ROUNDTABLE - Cannonball Record Holder, Beau Earnest and Kerry

Thirty-two hours from New York to California on a motorcycle is the kind of number that sounds fake until you hear the choices behind it. We’re joined by Beau Earnest, the current transcontinental pavement record holder, to walk through what it takes to hold an 86+ mph average while juggling fuel range, comfort, verification, weather detours, and the constant reality that one mistake can erase your margin.

We talk gear and tactics without the fluff: why Beau chose the Yamaha FJR platform, how a high-mounted fuel cell changes handling and stop strategy, and what comfort mods actually matter when you’re living on the bike for more than a full day. Beau also explains how record attempts get verified in a world where GPX files can be faked, plus the behind-the-scenes value of spotters, live tracking, and building a clean trail of proof.

Then the story turns from pavement to gravel. Beau is jumping into the ADV Cannonball Rally, where navigation, weather, and a points game replace a single flat-out route. We dig into dirt prep, rule changes that force harder decisions, smart packing, charging reliability, and a navigation stack built around offline routing.

If you like high-stakes rides, practical planning, and honest lessons learned the hard way, subscribe, share this with a riding buddy, and leave a review so more riders can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And The Record Run

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Welcome back everyone to another episode of the ADV Cannonball Rally Rider Roundtable. 32 hours and 32 minutes from New York to California is an insane pace, but our guest today actually pulled it off. Back in April 2024, he set the current transcontinental pavement record averaging over 86 miles per hour and dealing with everything from lost brakes to mid-route weather detours. I know Aaron interviewed him on the podcast well over a year ago, but a lot has happened since then. So I thought it was time to pull him back in again. He is shifting gears entirely and jumping into the dirt, gravel, and navigation challenges of the ADV cannonball. We have a lot to catch up on, so let's welcome the current record holder and our newest rally competitor, Bo Ernest. Great to have you on the round table, man. Let's talk to Bo about going from a cannonball run to a cannonball rally. Welcome to the Rider Roundtable, Bo. Appreciate y'all having me. Awesome. Bo, I gotta admit, I'm a little awestruck right now. I'm a bit of a fanboy. Um I grew up with the Cannonball Run movies, and I have followed all the records and VinWiki and everything else uh for as long as I can remember. Um and for

The Mindset Behind Going For It

SPEAKER_01 1:55

many years, uh going for a record attempt was something that I'd wanted to do, especially during the the COVID era. Um, and I just simply didn't get off my ass and do it. Um so I thought maybe what we could do is start with what was your motivation? Like I how did you get to that point where you're like, yeah, this is super cool and I I'm just gonna do it.

SPEAKER_05 2:20

Um It basically boils down to fuck it. We're all gonna die. Let's um let's do this, let's do this fun stuff and this hard stuff before I get too old and have issues trying to do all this stuff. I don't wanna be 65, 70 looking back on life and regret not going after something that I wanted to try or do.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Okay. Uh had you been had you been following the records and everything else pretty closely? Is is is that what how it got on your radar even?

SPEAKER_05 2:55

I've been following it off and on for, I don't know, the previous 10 years. And um when I saw Alex had broke it right there around the COVID time, that's when I really started looking into it a little more and started trying to put together some type of little game plan to see what I could do and how I could challenge myself mentally, physically, and um mechanically.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

Okay, yeah, that makes total sense.

Harley Roots And Long Distance Habits

SPEAKER_01 3:25

So let's back up even further. But so before you even decided you were going for the record attempt, what's your background with bikes? Like, how long have you been riding? What were you riding? Um, things like that.

SPEAKER_05 3:39

Um grew up, I I skipped over dirt bikes, went straight to a clapped-out 51 pan head when I was right around 16, 17, and um bounced around jobs for a while and wound up becoming a master Harley Tech for almost 14 years, and um got a little burnt out with it and switched careers, went to the railroad, and just kept building up, working on bikes on the side, buying and flipping old Harleys and old Cadillacs.

SPEAKER_01 4:11

That's cool. Had you done any long distance riding prior to this, or were you just going in cold?

SPEAKER_05 4:17

I wouldn't consider what I had done previously, uh long distance riding, but I guess you could in an extent. We would uh leave the panhandle of Florida on uh ridge and motorcycles and ride out to um California in two days, up to Washington, and come all the way back to Florida in three days, type of thing. That was my background on long distance riding before I really tried this um record attempt. And so was that that was on Harley's, right? Yes, sir. That was on old rigid shovel heads and panheads and Evos.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Your back's gonna be hating you in a few years. It already does, brother. No, that's cold. Uh have you have you ever done any like of the iron butt stuff, like the the structured iron butts, or did you just like screw them just riding for me? Yeah, they're a little too intense sometimes, I think.

SPEAKER_05 5:21

I just wanna I just want to ride hard, ride fast, split lanes, and let's unless roll. And with what I've always seen through the iron butt, there's too many stipulations, uh, speed, time, yadda yadda yadda. The most I think I had done previously in one one day was ride around 2100 miles on a on a jockey shift rigid shovel head.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

That's pretty amazing for especially for that bike.

SPEAKER_05 5:50

Oh yeah, running about 8590 the entire time.

SPEAKER_01 5:56

Yeah, that's awesome. I think I think the longest that I went was I was racing some storms and I got about 1,600 miles in. And I was just like, yeah, I'm ready for a pillow. So I was I was wiped out. And I think what bike was I? I was on an old GS at the time. Uh nice when I was like, hey, you had a windshield at least. Yeah, I did have a windshield. That is very true. And I was uh I was a little more upright. So I could like stand up on the pegs and stretch and and and do whatever I wanted to

Why The FJR Made Sense

SPEAKER_01 6:30

do. But uh um all right, so let's go into that record attempt a little bit. So you you decide you're gonna do it, you're like, fuck it, let's go. Which I love that attitude, by the way. Um that's fantastic. So you pick the FJR platform, and when I saw that, I was just like, yeah, absolutely positively makes sense, right? It's proven track record, it's it's Yamaha reliability. Uh the riding position is sporty yet, but relaxed enough that you're gonna be able to handle it for 32 hours and 32 minutes. Um is that is that pretty much why you did it?

SPEAKER_05 7:13

Um I never even rode a Yamaha prior to going to look at that FJR, honestly. Really? Yeah. Never never been on one. And I picked it for the Rhymes Ocean. Um the the miles per gallon that it could get uh over the Kawasaki. The top speed was pretty decent, and um, it was cheap.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

That is always a motivator, isn't it?

SPEAKER_05 7:42

Oh, especially with man, it ain't nothing funny about the money, honey, but it kind of took you to keep things.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

So, what else were you looking at?

SPEAKER_05 7:49

Were you looking at like a concourse or I was looking at a concourse um or for a Versailles, I think that's how you say it. Okay. Yeah, I even I was looking at a Triumph 1200 just because of the uh riding platform. Yeah, and this FGR stumbled up onto my radar off marketplace and she was cheap.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yeah. Well, hey man, little did that guy know what was gonna end up happening to his bike after you got a hold of it.

SPEAKER_05 8:20

Oh, he was not happy when he realized I was about to abuse his baby.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Well, then he should have held on to it if it mattered to him.

SPEAKER_05 8:29

Well, yeah, if you don't if you don't want someone like me buying your stuff, don't put it on the marketplace.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah, exactly. At least you could tell the guy, hey man, your bike's in the record books now, so yes, sir.

Sponsors Jammers And Setup Research

SPEAKER_01 8:42

All right, so I know that Aaron had talked to you about all the different modifications and stuff you had done to that bike. How long did that take you to sort out what you wanted to actually do? Because like I'm a research nerd, and like, so for me, figuring out laser jammers and night vision and all that stuff, um I would almost probably get into analysis paralysis, which is just my personal hang-up. But did you just kind of look for recommendations from people and say, hey, best of breed, this is what I'm doing?

SPEAKER_05 9:16

Um in the cannonball Facebook group, there's um several very knowledgeable guys that always like to play with the red architectors, the jammers. They've been in this cannonball setup for many days, many years. And um always see them post about what worked for them, what what didn't work for them. And I just kind of base things off what I would read and see in the group, per se.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 9:42

And when it came down to purchasing, I'd turn around, um, did everything I could to reach out to these companies, and I got lucky on a few, uh, telling them what I was wanting to do. And if it wasn't um uh given to me, it was discounted heavily.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

That that's amazing that you were able to get that.

SPEAKER_05 10:05

Um especially coming from somebody with no quote unquote background. They just told us, holy shit, we can use our anti-cop stuff for someone on a bike doing a run. Let's let's let's put them to let's put them to work.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah, you know, I guess that's probably I was thinking about it. I was like, you know, a lot of companies would freak out about that. And they're like, no, no, you're doing something illegal. We don't want to be associated with that. But at the same time, the companies that you're talking to are all people that are gonna be like, yeah, yeah, this is exactly what we build our products for.

SPEAKER_05 10:42

Oh, yeah, like um adaptive um radar. They're the ones who um hooked me up with the laser jammers, and uh they're like, that's that's rad. Let's let's do this shit.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Yeah, that's that's very cool. Yeah. So, all right, so you

Fuel Cell Engineering And Stop Time

SPEAKER_01 11:00

let's say you got the bike set up now. You had a monster tank uh on the back. How many gallons was it? 13 or something like that?

SPEAKER_05 11:08

It would hold 13 gallons, and it initially started off as a 15-gallon fuel cell.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Okay, why'd you why'd you downsize it?

SPEAKER_05 11:16

Weight. Um, downsizing was due to heavily baffling the hell out of it. Uh mainly because that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

You can't have all that liquid flopping around when it's up so high.

SPEAKER_05 11:27

Yeah, especially with with that top top hand center of gravity. Um I first put it on there at 15 gallons, tank was about half full. You couldn't you couldn't make a left-hand turn at the red light without it without you wanting to end up on the pavement.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah. So once you had it all baffled, did it seem okay? Because like there's obviously this iconic picture you standing with the bike, and and I've got a copy of that picture, and I know that Aaron has a copy of that picture, but I look at how high that damn tank is on there. Did that make you nervous? That's a lot, a lot of weight up high from a center of gravity position.

SPEAKER_05 12:08

Oh god, yeah, it it really did. And but with the baffling, believe it or not, putting all that heavy uh that that um foam in there, it really took a good portion of that slosh out of it. And that's why I tried to I tried to baffle it as much as I could because how high it was in the air. Going much going smaller with the fuel cellar just made uh less sense because of how long it takes to do a fuel stop. Because in real in reality, every time you start for fuel, you're losing not just the time you stop, but almost 15 minutes of coverage on the highway.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

And going bigger, it it just wasn't feasible to go go any bigger. No. If I remember right, you only ended up having to do like five stops the entire length.

SPEAKER_05 13:02

I was stopped uh five times for uh a total of fifth 50 minutes, just fifty and a half minutes. Man, that's insane. It the the reason why it was it would take so long is because in my in my faults, I should have cut that top of the tank and moved the fill neck over to the right-hand side. Because when you pull up to the gas station, there's no way in hell you're getting that bike off a center stand with 13 gallons of fuel in the back and fully loaded without dropping the thing, probably. Um so filling it up, you could only fill that tank half, three-quarters of the tank, and then you'd have to stand or sit on the bike upright and spin around and hold that nozzle while it uh topped off.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

Oh thank God you're a little bit flexible, huh?

SPEAKER_05 13:59

Oh that four-fifth stop, I don't think I don't know how flexible I was.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Oh, that's true. Sitting in the same riding position for 30 hours. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 14:11

I will say this the the two, the three heavy

Comfort Mods That Made It Possible

SPEAKER_05 14:15

Moffik, well, I guess four, uh, for rider comfort, what made that trip possible was um that Russell Day Long seat.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

They make amazing seats, man. Oh man those things are so great.

SPEAKER_05 14:28

That thing was tits, man. And getting rid of the floorboards or uh foot pegs and just making a set of homemade floorboards, that that takes so much pressure off the bottom of your foot, your knee, and your hip.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah, that's smart. Oh that's super smart.

SPEAKER_05 14:44

I did uh two two inch up, one inch back uh risers, so it bars closer to me instead of having that FGR, even though it's an upright riding, you're still kind of linked forward.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

Yeah, it's got some reach to it still.

SPEAKER_05 14:59

It does a long bike. And then um it's got a power windshield, and I wound up going with a 22-inch windshield. So with it fully up, riding down the road at 110 one-handed, I could lift my helmet without being beat with wind, eat beef jerky, put a dip of snuff in, drink some water, and keep on going.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

Now you had it you had bottled drinks too. Like you were carrying a big bunch of big 40 ounces or something with you. Yes, sir.

SPEAKER_05 15:32

I had uh two 40 ounce bottles with me. And the gun.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

How were you drinking those?

SPEAKER_05 15:36

Do what? How were you drinking those? That that windshield, baby. I couldn't. It was that good, huh? That went that thing was that good. I could I could hear my radar detector going off down the highway at 130 with my helmet on because of that windshield.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_05 15:56

That's it's just a standard Valentine 1 Gen 2.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

Yeah. Yeah. Because when I was reading about the the water bottles, I was like, man, I'm surprised he didn't go with like a hydration bladder or something like that, so that you could use the hose and just throw it up underneath his helmet. Because like when I'm doing long rides, that's kind of what I do. I was I was having a hard time picturing you hauling ass and and drink it at the same time. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 16:22

The the hydr the hydration uh camelback system, I I played around with uh quite a bit, honestly. But since I had the way I had the bike set up and then that tank bag, there really wasn't a whole lot of extra room, and I did not want to mount a like a yeti jug or something like that, what you see now all the long distance guys doing. And there really just wasn't a whole lot of space, and it was so much easier just to throw a couple bottles of water on there, and then when I stopped for fuel, the guys that would help me would uh top my water off type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Mm-hmm. Did you look at all into like for fuel capacity instead of having it up high, like taking the panier mounts and fabricating something up so that you could have it down lower like where the panniers were?

SPEAKER_05 17:15

Yeah, I looked into doing that quite a bit, and the fabrication behind it was just honestly a pain in the ass off that bike, the way everything would mount.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Okay. Yeah, they've got that they've got a bit of a funky subframe, and then you've got the the the plastic bodywork around it. So trying to get the mount points and then getting it to actually support that kind of weight, which was probably. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:41

And then on the right side, you got the exhaust. So in in theory, you don't want eight, five, six, seven gallons just on the left hand side of the bike. I mean, yeah, I'm I'm not I'm not out here running backwards NASCAR.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

That's true. All right. So

Verification Tracking And Anti-Cheat Proof

SPEAKER_01 18:00

let's move on into the record attempt. So you decide that you're gonna go for the record, you're talking to the guys in the group, you're probably getting coached by the folks that have done this before and stuff like that. I know it's a super collaborative um group, right? The uh whole community is just awesome. Um what does it take to make it official? Like, do you have did you have people that watched you leave the Red Ball Garage and saw you come into the Portofino and you know you had I would love to be rabbit sometime, right? Just get out ahead of a record attempt and play rabbit for a while to help clear cops. Did you have people doing that for you end-to-end to make sure that it was truly official or or how did you approach that?

SPEAKER_05 18:46

Um, make that that was one of that was probably one of my biggest uh questions going about it because we've all heard of Fred Ashmore. And no one wants to have that or be associated in that way. So reaching out to get someone in New York City to watch me take off for verification, be at the Portofino, those those two things were very paramount. And then there's an app called Joiner that we use that is a live tracking app. So you can see your location, your speed, group chat, the whole nine yards with it. So I reached out to get folks at the beginning and the end, and then the middle was looking for folks to get out there and run point for me, and having all of that at one time allows everything to be very concrete, along with taking pictures with the phone along the way.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:40

As much provenance that you can bring to the table. Now, especially if you're an outsider who doesn't know about the group, doesn't know anybody, it's not able to reach out to me or other people like that. If they wanted to go make a run today, they're gonna have to have more than just a rever app activity. Because that's that can be manipulated. You need you need a lot to go with it. The age of technology's gotten to the point where it's too easy to fucking cheat. And this is um more or less a gentleman's game with with breaking as many rules as possible safely.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

I mean, uh to your point, right? Just having a GPX track that says that I started recording when I left and I turned it off when I got there does not work, right? People have physically got to put eyes on you because I could generate a GPX file that shows that I did it in 29 hours and 18 minutes, and just here's your file. There's there's no way of authenticating that stuff without other stuff along the way. So I was just curious. So that's cool that uh people were willing to show up on both ends and in between. And that's interesting that you found the time to take pictures along the way, too. Did you have uh did you have cameras on the bike?

SPEAKER_05 21:06

I had a um Insta360 that I had hooked up to run and set to record a continuous loot with a one-terabyte SD card.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

But that's that's cool.

SPEAKER_05 21:19

Yeah, but my damn charging cable on it messed up. So I only got recorded like to Missouri. Oh no, yeah, dude, that sucks.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

I'm sorry. Oh man, that would that hurts. That would have been one for the ages. You know.

Sleep Strategy And The First Helper Stop

SPEAKER_01 21:40

All right. So you take off, you head out. Did you get any rest beforehand? Like, I know when I travel, I never sleep well the night before. I like so were you able to get any rest at all before you took off out of there?

SPEAKER_05 21:58

Man, that was that was that was a Hard thing to do because I'm not one to um sleep in and and or to sleep a whole lot. So the way the way I tried to do it was I tried to exhaust the ever living shit out of myself on the way up there. So stuck the bike in the bed of the truck and um refused to sleep for the 21 hour drive, stayed up all around New York on Thursday, and um stayed up as late as I could Thursday night, which only ended up being like 9-10 PM New York time, and then every time I'd wake up Friday, I would just put the blanket right back over my head and try to go right back to sleep. And uh finally woke up and started moving around 7 30, 8 o'clock uh New York time.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Did you just leave your truck up there or did somebody drive it back for you?

SPEAKER_05 22:51

Uh I had a buddy of mine uh come up with me to New York. Okay, and um he was going to be my first fuel stop helper, and um he got he kind of got screwed by the traffic in a in my in my dually trying to leave New York, and by the time I got on the road and after he'd been on, I I I overpassed his ass way too fast for him to help out a fuel stop.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05 23:19

So so I knew he so he was up ahead of me off um uh close somewhere in Pennsylvania, I forget where it was at. And I was I still had about uh 100, 120 miles left on the tank, and um I just had him pull over at a at a rest area and I zipped right into it, never got off the bike. Um he had uh five gallons of gas in the back of the truck. We topped off all what little bit he could into my fuel sail and filled my water up, and that was maybe two minutes, and I was gone again.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah. Gotta get her done. You can't be waiting around for him. Oh god. That's that's that is awesome.

SPEAKER_05 23:58

Yeah, my goal, my goal on all the spars was to knock the damn dust off their shit.

SPEAKER_01 24:05

As it should be. That's what it's gonna take, right? That's what it's gonna take. So

Weather Routing And Staying Fast

SPEAKER_01 24:10

so you're now you're hauling ass. You're headed cross country, you see the weather coming in, and you ended up switching your route, right? Had you had like a plan A, plan B, plan C type of thing already set up, or were you having to do like real-time decisions to decide to decide what route you were gonna go?

SPEAKER_05 24:28

Um no so much on the real-time decision between the northern route and the southern route. Um but before I had um even left the red ball, I knew um after looking at the weather through Colorado, and about two hours prior to me, um, a group of guys was doing a rental cannonball run, and they chose the northern route, and I could hear about the shit that they were facing already. I'm like, nah, I'll stick to the south.

SPEAKER_01 24:58

Yeah, that makes sense. So, when did you first start feeling it? Like you're like, all right, now I'm starting to get tired. Oh no. How far in were you?

SPEAKER_05 25:09

I don't know if it was a point of tired, because it really wasn't so bad because with the the adrenaline going and constantly having to move and shift and go down a highway. I don't really feel like I got tired until right there in California.

When The Cardo Dies Mid-Run

SPEAKER_05 25:25

But what took the most out of me was losing that damn um intercom, that cardo. And that that that was detrimental for me because I lost all my music, the way to communicate. The only thing I could do was look up and text while going down the highway. Man, I don't I don't even remember that part of the story. What happened to the cardo? So I was in Oklahoma City doing um my my fuel stop and um pulled over and my headset's about to die. I'm trying to get it to charge while going down the road. I'm like, shit, this ain't working. So I handed it off to my buddy while I was filling up. He's he just turns and looks at me, just distraught. He's like, Man, your charging port fell out of your fucking cardo. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me. And sitting there looking at you, he's like, Man, I'll give you my helmet. What size are you? I'm like, large? He's like, ah man, I wear medium. Like, well, I guess this is gonna suck. Oh no. And the the three songs I think you've heard about that before that got stuck in my head was uh AC DC's Hellsbells, yeah, the JG Wentworth Jingle and Baby Fucking Sharp, baby.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

So, all right. So, quick side story, real quick. So, in the cannonball, and we'll talk about this more later, there's there's always a slap day, right? So you there's this there's a section of it where you just gotta go. And it is haul ass as long as you can get across from hotel A to hotel B. And last year we had that, and we have that again this year. Just parts of the Midwest, it's just not fun off-road. So we're just we just move through it, right? And I created a playlist um for for that slab day that is just all high power, like like I'm I'm a Gen X kid, right? So like it's all my all my high power rock stuff. So my Hells Bells is in there, my Thunderstruck is in there, like all that stuff is in there. So it I'm gonna share it with people on the uh on the writers group if anybody wants to hear it. It's a little bit eclectic, there's a little bit of everything, but it's all like music that keeps me pumped. So I exactly I know exactly what you're talking about. Losing that um is really a crash because then you're you're alone with your thoughts the entire time and you're just hauling ass.

SPEAKER_05 27:51

And it's like, oh, okay, well, a lot of things hauling ass and trying to link up with my spotters for them to be able to do their job.

SPEAKER_02 28:03

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_05 28:04

So it would get to the point where I'd catch the next spotter, and all I could do was leave my phone up and for them to text me, cop, debris, car type of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Yeah. So you you had your phone mounted on your handlebars, and you could at least see the the text messages coming out. Yes, sir. And did your uh buddy who had your Ricardo, was he letting everybody know what's going on so that they knew they had to text you?

SPEAKER_05 28:32

Did he Oh yeah, he put it out in the group and you could and going back reading it like the following day, you could just see all the the sad faces, the what the fucks, all the oh my gosh, pope. And then when they started hearing my thoughts of the song choices, they really started feeling bad for me because they knew I was getting ready to run that damn bike off a cliff in Arizona. Oh my god, that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

Yeah. And you know it's funny, is like that's really surprising about Cardos because I ran Senna for a long time early on, and then I just had bad luck after bad luck after bad luck, and I switched to Cardo, and they've been bulletproof for me.

SPEAKER_05 29:11

So here Ricardo right now is bulletproof, but there's a difference between riding and leaving your charging cable connected to your cardo. Oh, you just vibrated it out, didn't you? Yep. So the kicker is like with the cardo, I mean, good luck finding that with your helmet on with two hands. Good luck finding that with one hand while going down the road. So I just left the charging cable in and then ran it down into my jacket and just kind of curled it up. So when my my cardo would be like low battery, I would reach up, unplug my phone or or something, and then plug my cardo in.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. I I know uh another guy that's done some high speed stuff, and what he ended up doing so he could keep his cardo charged is he actually used some of that hundred mile an hour tape and taped it to the side of his helmet, and then he had a power bank inside of his jacket, and so he just ran the cable up so the cable wasn't flapping by his helmet, and then he just had like a what inch, inch and a half of loose cable that went into the cardo.

SPEAKER_05 30:20

Yeah, but that was poor, poor plan on my part. I didn't think about the vibration or the wind off of the cable. Um but who thinks about that and who knows to think about that?

SPEAKER_01 30:32

No, no, no, I didn't say my buddy probably actually learned it from your experience that he needed to get that done. Um all right, so you you're you're hauling butt. You you didn't really get tired until California, which is amazing. Um like you're probably pacing yourself on food and drinks, so you get to limit bathroom stops and stuff like that, because you know, there's a light at the end of the tunnel once you get to the finish line. Um so you know, the first year of the cannonball rally ended at the Portofino Hotel 2. And there's sections of that where you're zigzagging through town and stuff like that. As people knew that you were coming back towards the end there, did did you feel like you already had the record? Did you know it all? Were you were you tracking

Finish Line Math And A Cop Scare

SPEAKER_01 31:25

on that or were you just hyper focused on just getting there?

SPEAKER_05 31:27

I I had um in in my uh tank bag in that little clear visor on top. Um I I took all of my math and what it would take to beat the record of the time, and so I had broken down per state on on my um what time I had to hit. And so I was starting to cut it pretty close right there at the end, and there's you still you're always one flat tire, one cop, one red light, one wreck, always away from blowing that 30, 40 minute, 50-minute lead. And um right there at the end, I was like, man, I'm I I still can still can get pulled over, still can get arrested, still can have an issue, but at the same time, it's like let's roll, baby. I mean, yeah, ran all the red lights right there at the end.

SPEAKER_01 32:21

Yeah, yeah. I mean, you don't have time to be thinking about the what-ifs, right? It your focus is on that finish line. Yes. So speaking of cops, did you have any close calls?

SPEAKER_05 32:31

Um, I think the biggest one I had was outside of Albert, or right there coming into Albuquerque off of um the interstate. As you come in, you make this right-hand curve, and you're at this uh you're in all that rock right there, and nothing is going off. My lasers ain't going off, my radar detector, nothing's on Waze, nothing's on the chap. And there's a state trooper hiding behind that rock, and as soon as I cleared it where I could just see him, everything just lit up like crazy while I was doing 120. And um he he went to pull out on the highway, like he was going uh going for the last donut for on sale at the shop, and I I just dropped a gear at 120 and just clipped it on up to about 160, 170, 165, I think is the top speed I could get.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

He just he just quit. He just gave up.

SPEAKER_05 33:25

He didn't have a chance, mainly because it was um in the evening and traffic was fairly I wouldn't call it light or heavy, but it was it was not fun to run that fast through that town with that bike.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

No, no, I would say you're also very lucky that this didn't happen in a more metropolitan area. Like I I know Albuquerque, I know it well. Um one thing about speeding and then trying to outrace the cops is you can't outrace their radio, right? But where you were at in New Mexico, they don't have a huge foot police force, they can't just mobilize a helicopter in seconds. Like you you had an opportunity to to get the hell out of there and be out in the middle of nowhere again real fast. So that's that's awesome that it wasn't someplace that was uh a a bigger town.

SPEAKER_05 34:22

Oh, most definitely. Then with the bigger towns, it's not just the cops that you worry about, it's it's all Cindy Lou who's uh missing their exit.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

Yeah. God, I can't imagine that. Just dealing with the other drivers on the road, too, who are paying attention.

SPEAKER_05 34:39

The amount of people I saw eating cereal going down to Interstate in a bowl was mind-numbing.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

Cereal? I I was waiting for the phones. Oh, the phone are bad, but the cereal, I think, was the worst. Man, I think the worst I've seen was a woman driving with her knees putting on mascara in the mirror. So her eyes weren't even on the road because of having to do that. But cereal, man.

SPEAKER_05 35:08

I I remember um I'll make a run. We were out in Oregon, I think. And I watched, we went to go past uh an old F-150 pickup truck with Grandpa John driving, and he had a um full state map laid out, covering his steering wheel and part of his dash, trying to figure out where the hell he was while going down the highway.

unknown 35:31

Oh God.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

All right. So you're getting into LA, you know you're close, um, you get to the Portafino, what happens then?

SPEAKER_05 35:46

Just a sigh of relief more than anything, because I still I I knew right there as pulling in that I had it, but nothing really ever clicked right then just because of the adrenaline still still running, the the lack of sleep. It was oh man, I tell you what, it felt so damn good though to get off that bike and stretch properly.

SPEAKER_01 36:10

Yeah, I can only imagine. That is so how much did you end up beating the record by?

SPEAKER_05 36:16

Um just just over 30 30 minutes. Doesn't sound like impressive.

SPEAKER_01 36:23

No, it's a lot. It's a lot. I it I I totally understand. That is that's amazing. Um especially when was the last record? It was during COVID, wasn't it? Uh right there at it.

SPEAKER_05 36:37

Yeah, right there at the end of it. So so it wasn't like during the hike to COVID, like um with the car run, but it was right there towards the uh I can't remember if it was beginning or the end. I co COVID's just kind of one of those great areas in time that you don't really know what the hell happened. It's all a blur. But it it was it was a little bit easier on for uh for Mr. Alex to make that run, I do believe.

SPEAKER_01 37:04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 37:05

But man, I props, props to Alex for it too. He he did a fantastic job by beating the previous record.

SPEAKER_01 37:12

Man, I I'll tell you what. Whether you make the record or not, just the attempt is a feat in itself.

SPEAKER_05 37:20

Like everybody likes to talk a big game. Everyone's like, oh, I'm gonna make a run, I'm gonna do this. Yeah. Put put your tires on the pavement, baby. Let's let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Yeah, get her done. I I totally understand. That's uh that's amazing. Like, I anybody who makes that attempt, I I I think is baller. That's just so cool.

SPEAKER_05 37:41

Yeah, there was uh just an attempt uh about a month and a half ago, and well, and uh the guy just never gave up, kept pushing through it hard. He he finished a run, but he he didn't he didn't come close to time, but he never gave up. So right there in that self is a feat on its own. Yeah.

Life After The Record Gets Public

SPEAKER_01 38:01

So since then, what's happened? How how have things changed for you since you broke the record?

SPEAKER_05 38:08

I don't know how much I can say has changed. Um I'm still into the bikes. Um it's it's kind of surreal to get to certain places when folks um we get to talking and they they see my tattoo or they hear my name on off the Facebook or YouTube or Google searches. It's pretty surreal and humbling to talk to folks that are enthusiastic about it as well. Um I I love it, honestly. I love to talk about it and meet meet the folks and and and just have a good old time with it.

SPEAKER_01 38:41

Yeah. Um, yeah, I I totally get it, right? That's uh I I wasn't kidding when I said that I was uh a bit of a fanboy on this stuff. Um I I think it's super cool um that that you were able to pull that off. Um it's it's something that I always pay attention to and whatever. All right. So it hasn't really changed for you, but you you've you've definitely gotten the recognition um that you very much deserve. All right.

SPEAKER_05 39:12

This helps with um some um ambassador style things uh with some companies to continue getting new cool gear and being able to support uh small businesses. I think that's been I guess you can say that's probably what's changed. Being able to help help the businesses out too, because they like to associate with with cool shit.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Yeah. Um so uh then I know uh Aaron had you on the show in I think it was March of 2025. Um and and you had a good talk with him, and then he texted me a while later, and he's like, dude, Bo just signed up for the rally. I don't even think he knew that it was coming.

SPEAKER_05 40:03

No, he didn't.

Signing Up For The ADV Cannonball

SPEAKER_05 40:07

Because I I wanted to do the rally in 25, but there's just so much happening at that moment in my life, uh, moving and bikes and um vacationing with my kids and stuff like that. I just didn't have the the time to take off or the time to uh get a motorcycle to set set up for it. And um, when I saw um Aaron had posted about the 26th rally, I kept creeping a little bit and looking at it. And um I was like, you know what? Screw it. Gone ahead and signed up, and it wasn't five minutes, and and uh Aaron called me. He's like, no way, dude. I'm like, I'm coming. Oh yeah. I'm like, I'm coming hard, dude. So yeah, y'all better keep that right hand pegged.

SPEAKER_01 40:57

So it's uh it is a great time, man. Like the the the folks that sign up for this rally are all like-minded folks, right? They're they're gonna push hard, they're gonna they're gonna do what they need to do to be able to to be to be winners in this, right? There's there's basically there's two classes of folks that come out and do this. There are the guys that want first to finish first and and win it. And then you got the guys that are like, I just want the camaraderie. I want to meet new people that are into doing cool shit like this. And I don't care about winning. I'm gonna hang out and drink beers with the boys in the hotel at night, and we're gonna swap stories about this amazing route that that he puts together. So there's like two categories of folks basically that that show up for this thing. Um how are you thinking about it, right? So you you mentioned earlier that you skipped and went straight to road bikes. There's a significant amount of off-road sections in the Western U.S. Are you getting out there and practicing some dirt riding or anything like that?

SPEAKER_05 42:04

Oh, yeah. I I've gotten into the adventure riding over the past four or five years, I guess you could say. And I really enjoy the hell out of it on a bike. And that that definitely is a learning curve, especially not coming from the dirt bike world or stuff growing up with it, because I spent my entire life on the street. And um it's it's been like I said, it's been a learning curve, but I've I've been getting faster and faster and faster, doing things crazier and heavier, and I just keep pushing myself because what's the worst? That's what's the worst that can happen? Break a leg? Eh, shit will heal. We'll do it again in six weeks.

SPEAKER_01 42:47

Well, worst thing that can happen is uh with breaking a leg. You know, we got uh Iron Man Mark that did that last year, and he still finished the the rally, like the last three days of it with his his leg in a boot. Very dull. Yeah, yeah, he still got it. Dude, that guy's got balls the size of basketballs. Like I I honestly don't know. He's just lucky it wasn't his left one, because if it was his left one, that would have taken him out because there would have been more shit strap and you pull up like a like as a kid on a three-wheeler and you can't reach the peg.

SPEAKER_05 43:24

Up short. Oh see.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

I I love that ingenuity. That's cool. I that he still would have been able to get it done. Yes, sir. But uh, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. So have you reviewed the route? Have you been paying attention to what happens in what states and stuff like that?

SPEAKER_05 43:41

Yes, I've been I've been looking at the route, turning around trying to Google what I could on the street maps when it gets to the off road. I've been doing the aerial lookings, checking things out, looking at the stuff that y'all are posting in the uh group is uh helpful to get an idea because some of these sections and areas and parts of the western side I've I've never seen rocks or mountains that way riding on a motorcycle. So it's oh I'm looking I'm looking forward to it. And I know I'm gonna drop the hell out of this bike and beat it up uh several times, but let's do it.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

What what are you riding? Oh no but you're not even gonna tell me I'm not looking for mods. What about base platform?

SPEAKER_05 44:29

Well I got two I'm um going back and forth with.

unknown 44:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_05 44:34

One is a um a dirtster Harley that I've built that's um got a Triumph uh 1200 front end on it with uh 16 inch knocks on the back and and dirt tires that man that thing's a beast and then I got a uh 2014 uh BMW 1200 alright so I'm going back and forth between uh which two I want to do.

SPEAKER_01 44:59

What's the fuel capacity on that first bike? How big a tank you got on that thing?

SPEAKER_05 45:03

Uh six gallon the front with an additional five on the back.

SPEAKER_01 45:07

Oh listen to you yep I gotta split up between uh two and a half on both sides you're taking this seriously did you see uh the post that I made about using the fuel bladders as Yeah that man you uh you got some balls of fucking steel brother yeah I just wish I was a better rider so my background is the same as yours right so I came off of street bikes and you know I did track days and all this fun stuff and I and I absolutely love that. But I got sick and tired of going that road looks cool where's it go? And I'm like I can't go because I don't have a bike for gravel and rock and stuff like that. And eventually that's that's when I started buying AD V bikes and got almost completely out of street bikes uh or a hundred percent street bikes I guess. But yeah I'd still take my Harley down that dirt road to see where it went. Yeah I'd go for a little while but you know I'm I'm running on sport bikes with basically soft slicks on 'em it's not uh not not very conducive but uh to s to my own survival but uh yeah once I got into it I was I was hooked too man like I've done been up to Alaska a couple times I've pretty much ridden in every state there is including Hawaii um so yeah it's yeah it's it's so much fun isn't it um I I'd love to make a run up to the Pacific Northwest and then all the way up to Alaska that's that's on my bucket list. Dude 2027 I'm looking at it but let let's uh let's get through twenty six first all right you make it through twenty six and you decide to do twenty-seven I will head north with you because I spent twenty years in Seattle um and those are my roads oh like I uh I know that area really really well so if you wanted to go from uh Portland north uh the invitation's there I'll I'll I'll show you some of my my old stomping grounds if you wanted to much appreciated yeah yeah yeah yeah I love that area it's gorgeous um all right so as far as prep goes what are you doing so we'll we'll skip the bike talk we'll leave it a mystery until you come rolling up uh to the starting line but uh are you doing anything else for prep you're you're looking at the maps you're trying to figure out the route and get used to it um anything else remember this is a points game right it's very different not everything is is high speed not everything's high speed but speed still does play a factor on getting the points it does and it funny enough it actually matters even more now because last year um we found a loophole in Aaron's rules which you know it was the first year shit happens it people are gonna be creative that's what we do especially this type of person that's gonna go on this type of event but um we figured out you could buzz all the way to the hotel and then double back and go get the points so that there was an opportunity to get first to finish and the extra twenty five points and then double back to capture the original points which I don't think Aaron thought anybody but was crazy enough to do.

Points Strategy And Rule Changes

SPEAKER_01 48:35

I don't think he that even crossed his mind right off the bat. I warned him I warned him I love Aaron but I warned his ass I said dude you called it a cannonball who do you think is going to sign up for this thing? Oh we gonna we're gonna look for it baby well this year he took that out so it's once you hit the hotel you're no longer eligible for other points which makes the points significantly more important because then you have to figure out how many of those points do you want or do you really care about first to finish. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 49:12

It does it's it's definitely gonna be um m multiple looks throughout the day to turn around see how things are standing on how you're going to proceed to the next yeah yeah and you gotta be tracking the other guys to see what they're doing.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

Yeah that yeah that's that's what I mean you gotta you gotta look at your points I gotta look at yours uh look at Hunters and then make things uh adjustments on the fly well yeah uh yeah that's I mean you may have heard it in one of the other previous podcasts but uh when I did the interview with Hunter and our boy Captain Chaos they they had a day where he had to drop out of the mountains to make sure he secured the first to finish and it was in I mean it was probably the most intense race I've ever watched. And I was watching only their points move on the map. Oh right. It was pretty amazing. So yeah yeah he he made that sort of real time decision that he's like oh I can't keep collecting these points for now he's like I gotta drop down so I can get that first to finish to beat this guy that was hauling ass down the interstate for it. Yeah and he still beat him um I love that so yeah it's yeah it's it's pretty cool man that people show up with some pretty interesting and well set up bikes. Um but yeah that's that's gonna be good and you never know what the weather's gonna be. So I hope you got a decent variety What's that? The weather definitely is going to play the factor in it. Oh man. It it like it it was a huge factor last year because parts that should have been high speed gravel turned into muddy disasters because of how much rain we were getting. Yeah so you're like tire choice comes into play on this all kinds of things come into play. Almost yeah and there's there'll be times when you're gonna want to partner up with somebody because you're you're not gonna want to tackle some of these areas in the dirt specifically by yourself. Um just to get each other through it and then and then it's every man for himself again. Right. But yeah. So yeah it's it's it's uh it's a really great time and I think um you're really gonna like the crew that's gonna show up for it. Oh yeah I'm look I'm looking forward to the bangers and the hangers man uh yeah so the that 2027 route is is gonna be cool too that that Portland Maine to Portland Oregon. Yeah I I did a quick look at it when Aaron posted it the other day and it looks like looks pretty um interstatey the entire way looks like a fun run though it looks pretty black toppy it's blacktoppy on I I think he's got a few dirt spots on the east coast if I remember right then it's a lot of like high speed twisties and stuff like that. And then you it once you get over to the West Coast, that's where the majority of the dirt sections are usually on the west coast.

SPEAKER_00 52:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:23

Because it's just more enjoyable out there. Um but yeah it'll it'll be a good time.

SPEAKER_05 52:28

I'm I'm looking forward to getting out there and doing this this it's something different on a rally aspect side points compared to doing the shit like what I've used used to do is just riding for the fun or riding for the speed and just put balls to the walls and that's always how I've rode and that's how I drive. I've never been what I would consider a sightseer person. I've always been a destination rider. No matter how beautiful it is out there. I'm like yeah this is great. Let's get here now. Let's go fast. Get out of my way John type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 53:09

Yeah. Yeah I'm kind of the same way. I I I liked the ride. I'm not as much about the destination. Um like yeah if I'm going past Mount Rushmore I'll I'll turn around and take a selfie with my bike and the uh and Mount Rushmore in the background but I'm not taking the tour. I'm swinging my leg back over the bike and I just keep going.

SPEAKER_05 53:32

Oh yeah I want to g I want to get to where I'm going and then have fun along the way you get to see some stuff but I'm not never been big on personally uh deterred and that's what this feels like to an extent and it's definitely a change uh from my perspective of adrenaline but man I'm looking forward to it.

Packing Smarter Gear And Charging

SPEAKER_01 53:55

Yeah. So what kind of lessons learned do you think you could take from your record attempt and apply it to the rally with that many differences.

SPEAKER_05 54:06

Charging is a big one. Uh upgrading from cables to uh wireless quadlocks is probably a big one. Um and being prepared with the essentials uh consistently and trying to learn what to pack and what not to pack is always a hard choice because you never know but the what I've learned throughout my years is um packing something that is multi-use that's capable like my air pump uh for inflating tires instead of doing the CO2 cartridges which I know is faster but you it takes up this amount of space my air pump is also a light a cell phone charger and it will pick up radio stations if need be so it's it's learning to take everything that you need finding that multi-tool that can do it to save the weight and the space on your bike.

SPEAKER_01 55:04

What are you thinking about for riding gear?

SPEAKER_05 55:07

Um riding gear could go several different ways the um definitely definitely never definitely never want to cheap out because you get what you pay for type of shit. But um you ain't got I don't think you have to be the fella who shows up with the $2,000 climb pants um as long as you got something that is durable and will help with the rain or the mist because the last thing you want to do in any form of destination riding is to have to stop and uh re-gear or or de gear I should say. Right. All that takes so much time off what you're trying to do. And there's gonna be days if I know the weather's good all you're gonna see me in is a pair of Wranglers and cowboy boots. And maybe with the helmet. I mean it just depends on what state we're in.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

Right, right. Yeah it's uh it's interesting. So I had full Gore-Tex riding gear and I loved it because when it was hot I just unzipped it. When I saw we were were about to hit the rain I just zipped it back up. There was no getting on and off the bike to have to get my rain gear on or anything else like that. And if it was going to be cold or I knew that we were going to be at altitude I'd layer up underneath it. Um and we should be prepared by that by the way right because it's September and we're going through some serious altitude I wouldn't be surprised snow. Exactly that's exactly what I was going to say I wouldn't be surprised at all if if we ran into snow at some point. Um so yeah it's it's gonna be interesting. We we will always get thrown a curveball. Um but yeah it's gonna be a good time.

SPEAKER_05 56:52

Oh yeah I'm looking forward to those curve balls seeing how good you're uh how good everybody's um uh uh plans on the fly can change yeah uh what about navigation? Um

Navigation Stack And Final Toast

SPEAKER_05 57:05

what I'm running a uh Garmin XT3 or uh yeah that Zumo three. Yeah. Um I went with this I went with the smaller screen just because the way um uh Aaron w um has it set up for the checkpoints running with an iPhone and I'm gonna have an iPhone running and then my personal phone running beside it and then with that Garmin that way I'm not taking as much data or time or battery off of my phone. I can just let my Garmin do its thing.

SPEAKER_01 57:36

Okay. Yeah and the the offline routing and stuff is important. Um I think people have all got their favorite apps. Um I had done uh podcast episode with uh Rick Kloss and we had talked about um different navigation options and like apps and things like that and I I can't stress enough how important the offline mapping and stuff like that is uh and the offline routing engine because plans are gonna change inevitably yeah I'll I'll run that Garmin and then probably uh my app choice will probably be Stegra. Okay. All right very cool. Well I am looking forward to seeing you there sir it'll be uh first round of beers on me. Oh second second's on me I'm gonna get you drunk so you can't run the next day in the South baby let's let's throw down all right I I own a bar so good luck with that'll be a good time man. All right I appreciate you taking the time I had a I had uh a ton of fun chatting with you I was uh a little bummed that you couldn't make it onto our newbie episode but I'm I'm glad we got it figured out to do a part two with you.

SPEAKER_04 58:59

Oh yes sir thank you for having me all right thank you for the same looking in the girl and I can smell those full I hit down the small sweat down a five-star review really helps the podcast and satisfies the algorithm gods all hell the algorithm gods a special thanks to our Patreon supporters you're keeping this taking chip afloat thanks for listening to the ATV Cannonball podcast keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the peg