Modern Vespa

Im right next door to Va. Beach.... man that would have worked out

Whose ass do I have to kiss to get into this one ?

Line them up.

Bill X

Don't tell the RCMP!

Had I money, which I am now convinced I never will again, I would do this in a heartbeat.

Shit yes.

Siiiiiiiigh.

You mean I'll only ever get to meet you once OZ ?

Dammit !

Bill X

Well, this just got a whole lot more difficult for me...

Aren't Hawaii and Alaska like right next to each other out in the Pacific ocean?

That's what it looks like on the map, anyway.

bwahahaha! i wish! we're still waiting on the bridges between islands and that massive bridge to the mainland!

jess- i can't register for the SCBR forum, and i got no response when i emailed admin. who else can i try to get in touch with to register?

I'll take care of it. What's the error you're getting?

Well, the error I'm getting is that there isn't actually anywhere to sign up. I see a login but nowhere to register. lol I've looked all over and can't seem to find anything. IDK if I'm just stupid or what..

You're right, looks like new registrations were disabled during the off-season. I've just turned it back on, with the caveat that registrations will need to be validated by an admin. The Scooter Cannonball site doesn't have nearly the same level of spam protection that MV does.

Shoots... Thanks Jess!

A man on his Vespa was riding along a California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, God said, "Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish."

The scooter rider pulled over and said, "Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want."

God replied, "Your request is materialistic; think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking. I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind."

The scooterist thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said, "God, I wish that I, and all men, could understand women. I want to know how she feels inside, what she's thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing's wrong, why she snaps and complains when I try to help, and how I can make a woman truly happy."

God replied - "You want two lanes or four on that bridge?"

four lanes would be nice!

And as it happens, after I turned on registration, three spam accounts immediately registered. We re-jiggered the anti-spam questions there a bit and hopefully that will at least reduce the attacks.

sorry...

more Hyder pics

Stole my dreams....





XOXO

R

no, no, no - just did some scouting for you xo

you R tough!

No, she just did it, while the rest of us were trying to figure out how to ship our bike there. Also note that this was done on the way to the start of cannonball!

Not tough, really. Just a chick on a scooter. Although I did have to convince a Canadian border guard who was being kind of a dick that I was tough (dumb?) enough to travel without weapons or bear spray. He made me unpack all my gear, checked the glove box, etc. If you look at Maroy's photo of bears leaving Hyder, the border check shack is just outside the frame to the right of the orange cones.

Hyder-ites have a pretty good sense of humor (even the few old s---heads referred to in the sign in yanobobano's pic). When I was there, they were promoting a charity event.

With 10 guys for every woman you definitely want to make sure second base is well covered.

I registered on the forum, just waiting for approval. I'm still considering it but it seems like it's a longer duration than past events. Weren't the previous events 7-8 days? That's a hella-long time to ask off from work :-/

2012 was the only short one, at 8 days. The rest were 10 or more.

Nope, the shortest was 8 days.

2012 8 days
2010 10 days
2008 10 days
2006 10 days
2004 12 days

I think....

Since that's the one I followed I guess that stuck with me. I hope I can afford to do it.

hopefully they can whittle the days down to 10. Stretch out the miles on the flat run portions.

Then we can use the GT exhausts as racing pylons!

That probably is not going to happen. Ten days means averaging 360 miles per day. Easy on a modern 250, not so much on a sub 150 CC vintage scooter. Eleven days lowers the daily milage requirement to 327miles per day.

Also this is not a highway bombing ride, the check points are selected to keep the riders primarily on secondary roads. The route could have 50 miles of dirt roads, or a ferry crossings, mountain climbs that exceed 10,000 feet. When you throw in these "extras" don't be surprised if the cannonball lengthen to 12 days. Not saying it will, just saying that is more likely to happen then a reduction in days.

Every Cannonball has a host of challenges: time, money, scooter viability / eligibility, etc. Some folks may not be in a position to overcome every obstacle this year. Don't fret. There will be another in 2 years. That'll give you lots of time to plan, save, build or do whatever you need to do to prepare for the next one.

Big thanks to the organizers and best of luck to all the competitors.

those guys who select smaller cc's and older also get the benefit of the higher % of correction to compensate.

I think that greatly misses the point here. There's an upper limit to how long someone can reasonably spend in the saddle.

Planning the CB route is a balancing act. It's really, really hard to balance all the different factors against each other, find towns to stop overnight in with sufficient hotel accommodations, and still make it do-able by a wide variety of riders on a wide variety of bikes.

What's maddening about the process is that there's always someone queued up who is dissatisfied with the plan for some reason or another. Either the days are too long, or the days are too short, or the route doesn't take them past their mom's house, or that it's too hard, or that it's too easy, or god knows WTF else.

I am not one of the Cannonball planners. But I have an inside seat and have observed the entire planning process for the last several Cannonballs, and I can say with certainty that it's a brutal, thankless task.

Please don't make it worse than it already is. The route will be the very best that the route can be. It will not be perfect for everyone, nor should there be any expectation that it will be.

That is true, but we like having their company at dinner each night. They like having time to eat, handle the extra maintenance burden of their scooter, and getting at least some sleep each night.

I am sure everybody has seen this video at least once. This time when you watch it, look at the roads, the time of night, and of course listen to the commentary. Most of time the people making the comments were totally serious, it just sounds funny.

The 2010 Cannonball was 3,487 miles, not 3,847 as shown in the video.

Wow, what an trip!

Well done to the organisers!

That video always makes me laugh. All the fellas are stressing about the points, carrying on about how hard it is and complaining about how exhausted they are. Then Starr, who I'm gonna guess worked harder and later than anyone says something like, "Meh, it's not about points. It's just fun."

the 2010 mileage in 10 days is really close to what the 2014 mileage is.

It is a balancing act of rider and machine. 300 miles in 8hrs is only an average of 37.5 mph
While 350 miles is 43.75 mph.

Based on the standard of the 79 P with a top speed of 67 mph this should be achievable to maintain.

i'd love to see 10 day CBR but... I am on a modern sooooooooo....... consistent daily distances vs. change ups are all I'll hope for in 2014.

2010 longest day was 405... (with an off the clock stop?) and shortest was 270. i believe it rained on the shortest day... which made it the longest day for many! CBR has lucked out on last 4 cannonballs, 37 out of 38 days dry riding? i am not sure how many riders are prepared to do consecutive 350+ mile days in rain.