TMFF 🎬 Caius Tenche in Victoria 🇨🇦

A 2008 Honda Goldwing dragging a custom 50-gallon fuel trailer just rewrote what “fast” looks like across a continent, and we cannot stop thinking about it. We unpack the new cannonball record, what made the attempt smart, and where the line sits between brilliant planning and outright chaos for long-distance motorcycle riding.

From there, we get into the gritty stuff that actually changes outcomes in an ADV checkpoint rally. We talk tracker tactics, plus a public leaderboard update that now shows the age of each GPS fix so you can finally tell whether someone is truly close or just out of range. We also explain why we added optional extreme off-road checkpoints, how strategy works when you are not required to grab everything, and the safety basics we never want riders to skip: emergency water, tools, tyre repair, bivvy gear, and a satellite communicator.

Then we shift gears into community and storytelling. We head to the Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival screening in Victoria and chat with the festival’s founder about why a motorcycle film festival can unite riders who never normally mix. In the lobby, we run into a real Dakar rally bike and hear Don Hatton's story of desert damage, exhaustion, and the kind of anger you only feel after you have had to walk away from a machine at 4 a.m. 

We close with ADV Cannonball Rally news, including the 2027 America’s Baja edition going live, 2026 rule updates like suspending park ferme before the final day, new signups, and a little biker music to send you back to the garage.

If you ride, dream, or just want better stories on two wheels, subscribe, share this drop with a riding buddy, and leave a review. What part of rally strategy do you want us to break down next?

Transcript

Thanks Beers And Banter

Speaker 6 0:00

Special thanks to Dan C. from the UK for buying us a beer and to Steve Bickford for buying us a case of beer. Thank you very much.

Speaker 9 0:10

Welcome to the ABV Cannonball Podcast. Where we discussed all things on two wheels, the adventure bike cannonball and other motorcycle-related nonsense.

Taylor Lawson 0:35

Wow. Welcome to Adventure Cannonball Podcast. I am your host, Taylor Lawson, and today I am joined by our perpetual point purveyor, better known to you as Aaron Pufal. Welcome.

Speaker 8 0:49

What's up, buddy? Thanks for having me. Uh what's coming up on today's episode?

Speaker 6 0:54

We got a bunch here. We got Cannonball record broken. That's cool. Gear updates, a little bit of industry news. Aaron goes to the Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival, Aaron's Rideouts, ADV Cannonball News, and finally some biker music.

Aaron Pufal 1:12

Well, my friend, I am here in Victoria, British Columbia. The sun is out, and I'm about to crack a Stanley Park Brewing Trailhopper IPA.

Speaker 6 1:26

Nice. And I know who loves a good IPA.

Speaker 8 1:32

Jerry loves IPA. I loves IPA.

Speaker 6 1:35

And uh and Carrie, I was gonna get a single, you know, a single IPA, but for you today, I got a double IPA. Double IPA. It is, and Aaron, you'll have to finish this for me. It is the mighty double IPA from the from the AL City Explosive, the Aromatic, Fresh, and a little bit fruita.

Speaker 7 1:52

A little fruita.

Speaker 6 1:54

All right. So uh let me make sure I nice. All right. Here we go. And listeners, please uh please join us. Crack open your beers. Hey, Aaron. You know, I was bonking around the internet like I do sometimes.

Aaron Pufal 2:07

Hold on. This is a uh PG podcast. What are you about to say?

Speaker 6 2:12

Oh, right. No, no, no, not that. I was gonna talk about the stuff that I can share on the podcast, but no, thanks for bringing me back on track.

Speaker 8 2:22

Um by the way, the last round table episode was not PG. I had the first time I've ever had to click explicit material for those degenerates.

Speaker 6 2:30

Yeah, exactly. Well done. Yeah, we have got some comments on those guys as well. So I just want to say that we are number two. Can you guess what region?

Speaker 8 2:39

The small island of Islam Meharis off the coast of uh Mexico, perhaps.

Speaker 6 2:44

Yeah, right out of Cancun. No, not there yet. We haven't we haven't gotten there to the uh five ADV riders on the island, but um, maybe next.

Speaker 7 2:51

Next time.

Speaker 6 2:53

No, actually, it's the Nordics. And uh I didn't know this, but when I looked it up, Nordics actually I figured, oh, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, but it also includes Iceland, just for the record.

Speaker 8 3:04

Huh. Well, you actually know all the ADV writers, so that makes sense that you've bribed them or threatened them to actually download the podcast. So hey, listen, it's paid off. Congratulations.

Round Table Tips And Tracker Games

Speaker 6 3:14

Thanks very much. You know, nothing like little arm twisting. Yeah. All right. Um, I got some comments on the um, first of all, I think the uh the round table was fantastic. I really love the authenticity that those guys brought to it. And they're truthfully, I mean, in hanging out with these guys, you hear a lot of the stories, but I never heard some of the stories they told on that, which were fantastic. So maybe we should have a little bit of a uh wing nuts recap.

Aaron Pufal 3:37

Yeah, no, it's good. So, first of all, it was not real. If you're a lawyer or a police officer, first of all, you know, you should consider a different choice in life, but it was a hundred percent AI generated. It was not real at all. Those guys don't exist. Yeah, exactly. Good point. Yeah, but I also felt like I didn't get all the stories, and I was officiating it. The whole time I was listening to the round table, I was like, oh man, I wish I was a part of that, right? Even though I was in the van, I was like, oh man, I I really want to be a part of those that cool kids' group.

Speaker 6 4:11

Yeah, it was super fun. I'm just hearing that it almost made me want to ride them. Yeah, exactly. Um, all right, so I thought it was pretty funny that halfway through these guys, they finally felt they had done enough heavy lifting that they could actually they earned cracking a beer. And um, you and I, we just jumped right in at the beginning because we we know what's coming.

Speaker 8 4:31

Listen, you're gonna need a beer. This is the only reason for the podcast, essentially, is to hang out and have a beer.

Speaker 6 4:38

Exactly. I also thought that one of the great comments from Carrie was that he talked about the uh the hipster kid who came in and was like, oh man, Carrie, you gotta get some of these sellers. They're so awesome. So he got them. He bought himself a case and he had one. He said it's horrible. And it was so bad it almost made him want to drink an IPA.

Speaker 8 4:54

Almost. But but not quite. Bastards. Yeah. I thought it was really interesting that I had never thought, and I sit and think about every conspiracy theory. I had never thought that they were turning off their trackers strategically, understanding that there is risk to that. I don't think you should ever turn off your tracker because you may forget to turn it on and miss a checkpoint. But it was really interesting if you're a really advanced writer and you want to, you know, trick people. That was really cool. And it is within the rules. You can absolutely do that.

Speaker 6 5:27

And let me ask you, is that going to work this year? And have you made any upgrades to the app, which may or may not change that?

Speaker 8 5:35

No, you can still turn off the tracker app. Um, but what I have done, and it wasn't to combat that, was in the public leaderboard page, there's a map, obviously, and it shows where everyone is. I found it frustrating not knowing the dot representing where a rider was, how old, how aged that dot was. So if I was standing there waiting to see someone or take a picture, I wasn't sure if maybe the cell phone was out of range. So now it will show you uh the age of the fix. So the color will change according to how long the fix has been in the system and there's a legend down at the bottom. So you can still do that. You can disappear, I guess. So it'll be interesting to see how people utilize the leaderboard page as part of the strategy.

Speaker 6 6:25

Yeah, cool. So if so it it turns gray if it's more than what, 10 minutes or something?

Speaker 8 6:30

Yeah, and it goes yellow after one minute or something like that. So yeah, if it goes gray, they've just disappeared for a while. But you know, if it's gone gray when they're in the middle of the Moab desert, one could assume it's because they're out of cell phone range, right?

Speaker 6 6:44

Yeah, good point. Cool strategy. These guys revealed some some good tips about how to work. And it was also interesting all the time these guys are waiting.

Speaker 7 6:51

Like, I mean, at one point, uh Hunter he laid his bike down in the weeds so that knowing full well where Chris was, so Captain Chaos, so that he wouldn't see when he came out.

Speaker 8 7:02

That was awesome. I had no idea these guys were doing that. I was it was great.

Speaker 6 7:06

And then it was nice at the end when they both talked about the most like what was one of the best moments for them when Carrie closed when he asked him that. And I thought it was great. And it was like the moment when they guys, then when they were like two guys supporting each other, they were competitors, but they had, you know, through this became really good friends and still are. And they supported each other to make sure they both, you know, two guys got home, got back to the hotel safely because they were out doing all kinds of crazy stuff. God knows what.

Speaker 7 7:31

Notice he did not talk about that in the podcast to say we were up to stuff. He didn't say what they were up to.

Speaker 8 7:37

Yeah, yeah. There was a competitor, we won't say who it was. We won't say who it was, who had taken a railroad track into a closed park. We won't say which one, and actually got a checkpoint that was right next to a police officer, basically hanging out and making sure no one comes into the federally closed building. This guy has balls the size of freaking cannonballs, and he rolled right up and said, Hey man, uh, how's it going? Knowing that he has to walk over and get this checkpoint because the the app hasn't pinged yet. Yeah. So this guy, this unnamed person, went and got the checkpoint and then got almost got arrested and used his silver tongue to get out of being arrested and then got escorted out of this unnamed park uh by a park ranger, a federal officer, and told not to come back. But you know, it was uh it was worth it for sure.

Speaker 6 8:34

Yeah, a great story, great story. And that was a story that may or may not have been skipped in the uh in the previous episode. So that's right. And um, I also had no idea that Captain Chaos would have pressed the emergency SOS button if that he was so close to exhaustion and dehydration when he was on the way to the Montezuma Castle waypoint.

Speaker 8 8:54

Yeah, so I don't even remember what that was, to be honest with you. So I have no recollection of it, but you know, getting that feedback uh is really interesting. Yeah, but I have no recollection of what it was.

Speaker 6 9:09

Would you make and knowing that, so having heard both of their stories, because I I know that Hunter also had that was a challenging day for him. Knowing what you know now, does that give any give you any insight or knowledge or any thinking about how you may change or put routes together in the future?

Extreme Checkpoints And Rally Safety

Speaker 8 9:28

Oh, yeah, making them harder.

unknown 9:30

Yeah.

Speaker 8 9:34

So you can choose whether to get a checkpoint or not. Yeah, you don't have to get them. So what I've done this year is there are actual off-road extreme checkpoints. And you should not attempt to get them. There's no need to get them, you don't need them to win any of the awards. But if you want to go get them, some are very, very difficult, and there will be people out after dark for sure. But uh, one of my spirit guys is this chain-smoking white-bearded dude in Tennessee that holds an overland foot race, and it's the most treacherous thing in the world. And I'm not saying I want to make it that difficult where you're forced to go, but you can optionally go ahead if you choose to to get these extreme off-road checkpoints. So they are there and they do help with your points balance, that's for sure.

Speaker 6 10:31

Yeah. Okay, fair enough. The um the other thing that might be good to think about here is that never leave the bike without water or your SOS beacon.

Speaker 8 10:42

For sure. And, you know, I have this little 450 rally bike, and it was designed for the Dakar. And for instance, in the Dakar in scrutineering, you must have three liters of emergency water. Not the water you're consuming during the day, but water that should be there when you return to the bivouac or in our case, the hotel. So in my bike, I have a tank built into the skid plate that holds specifically three liters of water. So even though this rally is a hundred percent independent and we do no scrutineering and no support, and we have nothing to do with the safety of you or your bike, you should carry some things. You should carry emergency water. You should carry an emergency bivvy, you should carry an emergency blanket, one of those silver ones, which mainly you can use for a sunshade if you have to work on your bike. You should carry, you know, a the tools for your bike and other people's bike. You should carry a tire repair kit, you should carry a garment in reach, you should carry a whole bunch of things. But that's the reason why we don't have a list, is because we don't have the bandwidth to scrutineer. And I don't think everyone wants to be scrutineered. This is a 100% independent event.

Speaker 6 11:58

Yeah, fair enough. Um, as as you were telling me about that, I didn't know that there was actually a tank in the bottom of the bike for three liters of water. And I was just thinking that considering the fact that on this next rally, you or we are actually not going to be doing long distances, but instead dropping the bike out, joining up to get photographs at these tough checkpoints. But I imagine that uh instead of having water in there, maybe you'll have like three liters of McAllen.

Speaker 8 12:23

McCallum with a little syringe and people who make it get a little shot of McAllen 20, right?

Speaker 6 12:29

You could bring your own plastic cup like Neil Peart, right?

Speaker 8 12:32

That's all right.

Audiobook Launch And Audible Cut

Speaker 6 12:33

Wow, what a badass, right? Yeah, absolutely. I love it. So tell us maybe a little bit about this um audiobook. I heard uh you know a nice compliment to you. This guy with silver pipes, you sent me this. Hey, check this out. And there was some really great feedback um from this guy, and I said, God, it's I I didn't have any information, I didn't have any like heading of what it should be. There was no context. Yeah, no context at all. And I was like, that's gotta be the guy who read this. Amazing voice. Anyway, tell us about that.

Speaker 8 13:06

Yeah, so it's finally finished. It's another giant hole that I shovel money into for no particular reason. But you know, it's kind of like art, right? We're not sure why we're doing it, but but we're doing it. But anyways, the voice actor is finished. We'll actually have him on the podcast, and I uploaded it to uh Amazon. It's called ASX. It's the audible um platform, and I was absolutely shocked. So these son of a bitch billionaires, they take 60% of the revenue from a sale of an audiobook, and they do jack shit. They just host it as essentially an MP3. Wow. They do, they do literally nothing, and you write it, you edit it, you you do the hire the voice actor, you you do everything, and all they do is post it and take 60% of it. You dirtbags. I swear to god, I'm so angry about it, as you can probably tell.

Speaker 6 14:04

Is that SpaceX or Blue Horizon they're paying for? I can't remember which was it? Blue, one of those.

Speaker 8 14:09

They're not. That's a side project. It's uh a vanity project where they took a bunch of celebrities and put them up in in space for funsies, please.

Speaker 6 14:19

But you know what? Because you're you've got it up on their platform, YouTube could potentially be going for the next ride.

Speaker 8 14:25

No, it's crazy. They took celebrities. They took, I'm not gonna take the old angry, bitter rally dude, you know.

Speaker 6 14:33

You know, don't give up hope, Aaron.

Simpson Helmet Review Gone Wrong

Speaker 8 14:35

You know, speaking of being angry, I I have to tell you about my freaking helmet more. This is the world's worst helmet, right? The Simpson adventure carbon fiber piece of junk, right? So I finally got the motorcycle running properly, so I was able to do like 50 miles an hour. And at about any kind of highway speed, 50, 55, 60, the little sun peak, no matter what you do, it kind of moves a little bit because it it there's some shoulder bolts that hold it to the helmet. Yeah, and it doesn't really get affixed correctly. And I understand why, because the visor has to move underneath. Anyways, it's so poorly engineered that it constantly vibrates because it's technically loose. So you're riding along and it just vibrates in the wind. Like it's fine if you're doing under you know 40, 50 miles an hour, but once you do 50, 55, it just doesn't stop vibrating. It's the worst helmet on the planet, officially.

Speaker 6 15:35

You know, we've done some really good uh user testing on this. You need to like send them a copy of the podcast and go, by the way, we reviewed, we have reviewed thoroughly your helmet, which you like our feedback, you can find it in given the timestamp.

Speaker 8 15:49

Yeah, but they don't care, right? Because if they just use the damn thing, right? Like, take for instance this as well. So when you close the visor, we talked about that it doesn't have the little one millimeter detent to let air in before. So if you want to close it all the way, if you do do 55 miles an hour, I'm like, oh, I'll close it all the way because it wants to open right up. Yeah, the latch to close it is so freaking aggressive. If you try to open it with one hand, the whole helmet wants to come off. You have to use two hands or like use your fingers as leverage to hold it to yeah, to hold the helmet on. It is the most expensive piece of garbage on the planet. It's the Simpson Coyote Adventure, something all carbon piece of garbage. I'm so embarrassed for those people who signed off on the final production. Go, go make this. I feel good about this. I don't know who those people are, but they should be ashamed of themselves.

Speaker 6 16:48

Let's get them on the podcast.

Speaker 8 16:50

Forget it.

New Coast To Coast Record

Speaker 6 16:52

All right, fair enough. So mad. You know what? I have a beer. Have a beer, man. There you go. And while you're having the beer, let me uh let me ask you about the I mentioned in the intro, there's a new cannonball record set. Tell us about that.

Speaker 8 17:07

Yeah, so there's the southern trail, they call it. It's you know, essentially, if you draw a line from the coast of Florida to the coast of LA, it's the shortest kind of route. I'm not I'm not a big fan of it. I'm an old school guy. I believe from the Red Ball in Manhattan to the Portofino. But this guy took another tack. There's been the guy who did it with the S1000, there's being Bo who's done it with the FJR, and now this guy has done it with a Honda Goldwing 2008 vintage pulling a custom-built 50-gallon fuel cell trailer. So it was a really, really smart attempt. Yeah.

Speaker 6 17:45

Wow. God, that must have been heavy.

Speaker 8 17:48

Yeah, for sure. Stopping would have been an issue. But so he's done it in 27 hours and 27 minutes. And if you're a motorcycle cannonball aficionado, you will know that the previous record for that route was 28 hours 28 minutes. And for the Trifecta, Bo's proper record from the Red Ball Garage to the Portofino still stands at 32 hours 32 minutes. So that is some crazy celestial stuff there.

Chinese Brands Disrupt Superbike Racing

Speaker 6 18:22

That's wild. 27, 27, 28, 28, 32, 32. Nice. Crazy, right? Nice. All right. Um so you know, one couple of things that we've talked about, I think you maybe two or three drops ago, you talked about the idea that Chinese bikes, and people say, oh, that's Chinese crap, but that's no longer the case. Tell us, tell us why we have one more point to make that as accurate statement.

Speaker 8 18:47

Yeah, for sure. So it's big news in the FIM community. So the FIM superbike series, I think it was one of the races or the whole thing. Anyways, they've won two races now. It is the ZX Moto $6,000 superbike has won two races. And it is a major disruptor, the fact that you're going against Ducadis and you know, all these Hondas and BMW. And, you know, they're winning. It's as simple as that. You can have all the opinions you want, but there are guys with Kove's doing 10,000 miles, they're they're they're podiuming on in the Dakar, and now they're winning super bike races. So it's really, really amazing.

Speaker 6 19:30

When I was in Morocco, I saw that the um all the cops are riding CF Motos. Not not ZX, but CF moto, right? The uh the adventure box. Yeah. Um, so they're on the I guess the 800s, which is one of the biggest bikes down there because as I I I think I mentioned, I shared, I sent a couple of um, I put some posts up, and it was the um the Yamaha Mate 50cc. It was taken, Yamaha built it to compete with the Honda Cub, and it is the number one bike in Morocco. Wow. And these guys, these guys, I sent you videos of this. We're in these little alleys, and these alleys are like 10 feet across, and there's two people walking single file on it, can be either side, or a whole row of people walking single file, and these guys cross each other at 25-30 miles an hour. So they have like a a crossing speed at 50 miles an hour in this alley that's I mean, truthfully, they they fold the mirrors in when they run through the alleys at these speeds so they don't clip people's elbows. That's how close they are to you the entire time. It's nuts.

Speaker 8 20:41

Wow. So how was your trip? You just got back from Morocco. I saw some amazing, emasculating photos.

Speaker 6 20:49

I'm guessing you're referring to me with the turban on on the camel.

Speaker 8 20:53

Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah, there was more.

Speaker 7 20:57

Oh, oh, I know. I know. Wait, yeah, it was me in the purple apron in the cooking class.

Speaker 8 21:02

Oh, that was painful.

Speaker 6 21:03

Yeah, but yeah.

Speaker 8 21:05

You should really win a husband and father the year award for emasculating yourself that much.

Speaker 6 21:10

So I'm definitely, I'm definitely, I'm I'm I've I put myself in the um in the list for that.

Speaker 8 21:15

Absolutely. Yeah. So Taylor sent a bunch of great pictures of the classic spice soup market that's set up for tourists, the the camel rides, these poor camels all strung together. And it's just so freaking heartbreaking. Here's Taylor with the whole family sitting on the back of them with uh uh you know a turban around his head. But listen, the family was happy, so listen, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Speaker 6 21:38

All I gotta tell you is the camel behind me on both. We did two camel rides, and then the both times a camel behind me had a muzzle on. I was like, oh that she's a biter.

unknown 21:46

She's a biter.

Speaker 8 21:48

Anyways, it looked, it looked like fun, but to me, I was like, you know, we really gotta get a Morocco rally in the pipeline for sure, because it's just screaming for adventure.

Speaker 6 22:00

Yeah, that's one of the things. Um, I know you and I kicked the idea around of well, like when are we gonna go down there and do a pre, I guess, uh pre-ride and pick pick a route for the cannonball. But yeah, I can definitely see look, it's got all the things we need. You can run a GPS there. You can they got two coasts. I mean, come on, two major elements.

Speaker 8 22:19

Yeah, for sure. And the desert and there's mountainous, there's the Atlas Mountains, there's some straightaways on beaches, so there's some not really interstates, but there's some high-speed roads as well. So it has all those elements that I think should be a part of an ADV cannonball. And they're all there. Plus, it's a little exotic, it's kind of easy to get to if you're European. So yeah, it is definitely on the on the wish list. But all kidding aside, it was it was cool to see those photos, and it was cool to be reminded that we definitely need to go down there.

Speaker 6 22:51

Yeah, that's definitely on the list. And um, I went there with very low expectations based on my 20-year-old son's feedback about what to expect. And by the time we went down there and met him, and by the time we we all left, he's like, I have a different experience of what this we based out of Marrakesh and did day trips out of there, and it was super fun. So I highly recommend it. Yeah, it's cheaper than um than Europe, and uh, but not significantly. But they people like I'd walk up and they go, like I'd buy a piece, like I'd watch somebody in front of me buying a baked good at a market, and they would charge the person ahead of me like a euro, and then I'd rock up and they go, five euros, and I go, Are you kidding me? You just sold it to that person for a euro, and they go, five euros. And I said, I'm not gonna pay you five euros, and then they say, Well, what will you pay? And then I say, I'm gonna pay you, I'm gonna pay you a euro. And then by the time I left, I paid three euros every time. It went like this, every time, every day, a new negotiation, same thing. I always pay double or triple.

Speaker 8 23:48

Yeah, it's their culture, and it's whenever you travel, it's very hard for us as Westerners to not impose our culture on their culture. But everything is a negotiation, and yes, you are a pale-skinned, rich son of a bitch showing up in a desert, you know, for funsies, and you know, you gotta pay the toll. You got, you know, that's just the way it is. And everything is negotiation and it should be treated like a bit of a sport. There is the cliche Persian rug salesman, and yeah, that's exactly correct. Yeah.

Speaker 6 24:25

Yeah. And if you go into it with every negotiation, with you know, it can be fun. You walk in, it smile, you can be nice, and it and it can be fun. Like, you go in there and you agree on a price, and and once you agree on a price, then you know, you get proper change and like the the the trickery is over. It's like once you agree on a price, then then everyone just relaxes and then you know they pack up your your wine glass. It's like I my my my sister's like, Can you get me some the tea glasses? Because I'd like to drink wine out of those. And I was like, sure. So I said you go get a lot of. I like your sister. I like her.

Speaker 8 24:58

Anyway, the same also goes for Mexico and like the traffic. So when you're in the Baja Rally and you go through Ensenada, let's say, and there's a traffic light, yeah. You politely filter down the side. And if someone cuts you off, they just got somewhere to go. Don't be offended and don't impose your culture and flip them off. Just go around them politely, right? Don't be offended by things that happen on the road either. And don't be offended, you know, when you have to buy gas in the middle of the desert and that's a negotiation. That's that guy's business. He's like in the middle of the Baja Desert in a pickup truck sweltering out there. That's his business. Owe him, you know, give him the respect that he is due, right? So the same thing holds true with the guy who's uh selling swarma or something, you know, he's he's there in the in the alleyways of Marrakesh, you know, doing uh this tough job. And what does it really matter to you? Like, you know, you're this rich guy showing up, comparatively speaking. Yeah. And uh what does it matter, a euro or five? Just you know, we we dropped 20 euros on a couple of beers in uh, you know, in Sweden. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 6 26:06

Yeah, but and then it makes drop $40 on a couple of years of beers in in in Norway. In Norway. Yeah, right, exactly. Yeah. Anyway, good point. The uh same thing, the same point I made about India. It's like people don't mind, you know, the you know, you're driving like the souks, right? The souks are packed. It's the most packed environment trying to move through. And then and then somebody comes through with like a tuk-tuk with tourists in the back. Uh-huh. And it takes the entire space, but people just move, they step in in the shops and nobody's complaining. There's no Karen's there. There's nobody there getting their their tuk-tuk license plate and putting them on Facebook and going, you know, you drove your tuk tuk through. And based on that, it made me want to drive a fully loaded GS through there at high peak rush hour. I thought it'd be great.

Speaker 8 26:53

And post it on social media, right?

Speaker 6 26:55

Social media. Look at me. Wrong left turn. That's awesome. I also thought, and we'll leave this behind, but I also thought as I was laughing about that, I was thinking, this should be one of the waypoints.

Speaker 7 27:07

You can either ride your bike into the souk or you can walk in with your phone and get it, but it's in there.

Speaker 8 27:13

It's funny because I live by and operate the rally by DBAC. You know, don't be a, you know, whatever, don't be douche. And I, you know, I avoid that. I don't want a hundred bikes going through somewhere, right? And I don't want to, I don't want to have a bad reputation. Like, fine if someone does a wheelie through an intersection in a little town once in a while. You know, that's cool, right? But to send a hundred bikes through a mosque area on a Friday afternoon, probably not the best look. You know what I mean?

Speaker 6 27:41

Probably not good. Yeah. We can we just scratch that one off. We'll have we'll have covered it now in the podcast. We can leave it.

Lois Pryce Interview Prep

Speaker 8 27:46

Yeah, yeah. And that's a good segue, actually. We're we're both preparing for our interview with uh Lois Price. And I just finished reading Lois on the Loose, and she has a bunch of cultural differences that are viewed through the saddle of an adventure bike. That's fantastic. We got two more books to go Red Tape and White Knuckles, and of course, the one about Iran. So we'll we'll finish those in preparation for our interview in um Windsor, Windsor, England.

Speaker 6 28:16

And also, I've been listening to her the interviews that she's been, she's been on other podcasts and she's been interviewed. I've listened to some of those, and I've made a note of all those questions, and those are questions that we will not ask because they are the same questions that people ask in all of the interviews. And I'm like, that's a little disrespectful to the people you're actually interviewing. It says you haven't done your homework. They're like, Well, what do you want to talk about? You know, it's your job as the as the person asking the questions to have done your homework and maybe ask them something that they haven't answered 10,000 times.

Speaker 8 28:48

How about what's it like being a woman riding in a third world country?

Speaker 6 28:52

Yeah, or in a Muslim country. Uh well, yeah, let's talk about that. I think that those are things we're gonna stay away from. And and yeah, yeah. So anyway, that but that's what that's what makes the research behind these um these interviews uh interesting. It also makes it challenging. So you've got to come up with a thing that isn't just you know, you can't ask GPT, a chat GPT to set up your interview for you actually have to do the work. Right.

Speaker 8 29:13

And speaking of chat GPT, Ingvar, our friend in Norway, who runs TwinPegs, he used Chat GPT in the most amazing way. So I had to buy him an ECU for a T7 because he wanted it sent to a guy in Seattle that reprograms them without all the nanny features, full race mode, and he'll program them for the gear you have attached to your T7. So one of the things that was missing from a brand new ECU is the VI number. So Ingvar went on Chat GPT and he goes, Can you generate me a VIN number for a T7 sold in Europe? And he sent me the VIN number. I sent it on to the speed shop, and we got the ECU back with a chat GPT generated VIN number.

Speaker 6 30:07

Very nice. And that's for his T7, also known as a probably an eater.

Speaker 8 30:13

I'm not sure. I'm not listening, I like controversy, but I'm not taking sides.

Speaker 6 30:17

I'm not taking that one, no. No, no, no, but that's cool. I also thought it was interesting what you shared about the actual tuning of that, so it makes it more what he's using that bike for. And I was like, oh, is that something I should get for my T7? And you're like, definitely not.

Speaker 8 30:30

No, so I was putting the livery on my Kove 450, and you know, I was getting used to a race bike, and I just happened to take the seat off, and the ECU is right there high and dry, and it says right on it. It says Kove 450 rally pro race one point, whatever. So that's what's not Euro 6 or EPA approved, and that's what's obnoxious about it and difficult to ride. But it is that's the programming, and it is terrible. If you're just going around to the beer store to get a six-pack or just doing a mountain pass for funsies, it's terrible. It is a lot, it is it is not fun. So for Ingvar, his T7, he wanted all those restrictions taken off and because he uses his T7s, you know, specifically for racing.

Speaker 6 31:20

Yeah, he's on some amazing Instagram at not so easy.

Speaker 8 31:25

Oh, is that what it is? Nothing not so easy.

Speaker 6 31:27

Yeah, he's got some great um like he's got a picture of him weighing his bike from what it was initially initially stock to what it's turned into, which is gonna be a bit like Hunter's bike. His um his 900, his BMW, uh, is it uh 900 GSA, yeah. And uh he's like the num the VIN number will be the same, right? It's gonna so he has done the same thing with his T7.

Speaker 8 31:50

I wonder what Hunter was alluding to that he's done. Maybe he's put a bigger engine into it, maybe he's boarded out. I'm not sure, but he's done something for this year that is extraordinary, and I'm looking forward to finding out what specifically that is.

Speaker 6 32:02

Yeah, so maybe we can get him to talk about that. Also, one of the things it might be good to mention this now is that we intend during the actual rallies is we'll both be there, we'll both be have we'll both have podcasting equipment and we'll both do short, rough cut, not really well edited, but drops that'll come out the day after.

Speaker 8 32:24

Yeah, for sure. And it'll be more organized because plus I was delusional, right? By like day three or four, I don't know where I am or what freaking highway it is or what's what or what town I'm going to. So having some help this year, I'm really appreciative of that. And I will be able to be a little more organized. And by making more field notes and you doing field notes and editing in real time, it will be more organized. And I think it will paint a better picture for listeners.

Speaker 6 32:50

Yeah, I just had a thought of you like being a rock and roller and like rocking out and going, Welcome, London. I love London. They're like, dude, dude, you're in Spain.

Speaker 7 33:01

It's like you've missed, you've missed the country entirely because you just can't keep track of them because everyone just blends together.

Speaker 8 33:09

That was exactly it. And it's sleepless nights. I'm waiting up for freaking Iron Man because he's got a broken foot. I'm waiting up for Jay because you know, he's broken down and gone to a shop, even though I shouldn't be. I, you know, I just give a shit about people. I'm like, I want to meet them and give them a beer because I, you know, I love the fact that he shows up. Or, or um, that other guy that bought another motorcycle when his motorcycle broke. I'm like, you know, this is really interesting stuff that needs to be acknowledged. And that's why you stay up all night waiting for these people. But unfortunately, by day four or five, you know, I'm a nightmare. I don't know what's going on.

Speaker 6 33:41

Yeah. I just have an aside here. So um I was just thinking about Jay. So Jay was Jay had the Harley, he had the bagger. He had the Indian. Sorry, the Indian. Apologies, the Indian. And he was um, he was there's a picture of him and he's fixing a clutch cable or something. He's laying on his back and he's like, he's like, I'm down here anyway. I may as well just have a cigarette while I'm here. So it's a picture of him laying on his back just having a cigarette, like halfway through his repair.

Speaker 7 34:04

And I can just see him like laying next to your Cove 450 with the bottom plug out and his plastic glass and his cigarette drinking your McAllen that you're gonna put in the water tank.

Speaker 6 34:21

Oh my god. Just to do that now. Yeah, we have to do it now. Now there's yeah, one more put it on the list. One more thing. Add that to the list.

Speaker 8 34:27

One more thing Aaron has to do.

Speaker 6 34:28

Another great idea by Taylor that Aaron has to execute on.

Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival Interview

Speaker 8 34:32

I'm gonna write a list right here. I'm gonna put uh I'm gonna put uh syringe. Syringe, exactly. Syringes on my list. I gotta buy a box of syringes so you can take. Would you like 10 cc's of medicine syringe? Anyways, we're rambling on here. So let's get to the interview. It's either going to be, because I'm leaving right now, it's either gonna be an interview, a short ad hoc interview with the founder of the Toronto Motorcycle Film Festival, better known as TMFF, or it will be my field note going to the film festival. I'm not really sure yet. I'm gonna head down there shortly. So uh with that, let's roll the interview/slash field note.

Speaker 10 35:18

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Speaker 1 36:15

Welcome to Victoria. Thank you so much. I'm actually super excited to be here. It's beautiful weather, beautiful city. Is this your first time in Victoria and your first time staying here at the Empress? This is actually my third time here in Victoria. My first time was probably, I'm gonna say like 25 years ago. And then so there was a 23-year gap. And then last year I came back because we had the first motorcycle film festival here last year. And so now I'm back, I guess, for the second time. Actually, third.

Aaron Pufal 36:45

Tonight is the showing of the motorcycle film festival here in Victoria. And I've got my ticket. I know it's sold out. I'm really excited. Can you tell our listeners what people would should expect at a screening here in Victoria and maybe how that is different to your flagship showing in Toronto?

Caius Tenche 37:04

So in Toronto, where we have our flagship event, you're right in calling it that. It's a three-day festival, and we have um more films than what we're showing just here in Victoria. Um on average, we have about 20, 25 films, and we have filmmakers coming in. Uh, you know, we have QA discussions with them, receptions, that's typical film festival stuff. Here in Victoria, it's smaller in that it's just one evening, uh, like two shows with different films at each, but it's just one evening. And that's just because, well, it takes quite a bit of work to put on like a weekend long affair. And this is only our second year in a row here, so yeah, I'd love for it to continue to grow. And you know, if if there's an appetite to make it bigger, I'm I'm for that. Tonight, people can expect um to have a really great time. Like we've set it up so that you're gonna walk out of there feeling inspired and also moved as well. Like, we've got films that um are about travel, adventure, pushing oneself beyond like your typical limits, and also some really like heartfelt emotional stories. Like the last film that we're showing is called The Drixton, which is about a guy who tries to rebuild his dad, who used to be a motorcycle racer, to rebuild his bike that almost killed him. And it's uh, you know, it tugs at the heartstrings, but it's a great story. Um, and the reason why I think people are gonna have an amazing time is because pretty much everyone in the audience is gonna be a rider. And when you're seeing these stories that you can really relate to, it just it's another level. So we're all in the same room, we're laughing at the same time, we're gasping at the same time. We all just get it, what we're seeing, and it's it's pretty magic. It's gonna be great.

Aaron Pufal 39:07

So you don't know this, but as I pulled up on my obnoxiously loud motorcycle in front of the Fairmont at the valet, the uh ellipse there, I of course asked the valet if I could park my bike on the side. And I said, Well, I'm gonna meet someone here from the film festival. And he goes, Oh, the film festival. He goes, I can't go tonight because I'm working. So even the guy who is the valet knew about the film festival, and he told me about a ride that's happening tomorrow in uh in celebration of it. So anyone who rides or even is in the periphery of motorcycle seems to know about it. But you touched on something that's important that this is a massive undertaking. I organize events and it consumes me. How did you end up organizing the first event and these events? And maybe do you have a history of motorcycling? I I'm just really having trouble making the connection between why someone would take on something so sadistic as to organize a film festival.

Caius Tenche 40:00

So I came into motorcycling late in my 40s, and it was middle of winter. And so I did what probably most people would do. I went down the YouTube rabbit hole and I uncovered, you know, you start seeing videos, and it's anywhere from like vloggers with like a GoPro strap to their helmet. But then I discovered this series of short films called Stories of Bike by this director in Australia called Cam Elkins, and uh they were amazing, just like 10, 15-minute little short films, beautiful roads, beautiful bikes, but really the films were about the people and their stories, and it really connected with me like a lot. I just loved it. And one thing led to another. Uh I this idea of a motorcycle film festival, I you know, there were other ones out there, and uh I couldn't go. And um, it just sat with me. And three years later, like not having been to one or one not existing in Toronto, I just said, screw it, I'm just gonna do it myself. And I just put my head down and figured it out and put it together.

Speaker 8 41:12

Yeah, we're friendly with um Austin Vince and his wife, and they had one for 10 years in Europe, and it was really missing on this side of the pond, this type of festival. You mentioned that you came to motorcycling late. Maybe you can tell us that journey. What was your first bike and what do you ride now?

Speaker 1 41:28

It's really weird how it happened, and I still don't really understand. So I've I've been a car guy for most of my life, but here we are. It's I don't know what month it is, let's say December. I'm sitting on the couch, it's late at night, kids are asleep. My wife and I are watching some TV show and I'm flipping through a magazine, and there's this uh article about some cafe racer. Well, without an exaggeration, it was a light switch. At that moment, I'm like, hun, I want to get a motorcycle. I don't know what happened, why it all came to be. Anyway, I turned to her and I told her that, and she said, Yeah, okay, go ahead. And that was it. That started the whole process of like researching, figuring out what I want, what kind of a bike. The first bike that I got was uh Honda CBR 500. I'll be honest, the reason why I got it is because I thought it looked great. It was red, it was uh shiny. Um, I didn't know what kind of a bike I wanted, right? It's first bike, and I didn't want to get something that's too big. You know, from what I read, 500 was just about the right place to start as a new rider. So I ended up with that, and I had that bike for about four years. At that point, I'm like, I think I'm ready for something else. And I started testing out, you know, doing different uh demo rides, Ducati's, Triumph, Harley's. Um, and I ended up with uh a Harley Fat Bob, uh, one of the newer models when they redid their soft tail line. So that's what I still have today.

Speaker 8 43:03

And coming back to the film festival, you as a writer, has the film festival or its films influenced your writing or influence your wish list or plans to ride in the future?

Speaker 1 43:14

It has influenced it, but not in a good way. The reason is that from January till end of June, we have our submission window open. So we get films in. And then from June till September, I'm like heads down working on the film festival, watching all the movies, getting the website up, setting up the events, organizing with the filmmakers or with the distributors, and then you know, my real job as well. So there's just no time, no time to ride in the summer. It's horrible. Like it sucks. So it's influenced it that way. Um, but also it's influenced it in the sense that um I would love to undertake some. Some nice long rides, you know, big adventures, try an adventure bike. I'd love, I'd love to do that as well for sure. I'm pretty sure I will love it. Or, you know, off-road riding. I love mountain biking, so I'm pretty sure I'll like off-road riding a bike.

Speaker 8 44:15

So we'll see what happens. Well, the next time you're back on the island, we have a great 1,000-kilometer loop in in the North Island. And I have a couple of bikes here. You can ride the Kove 450 or the GS, whatever you like. You can we can take you on a on a multi-day adventure. Uh the offers there. And I know that the show, the uh the festival, is going to Picton, which I find really strange. We have another uh connection here. When I was a kid, I was a DJ and I used to DJ at the Hayloft. If you know Picton, you should know the Hayloft. And I would spend the whole summer in uh the sandbanks. It's really, a really special place. Maybe you can tell us how you ended up in Picton and what the reception has been like or what you expect it to be like.

Speaker 1 45:00

Okay. The road to Picton is um it's an interesting story. So Picton like has been working really hard to build itself as a cultural destination. You know, they've got wineries all over Prince Edward County where Picton is located, like posh hotels have sprung up. Um, a lot of people have moved out of the city, like out of Toronto, and you know, tried to get away and move to Picton. Um, so they've been working hard at building itself up as a tourist destination. My other job, other than the film festival, is I run a marketing consultancy. And so a couple of years back, I started working with a team who was putting on an event called Motocraft, which um is sort of like motorcycles plus art plus music plus uh riding, it's like a motorcycle cultural festival, not like a motorcycle show under in a convention center with like neon fluorescent lights or anything like that, right? And so I started working with them, helping them uh launch this event and doing all their digital media and marketing and so on. And it started in Toronto the first year, and then the second year we moved to Picton. And now it's third year is also in Picton. One of the founders moved to Picton themselves. And so the two of us have been working together for a couple of years, and he thought it would be a great place to bring the film festival, and I have been eyeing it for a couple of years, to be honest with you. It'd be a great place for TMFF to head out there and use it sort of as a launch pad to uh promote motorcraft for 2026.

Speaker 8 46:50

Cool, yeah. I've when I was there, I was quite bare bones. We were kids, we were camping in the in the provincial park, and then my last few years there, I would stay at the Isaiah Tubbs resort.

Speaker 1 47:01

Do you know about base 31 in Picton? No, I've never heard about it. Okay, so do you know or do you remember where there was an airport, like a or a World War II, like Air Force training base over there? Absolutely. We used to go there with the motorcycles and terrorize the place. Okay, well, they've completely transformed that. So they've built up like this really cool destination where you it's called base 31, and they they took over the old airport, and the hangars have been converted into uh like uh this one, one of them is called the drill hall, which is like a music concert venue. They've got like outdoor art gardens, they've got galleries there, they've got tons of like food halls, and it's a pretty cool happening place. So that's where Motocraft is taking place.

Speaker 8 47:47

Like most festivals, you designate a winner or something that stands out to you or your committee or to the audience. Maybe you can tell us that process and if you have uh selected someone as the front runner for this year.

Speaker 1 48:00

Yeah. So we have a judging panel that's made up of people that one are writers, but also like they come from the media or yeah, the media world somehow. They could be writers or uh filmmakers, you know, some something like that that's involved in in the arts. And so they watch and view all the films, uh, and then they score them on a number of criteria like production value, editing, pacing, you know, color, sound, cinematography, storyline, like the typical things. Um, so they rank all the films, and then from those we uh select best feature film, best short film, sometimes other categories, best Canadian film for sure. And uh then the winner is announced at the our main festival in Toronto. And then the audience also votes for their favorite, um, you know, at the end of watching all the films. And we have yeah, the winners we're we're showing almost all of them tonight. So we're gonna be showing the best Canadian film, best short, best feature.

Speaker 8 49:06

I'm looking forward to actually coming to the festival tonight. And I know there's a diverse group of people that are coming. I know there's a vintage motorcycle club coming tonight. I know there's some ADV riders coming tonight, there's a few street riders. What do you want these different groups of people to take away from your film festival when they leave?

Speaker 1 49:24

That's a great question. What I want for them to take away, and what I've seen happen in every city, is that people are united regardless of what they ride. Like we've gone into cities in the past where we've been told, you know, we don't get really get this group of people or this group doesn't mingle with the other group. That's never been the case at that I've seen, or at least at the film festival, because we're all, you know, it's two wheels. It doesn't matter what kind of a bike it is, like the stories relate to all groups. And I've had uh audience members come up and you know actually thank me for bringing the community together, which is really humbling and like it's it's amazing. I I love doing it, I love seeing the people's reaction to the films. Um, that makes me happy.

Speaker 8 50:18

Yeah, so I'll see you at the film festival tonight. I know we're gonna take a couple of pictures for my new project. I've just given you a copy of my book, and uh, you know, if I can give you a vote, I think Robert Bollinger has a fantastic movie called the ADV Cannonball Rally. And you know, maybe I can slip you a hundred bucks or something and get a and get an extra vote in. Maybe maybe that's possible. It doesn't work, it does not work like that at all. Nah. Maybe it will, maybe it will. All right, thank you, and we'll see you tonight. Thank you so much.

Speaker 50:47

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 10 51:03

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.

A Dakar Bike With Battle Scars

Speaker 8 51:28

So we're in the lobby of the film festival, and we just ran across an actual Dakar rally bike. And I'm standing here with the owner. Maybe you can introduce yourself and tell us about the bike.

Speaker 5 51:39

My name is Don Hatton, and uh this is my rally bike from my race in 2013. And it was uh when time Simon Pavey was my teammate uh and his son Lil has the movie, the Dakar movie that you're about to watch tonight. He he helped build this bike. So yeah, it's uh it's it's a great bike. I I it was uh we had assistance from BMW on this one. It's when BMW owned Hush Carvana. So yeah, it's a very cool bike.

Speaker 8 52:06

And maybe tell something about it. What is it? What is the engine? Can you tell us maybe something about the heritage? It's it's authentic, it's beat up, it's got rally stickers on it, it's got this bike, the way you're looking at it today, is exactly how I walked away from it in the desert.

Speaker 5 52:18

So I had got run over by a big one of the big racing lorries that run right over top of me. In fact, if you you look at the bike, you can see the tire tracks right over the back of it. And uh, I'd ridden another 14 hours to try to get to the end of the stage, and the clutch let me down, I think. I've I ended up having to walk away from it at about four o'clock in the morning. And uh I'd replaced the clutch twice on it, and it still didn't seem to fix it. And I haven't looked at it since I brought it back from the desert. I've been so angry at it, I just put it in the corner of my shop and just left it there. And then that was the rally when it was proper. Yes, it was it was uh South America that year. So yes, it was a it was a terrible, it was a sand dune where everybody was stuck. And this Lari went to go around me and he uh he lost control and ran over my bike. So um yeah, it was a was a horrible night that one.

Speaker 8 53:06

Maybe you can tell us about the movie that you're here to see tonight that reflects the bike.

Speaker 5 53:10

So the movie I'm here to see tonight is uh a movie done by Llewellyn Pavey, and it's uh on the history of the Dakar. I think it's really cool because he's using a lot of classic bikes. And the reason this bike is here is because Llewellyn and his dad uh built the bike, and his dad was my teammate, and Llewellyn was kind of our mechanic on that race, so he was in and out all the time as well as filming and taking photos. So uh I'm here to support Llewellyn because he's a great little young producer, and yeah, I really want to support him.

Speaker 8 53:40

It's really unique to have a bike from the island here at the film festival on the island. What are your plans with the bike in the future?

Speaker 5 53:48

Uh probably put it back in the corner of my shop and be still angry at it because uh no plans for it. I think you know, I'm yeah, just leave it. I have I've got four Dakar bikes, so uh they all sit together and remind me of the great times I had over the years racing in the in those races.

Speaker 8 54:03

So maybe you can tell me something about your resume. You said four Dakar bikes.

Speaker 5 54:08

Yeah, I've done the Dakar four times. Um I spent five years racing World Rally, and so I I I've had the opportunity to race in uh Saudi Arabia and in Tunisia, South America, Mexico, Italy. Um and it's yeah, it's been a it's been a great experience for me.

Speaker 8 54:26

It's uh torture on a fun scale, I suppose, but uh you have a different kind of um version of fun than most people. But what are your plans in the future?

Speaker 5 54:35

Well, I've just taken up actually downhill mountain biking. And I I went in my very first mountain bike downhill race uh in the US last week and I won. So uh that was pretty cool. I'm I mean I won my age group, so uh but it was still very cool. I'd still like to do another Dakar. I I tried to get into the Dakar last year, but uh I think they they didn't come directly and say it, but reading between the lines, they said I was too old. So at first I was angry and I was like, what? But then I watched it on TV and I was like, maybe they're right. So I don't know what my plans are.

Speaker 8 55:06

Well, maybe it's uh on four wheels in the TSD classic, maybe.

Speaker 5 55:10

Yeah, a lot of the young guys that I that I've raced with are doing that, but I I I'm still pretty loyal to the two-wheel scene, and I I I really enjoy riding my dirt bike, and you know, I don't know. I don't want to admit that I'm getting too old, so I'll just keep training and trying. And yeah, I I mean I didn't even start this until I was old. So yeah, I've really enjoyed it. It's a great sport.

Speaker 8 55:28

Well, I'm not gonna hold you up from seeing the film, and thanks very much for bringing this piece of heritage down here and uh enjoy the film.

Speaker 5 55:35

Thank you. Yeah, thank you for showing us.

Speaker 6 55:52

Nice, whatever it was, whatever it was, sir, it was done well. It was done amazing, amazing, amazing. So, um, why don't we do a little bit about uh Aaron's rideouts?

Rideouts And 2027 Baja Rally

Speaker 12 56:07

Let's hit the road, smash some gears, and ride out to this week's adventure by checkpoint.

Speaker 8 56:19

And this week we have the Rosebank guest house. It is a gem, it's in the Scottish Highlands, and there's not a lot of places for bikers to safely have their bikes and in kind of the way we like to have Bs. Yeah, so it's set up for groups, it's set up for bikes, and it's in the Highlands. So it's on the map. And if you're doing the the 500 route up there, or you're just going into the Highlands, make sure you go to the Rosebank guest house.

Speaker 6 56:51

And now for a little bit of ADV cannonball news. Nice. All right, so the 2027 America's Baja edition is live.

Speaker 8 57:04

It is, it's a big deal. So I've been working on it on the background, working on things with hotels and routing. It's harder than you think. It was challenging. There's a few changes in the way that we're going to do hotels and things like that. So the first night is an official hotel. I got a great raid, it's a fantastic hotel all the way down to Cabo and the tip of the peninsula because it is a coast-to-coast. You can come down early. We're going to be there early. We are doing a convoy from Tijuana all the way down. It's free. We're going to have a chase van. We'll have two chase vans actually in Mexico only. It's the first time that we will offer some sort of limited, limited support just because I don't want to leave you, you know, in the Baja with the coyotes, the coyote is eating you.

Speaker 6 57:57

The coyote is right, not the coyote.

Speaker 8 58:00

Right. Yeah. Or leave you at a beach bar somewhere because you know you've found a new, a new lady friend and you're not, you don't want to leave.

Speaker 7 58:07

And you got a fresh tattoo of a hula girl.

Speaker 8 58:10

That's right. That's exactly right. So um, so, anyways, there's a lot of stuff on the page. Please go check it out. I'm really proud of it. It's going to end in San Padre Island, another great hotel. Our awards banquet is going to be outside on the they have an outdoor event area with a stage and everything. Nice. It's going to be over the top. It's going to be our biggest, greatest ADV cannonball rally ever. It's the third annual and it is live. I won't post the people who have signed up yet until the next rally's over, just because I'm a little overwhelmed with work. But, anyways, it's live and it's a big deal. And I'm really proud of it. And I hope uh I hope people show up because, you know, the truth is this will be the first year that we can kind of, well, I can kind of break even. So I really hope that we get the people that that turn out. Uh, we also have a big party. We have a big party at the Baja ADV Garage in Tijuana. Nice. It's called our the Survivors of the Baja Party. It comes with all the food, all the drinks, all the tequila. So it, you know, we've really gone over and above here with this rally.

Speaker 6 59:19

Yeah, what an amazing host. I um he was when he he took your bike in. He had what is his name from the Baja Garage? Marco. Marco. What a gentleman. I love the interview with him. He's so kind. He just exudes kindness.

Speaker 8 59:32

Yeah, he's a bit of a Persian rug salesman. If we, you know, he's he's a little tough on the negotiation for the party, but I'm I'm I'm happy to I'm happy to pay what he wants, and I'm happy to bring the business there. And by the way, his garage is in Tijuana. You can go early and leave your bike there. And if you need a set of tires put on, if you want to store your bike there for a while, it's a great resource. It's about 15 minutes from the border. It's super easy to get to. And, you know, I've I've left my own bike there. And I and I've done his rallies. So he's a really good dude. And uh the resource is there for us as well as the as the rally passes through.

Speaker 6 1:00:08

There's the I mentioned this, I think three drops ago. There's a uh WhatsApp group for traveling through Central Mexico, Central America, and South America. And I'm not sure where the break in the countries is, but I think it covers all those regions. Uh quite often I see on there when people they people ask for advice. You don't like you don't know when they dropped in. They dropped into the chat, but you don't know where they dropped into the journey and they haven't gone back. No, actually, if they just dropped it in the chat, they can't catch the old chats. But quite often the Baja Garage is mentioned as a resource to get things done when you're in Tijuana.

Speaker 8 1:00:45

Yeah. And um the Baja as a whole is a motorsports mecca. So it was actually difficult to find a week that didn't conflict with a score event or didn't conflict with us a smaller event, or even with other holidays. So it was tough. So actually, we're starting May 1st is the departure day, the start day from Cabo, which is a little late in the season, actually. It's going to be a bit warm, but there's a purpose for that, and those are the reasons, is we don't conflict with anyone. However, there are events that are later in the year, and those are just too hot, in my opinion. So that's that's the date, essentially, is May 1st is a start date. However, the convoy will leave, will leave earlier, and it'll it'll be a lot of miles. It'll be the largest ADV competitive event of its kind that crosses borders. It's an international event. So we will help you with all that. It's not scary, don't get freaked out. It's not like central Mexico. It's Baja and it's meant for motorsports and it's a fantastic place. And I hope people show up.

Speaker 6 1:01:51

Yeah. It's not like it's not crazy, like trying to go from the US into Canada or anything.

Speaker 8 1:01:55

No, it's not uh it's not like communist or socialist or anything like that. Yeah.

Speaker 7 1:02:00

No, I was just laughing about the fact that when we when we did the rally one time, you and I almost got taken to secondary because they were like, and what do you do?

Speaker 6 1:02:07

And you're like, I'm a fixer. And then the guy's like, so what do you do? Like, um, like, you know, kill people for this guy? And he and then, and I was like, no, let me take this, Aaron. No, like, but you know, like it was like we we are on the way to the secondary.

Speaker 7 1:02:21

We will never make it to the finish of day one if we do not stop you talking right now to this border.

Speaker 8 1:02:26

Whatever, man. I got a Canadian passport. I'm good.

Speaker 7 1:02:28

You can't stop me. Exactly. But the the Swede next to you is going to jail after the cabinet.

Speaker 8 1:02:33

Stop, won't stop.

Speaker 6 1:02:34

Yeah, guilty by association. Exactly right. Yeah, and rightfully so, to be truthful. All right, enough of that. Um Mark, Iron Man Turner, is offering shipping to the start line of the 2026 rally, and he has some space left. I just want to say one thing. Uh-huh. In the previous episode on the ADV Cannonball round table, this is the gentleman they spoke about who uh broke his uh leg two days before the I guess two days before the end of the rally, he rode the last two days. Uh-huh. Not only did he ride the last two days, but then he rode his bike back from California to Texas, which is another two or three days with a broken leg. And that's why he's Iron Man. And that's why he's Iron Man. And also the reason that if you need your bike taken to the start line of the 2026 rally, he is your man.

Speaker 8 1:03:26

Yeah. So essentially he's going to start off in California and just go along like a route and pick up bikes along the way. And it's a big deal because we offer shipping from the finish line. There's a tractor trailer coming from Hall Bikes, but it's logistically difficult to get a bike delivered somewhere to a hotel. No one will do it unless you got deep, deep pockets to have a guy show up with a van that's like white glove, right? So thank you to Mark. I know he doesn't listen because he's, you know, 70 years old. He's doing this, and I'm grateful for it. So if you are on the fence, please reach out to Mark. His information is on the rally notice page for the 2026 America's Rally.

Speaker 6 1:04:08

And just to be clear, you know, to all of our dear listeners, Aaron did not mean to discriminate there against people who are above 65.

2026 Rules Updates And Strategy

Speaker 8 1:04:15

Listen, I feel like I'm 65, and I look it. Yeah. Um, let's talk about some checkpoints for 2026. I want to say that I've cleaned them up a little bit and I've reorganized them. And I don't think they're going to change at this point. And our next point is a change, but from today, when you're hearing this, I'm talking in your ears. They're not going to change. I don't think. However, please observe the rules that 30 days prior to the start is the cutoff date to any changes. But I did clean them up and I was just talking to Carrie, and he's going to do a round table about navigation. And we talked for about an hour, and we still have no conclusions about navigation. That's how complicated the topic is, and that's how interpretable it is. Anyone can do it their own way. So he has his opinions, I have mine. He taught me a few things. So, anyways, uh, the checkpoints are there, they're more organized. And on that same note, in 2026, because of rich bastards, dirt, the old coast road, your favorite road, Taylor, yes, is now gated off. No. Yeah, because these billionaire son of a bitches, I think during COVID and during the landslide when the road was closed, yeah, they just bought up all of the old coast road. They put gates up, and the government lets you do that because I don't know, because rich guys can do whatever they want. Now the old coast road is a hundred percent gated off. So that checkpoint has been deleted. Thank you, rich guys.

Speaker 6 1:05:48

Oh man. I used to just rip that on my uh my DR650 every weekend. Just go down there and rip her up and down there. That was amazing. Okay, well, that's a bit sad, but you know who can probably still This problem the wing nuts from the previous episode.

Speaker 8 1:06:03

I guess, but I just I can't in good conscience know that there's a closure and put a a checkpoint in there, right? Because it's also America, right? I don't get someone to get freaking shot for a checkpoint, right? So, anyways, whatever, it's closed, it will forever be gone. So, congratulations to everyone.

Speaker 6 1:06:21

Yeah. Okay, well, as I understood, that was a long day. If you listen to um to Iron Man's feedback, if you read his posts on the Facebook site, he's he's a by the way, he's he's rid he's back to mark again. He's ridden a lot of the routes that we're planning on doing, and he's reported them back in the Facebook site.

Speaker 8 1:06:43

And that brings us to the next point here is that's a really good segue. Is I didn't want to tell anyone now, but now that I thought about it, I don't want to accidentally come off as showing favoritism if something is up on the second to last night. So the very last day prior to the awards banquet is intentionally difficult. If you are a keen observer of the regulations, you will see that there is an official end to the rally, and you must make it to the finish line before the end of the rally. And it is impossible to do all those checkpoints, even the extreme ones, on that last day. So you have to be an adult and choose which ones you want to get. This is part of strategy. Yeah. Strategy and difficulty of the cannonball. So I was going to announce it the night before as a curveball, but like I said, I don't want to. Let's just say there's a tie between two people and someone feels like I'm friendly with someone and not someone else, and I drop this new announcement, it may be interpreted the wrong way. So to avoid that, I'll announce it now. So it's on the rally notice page. Remember, the podcast isn't official notices, but in the 2026 ADV Cannibal day seven, park firme is suspended. So what does this do? So because the last day, day eight, is so difficult, you can adult and choose to leave whenever you want because park firme is suspended. So you could, in theory, show up at the hotel, achieve the checkpoint, and just leave. Or you could get up at five in the morning and just leave. Or you could leave at noon if you want. I don't care.

Speaker 6 1:08:36

You can leave before your start time. Like say let's say in you're in the first 15.

Speaker 8 1:08:40

No, there is no start time. There's no start time. There's no start time. On the on the final day. On the final day. There's no start time. But there is a first to arrive, but it's just first to arrive according to the start number of the previous day. So it's a bit complicated math, but there still is a first to arrive bonus, but there is no park firme rule. You just leave whenever you want to leave. And the reason is for that, because it's such a big day that if you're one of the wing nuts, you're gonna go achieve as many of the extreme checkpoints as you as you can. All right. All right. Well, that's good. Any thoughts on that, Mr. Conservative?

Speaker 6 1:09:20

I think that people need to, and this goes back to the information that was shared in the previous podcast, and something we talk about maybe not enough, is to make sure you ride your own ride and to do what is best for you. Don't do what's what you think you should do because you're competing. Do what you is within your own limits and and and the ultimate ultimately everyone wants to go to the party at the end and and do it safely. So make sure you get there safely and do what you need to do to maintain that.

Speaker 8 1:09:56

Absolutely. If you want to leave at 11 a.m. on the final day and just go to the hotel and pick up the paved checkpoints, it's actually quite easy. And it's a beautiful ride, by the way. If you just want to do some of the off-road and get those off-road checkpoints, it's actually quite easy. It just looks daunting on a map because there are so many optional extreme checkpoints. So, in response to Mark's pre-ride, in response to some of the comments, is I didn't want to leave it till last minute for those reasons I outlined. And uh yeah, so it's it's actually quite achievable if you leave during daylight hours and you will get to the awards banquet before the official end time.

Speaker 6 1:10:38

Because as I understand, there will be plenty of food and you don't want to be too tired to eat.

Speaker 8 1:10:43

That's right. Food, there's gonna be, you know, there's gonna be crate partying, it's gonna be it's gonna be out of control. Bring your ugly blazer, don't forget.

Speaker 6 1:10:51

Ugly blazers, that's right. Indeed. I'm I'm debating whether I should buy one when I'm there or whether I should uh maybe I'll maybe I'll do a little thrifting in Annapolis, Maryland before I get up to see you.

Speaker 8 1:11:03

You're not gonna do it the day of, that's for sure. We're gonna be too busy. But yeah, definitely get your get your stuff in order ahead of time.

Speaker 6 1:11:09

Yeah, good idea. Okay, and when now we're talking about this. Uh the final note about the actual uh rally is that Team Skidmore is hitting the trails this weekend in Colorado. And they are testing the rally app. And you're going to put the test in the public leaderboard and show some notes, aren't you?

Signups Music And Final Wrap

Speaker 8 1:11:32

I'm gonna put in the show notes the link to the public leaderboard for the test rally. So they're gonna be out this weekend. Whoever does uh any kind of testing for us, it's a great way making sure the rally app is bulletproof like it has always been. And you can also practice looking at the leaderboard and seeing what's up, so you're not doing it on day one. It's a great way of uh getting a little practice. Yeah, fair enough. And now to new signups. Let's do it. Let's start off with a 2026 America's Rally.

Speaker 6 1:12:07

Welcome Jonathan Day from Clovis, California, on his 1250 GSA. He joins the wait list. Aaron, tell us a little bit about the wait list.

Speaker 8 1:12:18

Actually, I think he's off the wait list because we talked and he's okay with handling his own hotels. The reason why there's a wait list is because some of the hotels are sold out. Okay. Never mind our discount, they're just sold out. So there's a bunch of ways around that. You can just crash with someone else or you can stay in another hotel. But the reason why there's a wait list is because I don't want to have someone whining that I've charged them to enter the rally and there's no rooms. So that's why there's a wait list. But if you don't mind joining the mile crusher class and, you know, handling some of these accommodations on your own, you can join. So just join the wait list and then I'll contact you and we can go over it from there. But that's the purpose of the wait list is because we're just out of rooms.

Speaker 6 1:13:03

Is he the first one to say, I'll take it on myself?

Speaker 8 1:13:06

There were some roughnecks that are just proper badass dudes and are like, we'll just camp or something like that, even though it's not encouraged, but they'll figure it out on that tough day. So there's a there's a couple of people that have said, Yeah, we'll just figure it out. It's fine. So yeah.

Speaker 6 1:13:20

I just think about Lyndon Poskett doing the uh the Mali, was it the Malimoto?

Speaker 8 1:13:24

Yeah. Just sleep deprived, just brutal. Sleep test. So yeah.

Speaker 6 1:13:28

You ride all day, stop your bike, change your oil, fix your chain, fix your repairs, put all the pieces on you dropped off when you dropped the machine that day. Get up, get there, set your tent, take care of yourself, put some social media up, sleep a little bit, get up, take your tent, break it down, put it in a box, get up and do it again. 14 days in a row.

Speaker 8 1:13:46

It's insane. So we'll have some people that will do that. They'll they have the option of full night's sleep. But if you have one mechanical or if you want to change your tire at the foothills in Colorado, it's gonna take up a few hours, right? So we're not that extreme, but it's definitely a stepping stone into that realm if you want to take it very seriously.

Speaker 6 1:14:07

You know, just to reflect back to something one of our previous individuals said, and they said they are planning on doing a tire change as the terrain changes. I thought that was really good strategy.

Speaker 8 1:14:19

Yeah, that's in Pueblo for this particular rally. So in Pueblo, it's the foothills, and I strategically got that hotels because the next day the off-road, optional off-roading starts. Yeah, so it was designed that way for that particular reason. And what's interesting is that the Baja rally is complete opposite. So we start off in the heart of the desert, and then actually, just buyer beware, in Arizona in the Baja Rally, there's a lot of fantastic off-roading there. And then in Texas, there's some terrible slab days. So I suspect there'll be guys going, right, I need some road sixes on my GSA for the last two days. So yeah, I I purposely design everything for that, those demarcation lines for sure.

Speaker 6 1:15:04

So the experienced guys will be figuring out where that is after they start looking at that rally, and they'll be like, okay, that's where I need to do my tire change. Get out of the knobbies, get out of my sand paddles, and get into some road chapters.

Speaker 8 1:15:14

Yeah, for me, it's just, you know, Dunlop trail max raids, and I'm good because I'm not that accomplished of a rider. But if you want to be really aggressive about it, you can be both aggressive on the street by getting some street tires. Actually, you can get some really nice sticky tires. Right. Because you only need them for like two, three thousand miles. And then you can get some really aggressive off-road tires. So if you want to take that route or do the 50-year-old overweight man route, which is right down the middle, you can also do that as well.

Speaker 6 1:15:42

You can't get tires that don't do well in each category.

Speaker 8 1:15:43

In either category. That's right. And I'll be in the van. So it's all good. There we go. The bike in the back. Maybe, Taylor, you can do the new signups, the first signups. Thank you very much. The first signups for the 2027 America's Rally Aha edition.

Speaker 6 1:15:59

All right, here we go. In the Mile Crusher class, Silky from Lota, LA, Lota, Louisiana, on his Tiger 1200. Team help me out here. Team Rogue. Road Warriors. Rogue.

Speaker 8 1:16:18

Nice. Nicely done.

Speaker 6 1:16:20

Alright. In the MCC, same class. Mile Crusher class. MCC. Dirk Payne from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge. I love those boys, man. Got some Q Nasses in here. 1300 GSA. Joins Team Argo. Red Warriors. Also in the Mile Crusher class. Happy Buddha from Puget Sound, Washington. He also entered in the 2026 ADBC America Tally.

Speaker 8 1:16:53

Thank you.

Speaker 6 1:16:53

Welcome again. Mile Crusher Class, New York Dave from Liverpool, New York joins us again. Thank you, Dave. Mile Crusher Class. Damn Dave from Syracuse, New York. That's a great one. Damn Dave from Syracuse, New York on his 1250 GSA. Also joins us for his second ADV Cannonball rally. Thank you, Damn Dave.

Speaker 8 1:17:15

And for the third time, we have in ProClass, our first entry in pro class.

Speaker 6 1:17:22

Josh Skidmore. And Josh Skidmore also is among his uh Team Skidmore. We mentioned earlier, who's going to be running some of the um trails in Colorado. In the ProClass, Mr. Josh Skidmore from Taylor. Gotta love that. Love that town. Taylor, Utah on his F900 GS. He's the first competitor to sign up for all three rallies. You are a rock star, Mr. Skidmore.

Speaker 8 1:17:46

Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for pre-running, and thanks for signing up for three of them. It's a really big deal. I appreciate it. And now for some music. Yeah, we're gonna sign off with uh it's a little bit cheesy, but I think it's pretty good. I didn't know how to form the lyrics too much, but the song has sold my bike. It's about the dark lord in the depths of Seattle. This guy sells his bike to buy some heroin. And uh it's a little cheesy, but it's good. Anyways, I I think it's okay.

Speaker 6 1:18:17

I mean, if you're gonna sell your bike, there's gotta be a good reason.

Speaker 8 1:18:20

Yeah, you gotta visit the dark lord.

Speaker 7 1:18:23

And with that, Aaron Puffal, I think we should roll the outro handed him the keys out there.

Speaker 2 1:18:44

I can spoon up in my gold and black.

Speaker 11 1:21:51

All hell the algorithm gods. A special thanks to our Patreon supporters. You're keeping this dig and chip afloat. Thanks for listening to the ATV Cannonball Podcast. Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the pegs.