ROUNDTABLE - Motorcycle Rally Mindset and Bike Prep

We kick off a new Roundtable segment to help new riders get ready for a cross-country ADV rally without getting lost in hype. We talk mindset, bike prep, packing, navigation practice, and why chasing points with good judgement beats riding like a hero. 

• Setting goals that match your real reasons for riding 
• Staying flexible when the plan falls apart on day one 
• Choosing a points strategy instead of chasing first to finish 
• Dealing with curveballs like rain, closures, and mechanical issues 
• Tire wear, tire plugs, and planning a mid-rally tire change 
• Packing lighter to reduce wobble, fatigue, and hassle at hotels 
• Training for back-to-back 600 to 700 mile days 
• Building a practice rally course with checkpoints at home 
• Following GPX tracks versus relying on turn-by-turn routing 
• Remembering that accuracy earns points more reliably than speed 
• Riding with others for safety, navigation checks, and support 
• Using local intel to avoid dangerous roads in bad weather 

Keep posting questions because it gives us lots of great ideas on content. 

Transcript

Roundtable Segment Kickoff

SPEAKER_00 0:22

All right, starting on a new segment today. My name is Carrie Lappel. I've been working really closely with Aaron on a lot of stuff, and we've been seeing a lot of questions coming in on the Facebook page with questions from newbies about what to do, how to do it, the things that they need to be prepared for. You know, the cross-country trip is uh a it's a long trip. So then there's a lot of different terrain. So we're starting this whole new segment called the Roundtable segment, and it'll just be an ongoing thing that we put into the podcast. Aaron liked the idea. Like I mentioned, my name's Carrie. I was number 30 last year. I was riding on my 2023 Tiger 1200 Rally Pro. And this year I will be riding again. I don't remember what my number is at this point, but it doesn't really matter. Uh yeah, so I will be riding on my Tenor A700 this year. I decided to uh go with a slightly smaller bike. So, and then with me, I have Aaron, who is our rally master and podcaster extraordinaire, and Dave, who was the comic relief the entire time during last year's rally. Dave, you want to do a quick intro? Yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Uh my name is Dave Weigel. Um, I live near the Chicago area. I was on a 2024 Pan America last year. I was number 22 when I did the rally. That's great. Aaron?

SPEAKER_01 1:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

Uh no intro needed.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

You're supposed to start the podcast with a beer. What's going on here? We failed the first test.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

Not only do we fail the first test, you're the only one drinking, and it's a glass of gin.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

It's uh Empress Jin here. Cheers. And uh yeah, thanks very much for doing this. This is great. People ask a lot of questions, and I tend not to want to give advice. A, I don't want to, you know, seem well, I have to seem impartial. Well, I have to be impartial when it comes to things like navigation and bike choice and things like that. So it's really great for you that you're doing this. You're being modest because your number thus far is number four for the 2026 America's rally, and you have a total of 976 career points. So, yeah, that's a big deal. Congratulations.

Mindset, Goals, And Pivoting

SPEAKER_00 2:44

Thank you, sir. So, today's topic, we're gonna start at the very beginning. One of the things that always comes up is really around mindset and goal setting. So everybody comes into this rally with different goals, different things of like how they figure it's gonna play out in their head. I was one of them. So, one of the things I wanted to tackle today was talking about being flexible with what your plan is. Because Aaron, what happens to your plan after uh day one?

SPEAKER_01 3:17

That's right. You think you have a plan, and the academic thought press is fun, but the minute someone rips by you or your chain breaks or it rains or you realize you have the wrong tire, every good plan that makes contact with the enemy falls apart immediately.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

There we go. That's what I was looking for. So for me, that was day two. So I went into this with the whole intention of winning. I had a point strategy, I had a strategy on the bike, I had three or four different routes planned out. I had gotten to the point where I was looking at Google Street View on absolutely every road, the entire length, so that I was familiar with everything, I knew exactly what I was looking for. Um, and we'll get to that, but on like the last day, it didn't matter that I knew what I was looking for. So we'll we'll get to that. Dave, how did you go into this?

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Yeah, I was kind of the opposite, if I'm being honest. Uh, and you're right, it's all about the mindset. For me, this was more like just vacation. I was out there to have a good time, share some, share some beers with other guys who were riding. I didn't plan anything. I mean, I I probably packed too much stuff, which you know, I think people tend to do that. But I didn't plan any routes. I used the Google maps routes that Aaron had posted on the uh rally page. I downloaded the offline maps in case I got into some areas that didn't have reception, and I never had any any thoughts that I was gonna win this thing. I was just along for the experience, the camaraderie to have a good time. I mean, if you want to be the guy who's doing, you know, knock pieces down the highway while you're eating the stickers out of your cargo pocket and peeling a glucade bottle, you can be that guy and you might win. I was not that guy that right off the bat. I was stopping for noodles with Mr. Young somewhere in like California and taking selfies with people in parking lots, and I get to the checkpoint at the end of the day, and people are like, Wait, you stopped for lunch? So it's all kind of about, like you said, your attitude, what you want to get out of it, and how you want to experience the rap.

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Yeah, and and that's that's one of the things I want to make sure that everybody understands is that you know, there will definitely be, as Aaron puts it, a handful of wing nuts that are gonna be going after that first place. And my full intention was to be that guy. But when I got to the end of day two and saw what good riders some of these guys were and the approach that they were taking to things, I'm like, yeah, I'm out. Like I knew that. And so it was super important for me mindset-wise to be able to pivot because there were a handful of people that couldn't pivot and it ruined the trip room because they spent months and months and months planning and thinking about how they wanted to approach this, and like this is too much fun, but there are too many cool people, and having cheap beers in the hotel lobby at the end of the day swapping stories is more important than when you end up taking first at the end of the rally. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Absolutely. And I also want to point out something, Dave. You have a career total of 467 points. So I have a question for you. I'm sorry, Carrie, was did you navigate to checkpoints or did you just happen to achieve achieve checkpoints that just happened to be along the recommended GPX route?

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Yeah, that's a good question. I did a little bit of both. Uh I I definitely was aiming for checkpoints, but along the way, if I found stuff on the map, I was like, hey, that looks interesting. Yeah, I might have to skip a couple of checkpoints to go do this other thing, but I'm gonna do that. Because, like I said, for me, this was more just about like almost a sightseeing tour with a bunch of people riding motorcycles than a than a a race, we'll say. I know it's not a race, Aaron. I know it's everybody it's not a race, but uh than a race for me. So there was days too where you might be in the saddle and you're like, man, it's getting dark. I don't want to be ripping through these dark mountain roads where there's wildlife and the sun's down. I'm gonna have to skip some checkpoints and just hit the highway and head to the hotel. So there was days where I did that too, and I was just missing checkpoints doing that.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

And I also want to point out one more thing about Kerry just said is he said he gave up. And by no means did he give up. There's a reason why he's number four next year, is because I think what you're trying to say is you gave up on trying to go for the the first overall, and you switched tactics, and maybe you can explain what tactic you switched to because I'm not sure which award you got, but you either went for a checkpoint crusher award or a rough rider award, and you accomplished that. So maybe you go ahead.

Tires, Rain, And Mechanical Reality

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Yeah, I got the checkpoint crusher award. So I yeah, so you're right. Gave up is the wrong term. So basically, what I did is I pivoted to focus on the checkpoint crusher. And the reason for that, yeah, I I changed my mindset. I'm like, all right, well, fine, I'm still gonna get it right here. I'm holding up my trophy for the guys as we as we talk here. I see. It sits on my desk in a space where I get to see it every single day. But uh yeah, so the mindset was more about like, I'm gonna get the points and I'm gonna stop worrying about the first to finish. There was lots going on last year. We were doing it in the middle of the federal shutdown. So some of the spots where you had to get points were insanely difficult to get to. I mean, we were hopping walls, we were bypassing cops like that had blockades, like there was all kinds of fun stuff going on for those that wanted to do it. But it was like it was no harm, no foul. Nobody was harassing the guys that didn't go for those. We still all had fun stories to swap in the evenings. So I did the best I could with what I had to work with and just went for the most overall points that I could get. When we were talking about like curveballs, like what are the curve balls you run into? Well, my curveball is that I had put on a brand spanking new set of tires for this trip, and it was about I was gonna say about 350 miles from my home in Charlotte out to Kitty Hawk to the starting line. So I'm like, great, I got fresh tires. By the end of day four, they were balled down the center in the rear tire. Something had happened and I had gotten a bum tire. Just luck of the draw, I had a bad tire. So that's why I ended up having part of the reason I had to pivot to go towards the checkpoint crusher award rather than going for overall, is I'm like, I I can't even hit much of the dirt anymore because I was slipping and sliding everywhere. Every time I'd hit the throttle, the rear end of the bike was spinning left or spinning right on me. So yeah, you just got to.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

So I have to stop you there. The reason why your tire was bald in the middle was because you were doing a high rate of speed within the law. I'm sure you're doing it within the law. And you make another good point is the reason why you were slipping and sliding is because it was an amazing amount of rain. No one had thought that we would have that much rain in New Mexico and that other part where it was the uh the rim road. You know, it was puddled up. It was, you know, that's where Mark broke his leg because there was even on the paved sections, there was so much rain that muck and mud and whatever you know was coming off the sides of the mountains onto the pavement. Yeah. So, you know, maybe uh some tire preservation or tire changing is some great advice that people can take away from this.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

Yeah, and this is where preparation before the rally, as far as maintenance on your bike, is so important because there was a lot of people, not just carry, but other people had mechanical issues and stuff too, um, myself included. And if your bike's not ready for the rally and you're gonna try to go put 5,000, 6,000 miles on it, you're gonna have some problems.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah. And and people, every big rally competitor you talk to, navigation is a skill. Maintenance and vehicle preparation is that is that other part of being successful in a rally, and being successful to me is just finishing. And to me, that was the spirit of an adventure cannonball. Was the guy, just like the bike that's behind you, Dave, on his big GS or his Tenere or his Himalayan with all the stuff on the back, and he's taking care of prepare his bike, and he's got all his important farkles on it. To me, that's what it was, and you've really hit the nail in the head there.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Yeah. I'd I'd say one of the other lessons learned from me on this is completely changing my strategy on packing. So last year I put my Moscow soft pan ears on my tiger, and I basically had it set up where one side was gear for the bike and the other side was gear for me, so that I could just slide one off, pull it into the hotel room, and be done. This year I'm paring it down even further. And so, like it would be like one 30-liter dry bag strapped to the back that has clothes I need, minimal toolkit, and just strap it down with some rock straps and go. The panniers at speed were causing wobble. There was all kinds of stuff. They were because as much as I was dumping my bike, the bike wasn't as far over. But but other than that, like I hated it. And what was funny was there were lots of guys that were like, Oh, I'm gonna do some BDRs on the way home and I'm gonna do this, or you know, I camped on the way out. So these poor guys not only had everything for the rally, but they were carrying camping equipment and extra dry bags and all this stuff. Yeah, and I'm just watching these poor souls, and I'm like, How are you guys doing this? Yeah, I was in that sloppy mud. Yeah, I yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

I rode out there with Sean Wood, uh, who is number 23, and we rode out together on Pan America's, and we were planning on camping on the way out and back, which we did not do, but my bike was loaded up with camping gear. So I was kind of one of those guys that just packed way too much stuff that I didn't need. Uh, and I am planning on doing it again next year, and I'm definitely like you, Carrie, packing a lot less stuff. You need a lot less stuff than you think. I did get a couple of nails in my rear tire, two nails in the same tire, which looked like Swiss cheese by the time I got it to the dealer to get it replaced. Uh so again, preparation, you know, I had a tire patch kit and an air pump and stuff like that. So I was able to plug the tire and keep going, but just something to think about.

SPEAKER_01 13:57

Yeah, and you know, I've always wanted to make a packing list and post it like on the writer notice page or something, but I'm so afraid that if I miss something or you know, if I give advice again, it'll just always come back to bite me in the ass. But I would like to give a little pro tip is that you know, you only need a change of clothes and maybe some layers, but you can ship a little box to the finished line hotel, just label it correctly, you know, big big sharpie label on it. But you know, have some fresh clothes for the awards banquet and your awesome ugly blazer, of course, but you can ship some stuff to the finished line hotel. They're they're very good about sticking in the corner um and you know, having it ready for you.

Train For Long Days

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Yeah, that's a great tip. Outside of the bike preparation, the other thing that I'd really peop encourage people to do is make sure that they're prepared. So you can't just hop on your bike and be doing six, seven hundred miles a day for seven, eight days straight and think you're gonna be okay um without it getting risky. So for me, I was practicing on the weekends. Right. So I would take a Saturday and a Sunday and I would just do an out and back a thousand miles, just going out anywhere between, you know, I've worked up to a thousand miles. So you're doing an iron butt basically. So I would do an iron butt out and an iron butt back and just keep practicing this to, you know, just kind of get my ass ready for that much time in the seat.

SPEAKER_02 15:32

Not only that, but that also allows you to find out what you need to do to change the bike to be better for you ergonomically. That's what I've learned doing that. I'd rather find that out in a day ride doing 700-800 miles and I can go home and change it, than be on the rally trying to head across the country and be like, man, I sure wish I would have done something different.

Practice Navigation Before The Start

SPEAKER_01 15:51

Yeah. And also, I would suggest even upping that a little bit more, is set yourself up a little fake rally course. So set up some checkpoints along the route and go and achieve those checkpoints and practice however you're gonna do it, whether it's manually choosing the next checkpoint or having it set in stone, however, you're deciding to do it. Practice using your navigation equipment. I actually don't want people showing up to the start line and learning how to navigate that day. That's that's not cool. I will say I always have a mini rally course on day zero or day negative one. So if you are a little unsure, you can come to the rally hotel a day or two before. Even in Plymouth, there are four checkpoints, and it's actually in the rally scoring app as well. So you can go and practice that to your heart's content. But uh, as Carrie was saying, fantastic advice. Go do some uh go crush some miles, but maybe I'll just add the uh the extra little thing is go crush some checkpoints as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:58

Well, we're gonna go ahead. I was gonna say I'll add one more thing to that from from my experience with the rally last year. Like you said, they're long days. If you follow Aaron's GPS routes or GPX routes, sometimes that might be a 10 or 12 hour day. If you change the route and miss a few checkpoints, it might be an eight-hour day. That's a big difference when you're in the saddle. There was a day where I did that because I was just like, man, I'm tired. I just want to get to the, I just want to kind of go to the hotel and relax and and just kind of chill out. So just don't be afraid to change the route to meet your physical needs if you are kind of just getting beat up after four or five days.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

And I purposely put uh on the schedule page of each year, I purposely put the hotel address. So if everything uh goes sideways, you can go put in to Google Maps or your Garmin or whatever. If everything goes sideways, make sure you have the schedule downloaded because you can just like Dave says, I'm just going to the hotel because I've had enough.

GPX Tracks Versus Turn By Turn

SPEAKER_00 18:00

Yeah. And then I one other thing I want to uh uh talking about the route for a second. You put together an excellent route last year. So props to you. Like it was very obvious how much work you put into that when you finally published it. And I I want people to understand like there are multiple ways for you to navigate this thing. And we're gonna talk about electronics and navigation in a separate round table. But if you just go point to point to point, there's a lot of times where Google Maps or whatever nav system you're using will take you off of his route versus like if you follow the track, it can be distinctly different experiences. Dave was playing it smart, he was tired, it was gonna be unsafe for him. If if he put that many hours on the bike, always better to play it. Miss the checkpoints, it's fine. At least you get to finish the route and and have a good time. But Aaron's route is designed the way it is for a reason. So if you're one of the guys that are just coming along for the experience, want to enjoy the route and everything else, set yourself up with a way to follow the track, not just the waypoints, because it is a much nicer experience. The roads are cooler, the views are nicer. A typical nav system will just try to find the fastest way.

SPEAKER_02 19:24

And there were some good photo ops on those routes. All the checkpoints weren't just nothing in the middle of a parking lot. Some of them were really cool, like points of interest to check out, you know, go inside and talk to people, take a few photos. Like that's kind of what I did. Even at the checkpoints where people might have blown by them, I stopped and took pictures and chatted with some locals and did things like that. And a lot of those checkpoints were some really cool stuff to check out.

SPEAKER_01 19:49

It was really awesome to be sometimes set up at a checkpoint for a photo op. And then you'd see a wing nut pull up and he wouldn't even stop. He'd just like fly by, checkpoint achieved, kept going. And then a Dave would show up. I'm like, oh, this is a Route 66, you know, abandoned gas station. We should read about this. It was really cool to see everyone taking different tacks. And I was just more to the point about the GPX file. Thank you so much for pointing that out. Is that whatever device you're using is going to plot a route, a turn by turn root according to its algorithm. And every device is going to do it differently. So I will have multiple devices up when you'll see me checking out a route, where even if I have a dumb old Garmin on the top of my GS, I have the GPX file just displayed and I will use that as a touchstone. Am I on it? And I may have one phone that is actively navigating, and I may have another phone that is navigating to a checkpoint. So when I'm out riding, I'm simultaneously using three different modes of navigation just to see how that will pan out for a for a rally goer. Yeah. So it's a big complicated topic for sure.

Points Matter More Than Speed

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yeah. Um, one of the other things I was gonna bring up is that it speed is not the winner on this, it's accuracy. So I was one of those wing nuts, as Aaron likes to call it, that I stopped at almost none of the checkpoints. I literally did my drive-by. I slowed down long enough to make sure the rally app captured it and I never got off my bike. The only time I ever got off my bike was for gas. And I 100% regret that. I look at my pictures and all my pictures, I took over 700 pictures. I have no idea how I got that many until I started looking at where they were at. They were at the beginning of the day and the end of the day. And I had nothing in the middle of the day except for like video footage on my bike where we were going through something cool and I captured it on my key. So I wanna point out for folks. The points are the important part, not your speed. Because I think this was a hard lesson learned for me. So it's the points that matter. And if you think you have an opportunity to get the first to finish to get those extra 25 points, or you need those extra 25 points, then the speed matters. If not, don't worry about it. Get off your bike, stretch, get an opportunity to get the circulation going again. Take your pictures at the cool checkpoints he's got set up and just enjoy the ride because you still have an opportunity to win it even if you're not going fast every single day. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 22:39

And it's absolutely set up that way. If you look carefully at the math behind it, an extreme checkpoint is I'm thinking to myself right now, is 23 points, right? And uh the first to arrive is 25. But as you will see, people will miss checkpoints. People will screw up. The guy who's going, you know, at the maximum of a legally allowed speed limit, and he can miss a checkpoint. He forgot to to go off the pull by, he forgot something. I'm like, so if you used like leaderboard page, you can see real-time tracking how everyone's doing. So if you are uh in the run for the for the first overall, just by pausing and seeing how your your leaders are doing, you maybe saw that you know, number six missed a checkpoint. So the game's over for the day. Slow down, methodically go after each checkpoint. Maybe you choose to go after the extreme checkpoint that day. So you're absolutely correct. So I don't think enough people used that resource last year just because it was the first year, but I think everyone's wise to the fact that the public leaderboard is there. I do want to point out that it would be unsportsmanlike if you had a team helping you at home, let's say, and monitoring that. That would not be cool. This is an independent rally, and you have to do everything yourself. I would I would be disappointed if someone had people calling into the bike and helping you with that. So, but you can absolutely stop and use that resource to see how everyone's doing.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

We're gonna have a whole segment that we're gonna do another round table on real-time decision making. And the tracker app is like a key part of that entire session. So I'm gonna hold off on this. Like, I'm biting my tongue. I want to talk about that so badly.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

I liked I liked watching it even though I knew I wasn't in the running to win anything. It sometimes is just fun to watch if you get back to the hotel and you're like, hey, I wonder where everybody else is at, if they're still out. You know, you can kind of go on there and see what people are doing. What do you mean?

SPEAKER_01 24:46

I had to pull the van over at one point to see what was happening. I'm like, I gotta pull over and see what's happening because this is uh a race to the finish, or this guy is, you know, like like Carrie said, there was a shutdown, and one of the witnuts went on a railroad track to get a checkpoint because there was a cop at the front entrance. I had to see what these crazy people were doing. I just want to point out that if a checkpoint is inaccessible for an act of God or weather or government shutdown, it is not required for the awards. However, for the rules, they are always achievable. So they can, if something is closed, let's say, and you choose to adult and go get it, it's not required, however, the points are valid. In true cannibal spirit. In true cannibal spirit. Here, here.

Safety, Buddies, And Extreme Checkpoints

SPEAKER_00 25:34

Yeah. So in in your experience, like I would say that there was like twenty five percent of the overall guys that really were trying to battle it out for first place or like in the last two days, say top five. Would you agree with me that like the vast majority of the guys were there just for the experience and hanging out with a bunch of cool, like-minded guys on bikes?

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Yeah, I think so. And and I think it's important too to link up with some of those guys when you get to the start point, you know, find out who wants to ride at the same pace that you do, and just team up with them. And it's nice to have a couple extra guys with you. You know, you drop a bike, it's nice to have help for someone to help you pick it up. Or God forbid you get injured. You don't want to be out there by yourself. Maybe you got a garden in reach or something like myself, that's helpful. But if you have someone else there to help you out, that's nice. Plus, like I said, you know, you stop for lunch, you stop to take photos. It's nice to have that camaraderie with some of the other cannonballers when you're going across the country together. So chat people up, see who's got the same mindset as you and team up.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

And as the rally becomes more and more exotic as we start to go into more interesting, exotic places, as adventure writers want to do, just like even this year, we go into Moab, we go into the desert, and there's some extreme off-road checkpoints now, which you shouldn't get, by the way. Please don't get them. But if you choose to go get those extreme off-road checkpoints, it's it's wise to take a buddy, you know. And if you're gonna go off and you know it's gonna be a late night because you're gonna do one of these stupid ideas and get that checkpoint. Absolutely have someone go with you so they can check your navigation, make sure you're not driving off of a cliff. Uh, maybe you're sharing responsibilities. Someone had brought some extra water, someone has some food, someone has an emergency bivy, someone, one of you have a garment inreach, someone is really good at navigation, so let them go first, you know, so you can share responsibilities.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Aaron, that's a good point, too, because there was a couple times where I made a wrong turn, and one of the other guys with me was like, Oh, hold up. I think we were supposed to go that way. That happened a couple times. Yeah, come on. It was the GPS's fault, man.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

I think it drank too much the night before. It was a little hungover. It didn't know where it was going.

The Last Mile Navigation Mistake

SPEAKER_00 27:56

So it like you said, there's it helps to have some some friends along for the rock. I did the I was doing really great on the navigation. Since you're talking about navigation, I'm gonna pull this one out. Aaron knows where this is going. On the final day, um, I wanted to make sure I was top 10 points wise. And I was very close within one point of two other guys. And a first to finish on the final day would have sealed the deal for me. And Jake, who Aaron has an amazing photo of standing on top of his bike celebrating punk that he is, beat me in the very last mile. The very last mile. So on that final day, the weather was absolutely horrific. The rain was coming down sideways, we're in LA, the traffic is horrible. I was riding my bike that day like I probably have not ridden since my teens. Like I was stupid. I full out admit I was dumb. And Jake was on my ass the entire time. And I yeah, I don't even want to talk about the crap we were doing. It was bad. But we were hauling ass, and he was on my butt the entire time. But he wasn't gonna get me. I like I wasn't letting him pass me. I was bound and determined to get it. And in the last mile, there's this hard right turn that we had to make to head over towards the marina where the hotel was. And I wore glasses, and my glasses were completely fogged up to the point where I could barely even see where I was going anyway, which made it even worse with the way that I was riding. And so I was using the audio navigation to figure out where I was going because I couldn't even visually see what was happening on the map on my bike. So we get to the one where it was a right turn, and where that intersection was had a soft right and a hard right. And the right turn I saw was the soft right. So I went barreling through into that soft right turn, and it was supposed to be the hard right. So right there in that last mile, Jake made the hard right, and then I saw him slow down because then he second guessed himself thinking, what does Carrie know that I don't know? And it's like, no, man, I was just a dumbass. I made the wrong term. You own it. So then, you know, I had to do a full U-turn because that didn't connect over to the marina. I got stuck at the red light, all this stuff. I'm just like, I'm done. Literally, I mean, how long was that last day, Aaron?

SPEAKER_01 30:35

It was it was an exceptionally short day because I wanted people to get cleaned up for the awards banquet. Right. But more to the point about the weather, it was a flood warning. It was a flash flood warning for that area in California. It was insane. And all you guys had bald tires by then because no one had done a tire change, I don't think. And so it was completely irresponsible if you were breaking in the speed limit, which you should not be, according to the rules, which I can't see what you're doing, so it's not my business, but but yeah, it and I really love the fact that the story is more involved because you know, Jake has a persona purposefully of I'm just a badass because motorcycles, right? But it just goes to show that he's a really smart cookie. Not only is he a badass rider, he's a really good navigator. And you, you know, we we're we're really seeing that behind the scenes that he he really was an accomplished rider, but a fantastic uh navigator. And you can solve your problems just by wearing contacts, by the way, and getting and throw those glasses out.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

Yeah, I'm getting rid of the glasses. There no glasses in this year for me. Because that basically just screwed me out of the first to finish points on the last day. So close. But yeah, yeah, Jake was a rock star. I th I think he had told me he'd been in like the GS Trophy Challenge and a bunch of other stuff. There were a lot of very accomplished riders that were in the rally last year. But yeah, so here I come piddling over to the finish line, and he was hanging out, having a grand old time and flipping me shit as I pulled up. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:07

Jake has 1,061 points. He finished essentially third, even though there is no third place. Essentially third in the point standings.

SPEAKER_00 32:15

Uh he ended up beating Sean, right? Because that was the whole reason he went for first to finish.

SPEAKER_01 32:20

Yeah, Sean is uh what 1,046 points.

SPEAKER_00 32:25

And uh yeah, and then Josh was right in there too. Josh Skidmore.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

This is why we don't have second-third place. He's also 1,046 points. Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Yeah. So we didn't even get stake knives. Yeah. There's first place and then there's first loser.

SPEAKER_01 32:44

Yeah, there's just just a set of stake knives. Yeah. That's the running check. Fair enough, fair enough, fair enough.

SPEAKER_00 32:49

So that's all I had for topics for for this one, as far as like prep and mindset and stuff like that. Was there anything else that you guys wanted to talk about on this topic?

SPEAKER_01 32:59

I just want to ask Dave, seeing as though the opposite mindset of this wing nut, and you're threatening to come back next year, which we'd love to have you, even just for comic relief. What would you do differently in your bike preparation and your navigation preparation, knowing what you know from your first experience?

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Yeah, I felt like my navigation went pretty well overall. Like I said, I just used the Google Maps route that you had uh posted. I downloaded the offline maps, and that was pretty much it. It worked out pretty well for me in general. Uh packing wise, I I think anyone who's ever done a trip like this or any other, every time you come back, you think, Well, I didn't need this, I didn't need that. You know, so it's just a matter of experience and dropping gear that you really don't use or you don't need. Um and then we'll come full circle just back to mindset. There was guys at the end of the day who were trying to bolt parts back on their bike because they were riding crazy and you know, breaking stuff. And I personally, you know, I'm 45 years old, I got a lot of old injuries. I'm riding well within the range of where I'm comfortable with my skill level. That would just be my best advice to everybody else. This is not the time to go out there and ride beyond your skill level and tank your bike or break something on you or the bike. Just my two cents.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Yeah, and you're right. And you're on your own. This is not there's no safety truck coming to get you. If we happen to be there, of course, you know, we're gonna help you, but it's gonna be rather quick. We'll, you know, we'll help you as as best we can, but we have to go also in the adventure ADV spirit. It's you are on your own, so have a plan if if things go go sideways. And Mark had the only real injury, and I think he was riding within his uh his limits. Uh but when the weather has gone really, really poorly, you even have to ride under what you think your limits are. And Mark really uh illustrated that by going around a corner and the road was just greasy. So, you know, there is risk involved here for sure.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

Yeah, anytime you ride a motorcycle, there's risk, there's stuff out of your control, and and uh the road conditions that day were really, really bad. So what I did was I skipped that track altogether. I didn't even go out on that muddy track because I already knew I was gonna be the guy ending up in the side of a ditch somewhere with a broken leg and a beer in my hand, you know? So like I'd have been sitting there waiting for someone to come scoop me up off the side of the road and I didn't want to be that guy. But kudos to Mark, shout out to him. That guy's amazing. Iron Man, yeah. Seriously.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

Well, Carrie, you you crashed that day a couple of times because it was really greasy. You didn't crash, but you just had greasy tires on and it was it was clay like uh material. And I think you you dumped your bike several times, right?

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Yeah, I jumped it three times, all within a mile. It was one particular section that was uh like along the sides of that gravel road, that Forest Service Road or whatever it was we were on that day, were literal rivers. That's how much water there was. So it was really bad. And there was one section in particular was that was that clay mud. So, you know, I had traction on the sides of my tires, but that doesn't do you a whole lot of good. The the center was literally a slick. So I was just sliding in everything I could. There was one section I literally pushed the bike coming in and off the clutch for probably about a hundred yards. I just stayed off the bike and walked it just to get it through the it was so bad.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Another note on that is another reason I skipped it, me and John, is when we went for breakfast that day or lunch, I can't remember what time of day it was, we were talking to some locals about that exact road. And every local I talked to that day said, do not go up there on that bike. Let me tell you what happens up there when it rains. It's like a river. So that was the other thing is getting some local intel at the bar, at breakfast, at lunch, whatever, can be super helpful just to understand what the conditions are like.

Planning A Mid Rally Tire Change

SPEAKER_01 36:54

I was actually concerned about snow. There was a big warning on the rally notice page, is that was over 10,000 feet. And it was at that time of the year where it technically could snow. So that was the only time where I had put up a warning flag, which I don't tend to do, is please just make sure that if it is snowing, either A, the smart thing to do is avoid it. But if you're gonna be a wing nut, be be prepared for that. Carrie, I think that maybe a little uh pro tip is in order. So I think you're gonna schedule a tire change because the first one-third or half of the rally is all paved, and we come off a slab day pulling into the edge of Colorado, and then that's where the fun starts. So maybe you can share your plan with uh with a tire change.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

Aaron, are you giving away my strategies now?

SPEAKER_01 37:41

Listen, it's the round table, dude. You know, so you gotta, this is the point. Either you're you're a part of the round table or you're not. But I think everyone I think everyone understands what's gonna happen this year.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

Yeah, so I'm actually trying to work out a deal with a local shop that's in Pueblo. So our first real dirt sections start in Colorado and we sleep in Pueblo, what is that, the the fourth night, I think that is, is when we're in Pueblo. And so my plan is I'm riding my T7 and I'm gonna ride it on street tires for the first four days. Then I'm switching to a full knobby in Pueblo. If I can't get something set up with the local dealership where they're willing to stay later or whatever, because God only knows what time we'll actually pull into town. So if I can't get them to help me, I'll be swapping tires in the hotel parking lot.

SPEAKER_01 38:36

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

I love it. Yeah. But I refuse to hit the dirt this year with bald tires. That is not happening two years in a row.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Or it's just maybe tire management. I don't know, call me crazy, but no. And then in 2027, yeah, and then in 2027, I'm just working on the route now for Baja, it's the opposite. So we start off with all the fun dirt stuff, and then we end with monotonous slab days, which is just delightful that you're gonna go from survival, dirt, dunes, baja, and then maybe the opposite tire change happens where you pull into Arizona into Bisbee, and you're like, right, you know, road sixes are going on now. So it's it's really fantastic to see people's strategies and they they clue in to the different terrain and how it's kind of set up purposefully like that is that we have chunks and it's it's in that proper ADV vein where one day you're on slab and the next day you're in a desert.

Wrap Up And More Questions

SPEAKER_00 39:39

Yep. Yep. All right, gents. Well, I appreciate the time. I think that this new segment and round table that we are doing is gonna be a ton of fun, and I'm hoping that it really helps people get ready for this. There are things that I'm willing to say that our joyous rally master is probably not in a position to. Everything is just really sort of my opinion and Dave's opinion and whoever else is we sucker into getting into this segment. But I'm hoping this answers stuff. And for those of you that are on the Facebook page for the rally, keep posting questions because it gives us lots of great ideas on content. Um, I think we have at least enough content for three or four more of these minimum. But yeah, we'll keep going as long as you guys keep asking the questions.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

Thanks, Carrie, so much for doing this. I know it's a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00 40:29

It's a little more informal, it's a little more informal.

SPEAKER_01 40:32

It's it's not as uh heavily edited. So Carrie has offered to do the dirty work, so thanks so much for doing it.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

Next time I'm showing up with a beer. Nice isn't happening again. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 40:45

Dave and I hope we see you halfway through this year's rally, and we hope to see you next year.

SPEAKER_02 40:49

Yeah, sounds good. Thanks, Aaron. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 40:53

Adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac, El Dorado. Anybody want to see second prize? Second prize instead of steak knives.

SPEAKER_05 44:02

Where the Pacific meets the sky, we didn't come to live forever. We just came to ride through fire, mud, and madness. We gave it all. Cause the rike prisoner just calls.

SPEAKER_03 45:23

Smashing a five-star review really helps the podcast and satisfies the algorithm gods. All hell the algorithm gods. A special thanks to our Patreon supporters. You're keeping this sinking ship afloat. Thanks for listening to the ADV Cannonball Podcast. Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the pegs.