ALL SYSTEMS ARE GO!

Registration for the 2014 Scooter Cannonball opened on December 1st and yours truly was perhaps the 6th to register. My fever dreams and crazy ideas of roadtrippin' on a scooter are finally locked in. It's been almost 2 years in the making.

June of 2011 I rode my first scooter, a 50cc PGO, in Honolulu while there on business (yes my job was awesome). By the time the joyous voices in my head had suppressed the fear of vehicular death I knew I was hooked. I also knew that I must have my own scooter SOON and take it on a road trip. The imperative was unmistakable.

November 2011 I finally had the down time from work to go test out a few used scoots at my local shop, Scootersmith. I decided on a Honda Metropolitan that was almost immediately traded in for a more adequate for my size (don't ever ask a sinner his weight. He'll just lie and hate you for asking) Aprilia Mojito Custom 150. That same month my hunting for other low displacement lunatics paid off when I found ScooterCannonball.com.

The Scooter Cannonball has been held every even year since 2004. A bi-annual cross-country rally event featuring everything from a 1946 Salsbury w/ a Ninja 250cc engine to a 1964 Sears Vespa Blue Badge with all of 4.3 hp to 650cc Suzuki Burgman Executives. Takes a lot of heart to ride 3,000 miles on a 2 stroke that tops out at 45 mph.

For the 2012 Cannonball I drove a support van for a group of riders from Savannah, GA to San Diego, CA. My crazy ass would've tried to ride it that year if I could've had more time to prepare and save the funds. But in the end driving support allowed me to be a good student. I sat and observed the riders in the hotel parking lots each night as they wrenched on their scooters. There was a lot of tweaking, cajoling, rigging, cursing, praying and drinking, And I took mental notes of all of it. By the end several of the riders I got to be friends with weren't sure if they would give it another try in 2014, but now registration is open and they are back like beggars at the banquet, talking of preparation and the mechanical wizardry they hope will get them from Hyder, Alaska to New Orleans. You bet yer sweet ass I will be there to witness it again, only I'll be sitting on a scooter and not in van and I'll be one of the cajoling, tweaking cursers.

Blog from the 2012 Scooter Cannonball:
http://chucklestx.blogspot.com/