Modern Vespa

This year's Scooter Cannonball kicked off on Sunday June 22 in Seaside, OR. The route is ~ 4000 miles total over 8 days and the finish line is in South Padre Island, TX.

I was in Seaside conducting tech inspections. We had 250 scooters that passed and were ready to start, besting the previous record of 182 in 2023.


You can follow along with live rider tracking - https://scoot.run/tracking
You can get details by clicking the numbered blue dot. Unfortunately there is some lag and some riders have turned off their tracking.

You can also track daily scoring here - https://scootercannonball.com/results/results
If you click on a rider # on this page, you'll get scoring details and the pics they have submitted.

#321 Garrett, currently 1st place appears to be out due to front brake and exhaust failures.

#272 Johnny Pow may be out due to spline damage.

#200 Alex from Romania appears to be doing fair as a newbie.

#213 Wilcer bought a new Xmax for this and I'm surprised he is doing ok. He changed his oil but not his filter on first service and didn't change the trans oil. The Amsoil guy at day one check in talked him into changing oil w/filter right.

#177 DJ Tiny changed from Vespa to Xmax this year and is having better luck than previous participation.

If you follow some riders, post some info. Many riders turn off their GPS so the tracker isn't current for them.

I wonder if it's possible to see the list of scooters. I'm curious as to how many shifties are running, and what's the oldest bike.

https://scootercannonball.com/riders

I only clocked one possible Sprint... but then it could be a modern?
Handful of footy shifters amongst the Honda entry's.

Thanks! I don't see any vintage Vespas or Lambrettas, but I do see one intrepid rider, #549 slipclutchms, with a 1967 Cushman 60 Series. An automatic, apparently!

Shame - I'm sure I saw a P or two on the The Big Scoot! Yeah - I see two Vespa Sprint 150s in the list - a '21 and a '22.

Chassis is Cushman. I took a good look at it and there's Honda DNA there. Front wheel and powertrain are cribbed from a '85-'88 CH250 DeLuxe.

Lots of Xmax riders and a lot of rookies. I guess I missed the increase in the cc limit?

Best wishes to them all. Safe travels. Big heat wave and lots of wind in Texas through the weekend.

I got a close up look at the Cushman entry during Tech Inspection.

1949 Cushman Frame, engine is from a 1978 Honda CB125.

I was worried how the bike would handle 4K miles and it's unfortunate he had a failure on Day 3. He was leading by a good margin after 2 days.

38 Xmax's showed up, about 12-15 had 3 gal aux tanks that fit under the seat, a pretty slick set up. Although we found 2 were leaking in the garage on the morning of the start - likely an installation error which was fixed.

CC limit was raised to 300 to allow the XMax to participate, but their handicap makes them wildly uncompetitive for a top overall spot. Competition in that class could be fierce though.

Johnny Pow fixed his spline issue with a good supply of red loctite.
It handled yesterday's full ride fine.

2025 Scooter Cannonball wrapped up on Sunday 6/29 in South Padre Island, TX

250 Riders Started and 133 scored for all 32 time-controlled segments. Only 35 riders scored all 83 Control Check Points and Bonus Points.

The top 10 was dominated by 150cc Yamaha SMax and Honda PCX/ADV entries.

The highest placing Vespa was a 2007 GTS 250 at 25th.

Complete details can be found here https://scootercannonball.com/

As a prospective 2027 newbie Cannonballer, when do they usually start announcing anything for the next one? I know it won't be any time soon. Probably take a year or so?

wow did not realize this. thanks for the info

You rode very well the entire event and wound up 3rd in your class. Congratulations!

There likely won't be any info regarding dates on the '27 SCBR until next June. They may announce the start and end locations at that time, but overnight locations will come later. Soon after that they'll begin registration, 1st for returning riders and then open it up for anyone else about 2 weeks after that.

There were 332 riders that registered for this year's event, only 250 were ready at the start line in Seaside, OR. There are always some no shows as real life gets in the way for folks.

FYI - I do plan to ride again in '27, so I won't be nearly as connected to official info for that event. A lot more detailed (and sometimes entertaining) discussion regarding the event can be found here -

http://forum.scootercannonball.com/

Thanks Carl! I've signed up for the Forum, but not approved yet. I know they're busy and I'm just excited way too early probably.

All I have to say is GoPam beat ALL the Vespas! GoPam!

Oh, and this guy. Standing ovation earned.

#549 slipclutchms Results
Automatic 125 Class (< 125cc)
1967 Cushman 60 Series (124 cc)*
83.75% Handicap

@gonk - Admins were performing site cleanup this past week, updating SSL certificates and general housekeeping. If you don't get a response later this week, try reregistering - It might have gotten deleted during the cleanup.

As for being too early for '27, it's never too early to start training. Start taking longer single day rides now to build up your stamina. There were several days > 500 miles this year. Also take time to familiarize yourself with maintaining your scoot and gathering the right tools needed to perform these tasks. Youtube is a great resource for learning some of these tasks.


@ seamus - There were 2 vintage Cushmans in this year's event. The rider pictured above did a great job managing/preserving his scoot throughout the event. The other Cushman ( a 1949 model which had a late 70's Honda 125 engine) suffered a front brake failure on Day 3 which resulted in his withdrawing from the event. He was in 1st place after the 1st 2 days and would have been tough to beat.

Thanks Carl!! I was actually route planning to places about 4-500 miles form me to start looking into overnight trips. Then over the next 2 years I'll do overnight, weekend, 4-day weekend trips, etc.. hopefully. Each trip should be an adventure!

I didn't realize this stat !!
seamus26 you'll always hold a place in my heart buddy!!

old as dirt could have outridden me on the final Day 8 but chose to ride with me instead. We had a lot of fun together that last rainy day. We took it home buddy!! Love ya man.

CrazyCarl & all of the brave — see you in 2027 !!

Some VROOM GOPAM YouTube action bits from 2025 below!

This year i rode a 2024 Honda ADV 160.

I donated the "three time cannonballer clown bike", my 2007 GT 200, to the 2025 Amerivespa Portland scooter raffle. A Portland local woman won the clown bike so you might spot it possibly doing clown circles on the streets or Oregon!
Much love everyone 🤘❤️

https://youtu.be/inYCBZ5XZCk?si=j0MbJ-LHD5l2z3B1

we did have a blast riding that last day. Thank you.

Brilliant! Hey, who's to argue with the Cambridge dictionary?

So it looks like that if you're going to be successful on the Cannonball, you really need to go Japanese.

I really think so.

thanks for the earworm

Who knows what the song is about ?

I told my wife and now she can't listen to it.

Teenage Kicks by the Undertones is exactly the same.

They had to replace Hold it tight with Hold her tight.

It's a common theme among loser rock stars.