Isle Of Man 🇮🇲 TT with Author and Legend, Stuart Barker 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

The Isle of Man TT isn’t compelling because it’s polished. It’s compelling because it’s real public roads, real consequences, and a level of commitment that most of us can’t even imagine. We ride out to meet legendary motorcycle journalist and author Stuart Barker, then let him pull back the curtain on what the TT actually is: a 37.75-mile mountain course with hundreds of corners, brutal hazards, and a culture that refuses to pretend the dark parts don’t exist.

We talk about Barker’s career inside the racing world, why he believes honesty is a form of respect, and what he learned from interviewing riders and families who’ve lived through loss. Along the way, we break down road racing versus circuit racing, why the TT takes two weeks, how newcomers learn the course today, and why the event keeps drawing riders back even when prize money is modest and the risks are obvious.

Then we swing back to our own chaos: Europe route scouting for the 2027 ADV Cannonball Rally, rally app improvements, and the kind of practical navigation advice that saves your day when you’re cold, wet, and staring at a glitchy GPX track. We also give a clear warning about extreme checkpoints: they’re optional, they’re serious, and “self rescue” isn’t a slogan.

If you like motorcycle racing, adventure riding, and stories that don’t flinch, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a riding buddy, and leave us a five-star review so the algorithm gods stop pretending we don’t exist.

Transcript

Cold Opens And Beer Cracks

0:00

Special thanks to Keith for buying us a case of beer in support of our Rally Checkpoint app. And to meet Tashir for some tires and the hospitality on the Isle of Man. Welcome to the ABV Cannonball Podcast. Where we discuss all things on two wheels, the adventure bike cannonball and other motorcycle-related nonsense. Taylor Lawson. Today I am joined by the only person I know who has ridden around the Isle of Man TT course in a car driven by an actual Isle of Man TT racer. The Waypoint Warden, better known to you as Aaron Puofall. Hey bud, thanks so much. I haven't seen you in a while. Why don't you tell us what's coming up in this electric episode? What we have coming up in this electric episode is some book awards. Stuart Barker introduces the Isle of Man TT, and we learn about this legendary writer and all-around great guy and motorcycle dude. That's awesome. I'm really looking forward to that. And I'm drinking a ridgeline hazy IPA from Victoria, British Columbia. Wait for it. Here it is. Oh ice. Where are you? What are you drinking, buddy? I'm back in Stockholm after my whirlwind tour around uh the UK and other northwestern regions of Europe with you. And um I'm back in Stockholm. And um I am drinking a hashtag double IPA. It is the my double IPA from the beer city, which is explosively aromatic, fresh, and fruity. It's about time we had a proper Scotsman introduce that for us, I gotta say. Well done there. Yeah, he went along with it, but he didn't understand why. But maybe if he does listen to the episode, he'll understand why. Now he'll get it. Absolutely. Listeners, crack a beer. Grab one and crack your own beer and uh and join us. Aaron, you think this is what what are the what's the prognosis of this being a short one? It's gonna be super, super short. As a matter of fact, we have our little script here, and you mentioned that you're back from Europe, and there's nowhere in the script to even talk about what we just did. So

Europe Ride Recap To Biker’s Rest

2:29

maybe we should start there. Is that I had flown my bike over to England. At the end of this episode, there is a long-winded field note uh segment for like an hour where I describe every single day of pre-running the 2027 ADV cannonball rally route. Well done, sir. A bit delayed. That's all good. And then you and I meet up with a bunch of people, Robert and Jan and some other people in Denmark. Maybe we can start with a recapping that trip. Yeah, that was fun. So you had just finished pre-road the rally route for 2027 Europe from Tarifa, Spain, up to the final point, which is in Loch in Denmark, and at a place called the Biker's Rest, which is super like that the biker's rest was worth the entire trip. That place is amazing. Yeah, it was so good, in fact, that I scrapped the whole awards banquet plan. And now we're gonna have the awards banquet there with those fine people. And as a matter of fact, they're so cool. I'm sending them some flags and some memorabilia to go up on uh in their biker hangout area. And it's just really a fantastic place. But you had a bit of a journey. You rode the length of Sweden almost, and then you took a ferry into Germany, or was it to Sweden? Where maybe you can describe the route that that you took. Yeah. So Chris and I um we uh we left Stockholm and then we basically rode for what should have been a five-hour trip, and because we rode in a you know the red rain band, the heavy, heavy red part you want to avoid and hope goes by soon. We rode in that for um what turned out to be about seven or eight hour trip down from Stockholm to Gothenburg, and then from Gothenburg, we caught a ferry the next day over to uh Friedrichsham in uh on the northeast side of Denmark, and then we had a really nice ride through the country the next day. So we got there about I don't know, dare say two or three hours before you, enough that we could drop the kit, check in, unload some of the weight off the bikes, and then go out, have lunch, and then ride on the beach. Yeah, I was so jealous about that. The day before, the morning before that, we had disbanded the group of riders from the previous night's hotel, and Robert Bollinger and Jan went and rode all of the off-road checkpoints, which most of them are on the beach, and kind of we all converged on biker's dress. So I was really jealous that all the T7s went out, including Chris's brand new GS900. You guys tore up the beach. I was really, really jealous about that. Well, I mean, the side of mine bike tore up the beach at one point. Like I went through Chris Chris went across this, you know, like on every big, big, wide beach, there's a river, right? Water flows from the mainland down to it. So Chris went tearing across, and that bike's awesome, that uh the GSA 900. So he blasted across this soft sand section, just got on the gas. First of all, you can't like you're not supposed to go more than 35 kilometers an hour, which is like, you know, what 17 miles an hour, 35 kilometers an hour, 30, 30 kilometers an hour, 17 miles per hour-ish. And if you do 60 kilometers an hour and you get caught, if you double the speed limit, they will take your vehicle. They don't care. There's a story in the recently that someone sent me about someone taking a Lamborghini from a guy. Um, so I was terrified of going there. I was like, it's the first day of the trip. I don't want some, I don't want the police to take my motorcycle. So I was really trying to do that, and then I followed Chris across this little river and I got into some soft sand, and I was like, I'm not gonna speed, I'm not gonna get on the gas. So I got on the gas a little bit late and I ended up rolling in the sand myself. Yeah, but you know, when you're in the middle of the beach, you can see if there's a cop there with a radar gun, right? So just follow Aaron's famous rules of DBAC. And if there's a group of kids playing in the sand, maybe not do wheelie past them at 110 kilometers an hour. But a part of the rally, there's 20, 30 kilometers worth of beach riding, and there's nobody out there. So you're not hurting anyone. Just do the safe speed in order for you to keep your bike upright, is kind of my advice. And no one's gonna bother you. Denmark is a very liberal place, and as long as you're not being a douche, they're gonna leave you alone. And all those horror stories you hear about bikes being seized and and and cars being seized, it's because someone's being a douche. They're like in their V10, you know, Lamborghini. They're doing burnouts in a small town. Like, you know, I'm sorry, but you kind of deserved it, you know. Yeah, but there's that aspect of it. So we um, yeah, so it was so Chris and I drove there. We met uh, there's you, Robert Baldinger, the Andre that Justina. That was fun hanging out there and having dinner. Great catering, by the way. That was really nice. The food that came in, it was the whole thing was just cool. And one thing that I thought was really cool, it's like motorcycle parking in the back. We came in and she's like, Yeah, go around back. And then I found out that it was like there's a whole barn for indoor motorcycle parking. So everything's indoor, it's fantastic. Yeah, great place. So I have some of that in my field notes, so we don't have to recap it too much, but okay. Um, which you should all skip. You should only listen to the field notes if you're interested in the 2027 ADV cannibal rally in Europe because it kind of goes through it each day. And there's a lot of me whining and really having no one to talk to, so I just kind of talked to this microphone. But uh, then you and I kind of left the Swedes. They took off and went to the ADV hangout, and then you and I rode for two days. We we hung out in Germany, we went to some cool pubs in Germany, we stayed at one of the rally hotels, and then you and I took an overnight ferry. We got up to some shenanigans on there. That's in the field notes, and then we we rode around England, we rode to Stuart Barker's place, which is the interview we're gonna have today. We rode to visit Lois Price in Windsor, then you left, and then I went up and interviewed Tommy. He's the UK cannonball record holder, which was an amazing interview. And then I went to the Isle of Man. Anyways, it was a whirlwind tour, and I don't know why we forgot to write it in our script, but it was an amazing whirlwind tour. And uh yeah, I was gone for 30 days, and you were gone for about a week and a half. A lot of that's in the field notes. Let's say we talk a little bit about the um the awards

Awards Season And Book Wins

9:01

announcements. I mean, your book's been crushing it on the award circuit here. I don't want to have it be a uh a spoiler alert, but not every position is number two. However, let's start with number two. Uh it's award season. The podcast won first place communicator award for a single episode, which we submitted Claudio Van Planta's episode. For those of you who uh who may not know by name, Claudio Van Planta is the photographer who has done all of the long way, uh long way, wrong way, upside-down way, everything way series with Yumay Gregor and Charlie Borman. He has been their their uh videographer the entire time. So great episode. Uh, we took first place on that. Well done. And here over the book here. Aaron's book won runner-up number two in the 2026 London Book Festival and the Pacific Book Awards, but won first place in the 2026 Book Fest Awards in Nonfiction and Chasing Legends wins the International Impact Book Awards, outstanding literary achievement, biographies and memoirs in the category. Nice. We're not done. But wait, there's more. And first place winner in 2026 Indie Reader Discovery Awards in the sports category. Fantastic. That's pretty impressive considering it's only been out the door for what, how many weeks? Yeah, well, it's kind of the season, right? And they're just looking for books that are not a bunch of AI slop. And that's the problem these days. There's just so much crap out there. I think they're just desperate to find anything that's authentic. And uh I don't know, give yourself more credit than that. And I also want to thank the guys at MCN. They listed the book on their recommended reading list, which was, I think, more important than all of the other accolades. Motorcycle news. Um, I think they listed 10, and you were third in line. So, I mean, there's a number three. It balances out for all these number ones. So that's whole disrupted number two. If the average is still number two, which is just so you know the average. Yeah, but that's only because the number three positions, we had to compensate for the number, the number one. So well done on the book, Aaron. Yeah, and just to finish off, it's released on Audible with a really great professional voice actor if you're not really into reading. But more importantly, let's talk about bikes.

New Gear Farkles And Rally Logistics

11:18

So, what kind of Farkels have you bought for your T7? Well, I got the um I ordered it at the ADV festival, and it was a it wasn't the Acropovich, but it was the next best thing. And it's not a Karen, but it's a Sharon. And it showed up the um the day I arrived home. So of course I tried to get it shipped before I left, but I didn't get it installed so I could go, you know, brap down through Europe, but I uh I didn't have it. Nice. So I haven't put it on yet. I actually have it even. I came home, put a cover on the bike, put it in the garage, and uh not in that order. And uh I haven't even taken the bugs off the windshield yet, because I've been so busy renovating an apartment. So Yeah, you're a glutton for a punishment. You've been uh you've been renovating. So uh that is not for me, buddy, but you seem to be young at heart, so well thanks, thanks for that. Appreciate that. Uh reminder to our European listeners to provide reliable, proven motorcycle transport company so we can offer this to the Europe 2027 participants. Dutch minion and her bike, Diana. Thank you very much for the transport company information from the Netherlands. Aaron, where can our listeners find that? And what what site are we gonna put that? We're gonna start hosting or putting that information up. Yeah, just go to the main site. So advcannible.com. So we populated a bunch of pictures from the trip. So those pictures are up. So the pictures you see on the website are all our actual pictures from our scouting. So that's all up, and then we will populate that with other recommended vendors. I had a nice surprise visit this morning. Um I had lunch with Ben, and for those of you who who listened about a year ago, uh I did a podcast on uh on Scoog. That's where I met Justina. Justina who is uh Danish and she was um visited us at the bikers rest we mentioned a moment ago. And so Ben from Scoog, he sent me a message and says, Taylor, I was a little disappointed that you weren't at Schoog this year. I promptly told him that it was his fault that his country was rotting distance from Sweden, and that's where I was, and I that's why I couldn't make Scoog this year. Anyway, um so he came and had lunch with me, which is quite cool, and he had actually been um at Scoog, and Egla was one of the keynote speakers there. We've got so I actually spent yesterday in the studio chatting with her in the morning, so that was really fantastic. She had just um ridden in from Scoog, southern Sweden the night before, and then immediately after our visit, she moved she drove another five hours back down to catch a ferry over to uh Gdansk or I'm not sure where, across the Baltic. And you guys did a great interview at the Stockholm Studio, and I'm looking forward to editing that a little bit later. I know you love editing. Oh, I love editing. It's so great. It just makes me so happy. You have no idea how much I love it. Let's talk a little bit about our next guest. Actually, before you do that, I just wanted to mention the really small world story about Jostina. So she showed up at the hotel and we were talking about our plans afterwards. And she said, Well, after I leave you guys at biker's rest, I'm gonna ride north to Sweden because I'm going to this little event called the ADV hangout. And Robert's sitting there and he goes, Oh, I'm the organizer of that event. So it was really cool that she was able to meet the organizer, and they actually all rode up together. So Jan, Jostina, and Robert all left at 6 a.m. and rode to the ferry, and they all went to the um to the ADV hangout together. It was really, really cool. Yeah, it's kind of I could I could just see them like hanging out in the audience. You're like, and Robert's like, yeah, well, I've been busy doing this thing over in Denmark, you know, it's the ADV cannonball that I'll be, you know, he's gonna do like a guest leg or something, but he'll be there anyway. And uh I could see it and go, Yeah, yeah, I was I was hanging out with uh Justina and Jan Frederick, and that's just kind of fun, like props, right? Yeah, small world. Small world. Yeah,

Meet Stuart Barker And His World

15:14

maybe you could do us the honor of uh reading the Stuart Barker intro. By the way, Prince of a Dude, one of my favorite people. He's been so responsive post-interview, and yeah, if you could do a proper intro, I'd appreciate it. Yeah, he's just fun, super fun. I'll do my best here. Today's guest has spent the better part of three decades living inside the world of motorcycle racing, not just watching from the sidelines, but right in the thick of it. He's written Barry Sheen's world titled winning Suzuki, he shared the road with the legends, he's written books that have made the Sunday time charts and been nominated for major literary awards, and now Hollywood is circling one of his stories. I'm talking about Stuart Barker. We rode out the Stuart's place to record this one, and it did not disappoint. We pulled up, he pulls the door open, he steps out, and he goes, Come on in, guys, let's get rolling. It was super fun. We walked in there in the dining room, bold as you like, sits in motorcycle, and not just any motorcycle, but Adam Ants motorcycle. So that's Adam and the Ants, the old uh, I guess, UK rocker band. Super fun. The riding room is exactly what you'd hope for. Floor to ceiling, books neatly stacked, and pictures on the wall of him standing next to famous people like Robert De Niro. Stuart being the absolute gent that he is, he rolled out the red carpet for us, drinks, cigarettes, and signed copies of his book, which is fantastic. He just took great care of us. I had I really had fun. I felt so welcome in his house. And it was a super fun interview. And we just what we talked for like two hours, didn't we, Aaron? Yeah, it was great. And then even afterwards, he went to the pub and and hung out even further. It was great. Now to the man himself. Stuart graduated from Strathclad University in 1996 with a degree in English literature and went immediately into the deep end, joining Motorcycle News and the biggest selling motorcycle publication in the world at the time. He spent four years there as a news reporter, road tester, and features writer before going freelance in 2001, determined to write books. And write books he has, 11 of them for publishers, including Harper's Collins, Random House, and Haynes, covering some of the biggest names in motorsport. Ersheen, Joey Dunlop, Steve Hislop, Evil Knibal. His Sheen biography hit the top four in the UK charts and Australia. His history of the Isle of Man TT was nominated for British Sports Book Awards, and his biography of Evil Canibal, Life of Evil, has been optioned for a major motion picture. Beyond the books, Stewart has contributed hundreds of features of publications across the globe, edited the official Isle of Man TT program for nearly a decade, and over the years has sat down with some of the most remarkable people. David Beckham, Ewan McGregor, Keith Flint, and Evil Knievel himself. But today, here to talk about one of the most iconic and unforgiving events in motorsports. And Stuart's gripping new book, Ragged Edge, The Brutal Story of the Isle of Man TT, the world's most dangerous race. It's a book that pulls no punches about what the TT really is, the glory, the grief, and everything in between. Let's get into it.

First Bikes And Learning Late

22:19

Stuart, welcome to the podcast. Why, thank you very much, Taylor. It's great to be here. As a former journalist, writer, and road tester for Motorcycle News, and someone with a deep passion for interviewing, you've spoken with hundreds, if not thousands, of people. Today, we'd like to turn the tables a bit and learn more about the enigma known to the world as Stuart Barker. With that, what was your first motorcycle and how old were you when you first experienced the fizz of two wheels? Well, I was quite late coming to actually riding. I I got into motorcycle racing when I was about 10 because my dad took me to see Silver Dream Racer with David Essex at the cinema. Um, and then for a few years nothing happened, and then the British Grand Prix was on in 1983, and he shouted me downstairs, you gotta come and see this, you've got to come and see this. And I'm like, oh dad, you know, a teenager, oh dad, I don't want to sit and spend time with you. And he shouted upstairs, it's just like Silver Dream Racer. So I fing ran down the stairs and watched it, and it was Kenny Roberts wheeling over Randy Mamola, Freddie Spencer, and Kenny wheeling over the line on the back wheel of the Mowbury Amaha with the um, you know, the Fleetwood Mac Grand Prix music. Uh well, they used it in the UK for Grand Prix in Formula One. And I just I couldn't, I'd never seen anyone do a wheelie in a motorcycle before. So I was that was it. I was the next day I went downtown and bought a copy of Motorcycle News and a red baseball cap to look like Kenny Roberts mechanic. Uh, but I never I didn't start riding until I joined Motorcycle News in 1996 when I was 26. So the first bike I was given as a long-term test bike was a Kawasaki ER5. But I actually was the first person in the UK, they changed the rules in January 1997 that if you were over 21, you could take your test on any motorcycle you wanted. So the fastest bike in the world at that point, the fastest production bike was a Honda Blackbird. So I'd never ridden a motorcycle on the Monday morning. My test was booked for the Friday. This was January, and it was the roads were ice. My instructor's eyebrows were had icicles on them when he stopped to speak to me. But I didn't know any better. So you know, I didn't realize I wouldn't ride in that shit now. But um so I did my test, I sat my test on the Horn to Super Blackbird, and there was a big feature in MCN about it because it hadn't been tested before. They couldn't believe the rules would allow this, and they checked. We got three instructing schools turned us down and said, No, that's that's too dangerous. And we finally found um a school that said, Well, okay, let's, you know, we'll try it, we're not guaranteeing it, let's see how it goes. The Wednesday we couldn't even get out because the ice was so bad. So we did the school room day. Um, so on the Monday I started out in a little Honda CG 125, I think. Uh CB125, I can't remember. And on the Friday, I had to sit my test on a 180 mile an hour Honda Super Blackboard, and I fucking passed. And you passed amazing, fantastic, fantastic. Great. But but I mean, you know, that was it to answer your question in a long-winded way. Um, but man, the thrill of having that much power beneath your right hand, especially with zero experience. I don't know how, and I've read about this. I'm not trying to compare myself to fighter pilots, but I've read about this, you know, if you survived the first kind of few weeks in in fighter command and in World War II, you stood a much, much, much better chance of surviving altogether. And the moments I had in the first two or three weeks of riding kind of unsupervised without an instructor there, I I don't, you know, I don't know how I'm still here now, but after a few weeks, you kind of you learn, and uh and that was me completely hooked from then on. Nice. In the acknowledgments of your most recent book, Win, Lose or Die, you mentioned Woolie and Yvonne Fulton, who took you to some races. Who are they to you

Mentors Family Loss And Dedications

26:07

and yet how did attending those races that they took you to influence your decision to pursue motorcycle journalism and writing? Willie Fulton and Yvonne Fulton uh lived or and still live in Northern Ireland. And where I come from in Scotland is where the ferries go to Northern Ireland, which is really the kind of the home of motorcycle road racing. I know the Isle of Man TT is the biggest one. The homeland of it is Northern and Southern Ireland. And my dad was friends with Willie, uh, and so Willie would pick us up in a motorhome. He's got a programme from every single race meeting he's ever been to since like the 60s. And they just took me to so many races, and but but the great thing really for me, well, apart from all that, was that he knew Jordan Lop, who's like the biggest name road racer of all time. He took me to his house and he took me to his bar, and I've sat and drank with Joy Dunlop and sat on his uh Honda Asi 45 in 94 before that bike had been raced anywhere in the world. So um Woolley and Yvonne just took me to so many races with so much fun, and sadly, Woolie now has uh developed dementia quite badly. So I wanted to dedicate the book to him while he maybe still could understand what I was saying. And uh I checked in, I sent a copy, and apparently, yeah, he he was all smiles and and he knew who I was and he and he knew what the book was about, and so that was really nice because you know you never know with these things if I'd left it another year, um, whether it might have happened. And my dad passed away two months ago just before the book came out, and I kind of thought it would, you know, it would have been obviously been really nice to dedicate a book to my dad, but well, we'll make that the next one because I really wanted to get through to Wally and Evan just how much I appreciated them taking me to so many races and having so much fun and introdu, you know, taking me to Joey Delope's house is insane when I think back now. Uh I mean I didn't take it for granted at the time, but when I look back now, I think, wow, did that really happen? Because he he was such an intensely private person. No, nobody, nobody got to, nobody got to do that. So they they've been really, really good to me. And um, yeah, that's why I decided that I should dedicate the book to them. And and I'd already dedicated so many to my mum and dad. They'd had they'd had enough. They'd had their share. It's uh that was really touching. Thank you. That was how I started getting choked up there. She's telling me that. I was trying to hold it up. Yeah, I'm getting I got a few more questions for you, but I'll have a good cry for the tears. For the tears. Only. Um, you did uh you mentioned earlier we also saw some pictures of you in leathers, and you mentioned racing a moment ago. Can you talk a bit about your racing bit? Oh, hell, I've never raced. I've never had the courage or the money or the uh oh hell no. Um no, I've I've simply got lots of leathers because we we've tested a lot of bikes for um for motorcycle news and various other magazines afterwards. But I know I've I've been privileged enough to ride some pretty special race bikes just on track time, not racing. Barry Sheen's 1976 World Championship winning RG500, which was insured for a million quid. And it's a good job I checked. Um I had Barry Sheen's actual right-hand man, his mechanic with me looking after me, Martin Ogborn. Obviously, the gearbox is upside down, it's a race shift pattern, which is totally opposite of the road bikes. I just thought and I said, Martin, is it a right hand gearbox as well? And he went, Yes. Oh shit. So the gears are all upside down, and I'm having to change my right foot instead of my left foot, which is all I've ever done my whole life on road bikes. But the bigger problem was Barry Sheen had size seven feet, and I've got I've got size ten feet, and obviously the whole bike's moulded to his size. But the big problem again is modern bike boots have external armour, so they're much more clumsy, big things that than the floppy soft leather boots that Sheen had back in the day. So it's very, very difficult to find gears and even get my feet in, you know, under the gear change. And so I was over-revving it and I was missing gears, and I felt I made a right harsh of it, but at least I didn't crash it because there was too many eyes on that day, and I only had 40 minutes. I didn't know I was going to be riding that. Suzuki GB had invited me to Cadwell Park. Uh, I was running a long-term test bike for them, and they said I could spin a few laps on that. I thought, great. And then um Tim Davis from Suzuki GB said, How would you feel about riding? In fact, Sheen's this very bike, the 76 bike, had been out on track for two demo laps with a pace car. And I was out like a fanboy with my camera, filming it, photographing it, you know, cheering it on, thinking, wow, can't believe I'm saying this. And then half an hour later, he said, How would you feel about riding that? And I had like, he said, Okay, it'll be like one o'clock or whatever. And this is 1228. And I had 40 minutes to just shit myself, basically. Which is why it's the longest shit I had in my life. 40 minutes is just gone, oh my god, what you know, you do not want to be the guy that crashes Parishin's most precious uh bike. Thankfully, um, thankfully I didn't, but there are no hero shots of me on the back wheel that's or getting my knee down on it. Speaking of pictures, I also saw you on an adventure bike. So the question is, have you come over to the dark side? Yes, I very much have. It took me a long time because, and I I'll be honest, I think they are the ugliest bikes out there. Uh well, they're utilitarian, they're built for a purpose. The the frames and the the um, I mean a GS BMW, you can't argue, fantastic bike, but I don't think they look pretty. To me, a pretty bike is a Ducati 916. I like a bike with bodywork, I like a sporty little bike. But as we get older and you want to sit upright a bit more and your wrists start getting a bit sore, it just makes more sense. And then my little, you know, having a top box or having something you can just take daily and basic creature comforts as you get old, you know. When you when you're in your 20s, you don't care about that shit. But as you get older, you really want um well to be able to go away for a night or a weekend and be able to take some stuff with you and stuff. So they just they started making a lot more sense to me. But I think the big difference really was the hike in performance because when I first started riding in the kind of mid-90s, those kind of practical bikes tended to be fairly slow and you know, not exciting engines and whatever, but now you know multi-straders and stuff like that now are absolutely insane. So you've now got the performance to match the practicality. Um, so I I yes, I was won over to the dark side. Nice. Well, which took a long time. You're very welcome. Your writing has taken you deep into the lives of riders who knowingly court death. Does that ever weigh on you personally? And if so, have

Riding Race Bikes Without Racing

32:52

you found a way to maintain a professional distance? Uh yes to the first one, no to the second. And funnily enough, I was just talking about that today. Um, because I lost my dad a couple of months ago, I was so aware, and because I've done so many interviews for Ragged Edge and Win Loser Die the last few years with people who have really, really suffered unbelievable tragedies. I was so aware of how much that had helped me when I lost my own dad. Because you know, l losing your dad when he's 81 years old, he's had a long, happy life. That's not a tragedy. Of you know, it it's sad, of course, I'll miss him for the rest of my life. But losing a son um at 23 years old, like Steve Jones and Yvonne Jones did with Craig Jones, and so many riders that have fought back, Louise Jeffries losing her brother David, so many riders that have fought back, like Steve Mercer, like Stuart Easton, John McGuinness, Ian Hutchinson, from injuries that you simply cannot comprehend, um, has been nothing but an inspiration to me. And and I used the lessons that I learned from these interviews. I wasn't even I wasn't aware of it at the time. Really, when my dad died, I realized how much better I was coping than I thought I would because I was using those lessons, I was remembering what those people told me. Lianne Harper, who lost her partner Danine at the TT in 2018, she said every day there was something that was a little victory. One of them was just opening the curtains one day. She'd been living with the curtains closed for so long. And the simple act of opening the curtain, simple act to us wasn't to her, of opening the curtains one day was like a step forward. It's like, okay, we can build on this, we're letting the sunlight into the room, we're gonna. They're so, so inspirational. What I've found is that they appreciate talking about it because I think a lot of people don't know what to say, don't know how to respond to someone if they've lost a partner or lost a child or whatever. They cross the street to kind of get away from them. It's not being nasty, it's just they don't know how to respond, they don't know how to react, so they'd just rather not. Uh, and I find it's the very opposite. Riders have been and family members have been so, so open with me for these last two books and so keen to tell the stories and what they've been through. And that keeps the riders' memory alive as well, which is you know a huge part of what what we're doing here. Because I've been a fan of bike racing and road racing and the TT and everything since I was 13. So I consider it a privilege and an honour to be able to tell these stories of people who were heroes of mine, and then to either talk to them personally if they've recovered from hideous injuries, or to talk to family members if they've lost someone. I I feel a certain responsibility for that. And the feedback, particularly this, the last two books, Ragged Edge and Win Loser Die, has been astonishing from the riders. And although sales are nice because you know that means a little bit more money, and there's not a lot of that about in the motorcycle world. What really means the most to me is this this feedback from the riders who seem to appreciate what I'm doing. It's amazing that you can take those experiences and uh carry them forward to help you through a challenging time in your own life. It's nice, it's nice to hear that. Yeah, and I w like I say, I wasn't aware of that until my dad died. Um it kind of felt like, right, it's my turn now. I need to kind of step up to the plate and and show the fortitude that these people have. And the support from them also, you know, in the in the month or so afterwards was just staggering. And I I felt so humbled that people who have been through so much worse than me were messaging me with words of encouragement and offers of help and whatever. Um, truly, truly, truly humbling. It's a great community. In the forward of Ragged Edge, you said that you weren't going to shy away from their brutal truth about the TT. Do you feel that the kind of honesty is rare in books written about the Isle of Man TT? Well, certainly I edited the TT programme for about eight years. And I certainly felt I was discouraged from and I, you know, I understood that you don't want to dwell on the dark side of a sport, but I was certainly kind of discouraged from um mentioning it too much in the official programme. But I personally

Why Tell The Brutal TT Truth

36:59

felt that was kinda not respectful to the people who we'd lost and and the families, um kind of just brushing it under the car. And I don't mean just the TT programme, other magazines too. I thought I thought that was really disrespectful. I thought these stories need to be told and these people need to be remembered. Not out of any kind of ghoulish sense, but because this is what these guys do. It's unbelievable what they do and what they what they go through to get back in a bike and do it again. I've just I just I don't know of it in any other sphere of life where people who have been bitten so badly by a sport, a great white shark, go straight back in the water with it. They can't wait to get back in and do it again. And I I just personally, you know, everyone deals with these things differently. I think it's disrespectful to try and shove these things under the carpet and pretend it doesn't happen because when you tell the real stories, the real traumatic stories, that just increases my admiration for what they do a thousandfold. It just makes them more special, more superhuman. To me, they're like, you know, when the visor goes down, the helmet goes on, the leathers go on, they're like superheroes to me. You know, they put their colours on and they're not normal people, and the mental attitude definitely isn't like normal people to me. You know, I mean, I I wouldn't do that. Would you? No. Great answer. Let's start with the basics.

Road Racing Versus Short Circuits

38:27

So, what is a road race and how does it differ from circuit racing that most of our listeners might be familiar with? Well, when the first motorcycle races happened in the kind of early 1900s, there was a 20 mile an hour speed limit blanket ban over the whole of the UK roads. And the government would not allow roads to be closed for racing. But but some road races were being held on the continent, and some people in Britain wanted to do it. So the way they got round it was they approached the Isle of Man government, which is a fine dependency, but it has its own parliament. And basically they said, Yeah, we can close the roads for you. So that's how the TT was born, the first one in 1907. And then they Northern Ireland, when when Ireland kind of divided in 1922, I think, um, they were also able to make their own kind of laws. And basically, what happened over the next the first World Championship was held in 1949, and a lot of those early circuits were road circuits, TT and Gundra in Northern Ireland. And over the years, as health and safety as safety became more important, um, purpose-built circuits came into things, which is what we now know as like short racing, you know, uh short circuit racing. Hereith and Catalunya and Le Monde. But there was a time up until about the kind of early 1990s where most riders certainly in the UK did both. They would race in short circuits and they would race on these road courses, which you know, the Island TT is the is the pinnacle of it. And that's 37 and three-quarter miles of everyday roads that you guys are going to ride to the shops on, queue and traffic jams on, sitting traffic lights. You know, all the drain covers are there, all the white lines are there, all the cut size are there. They you know, they cross tram lines at some point. There's Victorian trams that cross the Alaman TT circuit. It climbs 1,400 feet up the shoulder of Snayfell Mountain. There are humpback bridges that, you know, the bikes are in the air for 60 feet. You know, nothing like a short circuit race has gravel traps, erect to cell air fencing, ambulances in every corner, every health and safety precaution you could possibly have because the circuit's like what two miles long. The Alabama TT, and I mean there are shorter road races, but the Alabama TT circuit is 37 and three quarter miles long. So you need um the they do not run at all unless the medical helicopter can get up. You know, if there's mist or there's rain and it can't go, nothing goes now. But basically the difference is on a road circuit in road racing, you're racing at and this year um at the Northwest 200, they were clocked at 212 miles an hour on everyday public roads, past houses, lampposts, you know, the the roadside furniture that we all face every day in our cars or our pushbikes or whatever, that can't be removed. It doesn't get any softer just because there's a road race being around. So short circuits, because they're smaller, the straits aren't so long, so they never reach speeds as high as that. Or very rarely they do it some Mugello places like that for sure, even faster. Um 226 miles an hour, I think. Mugello and um Barcelona, Catalonia. So road racing is basically taking uh motorcycles that are capable of doing about 215 miles an hour and riding them flat out for 220 miles in a six-lap TT race with every sort of hazard you can imagine, uh you know, weather included, wildlife, ducks, dogs, cats. There's been uh uh I mean Gene McDonald hit a horse when uh in 1986 when a helicopter landed to lift Brian Reed who had crashed and broken his leg, startled the horse, the horse ran out of the course, and Gene MacDonald had nowhere to go and both 160 miles an hour on the approach to Balath Bridge. So there's every kind of hazard you could imagine that you kind of don't get so much on short purpose-built circuits with all the safety features that they have. So it's a far, far, far more raw, primitive, and dangerous way of going racing. But the riders get so much more out of it. I mean, every single one of them will tell you from a spectator's point of view. You can literally sit on the edge of the road with your feet pretty much on the road with bikes coming past you 100 miles an hour that you could reach out and touch. It's a visceral experience. Whereas short circuits, uh, the likes of Silverstone here, where we have the British Grand Prix, you know, you're hundreds of yards away in a grandstand, there's chicken wire fencing that you're looking through. And to me, I mean, I understand I understand why, don't get me wrong, I know safety has to come first. But as a kid growing up, when I was seeing road racing so close, there's just no comparison to me. So let's shift gears here and talk a bit about the race course.

Why The TT Keeps The Island Alive

43:16

So the TT draws tens of thousands of visitors to the island every year. How significant is it economically and culturally to the Isle of Man? And could the island survive without it? I very much doubt that the Isle of Man could survive without the TT, which is probably why it's still going, you know, way more than a hundred years later. Um, the Isle of Man does have other uh incomes, of course, it's it's a big kind of financial banking offshore kind of island. So I think it the Isle of Man is very much dependent on it. Could it survive without it? Well, I don't think anybody wants to really find out because as long as the writers want to do it and and they do it's over subscribed every single year. Um, and if the Isle of Man can make money out of it, and like I say, this year is due to be Channing Tatum and with Brad Pitt producing, uh, they're looking to shoot a Hollywood movie at the TT this year. So, you know, if that happens and it the movie is successful, then I think the infrastructure will be overwhelmed because uh currently you need to book at least a year ahead to get a ferry to the Alamanna or to get a flight. And whereas there used to be thousands of hotels and guest rooms um before the cheap package holiday to Europe and stuff kind of came around in the 70s and 80s. Uh many of those now have been turned into apartments and private residences, so there's not that many places to stay. Um basically, what I'm saying is a lot more people would go to the TT if the infrastructure was there, if they could. They've tried cruise ships for people to sleep on, the campsites, they do home stays where people let out their houses to the TT fans and whatever. So they do everything they possibly can, but you could easily double the crowd figures, I would say, if there was more space. You know, it's a small island, there's not that many facilities. So it's now and and I think what's happening now is because the world's becoming increasingly obsessed with health and safety and wrapping everything in cottonwood and bubble wrap, the TT is now standing out to people who are not even interested in motorcycles. They're like, what, you know, what the fuck is this? What do you you can do 220 miles an hour on the road and the police just allow it? It's and a lot of riders that say that to me, it feels so badass just being allowed to do that. As they, you know, they can spot a copper out a policeman out the side of their eyes, they're going through a village at 180 miles an hour and just thinking, woohoo! So yeah, it's it's huge. It will only get bigger if this Hollywood movie is a success. And the the more and more the world gets obsessed with health and safety, uh, the more the TT stands out as this last bastion of um kind of freedom to do whatever you want and go as fast as you want. And yeah, I've got to support that. That's right in my line of thinking. I I don't I don't like the way the world's going. I don't like the the molycodling of children and not letting them take risks. And I think it's essential to to be a a rounded human being to take those risks. Maybe you know, I'm not saying kids should race 200 mile an hour uh motorcycles, but I'm very much kind of well, because I'm old, I'm from the old school, and I believe in taking risks make make you a kind of better better person, really. Yeah, it's not like anybody should take their first learner's permit on a 180 mile an hour motorcycle, right? Well, yeah, I didn't, I gotta say, for the record on the low, I didn't get anywhere close to 180 miles an hour. But I I did used to hang back from my instructor just a little bit so I could squirt the throttle and and and feel what I was on on those icy roads. Great answer. Um you've been closely connected to the TT for many

First TT Memories And Pure Speed

46:58

years. So can you describe your personal history with the event? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 1983 was the was the first year I went. And back then it was part of a TT Formula One World Championship. So it, you know, you were racing for points, it really meant something. Joy Dunlop, Rob McElnay, Mick Grant, Roger Marshall, legendary names and full factory motorcycles, you know, Honda and Suzuki in particular. You almost wanted to win that as much as the Moto GP Championship. So I begged my dad to take me. In fact, I said I was going on my own. I don't know where I was going to thought I was going to get the money. I was 13, but I've said I'm fucking going, whether you like it or not. But my dad had gone to the TT before he met my mum. Um, so I was the excuse to be able to go back. And I'll never forget the first place we watched, because my dad had first watched there, my grandpa had first watched there, was about halfway down. There's a famous corner called Craig Nabar, uh, and it drops downhill towards Craig Nabar from Kate's Cottage. And I was about halfway down there, and because the riders sit off one at a time, and you're you're sitting on a um a hillside in the middle of nowhere, and you've only got a radio with the commentary points telling you what's coming and what's happening, and then you just hear this bite. There's nothing but sheep. You're sitting on a hillside, it's just silence, but the bleating of sheep in the distance, and then you hear and this is coming. You can hear it from miles, and it can and I I mean I jumped back from the road because I thought it was gonna explode. The ring's gonna explode. The thing was just gonna be seen anything travelling so fast. I didn't I didn't compute that anything could travel that fast short of a fighter jet, which you can't really sit two feet away from at full at full speed. And I remember I had a little boogie box thing, a little ghetto blaster, and I had a tape set it, and I would record the bikes as they went past because you know we've got so much TV coverage now, you can buy a TT live pass worldwide and watch everything for the whole two weeks on um on screen on on your tablet or whatever. So that was my way of kind of recording it was with a tape recorder, but I just staggering. I mean, if a spectator can feel so excited about watching it, what the hell does it feel like to do it? Um I I don't want I personally don't want to find out that'd be that would just scare the living Jesus out of me. But um yeah, it it as a spectator sport, I can't I mean you know, people are into football, rugby, whatever. But they're not sports as exciting as they can be as from a game point of view, they're not sports where you're seeing something that that is just almost unbelievable to the human eye. It looks like speed it up. They're going so fast, it looks like someone has hit the fast forward button in life, and and your brain can't kind of catch up and think, did that really, you know, did that really just happen? It's absolutely extraordinary, and nothing like going to a short circuit or a Grand Prix, complete worlds apart. That explanation gave me chills, thank you.

Faster Every Year And No Ceiling

50:14

There's a remarkable difference between the speeds achieved in the early years and those that we see today. Can you speak to that evolution? Yeah, I mean, almost since the TT began, there were calls for it to be banned because it was too fast, and that's when the lap record was like 40 miles an hour in those um in those early years, and we're now stood at 136 miles an hour. And don't forget, that's an average speed. And at the TT course, there's at least three really, really walking-pace hairpins that slows the average speed massively. So if you knocked out Ramsey hairpin, Governor's Bridge, yeah, I mean they're about the two tight, if you knock those out, the the average lap speed would be about 150 miles an hour. You know, they're reaching over 212 miles an hour on Sylby Strait. And a lot of the riders think that point where they take that measurement, they're already on the brakes. So they think, you know, they reckon they're actually going faster than that in certain parts of the course. So year on year, the lap record has crept up as tires have got better, suspension has got better, chassis have got better, engines have got better, riders have learned more the condition of the roads have got better because you know it gets resurfaced, and all these factors have combined to just year on year, if if the weather's good though, the times when you see the really, really fast laps are when you get two weeks of solid good weather, which is very rare in the Isle of Man, it kind of has its own microclimate. But in the likes of 2018, when you had two solid weeks of blazing sunshine, the speeds were absolutely crazy because don't forget, by the time of the senior TT on the closing Friday, they've been there for two weeks. Every writer tells me the because they've not been there for a year, the first couple of laps of practice, they're terrified. They're genuinely terrified. And this is what impresses me about them is they're terrified, but they'll still make themselves do it. But by the end of the two weeks, they're like, fucking hell, come on, they want more power. The bike feels the bike feels too slow because the brain has adjusted. And all that they're doing 212 miles an hour in a straight line, an average lapse of 136 miles an hour, they want more, and that's never gonna stop. There was talk in the 20s or 30s, 1920s or 30s, when a guy said, Well, there's no way the bikes can get faster here unless they have gyroscopes, like that's 100 years ago, and he's thinking they're too fast then doing what 40 mile an hour average lapse. So, yeah, it's always gonna build year on year. Riders always want more power, and engineers are always finding more power. So, no matter how much they change the rules or regulations, that's what racing exists for, is to find a way to go faster. And riders will always, always, always want more.

Why The TT Takes Two Weeks

52:58

One of the things she mentioned in the Ragged Edge talked about it being a two-week event, and that's very different than some of the other Moto GP or the other short circuits. How is that? Why does it take so long? What's the what's the reason for two weeks versus a three or four-day event? It's more like three weeks for the teams, but by the time they get over there and get set up in the party and stuff, so it's it's almost three weeks for the teams, and that has been an issue over the years, and there's been a lot of discussion about making it shorter. But what tends to happen is so you've got one week of practice and then you've got one week of racing with that. You've got superbikes, super sport, superstock, super twins, sidecars. Um, so you get different classes, it's not like um you know there's just there's just one race, and you need at least a week of practice to get all those different bikes. Most riders will take maybe four bikes a super bike, a superstock, super sport, maybe a super twin. Most of them will have at least three bikes to get set up. And because the weather always plays such a huge part and sessions get delayed and postponed and cancelled, they're always going into race week short of the practice that they would like, you know. So they're always going in a bit behind the behind the eight ball. So you simply need that length of time. Well one, because it's traditional, you know, this is going back to 1907. Although they the setup wasn't quite the same then. Um you you need that time to set the different bikes up. They always run out of time, and then you've got the full kind of week of racing. So a Moto JP or a world superbike is Friday to Sunday. The TT is two or three weeks for the teams. But it is a once a year event. It's almost like you know, in the tennis world, it's like Wimbledon or it's like the the US Open. It's a it's a very special event, and now it's a standalone event. I mean, it was part of the World Championship from 1949 until 1977. So you'd have had you know Kenny Roberts and Valentina Rossi and Mark Marquez and all those boys racing there if that was still the case. So it was a very important event. It was the British round of the World Championship until it moved to Silverstone in 1977 because the TT was deemed to be too dangerous. So it's very much uh a standalone event now, and always was. And yeah, there have been complaints that it takes too long, it costs too much money to be there for so long, because it's a big commitment from teams and riders and and everyone involved. But it is what it is. It's it's the oldest motorsport event, continuous motorsport event, or motorcycling event in the world. And uh, you know, how how dare we mess with the formula after so much history? It's kind of and it's needed. You couldn't just have two days of practice and then go race. It would just be too dangerous. It's a good segue into the next question. Experience is so central to the success of the TT that careers

Experience Careers And Newcomer Tools

55:48

there tend to be uniquely long in motorcycle racing. Why is that? And what does a typical path of progression look like for a young racer hoping to make it into the start line? Or maybe a better way to word this question is to say, what does it take to compete in the senior TT? You're right. Careers are longer there. John McGinnis is 54 now, I believe. He's still got a factory Honda. He was at the Northwest 200 just a couple of weeks ago and was was well within the top 10. Um, and experience is everything because uh on one lap of the Alaman TT course, that's 37 and three-quarter miles, there's over 300 corners. There's so many corners, a lot of them don't even have names yet. So obviously, uh an experience with weather conditions is massive. If you know um under certain parts where there's trees, it's gonna still be damp while the rest of the course is wet. You're gonna know where the crosswinds are when you're up on the mountain side of the course. So the experience is far more important at the TC than it is, say, in Moto GPU or Wolso bikes, short circuit racing. It counts for an awful lot. But younger riders today have such a huge advantage because until the what 1990s, there was no onboard 1980s. There was no onboard video laps to learn from. There wasn't the TT PlayStation game, which is so accurate that riders really use that as a training tool. There's now a fantastic newcomers programme where the uh TT organisers bring newcomers over, um have them go out with experienced rider liaison officers, um, John Barton, Milky Quill, take them around in cars and uh and little buses, and you know, really, really, really prep them in a way that wasn't possible 30 years ago. I mean, when Joey Delotte first went, he had no idea which way the course went, and he came to Balakreen Corn and didn't know whether to go right, left, or straight ahead. It was it was really primitive. Um, but the organisers have really you know up their game in that front, and new guys can now go and lap scarily close to the to the top guys. Glenn Irwin, I think, is still the fastest newcomer in history. That was two years ago, and he was on, you know, he was averaging above 130 miles an hour straight away, which was unthinkable 20 years ago, because the learning tools have become so much more readily available and sophisticated. So I uh I knew a successful superbike racer going there now can can really hope to get a good result. It used to they always say for decades it was you'd have to go for three years before you could think about really being competitive, and that put a lot of riders off because that's a big commitment. You know, it's like I say, three weeks each year for three years without any hope of success. Now you can be looking at where I mean Storm Stacy, a top British superbike rider, has just gone to the Northwest 200 a couple of weeks ago and and won two races with an orange novice rib on clocked at 212 miles an hour. It's it's insane. There's a far faster learning curve now, let's say, than than there used to be. How does one actually qualify for the TT?

Qualifying For A Mountain Course Licence

58:56

Very good question. Uh you do need a special mountain, it's called a mountain course license. So you need to get, I believe, unless it's changed recently, you need to get six signatures from six different race meetings that you've done ahead of the TT to kind of prove you're up to you're up to speed and you've got some experience at least. But in recent years, and I think it's been a very good move, they tried to get rid of what they called holiday races, which were I mean, sometimes you'd have way more than a hundred guys in in one race at the TT. And the the discrepancy between the speed of the top guys and the the bottom guys was was massive. It was dangerous, basically. So they've cut the qualifying times down to a far tighter percentage so that people um, you know, you really do need to be fast to to get an entry now. But yeah, in essence, you need to get six signatures from six different race meetings before you will get your mountain course license. Why are you thinking about doing it? I'm thinking I might enter Aaron. You've met a lot of people, you've written books about some of the most amazing writers at the TT.

Heroes Women Racers And Regular Jobs

1:00:02

Are there any in particular who stand out as your heroes? Yeah, Joey Delop and Steve Hislop. Steve in particular, because he was from uh Scotland where I'm from, and I wrote his biography with him. So you become very close to someone when you know, even his own mother he hadn't had those conversations with. You know, you you who sits down and tells a mother the whole life story? Nobody. So when Steve was killed in a helicopter in 2003, I remember his mum asking me loads of questions. What, you know, what did he think about this? What did he think about that? And you realise, bloody hell, what a position I'm in. That his own mother's asking me stuff about him. So you become very close to, and I was so so proud of knowing him because I'd been such a fan. And the book had only been released for a month when when he was killed. So that was ug. Yeah, that was horrible. Joey Dunlop was the guy when I went to my first race, the Ulster Grand Prix in 1983. Which time the troubles in Northern Ireland were massive. So we're getting stopped at roadblocks by tanks, and soldiers were coming on the bus with with guns and checking under the seats, and it was fucking but as a 13-year-old kid, I just thought I thought that was fantastic fun. So Joey was doing the winning when I was at my first ever race, so I just latched onto him like any kind of you know young kid would do. And then over the years, as he proved himself, you know, he was it was quite early doors for him then, and then all the things he did over the decades, you know, to become the most loved road racer of all time. And the fact that I got to go to his house and drink beers with him and his dad and stuff. Um, yeah, I mean, listen, everyone who has ever set off uh from Glencrutchie Road to go down Bray Hill to start a TT has my nothing but my full respect. But you do latch on to certain people that um you either just kind of hero worship or you know personally, you've met personally, you've got an autograph, or you've had a beer with them, and and then you follow them, you know, for the rest of their careers, really. And then over so many years, you build up so many that I'm now like, well, I don't care who wins, I just want everybody to be safe. Just get, you know, come back in one piece. I mean, the best man win. I don't, you know, I don't cheer for a favorite. I just want them all to have a fun race, a fast race, and and get back in one piece. You mentioned some history of the TT. So I'd like to go back to back in a time when women were historically banned from the TT and the first female participants competed actually in a sidecar. It was a bit of a the name got in without being recognized because there was no recognition, there was no particular rule that said women couldn't be in a passenger in a sidecar. And and then this woman got in. Yeah, I think that was Ingus Doll. Was she the first lady in the in a passenger in a sidecar? And and you're right, the that it was a way kind of around the rules. The the rulemakers obviously um were sexist but not intelligent enough to fully see it through. They're like, oh, god damn it, she gotta the famous Beryl Swain rode uh 50cc in about 1967, I might be wrong there. Uh and then they brought the the curtains down and said, right, that's it. Because and there are quotes, there are quotes available where someone had said one of the FIM or the ACU, the autocycle union, said, Oh, we can't have ladies being we can't have ladies being killed racing motorcycles, that would look terrible on the old days. So there was this really Victorian attitude that it was okay for blokes to get killed, but they couldn't handle the publicity if uh if a lady was killed. So that lasted until about 1978, I think, and then Hilary Musson, I I could be wrong here, but I think I'm right. Hilary Musson um became the next lady to race, and obviously since then uh women have been allowed to race. And Maria Costello's done great stuff uh at the TT, and uh Jenny Timmith is became the fastest woman at the TT. She lapped at an average speed of 120 miles an hour in 2011, but she only did it for two years because again the financial support wasn't there, it was you know it was costing her money. This is the other thing people don't realise. It costs most TT races a lot of money to compete. The top guys might earn quite a bit in prize money and sponsorship money, but the vast majority of the field are you know remortgaging the houses and taking on extra jobs and selling everything they've got on eBay to just to do it. And that's the that's the passion for it that I love so much as well. They're not interested in money. When something's that dangerous, money cannot be the motivator. The motivation needs to come from somewhere far deeper than money, and it does. It comes from, you know, most of this guy, most of the field know they can't win. But if they can go one mile an hour faster than they did last year, if they can get a top 20 finish, if they can achieve their personal goals, then everything's been everything's been worth it. And and that's what makes it such a pure sporting event for me. This, you know, the Formula One money, the premiership football money, it's it's insane. It's insane. It's got completely out of control, in my opinion. The TT racists don't do it for that. They do it for personal gain, personal pride, personal, you know, just passion. One of the things that you wrote about in The Ragged Edge was a they said there I think the chapter was called The Regular People. That they're like the normal blokes. And there was one that really stuck out for me that was quite cool is this this this guy came in and he said, Oh, and he was he was where he came into a into a garage. You know the story I'm talking about? Cameron Donald in the screen. Can you tell that one? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so Cameron Donald to to us TT fans, a huge name, double TT win. Out, you know, one of the fastest guys out there, but back home in Australia, he just worked, uh, he helped out in his mate's bike shop. Uh, and I remember interviewing him from here in the UK, and he was in Australia, and I said, you know, how how famous is the TT in Australia? Do you ever get recognised? And he went, Well, you know, happen sometimes, mate. Um basically, someone had come in to buy a TT DVD in the bike shop. And I mean, Cameron's too modest, he would never have said that's me on the cover, but someone in the shop, I think, pointed it out, and the people were just absolutely gobsmacked that this TT double TT winner was working in the local bike shop and got him to sign the DVD. But there are such I mean, there's loads. There's been an airline um pilot, there's every every kind of person you can think of. Because most people look at the CT or road racing in general and think, oh, they've got to be crazy, they've got to be mad. Well, every rider will tell you if you were crazy, you'd be dead within five minutes. You the furthest thing from crazy you can get, they're absolutely metronomic and calm and measured. You have to be you like a fighter pilot, you can't you can't be fucking about or crazy at that speed and hope to live. But they come from all walks of life, you know, educated, uneducated, professional, non-professional, just there's such a mix of characters, and yet they all have to exhibit the same levels of courage and determination and grit, whether that's finishing the first or 30th. Um so that yeah, they come from they come from all walks of life, and and most of them work regular jobs um when they're not being road racers. So you can call for a plumber and he can come around to your house and it's like a TT winner. If you're a bike fan, you know most people would know, but if you're a bike fan, yeah, you don't get that in Formula One, do you? You wouldn't Let's talk a moment about

Danger The Buzz And Coming Back

1:07:59

the dangers. Now, every question that you've answered, out all the conversations that we've had here, you there's been something that's been it's been touched in there. What I'd like to ask you is Isle of Man T T is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous races on the planet. Yet a common threat amongst the competitors you've interviewed is that no other course in the world delivers the same buzz, just as you mentioned a moment ago. In Win, Lose, or Die, you quote Ryan Vaccarra is saying, I would just get bored if I race short circuit all the time. And when you factor in that, as you said a moment ago, their prize money is relatively modest when you compare it to Moto GP and other uh races. People keep coming back year after year. Why does it happen? Well, I think you've kind of answered that with the question. Ryan Farker um said that going around a two-mile short circuit, a flat cir short circuit with kind of no bumps, no danger, no some riders just find that boring. There's there's a few um particularly Irish riders. Michael Delope's a pretty good example, the current um you know, the the greatest, most successful TT racer of all time with 33 wins. Ryan Farker focused mainly on the roads rather than short circuits too, because they are just more I and Jeff Duke, um really the first star of Moto GP, so he was world champion six times in the early 1950s. Uh and I was fortunate enough to interview him in his house, in his little moccasins, round the fire. I mean, this all-time legend of Moto GP, the daddy of them all. And I asked him if he still followed Moto GP racing, and he said, Well, I kind of now and again, but the circuits have all become the same to me. It just hasn't got the appeal when you had the old road circuits like the Neuburg Ring in Germany and Spa Franco Schaum in Belgium and TT, obviously. It's almost I I almost equate it to the difference between Formula One and Rally car driving or um short circuit racing and pirate car adventure stuff. Uh the the real roads, they've got real bumps, they got real undulations, they've got hedges, they've got Joe Dunlop said he used to love being in amongst the the trees and the walls. He he he felt he had more reference points than you have on a big wide open um purpose-built circuit. And the sensation of speed is so much, so much greater. And this is this is the thing that keeps coming back, the writers keep telling me, is the the sheer sensation of speed, if you've got reference points dangerously close to you, like brick walls, houses, and uh bankings and trees and whatever, pure and simple, they just get more of a thrill out of it. Um uh David David Todd, who is one of the current real top guys at the TT, they will also always say that on on the start line at Lane Crotchy Road, that's the most nervous they get in their entire year, in their entire career. Because you you you don't know who's coming back, who's not. He said on a short circuit when I go back from the TT to not kill uh or or any of the British circuits, short circuits, he said I could fall asleep on the grid, but I don't care. I don't consider myself to be in any danger at all. I could snooze on the fuel tank of my motorcycle waiting for the race to start, no problem. He said that you know at the TT every nerve end is jangling, everything you've got is but as soon as they go, they're fine. It's that it's that weight to go, it's that way to and let's not forget, more than well, it's hard to say how many riders have lost their life on that course because you can have had an accident on the TT course and die four months later from complications or whatever. It's widely considered to be above 260 between 260 and 300 riders have lost their lives on that course. So the fears are real, um and the dangers are you know, there's no point hiding this, they are far, far greater than they are on any short circuit. That's kinda why I wanted to highlight that and speak to people about this because I felt I just feel less been brushed under the carpet too much for too long. The dangers they face. Continuing with the same theme of the dangers, the most frequently cited tally puts the number of riders who have perished on the course across both TT and the Manx GP at 265 since the first race in 1907. Attempts on Mount Everest and Igor's North Face have claimed around 260 lives since 1922, a shorter time span by 15 years. Yet there are no serious calls to ban mountaineering as there are bans to call and to cancel the TT. If you could speak to those individuals right now who are calling for the ban of the TT, what would you say to them? Well,

Should The TT Be Banned

1:12:48

I'd say right now, those individuals are almost never involved with the sport. The amount of loss that has happened with the TT and other road races has been huge. There's no denying that. I'm not aware of a single family member who has ever turned their back on the sport or blamed the sport or been bitter about the sport because they knew how much their loved one got out of it. You know, major mainstream media never is interested in the TT, never covers it until someone gets killed, and then they they love it, you know, it's all over the back page. They're just looking for that death tally for that for that drama. Um and you know, as I said, if you if you want to ban road racing, then what's next? You you ban mountaineering, you ban horse riding, you ban I mean angling. Okay, a lot more people fish than than race at the TC, but the deaths from that are uh ridiculously high. So you you've got to ask yourself whether human beings uh should be allowed to pursue their own dreams and do uh you know do what they want. It's not I don't think it's for other people to tell them what risk level they should accept. TT racers obviously uh have a higher level of um risk acceptance than than most of us, uh but then as you say, so so do mountaineers, uh so do people in many other dangerous sports and pursuits. Uh I just think it's it's not for other people to decide. You know, if you if you don't want to do it, fine, don't do it. If you don't want to watch it, fine, don't watch it. But it's none of your business. These guys live for it. The injuries they come back from, the stuff they go through to get back on that start line at the TT is beyond belief. I mean, really beyond belief. They're not like normal human beings. So how dare someone with no interest in the sport tell them they shouldn't be doing it? It's just absolute fucking bullshit. So,

First Time TT Tips And Best Spots

1:14:44

looking ahead, can you give some advice to those who might be interested in going to see the TT for the first time, such as well, any local knowledge you could share. Yeah, I mean, even the riders will tell you because the TT happens a year apart and there's nothing like it in between. If you stand at the bottom of Bray Hill in the first the opening night of practice, even if you've seen that a hundred times, you suck in breath, it takes your breath away. Now, during race week, that that part of the course gets very, very busy for spectators. But if you can manage to be there for early practice week, that would be my top tip. Go early practice week because it's much quieter and you can get into really good spectator areas. And I guarantee if you see that first bike coming through the bottom of Bray Hill, which is a really steep hill, uh and the bike suspension bottoms out and scrapes the floor about 180-190 miles an hour next to a curb and a wall, and then they come up over the top and wheelie. I mean, it literally that's where they took Valentino Rossi to watch his first TT. It is it's like no other sight in sport. But the other big top tip I would do a lot of the popular spots, Craig Nabar, and they've got like fan zones at Hilbury and stuff. If you can be bothered to walk, if you get yourself to Craig Nabar um and walk up the hill over the moorland to uh Kitts Cottage, Keppelgate, the 33rd milestone, if you've got it in you to keep walking. I mean, I'm talking about an hour's walk over pretty rough terrain, but that means you have got nothing, nobody in sight, but hills, a few sheep, and then you'll see the bikes for miles and you'll hear them for miles as they come towards you. You know, not another human being in sight. It's just absolutely unique in world motorsport to see something like that. And I mean it's free. You don't okay, get getting there costs money, but there's no ticket price to watch the TT or any road racing. It's it's it's the world's greatest free show. But if you're prepared to make the effort, or if you've got a dirt bike and can maybe get up there another way, but even if you're just walking, if you're prepared to make the effort, get away from the numbers, get away from the crowds, and walk up to the 33rd milestone. So get to Kraignabar, walk up the hill, put the effort in, and you will be rewarded. I mean, I had a friend the last time I was there who was had just done tours of Iraq and Afghanistan, and he was threatening to shoot me on the way up the hill because it was just like absolutely it was quite hard work. But you can take your time. But he forgave me when he saw the first bike through because I can't well, there is nowhere else in world motorsport where you get it all to yourself, all the top guys, uh you know, and nothing but beautiful scenery and silence, and then these 200 mile an hour missiles with the TV helicopter camera chasing them. So you got the the beat of the rotor blades just making it feel like a James Bond movie or a war zone. It's just the contrast between the silence of the Manx Hillside uh and the violence of the helicopter and the race bikes when they can pass is just yeah, I get I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it. I want to go back. I'm getting goosebumps just listening. And I think that's an amazing note to close on. I would say, Stuart, thank you very much for spending time with us. Thank you so much for making all the effort to come, guys, in your um Uber taxi.

Support The Pod And Back We Go

1:21:22

Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and hornifying news story. And I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen. Cannonballer! Hey Cannonballers, thanks for subscribing to our podcast. We appreciate it. If you're not a cheap Canadian and want to buy us a coffee, head on over to buymeacoffee.com. Or better yet, buy us a case of sweet ass craft IPA. We'll list it on patreon.com. Links are in the show notes. Now, back to the riveting podcast in progress. And we're back. That was fucking electric. That was fantastic. Ah, electric. Aaron, what do you say? We uh cover a little bit of ADV cannibal news. Let's do that.

Rally App Navigation And GPX Reality

1:22:18

So, first let's talk about last week's episode. It was a round table that Carrie did. Thanks very much for doing that. And a couple of guys mentioned the Rever app. And I just wanted to mention that, yes, I heard you. They also have a POI kind of challenge uh feature of their app. And I did try working with Rever for using their app for the rally, and unfortunately, through some testing, it wasn't a hundred percent bulletproof, and we just can't have, you know, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, you know, has to be a 100%. Yeah. And what's funny is that because I'm not working with them, I think we're blacklisted from anything rever. So they also run or involve somehow with the get on ADV or get on it, whatever, ADV fest. Yeah. And I've reached out a bunch of times to try to get a booth as a vendor there, and they never email me back. So I think because we're not using their app, we're we're kind of on the blacklist. So, anyways, that's all good. Yeah, but you know, you're used to this, Aaron. I am. I'm I'm surprised I still have a passport if I'm honest. You better maybe go back and edit that out. Someone's like, hey, we haven't taken his passport yet. We gotta get on that. Yeah, it's all good. Um, and also I just want to mention the really, really easy way to do navigation is to use Google Maps and we provide a link. I just want to mention, please download the maps locally before you head off into the sunset for the rally. It's super important because you're gonna end up on a mountain somewhere and try to navigate to the next checkpoint and it's not gonna work. And uh the last note from I have from the last episode is there is a new version of the rally app, and it's a little bit better. And it's based on the feedback from the writers from from last year. Nice. And you've also got people out there testing as well, right? Yeah, there are a bunch of people testing. Speaking of testing, I tested the Stegra app and it works great for off-road. And I actually use Stegra on my computer as a matter of course because they have a feature that lets you see where gates are. So it's really, really smart, powerful for off-roading, and it does a pretty good job of following a GPX. However, I will say, you know, we're not gonna rehash that. I haven't found the perfect solution for following a GPX file. I will say actually, after doing the pre-riding the European 2027 GPX route, I made a bunch of adjustments. The start of the GPX route is about half a mile away from the hotel. I found that was a glitchy thing for some of these apps. I also found a few mistakes in the GPX route, and I've improved, I saw a few opportunities

Extreme Checkpoints And Self Rescue

1:25:22

that I could make it a little more special. So I'm constantly improving the GPX routes. Just a note to the writers, I heard the guys talking about getting extreme checkpoints. They were talking about it in a like a laissez-faire kind of way. There are actual off-road extreme checkpoints starting in 2026 in the Americas rally. So don't be casual about saying I'm just gonna get the extreme checkpoints. It's life-threatening. If you are thinking if you're gonna go after dark in Moab and just go crush an extreme off-road checkpoint, you may not come back. Expect self-rescue is kind of the motto here, right? Yeah, no one's coming to help you and you could die. So, you know, I I understand that it's cool to say you got all the off-road checkpoints, extreme checkpoints, but please don't just go and do it, you know, on a whim. Be prepared in a major way. And potentially go with a buddy. Yeah, could do all the things, yeah. Do all do all the things right. And just to be clear to all the listeners out there, we're not trying to make this, you know, like the TT is the most dangerous motorcycle race in the world. This is not, Aaron's not setting this up to be the most dangerous rally in the world, just to be clear. No, absolutely not. I don't want to have you know people die. It's funny. I was watching a documentary, a really bad documentary about the Hoka He rally, and they're kind of making it like a badge of honor that at least one person dies every year. I'm like, not good, not good, guys. You know, I understand this may be good for PR, but it's not that important to me. So, um, anyways, if you're gonna get extreme off-road checkpoints, please be prepared. Have some survival equipment, have GPS, you know, beacons, have have all the things, you know what I mean? Have fuel, have water, have food, have shelter, have a plan, have a buddy, you know, have all the things, right? And based on the uh, I guess it was the second round table. If you're going to get off the bike to go get a checkpoint, take water with you. Yeah. And take your big red button. Yeah. So I don't like having checkpoints that you have to get off your bike. In that particular case, it was because there was the government shutdown and they were gluttons for punishment and badass heroes, and thought that they would go get that checkpoint. But uh, anyways, I want to thank uh Josh Skidmore. He was out running some checkpoints with the Rally app for 2026, and he found that I had missed a checkpoint in the Rally app. So that happens sometimes. So thank you so much. For Josh for doing that. And again, if anyone is out riding any of our routes and they would like to test the rally app for us, just reach out to me and I will issue you a temporary token to do so. And we can see that it actually pays off. I'm only human. And uh with everyone's help, we can make sure that those uh mistakes don't happen. As a matter of fact, there was a mistake last year that no one crucified me for, which was really nice, is that I had to change a finish line hotel. There wasn't enough rooms or something, but I had left the checkpoint at the old hotel and I didn't catch it. So people had to go to the finish line checkpoint per navigation. And then when they got there, they're like, oh, this is not the right Hilton. And they had to go find the the actual rally hotel. So yeah, I do make mistakes once in a while, but with everyone's help and more of a community-focused proofreading, as it were, there'll be less of those mistakes. So thanks for everyone

Community Tattoo Tales And Banquet Chaos

1:29:00

who helps. Yeah, I didn't I didn't hear about that. I could have sworn that we'd have heard about that before. No, I think what happened was because we have every rally has an informal WhatsApp chat, and whoever figured it out first broadcasted it on the WhatsApp chat, and everyone just adjusted course from there. So yeah, nice. The chat is amazing. And what's really cool is that the chat is still happening, it's happening all the time, and people are still meeting each other and they're traveling and and they're um yeah, they're they're meeting up around the country and doing motorcycle events. It's it's it's it's been it's a really nice community that you've built here. Yeah, and you know what we never talked about. Did we talk about the fact that Captain Chaos got an ADV cannonball tattoo? Not on not on the air. So this wing nut hero legend got you know, I have a I have a sticker, which is a badass. So he's an ass, he's a donkey, right? And our motto is don't be an ADV weenie, be a badass. And the cartoon is a badass donkey eating a weenie in ADV weenie, right? So this wing nut got this huge tattoo, full color tattoo of the cartoon eating the weenie. And I'm like, you are you're either insane or a hero. And then the jury's still out. The jury's still out, yeah. And it was um, and in the bottom of it, it said chaos. Did it? I didn't see that. That's the chaos, chaos, yeah. And he's coming back this year as the Stig. So I'm looking forward to the shenanigans around that. Oh, that should be a lot of fun. Yeah, he and at the awards banquet last year he came out and he was he was dressed with uh like a hood and a cape. It was fantastic. It was dun-dun dun. All right. Um remember we had Fatal Attraction there? Oh my god, that woman was fantastic. Oh my god. This is a lady who was from downstairs and she was like, We're like, what are you guys, what are you guys doing up here? We're like, well, we're setting up for a uh an awards banquet. She's like, I like awards banker. Like, what bet you do? She was like standing in the door and like staring at you. And then you invited her in and started giving her drinks. Which was not helpful, just to be clear. It was uh well, I figured that the um if if you're gonna disturb the peace, you may as well invite those in that you're disturbing. Right, right. Oh my god. Fantastic. Anyway, it was a bad idea. Okay, in hindsight, it was a bad idea. But it was entertaining, so all right.

Registration Wait List And New Signups

1:31:35

2027 and 2020, well, both 2027, 2027 Baja and 2027 Europe are both open for registration, and they are not yet sold out. So there is still time to register. Yeah. Okay, so new signups. Let's start with 2026. And I wanted to talk about the wait list and what's what's up with that. So I think I mentioned before that the only reason there's a wait list is because one or two of the hotels are sold out. So I mean, beyond our discount links. So our links are sold out, and the hotel is sold out. So that's the only reason there's a wait list. So, as a matter of fact, at the bottom of this list here, some people have contacted me and go, listen, man, I'll just figure it out. I just want to sign up. And in that case, you're welcome to sign up. You know, I just don't want to get this one star Kevin kind of negative review going on that, well, Aaron let me sign up, but then there was no hotel rooms that were like five-star Hilton hotel rooms. So that's the only reason why it's technically sold out. Not because there's, you know, lack of room for competitors. It's because the hotel rooms are sold out. So some badasses out there are just saying, I'll just figure it out. So, anyways, I wanted to explain why there's a wait list. So if somebody on this wait list says, by the way, I'll just figure it out, they can jump off of it. And that happens all the time. So maybe you can start with uh the list here for us. All right. That said, Tim Walling from Rock Hill, South Carolina on his Harley UltraGlide Limited has joined the wait list. Skittles. Are you kidding? Skittles from Oxford, England on his his 1250 GSA has joined the wait list. Actually, Skittles is the guy, he's a X RAF fighter pilot or something. And he's actually one of the badasses who's like, Yeah, I've slept in the desert. This is easy. So he's figured it out, and I think he's the guy who has joined the rally. So he's off the wait list, actually. Okay, cool. And Skittles was his code name. I was gonna say, was that his call sign when he was in the Air Force? All right, very cool. And uh, and the last one for the 2026 Americas, Steve Leonard from North Conway, New Hampshire on his Triumph Tiger 900 Rally Pro. All right, and the 2027 European Cannonball Rally, the new signups are I just gotta start off by saying Mark Ironman Turner from Jerome, Idaho. Now let's just stop and say he's on a he's on a 1300 GSA. And if you guys recall back to some of our post-2025 rally conversation, we talked about one gentleman who broke his leg two days before the rally, he crashed his at the time brand new or fairly new 1250 GSA, uh, which was then totaled, and he broke his foot, he finished the rally the next two days, and then not and then not only did he finish the rally and hang out for the after the rally events, but then he rode his motorcycle home again. So that's why he has the name Iron Man. Yeah, he's written off motorcycle, by the way. And then he got a brand new one and then signed up for 2026, and now he's signed up for 2027 in Europe. So absolute legend. Fantastic. And is joining on his third ADB Kennable. And then I believe for the US one, he's also bringing his brothers, right? That's right. Team Turner has been assembled. I think there's three of them in in the 2026 rally. So it's really just fantastic. I'm just delighted to have him. Yeah, that'll be nuts. And then here we are for the uh 2027 Europe rally. Todd from Sgt. Texas, USA on his Super Ten Array is also joining us for his third ADB cannibal rally. Yeah, thank you guys. This wouldn't happen. None of this would happen without you guys. Yeah, the continued support is amazing. Um, I actually mentioned that on the uh on the when I was doing the recording yesterday, and uh has uh she does a uh tour called Big Little Rides, and it's a uh an ADV uh tours for women. And uh she talked about the community that she's built within that. And I referenced this and said she said most of her people come back for the next one. And I and I commented here, I think it's more than this now because uh last time we did an actual math on it, it was 40% of people who participated in 2025 signed up for 2026. And now the the numbers continue for 2027. So it's fantastic to see this support in the community. Yeah, no pressure. Don't screw it up, Aaron. Don't screw it up. Don't screw it up, don't screw it up. Don't screw it up. Just keep doing what you're doing. It seems to be a winning, it seems to be a winning uh uh cocktail here. Let's let's just roll with it. And speaking of winning, maybe we should give people a preview or what's coming up in the next few episodes because we have been interviewing all around the world, and there's a bunch of stuff in the can.

Season Preview And Heated Gear Fixes

1:36:31

So maybe you can give us a rundown. All right, here we go. So this is episode that we're currently doing is episode one of season five. So episode two is Carrie's Roundtable with some of the 2026 Rally newcomers. That's gonna be fun. I'm looking forward to that. Episode three is hold on, let me back up for a second. Isn't Jan Thretrick in that one who was in Denmark? Yeah, it's just it was in the can for a while, is all. So we actually met him, and I didn't know he was on the podcast. Anyways, he he's actually a super cool guy. He's uh he's the guy who has a motorcycle stash in the US. He's he's riding all over Europe, he's he's turning into a bit of an ADV cannonball badass. Yeah, I would love that. Episode three is a lap of the TT with an actual TT racer, Spartacus, Marcus Simpson. Uh episode four is an interview with Lois Price from Windsor. Lois Price. She was so bubbly, fun. What a fun, what a fun interview that was. And the studio is super cool there, too. Uh episode five is an interview with famed UK cannonballer Tommy Davies, uh, who was tried in the high court in the UK. By the way, great episode. Super cool guy, also. Yeah. I love the pictures. Uh the pictures are great. His story is intriguing. It's actually going to be one of our best episodes. Yeah, very cool. And other than, of course, episode six, which is going to be uh me interviewing Egg the in the studio. Yeah, I haven't even listened to the recording yet, but I just took a brief sample of the audio to make sure it was good. Uh it sounds great. Fantastic. Okay. So what do you say we um talk about some of these field notes? Before we do that, I just want to say that uh before Stuart's interview, after Stuart's video uh uh interview, there's three original Stuart songs we've played, if I haven't mentioned that. And then the field notes we're about to play is you should skip them. Do not listen to them. Unless you're interested in the 2027 Europe cannonball, there's a lot of great information there. Mainly it's just me looking to decompress and tell tell someone about the great riding that I did that day or complain about how freaking cold I was. That's essentially what the field notes are. But I just want to comment on that. You did solve the cold problem with what? I bought a heated jacket, baby. Fantastic. At 50 years old, I finally figured it out. But let me tell you, after riding at two, three degrees Celsius in the rain for you know 12 hours straight, it is like that is a warm hug that I'm not letting go of, baby. I don't care what anyone says. Yeah, to tell you what, um, when I saw Ben's bike today, the Super Tenor A, there was a thing on his uh he had mounted up by his uh his DMD, and it was a Bluetooth controller with two knobs on it. And I said, What's that for? And he said, That is my heat controller for the for the Bluetooth for my socks, my heated socks, my heated gloves, my heated jacket. And I was like, nice. So he, you know, he's in the UK, so he's riding, it extends his riding season so much. I'm just learning about all this. So the jacket that I have also runs on Bluetooth, and it just has an app on my phone. And everyone knows I have a bunch of phones on my dashboard, right? Yeah, you can install a piece of hardware, or you can just run a little app and adjust the temperature with your app. And in my case, I just run a little app. Yeah, fair enough. Roll the field notes. Adventure, endurance, glory. This isn't just a ride, it's the ultimate test of rider and machine. The ADV Cannonball Rally challenges you to ride from coast to coast, navigating checkpoint to checkpoint by GPS and pushing past your limits. Take on every off-road stage and you'll earn bragging rights and a coveted Rough Rider trophy. Own the twisty tarmac and you'll claim the checkpoint crusher award. Every mile counts, every choice matters. Rack up the points, and your name could be etched forever on the winner's cup. This year the routes are harder, the mileage is longer, the glory is greater. The ADV Cannonball Rally is open for registration. Fortune favors the bolt. Sign up today.

Field Notes UK To Spain By Ferry

1:40:58

A collection of voice notes recorded on location while we're on wildly exciting motorcycle adventures hacked together for your amusement and our public shaming. All right, I am on day four of the European trip. So this is my first field note. So we'll cover days one to four. So this journey started in Victoria, British Columbia. I took the high-speed passenger ferry from Victoria to Seattle, to downtown Seattle, and then I hopped in a Uber to SeaTac Airport. That went really well. It's a good uh few hours on the ferry, but as long as you have some podcasts and whatnot, it's uh it's definitely a great way to travel. Anytime I can avoid, you know, security of an airport and you know, all that, it's just it's just the best way to travel. So trains and ferries are definitely uh something that I will do over flying when time permits, of course. And then speaking of uh the disaster of air flight, when I flew from Seattle to London Heathrow, that flight was consolidated with another one. It was a Virgin Atlantic flight, and what they did was they had two half plane loads full, and because of the fuel shortage, they just combined them. So I didn't have a huge problem with it until I realized that it would put me a late arrival into London. And the second and third order effects was now I couldn't pick up my motorcycle from Kathy at Moto Freight because I would arrive there on a Saturday morning, and she is closed on a Saturday morning, especially closed because it's a long weekend, they call it a bank holiday. So they had Monday off, so everyone was leaving London proper further afield places to get out of the city. So I understood that she couldn't um, you know, make that special accommodation, you know, of course. So believe it or not, Alex from the Bloodbikers, the chairperson of the Blood Bikers, went into the city. He lives in Surrey, he picked up the motorcycle with his truck and his trailer, brought it all the way back to his place, unloaded it, took all the crap that was on it off. He also picked up my tires that were delivered by Midas to Cathy at Moto Freight. Thank you guys. Then he proceeded to make sure it was running, he charged up the battery, he went and rode it to the local gas station and put half a tank of fuel. And it only just dawned on me now how much that half a tank of fuel was. It had to be 20 or 30 pounds. So I, you know, I owe the guy 50 bucks. Anyways, uh, his generosity was uh extraordinary. As we were chatting, as I was loading all my crap onto the bike, uh, I come to find out that his position as chairman for the blood bikers is purely voluntary, and he has a day job as well. So just you know, one of these people that they're he's a motorcyclist and his generosity is just, you know, overwhelming. So let's talk about, yeah. I'm before I left London, I overnighted downtown and I stay at a little hotel called the Byron. It's just a little tiny hotel. They're the smallest little rooms, but I like them because they're right next to the Queensway tube station. It's in a quiet little neighborhood, but you can walk two streets over and there's all the pubs and everything happening on the street. There's great food. The rooms may be tiny, but they have proper climate control. They don't have these, you know, like in America, you have these window or wall-mounted air conditioners when they turn on, it sounds like a Boeing 747 is about to take off. So these rooms are are small, but they're really well, you know, refined. Good lighting, uh, really good climate control, and it's just you know a pleasure to stay there. So uh pro tip there. And then that night I booked a street photography lesson, and I went out and did that, and that was a disaster as usual. Um, let's see. And then on Sunday morning, I realized because I was a day late, I needed to make it to the Plymouth port, the port of Plymouth in the UK, and it was about a four to five hour ride from Surrey, where my bike was at Alex's place, all the way to uh the ferry. Now, the last check-in, I think, was 4 p.m. So I had to really, you know, I couldn't dilly-dally, so I got up early. I had to grab an Uber, a Sunday morning Uber, and you know, it was a hundred pounds sterling to get to the motorcycle. But I had so many bags with me and all that. Another third-order effect of not being able to pick up my bike from Kathy was I have my big Pelican case and I have all this baggage and whatnot. And Alex, again, like a champ, let me leave my bag with him. So now it's kind of turned into this base of operations, and I I feel bad about it. But, you know, just having someone to help out wherever you start a big journey like this from really helps. So I picked up my bike and then I uh I had a coffee with one of our podcast listeners about an hour away from Alex's. That was really cool. He took me for a rip. We went to Stonehenge. Uh, so Casey was a champ. It was it's really great just to link up with someone that is a listener or attach to the rally and just have them take you for a rip because I just would have gone on, you know, whatever route the lady in the box said. So this guy knew, you know, the cool roads to ride, uh, so on and so forth. So thank you for that. And then I finally made it to the ferry. I'll give you a couple of pro tips here. When you're getting on a ferry in Europe, make sure that you have your passport in your jacket. I usually keep my passport in a three mil Ziploc bag in my chest pocket and my motorcycle jacket whenever I ride, just in case, you know, if the bike gets lost, I have, you know, my passport and my phone, right? Especially important when there's the big lineup into these ferry ports, these cruise ports, and you just keep the line moving. You don't want to be that guy who is obviously new to this and you know doesn't know the rhythm of that. Remember that in Europe, they usually want you to go to the front of the line. There's usually a special line for motorcyclists. They just want you out of the way. And especially on this ferry from Portsmouth to Santander, Santander, Spain, uh, it's the port just south of Bilbao. They have a whole car deck just for motorcycles. You know, I realize in America and Canada, if you cut the line, people want to crucify you. Uh they think that you're getting one up over them. In in Europe, they just want you out of the damn way. In this case, it really bears out because they want you out of the way because you're going to another deck, anyways. So it was really fascinating that once I went down to this lower deck, there had to be 200 motorcyclists that were down there. The whole car deck was full of motorcyclists. And on this particular ferry, the crew handle securing your bike. So uh they will direct you specifically to a spot where they want you to be, and they will put you between two uh flush mount deck guys that they will put a giant ratchet strap over your seat with a vinyl pillow between that strap and the seat, and they will strap your bike down to the deck. And uh that takes a lot of the um headache out of the whole, the whole uh pressure of you know how to properly put your bike somewhere in a ferry. There are some ferries like the ferries from Dover to um Calais that you have to place your bike in the right spot and you have to ratchet strap your bike down. So don't be that guy who doesn't know how to operate a ratchet strap. Uh if you're taking that particular ferry, you have to secure your own bike. But, anyways, on this ferry uh from Plymouth to uh Santander, they will handle it. And simply because there are just so many bikes, it was really amazing to see the broad range of bikes, sport bikes to you know, ton of GSs to, you know, you name it, and a broad group of people. There's always the 75% of the guys are, you know, fat guys that are over 65, because you know, we're the only people that can afford to do this. But it was cool to see some young people, some sport bikes, and uh the culture into Spain from the UK is definitely where everyone goes to ride. And my take on it is is because it's So repressive in the UK. There are speed cameras everywhere, and there are average speed cameras everywhere. So when you enter this a particular section of road, they will grab your license plate number and the time. And then when you leave that road at the exit gate, they will take that same information and then calculate if your average speed was over the limit. And if you have a UK plate, you're going to get a ticket in the mail. So they also have sound cameras, which, if your exhaust is over a certain DB, it will take a picture and then they'll send you a ticket in the mail. I was also just listening to a podcast of other types of cameras, and I think they have a system where you can tattletail on people if you have dash cams. So people are getting tickets in the mail for other offenses, like uh pass uh inappropriate passing or too close to a cyclist or uh you know not parking correctly. They have in Central Ledge London, they have cameras in parking areas that if if you are not parked correctly, you're gonna get a ticket in the mail. It is a surveillance state run amuck. And that's why at home and in the US, if you know there's this proliferation of flock cameras and so on and so forth, and that's why I'm against it, because you're gonna end up like the UK. And coming back full circle, I think that's why there's such a culture of UK motorcyclists heading to Spain and Portugal on this ferry, because they just want to get under the thumb of Big Brother. So beware. Uh, we don't want uh other places in the world to turn into the surveillance state that the UK has become. So I'm on the ferry now. We're about uh an hour away from the port in Spain. I'm told that the motorcycles leave last, which is fine with me because I have so much crap to bring to the motorcycle. I'm gonna do it in two trips. I want to fix my helmet, it needs a bit of adjustment. Uh, it's my five, six, seven-year-old Tour Tech Carbon helmet, and I just need to make some adjustments on it. And my tools are in my motorcycle, but once the ferry gets going, the car decks are locked. So, pro tip: make sure you have everything that you need for your whole 24-hour ferry ride because you're not getting it once the uh ferry gets underway. Plus, I also want to go down there and hand out podcasting stickers to every single biker, whether they like it or not. So I will be that annoying guy. Uh about the ferry, there's not much to do, but you know, go to the go to the pub and and have seven euro pints of dubious beer uh with the rest of the motorcyclists and hang out. There was a magic show. There was uh a band that was, you know, was great. And uh that's about it. I'm about uh hour or two from the port. I'm gonna hop back on the bike, I'm gonna clear customs, and today I have a four-hour ride-ish. Uh it is Sunday, so that's good. A four-hour ride to a campsite in the um in the mountains in Spain. So I will um I will report back then. So thanks for listening. That was day one to four of ramblings. I mean field notes, and uh I hope someone found that interesting. May 4th, 9 p.m. I'm in the mountains in Spain on my way to Portugal, and thank goodness, as I pulled in here to the campsite, not only was it a campsite, it was also a hotel. And it was 50 euros for a hotel room and 20 euros for a campsite, and it is seven degrees Celsius outside. And in the mountain pass I just came through, it was like two or three degrees Celsius. I stopped in a tunnel in the rain and I put long johns on and three layers. I put all the layers of clothes on underneath my equipment, and thank goodness it was absolutely freezing. Uh, Fernando, the owner and proprietor of this little campsite and hotel, made me the best chickpea soup I have ever had in my life. And thank goodness my wife isn't listening because she also makes chickpea soup. And we had a couple of glasses of wine. He has a bandit 650 uh underneath the the veranda on the aft deck of the hotel, and he's got stacks and stacks of motorcycle books in the restaurant. So this is exactly the kind of place that you can feel welcome. It's called Olympia Camping. It's halfway between Portugal and the port in Spain. So this morning, when the boat pulls in, if you are on deck two with all the motorcycles, you will not be getting in or on your motorcycle until 45 minutes after the rest of the boat has left. And then it's mayhem. No one can get at their motorcycles, no one can get out, people are dropping motorcycles. Uh, it's it's pure pure mayhem, but the best kind of mayhem. And a pro tip is if you're getting on this ferry, it pays to get on later. So if you come into Plymouth, I suggest grabbing a coffee or a beer and then getting here just before last check-in. There is no helping you to get here early in Plymouth because you will be first in the holding area and absolutely the last out. And it's just uncomfortable. It's hot, all the motorcycles are on top of each other, people are starting their bikes and idling them. It's an enclosed area. Anyways, thank goodness I got in one of the last few bikes because I was one of the first off. Anyways, lesson learned. And hopefully I can pass that information off to you. So, another word to the wise is if it's early, early May, uh, through the mountain passages, it is possible to have snow. Lesson learned. Thank goodness there's a hotel here. So let's hope that this good luck streak, which is atypical for me, continues. And uh tomorrow I'm heading down to Portugal. One of our listeners is uh taking me in like a bum off the street, and we're gonna take my wheels off. I've got two uh Midas tires strapped to the side of the bike, and we're gonna take off those off-road tires that are squared off and worn out and put on some street tires. I just also want to say that I saw a post from A. W. Miller, and he's the voice actor that uh voiced the audiobook, Chasing Legends, and uh he just posted something that was really uh kind and uh unexpected. So thank you to him. And yeah, that's day four. We're done, we're cold. Uh, I'm gonna leave here at 10 a.m. So I'm not leaving with ice on the road, I hope. So it's just a highway slab day, and uh the speed limit's 120 kilometers an hour. There's very few speed cameras. Um, as you get close to Madrid, obviously be careful with the speed. But other than that, just you know, you can't do more than 120, 140 kilometers an hour all day, anyways. Otherwise, you're just gonna rattle your head to pieces. So it's fine with me. Okay, next time you hear from me, it will be in Portugal at Miguel's place. And think, and hopefully my tires will be changed, my oil will be changed, my gear oil will be changed, and we're ready to rock and roll for the rest of this journey.

Portugal Garage Service To Tarifa Start

1:57:53

It's the beginning of day six, it's May 6th. Just about ready to leave here in Portugal, and uh Miguel, my host, is gonna tell us a little bit about where we are. Whereabouts are we in Portugal? Uh we are uh in Torjved, near Turj Vedris, at a very small village called Aldeia Nova, and it's located about 50 kilometers north of Lisbon. And I'm gonna go to Tarifa today. So taking this coastal route, uh, how long will that take me and what will I see? You will take about seven hours if you don't stop. Uh with fuel stops, maybe seven hours and thirty minutes. Because you're gonna take the the fastest way, uh, you will not see much. But you're gonna go way down south to the southernmost part of Portugal, which is the Algarve. Then you're gonna turn uh uh east on the east heading towards Spain. And one nice thing that you're gonna see is the river. You're gonna go over the river that separates Portugal from Spain. Awesome. And we've just been did a full service in your garage. Thanks so much for the hospitality and uh the space and the oil. And we changed my tires, we did an oil change, we did a gear oil change. Wow, we never got to the spark plugs, but the bike is ready to go for another four or five thousand miles. You know, I see a great big Harley bagger there, but I also see uh a GS, I see a teneray, I see a KTM, and maybe you can tell us about the transition you made from uh street bikes to uh ADV riding. Well, that would be a long story. You know, I don't think you have the time, but yes, I've been in motorcycles for a long time, but street bikes, like you said, and uh because um I I used to fly the line uh for the TAP, the airline of Portugal, and um they took my medical certificate away because of an illness. And in hospital, um I just became aware of adventure riding. Yeah, I had no idea, you know. And because I stopped flying, the natural thing was to go back to motorcycles, and indeed, I um I became very curious and uh nowadays addicted to adventure riding. And so the the motorcycle the motorcycles there, although I don't have time to write all of them, but it feels nice to have them in the garage. There are worse things to do in your retirement uh than have a motorcycle habit. Again, thank you so much for your hospitality and uh and I'm off, I'm off to Tarifa. Yes, have a good journey, safe one, it's always good, and uh it's gonna be a smooth riding. Uh all very nice and easy roads down there. All right, May the 6th, sixth day of this adventure in the evening. I just rode about six hours into Tarifa from Portugal, from Miguel's place. And uh I just wanted to again mention how great of a host Miguel and his wife was to put up with me and working on the bike and driving me around with tires and wheels and you know, dealing with that and being a good host, and you know, just goes to show people on motorcycles really are the best of us. Today's ride started off really boring. It was uh highways and toll roads and and all that. The last hour into Tarifa, it's the road that takes you to Malaga. Starting to get a feeling of what tomorrow will bring. Um, the road was fantastic, a little two-lane road. The speed limits are low. And I saw a couple of cops. They're in the you know, civilian police enforcement trucks. They're green and gray or something like this, so they're they're quite obvious. But so hopefully we don't see too too much of that. But rolling into Tarifa, this is a fantastic place. This is a kite surfing surfer town. There are RVs everywhere, there are campers, rental campers everywhere, people you know, boondocking on the streets. There are uh kite surfers everywhere. There's young people, there's a you know, uh a vibrance of youth and vitality here. People are partying. The hotel we chose is fantastic. The welcome I've received from the management to show me around, show me what they're gonna do is being above and beyond anywhere else in Europe. So I'm so pleased with that. We've got a rooftop bar we're gonna use for a welcome reception for all the riders in 27. I went walking down the beach, I found the beach bars like a Cafe del Mar kind of feel. That was really cool. And then I went down to uh 20-minute walk into the old town over by the castle, did some tapas, had a place called Lola. That was really cool. And then uh I've come back to the hotel. But yeah, the hotel is great, the venue is fantastic, the start is going to be fantastic. They're gonna give us the road right in front of the hotel. We can do whatever we want. They gave us a spot to do um rally check-in registration for the riders. It's just being fantastic. Both hotels uh they have a uh a sister hotel across the street, and both hotels have secure parking. It's well lit. You use your room key to get into the underground parking. It's literally everything that you're looking for in a rally hotel. Tomorrow morning, it's it's a lot of riding. It's along the coast, and then we go up this hill climb. It's a mountain climb, and there is an annual hill climb race. The road is so twisty and windy, and such a climb that they have a race up this uh particular section, and the rally route goes through there. Um, I guess we all have the same idea that this looks interesting and amazing, but it is gonna be a long day tomorrow. It's gonna be a proper cannonball day, and uh I'm looking forward to it. So the days when I start off on the coast, you do the hill climb. There's plenty of off-road opportunities for those who want to do it. I won't be doing it because I'm on the GS and I have some street tires on it, and I in I just don't have the time. It's gonna be an eight-hour day just on the backbone. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to riding tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to the event to see who can get the off-road checkpoints, who is gonna get all the on-road checkpoints. Uh, it's gonna be quite the event. So, okay, I'm gonna hit the hay. Today's the sixth day, and uh technically day zero. And tomorrow technically is uh day one of riding the rally route. So looking forward to it. Okay, it's midday on May the 7th, which is the seventh day of this big

Spain Climbs And Andorra Switchbacks

2:04:49

trip. But more confusingly, it's officially day one of riding the 2027 European rally route. And boy, I tell ya, the morning started off fantastic. Going through some sweeping hills out of Tarifa on the coast, and then that coastal you know, highway all of a sudden makes a left, and we go inland and do an incredible hill climb, single-lane roads just littered with debris and falling rock, and just paved and wonderful, and just amazing views, and just exhausting. So, this is not a place to push it too much because there's no point. You're gonna be exhausted for the rest of the day, and you got hundreds and hundreds of miles to go. So, right now I'm standing at an amazing checkpoint. It's the Rhonda checkpoint. It's uh a little bit difficult to get to. It's a cobblestone road. You really got to follow the GPX route, it's worth it. There's uh some amazing roundabouts, and the payoff is a view of the famous bridge, and uh it's definitely worth it. But it's getting hot, the midday sun is high in the sky, and uh yeah, I'm finished practicing my trail braking in the in the mountains. I'm gonna let my brakes cool down and uh I'm gonna get back on the road. And just like an ADV ride, we had single-lane mountain roads, cobblestone roads, and now once I get out of Rhonda, we have some highway just to crush some miles. And I'm looking forward to uh to the end of the day. There's a bit of a payoff at the end of the day as well, and there's some hanging houses in the uh in the town where the rally hotel is. Check back in with you then. So that was totally wrong. That was not the end of the twisty, narrow roads. There was hours of twisty, hard, uh paved roads. I only arrived at the day one rally hotel, the finish line, just before dark. A note about the last section is that it is a wildlife hot spot. So I almost hit at least two deer, so I definitely slowed down and uh was really careful. I had to slam on the brakes a couple of times. Yeah, everyone uh be careful about that. The terrain just changed, it was so dramatically different and just so great all day. There was obviously climbing up the hills, there was descending, there was, you know, single lane, two-lane, and then there was some valleys, and there was just obviously tourist spots as well because of the nature and the beauty of there was rivers, there was lakes, uh, it was just uh vineyards. There was what I think was olive groves, just a road that ran the ridgeline for miles and miles and miles, and nobody was on it. Um I have the sniffles a bit because I've I got very cold at the end there. Uh I'm very underdressed for um the time of year. I arrived, it was nine degrees Celsius, and I've got that small climb jacket and just a couple of base layers. So I'm gonna put all the clothes on tomorrow morning for my ride through uh the top end of Spain and climb up into Andorra. All right, the Rally Hotel is, you know, okay. It's uh, you know, it's fine. The restaurant is great, uh, the beer is fantastic, and most importantly, the parking garage is private and secure, and they have tons of motorcycle parking for 10 euros. So that's why we're here. Yeah, that is a success. So I'm gonna download a bunch of content and I'm gonna hit the hay and I'm gonna try to leave a little earlier because I didn't leave until 9 a.m. this morning because of my jet lag. But hopefully tomorrow I will leave a little earlier. The bike's doing great, you know, no complaints whatsoever. My ears are ringing like a crazy person because of the speed and because of uh, you know, cranking up the music too much. But other than that, everything's great. We'll check in with you guys tomorrow. Okay, it's about one or two o'clock in the afternoon. I'm heading to Andorra on May the 8th, day two of the uh rally pre-run. And uh I wanted to do a quick field note because I was learning how to use the little drone in the uh agriculture area of uh Spain. It was a big open field, I thought I'd give it a shot. And then after I used it a couple times, I saw a little green lane, a little you know, farmers farmer's road. And I thought, oh, I'll just rip along here and you know, look really cool for the drone. And I also had the uh the action cam going. I don't know what, but I totally forgot that I had street tires on. I don't know, maybe it was too early in the morning or I wasn't thinking, but just as I pulled onto this dirt track, I it dawned on me because I saw mud, and I go, Oh my god, you Muppet, you have street tires on. Not just street tires, like proper street tires, right? So I'm like, oh, okay, that wasn't so bad. And I'm like, well, I'll just find a place to turn around and then then I'll head back. But you know, when it's two-track, you can't exactly turn around the overloaded giant, you know, fat man GS. So, anyways, long story short, it got super greasy. There's nothing I could do, and I laid the bike down, and I think in the video you can hear me, like, oh, you Muppet, because I saw what was happening. Okay, the bike is down, there's no way I'm picking it up fully loaded. So I yard sailed the bike, everything everywhere, and I can't even stand up. It's so greasy, it's so slippery, it's like that Georgia clay, right? Really, really greasy. I'm like, I don't think I'll be able to pick this bike up. So I had to slide the bike onto one of the tracks, strip of grass in the middle, try to get some of the you know, grease off the bottom of my boots. Thank goodness I got the bike up because it would have been a nightmare of embarrassment. I would have rather burned the bike than ask someone for help. Well, who would I ask? There's nobody around for miles and miles. Anyways, I got the bike back up, loaded it back up, inched my way out of there, and hopefully, you know, hopefully the video's worth it for my absent mindedness. I I don't know what I was thinking or why I wasn't thinking. Anyways, I'm probably about halfway to Andorra and I'm peeling off a bunch of layers. Put on all the clothes. Yeah, I'll check back in with you at the hotel. Assuming I don't forget how to use the brakes or something next. I'm not really sure. Well, the brakes are rather low, so maybe they'll just stop working the way the way the day is going. So, all right, check back in with you later. All right, I made it to Andorra, and boy, let me tell you, those last two checkpoints just before you get to Andorra are unbelievable. And as a matter of fact, I discovered a little uh special little road, and I'm gonna add another checkpoint. It was so great. That pass, unexpected pass, just before you start climbing into Andorra, which by the way isn't much of a climb. I was all worried about Andorra, and and I had had to worry about the other passes rather than Andorra. But, anyways, the pass just before Andorra, I don't know the name of it, is phenomenal. It's just as good as any of the big ones, just as good as Independence Pass or Bear Tooth Pass in America or Stelvio Pass in Italy. It is fantastic. And there were a ton of motorcycles, and there were no speed cameras. And you could tell that they were concerned about the speed on each side of the pass, but not in the pass. So it was really motorcycle-friendly, the whole area. So, you know, just follow the rules. Don't, you know, don't be a douche and speed through towns and anything like that. But they're, you know, fairly understanding around here. So, anyways, Andorra is everything you expect it to be. It's kind of like a Monaco, I guess. It's a principality. There's casinos, there's high-end shopping. The hotel is perfect. Underground parking, it's private, it's everything we want in a Canonball hotel. The hotel is perfect. It's it's like a Hilton, but it's not better than one last night. But you take what you can get. So I'm gonna go try to find a local pub and call it a night. I'm gonna download some videos from my big tumble and uh so everyone can have a good laugh. And that's it. All right. Day two of the rally and uh

Rain Days Travel Tips And Credit Cards

2:14:05

and that's it. It's the morning of May the 9th, it's around 10 a.m. or so, and this is day three of the rally, pre-run. And I tell ya, do not go drinking in Andorra because in the morning you need your wits about you. There must be, I don't know, 200 hairpin switchbacks throughout the two, three hours of the morning to get up and over Andorra if you're chasing all of the checkpoints. And there must be 500 turns. And I mean, proper first gear, you cannot stop moving on these um switchbacks. So if you're not a uh average rider like me, you should skip those checkpoints for sure. Once you're into the French foothills, the scenery changes dramatically. No more snow, no more uh mountain climbing, it turns into French foothill paradise. About uh 50, 60 kilometers into France. Once you pass the uh suburbs there, there's a fantastic little French cafe on the side of the road. And this is definitely motorsports territory because I've passed a lot of motorcycle sports cars tearing up these hills. So it's a fantastic area, and uh it looks like I'm not the only person here. So all right, check in with you guys later. Okay, it's now the end of the day of day three, and I am absolutely exhausted. And that beginning of this day was some of the most amazing motorcycling I've ever done, simply because those roads were just amazing, and it didn't stop. The early morning climbing up, climbing down. I I guess that's the Pyrenees on the French side, and then there were some valleys we ran through. Uh clearly it was a tourist kind of area for the uh natural beauty, and then of course, like any ADV rally, there was a ton of highway, and that's the uh, you know, that's the compromise of choosing what bike to bring on this type of event. I did not get the extreme checkpoints. I am not man enough for that, but you know, my hats off to all the guys who have ever gotten extreme checkpoints on any of the rallies. So I'm at the hotel. This hotel is fantastic. There's a beer bar down below, there's a huge restaurant, there uh the rooms are beautiful, there's a brand new building, the perimeter is secure with a great big fence, and there's underground parking. So this is the perfect rally hotel. I could not be happier. Okay, that's it for me. I'm gonna hit the shower, get some food, have about 19 beers, and do this all over again tomorrow. That's Cannonball Life, baby. Good morning. It's uh the morning of day five of the European rally, and I suppose we're in for another day of rain. Got all the weather alerts coming through yesterday for uh the severe weather for last night, and it seems to be continuing this morning, and there is rain from Brdo to Poland, for Christ's sakes, and extends all the way to the coast. So I will have rain today. Um, it's gonna be a short day. I had planned on actually getting the extreme checkpoints today because it was such a short day. I think anyone can get all the extreme checkpoints today, but the weather is just so so foul. It's just so crazy. I just don't think I, you know, I just don't think I have it in me. I am going to stop at a motorcycle accessory shop. There are tons of them around, um, especially in Belgium. Uh, I need to get a new pair of warm weather adventure gloves. I've just literally worn through the clutch fingers on uh on my left hand, so they can't be saved. I also wanted to give you some tips. So when you're riding through France or really anywhere on a highway day, instead of stopping for a snack in a drink of water at the gas station, I really recommend on the side of the highway, if you ever see a sign that says snack, seems silly, but just the word snack, there's usually uh uh a food truck or something like it on these highway laybys. And that's really where you want to stop. It's super quick. You can have a little interaction with someone besides the teller at the gas station. And yeah, that's just my recommendation when you're traveling. Otherwise, it's just you and being miserable and you know, talking to gas station attendants. And actually, in in northern France, there wasn't even people talking to people in gas stations because all of the gas stations were automated, and it can be a pain. Another travel tip is travel with more than one credit card. I noticed my US cards were having trouble, and I had to use my Canadian cards because they pre-authorize your gas purchase. So you you rock up to the to the dispenser, obviously, you click uh E5, it's 98% octane. And by the way, the percentage of octane is calculated differently in Europe. So if you have like a GS or something, just always get the highest number. And I believe it's 98 is uh is the highest one that I that I've ever seen. Uh so you throw your card in, it pre-authorizes it, and then you get it back. It wasn't doing it for my US cards, but my Canadian cards worked thankfully. I'm not sure why, if it was coincidence, whatever, but you know, travel with at least more than one type of card. I was also having trouble getting cash out. It's important to have a little cash for the snack bars and you know, tipping people and things like that. So, yeah, get some cash when you first arrive. You know, it doesn't go bad. So getting some cash is important. I also adjusted my helmet a bit. I noticed that my helmet, I have an older Tour Tech helmet, and the foam purposefully went into my ear hole. And I understood why is because they want to reduce the amount of wind noise. Because if you look at these guys who have more time than sense and they rate helmets, they always rate on their scale uh how much quiet the helmet is. And what's happened is helmet designers understand this metric and they're putting more foam inside your ear hole. So because I wear in-ear monitors, those sure in-ear monitors, it was pressing extra hard into my ear hole with the monitor, and I've developed a bit of uh, you know, it's worn away the skin. Sorry, it's a bit early. And so last night I took apart the helmet, I took apart the back of the foam, and it was I I removed the foam. It was obvious what the problem was. But unfortunately, my my ears are damaged now because I'm a guy and I didn't stop when it hurt, and yada yada yada. So I'm gonna ride for the next couple of days. The navigation is quite easy, so I'm just gonna ride for a couple of days without any ear monitors, and hopefully they they will heal. So I'll I'll grab a shower and I'll I'll treat them with a light schmear of uh polysporin and uh along with my uh my daily dose of ibuprofen. So, and my and my statin, of course. So, you know. All right, well, obviously I have no one to talk to, so I talked to this microphone. So I'm gonna load the bike up, put everything away, and uh go ride in the rain. It it's so much rain, in fact, I'm gonna throw my little shell. I have uh an old uh north face rain jacket from when I was really fat, and it can fit over my entire climb jacket. So when it's really, really raining, that's what I do. Gore-Tex is fantastic for the odd little rainstorm, but if you're gonna be doing seven, eight hours in the rain, there's no point in getting that saturated. So I just throw the shell over it. My pants actually don't get that wet because I've got the GSA with uh these extra bags on my crash bars, is where my tools go. And it's great. It actually, my legs stay perfectly dry no matter how rainy it is. And my boots, I have the uh Alpine Stars two-buckle adventure boots, the brown leather ones, and I've had those for like five years or something, and perfectly bone dry. I can ride eight hours in the rain, take off that shell when I get to the hotel, and I'm literally dry. It's fantastic. So, all right, that's my little update. It's the beginning of day five. We ride from Luxembourg to Belgium. Unfortunately, I won't get that extreme checkpoint. The extreme checkpoint is actually at a really special hotel. I've been going there for years. The owner's into motorcycles, and it's in this really awesome location in a little town. He's got even a little workshop to work on your bike. Uh, it's a perfectly safe town. You can just you can just leave your uh your bike outside. So if you ever want a riding destination in Luxembourg, the extreme checkpoint of day five is a fantastic place. And they have great food, also. You can walk around town, it's a great, great destination. All right, I'm out of here. All right, I made it to the Belgian coast.

Heated Jacket Wiring And Autobahn Rules

2:23:41

I gotta admit, I abandoned the route. It was so, so cold. It is early May, it is not riding season, and it was so cold. I pulled over somewhere in Luxembourg and I just gave up. I'm like, you know, I'm out of here. So I took a direct course to this hotel in this resort kind of beach area. Uh, I've stayed here before, I stayed here a few times actually. It's got a fantastic underground parking, it's got a little pub in the uh in the lobby, and there's great beach bars around here. This is a fantastic place. If you take a taxi into the main town, the old town, there's some naval history there, which is pretty cool. And there's an old pub in there that's you know just dripping with history. So I forgot that on Mondays, most places in the world, motorcycle shops are closed. So I did not stop and get those replacement gloves today. But I am going tomorrow to Antwerp, and there's a massive, massive, the the biggest motorcycle shop I have ever seen along my route to Germany. So I'm gonna stop and I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna break down and I am gonna get me a heated jacket or a heated liner. It was so cold. You have no idea how cold it was. It was terrible. It was about five or six degrees Celsius, and it was pouring rain, and I had all the clothes on, and it was just so cold. I'm just I'm just not doing it anymore. So hopefully I can get a heated jacket, and that's what I'm gonna do. So I'm gonna head to Germany tomorrow. Uh also a hotel I've stayed at before. It's the sale hotel in Germany, and it's also fantastic, has a good underground parking. It's a little bit public, but it's outside of the city center, and I think it's uh one of the safer places around. So, all right, I'm off to do some very serious research, and I will report back tomorrow morning, I think. All right, all right, it is the end of day six. I'm at Bremerhaven at the Atlantic Sale Hotel. Great hotel, I think the best one in the whole rally. And yeah, Germany. It was still freezing cold. Let me tell you, let me whine in your ear a little bit more. So I had made a beeline out of Belgium and I stopped in Antwerp to get a heated motorcycle jacket. Awesome. I got the motorcycle heated motorcycle jacket. They even had the adapter to plug into the DIN connector that is on the side of the seat of all the BMW motorcycles. I plugged it in, I turned it on, I hit the road, and I'm like, you know, this isn't that warm. I'm like, what the heck's going on here? So I pull over and I notice the jacket's off. So, okay, so I turn it back on, I get going. So it's been like an hour, I'm on the road, and I realize now what's happening is that it's turning off. So after some troubleshooting, I come to the conclusion that the bike din connector uh was on the CAN bus. And then some backup napkin math told me that there's no way that this is running on the power of the CAN bus. So, why did these people sell me this adapter? I don't know. But I should have known better if I actually thought. But my brain was frozen. That is my excuse. So I'm gonna go down in the freezing cold and hardwire in, cut apart this adapter, this din adapter, and just wire it directly into my battery, and it'll get me rolling for tomorrow. It actually wasn't that cold today, it was about 12, 13 degrees Celsius, and I threw my shell jacket on over my uh climb jacket, and I seem to be okay. And let's also talk about the climb jacket. My original plan was to bring my new climb jacket here, which is a bit warmer than this other one I have, and bring this one back to the United States so I can use it down in Baja. But no, I didn't bring it, so I have the thin one. So plan fell apart. When I'm in Baja, you'll hear me complaining that my jacket is too heavy duty. So uh what else? So when you are on the Autobahn, yes, it is super cool. The Autobahn is super cool. The way my bike is loaded up, because I got a ton of gear, I got my camping gear and I got my camera bag on the back, and I've got I got glass trophies in my saddlebags. So there's a lot of weight in the back. So I can only go, I don't know, like 150, 60 kilometers an hour before you start to get the beginnings of a speed wobble. And I'm like, yeah, that's enough. Plus, it's just you just can't do that all day. Like it's it sounds cool, but it's just the wind noise is fantastic, right? So the minute you get into Germany, your lane discipline obviously has to be a 10 out of 10. But one thing that struck me is if you're gonna dive out into the left lane to do some speed, like double and triple check that that car you see isn't doing 250 kilometers an hour, right? Because it won't be able to stop. So it's your responsibility if you're gonna dive out into the left lane to pass or just go, you know, have a little smile. Make sure that that car is not gaining on you at a rapid speed. It's it's a lot of responsibility to be on the Autobahn. And all the drivers here are very good. So it's not like France where they were tailgating, you know, uh, all that. So uh the drivers here are pretty good. Okay, so I'm gonna go wire up my my bike and then I'm gonna go down to the Biogaden and uh and have some beers and some Wiener Schnitzel, and I'll be sure to order like that with the waitress. I'll use my best German accent, I'm sure it'll go over really well. All right, we'll talk to that, y'all later. Good morning. It is the morning of day seven of pre-riding this European route, and the sun is out. I'm excited. I don't think I'll be out all day, but the sun is out. It's seven o'clock in the morning, and uh the Muppets in the room next to me must have just opened the door, walked out with their baggage, and let both doors slam. I I I I don't understand if it's hatred for other people in the building, it's just stupidity, they don't realize what's happening, or just a general sense of uncouth. But anyways, it it's it's it baffles me every time someone slams a door with such such vigor. So Taylor messaged me this morning because he is uh departing soon to catch the ferry in Sweden. He's coming from the north, I'm coming from the south. And he asked me what type of heated gear I bought and did I like it. And I didn't know what it was. It's on a mass and it's M-A-C-N-A. And I'm glad he asked because now that I have it hardwired in my bike, I'm gonna give it its first shot. I was wondering how the heck do I control the temperature? And I just happened to see a symbol on it that said Bluetooth. So that's how it's controlled is that you install an app on your phone and then you can adjust the temperature at will. Because I'm like, how do you do this? This must be insane. I I remember the old ones, you would put a you know, a real stat controller on your on your handlebars and you would adjust the temperature, you know, electrically. But this obviously makes more sense. This is this is much better. Um, I realize that I don't have a fuse on my gorilla wiring on my motorcycle, so I need to be mindful of that when I get on and off the bike, if I have my heated gear on, that I don't rip the wires to bits because it will it will short out. Although the wires are quite thin, so I think it would just make a little bit of a light show and not cause too much of a fire. But it is under my butt, so you know that will be uh indications in the system if indeed it is on fire. Today's a super short day, it's only 400 and something kilometers, and I think Robert is the first to arrive at the rally hotel today, and he's not gonna get to the four. Actually, I think Jan is there already. He arrived yesterday, one of the competitors, and I believe a podcast guest. So I'm excited to uh to meet one of the competitors and a guest on the podcast. That's really great that he uh rode down. I I think from Norway or or Sweden, I'm not sure. But we'll find out. We will get to the bottom of that for sure. Our friend Chris, Swedish Chris, is also coming down from uh Sweden, but I understand he's delaying his departure because he has a new motorcycle helmet on the way. And I was just thinking of that. I've had this motorcycle helmet now for I don't know how many years, five or six years, and I'm still adjusting it and tuning it and getting to know it. So, you know, he's a brave man, Chris, Swedish Chris, for getting a brand new motorcycle helmet and heading on a thousand mile journey with it. I suppose that's what you have to do, though. When you get something new, you just have to dive right in. Uh, speaking of getting something new, Taylor had asked me, you know, how did I like my gear? And I said, Well, I don't know because it didn't work. And then he said, Well, didn't you test it? And of course, that is the divergence of our personalities where I'm sure he would go out to his motorcycle before he purchased it and test it and did a full, you know, search of reviews, and I just plugged it in and left. And of course it didn't work. I will get it going today. And I've discovered that it has Bluetooth, so I'm really excited about that. So, all right. Uh, that's it. I'm gonna head off. I'm gonna follow the route precisely today, and I will try and get all the checkpoints. There are a bunch of really cool extreme checkpoints. There's one on an island where the road disappears with the tide. I won't be doing that with my street tires. We understand that story. There's a bunch on the beach out here as we cross into Denmark. There's a few, you know, touristy POIs along the way. Uh regrettably. There's just not as much crazy motorcycling opportunity around here, but but we've made the best of it and uh we've drawn on some resources to um to make this route as interesting as possible. And yeah, I think it's gonna be great. Thankfully the sun is out. I'm excited about that. So all right, we're off. We're gonna head to the hotel and next update we'll be uh we'll be with the gang. Oh, and yes, I absolutely regret my my dinner decision uh with the extra garlic spicy sauce on the kebab after probably a good liter of uh of German beer. I regret it this morning. But nothing a good Elka seltzer can't fix, so thank goodness for modern medicine. I'm just out achieving the extreme checkpoint on the FIS ferry,

Denmark Beach Riding And Biker’s Rest

2:34:51

going over this uh body of water in Germany, and I'm standing next to this fantastic Honda Trans Alp with claimants, and maybe you can tell me where you're off to and what kind of adventure you're on. Hey, uh so amazing meeting you. I am on my way to the border of Poland following the Tet in Germany. We'll be doing some Tet of Poland later because there's way more off-road to be done there. You were camping tonight. How did you survive the cold? It was about eight degrees Celsius. Uh I I I feel more dead than alive, to be very honest. I I did find a shelter that was actually a part of the Tet. So uh uh a wooden hut in the middle of the forest. Um, yeah, down sleeping bag and uh coffee every two or three hours in the night. Wouldn't recommend. Totally wouldn't recommend. So my complaining about my electric heating gear and uh having a kebab last night and sleeping in the hotel on the coast of Germany makes me really sound like a soft old man. Maybe you can tell, are you planning on camping the rest of your trip? Until last night, I was planning on camping for the rest of my trip. Now I'm reconsidering because that was not an experience. Look, man, I'm I'm 35 uh on a bike as old as I am. Uh I can't carry only so much. Uh I guess I will decide in the evening how brave I really feel and how hungry for torture I am. Well, listen, it was a pleasure meeting you. I wish you all the best of luck. And uh and how many days is it is your adventure? I'm on the road for four now. I think I have a week or so to go. Pleasure meeting you as well. All the best for your cannonball rally cross Europe. This is Aaron from the studio because the irresponsible Aaron from the past did not record any field notes. But hey, how can you blame Aaron from the past? Because when we arrived in the hotel in Denmark, the hotel was fantastic. This hotel has a history of motorsports. You can pull up pictures of automotive rallies that have landed there. And uh the hotel is clean, it's big, there's a fantastic lobby bar, there's a huge restaurant, the grounds are just beautiful. There's a spa, and yes, there is a casino attached to it. So it has every ingredient necessary for a fantastic second to last night of any rally, especially a motorsports rally with all my degenerate friends. Obviously, we spent the night catching up with Robert from Sweden and Jan from Norway. Uh, I can report that the IPA is fantastic in the Rally Hotel, and the food isn't too bad either. And of course, that evening it hailed. It was so cold and it hailed that it was absolutely terrible. We had some more guests show up from Copenhagen, and the team was finally assembled. And in the morning, we split up into two teams. We had the off-road team with uh Robert and Jan, and they were able to achieve the checkpoint out on the island with the disappearing road. Uh, they were able to read the tide table and they didn't get stranded. I'm very happy to report. Although that would have made fantastic video if they did get trapped out there. And then we had one of our riders had a mechanical breakdown on the paved section, but we're able to sort that out, and we all met at biker's rest. Biker's rest is the final stop in the 2027 European cannonball, and it is as awesome as it sounds. They have a huge inside area for motorcycles, fantastic area for camping. They have some like dormitory rooms for bikers, uh, they have a big tool shop or workshop. It's just everything you absolutely want in a uh biker-friendly stay. And we're gonna have our awards banquet there, and whoever wants to stay for the final evening can also stay with us. There's some limited beds, and there's tons of camping area, and we're gonna have the whole place to ourselves. So we're really looking forward to that. Taylor obviously arrived with Swedish Chris, and the bigger team was assembled for shenanigans in biker's rest. They have a fantastic system there, self-service bar. You just get a bunch of tickets and you uh put a ticket in the box and you know, grab a beer. Two tickets if you want some hard liquor or wine, and that's how we spent the uh the evening there at biker's rest. A fantastic group. And in the morning, we all went our separate ways. The band of brothers disbanded. Jan and Robert went north with the rest of the gang, and they went to the ADV hangout in Sweden. And Taylor and I headed south, and it was so freaking cold that we did not camp. We went back to the same hotel, the uh Atlantic Sale Hotel in Bremerhaven, and obviously we got up to some shenanigans. Now that I was no longer riding the rally route and that burden was off of me, I was able to just hang out and do some motorcycling. So the route was great. The checkpoints all checked out. I fixed a few errors in the in the backbone and I added some more checkpoints as I discovered some cool places. All in all, a really big success, and it was better than I thought it would ever be. Uh, the southern part was fantastic, obviously. Our friend, the Dutch Minion, designed the route through the Netherlands, and that was surprisingly good. The off-roading in Denmark is just so darn special, and uh, I'm just really excited to share the competition with uh with the wider communities, and I hope everyone enjoys it.

Shipping Bikes Easily Through Heathrow

2:40:36

All right, it's May the 26th, and I'm at Motor Freight, and the trip is finally over. And I'll do a big recap with Taylor, but I just wanted to say I am uh really happy that Alex from Bloodbikers helped me yet again, and he helped me bring my giant Pelican case on the back of a bona fide Bloodbikers bike. So that was uh that was super cool, but it was 37 degrees Celsius. I'm not sure what that is in Freedom Units, but it was hotter than heck, as they say in Texas. And it struck me as a good time to tell you about Motor Freight and how easy it is to ship your bike specifically to London Heathrow. And maybe we can tell the listeners how I ship this bike here. So, what we do is uh we run console containers for seafreight from Los Angeles, New York, and Houston. Um, so you deliver the bike into the port depot, uh, packed and ready to go. Um, and our counterparts on that side will wait until there's enough vehicles to fill a container. Uh, then it comes over to us. We clear your bike through customs. You don't have to physically be here in the UK for that. So we clear your bike, bring it back to our depot near Heathrow, um, and we store it for you. And then you just fly out for the start of your trip, let us know when you're coming, we make sure your bike is available for you, and then you jump on and you ride away. And it's kind of like the reverse process for the end of your trip. You kind of, um, as Aaron is doing now with us, you you finished your trip, hopefully you're buzzing, you're happy, you're excited, you bring your bike into us, we do a condition report, make a note of anything you're leaving with a bike, and then we whatever you want from there is what we do. We can air freight your bike back, we can C freight your bike back, we discuss with you. It's it's specific to you what you want to do, but we'll run through the options with you. The idea is we make it as easy as we can. And every time uh we talk about cost, we don't know what it is because the the world changes minute by minute, and you can ship your bike on to another place. Uh, Kathy just doesn't do US to London Heathrow. It's just really convenient for me. But she's put my bike on the underneath an airplane. Uh, you know, she's uh she can pull a bike out of a hat for you. Whatever you want to do, uh, she can do. So I'm dropping off the bike here now, and I'm gonna go check in the hotel because it's hotter than all heck. And yeah, that's the end of the field notes for this trip. And that concludes the world's longest field note ever recorded on this podcast. And I just want to mention that, you know, I'm just an average rider, and I'm able to finish that route by sunset every day, and I wasn't leaving at an extraordinary hour. So one would uh presume that a strong rider could get the paved extreme checkpoints. And if you were a strong off-road rider, you should be able to get all of the optional off-road checkpoints and also arrive at the hotel at a reasonable hour. Okay, thank you for listening. And hopefully uh people sign up for the first ever uh ADV cannonball rally in Europe. And uh the route is really special, and I hope everyone appreciates the amount of work we put into it, and we will see everyone in Tarifa in 2027.

Europe 2027 Pitch And Final Review Ask

2:44:02

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 dig and chill afloat. Thanks for listening to the ABV Cannonball Podcast. Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the pad.