Modern Vespa

Dates have been announced for the 2025 Scooter Cannonball. There will be 8 days of riding. Route length is TBD, but will easily be more than 2600 miles

Start date is Sunday June 22, 2025
End Date is Sunday June 29, 2025

Starting location is Seaside, OR
Ending location is South Padre Island, TX

No overnight locations have been announced yet and the route is still TBD based on the overnight locations.

Registration will be open mid-year 2024.

Start making your plans now!

Interesting route compared to recent ones. Will be interesting to see the details.

For us yet to cannonball scooterists I want to say that I really appreciate all of the time the organizers put into this biennial event. It is fascinating to follow and is a great promotion for scootering. It is so much more than just riding "mopeds" cross country. I started following the cannonball shortly after the 2008 run and have followed all since. I even made it up to Savannah for the start of the 2012 cannonball and the end of the 2014 cannonball at New Orleans during Amerivespa.

Anyway. Based on the endpoints this is my pretend organizer dream route. Plenty of hilly riding with the last third a "downhill" sprint to TX and passes through Moab, Four Corners and Roswell. http://tinyurl.com/yc7xjpsa

To the real organizers. If there is anything you need help with that can be done remotely shoot me a pm.

I see mountains. Lots and lots of mountains.

Don't worry, all nicely paved.

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I went down in a sand pit on the road in Pam's video.

Hit my shin on a rock or the scooter and my leg turned into one big painful bruise.

I went to an emergency room in St. George that night, then rode in the support truck with Ken and Scott for a day and a half until they looked at my leg and dropped me off at a hospital in Durango.

I stayed in a hotel there for two nights, visiting with my brother who was riding the area, then flew home.

My 2018 Cannonball was over.

I prefer pavement.

Bill

Let me suggest the Twisted Sisters segment in the Texas Hill Country.

I live in Abilene and probably won't ride due to a sketchy back, but I have tools and power if the route comes through here, with the caveat that a lot can change in 2 years.

Sorry, Three Sisters was from our Australia trip in '13.

I provided Twisted Sisters and a few other roads in the Hill Country as part of the route several months ago. It will be awhile before we see anything resembling route info.

I thought this was some sort of Tinder thread.

high probability

Here are some other options...

we are shooting for 4300 this year , this route has it 4 miles shy so will have to do some tweaking a bit

The event is only 8 days long. If the daily average distance is 400 miles/day, that gets you to 3200 miles total. Average 500 miles/day gets you to 4000 miles total.

I'm guessing it'll fall somewhere in between.

Those zigzags through the mountains are going to be hell for carbureted engines.

The north Texas route will have some quality riding especially if they put the sisters in the plan.... The south texas route down to padre will be a bit of a hell-scape though (flat, or industrial and flat).

No they won't.

Bill

Must participate someday.

Must. Participate. Some. Day.

MUST. Participate. Some. Day.

...

Man, I really must participate someday!!!

Just a shoutout for the lost art of concise communication. ZERO fat on that post.

But maybe some bias.

(My bias: I am a founding member of the "carburetors literally suck and I never want to own another one as long as I live" club).

As I've not yet driven a fuel-injected scooter I wouldn't weigh in. I just appreciated the hit-it-and-quit-itness of WLeuthold's contribution.

I have scooters with carburetors and fuel injection.

Living in Florida, I can't tell any difference. Sometimes my Carbureted Vespa GT is faster than my friend's Fuel injected GTS.

I have ridden two different carbureted GTs through the Rocky Mountains three times, including several passes at over 10,000 feet and Trail Ridge Road through Rocky Mountain National Park at over 12,000 feet.

A larger fuel injected engine would have been better, but the ride was far better than the "Hell" suggested.

Nothing but fun for me.

Bill

But without a carburetor, you never experience the absolute joy of this :

Hands up if you can smell that picture ^ and it raised some PTSD

*puts both hands up*