CREW SHOW: 2025 ADV Rally Pre-ride Report - Norway, EU, Isle of man and London, Nürburgring on a GSA.

In this CREW SHOW, Taylor and Aaron finish the Norway series from our 2024 30-day motorcycle trip. In this episode, we discuss Norwar, Germany, BMW Service in DE, the ferry to the U,K and to the Isle of Man. The mountain TT course and shipping your motorcycle back home from LHR. 

Hunter calls into to the show! He is pre-running the 2025 ADV Cannonball Route. He is on day 4 when he appears on the show, and he has a full report on Days 1-4 of the ADVC 2025 route. 

Episode 14 Main Sponsor - Colombia Motorcycle Rental & Tour Co

Europe, UK, Isle of Man, Sweden, Finland, and Norway Guides/GPX GUIDES

Taking a loaded GSA on the Nürburgring for a laugh, VIDEO

Transcript

Welcome to the ADV Cannonball podcast where we discuss all things on two wheels, the adventure bike cannonball, and other motorcycle related nonsense. Season two episode 15. Welcome to Adventure Cannonball podcast. My name is Taylor Lawson, and I am your host. Today, I am joined by Aaron Pufal.

Welcome, Aaron. Hey, Taylor, man. Thanks for having me, and, welcome back to The USA. Thank you so much. It's nice to be here and, and freaking amazing weather in Mid Atlantic right now.

Yeah, man. Spring is great. It gets, gets the juices flowing. I think I may have to have a I have to set it up next time. It's really hard to rent a motorcycle on the East Coast, but I think I may have to buy one and leave it here just so it's here when I come in.

You know, I just went through this. I feel like a fraud when I go over to Europe, in about a week and a half, and I'm meeting all these people, and I'm taking public transit. The other issue is not only is it super expensive and sometimes hard to find, it's the riding gear. Having your riding gear, available to your traveling with it is is a pain in the ass. We kinda need to have a a stash in every continent of riding gear, motorcycles to share.

Yeah. As as, I know you and I have had conversations about, the trip to India and about checking gear and, you know, for example, there's a particular airline. If you go to, luggagelosers.com, you can find out who the top who the top luggage losing companies are before you travel. And one of them is the main carrier into into India where we're going in. So I'm like, yeah.

Do I wanna put my boots in there? Do I wear my boots? Do I, you know, wear three kilos on each foot as I as I go through the, through the airport and look like a a Power Ranger, or do I carry them on and then check my yeah. It's it's a it's a tough balance. Yeah.

What Taylor's trying to say is let me translate for everyone. Air India loses a lot of luggage, and you don't wanna stick your stuff under the plane. And that was my plan, so he's you know, I'm I'm a man of data, so he showed me this data, and I'm like, well, now I can't check my bag, so I don't know what to do, to be honest with you. I'm, so while I was here in The States at a a 40% discount from buying them in Sweden, I bought four Apple AirTags. And, and my I'm doing a test run right now.

I just shipped a package back to, back to myself in Sweden because I don't wanna carry I don't have to check a bag, basically. And it was cheaper to ship it than it was to pay for the extra bag to be checked. And I put an Apple AirTag in there. So we'll see, we'll see how that goes. And if I ever see that AirTag again, I'll I'll report back.

You know, if you wanna waste thirty minutes of your life, go on YouTube, and there's a bunch of guys who ship fake packages into North Korea, and they put AirTags in it, and they ship it with DHL, and it is a fascinating watch. But, anyways, I digress. What are you drinking? Because I'm having a giant cup of coffee, unfortunately, because it's 8AM here. So what, what are you partaking in?

Yeah. I have to say, one of those things you can't get very frequently in Sweden is you can get it, but it's it's it's you pay outrageous amount of money for it. And here, it's, you know, it's cheap. I got a bud, man. I got a long neck bud.

Here we go. Nice. Well, you enjoy for the both of us because I have a long day of wildly exciting computer work. I'm actually gonna reach out, we should stop ranting, but I'm gonna reach out to the museum that has, Ted Simon's motorcycle. So after I finish my interview with Ted Simon in the South Of France, I'm gonna head down to Spain, and I'm gonna sit down with Linden Poskett.

And then after that, I wanna go to The UK and actually get a photograph, next to Ted Simon's, famed motorcycle. So I'm gonna reach out to the museum and see if I can get behind that velvety rope. Nice. Is that the was it Tiger? What is it?

What's how many cc's was that? Was it it was a Tiger? I think it was a, like, a Tiger 100. I literally cut and paste the article, but I'm on a different computer, so I don't have it in front of me. But, yeah, it's it's most definitely a tiger, and, I'm gonna reach out to them and see if I can get some VIP access.

Like, do you know that the the cohost of the number two podcast is coming? You know, that's exactly right. You should lay that out there, and, of course, they'll be like, wow. Number two? I'm in.

Number two. I'm all about number two. Hey, Aaron. I think we have we have, I think we have eight listeners, but we may have just dropped to seven. I'm talking about number two too much, and, that happens.

Actually, you may get a whole a whole another sector of listeners. Who knows? But, you know, I'll take I'll take what I can get. I think it's the wrong sector, buddy. Whatever those those those advertisers just wanna know how many downloads you got, and that's it.

Yeah. True. That's true. Hey. I just had a, before we get on to this, talking about Norway, where we picked up, and, also, I just wanna say I chatted with our good buddy, Steve, down in Panama, and I think we may have to plan a trip down there at some point.

Someone's got to, visit the legend, the BDD. We gotta we gotta check him out and make sure we you know what? We have to do a welfare check. We have to make sure that he's he's alright, and we want proof of life. Steve, we need some proof of life, buddy.

That's it. Let's, let's this this is a crew show, everyone. So, if you're waiting for some famous, adventure motorcyclists, you're not gonna get it. But you are gonna get Taylor Lawson, which is equally as famous. And I think this is the three of three of, of Europe.

And when we left off, we were in Oslo, and we paid too much for beer. And we're gonna, we're gonna compress this a bit. We're not gonna do day by day, but we're gonna give you some really important travel information. And at the end of this, I'm gonna try to remember to talk about, a gentleman I spoke to the other day about, storing motorcycles in Europe, and we found a great way to short circuit, that that challenge, which I wish I would have met this guy a few days ago. It would have saved me from, from the troubles that I have coming up in a couple weeks.

But okay. So we're in, we're in Oslo, Taylor. Yeah. So I think we should again, and we'll not go day by day on this because it'll be, like, a 10 part series on Europe. But to wrap it up, wanna make it so we can wrap it up in this series, I think we should talk about some of the generalizations that you see, like campsites, routing, things like that.

So, if you look at that when we left we left Oslo, and our plan was to head over to Lillehammer. And then we saw on social media that there was there's like like this guy was a few hours ahead of us, and he was traveling. He was posting information. And it was really cool to see, but the route that you had planned for us took us past Lillehammer. We're like, yeah.

We'll just cruise over the top of the mountain. And then what did we see? Yeah. So the reason I had done that is because I just looking at the mapping and the terrain, I I had assumed that the half the day getting out of Lilyhammer was not sorry. Getting out of Oslo was not, you know, heading Northwest was not gonna be, you know, the highlight of the of the riding.

So I had routed us on a major highway. Well, that major highway went to a higher altitude in that mountain range, and this ADV rider had posted on social media that he had a snow covered road. So I don't know if it's six inches or four inches, but it was a snow covered road. And and, you know, I had Michelin Road six tires on, and, you know, you had proper tires on, but I'm like, I am not gonna go into a snow covered road with my giant GSA and my old man brittle bones. Yeah.

Not unless you had the ski runners off the sides, which we didn't. No. We did not. No. Fair enough.

Go ahead. Yeah. But that's I was gonna say, yeah, that's that's definitely, pucker zone material. Mhmm. So when I when we used to run Yachts in The Bahamas, we talked about making diamonds.

Remember that? Yeah. We go, how was it how was it crossing the bank? Well, if you if I'd had a little piece of coal, I'd have put it in my ass, and by the time I got to The Bahamas, I'd had some diamonds from the pressure. Yeah.

It it it's not it's not good. Holding your breath, also helps the boat a little bit more. I understand. But, you know, we had had an incident years ago on one of the Aspen trips. Actually, I think it was a Vail trip back then, it was so long ago, that one of our guests from Brazil, I think, he we were up I think it was Vail Pass, where there's a tunnel in Colorado on the major highway, and we went into the tunnel, and it was chilly, and we came out the other side, and it was a snow covered road, and he and he smashed his bike up really bad, and he smashed his leg up, and to this day, he has pins in his leg, and, he's still riding again.

He's he's he's out there crushing miles in, Brazil and Argentina, But the minute I see snow on a highway, I just think about that incident, and I just pull the plug. Yeah. He also rode with us in 2023 when we were out there with, Elspeth. So Right. Right.

Oh, yeah. There's that great picture of him and and her together. Yeah. That was fantastic. Yeah.

That episode, interviewing Elspeth, that was, I guess, maybe a month ago that that episode dropped. Yeah. It's season two for sure as much as I can remember. Yeah. Alright.

So some some generalizations. So, camping is, is great. It's a great thing. If you go to a campsite, they are not cheap. It's not like, you know, KOA in The States.

It's, I don't know what it cost here, but I thought I remember them being, like, $40.50 bucks here in The States. For a campsite, but, you know, one of the one of the and it was my fault because I I was doing a month of traveling, and you weren't doing it as much. Is that for me on my setup, which we have to do on an episode coming up, is is my bike setup and your bike setup, my camping setup? Is that Yeah. My camping gear resides in a Wolfman luggage expedition dry bag, the biggest one they make.

And in that bag, I keep my tent, everything I need for camping. And when I went to Europe, I'm like, I'm staying in hotels most of the time, and Norway was really my only opportunity, and I didn't bring that bag. So it we had to stay in cabins. Now you mentioned KOA because in North America, we think about motorcycle cabins as a KOA cabin, and that's not what is generally in Norway. Norway has actual, like, cottage camp cabins, and it costs around a hundred and 50 US dollars a night, But they have several bedrooms in them usually, and they have a great full kitchen.

So it's a little bit more money, but it is it is kinda like a like a Airbnb and not like a KOA cabin, which is bare bones. Yeah. And then to add on top of that, one of the things that's really common in Europe, it was a bit a eye opener to me when I got to Sweden, but all around the Nordics and I don't know about the rest of Mainland Europe. I can't remember. It's been a while since I backpacked through there.

But I can say that it's very common to this day as you go to if you go camp, if you go to, like, the places we went to, I remember we had to buy or rent linens separately. So you get a you get a a bed and a mattress, but it doesn't and a pillow, but it doesn't come with linens. So quite often, like, when my family and I, we go skiing, we go into a place and we rent the cabin, and then we carry with us our own linens. And it's a significant savings, but at the same time, it's a pain in the butt for a hotel to have to process your towels and linens and all that. So if they can cut that expense out and pass it on to you, then they can rent the cabin at a much cheaper price.

So that's why they do it. Yeah. If I were to do the Norwood trip again, which is absolutely on my bucket list, and, you know, I would just like to redo it again just to get it just now that we have it dialed in to go back and just accomplish it again, and and rather than worry about route planning, just go and and have fun. But, yeah, if I were to do it again, I would I would most definitely bring a bed kit, and I would sacrifice a little bit of room of peripheral stuff in my in my, my hard bags and carry a small little efficient kit, that we could really streamline our, check-in and check out process for sure. Yeah.

That makes sense. Campsites are usually near lakes. They're really beautiful. Quite often, they have, like, an extra room because it it could be chilly. Well, especially in Norway in the summertime.

You can go to, like, a a room, have a have a fire out front, and you can have, like, a little, quite often, there's a a like, a bastu house, which is a sauna. And then you can you can get it warm in there, and then you can run out, jump in the lake, bathe, and then, and then run back into this warm building that you've got, you know, a fire going in. So a common thing to have there. Yeah. I think what Taylor's saying is in the tent camping area, there was always a common building, a common area building, a shared building that people can use.

And it it may be just a social area. It may have a fire fireplace inside. Sometimes they have covered and enclosed cooking areas. So there is always an opportunity, also, just to be social, but you're not stuck under your tent, in a barren, you know, subarctic landscape. There's somewhere where there's refuge where you can go, hang out, be social, and, you know, prepare food and, things like that.

Yeah. And, actually, think about I got some pictures in in this. We should probably put some of those pictures, make those available for this particular thing that I'm thinking about. Yeah. For sure.

I, I will one day create the the podcast page with every episode listed with the pictures, but I will, I will invest more in my time machine and and and work on that. Yeah. You need to get some more hours in a day, sir. Yeah. So let's get let's let's let's let's cover the most important topic of all.

I'm gonna I'm gonna say a word, and you tell me if you can remember what it is. Right. Listen. All I know is I type v I in my map, and it says liquor store in my in my in my phone these days. So the, so it is a monopoly.

So The Nordics usually hold the monopoly. Like, in Virginia, for example, in The States, it's a b c, Alcoholic Beverage Commission. So in in The Nordics, like in Sweden, it's called Systembolager. It's called the system. And in Norway, it's called the wine monopoly.

So even though you sell everything there. But Yeah. So we would basically go there, try to make that part of our afternoon stop. So if people are interested in going to Norway on a motorcycle trip and you're interested in doing doing a one week loop or using part of our loop for, you know, part of your travels, we have mapped out on our Google map every, every useful gas station, vantage point, tourist trap, campsite, and every, I'm not gonna try to pronounce it, but the liquor store. This episode is brought to you by Expedition Research.

Weighing just 180 grams and packing down to less than half an inch thick, the titanium solid fuel stove by Expedition Research is simply the perfect moto camping stove designed in Washington state for ultra light adventure camping. You cannot find a lighter or flatter cooking stove on the planet. Save space, save weight, and save your money with expedition-research.com and use promo code badass, one word, badass for a $5 discount. Or if you wanna spend the full price or pay the full price, then you can do that on Amazon.com. And we're gonna interrupt the podcast for a special field report from Hunter.

Hunter, welcome back to the podcast. Hey. Thanks, Aaron. How are you today? Well, I'm doing great.

And considering that you are sitting in Buffalo Thunder Hilton Hotel all by yourself at the end of day four, I am gonna open this sweet ass IPA in your honor. Cheers, my friend. Cheers. Cheers. So if folks are, following, Hunter's been preriding the 2025 ADV cannonball route for us, and he is at the end of day four.

Day four is the notorious slab day. It is, it's unavoidable. It's in the middle of the country. And, just to familiarize people with the the thinking process is that whenever there is just straight roads that plow through the middle of America, we just get on the highway and we just get it done. Would that best describe today's ride, Hunter?

Absolutely. Yep. A %. And then, you know, this is a fictional podcast and this isn't, based in fact at all. So can you tell us how many hours you spent on the road today?

So from a fictional perspective, start to finish, I was on the road for about just under eleven hours. Eleven hours. Okay. That's fantastic. And, and how many miles was that?

760. Seven 60. Yeah. So this is the longest day in the 2025 Cannonball, and we made the decision to take all the boring parts and cram it into one big long day, and that's what what we've done. The could you maybe describe the day three, ride so people understand that this this crappy day is bracketed by two really great days?

So I I don't hang on, though. I don't wanna say that today was crappy. Today wasn't crappy at all. That's that's the the the anomaly about it. And that's the interesting part about the route is something I didn't realize and then something none of you guys will realize until you hit day four.

You're going to welcome the long straight stretches so much because there's every inch of the road prior to day four to this slab day is a hyper focused, concentrated navigation turn awareness. You are engaged a % all day long on the first three days. So, you know, there's a lot of buildup that came to day four, and there's there was possibly some fictitious wagers placed in different things. And, the Oh, there were definitely wagers pay placed. That's for sure.

There were definitely definitely some wagers, as to how long and how grueling it would be. And the the thing that I really found super relaxing about it is for the first time since starting the pre ride, I could have one hand on the handlebar. I could put my feet up on the crash bars, set the cruise control, just kind of zone out. I haven't listened to music in my helmet until today. So it was, it was quite, it was very rewarding and very refreshing.

And mile after mile just started clipping off. So it went it went faster than you think, than you think that it would. And and, yeah, we ended up with a total ride time of just under nine hours and thirty minutes. I think you make a really good point is that, you know, when people, especially a bunch of guys get together with an event like this, we always think that we want the twistiest amount of roads, and we wanna have the most challenging ride possible. But I think you make a good point is that I actually when I plan a route that I try to find a balance even in the fun days, the twisty days, not to have too many twisty roads because it will get fatiguing And there is that balance as as a route planner to have that that balance.

And I think there's a few things you mentioned about day four, that 700 mile day, is there will be also a lot of camaraderie on the highway. I think people will group together. I think people will share the same communication devices. People have fun with it. I think that, it is a nice break from the gruelling twisties, and I think people will have a different kind of fun.

That's for sure. So I definitely appreciate, your feedback. So maybe you can tell us about the prior day, day three, which I think people will find interesting because people, ADV riders often fly over this part of the country and write it off as far as twisty paved roads go. Maybe you can give us some, some insight into that. So day three, everybody's looking, you know, ominously at this day four and and what's to come.

And you leave the remainder of the Smoky Mountains behind you. You end up on I 40 heading into Memphis. And it's just after the, the last two and a half days that you've experienced or day and a half, half that you've experienced. And amazing, incredible mountain riding. It's a welcome journey.

When you exit Memphis, you get into Eastern Arkansas, looks exactly like you would think it would with the farm fields and and everything else. By the time you get bored with it, which is, you know, twenty, thirty, 40, 50 miles into it, you're like, okay, I'm ready. I'm ready to get back on the throttles, get back on the pegs. I want to get back into riding. You enter the Ozark Mountains.

You start to see this rise. The elevation comes out of, out of the distance and you think, okay, here we go. And before you know it, you're back into elevation, mountain curves, just beautiful winding roads, rivers. It's incredible. I ended up spending day three watching the radar, which was there was an impending storm came through that resulted in five tornadoes in the area during that day.

But I stopped prepped myself. I was watching plan and it's about two and a half hours of driving rain. And I found myself just giggling at the fact that I was soaking wet, but I was still having so much fun on these mountain roads in the Ozarks. And then you work your way down through the mountain towards the end of day three into Fort Smith, Arkansas. And it's to the very end.

There's just one curve after another, one vista after another, and then you arrive in Fort Smith, which I've never been to Fort Smith, Arkansas. Beautiful place. I think, I think you paint a great picture, which is there is a full day of riding, and everyone will understand after a few days of the rally that the drive time, the ride time is meant to fill the day. And And if we were to add more twisty roads and more mountain passes, you would never make it to the hotel. Plus, we also have to make it to the other side of the country, and we have to make it to the other side of the country in a reasonable amount of days, which means every day we add on to it is a day that cost people hotel money, and not everyone can take those extra days off work.

Can you tell us how many hours you spend on day three on the road? Yeah. So each each day, even the shorter days, I think a lot of the guys are looking at the mileage, thinking, okay, this is, this is a short day, but the route, the its intention, the way that it's designed, it's going, you're going to be on the road for eight to nine hours a day. That day I slowed down tremendously, to about thirty, thirty five miles an hour, maybe within the speed limit, while the rain was happening. And, and I still made it back to the hotel and in a nine hour day.

So you need to ride spiritedly. You need to, you need really need to understand that this is a rally that, that you can't just lollygag and sight see as you're going through it. But if you're riding at a moderate pace, you're going to have somewhere between an eight and ten hour day from start to finish. But the beauty of it is you don't realize it's gone by so quickly. You've got ten hours on the seat and you're pulling into the hotel.

By the time you grab a shower, you're like, what's tomorrow? And also, you you've really illustrated a good point is that it's not about the mileage. It's about this is gonna be a full ride day. So a lot of people ask me how many miles is they? How many miles is the rally?

And I just always wanna answer, trust me, it's gonna be a full ride day. Don't worry about how many miles. And let's work let's work backwards, and let's talk about day two. Day two is the, is the famous 16. It's the back of the dragon.

You go, on the western side of the Appalachian, mountains, and then you ride down the foothills. Maybe he give us a brief little synopsis of, the back of the dragon. More of the same. Right? You wake up in, Whitehill and you immediately come out of the town, take a left, and you're straight into it within miles.

I actually camped the first night on day one, and I didn't get coffee the next morning. And I made a note to myself, no coffee needed. Your heart's gonna be racing in the first fifty miles. So that was That's funny. That was how I started.

I thought, I thought, oh my gosh, I'm going to look for a place to grab coffee. I'm going to, you know, make my way down the down the road. And the first ascent into the mountains is exhilarating. It's just full of tight twisties and a ton of fun, great roads. I'm really surprised to find every road that I've been on, has been, has been really well maintained, which makes a huge difference.

You know, we're running fiftyfifty tires in anticipation of what we're going to run into in the next few days, out west here and the dirt option if people decide to take it. But the roads are just immaculate. Some of them, they still have the under construction sign, road closed, you know, grooves, motorcycles, be careful, but they've just been tarmacked, and it's beautiful. I just wanted to point out a couple of things about, the beginning of that day. So that morning, when you leave the hotel, we have the back Of The Dragon as as a checkpoint just for some insider, knowledge there.

And they open early enough that you should be able to grab a coffee there. I reached out to them, and they're also gonna have a photographer, on the back of the Dragon. So in addition to our photography, you'll be able to get a, official back of the Dragon photograph, and they have some great, biker swag inside, the back of the dragon facility. I think it opens at 9AM. So we will, we don't have to leave that early that day.

And, again, the start time for each day will be on the rider notices, but, we will make sure that we don't leave too early. And everyone, if if they're not going for the the first to arrive bonus point, there's probably enough time to stop for coffee at the back of the dragon. And also, you're right about those roads. People don't think about that region as really great great roads, but they don't get the the snow and the freezing the way the rest of the country does in the mountains. So it's a unique phenomena, phenomena to have really smooth roads in a mountain range.

And, and thanks for mentioning that. That's really important for people to remember. Maybe you can tell us about day one. I was a bit hesitant that people wouldn't enjoy the beginning part of day one. It's kind of another one of those necessary evils to get you to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains.

But you had some positive thoughts about, day one. Very much so. So everybody's gonna be leaving, you know, leaving for day one. They're gonna be getting settled in on the bikes, and I was no different. I had just changed a ton of things on my bike and added a bunch of things.

And so on day one, when I left, the the first, I don't know, hundred miles through the Carolina farm country and and backcountry highways provided me the opportunity to really get settled on the bike, which was great. I was I was very thankful for not being thrown straight into it. So as you make your way out of the Outer Banks, I was working through GPS's, you know, how's my gear holding up? Is everything tight? You got all those secondary thoughts going through your head.

By the time you make it into, as soon as you cross the Virginia state line, boom, you're in it. All of a sudden, this big, beautiful, winding, sweeping up and down elevation changes, it happens in an instant. And and you think to yourself, okay. Now we're now we're in it, but you've already had a few hours on the bike to get settled in. So it was really a nice transition because I think everybody on day one is is gonna be start times.

There's there's a lot of things that are going through your head at that time, and and you need to get settled in. I would tell everyone, at this point what I've learned in four days, Spend time on the bike. Spend time with your GPS. We all load GPS tracks into our GPS and it and it comes up with the line and we think that we know or understand that piece of equipment. In the last four days, I've tested my knowledge about a motorcycle that I thought I knew intimately, about camera equipment that I thought I knew intimately, about GPSs that I thought I knew intimately, and come to find out at 60 miles an hour with a curve coming up, you really don't know anything about the equipment that you're dealing with when it fails suddenly.

So spend some time with your equipment, with your gear, know how to operate it, know what it's capable of. There's a lot of tools that will help you in in a rally like this where you need all the tools available or everything that you've got at your disposal, you you'll really need it, and you'll figure that out when you cross the Virginia state line and you and you get into the Appalachian Mountains. And, there's one thing we haven't even touched on yet. You're mentioning all the challenges which are which are righteous, And we we preach time and time again, and it's in the FAQs and the rules as, you know, don't buy anything new, don't try anything for the first time. I'm not trying to scare people away, but we haven't even talked about the fact that you're gonna be chasing checkpoints when you're in the middle of the actual rally.

Now not everyone has to get every checkpoint, but there is an award for, people who crush every single, checkpoint, and, that will add another dimension into the rally. And this is a competition. It is it is a friendly competition. Now granted, many of the riders are were gonna be wearing their tourist hat, and they're not gonna be chasing every single checkpoint. They're not even thinking about the bonus checkpoints.

But I just want to mention that this is a friendly competition, and that's part of it. Part of it is following GPX routes, is chasing down checkpoints. It's riding in a spirited fashion. But, you know, it is set up as as we've proven in the last few days of your riding is that you can make it to the hotel before dark. And it, you know, it is doable, but it is an exercise in self reliance and, not being a ADV weenie.

It's about being a ADV badass, and it's about crushing those miles in a in a safe way and, you know, having having a fun and enjoying this curated route. Are you prepared for tomorrow? You're gonna be riding through what I think is the beginning of of the, mountain desert reason region. And it's this is really my favorite. Are you all prepared for tomorrow?

I absolutely am. This is this is the part that I've been looking forward to. So kind of as I've been leading on, you know, I'm from the East Coast. I live out there. I ride out there all the time.

I have been blown away by how impressed I've been with the route on things that I thought I knew. Coming out West, I've really been looking forward to this. So tomorrow, I've been chasing a lot of times lately, making sure I hit certain time frames and and proving that you can make the hotels to and from and so on and so forth. All that changes tomorrow. I am going to really slow things down, because I want to launch the drone.

I want to capture some footage for you guys and and do some things like that. So I'm going to ride out of here up through Taos, and just enjoy it. Enjoy the ride, try to capture as much as I can. But then the dirt routes, I'm going to take my time on it and document those because that's really what this pre ride is all about. Make sure that those are in good condition.

Yeah. And thanks very much for doing that because, you know, I've I've ridden these routes more than once, but, you know, one bad winter can can kinda ruin everything. And you're actually a bit of a trailblazer because no one is reporting, these routes yet. You're very early in the season, and the first set of off road, I hope, is possible, because, you know, that is a ski area. So, hopefully, everything is possible, or we might be commiserating tomorrow that, you wouldn't be able to do any of that.

So we're excited about the you taking the optional off road sections and we're excited about getting some footage. It is a shorter day tomorrow. Tomorrow is a high speed, low mileage day, but it is fun and you are in, you know, the what I'm calling the, the Oppenheimer area. So there's some great history. There's some great sightseeing paved and unpaved, and this is the first foray into the dirt roads.

So I'm excited for you to, to see that, and hopefully, you'll get some footage. Yeah. For sure. I came off of I 40 and, had noticed something out of my peripherals today, as I turned right and was headed up towards Santa Fe. And I thought, oh, that's pretty sad.

You know, somebody's let a trash bag blow out there by that bush. And then there was another, then there was another. And I was like, wait, that's snow on I-forty as I turned north into Santa Fe. And I'm like, oh my goodness. So tomorrow should be interesting.

We'll, we'll take a peek, go up there and see what hopefully, everything's open like you say. I think, I've got some friends that live further north. They had snow last week, but, you know, I wanna bundle up and see what I can get done. Okay. Well, listen.

All the best to you. We're going to go back to the ranting and raving of the regular podcast with Taylor and I. I think we're talking about the final portion of our Europe ranting so So I'm gonna head back to the normal podcast, and hopefully, we hear back from you when you're at the, the finish line of the twenty twenty five cannonball pre run. Yep. That'll be Friday.

I look forward to it. Okay. Thanks very much, sir. Ride safe. Thanks, Aaron.

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The Colombian Andes are calling. Are you ready? Visit columbian motorcycle tour dot com and start your adventure today. Let's talk about not being cheap in Norway, and let's talk about route planning quickly. So we also stayed in it's a bit of a fancy hotel one night, and it had an amazing view.

So one strategy is if you're camping, camping, camping, to once in a while every few days treat yourself to a decent hotel. And we were in I can't pronounce that name of that that town, but Arland, Norway, and, we had booked ourselves into a nice two two bedroom hotel, and it had a, you know, a view of about nine or 10 waterfalls. And, that was nice to get the grime off you from camping and roughing it. But I also want to mention that we learned an important lesson. Whenever you go through a tunnel in Norway, there is a fiftyfifty chance that there is something called the Old Road that goes around a very difficult mountain pass.

And this was a lesson we learned, which we corrected on a lot of our, GPS mapping. Whenever we discovered we made a mistake, we went back and corrected it for the next time we we went around. But whenever there is a tunnel, there may be an old road which you want to explore. Yeah. Exactly.

I mean, it's it's a good thing. It was 27 kilometers long was that tunnel, which is, I think, the longest tunnel one of the longest tunnels in the world, if not the. And it goes to show you that if they went through all the trouble to punch a 27, that's that, 15 mile hole through the Earth, in this case, it's granite, that means that the road that that they're trying to avoid is probably an amazing motorcycle road. Yeah. For sure.

And we we learned that lesson when we were waiting for a ferry or, you know, you were around another group of bikers who are like, oh, did you do that? I said, no. I just took the main road. So, you know, unfortunately, there isn't a Butler map in the world, and, unfortunately, it's it's a great deal of work to plan these these trips, you know, as perfectly as possible, but you can't replace, you can't replace, you know, fixing things and going going back and doing it again. So we're definitely looking forward to going back and doing all those mountain passes.

And but also keep in mind that we went in June, and we just wanna reiterate, if you missed the first episode, is that we went in the June, and that had a lot of positive effects. The only negative effect was that it was quite cold, and some of the mountain passes had a little snow, packed snow, off the road. Not not on the road. Don't everyone freak out, but there was packed snow off the road, and it was quite cold. But the benefits were immense.

Maybe, Taylor, you can talk about the benefits. Quite often, what you see in these high altitude first of all, when so we went in June, I should say. And then in July, we had friends who went three weeks later doing a a rally, and they were there. And they said the entire place was bumper to bumper with these little four banger underpowered, you know, like Renault Clios dragging these big ass camper vans not a camper van, but a, like a, a caravan up in these mountain passes where there's this four cylinder engines underperforming, and they're just doing, like, 45 miles an hour on these roads. On these roads, Aaron, you and I were able to do, well, let's just say, as much as a road could carry.

And, it was amazing because these high passes, you've got lakes, you've got scenery, you've got, yeah, it's cold, sometimes it's really windy. Sometimes you go by and you see a, a Harley. Was that what was that one that Harley passed was laid out? I don't remember what it was, but it wasn't looking good, and there and there was nobody on it. So someone had definitely been expressed to the hospital.

Oh, it was the Pan the Pan American. That's right. Yeah. The windshield and stuff is all shattered. Yeah.

But, nobody was around to stop and help. The bike was standing up on the on the outside of the bend. But it was just amazing wide open, passes, and it you're like riding in the in the valley at the top of a mountain. It was beautiful. Just just stunning.

And there was a lot of that. That wasn't just one. It was quite a common thing to see. And, but, yeah, it was chilly. But the idea is that would you rather have it to be a little bit a little bit colder?

Oh, and the other big benefit is, I think I don't know this for sure, but I would say based on the fact that we never got pulled over and majority of the time, we were driving in a way that would have warranted maybe pulling us over. I would say that we did not see one now that's not true. I saw two police officers in marked cars. Our friends were later pulled over in an unmarked police officer, and they said the town was the whole country was loaded with police. So, like, they must all go on vacation in June and then get ready for the tourists to come in July.

But I would say, if we're gonna do it again, we're definitely gonna go in June. Yeah. And, you know, use common sense. Like, if it's a mountain pass and there's no one around and you can see because there's no trees. Right?

You're you're above the tree line. You can see if there's a car on the side of the road. Like, use common sense. Like, my rule in life is, you know, how do I pay for this? Don't don't be a jackass.

Right? So, you know, don't go flying through towns. Don't go overtaking 12 r v's. But if you go in June, you you avoid avoid the RVs. There's no cops around.

And by the way, there's no one else on the road. So you have the whole road to yourself. So it may it may be a little chilly, but, you know, the second and third order effects of that, are greatly beneficial. But, let's, let's talk about fairies really quickly because, we learned a lesson that when you Google or watch YouTube videos about the fairies in Norway, Ninety Nine Percent of the ferries are the big government ferries that are part of the transportation road system. And for those, you do not need a reservation for a motorcycle.

In fact, you cannot make a reservation. So let's talk about reservations, and then let's talk about payment. So as a foreign plated bike, I had a US plate on my bike, we would just rock up to the government, ferry, which were, by the way, they were hybrid. Some of them actually plugged in. So you'd watch the ferry dock, and then a mechanical arm would come down and plug in the ferry and recharge it.

And and as you were loading, it was charging with these massive cables, and then it would unplug and then go on its way. But anyways, that was really cool to watch, you know. The future actually arrived in in Norway, which was awesome. And, so you would get on the ferry, and you're always first to go on the ferry as a as a motorcycle, just go to the front of the line, and then, a gentleman or or or someone, a a crew member would come around with, an iPhone, and they would take a picture of your license plate, and then they would take a tap payment. They any kind of Visa or American Express, would work, and you would just pay the crew member onboard for that ferry ride.

So don't stress out about the public transportation ferries. Yeah. And I think about the one where you said some you can't or you need to make a reservation on. I'm sure you've got it marked here. But there was one where we crossed this amazing pass.

It was an hour riding. We're like, oh my god. We're we're joking. We're, you know, we're we're doing helmet talk. Right?

And I was like, oh my god. How they're like, oh, it would be so terrible to have to do this again, of course, being sarcastic. And then we so we did this hour pass. It drops down to a ferry dock. The road stopped at the ferry dock.

There was nowhere else to go. Either you go back or you take the ferry. And there was, like, four or five, ten arrays lined up, a few GSs, and they were like, yeah. We've got a reservation. And we were like, oh, we don't.

And then we ended up having to ride well, we got to ride that again back across that pass. But yeah. So some of them, you definitely need to have a reservation, but if they're just the big government ones, you don't. Yeah. So in the Southern Loop Norway document, and I wanna say it's worth the effort, we have it clearly marked out.

It's actually highlighted that you have to book this small private ferry that runs down this fjord, and it is so worth it, and I'll explain why. It's worth it to get to the ferry is an epic ride. It's a dead end street, just like you said. So there's no one's on this road except for, you know, sheep. And the ferry ride is amazing.

And then where it brings you is one of those famous pictures of I'm sure you've seen it with Norway, which is there's a giant boulder stuck between, a crack, a giant crack in the side of a fjord. Anyways, all of this is in the document, but it's worth it on so many levels. So, this is the one time that no one ever tells you that you need to book the ferry, but it it is totally worth it. So before you go to Norway, just check out our document and make sure you book. And by the way, you have to book it months in advance.

It's a tiny, tiny little ferry. So before you even think about planning your routing and planning your, your accommodations, book everything around this ferry, and it is absolutely worth it. You will not be disappointed. Yeah. Good point.

Alright. Let's jump ahead to first of all, I want you to explain the difference between where you have the racetrack and where they held the trials. Nurburg. Alright. Okay, sir.

Taylor keeps on saying Nuremberg Ring, but it's Nurburgring. And, so when you leave Norway, I took the color ferry from, Norway into Denmark, and I just want to mention that when you're on this ferry, it is worth going to the duty free shop. The duty free shop on these ferries is not just cheap booze. It's everything, and people can buy the duty free and take it into your cabin. I'm not suggesting you buy a bunch of Jack Daniels and go in your cabin like a hermit.

I'm just saying that you can buy whatever you need, treat it like a like a supermarket, and it is considerably cheaper. But, anyways, when you get across the ferry, I I crushed some miles, and I went down to the Nurburgring, which is just south of Cologne, Germany. And if you don't have any experience driving or riding on the Autobahn or on European highways, maybe, Taylor, you can give everyone a quick lesson. Yeah. So the quick lesson is and it's pretty much how most people drive in in Europe.

The left hand lane is for passing, period. Quite often, if people are, like, in a if there's a lot of police or something, there's speed cameras, and there's two lanes, people don't slow down and do the speed limit, you know, in the left lane if in their intention is to go above it. The left lane is for passing, only passing. So it doesn't matter what the speed is if you think you're going fast enough. If somebody is behind you and they wanna go faster than you, then your only job is to get out of their way.

So people do not ride in the left hand lane. And after having been over in this country now for a week, I hate to make comparisons, but I'm, you know, on the highway, I'm like, dude, what are you doing in the left hand lane? This is a passing lane. It doesn't matter whether I'm, you know like, yours my speed relationship is is to you, not to the speed limit on the road. If if I'm behind you and you have room to move, your job is to move over.

So I'm just gonna finish my tie wrap by saying the world's a safer place if everyone leaves the left hand lane open unless you're doing one thing, and that is passing. Absolutely. Because even on that motorcycle you know what? When I'm fully loaded on my GSA, I can only do I can only do I forget what it was. About a 35 miles an hour before she starts to wanna take flight because of all the the aero resistance.

If I have and plus the plus my bike isn't balanced correctly. If I have too much weight in the back, I've tried to move some of that weight forward. Like, I have my tool kit up on my crash bars now trying to make it more balanced. But, you know, I'm doing, you know, 145 miles an hour, so no one's passing me. No.

There's a guy in a in a '9 '11 GT three RS that's doing 320 kilometers an hour behind you, and there's no time to see these people and get out of the way. So if you're on the Autobahn or you're in the Europe period, just get out of the left lane. And it's a it's a it's a it's a rewarding discipline that you will see everyone everyone doing. So we will put a a pin in that in that rant. So let's let's talk about going to the the Nurburgring, also known as, what do they call it?

The I don't know. I haven't I haven't done it. They call it the Green Hell, they call it. The Green Hell. So yeah.

Anyway, so I've been saying it wrong. So Nuremberg is where these, where these, The trials are. Where hell. Yeah. So the Nuremberg Ring.

Yes. Yeah. That's way east. I was like Aaron's like, yeah, man. I went all the way from Cologne down to the track and then back.

And I'm looking at the map at the same time, and I'm like, dude, you did that in, like, twenty minutes? That's like, you know, that's like 200 miles. No. No. No.

Back, and he's like, yeah. And I was like, damn. That's fast. I know the autobahn's fast, but that's fast. Registration is now open to the public for the next ADV cannonball rally.

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So I I will post the video of of the ridiculous old guy on a GSA on the on the Nurburgring. And it's a shame because we just read an article that they are no longer allowing motorcycles on what they call, which is tongue in cheek, tourist days, tourist laps, open lapping on the, on the, Nurburgring. So they're no longer allowed to have motorcycles on the open lapping days. They will have motorcycle specific days, which I'm not upset about because every time I've been on that track, you know, a few things happen is that the whole time you're on the track, the only thing you're doing is looking in your mirror because there's gonna be some spoiled kid with a, Bugatti Veyron that is just going way too fast. He has no idea what he's doing, and you're concerned that you're gonna be taken out by, you know, some teenager in a high performance car.

And I don't know every turn, and some of the turns are really difficult. Some of them are, like, negative camber, blind turns, and cars are constantly spinning out in front of you, and you have people attacking you from behind. So you will notice, in my video that whenever I see a car, I just roll off the throttle, let them pass me, and then I play a little game of trying to keep up with them. So, I'm not upset that they've taken away the opportunity for motorcycles to go with, with tourist cars. But at the same time, it's a it's a shame because you have less opportunity to get on the on the racetrack.

Yeah. But I have to say that, like most things, it's done based on safety. Right? So they were like, clearly, we're having a problem. We're having motorcycles colliding with vehicles, and we can't have that because people are getting hurt.

So they just they just took that out of the they took that piece of the pie out and said no more. Yeah. No. For sure. Anyways, c'est la vie, but I I I was able to, to take advantage of that.

And I've done it several times in cars. We used to, you know, back when we were we were young and dumb, that we used to do, Oktoberfest trips. So we used to go over, rent cars. We used to go to Oktoberfest in Munich, and part of that trip was always going to the Nurburgring, and then usually going over to the, Italian Alps to do, like, things like Stelvio Pass and things like that. And I have old, old video of of cars spinning out in front of me and laughing and having a good time, but it is dangerous.

So if you do get a chance to go on the Nurburgring, be really, really careful. It is super fast, and it is a complicated road. It is not simple, and it is, it is wildly fast, and it is it is code brown the whole time. Yeah. Absolutely.

I just wanna make a comment, talk about safety. I just wanna comment back in saying that, yeah, in Norway, we were, you know, quite often going above the speed limit. But I also wanna say that in Norway, out of all countries in in especially in the Nordics, it has the lowest speed limits, and they actually just lowered them from maybe five years ago. So, like, the average speed limit, even on the highways, is, like, 80 kilometers an hour, which is just 52 miles per hour. So it's I mean, these bikes are you know, they're in second gear.

So Yeah. That's not what I mean. But, yeah, if you happen to go in July, do the 80 kilometers an hour. We had some friends who did who got caught. They were, they just just went over the speed limit a little bit to get past a camper, of course.

And they got caught, and it was a $1,000 fine. Ouch. That's no good. Ouch. Yeah.

Anyway, carry on. I just wanted to mention that there's a great hotel in, Cologne that's near Nurburg, and that is the Hilton, Cologne. They have a great underground parking, and it's right downtown, and it's private Hilton parking lot, and there's lots of, beer gardens around, in the area. And I want to share experience with you. So next, my route was, getting off the Mainland and going over to Rotterdam, and I take the overnight ferry over to The UK.

But I had a whole day, and my tire was looking, not so good. And, I thought I'll go live the BMW GS dream, and there's a million, you know, motorrad BMW motorcycle dealerships. And in the GPS, in the, in the GSA, that, you know, that that terrible Garmin, GPS, it has preloaded for your convenience all of the local BMW dealers. So I clicked That's smart. Yeah.

So, hey. I'm gonna live the BMW dream. So I click the the closest one, and I roll into the service center before they open. And I even took my rear tire off, and I do the classic thing, please help. And, they they essentially threw me out of the dealership.

So I I it's it sounded like a like a speech from the from the 1930s but he was yelling at me to to get out and I needed to make a three week advanced appointment to simply purchase a tire. So I said if you can't change the tire for me just sell me the tire and I'll just do it in the parking lot. And I could see the rack of tires. He goes, no. Those are all for customers.

I'm saying, you're a dealer. I need a tire. I can't make an appointment. That's that's ridiculous. Right?

I don't know when I'm gonna need a tire. Right? This is the dream that the salesman sell sells you. Anyways, he threw me out, and I said, oh, man. I'm in I'm in real trouble here because I only have, you know, six hours before I need to be to the ferry.

So, anyways, I go to the next dealership. They laugh at me. And then I go to another one. Now I'm making my way closer to Rotterdam, and I'm like, are you guys gonna help me? So finally, one guy takes pity on me.

Yeah. And I go, I'll go take my tire off. He goes, no. No. No.

Just bringing the bringing the whole bike in. And I realize I'm I'm running here a bit, but he brings the bike in. He sees a tire, and, like, they're, like, yeah. This is a real problem. And I go, I know.

They change the tire, and then he comes out. I'm I'm, of course, sitting outside, you know, drinking water on the on the curb, and he goes, you can't leave because these are your brake pads. And, like, in classic, you know, German engineer, he was really mad at me because my brake pads were really dangerous. So they threw big a set of brake pads in. They gave me a new tire, and I was out of there in forty five minutes.

So I don't know the solution to this problem, but the BMW salesperson dream of going around the world and getting BMW certified service when you need it without a three week in advance appointment is really dead. And I don't know how you solve that, but I just wanted to float that caution balloon to, to everyone doing a trip like this. Yeah. It's, I I don't know if that's just in that part of the world or if it's the same everywhere, but, obviously, they have enough business that they don't need to cater to and and provide customer service. So, like, I got a whole I got a whole rant about customer service in Europe versus America, and I think it has to do with the fact that people in America make minimum wage in tipping positions, and they make their money on their tips.

So just a quick rant. One time, I was in a bar, which is like a a sports bar, and I just finished paying, you know, $10 for a beer and, $25 for a hamburger. And then the girl saunters over when, you know, she's that beer's been empty for, like, ten minutes, and she saunters over. And she says, yeah. Oh, I just got back from America.

I was there, you know, in, I don't know, Wisconsin for two months. I worked at a bar there. I really hope that tipping culture makes it here. And I said, you know what I hope makes it here in Sweden is the service culture. It was a short conversation.

That didn't that didn't go for a while. That was it was like, what do I have to do to get a beer? Oh my god. That's great. Let me, share two two international ferry, tips for you.

So there's a ferry from, Rotterdam, which, by the way, I had some time, and I rode through The Hague and those places. And, wow, that was really cool to to see all those sites there, If you're into politics and and, and things like that, it's really cool to, ride around The Hague. So there's a ferry in Rotterdam. You have to book it in advance. It's an I think it's an overnight ferry.

Yeah. I'm I'm I'm almost sure it's an overnight ferry. Yeah. Because I have a note here to remind me that I'm poor, and I should buy some snacks and drinks before I go on there. Yeah.

And so that lands in in, in The UK. And then I rode across, and then I went to the Isle Of Man. So you also need to book that ferry in advance, and that is not an overnight ferry. And, there's some great riding in that area. That whole Black Pool area in The UK is just littered with speed cameras, but it is definitely worth it.

But you can knock that ride out in two and a half, three hours. I thought it was three and a half hours, but you can definitely knock it out quite quickly. But it is worth ripping across The UK, riding around Blackpool for a bit, and then hopping on the Isle Of Man ferry. Nice. Yeah.

And then the Isle Of Man is definitely worth doing. It is motorcycle hallowed ground, hallowed ground, sorry, and, it's definitely worth it. The one thing I noticed before we talk about the motorcycle riding in the Isle Of Man is the hotels aren't really that great. There aren't really too many big chains. Prepare yourself if you're going to spend $150 a night on a hotel.

It's gonna be paper thin walls and, crispy carpets and all of those wonderful wonderful things that that you would expect. Yeah. This might be the time to swing by the, the, Y monopoly. I know whatever it is in here. Yeah.

For sure. Yeah. It it it was rough to to be honest with you, but, anyways, but you you need to go to the Isle Of Man. I don't care who you are. It is important motorcycle tradition.

The whole island is behind motorsports. There's some touristy things to do. I spent two days riding around. You can ride the TT Mountain Course at least twice, and that's the only time that I've ever been passed by another motorcycle. And it was definitely a Code Brown situation.

I thought I was being a badass by ripping up the mountain course, and this guy passed me, and he passed me so violently that I literally was was was shaken. He must have passed me at at 300 kilometers an hour, and I was doing, I don't know, 200 kilometers an hour, and he passed me so quickly and so violently, and the exhaust was so loud, I could smell the rubber keeping him attached to the road, and I could smell the heat and whatever fuel he's burning. I have no idea what he's burning, and the smell of the exhaust as he ripped past me on the mountain on the mountain course. It was it was, it was a frightening experience, but it it was awesome. That sounds is that the part where you could go, like, you I mean, there this is a section that's, like, it's just you can speed.

You can go one side to the other, and there's police at either end of controlling that, so you can you can continue going back and forth. No. No. There's no police. There but there is no speed limit.

The people of the Isle Of Man are steadfast in being independent from all the island nations around them, and the all of the roads that are away from populated areas are speed limit free. And it is not controlled. It's just be an adult. Like like, you know, you know, freedom is dangerous. Right?

So if you wanna drive off the side of the mountain, that's your business. And I'm and I'm all about being a libertarian, especially on a motorcycle, that, you know, you're probably only just gonna hurt yourself. So it doesn't matter what day of the week it is. In the mountain in the mountain course, it's just a road, man. It goes from one side of the island for to the other, and there is no speed limit.

And that is the TT course. So you can go live your, you know, between the hedges dream and go and go do this mountain course as many times as you want, whenever you want. I will say that in morning rush hour and evening rush hour, you wanna avoid it. And I did notice that the locals that were out there preparing for, you know, their TT dream, they were doing it in the last hour before sunset. So be prepared for high speed traffic, especially between when rush hour ends and night falls.

K. Good call. Alright. Anything else you wanna talk about, on the TT route? No.

But I also wanna say that there is, I put two GPX routes on on our website, on the ADV Cannonball website, One is the actual TT course GPX file, if you want to pretend you're a racer. I also put a worthwhile tourist loop of the island. There are great little towns that you can go pop into a pub or get an ice cream or or or grab lunch. And you can spend two days there for sure at minimum, two full days there. So don't, don't go in and out so so quickly, but it is it is worth a worth a stop there.

Nice. So then you went to Liverpool after that. Yeah. So you take the high speed, Isle Of Man ferry back over to the Mainland. And then from here, you know, Liverpool is a storied place.

There's great music history and stuff, but your motorcycle is getting stolen the, you know, the minute you leave it. So I actually didn't stop in Liverpool at all. But you can go do some great, you know, important motorcycle, culture things here. So there's some great places to go to like Lands End, you know, Penzance, Pirates Of Penzance in, in in Cornwall. So you can go all the way to Lands End.

There's great stops along the way like Baffle House. There's, they're, like, motorcycle coffee shops where there's, like, a hundred bikes in the in the parking lot, which is which is really cool. There's some great seaside places in in The UK that you can, overnight in, like Eastbourne and, Don't Stop at Plymouth. I stopped in Plymouth. That was a that was a mistake.

And there's places like the Ace Cafe over in London, and there's also a great motorcycle culture like the Bike Shed. So there are several places that you can knock out three, four days of riding in The UK that are motorcycle centric and which which is really missing over here to to have restaurants and cafes that are a %, motorcycle centric was, was really cool to experience. Yeah. That part, I'm gonna have to go do. And, again, that'll be fun to have the, the interview with the manager at one of those places that you're gonna meet in London here, and then do the same or similar interview with the the sister shop in, in LA.

Yeah. And that's a great example too. So the LA version of the bike shed is definitely very Hollywood. It's it's it seems a little artificial where they've taken a square building and they've just turned it into a version of the bike shed. Not to cast shade on it, but that's what the new world is.

The new world is new versions of things, and it's very hard to reproduce. Like, the bike shed in London is in is built into, I think, it's a bridge. So you actually ride your motorcycle through the cafe into the underground area, which is a disused bridge, I think, or a World War II bomb shelter. It's definitely worth hopping on YouTube and typing the bikeshed London. But it is impossible to recreate that in any kind of way in LA.

Not to say it's not worth going to, but I'm just saying it is not as authentic as the London version. And I think it might be a good idea to drop the, it'd be cool to drop the, the the link to that in the show notes. Yeah. I'll do that for sure. And then we will finish off this conversation by saying, we used Moto Freight, Kathy at Moto Freight.

And so the way that works is, you pull into their warehouse whenever you want, and, someone will meet you and take your bike from you, and that's the last you have to worry about it. So whether you're gonna ship your motorcycle back to back to home by sea or by air, or if you're shipping it onward to, some exotic location, you just pull into their shop, and you give them the keys, and then they handle the rest, which is really nice. Nice. It's nice to it's good that you plan this all out. It's cool that we can we can go back, look at what we did, look at what we missed, and then go back and do Norway again and also other areas within Europe.

But it's also nice that this has been set up and prepared in a way that someone who wants to do this trip can go back, grab the GPX routes, grab the information, and just go make those bookings and realize that the distances between the two are already noted, and, the work's been done. And that's so much of the planning. That's the the tough part about doing a trip. But, also, it's the interesting part that sort of gets you sort of on the journey before you get there. So when you go, oh, I remember doing this, and you have a bit of a recall to that.

But anyway, thanks to you for doing the, the mapping, the GPX routing, and all the details on this. So well done. Yeah. And I hope, people actually use it, and I'm I'm definitely looking forward to going back and doing it. I also want to mention that I had looked into shipping my motorcycle over for May of this year, '20 '20 '5, and the shipping rates, for some reason, were very high.

It was prohibitive. It was twice what it was only a year ago. And I had, met some people that keep a motorcycle in Ireland. So I had looked into just buying a motorcycle, you know, just, like a GSA twelve hundred or something, something that wasn't too expensive. And the challenge was, if you're buying it in The UK, is registering it and insuring it because, you know, you don't have an address.

Right? And it it seems to be a bit of a challenge. It it turns out that in Ireland, Ireland proper, there is an outfit that has, like, a big barn. It's just South Of Cork that will store your bikes for you. They are motorcycle people, so they know how to keep your battery charged.

They know how to handle these things. They also will store your motorcycle gear. So looping back to the beginning of our conversation, like, how do you travel with your gear? So I'm working on it. I don't have a full report yet, but I believe there is a place in Ireland that will store your bike.

They'll help you with registration and insurance and things like that, and, they will also store your gear. And it's my understanding it's a thirty minute taxi ride from, the Cork, you know, Central Transit. So I'm working on that. I'll get back to everyone. But I think that is in my future, is just getting an older motorcycle and leaving it in Ireland.

Yeah. And just to be clear, so, Ireland is still in the EU, so you do have access to the rest of it. Whereas, like, even coming from Sweden now, I have to have, is it SC? I have to have a, electronic travel visa to go from Sweden into The UK now. So just to be clear, Ireland is still part of The UK, so you have access to the rest of UK, without meeting additional visa, and entry requirements.

Interesting. Yeah. Well, I'll I'm gonna find out find out about all this in the next, the next few weeks, and, I'll be sure to try to take some field notes. And if there's any travel information I can communicate to everyone, I'll definitely do that. Fantastic.

Yeah. I I don't have any more to add, and I will, I will apologize to, BMW Motorrad for my rant, but I felt it was righteous. Well, people wanna be taken care of, especially when you bought you know, we talked about customer service on the last on the last podcast, and that's important. So I think it may have been warranted as well, sir. Yeah.

Absolutely. So please book your trips to Europe, and please use my GPX files, and, you can learn from all my mistakes. And and on that on that note, self deprecating humor, let's say, thank you all for listening. If you want to, to follow us, please do. Any platform you can catch this podcast on, and, you can actually see what's happening at the Facebook site at ADV Cannonball Rally.

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