Dave's 2012 Scooter Cannonball Run Blog

The final day of the Cannonball went flawlessly. I left at 4:50AM to beat the heat and arrived at Joshua Tree National Park after sunrise. I thought it was disappointing as far as National Parks go but if you’re on two wheels it is a nice ride.

The road up the mountain to Julian was full of curves. I scrapped the side stand (security loop bar) a few times in the leans. After that it was a downhill coast into San Diego. I opted to take the Interstate route for the last 35 miles to the finish line instead of the local roads.

LeeB and his entourage of woman were the only ones at the finish line! We took some celebratory photos, chatted with the natives and one by one riders started to show up. Vespa Motorsports (http://www.scooterwest.com) put on a great BBQ, beer/soda, the works. Great party - thank you! There was a raffle and rider awards. Everyone eventually made their way back to the hotel in ‘Old Town’ area of San Diego. I had a final dinner with the Mark & family, LeeB, Matt (4n6), Kristin (ScootChef) - it was a nice way to end the trip.

Shipping home was an exhausting adventure in itself. I loaded up the Scooter at ForwardAir around noon - as usual, no issues and took less than an hour. The scooter arrives here in Allentown on Friday.

I took a $40 cab ride into downtown San Diego and parked myself at the Gaslamp Tavern for almost 5-6 hours of eating and drinking trying to pass the day. The bartenders there were great. Then I slowly made my way to the airport, dinner in Little Italy area and finally caught my red eye flight home and arrived here in Allentown around 10AM this morning!

I placed 5th out of 50 this year. Unlike last time I actually had to work for it! The handicap system and mix of riders made it rather competitive. I knew if I had any advantage it was days 1 through 3 given their navigation complexity. After that it was a matter of holding on to whatever lead I had and getting the scooter to the finish.

My FollowRide website seemed to work well. I received a lot of positive feedback from both riders and spectators.

BillK/BillDog, who traveled here from the UK, was thought to have been bitten by a Brown Recluse spider on his hand on Day 4. It was misdiagnosed and he finally got to a hospital in San Diego. It ended up being MRSA. Yikes. He road all the way to the finish - I am sure it was really f*cking painful. I hope he has a speedy recovery and a safe trip home to the UK.

JimT made it to the finish - he is now 2 for 4 on Cannonballs! =) What will he do now! I can get a smaller phone plan.

Patrick (Rockbass) made it to the finish as well - he is safely home in Chicago! Hardest part is getting to the start, I am glad he was able to make it. And, he took 6th place on the SYM!

Congrats to Classic Rider (John) for a 7th place finish on a 1975 Vespa Rally 200!  Perfect planning and execution.  Hopefully he rides again in 2014!

Several riders were trading Facebook accounts on the final night. Mine is hidden but if you’re trying to find me, try: http://facebook.com/bnski

Thanks for reading and following along this year. I’ll be sure to post any additional recap items related to this years event. I have 200,000+ photos from the GoPro to sort through and lots of reading to do on the other riders blogs (I read them after the fact).

In all, my scooter ran very well and I had no real problems. While I cannot speak for the vintage riders, a properly prepared and maintained modern scooter should be able to go the distance. I’ve visited a total of 41 states and 3 Canadian provinces on my Vespa in 4 years. There is no better way to see the country than on 2-wheels.

This was my third Cannonball and really I had no set-intentions of doing another. The routes, roads, scores, maintenance and techy gadgetry that has consumed me on past trips will be minor memories this time. I really had a great time traveling across the country with a group of friends both new and old. If circumstances allow, I hope to be able to do it again in 2014.

On Day 6 our first check point was the Trinity Site historic marker. While anticlimactic and not the actual site, it was highlight of this years checkpoints for me. About 10 miles off in the distance from the highway marker is where the ‘atomic age’ began in July 1945 when the first nuclear bomb was detonated.

After Trinity we continued through Socorro and towards the Continental Divide. The winds were brutal all day and our elevation changes made for a roller coaster ride to the hotel in Roswell. The scooter performed well only sluggish with the altitude changes.

Roswell was the first town I really liked and felt like we were in a town. Abilene was action packed with the local scooterist but we were in a hotel tucked behind a mall. After lunch, a few of us toured the UFO Museum (to get stickers for the scooters). Rockbass (Patrick), ClassicRider and I had dinner at the Cattle Baron. Uhh… it was interesting, like an upscale Ponderosa.

The timezone changes are killing me going east to west. I actually forced myself to go drink at the bar across the road in Roswell for an hour to keep my sleep schedule consistent. In 2008, I stayed out boozing every night until the bars closed… 4 years later I am popping one-a-day vitamins, zyrtec and drinking V8 w/ Cliffbars every morning.

Show Low was a quaint town. A dozen of us enjoyed big ass Margaritas with lunch at a local Mexican place. The CVS sold wine (how nice) so I drank a bottle while changing my tire in the parking lot. Keep’n it classy. Unfortunately we gained ANOTHER hour, so I forced myself to stay out two hours at the local bar. I actually started falling asleep and some people threw napkin balls at my face from across the bar.

Today’s ride into Parker Arizona was probably one of the most enjoyable riding days of any Cannonball (for me). The time lapse video is very long and the twisty sections are not captured very well. But we carved our way across Arizona today - several thousand foot elevation changes, including an awesome climb to the town of Jerome that was followed with 30 miles of switchbacks and curves. The day ended with about 60 miles through the desert! Cactus, sand, wind… palm trees, the works. Patrick (Rockbass) and I had lunch at local diner - I ordered a philly cheese steak which was more like a White Castle Slider. Ha.

Tonight is our final night together as a group on the road. I will be sad to see it come to an end. This has been hands down my favorite Cannonball of the three I’ve done. Tomorrow Motorsports is throwing a party of some sorts and then awards, etc.

Trying out a little of my mexican language.

We’ve arrived in the Land of Enchantment, New Mexico!  It was a definitely a site for bored eyes.  The landscape changed rather abruptly when we left Texas.  I had higher expectations for scenery western Texas and what I envisioned it to be was actually eastern New Mexico!

Every state I switch music genres on XM Radio.  Georgia was “Prime Country”, Alabama was “The Highway” and Texas was two days of “Willie’s Place”.  New Mexico = Classic Vinyl, it rocks!

As it turns out lots of people were having heat related issues yesterday - cooling, fuel vents, etc.  The Honda Passport from what I know, engine literally blew up on the off ramp to the hotel.  Mike Smith on the 100,000+ mile Honda Helix is done - his transmission went kaput - no way to get parts.  That really bums me out, this is the third Cannonball I’ve done with him.  ScootChef’s exhaust cracked into two pieces after it rapidly cooled upon arrival in the shade but she was able to have some welding done locally and is back in business.  There were more.

My fuel vent modifications were partially successful.  I still had problems today but I’ve learned to manage them.  Essentially, I need to start gradually slowing down when I enter small towns and then leave slower.  The rapid deceleration causes some sort of vent issue between the main and aux tank.  My tire is just about done - I could do one more day on it but will probably change it today so I can keep the used one as a decent spare for the rest of the trip.

No grandiose plans for Roswell this evening - hoping to final some local bar or decent restaurant this evening.

The GoPro Video Timelapse was partially successful today.  I had to do some trouble shooting while riding - but I think I worked out the issues by the end of the day.

Time to do some maintenance.  

More photos & video to come, here are some from this morning:

Continue reading if you care about scoring:

They slightly modified the scoring last night - which I have mixed feelings on mid-event.  To keep it simple, the handicap system was based on age of the frame and displacement, this was to encourage guys to build frankenstein bikes.  One guy did, LeeB, its a 1946 scooter with a modern 250cc Ninja engine in it.  No one expected that and as a result, the math formula that determines handicap made it impossible to beat.  Each leg has a minimum point value but because of the way it works everyone is tied for second.  So they removed LeeB from the scoring and now we’re back to traditional Cannonball scoring but with handicaps.  We shall see.  

Lufkin Texas to Abilene Texas.  The state of Texas & I don’t have the best of pasts.  20 years ago their school system (Midway/Waco) declared that I was dyslexic with severe learning disabilities.  Thankfully my parents refused to dope me up on riddlin and I had a 4th grade teacher who also believed otherwise and let me ‘cheat’ on spelling tests and gave me Encyclopedias to read all day.  This most likely caused or contributed to my ever changing hobbies/curiosities/interests and now today I am accuse of having ADHD (which I don’t have).  The scooter and Cannonball is certainly one of those activities that literally pop’d up out of no where one day and now I am in Abilene!

Texas did some ass kicking today.  It was very very windy!!!  This along with the heat, caused my fuel vent to malfunction.  The problem was easy to remedy - stop, unload the top bag - open my caps and let the pressure equalize.  I am going to address this tonight.  It supposed to be 104’ degrees today.  FML.

Some kind folks on the scooter message boards (ModernVespa.Com) have arranged a BBQ for us this evening.  People road in from miles around to hang out for the evening.

I cook’d my GoPro video camera’s charging “unit” yesterday doing the time lapse.  I plugged it into the higher-power USB charger, which burnt up the plug thinger - I am going to work up a repair today at the local BestBuy (i.e., new GoPro if I can) - so no video today.  =/

Tomorrow we’re off to Roswell, New Mexico.  I am looking forward to the ride - hopefully my fuel vent issue is resolved and there is video!

The Hurricane Katrina victims didn’t flee cuss they’d rather risk dying than have to drive on their states miserable f*cking roads.  I was glad to leave that state.

I left this morning from the hotel with Rick and BillDog.  We road together for the first leg to the Mississippi River - they stopped to have a picnic and I kept rolling.  They were probably glad to have me move on, seeing as in the first 2 miles I was riding no handed down the road at 70+MPH throwing riding gear overboard that they had to dodge as it flew at them.  Intentionally, because the heated glove liners were not working.  I had a hunch they were broke back in Pennsylvania and no sense carrying inoperable equipment across country - so I chucked them and dug out another pair of gloves.

Today’s ride started out cold and ended hot.    It was mid-80s when I pulled into Lufkin.  Tomorrow it starts out mid-60s and ends with a forecast of 102’ degrees.

My transmission belt or clutch was giving me some issues today and I changed it out at the hotel.  It has 2400 miles on it, time for a new one considering the days ahead.

The GoPro video camera is not charging tonight… so probably no video tomorrow.  I love the video but nothing would make me more happy than destroying the device.

The hotel is nice, plenty of room!  I had a nice dinner with JimT and his wife at Outback… and a glass of scotch at bedtime here at the hotel bar.  Early morning.