out in the morning and ride back in the evening kind of, kind of excursions. Right?

Yeah. I remember I was I was a little jealous when I was riding with you because you have this BMW app that's like you just you put the you press the button and it's like twisty roads. And I was like, I don't have that on my Tenere. And and they're like I was like, how do I get the app? And they're like, you gotta own a BMW.

Anyway, for those of you who are BMW owners out there, you can laugh at me right now. Now is that moment. And, and for those of you who own a Tenere, I say have a friend with a BMW. Works like a charm. Now I must say, the that that feature in the BMW app, you can even select how windy you want the road to be.

You know, moderately windy or extremely windy. You can turn off on and off dirt roads, and you can select to ride on dirt roads or on tarmac alone. So here I go again, you know, made I've made an advertisement for Ducati wear and for the BMW app as well. You know, you were like a walking advertisement here, and, I guess you started off by saying that we're the walking advertisement for the prime burgers and smokehouse here in downtown, Stockholm, which is actually has some really nice IPAs. Looking forward to the food here.

So it seems really interesting. Lots of good food coming up and here we go talking about food again then. It always seems to come back to that. Before we go actually into to sit down and have a meal, I'd like to ask you a little bit about, I know when we did the planning, we were involved in the planning, and I, there's some aspects of India in planning for the trip to go through the Himalayas. Let me ask you this.

So when, like, I said to you, I'm planning I'm I wanna go to the Himalayas. And your response was? Oh, boy. That's something I've always been wanting to do. Right?

Yeah. So so with that, we so Aaron and I have been talking about that. He's like, we're doing the Himalayas. Let's go. I chatted with you.

You're like, we're doing the Himalayas. That's three of us. And then it quickly went to the number that we have that we have now. And, the so what what was the like, I know that it's your home country, and a lot of that's comfortable for you and you know the area, but you don't know that particular area. Is that correct?

That's true. That's true, Ashley Taylor. So, the Himalayas in the North Of India and I grew up in the South in Bangalore, which, like I said, is within the tropics, is south of the tropic of cancer. Growing up in India, though, so the Himalayas in the region that we will be riding in is actually along the border of Pakistan and China. And border areas are quite sensitive and therefore you have a lot of, military presence in those areas.

And when we were growing up, or this is way back in 1999, which is when I wanted to ride to the Himalayas, that area was completely controlled by the army. And the only way to actually ride there was if you had an Enfield motorcycle because that's also what the army used. And the army allowed Enfield riders to come in as as part of a club, a part of a group, and the army would escort you through that terrain and ride and ride with you. So we'd heard all these stories about riding there. Right?

I mean, people would talk about these big boulders that you ride over and these huge cliffs without any protection and, you know, back to food again, the wonderful food you had with the army. So it just created this image of, you know, a place that I had to see, a place that I had to ride in. So this is something that I had planned way back in 1999. I actually bought my Enfield bullet only to make this ride back then. I couldn't do it because, you know, that year that I had the bike, the ride was canceled because of security concerns.

And then I you know, we moved on, and I was in a different country. But I'm so happy now to go back and be able to do it after all these years. I think it's gonna be a lot more organized than than it was back then, you know, many years ago. But I think also from that perspective, I feel many of the creases would have been ironed out, and the ride itself is gonna be, you know, a lot smoother and a lot more fun, but you don't have to deal with a lot of variables that we would have dealt with back then. Yeah.

That's, that's also a really good point. It's, but hold on. I gotta I gotta circle back to this to this one point. So if you rode in, an Enfield, you could go into the military area, but if you didn't have an Enfield, they wouldn't let you in. Exactly that.

So it basically was through the Enfield Club. So, you know, with an Enfield, of course, you got to be part of the Enfield Riders Club. And the Enfield Riders Club had an agreement to ride with the army once a year. And that would be about 20 people or so from what I was told back then. Now if you didn't have an Enfield, you weren't part of the club, and therefore, you weren't really invited to ride ride in those areas.

They were restricted, though, so civilian, you know, commuters and civilian traffic would not be allowed at that point in time. So, I want you to speculate here and think back. But what if you rocked up on an Enfield in a Ducati suit? What would happen then? Oh, boy.

Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Okay. Okay. You would lose one of them.

I don't know which one, but you would have to give up one of them. Fun. Very fun. You talked about you know, your your trip on your bullet. The reason you bought that was to do that trip and it was cancelled.

And then from what you said, there were some challenges. There were some regional conflicts happening. And it's really important. And also, when I when I, the book that I recently listened to again from L. Speth Beard, is that she talked about the challenges that she had with, with permitting.

And, like, when she was riding through the Punjab and she was trying to leave the country, and they said, no. No. No. You have to have a permit to enter the Punjab, which she had never gotten. And she's like, are you telling me to go back into the Punjab to get a permit to exit the Punjab to cross here?

And they said, you have to have a permit. She's like, but I'm leaving Punjab. So permitting, it made me recognize that in that granted, that was a long time ago. That was thirty some odd years ago. But it's important to get someone who irons out their permitting for you as well because otherwise, you could potentially go, you got your whole trip planned and and you just can't get through the barrier.

No. Very true, Taylor. So just as as much as you spoke about heading out one fine morning and riding to explore, this part of the world, I don't believe that's possible. You really do need the permits because we've been told about checkpoints along the way. And even when we ride as a group, we have to cross the checkpoints as a group and have our papers tested and signed.

So it is important to have not just the paperwork or the permits, but all the advanced planning across these different areas as well. Yeah. The, I have to say that that's that's super exciting, and I'm really looking forward to that. And every time I I cross someone that's either just knows about motorcycles, knows about the podcast. I mean, you know, sitting at number two, it's hard not to know about it.

They usually they're like, are you planning for the trip? And I'm like, well, I kinda have all the gear right now. It's just a matter of what I'm gonna take with me. Oh, that brings me to another point. It's really important to make sure that when you take your gear over, you put it in a waterproof, everything's in a waterproof bag.

And one of the things that we wanted to make sure that we had was someone who can drive a truck next to us and take all of our gear with us because we're actually I don't wanna ride with a fully loaded down Himalayan four five two or four fifty if I don't need to when there can be a truck right there to carry it all. No. Exactly. And I think that's gonna make a huge big difference, because it isn't just about riding light, but it's also the terrain that we're gonna be riding through. You know, this isn't flat asphalted roads.

It's gonna be river crossings. We're gonna be riding through those big boulders. I really hope we see some big boulders because I've been waiting to see them for, what, twenty five, twenty six years now. Yeah. But, you know, doing that without being encumbered by the key kilos and tons of weight, I think that's gonna be really, really good.

But also, I mean, it's not just the extra weight, but it's also spares. Right? So just in case we do need spares or someone needs change of a tire or, you know, potentially even a change of a motorcycle, it's good to have those spares available and have the, you know, the expertise to make those changes when we need them. Yeah. I remember, when we were when we were in the organizational aspect of this, the question was, do you want us just to bring an extra motorcycle as spare?

And we're like I was like, you know, I don't if we need an extra motorcycle because someone's done that much damage to their motorcycle, there's probably a really good chance that they're not gonna be riding a motorcycle for the rest of the trip. So I think maybe just some tubes and whatever other your your normal parts are is is the most important thing to bring with us. No. Very, very true. You spoke about the the dry bag.

Have you done river crossings before? Because this would be my first river crossing when we get there. I have done river crossings before, and, would it be would it be too much showing up my hand if I said it wasn't intentional? It depends on how deep the river was. So I was out in Colorado, and, all I can remember is it was a really warm day, and it was, you know, it was just a stream.

I was just on a, I was on a XR 600, no kit, no nothing, just a backpack that turned out to be fairly buoyant, shall I say. But I remember doing this, yeah, crossing and going, yeah, that was a little bit deeper than I thought it was. But, yeah, so I've done a I've done a river crossing or two. I I think I'd like to be a bit more prepared, maybe go in a bit slower, and, I'm definitely gonna follow you. Okay.

That's that's, I'm gonna I'm gonna look out for you then, make sure we do it correctly. So before we close down, I just wanna say that this is a voice for those who are listening, this is a voice that you're gonna hear more of because we're gonna get field notes from the, Scoob. And, we are going that's gonna be the May. So we're gonna sit. We're gonna download, have some chats over a couple of beers and, apparently, a lot of meat and some vegetables at this goog.

And, so we'll we'll, we'll have more conversations about about that and also about our planning, for that event, what we planned for that event, and, and what's coming up in India as well. Gonna be a lot of riding this year then, Taylor. So there's KOOG, There's the Cannonball Run. There's the Himalayan trip. Anything else planned in the meantime?

Yeah. I think we'll probably end up going out. We'll have a couple of, we just gotta get some tune up trips, and I'd like to get I'd actually like to go out with you with your your fancy BMW app and do a little bit of, twisties. Before we go down to Scoob, I'd also like to do a bit of slow practice riding just because when we get those bikes in deep sand, we know they're gonna put us in deep sand, for these for these training exercises. And I just wanna have the balance down a bit more.

You know what we should do, Taylor? You know, the TET, the Trans Euro Trail, they've mapped out a ton of new routes around Stockholm, which wasn't the case last year. So we'd have to ride quite a quite a while out, maybe three or four hours before we got to the TET. But we have a ton of roads now mapped quite recently, probably less than half an hour away from where we live. So we should try those out, and you don't need the fancy BMW app to get that.

Alright. Fantastic. That's good to know. So, we'll get some field notes from those. So there we have a lot of opportunities to do some riding here, and, I'm excited to do some more some more riding with you.

Likewise, Taylor. Wonderful, wonderful speaking. Yeah. So, with that, we'll close this, and I just wanna say thank you very much for taking the time to to sit and chat about motorcycles. I know it's an easy topic for both of us, and I think it's sound that we, that we enjoy some dinner.

But before we go, I wanna say based on the background that you have and the experiences that you've had on ADV bikes now on your GSA, that we are going to give you this ADV badass sticker. So welcome to the club. Thank you very much. Wow. Badger Fauna.

Thank you, Taylor. And roll the outro. 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, 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 buymeacoffee.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. Nice.

Yeah. The the time that I hung out and chatted with BJ was really, really nice. And, he's quite a gentleman, so I'm sure you can hear that come through in his in his voice and his demeanor and his, he's just a nice guy. He's just a nice guy. I look forward to riding more with him.

You know, he makes a really good point. Everyone talks about the Himalayas all the time, but, you know, having done so much riding as a kid in the Southern part of India and Bangalore, is interesting, and it's a shame that because the country is so darn big that if you make the trip to do, the Himalayas, you know, very rarely do people have the an extra three, four days to transit all the way down to the south. So it's a it's a it's a victim of its own if it's of of its own vastness to be able to check out different parts of, of India. But it was really cool to hear about his, his travels when he was young. Yeah.

And one of the things that I really liked is the fact that, like, in going in doing in doing the the Himalayas, Himalayas, with him on this tour, it's it's kinda cool because he's like, I even bought a motorcycle to go do this. And then there were some some conflicts and some situational strife there, and he couldn't end up he you know, he couldn't go. They they shut it down. The military took back over the area, and, you weren't allowed to go there as a tourist. Right.

So this is this is, him getting to go back and fulfill the dream that he's had for for many, many years or decades. So, I'm excited to go make this trip with him. Yeah. Me me too. It'd be nice to have someone that understands the culture, speaks the language, knows what to order at the restaurants.

And those are all things that we take for the next time that we go back, That's, you know, super important. So, you know, I always say when I travel somewhere that I that I don't know, I always want the friend of the friend or someone just to meet me, and take me out for a beer other rather than just being that, you know, that strange guy sit sitting at the bar who doesn't know anything. It's always such a better experience to have someone who knows the culture or knows the area or just has some sort of connection to the, to the place. So it's gonna be great to travel with him. Yeah.

Absolutely. And his brother-in-law. So we'll have the they'll come both. It'll be fantastic. With that.

Yeah. Yeah. Great. Yeah. So, with that, I think we should jump over and talk a bit about the Cannonball news.

Yeah. So I took some time, and one thing I hate about rallies is there's always a darn trick. There's always something that they put in there as the organizers that is, you know, a wink and a nod to the people that who have done the rally before or who are experienced rally goers, and that drives me crazy. So to prepare people as much as possible go go ahead, Taylor. Yeah.

So I just wanted to I just I just wanted to say when we were doing the AlCAN, we were looking for a a loop road that was, like, our marker. And we knew at that point in time, we were supposed to have a certain amount of mileage, and I was supposed to give you the the new the new calibration down to the thousandth, you know, three decimal places deep, and give you the indication whether you should speed up or go slower and transfer the information from my computer to your computer on the dash. And it was a loop road, And we caught the wrong end of the loop. Yeah. And that drives me crazy because people who are experienced know that, you know, we need to trust the mileage, and we need to know when to turn.

And, you know, first of all, the ADV Cannonball rally is not a TSD rally, so we're not getting crazy like that. But it drives me crazy when there's tricks like that. People who know know not to fall for that trick because, you know, back in '82, Billy did that trick, and we're not gonna fall for that again. Right? So that kind of thing drives me crazy.

So that's why on the FAQ page, I have done a screenshot of actual checkpoints in our rally and an explanation. So I don't want people to miss a checkpoint. I don't want people to feel like they were cheated or tricked in any way. So I have to be as transparent as possible. It takes just a couple of minutes to go see, the various regular checkpoints and an example of an off road checkpoint and an example of an extreme checkpoint.

So everything is up there. Please go to the FAQ page and take a look. Yeah. And I just wanna back up and say, I don't I'm not, I'm not denigrating, the Alcan in any kind of way. Very simply, that's that is that kind of a rally.

That's what's in that. That's what that's what makes that particular one unique. But I think the point I wanted to make there is that this one isn't. It's it's a different rally altogether. It's not time, speed, distance.

It's set up in a different way. Mhmm. But I think that's I think that's great because for me, that says that no matter where you are in the in your in your circle of life in terms of riding motorcycles, there's a possibility that you could get this because you didn't you didn't show up at last year and go, oh, right. That's how they're gonna do this thing. But it's nice to know that you're making it so that sort of the tricks are out of it.

Yeah. For sure. I also want to mention that we, for motorcycle shipping, I only have one spot open to the start of the rally, and I have four spots open leaving the rally, and that's for our white glove service. And there's, one motorcycle still available for rent. But once that shipping spot goes away, that opportunity also goes away.

I just wanted to mention that. And, I wanted to mention that we're desperate to find a YouTuber come and do the twenty twenty five ADV cannonball rally, but, I understand it's tough. It's also a tough thing to film. So if anyone knows a YouTuber that does motovlogging who's interested in doing this, to have them please reach out to me at the at the email address. Yeah.

That's that's a great thing. And, actually, when I'm when I'm at this goog, there's gonna be a bunch of, of the guys from Europe. Probably have some guys in I think, I will mention some names. We'll get confirmation that they're there. And I'll have an opportunity to meet them, and I'll see if I'll I'll I'll have a chance to chat with them, shake their hand, and say, hey, by the way.

Yeah. For sure. Why not? Right? Speaking of, competitors, let's welcome a few new sign ups.

Let's mention, Steve from Muskegon, and let's mention Andy from California, and let's mention Eric from North Carolina. And they're all on BMWs, which is pretty awesome. Nice. In the you like that little the little, little bump we gave to the having the BMW app? It's like, I need to get the BMW app.

She said, the Santa Ana guys don't offer that. You know what's funny? I just, coordinated, an interview for probably a month from now with the cofounder of Butler Maps. And the reason I reached out to him was when I was editing your interview, we were talking about using an algorithm to find twisty roads. And, you know, I'm screaming at the computer screen because I'm like, no.

That's not what makes a good motorcycle road. Like, it does sometimes. And I understand if you're in a pinch to use an algorithm to find your road that has x amount of radius turns and x amount of miles. Sometimes that can be interesting. But I immediately reached out to the cofounder of, Butler Maps, and we'll have a whole hour long conversation about what makes a good motorcycle road a good motorcycle road and how AI and algorithms, have some for some reason taken over the the the the personal reference and the, I don't know, the institutional, recommendations of good motorcycle roads.

It's a it's an interesting thing to unpack, and I'm looking forward to, my conversation with them. Yeah. That should be interesting. I'm looking forward to that as well. I'd also I think I'll take a huge lesson in that.

Well, it's it's just a lesson of, can we fabricate some time? Because if you had all the time in the world and you didn't have your family and your kids and your and all your work and whatnot, you could spend the whole day organizing, a four or five hour ride, but that's not the fact. I understand why people, go to their app and go, give me windy roads. I only have an hour. I understand that, but sometimes, we are we are missing out, on that on the awesome motorcycle road because there is that that secret sauce to a to a good motorcycle road, and I think it's worth a discussion.

And, I wanted to also mention, if there's been people contributing to the ADV cannonball playlist on Spotify, and that's super fun because there's a bunch of stuff that I didn't even think of. And, you had one. You had a don't fear the reaper, which, you know, is is is gospel when it comes to road trips. And, another competitor sent in. He's like, dude, where's the cannonball theme from the movie?

And I'm like, oh, you're so right. I'm so stupid. So there's a bunch of, people mentioning some great, some great contributions to that list. So thanks, guys. Absolutely.

I have to say I'm a little partial to that because I went to a winter performance recently from my my son, and he was on stage with four other guys. And that was a song that they sang. And there were four there I think there were five of them, and they were all singing that together. It was really cool to see him up there on stage. Yeah.

There's, like, 500 people in the audience. It was a big deal. I was really impressed. That is a tough on drum. That is a tough song on the drums and on the guitar.

That is amazing. Good for them. Look, he wasn't playing it. He was singing it. They had a band supporting them, so it was a big it was a big production.

Wow. Anyway, they did yeah. I was I was super impressed by the whole thing. That's awesome. And then my last announcement, I know we're running along, sorry, is, competitors on the ADB Canada Vault will start to receive official, newsletters, and they won't be, you know, advertising style.

They'll they will start to contain, important news. So, I realize some people have been responsive to the last one. But, starting now, we will start to receive important information. So please don't just delete it. I'm not I'm not sending you an advertisement.

I'm actually sending you important notices. Absolutely. And I have to say your last your last newsletter was really interesting. I thought that was great. So well done.

Yeah. Thank you. And, yeah. I think if I'm not mistaken, sir, that brings us to the episode of that brings us to the end of this episode. Nice.

Well done, sir. Thanks very much for, for, taking the time to do it. I appreciate it. I know you're busy over there, but any excuse to drink a beer and talk motorcycles is pretty awesome. You know, you gotta take advantage of it when you can.

And, and with that, thanks very much. Have a great evening. Alright. Roll the outro. Thanks for listening to the ADV Cannonball podcast.

Please give us a five 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 at patreon.com/advcannonball. Follow us on all the socials with the handle at a d v cannonball.

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