Day 5

Got on the road an hour earlier today. Which makes me very happy. Starting at 9 or 10 am and driving thru the worst part of the day was getting old. I would be happy getting on the road by 7 or 7:30. That would give us a couple of hours of cool weather now that we are in the SouthWest US.

Kraken Master finally got to ride. And other than a quickly remedied mishap with his fuel line has not reported any problems. We leap frogged him a couple of times just trying to stay in a reasonable distance in case something happened. He is riding on a brand new motor and is getting pretty mush all his break in miles in one day. I'm certain he will make some adjustments tonight.

Scooray & ScootChef left early to beat the heat and made it to Roswell without incident and in good times as usual. Modern twist&go scoots are having an easy time of this so far.

We came upon my favorite Cannonballer, Sir Paul, just outside Abilene early in our day. He was only getting a topspeed of about 35 mph and was bogging down severely. We pulled over so he could get at his tools that we carry so that he could remove his airbox. THe new filter wasn't working for him and if there's no filter why have an airbox in the first place. We let get ahead of us about a quarter mile before cathing up and passing him. As we approached he got into a tuck position and threwhis legs back so his toes were by his tail light. It looked like a cafe racer or jockey postion. We didn't get a picture. It would have been a priceless picture.

15 miles into New Mexico, in the town of Tatum, we found ScootRaton sitting under a tree between the Municipal bldg. and the gas station working on his scoot. He stopped to get some gas real fast (Splash&Dash) couldn't start his engine afterward. He replaced the top end of his motor in Lufkin yesterday and can't be sure what the cause his. Frank & NuStar tried to give him a bump start but nothing happened. So we, not being the types to leave a scooterists behind, loaded him on to the now full trailer and gave him a ride to the final stop.

While in Tatum an interesting local came riding up on him homemade moped, cobbeled together from old dirt bike parts and a Schwinn bicycle. He couldn't get a license so he went with a low displacement vehicle instead.

Kraken Master made it in at around 5:30pm. Welcomed by applause by the Cannonballers present. Everyone was glad to see him finally join the event after 4 days of no riding and entirely too many hours wrenching.

Sir Paul arriving after 17 hours in the saddle.

At 6:45p Frank received a garbled voicemail from Sir Paul. All we could make out after several listenings was "heat...tumbleweed...wild west...few hours". Images of an overheating scooter being attacked or chased by tumbleweeds somewhere near the Texas/New Mexico border came to mind. We interpretted the voicemail to mean that we could expect him around 8:45-9 o'clock. By 9:30 we thought about backtracking along the route to see if we could find him. Perhaps guide him in since we know he has a shitty headlight. Nerves got twitchier as we waited. Finally at 10pm on the dot he rolls in and with a short victory lap announces that his time for the day was 17 hours on the scooter. Turns out he had to clean his carburator twice and that the vibration of all the riding had caused the tip of his spark plug to unscrew part way. He had misfires for some time before he figured it out. It's a shame that no one sees him come in and therefore don't understand the challenges he is overcoming in finishing each day. And every mile is on a full stock 1966 motor scooter. None of the other 'vintage' scooters can say that.

Sir Paul (GBanks66) outside Abilene.

ScootRaton, his copilot Alf, NuStar & Frank in Tatum,NM. Note the beer in Frnks hand, the towns municpal bldg is just to the right out of frame 10feet away.

Day 4

Today the Cannonballers got a rude introduction to Texas heat. After 3 days of cool weather from a front that blew thru the south east the riders left the piney woods of Texas and rode into a wall of heat on their way to Abilene. While we drove we watched the thermostat inch menacingly toward 107 degrees with mean winds from the south.The wind is harsh enough, now add dehydration.

Nustar1 had a catastrophic engine failure 2 miles from today's finish and is done with the Cannonball. Though he may be hitching a ride with a friend on his Suzuki 650. To add insult to injury the person in charge of carting his luggage forgot to pick it up at his hotel before leaving Lufkin. That forgetful idiot is now paying to have it delivered to Show Low, AZ Friday morning. And that idiot is ME! I feel like shit.but my wallet is taking care of it. He is not angry thankfully. Just rolling with the punches.

Kraken Master is still working on his scoot. I will go down later and check on it. I just too tired to hang out and watch guys wrench in this still oppressive heat even at 10pm.

Other than that I haven't heard of anyone dropping out.

A bunch of the riders will probably be on the rode by 5am. They have 321 miles to ride. If they leave at 5am and average 55 mph they can be in Roswell, NM before noon. The forecasted record breaking heat will start setting in by 9am. I hope they heed the advice being offered.

Finally, I would like to talk about my favorite character from the Cannonball. In every sport there is an underdog that through displays of tenacity, humor and a daring spirit wins the hearts of fans who will root them on in face of impossible odds. For the 2012 Scooter Cannonball that honor goes to GBanks66, or as he his called by some Sir Paul. An Englishman that came to America 22 years ago so he wouldn't have to be just Paul the Welder. Every morning he sets out on his 1966 Sears Blue-Badge Vespa, with its whopping 120cc 4.3hp engine. Painted in the colors of his hometown football team (Soccer to we Americans) and sporting a 60's era Kawasaki windscreen. His rides take from 10 to 12 hours with top speeds on the flats approaching 43 mph. Despite the long hours, hot miles and what has to be an ass killing seat he is always cheerful and laugh inducing. Forget times, points, handicaps and all that shite. Sir Paul is a Champion with a capital C.

Frank & Kraken wrenching away.

'46 Salsbury with a 7 gallon gas tank and a Ninja 250cc engine. He can quit today and still win.

nustar1 on ground in ball cap surveying damage to the Passport. "It's dead Jim"

Sir Paul (GBanks66) using a Dawn dish scrub pad as an air filter. He's British w/ an eye patch. Cannonball Baby! 

Sir Paul's gas cork. What else is an Eglishman to use?

Day 3

Well...lets see...

nothing happened with our crew. Everyone still riding made it in good time with no injuries or mechanical problems.

Kraken Master had more problems getting his scoot to run. That means no riding on the first 3 days of the Cannonball. No real chance to make up the points but with so much invested whats a man to do? Buy a new motor online in Dallas and have it delivered to Lufkin that what. It is being installed as I type.

The nice weather of the last few days is likely to get hot now that we are heading to Abilene and further westward. Part of my prep tomorrow morning will be to have plenty of water in case we encounter riders in need. A lot of them are from the northeast and may not realize they are dehydrated until its too late.

Day 2

Today the first rule of Scooter Cannonball was broken. DON'T WRECK.

On the way to the final checkpoint Gorilla Bobber skidded off the rode and collided with a road side sign. Like a Yield sign or such. His Burgman 400 is totaled and he went to the hospital. Talk among Cannonballers is 17 or 70 stitches. Gossip exagerates everything...I hope. Either way it sucks that any one would be injured.

I wish you well Gorilla Bobber. Hope to ride with you in 2014.

As for the riders I'm supporting...

Kraken Master figured out the carb issue, got the short taken care of, BUT had a timing issue develop that kept him from riding. Dammit! Can't this guy catch a break. And so again he rode in the van lamenting the clear weather, smooth roads and beautiful scenery.

Nustar1 had his air filter catch fire at the first checkpoint in Camden AL. Best guess is some gas backfired into the filter and was ignited by the heat of the engine. WooHoo! CANNONfireBALL!!
Luckily we were within 30 min of him. We backtracked and found him at a True Value store wher he got a couple of pieces of PVC pipe, a rubber hose and some JB Weld to make a step up adapter so the tractor filter he bought would fit. Our only purpose in being there wound up being to make MacGuyver jokes, take pictures and add to the oddity show for the locals to watch. Anyway the filter worked and he and his riding partner ThatScooterGuy made it safely thru the rest of the day.

Scooray finished in his leisurely style and time. pst...hey Scooray you do know its a race, right?

Scooter Chef had a good finishing time but with her handicap stands in the middle of the pack. Big, new scoots are at a known disadvantage with the handicapping system. But I think there are side bets going for many of the large disadvantaged scoots.

Frank Tabor had a good day making excellent time, 8 miles from the days finish when the Gods of Cannonball decided in their malevolent way to say BAM! FUCK YOU FRANK! and seized his motor. Actually it was just the Genuine Stella lower piston bearing going out at their prescribed 5000 miles. A known problem that Frank was not prepared for. He says he's done for the cannonball but some of us are trying to get him to fix it in Abilene and riding the rest for the experience. But since he's already ridden dual sport motorcycles in South America experience is hardly something he needs. "If I can't win, Fuck it" is his answer. Now I get to drive a van cross country with the owner sitting next to me. Thankfully Frank is cool and I'm having a great time.

Day 1 summary

The Cannonball started off on the waterfront on River street in Savanah. 55 riders gathered at 6am, got last minute pics and vids, and after a short speech by organizor Patrick (OopsClunkThud) the riders began to depart in small groups over about a 20 minute period. According to the icons on FollowRide.com the groupings were maintained throughout the day. Spreading out as one would expect with the various sized engines (46cc - 650).

Day 1 was fairly uneventful for our team. Unfortunately very uneventful for Sean, the Kraken Master. He finally got his 1979 P200 to start in the morning but it was running too rough and and seemed flooded after a few minutes. He decided to trailer it on day 1 and work on the carb in the evening. In the evening he made made some progress but started blowing fuses. Expect he will trailer on day 2 as well.

Frank made excellent time on his Stella and could've done better if he hadn't had to double back for a missed checkpoint. He was in 17th after day 1. I expect his endurance riding experience will help him improve that position easily.

Bill Dog showing some love to his Vespa at the starting line. "Please baby, don't fail me now".

Stu looking very TRON. Camera flash is a food way to test the visibility of your reflective strips.

Savannah starting live at 6am.

Franks navigation notes written on his wind screen. He missed one checkpoint but otherwise had a good run on Day 1 w/ his Stella

The support van was riding low. Lots of mudflap scraping during the day.

Alabama "blue laws" restriciting sale of alcohol on Sunday is easily negated by a 20 mile detour and a $3 ice chest.

Country's Restaurant in Troy , AL serves up some great ice tea (of course its sweet) and the Dream Pie (custard loveliness) was Dre-ee-eamy! 

Day 0 addendum

Cannonballers continued to arrive into the evening at the official motel, the Thunderbird Inn, until the parking lot was overflowing with scooters and support vehicles. The entire motel was full with just Cannonball crew which means every single room is vacant and needing new linen and full service at the same damn time.
Sean had a new motor put into his Vespa P200 a week ago and he hadn't broke it in yet. He discovered on Day 0 that it wouldn't start. He and Star worked on it all day and were still at it when I went to my room at 10pm. Earlier in the evening they had to quickly relocate the repair efforts to a covered sidewalk when the first of several expected rainshowers pored down on on the festivities.
I was amazed at how many riders were using low tech solutions for navigation. GeorgiaGirl was writing directions on strips of masking tape and putting it on the inside left portion of her windscreen. Frank Tabor used a dry erase marker and wrote his directly on the windscreen. Several experienced Cannonballers were using the paper scroll nav chart method that Bagels was using so I guess its not such a crazy idea after all.

Day 0 meetup at Savannah Vespa (Motoroni)

Spent a couple hours at the local Vespa shop eyeing alot of scooters that will start out at 7am tomorrow morning on a 2500 mile adventure across America. It was nice to put faces to forum names and hear stories from past Cannonballs and stories from some rookies as to why the hell thy want to ride scooters cross-country. The most common answer was "I just HAVE to do this". I guess there is no real rationale except the honest need to experience something like this.

Got a chance to talk to K-Word the lone representative from the Lone Star State, Good Luck K. Also met Bill Dog who has travelled from the nice little town of Maidenstone in Kent England. His Vespa was donated by Vespa of Sherman Oaks California. Their part in helping him ride to raise charity for a Cancer non-profit.

With all the nice people and great scooters its hard to root for just one.

After several hours in the heat most of the crowd departed and made off to their hotels. 6 AM comes early. Though I'm sure the get together at the official hotel tonight will not end too early for some.

Savannah Arrival

Got in Friday evening and taxi'd my way to Savannah Super 8 south of town to meet the group i will be driving for. I will refer them by their rider names on the SCB list: Scooray, Bagel & Frank Tabor. Also met my co-driver Vic. All nice guys thankfully. When you respond to a post from a stranger ya never know what yer gonna get. Other riders in our support group that weren't at our hotel were ScootChef, Shawn & Joe, not sure of their rider names or numbers yet. Joe's travelled from the UK for this event. My kinda crazy bastard. Can't wait to meet him.

I spent the evening  listening to the first 3 guys discuss mapping out shortcuts to shave 3 minutes here and 5 minutes there from their times. As Frank put it, "Thats a piss stop". Every minute really does count to them. I'm glad they're in it to win it, not just along for the ride. That since of urgency will add to the excitement which is sorely need Im sure after 4 or 5 days on a scooter.

This is Bagel's 4th Cannonball. He's the youngest of the group I think and is using the oldest method for his route navigation. No GPS for this veteran scooterist. He is using a paper route chart. I will try to get a picture of it posted.

Breakfast calls.

standby