ADV Cannonball
Chatting with motorcyclists, overland creators, and authors is a key feature of the ADV Cannonball Podcast. Aaron and Taylor speak with adventure travelers from various backgrounds, aiming to inspire listeners to embark on their journeys. The duo often discusses a wide range of motorsports, including motorcycle rallies, TSD rallies, checkpoint events, overlanding, and anything related to adrenaline and horsepower!
ADV Cannonball
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SPEAKER_07:Welcome to the ABV Cannonball Podcast. Where we discuss all things on two wheels: the adventure by Cannonball and other motorcycle-related nonsense.
SPEAKER_01:Welcome to Adventure Cannonball Podcast. I am your host, Taylor Lawson, and today I am joined by the latest Bitcoin miner in the Northwest of the United States. Better known to you as Aaron Puffall. Aaron, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_02:Buddy, buddy, that was that was stretched. That was like, you're ready to announce the Nobel Peace Prize winner or something. That was impressive.
SPEAKER_01:I was about to sting the stars bangle banner, but I thought I'd stop.
SPEAKER_02:Stop a little short of that. Well, what I will uh celebrate most importantly is my uh super tall, hazy double IPA. Look at the size of this bad boy here.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, that's bigger than your that's bigger than your head.
SPEAKER_02:Hey oh man. Cheers, man.
SPEAKER_01:You got the keyboard? All right, here we go. What am I drinking?
SPEAKER_02:Boy, that's big.
SPEAKER_01:That is a big one. I was just gonna leave that alone. I got an IPA here. It's nothing fancy. It's a a new Sweden IPA. Light blue can, 6.5. That'll go down easily. There we go. Hang on. Hang on. I'm gonna try to not spray the keyboard. I'm really bad about that.
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah. Well done. And dear listener, catch up with us. Well, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, man. Crack it. All right. Today's show is a cruise show. We do have Brian Coffin talking about volunteering and his dad's history with the original motorcycle cannonball. We'll talk about bike setups, upgraded moto camping kit, and there's a ton of cannonball news. Let's jump in.
SPEAKER_02:That's today's agenda. So as Taylor started off, just total sidebar, I got myself a Bitcoin miner. And it's I've got it running at about 80 terahashes. And the theory is, you know, I'm not, you know, some crazy Bitcoin, you know, cryptocurrency guy, but I was watching this video on these uh Bitcoin miners. And we have a little apartment here, and our apartment is heated with baseboards because these new apartments, you know, they're just so efficient that you know, we spend I think we spend$35 a month on electricity. It's that ridiculously efficient. Yeah. And it was explained to me in the most basic terms. He goes, Bitcoin mining, the machines, all you're doing is essentially converting electricity into heat, right? That's that's the function of a Bitcoin miner. Granted, it's it's solving the blockchain and it's solving in mathematical equations, but in the most basic sense, you're converting electricity into heat. So I don't know what I'm gonna do in the summer, but in the winter, I have this Bitcoin miner on and I've got it set up at about 800 watts consumption. And, you know, it's making a couple of bucks a day. But essentially, why am I heating my apartment with electricity when I could be earning Bitcoin and heating my apartment? So that's the theory behind it. So is it just an app? Is it a separate piece of hardware? No, no, it's a it's a huge piece of hardware. Uh you know, everyone remembers our old computers, right? It's a tower, it's a tower, an actual, you know, half meter tall tower computer. Yeah. And it just sits in the corner once it's set up and it just it just runs over Wi-Fi and it just solves the blockchain. And uh and it's fun to watch the app and see what it's doing today and see how much money I made. So yeah, it's just turning electricity into heat. That's that's its function. And rather than making heat for no reason, it's making heat uh to earn to earn a few bucks. Now, this whole thing falls apart in the summer, obviously. Uh I haven't figured out what to do with it in the summer, but by then you'll be retired, so it doesn't matter. Yeah, that's right. I'll I'll be a Bitcoin bro. That's it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. All right. So recently you showed me a proof of the stickers that we had, and you you the oranges or the yeah, the oranges and reds turned to purples, and you upgraded those. I love them. When are they running? Are they ready now?
SPEAKER_02:They're they just got delivered to uh to the P.O. box, and I just gotta go get them. So anyone who asks for a sticker through the Cannibal website, they will get uh the new sticker, and anytime you see us riding around, just ask us for a sticker, and I'm always handing them out.
SPEAKER_01:Fantastic. A little bit of housekeeping. So, Aaron, you and I were recently called out for being uh quote unquote beggars in that we operate under the guise of not asking for anything, but then we were actually presented with a list of things that we do ask for. And by the way, this was from one of our 2025 cannonballers, and I will I will not say any names to protect the guilty Carrie. This is the list Carrie, this is the list fine ass craft beer, designer coffee, five-star Apple Reviews, forward this episode to a friend, and a loaner bike or a good lead on a motorcycle rent rental in England. So to that, sir Carrie, I will say indeed, please do all of those things. And and and and besides those things, and maybe a few things in the future, we will ask for nothing.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my goodness. Um hey, and there was um, I had a really uh cool text. So back when I was managing the uh safety and security aspect of motor yachts, there was a chief officer on a boat named Simon Alway. And today he I hadn't been in touch with him for a while. I remember going to his boats. I always, when I go there to do like a you know, a pre-audit, an internal audit before the flag state or the uh class society would come in. I remember going there and it was so hard to find anything that needed work because he he just ran the had the crew were so well trained, the paperwork is in order. It was just, I would just show up, it was just a treat, be like, okay, it's time for some good food and great conversation, and and we'll look at paperwork that's all perfect. So anyway, I got a call from Simon, got a chat with him today, and he said, Hey, I was watching the um watching this Robert Baldinger's ADV cannonball, uh, the series, and I and then boom, there you were in the at the awards banquet. And I was like, Yep, there was. Um, and anyway, he's like, uh, so he's he's currently still in yachting and he's um planning to uh hopefully he can work his schedule out and we can see him at the starting line of 2026. Yeah, that'd be awesome.
SPEAKER_02:And actually, you were talking about another one of your friends, the guy in Australia, and you know, at some point in the future, that was a bit of a catalyst because at some point in the future there will be a cannonball. It has to be. There has to be an ADV cannonball across Australia. Like, yeah, you know, it's this is not even uh an option. Like, how great would it be to rip across uh the continent? It's a continent, right? Yeah, the continent of Australia. Yeah. And it's made for an ADV cannonball. So uh it's funny how these ancillary relationships and external things uh, you know, directly affect the course of this podcast and the rally.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we can talk to um Dorothy Krog. She um we interviewed her when I did the Scoog. She was one of the one of the, I think she was number seven in the lineup. Um, but she goes down there all the time. She actually has a bike there. And she's always down there running across the uh the continent. She just got back, she was there again this year. And we can also talk to um Elspeth Beard because she did that. She said that was the only time she had actually had to carry on auxiliary fuel on the bike. And uh my buddy is David Thompson. I used to work with him when I worked at um yeah, at a large manufacturing, global manufacturing company. And um he just rebuilt an old BSA that was like it came to him in like a you know in an envelope, and it was just a bunch of like a rust bucket, and they said, and he's restored it, it looks brand new and amazing. So anyway, it'd be fun to go down there and see him and do some riding there as well.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, and and there's one more tie-in. Actually, um, Simon Alway, he um he said, Yeah, I always talk to Brian, Brian Coffin, um, about boats when he's down there doing radio surveys and things like that. So there's a whole there's a whole circle of tie-in about yachting, and yeah, it's kind of fun.
SPEAKER_02:That'd be awesome to uh to have some people from the from the other part of our lives to actually show up to uh to a rally. But you know, it's hard. People don't have the time. Uh, but speaking of the rally, uh, I know this isn't rally news, but I wanted to mention it in case people skip the rally news or some people skip to the rally news. But anyways, I was sitting in front of the computer working on something and I saw uh an order come in. And I always go quickly look at the order because I like to get those published right away. And Bo Ernest, the actual current cannonball record holder, signed up for ADV Cannonball Rally. And I'm like, I immediately text him. I'm like, you know, pardon me is like, why did you pay? I would have let you, I would have let you come for free, right? But, anyways, he's he signed up on his own fruition. I never thought that he would come to our little rally, and so he signed up. So I'm not sure, he's not sure what bike he's going to ride, he's not sure of his strategy. Uh, I'm not even sure if he knows how to ride off-road, but you know, he's a good old boy from Kansas, so surely he's he's done some time on a on a dirt bike. But uh, I don't remember what episode of the case.
SPEAKER_01:I was just looking for it. I don't I didn't see it. But yeah, he did a great interview, and he was so I remember the interview was so loaded with math. And he had one comment, he was like, Man, there's a lot of math, but he had done so much commute, he had done the math was impressive to the point where it was like he knew when to hit, he knew what speed he had to maintain and when he could get through certain cities so that he could hit it at um you know non-rush hour times. It was just amazing. And he and he did the math based on the amount of the time that he would cross a border and then and the amount of miles he had hit on the odomino to know whether he was up or down.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he approached, you know, as most cannonballers do, they approach it with as an engineer. He's he's an engineer, he's a technician, and he approached it like, and people always get the wrong impression. They think they're just a bunch of Yahoos racing across the country. Well, granted, some are, but the people that are successful are the ones that are approaching it like a mathematical uh uh problem. And the engineering of the fuel cell and the baffling and the laser jammers and the navigation and the preparation is fantastic. And uh and yeah, anyways, he signed up. I'm really uh excited about that. Every time someone signs up, there's there's there's always a story. Someone sent me uh a challenge coin. Uh, a gentleman wanted the pay by check, and and of course, I just gave him the address and he sent me this awesome challenge coin. It's a special operations command challenge coin from the United States Marine Corps, and it is it is going in the collection. So thank you to who sent that to me.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, very nice. All right, and um, and with that, I think it might be time to roll that interview with Brian Coffin.
SPEAKER_00:Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story, and I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonball!
SPEAKER_08: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. Release it on patreon.com. Links are in the show notes. Now, back to the riveting podcast in progress.
SPEAKER_03:Brian, welcome back to the podcast. Thank you, thank you. Good to be back, yeah. I'm in uh Seattle. Where are you? I'm in rainy South Florida right now. Oh my goodness. I guess that's the the winter weather moving in, is it?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, you don't like the weather, you just kind of just wait 15 minutes and it changes down here, right?
SPEAKER_02:Hey oh yeah, it's good. Listeners know that I I lived there for 10 years, so I know the weather well.
SPEAKER_04:No, I was gonna say we had our our one one day of winter last week. Um, it went down to like 54 degrees, so yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Oh so while the eastern seaboard gets hammered with winter weather, you're complaining about the 50. So we're not gonna have too much sympathy for you, that's for sure. Yeah, of course. So Brian was our uh volunteer for the 2025 ADV Cannonball Rally, and you were our you know cheerleader, and most importantly, you were our starter. So thanks very much for doing that.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, it was it was such a pleasure to be. And I mean, the memories we made were amazing. It was it was great. It was so such an honor to be there.
SPEAKER_02:And maybe you could describe how the start actually played out. What was the morning routine?
SPEAKER_04:Uh well, the morning routine, luckily we stayed in in night's hotel, so everybody would kind of congregate during breakfast time uh in the lobbies, and then probably about 15 to 20 minutes before the start of the day, which would be around 7:45-ish, um, I would get outside, I would get the uh van kind of positioned in the angle of the the exit, depending where we determined the exit of the uh of the parking lot would be. And then I would set up four cones, which is kind of like the uh the rally cage, like the the riders would roll up into it. Um I would set up an iPad with the countdown timer, and it was essentially wasn't a countdown, it was actually the time of day it was. And um, yeah, we would have it set up ready to go for the first rider every day. Um, and we were in place. I had my my little traffic vest on and I was ready to rock and roll.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, everyone gravitates towards the guy with the big yellow vest. That's uh that's a fine rally tradition.
SPEAKER_03:I even had little yellow lights on my mom van ready to get. Yeah, that was a badass mom van. It was awesome.
SPEAKER_02:It's like don't be gentle, it's a rental, right? That's right.
SPEAKER_04:I think I put uh 6,500 miles on that rental.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. Well, it did its job, it didn't break down, so that's great. So maybe I'll just describe how a start happens. So start times change. Rally goers have to check the uh rally notice page to find out what time the start is the next day, because sometimes it changes. And then let's say your rally number is 30, you would start at start time plus 30. So if start time was 7 a.m., you would start at uh 07:30. That will be your start time. You can't leave before, you can definitely leave after if you want to. I think you would report it back that no one left late. Everyone kind of left exactly as they were supposed to every day, right?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. So everybody would would get into the queue to leave on their designated time, but several of the guys would either leave and then go park and then get their bikes ready. But everybody always jumped into the gate when they just designated time to to get that you know, that shot, that that photo, and to actually get off the uh the start, start line in the morning. So nobody ever left early that I could have seen. Um, but some people did want to group up and they would go park and they wait for their buddies who were maybe a little bit higher time uh to get up, uh, to bunch up and go as a group.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. So to be clear, you can never leave early. That's grounds for just disqualification. But we've made a small change, is that if you are rallying with someone, uh, there is a field for that in the registration form. And we will group rally goers together. And there's actually a few teams forming, which will be fun this year. There's like three or four teams already formed, so that's that's fun. So we will make every effort to make sure that you're grouped with people that you're writing with. And that was actually a suggestion from one of the rally goers is that we're not assigning rally numbers in general uh until the last moment so we can accommodate um all of those uh requests just to have it more fun for people. Um, and then, you know, there's a really interesting story about your father. Maybe you could tell us your father's connection with the antique motorcycle rally, otherwise known as um uh motorcycle cannonball.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, so my dad uh has been a truck driver for 40, 42 plus years. Um, and the owner of his company at the time was a big motorcycle enthusiast. He had all old motorhead uh Harley Davidson motorcycles, and they will all predate like 19, I think 30 was the greatest, uh the oldest, or I would say the youngest, um, Harley. Well, they would do an a cross-country annonball every two years. So my father did it in 2012, 14, and 16, and it was it was a little bit different because these guys obviously have the budget, um, and they would run a hundred, uh maybe two hundred miles each day, and they would have a full support team. So they would have an RV, they would have mechanics, they had a full trailers, they had several bikes. I mean, if one bike would break down, they'd jump on the next bike. So it wasn't really a race, it was more camaraderie, uh, just getting cross-country. But they were all panheads, man. They uh they they would just break down and fix them on the side of the road and keep them going and keep pumping oil in them. It was it was really interesting. There was uh very famous people, some old rock and rollers um that would go in. They had their big old tour vans uh going alongside. So it happened every two years, and they went from Daytona. The one year that my that I remember um that my dad would call me all the time is they started in Daytona Beach, and then from there they went across country. I know they went to the Harley Davidson Museum. Yeah, to the pictures and the videos and the the times they had. So the stories that he would tell, especially during this ADV cannonball that we just had, was really interesting.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it was definitely fun having that connection to the motorcycle cannonball and the history of all the different cannonball events. I found it really um interesting that, you know, they were more for the spirit of adventure. And I found that, and I think you would agree, that more than half the people in the ADV cannonball were also there just for the adventure, and they weren't really too much about worried about the scorekeeping.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. You know, I would say by the second day, you can see who would gravitate towards each other. Everyone always congregated at night, you know, for dinner and then in the mornings for breakfast, and who who sat with every, you know, each other. But, you know, towards the end of the rally, it was realized hey, you know, this is this is just fun. And we're all in it to to have memories and and see if we can actually do this. And it was it wasn't so much a competition in the end where It was everyone was just high fiving and riding together and waiting for each other after their time started and then crossing the finish line together each night. And it it just turned into something like you know, a memory that you you'll never forget. It's hard to explain to even to put into words and how how that how it all came together. We had people from, I mean, in the mid-70s to, I don't know, maybe the youngest guy was in his early 30s. And then I don't, I don't know. I don't think we had any conflicts of interest or any type of uh strife with guys. It just everybody was in it to help everybody. It was great.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, as long as you don't complain and whine, usually everyone gets a line, right? That's rule number two. There shall be no complaining or whining, or you are asked to leave. So um, anyways, uh one of your duties was making sure everyone had the rally app on, and then they also had their spot walla device on, and you'll be happy to know that there is no more requirement for Spot Walla because the tracking app was uh so rock solid. But the only change uh with that is that all the rally phones now have to have uh data service on them. So um it was just so rock solid that we just didn't need to have that backup. And most phones had, most people's rallies phones had service anyways. And then we discovered that there was an app that had an eSIM service for like 20 bucks for that month. So there's no excuse not to have cell phone service uh on your uh rally phone. Um, and then I I remember there was some drama one morning. Maybe you could tell us some some fun stories that happened at the at the start line.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, and we we we tried to get video from the gas station from the hotel. We could not find the video, but it was it was a humbling moment for that rider. He took off right on time and he got he went down the down the little road here, made a left turn. I guess he tried to pull wheelie and it was a little bit slick and it came out from under him. And like I want to say, six people ran over to him and helped him up, and the only thing that was hurt was his pride, and then he kept going.
SPEAKER_02:That's the greatest story. I love it. Lesson is if you if you're gonna do catwalks and leaving the hotel, just make sure it's dry. I think I think that's the lesson of the story here.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we had we had uh some other guys that you know when you when you give people the the checkpoints, you know, they come in the uh lat long or or uh or a uh uh GPX file, or some people when you say, hey, did you get the GPX file, they look at you like you have three heads. But you actually did the extra um effort and put it in a Google Map, I'm sorry, Google, yeah, Google Maps format, where they would just click on Google Maps and they click the waypoint and it it worked great for just using Google Maps as opposed to using their own um navigation app, whether it's you know, uh you know, there's a there's a thousand of them out there. Um but we had one writer that was working great, but his phone took a crap and he couldn't get onto the uh the rally app page to get to the next point or even to get to the hotel. So he was on top of a mountain somewhere, and he just texted me, Brian, help me. I just want to get to the hotel. Where's the hotel at? So I had to text him just a link of the address to the hotel, and he was able to get to the hotel that night. He put me my dinner that night, to say the least, because he was definitely gonna be lost for a while.
SPEAKER_02:There is a GPX file if you want to load into your GPS, if you just want to ride the route and don't really care about checkpoints. There's another GPX file that has all the checkpoints in one file. There's a separate file with just GPX points. There's a spreadsheet with all the G with all the uh sorry, with all the checkpoints uh on a spreadsheet with with uh uh with descriptions and everything. And then you can also use, as you said, you could press the link and just navigate with Google Maps. The reason why I don't encourage people to do that is specifically for that reason, is that that is dependent on uh cell phone reception.
SPEAKER_04:If I could just jump in, you know, I know some new writers are going to hear there's GPX files, you know, checkpoints. Don't don't get don't get discouraged here. We are here to help. I have no problem sitting down the night before or even the day of, and just helping you through getting your phone loaded, getting yourself self-situated. Um, you know, that's that's what we're there for. It's the spirit. And then we got a lot of guys now now gonna have already seen you as well, can help as well. So we're all there to help and make make this make this happen for you. So don't get don't get intimidated.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I think Carrie put a video on YouTube of how to load GPX files or checkpoints into uh your GPS. There's plenty of resources out there. You should at least have a basic understanding of how to get somewhere when you come to Rally Tis. And there are people that are very serious about it and they have their whole day mapped out. They have, I'm going to this checkpoint, then this checkpoint, then this checkpoint, and they have it listed in the way. They have a printout, it's going on there in their tank bag. They're very serious. They have a primary plan, a backup plan. And then, of course, you talk about, you know, you know, other other guys that just want to follow the GPX route and just go to the hotel and crack a beer. So everyone's welcome, but you should have a remedial uh understanding of how to navigate somewhere. Uh so the big question is everyone wants to know are you gonna be there with your father for next year?
SPEAKER_04:Yes, sir. We are planning on being there and doing it again next year with another rental van, another mom van. And um, yes, I think uh that's the that's the plan. That's awesome. I'm probably gonna fly into New York, rent a van there, pick up my dad, and we'll we'll take the slow road up up to uh Massachusetts. We'll take the ferry from uh from uh Montauk Point, Orient Point, I'm sorry, Orient Point over to uh Connecticut to Groton, Connecticut, and just meander up to up to uh Massachusetts from there to do the start. So yeah. Nice.
SPEAKER_02:Well, listen.
SPEAKER_04:It's about making memories.
SPEAKER_02:Nothing nothing makes me happier than hearing stories about the uh about the doobie brothers from your from your father.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, Pat Simmons from uh the Doobie Brothers, he was one of the uh one of the riders in the um ADV Cannonball, the classic one that my dad run ran with. And he actually drove his RV cross-country for a couple of years with the with the Doobie Brothers. So yeah, it was pretty cool. Yeah some of those stories.
SPEAKER_02:All right, I'll let you go back to uh fighting the the terrible weather and rain in Florida.
SPEAKER_03:Someone's gotta do it. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:All right, well, thanks very much for helping, and thanks very much for giving us uh a little update.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you very much. All right, you have a great night.
SPEAKER_08:See you later. Adventure, endurance, glory. This isn't just a ride, it's the ultimate test of rider and machine. The ADV Cannonball Rally challenges you to ride from coast to coast, navigating checkpoint to checkpoint by GPS and pushing past your limits. Take on every off-road stage and you'll learn bragging rides and a coveted Rough Rider trophy. Own the twisty tarmac and you'll claim the checkpoint crusher award. Every mile counts, every choice matters. Rack up the points, and your name could be etched forever on the winner's gap. This year the routes are harder, the mileage is longer, the glory is greater. The ADV Cannonball Rally is open for registration. Fortune favors the bolt. Sign up today.
SPEAKER_02:And we're back. Oh yeah. That was called a beer break. I could smash a little IPA while we were listening to that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think it's really cool. He was actually riding out there. He was he was um supporting the Doobie Brothers when they were doing the motorcycle cannonball. I thought that was really cool. I didn't know that about that. I mean, I've I was there at Metastat, I've known a stat for many, many years, and I did not even know that. So it's kind of cool. You when you actually stop and take a moment to ask people questions, you learn things every time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's bizarre. So, you know, that's a well-funded expedition. So they would have an RV, like a massive, you know, Class B RV, and then have trailers and support crew and machinists. And the actual motorcycle cannonball, I just went to their page. I'm not sure what's up with it, but they have a lot of sponsors and stuff. Like it's a proper, you know, organization. They're like sponsored by Law Tigers and it sounds like they actually make money. But like all things, I reached out to them and they didn't get back to me. But I think it's a massive organizational undertaking, even more than the ADV cannonball. Because when they roll into a town, they need to have the local governments give them permits and stuff. Because when they roll in town, because as Brian's dad was talking about, they have RVs and trailers and machine shops and support crews. So you can't just pull into the Hilton the way we do. Um, and you know, Hilton's being a great partner. And, you know, Brian will tell you that I'm crazy about not making noise and all that because I want to be invited back and continue to get our discounts. But the motorcycle cannonball requires local government and police to be involved because they show up with all this infrastructure. I'm only guessing here, but it hasn't been happening because it's probably just a guy like me sitting in front of his computer. And I'm sure it's just such an organizational nightmare that it's kind of just petered out. It's not happening, and I would love to get to the bottom of it. So if anyone knows, please uh fire me an email or text me down in the show notes. But I'm not sure why it's not happening. It's it's uh it's a real shame.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it'd be interesting to find out the um who that who that guy is sitting in front of the computer and get them on the podcast to talk about it. That'd be fun.
SPEAKER_02:I've actually sent them a message and I've been uh setting up interviews. So I actually have the scooter cannonball gentleman coming back on to give us an update and a recap of what happened with this year's scooter cannonball. Uh, I'd love to get some stories out of that. So maybe he he knows the gentleman that's in charge of motorcycle cannonball. I'm not sure. Good way in. Yeah. So let's do uh, you know, dear listener, skip forward if you're not interested in uh camping equipment and motorcycle talk. But I get a lot of messages asking me for a packing list. I get a lot of messages asking uh how I set up my GSA. So we're gonna run through this list and I'm gonna put my list and my camping list in the living document. It's a Google Doc, it's down in the show notes. So uh this list I will I will edit it, I will spell check it, and I will put it down in that Google Doc. You go ahead. So, how do you set up your T7? All right.
SPEAKER_01:So for my I have a 2022 Tenar A700 without any of the bells and whistles. It's just a basic Tenore 700. And so, of course, the first thing I did was I bought bark busters and took off the um the stuff that was on there. It's just plastic nonsense. And in the factory, they they actually had I bought it, it was a demo, and it had been on a an adventure trip down in Spain. And then normally they take they take 10 bikes down, and then one of them gets purchased. Basically, they say, Here are the 10 bikes, and the Swedish riders come down and they say, Hey, before you go, would you like to uh buy that bike you're over for the last two weeks? And most people say yeah. So two of them didn't get purchased and they came back and I snatched it up before it, uh, before it, yeah, before somebody else got it. And they put the wrong mileage on the uh on the listing. And the guy said, I'm really sorry. What can I do to, you know, if you want to back out of the deal? And I understand. I said, No, just you know, add this, this, this, this, this, and this. And he's like, Okay. So heated grips is one of those things. So I got the factory heated grips on the bike. And having ridden the GSA, your GSA, Aaron, the one that Robert Baldinger rode, I have to say that, man, sometimes I had to take my hands off because those things are so hot. And I can say, on my T7, I've never had that problem. They just they're they're just not that warm. So my recommendation if you're gonna get heated grips, get aftermarket, don't get factory on the um, don't get Yamaha Factory on those.
SPEAKER_02:Because they're you can't turn them down, they're just on or off.
SPEAKER_01:No, there's three settings, and I they're on high all the time, and high just is high is like medium on on the on the uh the GSAs. All right. So um one of the things that Robert Bollinger actually turned me on to was the putting taking out the metal bolts and putting in nylon bolts on the plastic fork covers. Because if you hit a rock or drop the bike and you and you plank off one of those heads, it's a nightmare that you're gonna have to you know do a tap and die to get it out. Whereas if you you know whack off the top of one of those nylon bolt heads, all you do is you put a screwdriver in the back of it, and then you can you can just back it out easily. So they do the job, they hold it on, and um both of the um the fork and the shock covers. So those that's an addition that I made. And I think it cost me um 42 cents. So it's a really cheap one. I think it's six balls, a big center. I am indeed. Um, non-slip pads for my uh for the knees and also a tank protector on the back. Yeah, somehow sitting in the sun. I'm I'm sure I'm not the only one that's had this problem, but when it sat in the sun one day, I came back. It sat in the sun for a full day, and I came back, and then the one on the back of the tank had kind of melted down to the side. And I was like, okay, I haven't changed. I just let it's not gonna go any further, I'll just leave it there. For my phone, I have a quad lock with a vibration dampener. That's my phone holder and the case, which goes with it as well. I also have a just bought a um during Black Friday, I just bought a uh one that goes in my car, which goes in the grill. I bought one for the suction cup on the windshield, but with this, you know, this iPhone 17 Pro Max, you can't see out the windshield, so I had to get something that mounted down on the dash. So I do like the um, I do like the quad lock. All right. So I I don't know how to say this. I don't know how to pronounce it. It's P-U-I-G. It's the windshield. PU Pew Pew Pewge? No idea, bro. It's a Spanish brand. It's the um, it's a the windshield is just 30% bigger, but it's not huge. I remember you looked at it and you're like, is that an old man windshield? And I said, no. It's just slightly bigger than the factory, and it does throw the wind up over your helmet, at least mine where I sit. And um, it's good. It's the P U I-G Tenera 719 transparent. It's about a hundred bucks.
SPEAKER_02:Do you have to look through the windshield or do you still see over the windshield?
SPEAKER_01:I see over the windshield. Okay. And most of my height, most of my height's in my legs. So I don't have a super tall torso. So it's it means it's low, basically.
SPEAKER_02:You mean you you don't have stubby inseams like me where I can't touch the freaking ground on my motorcycle?
SPEAKER_00:Look like a look like a oopa loopa.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, that's not my problem. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I have other problems, but that's not one of them. Yeah. You know what? This is more of a therapy session. Do you want to talk about your problems, Taylor? Have a sip of that beer and tell us about all your problems.
SPEAKER_01:You know, that that two points down here. I'll hit that one. Okay. Um, Moto Tech. So I bought pantiers and I used to have, I bought the Adventure Spec rack, and it kind of holds kind of, it's for like the rackless bags that flare out and kind of keep things off of your muffler and off of your keeping out of your spokes. It was the Adventure Spec one, which is specifically for this bike, nice CNC cut stuff. I ended up selling that to a buddy of mine, Pear. Um, but I never used it because I wanted bigger, I wanted bigger panniers, to be honest. So I got the Moto Tech panniers that Moscow Moto recommends from their website. So it's the Moscow Moto panier, it's the symmetrical one. And because the symmetrical one then has a big space on the left hand side, compensating for the big space on the right hand side where the muffler sits. So in that space, you can either put a toolbox or a fuel cell. What are those what are the fuel cells called? Romax or Rotax or RotoPak. RotoPack. Yeah. Yeah. I knew that I knew it was somewhere in there. So do you know why it's called a roto pack? Tell me why is it why is it called hey, hold on, hold on. Aaron. Hey, why is it called a rotopack?
SPEAKER_02:Because it's made from a roto mold. Do you know what a roto mold is? Aaron, what's a roto mold? Okay. This is where this is where everyone's turning everything off. There it be. So a roto mold is it what it sounds like, it's a rotational mold. So they put the plastic inside the pellets, it rotates, you know, at a specific speed, and then the mold heats up and then melts all the plastic. So that's how these complicated uh um forms are made. And it's actually quite interesting because most plastics, like a plastic two-liters pop bottle, that's uh uses air. So it has a um a slug and you fill it full of air and it fills in the mold. But a roto mold uh works by heating up the mold and putting the plastic in and spinning around. So it puts all the plastic in all the extreme corners. So that's why it's called a roto pack.
SPEAKER_01:Cool.
SPEAKER_02:That's cool. History.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks. So I can either put a roto pack in there or I can put a toolbox in there, and I have mounted a toolbox in there, and that's where I keep some of my yeah, extra stuff, tire changing kit spares. Um, then on top of that, I have the Moscomoto 35-liter outback pan ears, soft panniers. I have the extra five-liter pockets on the front and the back of those, and then on the front of those, I have the brush guards. So, and then I bought the the uh the long, I think it's a 1.5 meter locking cable. So when I do want to lock them up, I mean they're hard enough to get into. There's a there's a there's a really great video of someone trying to cut into them, and they're there for like 20 minutes trying to cut into that soft padier because it's so thick. Anyway, highly recommend those. But I want to I want a more carrying space, and that's the same stuff that I used when we went out to uh to Norway. Cool. With that, which it didn't actually take it out there um with you to Norway, was the um was a 40-liter tail bag. I've actually never used it, I bought it all at the same time, but it's a 40-liter tail bag. But now I'm gonna use that 40-liter tail bag to put on my camping gear in with my upgraded camping gear, which I'll get to when I get to that third page here. So for the tank bag, I have a Moscow Moto Nomac. So I think it used to be called a Nomad tank bag. So it's a Nomax tank bag. It has a two, it's it's loaded with compartments. It's the same one I took to India. It's um and to actually California, and it's got a two-liter water bladder in there. It's got multiple compartments, it's expandable, it converts into a backpack, it fits on pretty much any bike. And there's a beaver tail. If you lift it up and you put it through the helmet where your head goes, and you pull it out the part where you see and you snap it in, you can use it to carry your helmet. So it's all it's all integrated. So you can use it as a helmet carrying case as well. So I it's my go-to bag when I'm gonna fly anywhere with that. Nice. Yeah, and and ride and ride bikes. It's a good thing. And then the one thing that you helped me do before we before we left the Norway trip was to mount the aux beams, the auxiliary beams, which are I guess it's like a a Chinese version of the Denali headlights. Yeah, that's right, baby. Cheap Chinese stuff. Yeah, man. And they're really good quality, super nice. Um, so there's I bought the tri bulb on those, and they mount on a plate, which goes, it's an add on plate. It's like a 20 bucks, 30 bucks thing, and it goes right below the headlight on the T7. And then you mount these um these. On it. And we also bought the um the CAN bus. The CAN bus is a pretty cool setup. You can program it. You you did that on your bike as well, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Anytime you want to put any kind of auxiliary light, anything like that, it's my advice. And it's happened. Actually, it happened to Brian. We were on the Washington Backcountry Discovery route when he had his uh his KLR. And if you have a switch to turn anything on, you are living in the past. Uh, because everything now can go through the CAN bus. And you will never forget to turn something off, or you will never screw up your bike's electrical system by tapping into something. And it's very hard to quote unquote tap into anything these days because everything is on CAN bus. So uh the CAN bus uh by Denali or its its parent brand uh is a must-have. It's so, so important.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And one of the things I thought was really cool about that is you could there was pre-settings on it. So you could tie it to certain things. For example, on my bike, if I if I trip my, if I'm on low beam setting and I trip my headlight, my high beam, my trigger, three times in a row, then it goes to a rapid pulse. I think it pulses five or six times. It goes five rapid pulses, pause, five rapid pulses, pause, five rapid pulses, and then it stops. And I have to say that when I do that and I'm doing it about, let's just say, beyond what most people are doing in the left lane, they get out of the way really fast.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it looks almost like emergency vehicle lights because the almost every one of these LED auxiliary lamps, they're chest, you know, either on or off. It's binary. It's not like an old is incandescent bulb where it has to warm up. So it's it's quite effective. Uh yeah, and they're oh, they're amber.
SPEAKER_01:And I got the ambers as well. Oh, you have to have amber. You gotta have amber. Um so as far as the that's all I've done to my bike. There's uh there's other there's other things I want to do, like I want to shorten the brake levers. You've done that on the uh on the GSA and a few other things that I want to do, but I haven't really done much of that. And I haven't done enough off-road riding to do um one of the things that my my buddy Sven says I should do, which is to change out the airbox and get like a twin air filter, which gives you a little bit more power. Robert has one on, Robert Baldinger has one on his um on his bike, but I haven't done it yet. So those are other things I want to do, but yeah, you know, there's time.
SPEAKER_02:Those guys are running a lot of gravel roads. And if you're running in more than two people on, you know, desert or gravel roads or dusty roads, you know, you're gonna be eating dust, right? It's brutal. And uh, you know, having good air filtration is uh and easily serviceable. You know, the problem with these bikes now, it's it's it's so hard to get at your air filter. And we learned this in in India, and we were just so starving for power that I'm like, I need to change my air filter, at least knock it out. And you have to disassemble the whole tank. Same, same with the GSA uh or any GS, you have to take apart the tank to get at the air filter, and it's so difficult to get at that it's almost impossible to do a quick field, you know, smash the air filter against the tire operation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Just to clarify back up for a second there, when you said we're starving for power, now were you referring to it when we were out there in Hanle, where they only had power on for four hours a day, or did you actually mean in the bikes?
SPEAKER_02:No, the bikes, yes, the answer is yes. There's no damn power. And uh and uh there was no power in the bikes, which you know, you were just constantly wide open, and everyone was pulling away for me, not just the fact that I was, you know, the fattest guy there, but everyone was constantly pulling away from me all the time. And I'm like, there's something wrong with this freaking bike. And I, you know, I really wanted to uh anyways clean the air filter, but you know, I couldn't because there was never time. And then when you get to the to the bivouac or wherever we were each night, the you know, it was uh godfather time, and there was no going out there in the cold and taking apart a bike that I was unfamiliar with to try to clean the air filter. So we just suffered through it.
SPEAKER_01:To the defense of the Tanere 700, it is simply a matter of taking the the front seat section off and boom, there it is. It's right there. Super easy.
SPEAKER_02:It's way better, yeah. Anyways, I'm not, you know, I'm not riding riding through the desert of my GSA these days, anyways. And and whenever I'm riding with someone on a dirt road, you know, I get right up on, you know, you have to trust a person you're riding with. And my strategy is getting on their quarter. I get close enough that I'm outside of the dust. And the person you're riding with has to be responsible and like not be, you know, erratic. But I stay just enough back if they have to dodge over to one side, they're not gonna make contact with me. But I'm I can see, I can, I'm out of the dust. And uh, you know, it's uh it's a it's a cool experience to ride in a proper formation, but I try to just stay out of the dust, is is my strategy now.
SPEAKER_01:We're gonna stop the show for a second, just so I can need to make a note to self-tailor. When riding with Aaron in the dust, do not be erratic. It's okay.
SPEAKER_02:You uh you forgot one thing on your bike list is your twin pegs.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my god, how did I forget that? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Um, love the twin pegs. Yeah. I went down, I think I mentioned this before, but I was down at the um at the scoog and I went out and I rode my buddy Sven T7 out in the ground. I rode my bike and I was like, dropped it, dropped it. And the people just get tired of helping me pick it up. They're like, you work it out yourself, buddy. You keep dropping that machine. 220 kilos or something wet. And um anyway, so I uh I got my bike back, and then Sven goes, here, take mine. I had a big tank on it, big uh plastic uh tank, and I rode it around, had big ass knobies on it, and these twin pegs, and I went brushed around this sand pit. And I came back and I was like, what kind of bike is this? And he goes, It's a Tenera 700, you idiot.
SPEAKER_02:Anyway, I was like, twin pegs, put them on. Yeah, Robert had put twin pegs on my bike when he abused it. I mean, sorry, used it. And I, you know, I thought, what is this nonsense, right? So, and I felt, you know, because we only went ripping around the hills there, and yeah, I actually like them for standing up. The only way I could describe it is I felt like Superman. I felt like I could push my body weight into the resistance of the wind. And I know it's like farkly, right? But it actually makes sense. So I ride with adventure boots, not uh motocross boots. So I don't have a metal plate in the bottom. So it actually is really cool. So if anyone wants to try twin pegs, uh they're on my bike, they're on your bike, give them a try. Uh, you know, we don't really know the people that that make them, but I do I thought they, you know, I do. I thought I thought they were cool, anyways, is uh is what I'm saying. I never would have bought them, but now that they're on my bike, uh I'll just leave them in there and they're and they're fun. They they they put a smile on my face. I don't have a real uh off-roading use for them anymore. But uh as I'm on the road, I think they're cool and they make me giggle every time I stand up.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but anything that makes you smile, we gotta keep. Maybe just get some get some for your shoes. So damn rare.
unknown:All right.
SPEAKER_01:You want to talk about how you set your bike up, or should I jump into camping gear? Go, you go, and then we'll talk about camping gear.
SPEAKER_02:I'll do my setup uh quickly. So this is my second or third GSA. It's a 1250, and in the US, you can only order them one way, like like most things. It's the premium, premium, whatever, all the all the all the things. And when I order a GSA, I order it with the GPS, the crappy GPS, by the way, which I've returned three freaking times. But anyways, uh, I order it with the GPS mount, with the GPS, and I order it with two of the black, I have a triple black, with the black uh hard bags. The hard bags are made by Tour Tech, but uh you can order them from the factory. I do not order the top case. Everyone knows that that I think uh it's weird looking having the having the top case. And if you can't swing your leg over your motorcycle, there's too much gear on your bike, anyways. Uh, so that's how I order it. Uh, and the first thing you do is well, I I shouldn't have to do it anymore because I don't really ride off-road that much anymore, but rip off those stupid plastic hand guards and put on bark busters. I yeah, I put on the SW Motec version uh because they're black. I actually order them with the Wind Guard extensions uh because I ride in cold a lot. So I get the SW Motec Black Bark Busters or whatever they call them, and I'd get the Wind Guard uh extensions. And while I'm on that uh website, I also order the SW Motec bash plate.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, that's cool. I haven't changed the bash plate on my bike yet. Um, but when I it's interesting, when I went online to buy those, have you bought have you purchased Barkbusters lately?
SPEAKER_02:No, I just ordered the SW Motec ones only.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so I went to the Barkbusters site and then it pushed me over to the and when they when they when they arrived, I ended up buying it from a SW Motec site, and then it said Barkbusters buy SW Motec. So I wonder if they bought them.
SPEAKER_02:Ah, interesting. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. But when I I bought one that showed up with the other, and I was like, okay, and then now my Barkbusters say buy SW Motec. And what I didn't get, which I had, I wish I had purchased, is the um the wind deflector because in riding in the cold, it doesn't keep the uh the rain off your hands.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I know what we're getting really in minutiae here. Yeah, but when you order the the the bark buster and the wind guards, there is another thing you order, which is the extension. And uh if you ride, if you if you crush miles, you know, you have to get this thing. If you're only going for a rip off-road, you know, they do look they do look a little old man-like. But anyways, if you are crushing highway miles, definitely get the extension on the wind guard. And I want to mention about the SW Motec bash plate. What comes with it looks a little, you know, looks a little timid. And the SW Motec bash plate just looks really good and the engineering is good too. You can uh it's quick to take off because I do all my own oil changes and stuff. So it, you know, you can, I have to take it off when I'm changing my oil because it just collects the oil. So it's I think six bolts, it pops off, drain the oil, you know, clean it up, take out the oil filter, spray it all down with uh parts cleaner, and then then put it back on. But it is kind of wasted on me, you know, uh doing the hard off roading. Oh, I gotta share this this crazy serendipitous story. Tell me. So there's a there's a gentleman who just signed up for the rally. I think he's a Swedish dude or a Norwegian dude. And I apologize if I just offended him. He posted a picture on his Facebook page of a Colorado pass that was full of water. And I go, I know that pass. That is Hagerman's pass, and that is right at the top. And I go, it's always full of water, right? And I and I know that. And then I posted a picture of me with my bike on the ground, and you and I did Hagerman's pass. And of course, I dumped my bike at the uh it's like a gatekeeping obstacle at the beginning of Hagerman's pass. And it's a difficult pass. And my bike was on the ground, and I posted it, and then I go, I know that pass. And then he posted the exact same picture of his bike also taking a dirt nap. And I felt so good about it that the fact that we all dumped our bikes at the exact same spot on the exact same pass. It was really, really serendipitous.
SPEAKER_01:It was funny. I looked when you sent me the picture, I was like, dude, that's the same rock. It was just in it was the same vantage point from the other person who's coming up behind him, which was me at that time, because I took the picture of you. And then you got up, we we got your bike going, and then you got up and we were on the radios or on the uh on the Senna's, and then I got up a little bit further, and you're like, Did you make it? And you're like, and then I dropped the bike and you're like, God, I feel so much better.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you dropped it too. I don't remember that.
SPEAKER_01:I dropped the bike afterwards, yeah. And you're like, God, I feel I feel so much better now.
SPEAKER_02:So stupid with these bikes, these stupid giant GSAs doing these things.
SPEAKER_01:But let me tell you what, man, I wish and I wish I was on that. Uh I still want to go back there and and and and get that one with the uh the T7.
SPEAKER_02:I think if I had, you know, the blank checkbook, I think I would have a little 450 or something like that that you could just throw in the back of the van. So I need to get myself organized this winter. And I actually have a little TW200. Uh, I bought it for my wife to learn how to ride because it is like the ultimate little farm bike. Yeah. And it has that really tall first gear, so it's really easy to get going. And I'm like, it's just too small to, you know, I'd look like a football on a flea to be riding around, you know, checking out, yeah, checking out desert passes for the cannonball route. But um, in a perfect world, I would love a little 450 or something that you just don't care about. Like you could go in anywhere, it's cheap enough, you could just destroy it, but they're so resilient. So yeah, I think uh I think my my future holds a smaller bike that I can just throw in the back of the uh the blue whale.
SPEAKER_01:I want to get on the CF Moto. Now I know that we really I tell you what, those little um, those Himalayan 450s that we had, I swear to God, they're you know, when you hit the 8,000 RPM, they and the dashboard turns red and screams at you. When we were riding up to the highest motorball pass at 19,024 feet, I'm the whole way up there. It was like I was hitting that red, and I was like in third gear hitting the red, and I looked over and I was like, dude, I could walk this fast. Yeah, we're just flogging it. It's just flogging it, right? Yeah. All right, carry on. Sorry, I interrupted your list.
SPEAKER_02:We're into this for 40 minutes already. So, um, because people keep asking me, so I'm gonna say it now. I have the two-finger levers, they're just cheap ones. They're from NICE CNC, which is like the greatest Chinese company name ever. They're the two-finger levers. And if you don't have two-finger levers on every one of your motorcycles, you are living in an alternative universe that doesn't make sense to me. They're just the greatest thing ever. It's just just like the twin pegs, they just make me smile instantly. And they're very practical. So you can have your baby finger and your ring finger holding the handlebars and like controlling the handlebars. Uh, if you have a if you have a manual, if you have a manual clutch, I get it. Uh, but if oh my god, is this gonna come off the freaking rails?
SPEAKER_03:Oh my god, it's so bad.
SPEAKER_06:Pull it together, Captain.
SPEAKER_02:Hold it together. We're professionals. This is the number two podcast. Pull it together, Roman. Number two. Pull together, number two. Two fingers, number two podcasts. We got this.
SPEAKER_01:You got this. Breathe, you got it, you gotta go.
SPEAKER_02:Anyways, get yourself two finger levers. Oh my god. Okay, moving forward here. All right, and then I have uh the sticker that goes on your tank because at the back, so it protects it from scratching. I also have the most important thing besides the two-finger levers, is I have the Tour Tech 6 million freaking dollar adjustable shifter. I also have a oh, if this is the best thing. So I have the Black Dog CycleWorks aluminum. It's called the Helipad. It's the giant size cargo area. So you remove your back seat, throw it in the garbage, replace it with the uh Black Dog Cycleworks helipad. So what I do is 99% of the time, I just ride with my two hard panier bags and the helipad, it looks cool. Uh, you know, no one's no one's riding with me anymore. So uh, and if it's an emergency, you know, just suffer, right? So, and then if I go camping, what I do is I take my my dry bag, uh, it's a Wolfman luggage, the biggest one they make, and that just goes on top of the helipad, and I can put it in line with the helipad. And I use rock straps, ROC straps, uh, the medium-sized ones, and then I can still open my hard pen ears. And then I've removed my passenger pegs and the brackets that are attached to those. You don't have to change any hardware. You can remove the hardware, remove the the fasteners, throw out the the passenger pegs, throw the more blue lock type, and you know, dug a duga those, those, those back then. This is new actually. So I was trying to move some weight forward. So I found that at around 120, 125, 130 miles an hour of air speed, I found that the bike can go faster, but it's the air and the weight distribution that was making it unstable. So I carry a quite the extensive toolkit, not really for my bike, but I usually end up working on everyone else's bike. My toolkit, which is in a roll, it's in a lone rider role, and it's worth every damn penny. This thing is expensive, man. This thing is like 78 bucks US or something like that, plus shipping.
SPEAKER_01:I bought the same one. Yeah, they're good. I remember you told me you're like, you gotta buy that one. I bought that.
SPEAKER_02:And I've filled that toolkit up exactly with what my bike needs and what other people's bikes need. So it's quite extensive.
SPEAKER_01:And just and you have and everything that T7 needs as well. And I appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02:T7. Actually, the last time I really saved someone's ass was I was on the ferry going to Isle of Man, and there were two dudes with older bikes, and his primary bolt that holds his um drive gear in uh was falling out all the time. And he he didn't have the tools to get it out, and he really needed some Loctite. So I was able to help him remove that bolt with my tools. I was able to clean the bolt and the barrel and then give him the Loctite. So I was able to, you know, use this giant kit. So, in order to move this weight forward, I got these cheap, bought it on a whim. They're like 30 bucks. They're dry bags that attach to my crash bars. So up front, in one of them, I keep my tool kit because I don't care if the bike falls on it. And on the other side, I keep my half rain cover. I have like a half, three-quarters rain cover that go on the bike, that goes on the bike. And it's bulky. Like, I'm like, why am I carrying this freaking thing around? So, but because it's up front, I don't I don't even think about it. Being able to move the tools forward, I was able to move that weight forward. So uh that's that's basically my storage. What else do I have here? Oh yeah, and then I, you know, immediately throw out the stock exhaust and I get the Akropovic titanium exhaust, but don't make the same mistake I did. Do not get the BMW Motorrad branded Akropovich exhaust because a nanny state has got involved in it and it's compliant uh for the entire world. Get yourself the Akropovich titanium exhaust that is not branded BMW and it sounds way more gooder.
SPEAKER_01:Way more gooder. That's that's nice. I appreciate you, appreciate you bringing that to the podcast. Are you done? Is there anything else you've done to that bike? Tell me what is in your camping bag, Taylor. Yeah, so I just upgraded and and um after I ran through these six items here, I just did a little math while you were talking, and it came in at just over a thousand US dollars. Now, ouch. Yeah, but it also took advantage of these crazy Black Friday sales and some of the stuff I got for uh like the sleeping bag, for example. It was a$400 bag, and I got it for. 230 or something. So some of the stuff, if I had if I had paid full pop for all of it, I probably would have been closer to 1800. But anyway, so big big savings on that stuff. So let me just run through these items. So the first thing I got after having borrowed a um like a two-season sleeping bag from a good friend of mine. When I borrowed it from him, it was like warm out, and by the time Scoog hit, it was just above freezing. Anyway, so needless to say, due to that experience, I'd rather have more sleeping bag than less sleeping bag. Because you can always open it up, but you can't you can't close it up and do more if it just isn't there.
SPEAKER_02:So you skinny bastards have these problems all the time. You got two problems when you're skinny. You're always cold when you're sleeping, and you're always grumpy when you're hungry. This is the problem with being skinny. So I advocate for a few extra pounds.
SPEAKER_01:I need to open another beer to get catch out to catch up. So what I have is an Arab, which is a great, is a great um outdoor name. Arab 800 fill down a cent pro is good for negative 15 Celsius. And I think that's probably around negative 15 Fahrenheit. I think negative 17 is when they're about the same. Um, and then what I did get, because it's it's quite big. I mean, this is if like in its normal state, when you leave it in the bag, it's it's a big thing. But when you compress it down into its normal 20-liter pack that it comes with, that's still pretty big. So I got a C to summit lightweight compression sack so I can make it about 10 liters. So it really packs down. It's obviously not good to leave it in that state, but when you're using it and you're traveling with it, then you know that's what you do. I got a sleeping pad, I got a Nemo tensor, all season, normal length but wide, because I anticipate putting on some pounds. I got a pillow. I did a lot of my research that I did here came from Gear Lab, gearlab.com. And that's where the majority, that's like my my go-to Bible. I want to know what what is this what is this? Because they test stuff really, really well. So if you're looking at get stuff, figure out you know what the numbers are and go, this one's in my price range, because that that information is in there as well. And just and you can shop that way. That's pretty much what I did. And then I had to find out what the equivalent was to buy it in Europe. And then of course there's 25% VAT on top of that, except for Black Friday. Um, so I got a pillow as well. I've had a I've had camping blow-up pillows before, and they just, you know, you move to one side and your head rolls off, it gets skinny, and the other side gets fat. This one got for years, this one's had the top rating, and it's called the fillow, uh F-I-L-L-O, and it's the Nemo, the same brand as the as the under the underlayment, uh, the pad, which is also uh an all-season, the pad, by the way. There's heating, I think it's a three to one ratio if I go back to the pad and the bag thing. It's more important to have this, it's three times as important to have the good sleeping pad under you as it is to have the blanket on top of you. So I'll probably just roast the entire time because I got a four-season uh underlayment. Anyway, back to the pillow, same brand name, Nemo. Nemo fillow. There's three th three sizes, and I got the elite. Then the tent. A ton of research on tents. I got a three-season Cedas Summit T Los, T-E-L-O-S, T-R-2. It's a two-man tent. And the close run-up was a Nemo Dragonfly. Um, but there was this the uh the one that I got has like a you can set it each piece up independently, and you can have like if you're on a beach and it's just sunny out and you're looking for shade, you can use this external shell to set up and then prop up. Like you can prop it up on yeah, you can put it up on the on the seat of your motorcycle, or you can put it up with two um two like walking sticks.
SPEAKER_02:Hiking poles, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, thank you. Hiking poles. And then it's like a a shell that you can sit in and have protection from the shun and sun and wind. So that's kind of a that's cool. Yeah. Um so anyway, those are again the gear runners, um, gear lab is where I figured out that that's what I wanted. And then um the luxury items. That's five items. So that's the the bag, the pad. Oh, the sleeping bag liner. So if you want to save your sleeping bag, you need to get a liner. Basically, it's a sheet, and I got a C to Summit reactor sleeping bag liner in the mummy version. And it's actually quite cool. You've got a draw drawstring on the bottom so you can you can wear it. So like you can just put it on and wear it. You can like hang out next to the campfire and then be like, I'm going to bed, and then get back in and then slide into your bed and then put the pull the drawstring around your feet. It's pretty fun. Anyway, it's good for you know, good like a party trick.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my god, you're so wild. I love it. I'm going to bed. I'm going to bed.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And then the last thing that I got was a foldable chair. And if you listen to the um to the podcast where you interviewed Danny. Danny McGee. Danny McGee. And he did the trips. He did, um, I haven't seen three yet, but there's three versions where that he and he and two other buddies and they did the DR650s.
SPEAKER_02:I didn't know the three was up.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know the three is up yet, but I saw one and two.
SPEAKER_02:So there's there's episode one and two, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:One and two. So they're still yet to do uh three. Anyway, but they talked about one of the guys didn't have a chair, and then they always teased him about not having a chair. And then in the season and in the in the second one, he finally got a chair, and then and then they were like, How do you like that? And he's like, I hate it. But of course, it was amazing. Um but these chairs they weigh like a pound and they're fantastic. And I got a uh a Helenox Zero, and it's a super lightweight, lightweight uh pack chair. So, and all of this, all of this stuff is less than 10 pounds.
SPEAKER_02:Nice. Yeah, if you're running your little T7, 10 pounds matters, right? 10 pounds matters, brother.
SPEAKER_01:Anyway, that's it.
SPEAKER_08:That's my that's my camping gear. Adventure, endurance, glory. This isn't just a ride, it's the ultimate test of rider and machine. The ADV Cannonball Rally challenges you to ride from coast to coast, navigating checkpoint to checkpoint by GPS and pushing past your limits. Take on every off-road stage, and you'll earn bragging rights and a coveted Rough Rider trophy. Own the twisty tarmac and you'll claim the checkpoint crusher award. Every mile counts, every choice matters. Rack up the points, and your name could be etched forever on the winner's cup. This year the routes are harder, the mileage is longer, the glory is greater, the ADV Cannonball Rally is open for registration. Fortune favors the bold. Sign up today.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I just made it I just made a note when I drive over from here to see you in England in May. I need to get a tire later just in case I happen to have a flat tire when I'm not traveling with you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and if you get one, because you have the the trickle charger port, get one that runs off of a cigarette lighter. And then you chop off the cigarette lighter and you solder on or whatever, put on the SAE adapter because there's more than enough power in your battery to fill up two tires worth of air. So it is very heavy and very uh uh much bigger to have the one with the battery in it, and that battery could go dead. So you have a battery, it's your bike, right? So just make one or buy one that runs off that SAE port because it's lighter, yada, yada, yada. That's that's that's my advice.
SPEAKER_01:I'll take it. I'll take it. Um, and with that, is there anything else you want to cover on that or should we just do that?
SPEAKER_02:There's a bunch of I'll just I'll just put it in the in the document. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I'm looking at the list and I'm thinking it might be another hour to get through that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, we're just gonna skip through it. But anyways. And people keep asking me for a packing list. So I've made a packing list.
SPEAKER_01:Boom, there it is. And he gave them, you know, he gave them 10%. So they got the rest of it to uh read on their own.
SPEAKER_02:The minutia, man. It's always about the minutiae.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. All right. So um, should we talk about new signups? What do you think?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, uh, let's do rally news first. So we have here, what do we have my list here? So so far we have eight alumni signed up for the 2026 ADV Cannonball. So thank you for everyone from the original group has signed up for the next year. That speaks volumes that the fact that they had a good time, or they're just, you know, masochistic and they're coming back for more torture.
SPEAKER_01:Probably a little bit of both.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I will skip through these other things, but can you please do the new signups for us?
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. All right. You are, I mean, we got a lot of signups going on here. I mean, you're sitting at a huge percentage. What are you? Are you 40% full? Where are you right now? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's exactly 40, 50% full. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:If you are signed up for 2026 and you have not received the first newsletter, it's gone to spam. The rallied notice page is open. Uh, you should have booked your hotel rooms, or I hope people are sharing hotel rooms so they're not all taken. So if you don't have access to the rally notice page, something has gone wrong. Please email me at uh podcast at advcannonball.com. Please send me a message and I'll send you the uh password for the rally notice page. You should have access to it already. Shall I jump into the list here? Let's do it. Sorry for cutting you off.
SPEAKER_01:No worries. Here we go. Nick Lucent from Broad Run, Virginia on his 1250 GSA. Marty from Annapolis, Maryland, my hometown. Shout out to you, Marty. Look forward to meeting you on his 1300 GSA. Todd Giardina from Athens, New York on a Harley Road King.
SPEAKER_02:That's yeah, brother.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, man. Bring it, bring it. Thomas Miola from St. Mary's Glacier, Colorado, on his Africa Twins Adventure Sport. Steve from Cincinnati, Ohio on his R as uh 1200 RT. We'll pack one, Roswell, Georgia on a Suzuki Vstrom DL 1050 XT. This is I like this. This is close to home too in Crofton, Maryland. I got Jersey Boy from Crofton, Maryland on his 1250 GSA, and Moto Queen from Crofton, Maryland on her 1250 GSA, and they have formed a team, and that team is called Team Cover Rufo. Here we go. James Howatt from Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1200 GSA. Simon Birch from Ludlow, Vermont on his Triumph Scrambler. 1200 XE. That is what VJ just bought. You know, VJ moved to India and Pune. He just sent me a message the other day. He just bought a Scrambler 1200, which is what his company, now KTM, they build it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I think that, you know, we see a pretty good contingent of riders that are clearly uh going to remain on road. So that's going to be cool to watch, you know, these two groups of people, uh, riders that are going to be strictly on road, and they're going to be the other riders that have the option uh in good weather, like we learned from last year, in good weather of hitting the uh the optional off-road section.
SPEAKER_01:And then I be when I finish this list here, I want you to touch on strategy a bit because I think that's important. Sure. All right. Um James, uh Simon Birch from Love. Okay, Frank Manfrey from Jacksonville, North Carolina on the Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro. And he is a gentleman who sent a challenge coin. So thank you to you, Frank. Captain Carlo from Nina, Nevada on his 1300 GSA is the sep second captain in uh in the first one. We had Captain Chaos. He was in the uh 2025, and then we got Captain Carlo. Welcome. Nice. So could you touch on strategy? I know we we talked about that earlier, and and I think we uh we may have skipped it, but like it's important to set your strategy because you've got a bunch of different checkpoints. And and just talking about the different bikes that we had here made me think about that. I think you might I think it's I think it's really relevant.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so if you're in to win it, if you want to go for overall winner, then you need to have an ADV bike and you need to be uh make it a strategy to maximize your points, and that strategy will change day to day or hour by hour, depending on what the field is doing. So that is maximum points and strategic points. Uh are you gonna go for the first to arrive? Are you gonna go for the extreme checkpoint? Are you skipping some checkpoints and trying to get that first to arrive? So that is a whole complicated bag of worms. But if you're gonna go for the checkpoint uh crusher award, that is the paved checkpoints. You don't need to go get the extreme checkpoint. And don't go get the extreme checkpoint, you know, if you're just going for the checkpoint crush award, get to the hotel at a reasonable hour. Uh and if you are going for the Rough Ride Award, kind of ignore a lot of the PAVE checkpoints and just go for concentrate on those uh off-road checkpoints. The extreme checkpoint is there for strategy for people who are trying to win the overall uh the overall winner. And hey, at some point they may be a red herring, or you've noticed that the guy who you're competing against missed a couple of checkpoints and he's going for the first to arrive. But you may be called an audible and says, you know what, I'm gonna grind today and I'm gonna get every damn checkpoint I can, including the the extreme checkpoint, because mathematically that's more points for the day. So there is a lot of interesting strategy here, uh, but don't necessarily just go get all the checkpoints for the sake of doing it. It's not necessary depending on which uh award you're you're gunning for.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So essentially have a strategy and recognize that getting all the checkpoints or having the highest there's gonna be some people who are separated from the field early on, and um, and that'll be that'll be evident within you know day one, day two.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and be smart about it. Just because someone's ripping through the course doesn't mean he hasn't missed the checkpoint. You know, remember every person we've talked to about big races like the car and stuff, the hardest thing is navigation. And everyone's, you know, shit talking. I'm gonna just go fast and get all the checkpoints. Yeah, okay, sure you are. You're gonna miss checkpoints. You're gonna have a mechanical failure. It's gonna rain. You're not gonna be able to get a checkpoint. There's gonna be a forest fire that that blocks out something, right? There's gonna be a government shutdown on Jeremy Brown. So I love the academic study, but identify your goal and then execute on the goal logically. Don't just go get checkpoints for the sick of getting checkpoints because you're just you're just wearing yourself down day after day for no reason. And with that, roll the intro.
SPEAKER_07: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 slash advcannonball. Or directly help save this sinking ship for the price of a pint at patreon.com slash 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 at advcannonball.com. Thanks for listening. And remember, don't be an ADV weenie. Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the fence.
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