Modern Vespa

... no I'm not participating, though I would definitely love to. But getting the bike from Europe to the USA first... mwah.

Anyway, what I couldn't help but wonder: how do those Cannonballers get their bikes BACK to where they came from? Ride another x-thousand miles?

Some ride, some trailer as they had a dedicated support truck and trailer and some ship scoots home using Motoshippers and then fly home.

fly in. buy a bike. ride the cannonball. sell it at the end. fly home.

easy!

At the start line most are thinking how cool it would be to ride home.
At the finish line many are pondering the range of a trebuchet.

I plan to ship to and back - too early to tell at the moment. If I find some local participatns might buy a spot on a trailer and fly in/back. Tbc...

could also rent a van

this did cross my mind but to make it work I need copilot or two to make it a non stop run...not sure I want to beat myself up right before the CB (lol)

Perhaps someone could organise a Pan-european challenge, maybe London to Istanbul?, with an option to have your scooter sent back in a specially arranged rail container at the finish.

I would definitely be in!

only if it's from a cobblers' shoppe in Ye Olde London Towne to a cooper's basement in Constantinople and the finishing prize is one-sixth gill of the queens gin and two pounds pork backstrap.

4th and 7th place finishers must ride home on J-range lambrettas.

Cannonnesia
/ˈkanənˈniːzɪə/

noun: cannonnesia
1. a partial or total loss of memory of how miserable you were on the cannonball."they were suffering from cannonnesia". Usually presents around six months from last cannonball. Often accompanied by delusions of above average scooting abilities. Only known cure is a complete scootectomy administered during subsequent cannonball.

Some riders have paid certain individuals to ride their scooters home but most go home in the back of a truck.

Cooper. Great name.

For this most recent event, I borrowed a trailer to tow the bikes behind my SUV to the start line and home from the finish line. My son was enlisted as support driver. A few other groups were also setup this way.

A lot of bikes were shipped via MotoShippers. Some were only one way depending on proximity of the owner's home to the start or finish line, while others were shipped both ways. I'm not aware of any issues with this company and they are already queued up for the 2023 event.

A fair number were ridden to the start and home from the finish. A lot of it depends on personal preference and budget.

The next event is scheduled to run from Southern California to Hilton Head, South Carolina. My early plans are to have the scoot shipped to California and fly there, and then ride home from S.C. after the event.

It's not magic:

They ride it, haul it or ship it.

It's not for the faint of heart. Getting to the start is often the hardest part, closely followed by the getting home bit.

That makes sense of course .

Anyway, it feels like an incredible adventure. I'm watching some well made reports on YouTube currently and I must say... it's slowly starting to find a way on my bucket list. A far away bucket list, but still: the bucket list .

For 2023, if I choose to participate, I will either ship the scooter or ride it to California.

A ride out a few months before the start would be a great way to see that part of the country at a leisurely pace. I then having time to get ready for the fast ride home.

Getting home from Hilton Head is a 2 1/2 hour ride, so that part is easy.

Almost as easy as getting to the start of 2016.

I spent the night before the start at home, got up very early and rode 40 miles to meet up with everyone in the beachfront parking lot.

Many members of the 7 Bridges Scooter Club rode to the start to see me off.

It was a fun one.

Bill

Look at the bright side, after the CB your scoot will likely be trashed to the point you will not want to see it again. So you would sell it for parts to the other guy who blew his engine.
Two problems solved and two riders now have time and funds to get ready for the next one.
Go CBers!!!

Tony, Rocket stays with me to the bitter end.

Selling or disposing that machine would be the equivalent to selling a family dog.

I am willing to do whatever it takes to get it back home and running again if necessary.

But it might just win.

Bill

Of course my last remark was not meant for you Bill, am aware of how fond you are of all your scoots. I was thinking about the general population involved. Some of the scoots suffer damage and mechanical failures that make them question whether to bring them back home or not.
Tony in Tn.

Probably because I've never participated in these kinds of events, but...
I've never understood what it is about the Cannonball that trashes so many scooters. They're also being ridden long distances, cross-country, etc without falling to bits. What's the difference? What makes those roughly 3000 miles so destructive instead of any other set of miles between service intervals?


Seriously. Asking honestly (and probably naively). That question combined with only having the one PTW at a time is why I've always been interested but never entered.

A few always have serious mechanical problems or crashes that cause them to withdraw from the event. Last year some days were over 400 miles. Some events required riding dirt roads at a fast pace. Of course, fatigue always enters the equation.

I think that it was 2014 when 4n6iscool and I rode a Post Cannonball GT200 and a GTS250 back from New Orleans to Oilville in Virginia in one go.

Granted the GTS needed sometime in a workshop before we left and the GT's water pump failed half way through the 1000 mile ride but we both made it.

The next day was a short one ( just 320 miles ) as I delivered the GTS to it's owner near Allentown and the GT returned to New York with a temperature needle dangerously near the red section.

Cannonball doesn't ruin scooters but it does leave them a bit wounded at times.

You wouldn't be the first to do this either. If you really want to ride your own scooter Air Canada had a program for shipping bikes pre covid and so does Forward Air.

I've trailered on the support truck driven my my husband twice and ridden both ways once.

Take a good look at GoPam's 2018 cannonball videos particularly the days in Utah. Look at the pictures videos of the logging road in 2010. The lunar landscape from rock slides on the last day of 2021, the deep gravel and ATV trails in South Dakota, Wyoming. Add in things like the heavy storms with water higher than curbs and sinkholes in 2016 high winds whenever you cross Kansas. Downed trees and washed out bridges sometimes with downed power lines. Those are just some of the things throws at you. Most of which you'd simply choose not to ride in if you were just touring.

Then there are things like the tiny exhaust leak that took me out last year by melting my electrical harness. Tires that blow out. Other mechanical issues factor in. I had to replace a variator before riding home at the end of 2016 . Scoot had over 70,000 miles on so not a big deal. Rider fatigue can also contribute to mistakes either in maintenance or riding. Finally there are crashes. In 2021 Korney total his Reflex. Carl broke his arm. Mary's scoot couldn't handle the daily miles. GoPam has a bad case of electrical gremlins.

While it isn't a race it is a timed event so even the tourists don't take long stops. So you are pushing hard for 8-10 days covering 2,700 to 4,700 miles. That's a lot of stress not only on the scoots but also the riders.

Riding stock minimizes the chances of mechanical failure but some people modify their scoots to increase their chances of winning and sometimes that compromises reliability.

Now you've got me wondering about the logistics of this. I know some French kids who bought a car in California on their gap year, so I know you don't need a local license to buy here. You would need an address, but I've heard of people registering at the dealer's address to get local plates to go on tour.

I have no concept of how hard it would be to get insurance (legally required here) without a local license.

I know Vermont lets you register a vehicle by mail: it's a hack people use to ride vehicles that don't meet local emissions standards. Sales tax in California is often around 9%, and charged on both new and used vehicles. No idea if you'd save money registering in Vermont, or of it would be worth the hassle.

I also believe in California, the plates stay on the vehicle, which means you could use the previous owner's registration if you buy used. It would save you on taxes and fees, but there's obviously potential for legal problems if you crash or get a ticket without having transferred the registration to your name. I'm not sure what the grace period is for transferring ownership after making a sale. You might be able to buy in CA and sell in SC without being the registered owner (so long as you still get insurance).

basically, you'd need some friends to help you along.

so you have a friend buy a bike for you (you supply the cash) transfer all the paper work to their name and then you "buy" it off of them put the paperwork in your name and insure it. or, you buy it together, their name is on the title and have you as an insured rider on the insurance.

then, when you're ready to sell, you leave it in the hands of your friend or just hand the title over to a friend in whatever location it's at and have them sell it for you.

to me, that would be the easiest way of going about things.

If you decide to also keep them to the bitter end, you can have the family dogs stuffed and pose them in festive dioramas throughout the house and workplace. Probably engender more looks of sheer amazement than a bunch of old Vespas.

For example Cheshire:

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Hey, of course I should have known you were in here, Gopam! I'm litteraly binge watching your 2018 episodes currently.

Nice!! Thanks for watching! I'm trying to get the 2021 series going too…..

Just don't put another drinking game in that series…

Soo... I'm hearing that my plan for my next bike to be something I can get some offroad/dualsport experience with is an instinct I should follow... and THEN think about attempting a Cannonball.

I didn't realize that they routed you down those kinds of surfaces. Great video, gopam!

cdwise, thanks for taking the time for that detailed answer. So many aspects of the event that I wasn't aware of!

Edit to add: BTW: my reactions to that video.
"Oh, unpaved...so a few hundred miles of interspersed gravel.
...Wait. WHAT?!? WTF is that, the TransAmerica Trail I hear about from ADV people?
Oh, that's...okay not quite like the Dakar stuff I've seen, but it definitely reminds me of it!"
(makes note to research dualsport tires that will fit a GTS)

/still laughing

I've done this in a car in the 90s and was a great experience. Would be even better on a scooter!

We are anxiously awaiting your academy award worthy video

My 250 did 3.3 cannonballs. It was ridden both ways in 2012 and 2014, which was to Alaska.
Other than a few body dents from the encounter with the bear in 2014 it never missed a beat.
It did over 5,000 mile road trips on the off years. It was ridden hard on all of these. It failed in 2018 with 62,000 hard miles when it blew a head gasket. The engine has been replaced and it is still going strong.

FWUW, 2023 will be paying homage to the 2012 Scooter Cannonball where you can ride the whole thing, get everywhere checkpoint (maybe not every bonus photo) without ever going on an unpaved roads. 2024 when it returns to the even year schedule will resume "more varied terrain". Something to think about if the cannonball is on bucket list experience for you.

City Grip 2 tires were probably most common and did well. Heideneau 4 seasons so a but better on dirt but are not as comfortable or quiet on pavement. I've run City Grips, Heideneau and City Grip 2 respectively on the three cannonballs I've ridden.

Lostboater, I was thinking of you at the seafood market in Knoxville with their display of fresh oysters on ice last week.

When I first came across the Cannon ball, it seemed like a great idea. I have been considering doing the great American road trip with my sons in my VW bus. It seemed like it would make sense to make our way out west during the Cannonball with the bus as a support vehicle and continue with our trip after we arrived.

Then I thought about what it would be like to make that trip on a scooter. In the mid 90's, I drove my VW bus from New Hampshire to SanFrancisco. The journey ate the engine valve by valve. When we arrived, we had one dead cylinder and another that was at 50% compression. We were still moving, but barely. It was a long, hot and uncomfortable drive across vast expanses of sun scorched nowhere. Why does it eat scooters? If you saw it, it would become clear.

I was 26 back then. I could probably handle it in the bus today; especially without the beer guzzling, chain smoking and fast food diet of the 90's trip. But on a scooter...I think it would kill me.

You don't know until you try.

You'll be amazed what you can achieve when you really put your mind to it.

If you can travel by Veebus, scooting is easy.. My bus ate valves too, but what a cool way to go.