I love watching these videos because you show the experience from the rider's perspective without the fake polish and pretenses. This is real life with the ups and downs of life on the road. I've completed numerous TSD events that covered a couple of states, but never a cross-country rally like this one. TSD's can be tedious in the air-conditioned comfort of a car, so I can only imagine the torture that you endured while riding a SCOOTER across the country! Then you added primitive motocamping, summer heat & humidity, CVT failures, backroad wrenching, and the isolation and uncertainty of riding SOLO much of the event. That's an Iron Butt challenge on a whole new level. Kudos to you, sir! I felt your frustration toward the end of this video, and I think you made the right decision to avoid extra riding while under that level of exhaustion. Riding while tired or distracted can be disastrous. It's better to hang up your spurs and ride another day. Will there be any more videos in this series? (fingers crossed)
👊 Thanks for the feedback and the support! I try to show the real experience of these adventures (minus some of my numerous F-bombs and roadside bio-breaks). Fatigue is the biggest obstacle for me on these long rides, and the exhaustion really stacks up after 6-7 days straight. That bathtub margarita that I drank the previous night probably didn't help my situation (see the livestream from Day 6: ua-cam.com/users/live_BeGJ1Fk9Tw ). Even though I didn't "feel" hungover, I was probably dehydrated and that further deteriorated my mood and concentration. My 2015 PCX150 has crap front brakes, so that was really getting on my nerves through those downhill, off-camber corners. It was a shitshow of heat exhaustion and confusion, but I managed to get to the other end of it unscathed. However, Day 8 was another rough day and I didn't make it through that without damage. I'm still editing the "production" episode for Day 8 and the remaining days that includes multiple camera angles, group audio, and other bonuses. In the meanwhile, you can watch the raw episodes on my @QuasiRAW channel here (warning... these are VERY long videos): - Day 8 RAW: ua-cam.com/video/xy6v9BQffxA/v-deo.html - T+1 RAW: ua-cam.com/video/Ldw0vQh-1Zs/v-deo.html - T+2 RAW: ua-cam.com/video/OJLgmgIOvX0/v-deo.html - T+3 RAW: ua-cam.com/video/ByC0AAZ60vA/v-deo.html Cheers, and stay tuned for more adventures! 😉👍 --QM
Hey Quasi, it’s nice of you to always bring your pet duck along for these adventures. I’m sure he enjoys the ride. 😏 Just kidding buddy. I’m so glad to see uploads from you again, but more so that you’re recovering. All the best.
About to take my MSF BRC next weekend and purchase a Honda PCX 160. Thank you for inspiring me with your scooter videos - rekindling a dream after a bad dirt bike experience in my teens.
Yes, the Garmin was apparently having a stroke that day and kept mis-routing me... not sure why. I typically ride with BOTH the Garmin and either Waze or Google Maps running on the phone. That lets me sanity-check the route and it gives me alternatives while I ride. Waze is nice because it gives audible alerts for road hazards, police, and other events. However, the Cannonball runs a prescribed route with its control points and bonus points that need to be met. Google Maps and Waze will try to optimize the route and bypass those points, so it's not ideal for these events. Adrian and I used a combination of Garmin and Google Maps during the 2021 Scooter Cannonball, which worked out quite well. Adrian manually entered the GPS coordinates of each point one at a time so the app wouldn't get confused and skip points. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM
I saw on one of your videos about using a pcx 150 front wheel on the Sherpax. I followed through and now I am totally tubeless on the road. The wheel worked perfectly. Thanks for the idea. I had been looking for a cast aluminum wheel when I saw your post.
Thanks for the feedback, Terry! I still have that extra PCX wheel sitting in my garage with a fresh Michelin City Grip tire, waiting for me to finish that idea! 🤣 How did you mount your wheel? Did you make custom spacers/collars to fit the SherpaX, or did you modify the swingarm to fit the wheel? 🤔 --QM
I ordered factory spacers and the wheel fit perfectly on the Sherpax. I had also ordered a new axle and ran a die on it to cut threads down to where they needed to be. I then used a heat gun to heat the fender and bend it up slightly to give enough clearance on the tire. I then cut off the excess threads and the job was done. Thank you so much for the idea to use the Pcx 150 wheel!@@QuasiMotard
Man dude, I couldn't help but chuckle the longer you went and the madder you got. Day 7 fatigue is no joke apparently. Which sucks, because as pissed off as you were at the backroads, I couldn't help but think that on a normal day, it looked like something I would purposely seek out to ride. Tennesee backcountry always makes me feel at home. Glad you made it without incident. Looking forward to the finale!
Yeah, Day 7 sucked for me. I was slightly hungover from that jumbo Toxic Waste margarita the previous night (see the livestream for reference), and Cannonball burnout was setting in. I remember the same burnout emotions back in 2021 around the same time (day 6-7), and we had a longer trek that year. The camera doesn't do those roads justice at all. The fisheye lens and motion stabilization make everything look flat and smooth. Nothing could be further from the truth... those roads were sketchy AF! Narrow, off-camber, riddled with patches and potholes, and the glare from the sun and shadows made navigating those minefields exhausting. I had a couple of near head-on collisions with trucks rounding corners at 60+ mph entirely in my lane. The downhill sections (which looked flat on camera) ranged between 8-25% grades, and the front brakes on my PCX are like wooden blocks... that was really raising the pucker factor to 9.5. There was no way out of that area except *THROUGH*, so I just cursed all the way down the mountain. 🤣👍 --QM
i bet i haven't put 10 miles on either of my bikes the trail or the wing this month at all. my battery didn't make it through the winter. on the wing. and i'm still running the same gas i put in my trail in November i think. but i hope to have my porch finished by the end of the week. so i can set outside and relax at night. and not have to worry about the rain.
My be all those damage panel got on your Honda PCX 150 is making front end shake and CVT & doctor pulley miss up on that long drive Mr. Aaron ? I hope do another video fixing up PCX 150cc ??
The broken panels were certainly chattering and making a lot of noise, but I don't think they affected the bike's handling. The front brakes on that PCX150 have always been weak, so those steep downhill twisties were raising my pucker factor to about 9.5... just trying not to overcook the corners. I will be doing a complete tear-down and rebuild series on the PCX150 in the near future. I'll put that together with the final Cannonball video so I have a full cost analysis of the ride, including all the breakage and replacement costs. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM
Yeah, Day 7 sucked for me. I was slightly hungover from that jumbo Toxic Waste margarita the previous night (see the live stream for reference), and Cannonball burnout was setting in. I remember the same burnout emotions back in 2021 around the same time (day 6-7), and we had a longer trek that year. Those long trips are usually not a problem for me. The frantic pace of the Cannonball and knowing that you're racing the clock take a mental toll after a week or so. My night vision is crap, so that forces me to push hard to arrive at the other end before dusk. The solution to that is leaving at the crack of dawn, but I got a late start that morning. Oh, well... those are the trials and tribulations of Cannonball! 😉👍 --QM
I noticed on older Cannonball runs there were geared 2-stroke Vespas, 1960s Lambrettas, 50cc scooters are such like. Have these disappeared from the scene?
Greetings from the USA! My PCX150 was suffering with a failing rear torque drive assembly (clutch and rear pulleys). I finally diagnosed that failure on the morning of Day 4 in Los Alamos when I opened the CVT housing and found bearing grease all over everything. I suspect the torque drive was faulty since new. That scooter always had a tendency to shudder and belt-slap when it was cold, and it had trouble accelerating from a stop. The Dr.Pulley sliders flipped in the variator several times, and I mistakenly attributed that behavior to a weak contra spring in the rear pulleys. However, it was more likely the two pulley sheaves not sliding smoothly along their splines and allowing the CVT belt to go slack on deceleration. The hanging/dragging torque drive caused the Dr.Pulley variator to wear faster than normal, and it also added a lot of unnecessary stress and heat on the CVT belts. When I reverted everything to stock with a NEW torque drive on Day 6, everything was back to the expected levels of Honda reliability. I will do a full teardown and rebuild series on that scooter soon. I'll be replacing all of the broken plastics and rebuilding the CVT with fresh OEM parts (again). I plan to use 12g Dr.Pulley sliders in the OEM variator to keep things reliable. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM
@@QuasiMotard glad everything is sorted now. Well besides plastics etc. yeh honda “non performance “ can be boring. But man oh man it proves reliable every time. You using pcx for 2025?
@countbasingstoke I'm still undecided on which steed to ride in 2025. I'll be joined by @RideWithAlex from Romania, so I need to choose something that matches his speed and fuel range. So far, I'm considering the Super Cub C125, CT125, or the PCX150... time will tell which bike wins the t̶o̶r̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ honor for '25. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM
@countbasingstoke Nope! Honda stopped bringing in all of the smaller scoots to the USA back in 2016. We didn't get the new Forza 125/300/350 here, and we're still waiting on the ADV350. 😒 --QM
I have a chi es clone of the Honda adv 150, transpro aviator. I took it to Saint Augustin from miami and same to key west. I couldn't find rules against GY6 scooters but are they even allowed?
Sure, all scooter brands and displacements are allowed... up to 279cc. The rules for 2025 have been updated to allow scooters up to 300cc to participate. Running an off-brand scooter will require more knowledge on the riders part in terms of maintenance because there might not be other riders or support on the Cannonball to help with troubleshooting. Having spare parts on hand (e.g., variator, rollers/sliders, CVT belts, etc) and other maintenance items is mandatory for all scoots, but even more important for less common brands. 😉👍 --QM
@QuasiMotard after maybe 3 months of research, this response is basically my official green light to go ahead and do it. You are the best, get well, and ride safe!
The 2023 Scooter Cannonball was about 3200 miles in 8 days, not including travel time to/from the start and finish locations: scootercannonball.com/route . My round trip distance was 6300 miles over 17 days. The 2021 Scooter Cannonball route was about 4500 miles in 10 days. My round trip distance in 2021 was 9950 miles over 24 days. 😉👍 --QM
I'm not a die-hard bicyclist, but I try to ride as often as possible. My normal endurance is ~50 miles, but I have conditioned up to 75-80 miles a few times to participate in the MS150 ride between Houston and Austin. I haven't had the opportunity to do that ride, but I've prepared for it a few times... something always got in the way of the event. My half-baked idea of riding the entire Natchez Trace (~440 miles) has been put on hold for a while since my motorcycle wreck last October. If/when I can finally get my lower back and shoulders to cooperate, I'd like to bikepack and camp that route... maybe in both directions for ~900 miles total. Wish me luck! 😉👍 --QM
I love watching these videos because you show the experience from the rider's perspective without the fake polish and pretenses. This is real life with the ups and downs of life on the road. I've completed numerous TSD events that covered a couple of states, but never a cross-country rally like this one. TSD's can be tedious in the air-conditioned comfort of a car, so I can only imagine the torture that you endured while riding a SCOOTER across the country! Then you added primitive motocamping, summer heat & humidity, CVT failures, backroad wrenching, and the isolation and uncertainty of riding SOLO much of the event. That's an Iron Butt challenge on a whole new level. Kudos to you, sir!
I felt your frustration toward the end of this video, and I think you made the right decision to avoid extra riding while under that level of exhaustion. Riding while tired or distracted can be disastrous. It's better to hang up your spurs and ride another day. Will there be any more videos in this series? (fingers crossed)
👊 Thanks for the feedback and the support! I try to show the real experience of these adventures (minus some of my numerous F-bombs and roadside bio-breaks). Fatigue is the biggest obstacle for me on these long rides, and the exhaustion really stacks up after 6-7 days straight.
That bathtub margarita that I drank the previous night probably didn't help my situation (see the livestream from Day 6: ua-cam.com/users/live_BeGJ1Fk9Tw ). Even though I didn't "feel" hungover, I was probably dehydrated and that further deteriorated my mood and concentration. My 2015 PCX150 has crap front brakes, so that was really getting on my nerves through those downhill, off-camber corners. It was a shitshow of heat exhaustion and confusion, but I managed to get to the other end of it unscathed.
However, Day 8 was another rough day and I didn't make it through that without damage. I'm still editing the "production" episode for Day 8 and the remaining days that includes multiple camera angles, group audio, and other bonuses. In the meanwhile, you can watch the raw episodes on my @QuasiRAW channel here (warning... these are VERY long videos):
- Day 8 RAW: ua-cam.com/video/xy6v9BQffxA/v-deo.html
- T+1 RAW: ua-cam.com/video/Ldw0vQh-1Zs/v-deo.html
- T+2 RAW: ua-cam.com/video/OJLgmgIOvX0/v-deo.html
- T+3 RAW: ua-cam.com/video/ByC0AAZ60vA/v-deo.html
Cheers, and stay tuned for more adventures! 😉👍 --QM
Happy to see another Cannon Ball vlog, missed you Quasi!
Thanks again for awesome video of Cannonball run of 2023! Mr. Aaron 🍻🍺
Hey Quasi, it’s nice of you to always bring your pet duck along for these adventures. I’m sure he enjoys the ride. 😏
Just kidding buddy. I’m so glad to see uploads from you again, but more so that you’re recovering. All the best.
thanks for taking us along
About to take my MSF BRC next weekend and purchase a Honda PCX 160. Thank you for inspiring me with your scooter videos - rekindling a dream after a bad dirt bike experience in my teens.
Also, it seems like the Garmin was having some issues in this video. Do you ever use Google Maps on your phone?
Yes, the Garmin was apparently having a stroke that day and kept mis-routing me... not sure why. I typically ride with BOTH the Garmin and either Waze or Google Maps running on the phone. That lets me sanity-check the route and it gives me alternatives while I ride. Waze is nice because it gives audible alerts for road hazards, police, and other events.
However, the Cannonball runs a prescribed route with its control points and bonus points that need to be met. Google Maps and Waze will try to optimize the route and bypass those points, so it's not ideal for these events. Adrian and I used a combination of Garmin and Google Maps during the 2021 Scooter Cannonball, which worked out quite well. Adrian manually entered the GPS coordinates of each point one at a time so the app wouldn't get confused and skip points. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM
Garmin being a troll that day😅
I saw on one of your videos about using a pcx 150 front wheel on the Sherpax. I followed through and now I am totally tubeless on the road. The wheel worked perfectly. Thanks for the idea. I had been looking for a cast aluminum wheel when I saw your post.
Thanks for the feedback, Terry! I still have that extra PCX wheel sitting in my garage with a fresh Michelin City Grip tire, waiting for me to finish that idea! 🤣
How did you mount your wheel? Did you make custom spacers/collars to fit the SherpaX, or did you modify the swingarm to fit the wheel? 🤔 --QM
I ordered factory spacers and the wheel fit perfectly on the Sherpax. I had also ordered a new axle and ran a die on it to cut threads down to where they needed to be. I then used a heat gun to heat the fender and bend it up slightly to give enough clearance on the tire. I then cut off the excess threads and the job was done. Thank you so much for the idea to use the Pcx 150 wheel!@@QuasiMotard
Nice to see you back, sir. :)
It seems like half the difficulty of the Cannonball is the routing; if only the GPS knew the right way!
Man dude, I couldn't help but chuckle the longer you went and the madder you got. Day 7 fatigue is no joke apparently. Which sucks, because as pissed off as you were at the backroads, I couldn't help but think that on a normal day, it looked like something I would purposely seek out to ride. Tennesee backcountry always makes me feel at home. Glad you made it without incident. Looking forward to the finale!
Yeah, Day 7 sucked for me. I was slightly hungover from that jumbo Toxic Waste margarita the previous night (see the livestream for reference), and Cannonball burnout was setting in. I remember the same burnout emotions back in 2021 around the same time (day 6-7), and we had a longer trek that year.
The camera doesn't do those roads justice at all. The fisheye lens and motion stabilization make everything look flat and smooth. Nothing could be further from the truth... those roads were sketchy AF! Narrow, off-camber, riddled with patches and potholes, and the glare from the sun and shadows made navigating those minefields exhausting.
I had a couple of near head-on collisions with trucks rounding corners at 60+ mph entirely in my lane. The downhill sections (which looked flat on camera) ranged between 8-25% grades, and the front brakes on my PCX are like wooden blocks... that was really raising the pucker factor to 9.5. There was no way out of that area except *THROUGH*, so I just cursed all the way down the mountain. 🤣👍 --QM
I did the natchez trace on a helix a few years ago they got a free campground where you were at merriweather lewis
i bet i haven't put 10 miles on either of my bikes the trail or the wing this month at all. my battery didn't make it through the winter. on the wing. and i'm still running the same gas i put in my trail in November i think. but i hope to have my porch finished by the end of the week. so i can set outside and relax at night. and not have to worry about the rain.
My be all those damage panel got on your Honda PCX 150 is making front end shake and CVT & doctor pulley miss up on that long drive Mr. Aaron ? I hope do another video fixing up PCX 150cc ??
The broken panels were certainly chattering and making a lot of noise, but I don't think they affected the bike's handling. The front brakes on that PCX150 have always been weak, so those steep downhill twisties were raising my pucker factor to about 9.5... just trying not to overcook the corners.
I will be doing a complete tear-down and rebuild series on the PCX150 in the near future. I'll put that together with the final Cannonball video so I have a full cost analysis of the ride, including all the breakage and replacement costs. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM
Can you show us the bracket mounting of the navigation? Ride safe
Dang. That was a sucky stage of the Cannonball. You must have needed a beer or to meditate quietly after that day. Hope you are getting well.
Yeah, Day 7 sucked for me. I was slightly hungover from that jumbo Toxic Waste margarita the previous night (see the live stream for reference), and Cannonball burnout was setting in. I remember the same burnout emotions back in 2021 around the same time (day 6-7), and we had a longer trek that year.
Those long trips are usually not a problem for me. The frantic pace of the Cannonball and knowing that you're racing the clock take a mental toll after a week or so. My night vision is crap, so that forces me to push hard to arrive at the other end before dusk. The solution to that is leaving at the crack of dawn, but I got a late start that morning. Oh, well... those are the trials and tribulations of Cannonball! 😉👍 --QM
No gravel day! lol!
Man, you hit hard on that bridge. That front tire just washed out from underneath you!
I noticed on older Cannonball runs there were geared 2-stroke Vespas, 1960s Lambrettas, 50cc scooters are such like. Have these disappeared from the scene?
👍
Greetings from U.K. Quasi what was the issue with the PCX in thr end? What caused the belt to chew up?
Have you had it fixed since? Kind regards J
Greetings from the USA! My PCX150 was suffering with a failing rear torque drive assembly (clutch and rear pulleys). I finally diagnosed that failure on the morning of Day 4 in Los Alamos when I opened the CVT housing and found bearing grease all over everything. I suspect the torque drive was faulty since new.
That scooter always had a tendency to shudder and belt-slap when it was cold, and it had trouble accelerating from a stop. The Dr.Pulley sliders flipped in the variator several times, and I mistakenly attributed that behavior to a weak contra spring in the rear pulleys. However, it was more likely the two pulley sheaves not sliding smoothly along their splines and allowing the CVT belt to go slack on deceleration. The hanging/dragging torque drive caused the Dr.Pulley variator to wear faster than normal, and it also added a lot of unnecessary stress and heat on the CVT belts.
When I reverted everything to stock with a NEW torque drive on Day 6, everything was back to the expected levels of Honda reliability. I will do a full teardown and rebuild series on that scooter soon. I'll be replacing all of the broken plastics and rebuilding the CVT with fresh OEM parts (again). I plan to use 12g Dr.Pulley sliders in the OEM variator to keep things reliable. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM
@@QuasiMotard glad everything is sorted now. Well besides plastics etc. yeh honda “non performance “ can be boring. But man oh man it proves reliable every time. You using pcx for 2025?
@countbasingstoke I'm still undecided on which steed to ride in 2025. I'll be joined by @RideWithAlex from Romania, so I need to choose something that matches his speed and fuel range. So far, I'm considering the Super Cub C125, CT125, or the PCX150... time will tell which bike wins the t̶o̶r̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ honor for '25. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM
@@QuasiMotard do you not get the forza 125 over there?
@countbasingstoke Nope! Honda stopped bringing in all of the smaller scoots to the USA back in 2016. We didn't get the new Forza 125/300/350 here, and we're still waiting on the ADV350. 😒 --QM
I have a chi es clone of the Honda adv 150, transpro aviator. I took it to Saint Augustin from miami and same to key west. I couldn't find rules against GY6 scooters but are they even allowed?
Sure, all scooter brands and displacements are allowed... up to 279cc. The rules for 2025 have been updated to allow scooters up to 300cc to participate. Running an off-brand scooter will require more knowledge on the riders part in terms of maintenance because there might not be other riders or support on the Cannonball to help with troubleshooting. Having spare parts on hand (e.g., variator, rollers/sliders, CVT belts, etc) and other maintenance items is mandatory for all scoots, but even more important for less common brands. 😉👍 --QM
@QuasiMotard after maybe 3 months of research, this response is basically my official green light to go ahead and do it. You are the best, get well, and ride safe!
how meny days long is the run
The 2023 Scooter Cannonball was about 3200 miles in 8 days, not including travel time to/from the start and finish locations: scootercannonball.com/route . My round trip distance was 6300 miles over 17 days.
The 2021 Scooter Cannonball route was about 4500 miles in 10 days. My round trip distance in 2021 was 9950 miles over 24 days. 😉👍 --QM
Didn't know you rode bicycles
I'm not a die-hard bicyclist, but I try to ride as often as possible. My normal endurance is ~50 miles, but I have conditioned up to 75-80 miles a few times to participate in the MS150 ride between Houston and Austin. I haven't had the opportunity to do that ride, but I've prepared for it a few times... something always got in the way of the event.
My half-baked idea of riding the entire Natchez Trace (~440 miles) has been put on hold for a while since my motorcycle wreck last October. If/when I can finally get my lower back and shoulders to cooperate, I'd like to bikepack and camp that route... maybe in both directions for ~900 miles total. Wish me luck! 😉👍 --QM
@@QuasiMotard good luck
First
Can you show us the bracket mounting of the navigation? Ride safe