ADV Cannonball

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Day five hits with a question every adventure rider has wrestled with: when the rally feels like it’s dialled past the limit, do you keep chasing every checkpoint, or do you make the adult call and ride straight to the hotel? Rolling out of Moab toward Las Vegas, we talk honestly about fatigue, food, hydration, and the quiet danger of stacking big days with small sleep. We also dig into why finishing is always an accomplishment, but why certain rally awards only mean something if they stay truly difficult.

Then we get deep into the real make-or-break skill of an endurance motorcycle rally: navigation. We break down how riders are using GPX tracks, POIs, and checkpoints, and why throwing out the recommended route can turn “efficient” into a mess of one-way mountain trails, broken assumptions, and apps that refuse to route down a trail. You’ll hear exactly how extreme checkpoints and algorithm-driven shortcuts can strand even strong riders on the wrong side of a river, and why our best advice stays simple: practise with your setup until you’re fluent, because better late than lost is still the best strategy.

We close with the stories that make ADV rallies unforgettable: the Captain Chaos mechanical saga, the reality that there’s no perfect adventure motorcycle, and how packing choices and trail conditions can change your entire day. If you ride with GPS, chase waypoints, or just want smarter risk management on big trips, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share this with your riding buddy, and leave a review telling us your go-to navigation setup.
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Day four on the ADV Cannonball is where the rally’s personality really shows: long highway miles, heavy heat, and the kind of messy, real-world problems you cannot simulate in a garage. We’re rolling west on Highway 70 watching riders stream past, swapping stories about surviving a 107 heat index, the weird calm of a “slab day,” and why traffic jams can be more dangerous than any dirt section when impatience takes over. One ugly run-in with a truck driver turns into a clear lesson on risk management and staying alive when the road gets tight. 

The competition side is just as sharp. We talk about the Stig’s outrageous multi-tank setup on a KTM 1290, the advantage of skipping fuel stops, and how fast that plan can unravel when a chain breaks and someone has to bring an angle grinder to get the bike moving again. Even with inspections, missed checkpoints, and all the day’s drama, the standings come down to a jaw-dropping one minute and thirty-six seconds. Add early morning parking lot tyre changes, riders carrying spares, and a few heartbreaking DNFs, and you get a snapshot of endurance riding where preparation matters more than bravado. 

We also dig into the practical tech: the GPS rally app runs flawlessly when riders follow the regulations, which leads to our blunt advice on dedicated devices, clear sky view, wireless charging, and why we keep leaning toward iPhone for reliability. Then we look ahead to Colorado and Utah, where extreme checkpoints actually become extreme, weather tracking becomes mandatory, and flash flood risk is real. We finish with a fuel-soaked lesson from the Kove 450 Rally and what it teaches about multi-tank bikes and calculating range on the fly. Subscribe, share this with a riding buddy, and leave a review, then tell us: would you chase the extreme checkpoints or play it safe?
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Free Music from the show on SPOTIFY and on APPLE
Aaron's Ride Outs Map HERE
Support us directly on Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Aaron-Pufal
Support us on Patreon HERE
Buy us a Coffee HERE
The Motorcycle Book and Film Clubs.
The Living List Document GOOGLE DOC
Contact the Podcast [email protected]
ADV Cannonball Rally Home
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A coast-to-coast rally is won and lost long before the first checkpoint, and we are not shy about saying it. Taylor Lawson sits down with Aaron Pufal, fresh off setting a new electric motorcycle record from the Red Ball Garage in New York City to the Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach in a little over 100 hours, to talk about what real preparation looks like for the 2026 ADV Cannonball Rally.

We get into the unglamorous stuff that keeps you riding: building a navigation plan a month out, practising GPX navigation until you can recover from app crashes and mid-route restarts, and making sure your setup works offline for remote off-road checkpoints. We also share the simplest save-your-day fallback: keep the hotel address handy so when your plan goes sideways you can still get to safety without a spiral.

From there we hit rules and strategy, including why the rally notice page matters, why start times change, and how Park Ferme can catch you if you do not read the regulations. We also talk bike setup like adults: fixing flats, choosing a tire plan that matches your goals and speed, packing layers for wild weather swings, and thinking through survival gear based on how far you are willing to push into the backcountry.

If you ride adventure motorcycles and you want a smarter, calmer, faster rally experience, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend who is rally-curious, and leave a review so more riders can find the ADV Cannonball Podcast.
Support the show
Free Music from the show on SPOTIFY and on APPLE
Aaron's Ride Outs Map HERE
Support us directly on Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Aaron-Pufal
Support us on Patreon HERE
Buy us a Coffee HERE
The Motorcycle Book and Film Clubs.
The Living List Document GOOGLE DOC
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ADV Cannonball Rally Home
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An electric motorcycle cannonball sounds like a clean, futuristic flex until you meet the real enemies: charger gaps, unreliable stations, and a battery that slows its own fast charging when the heat soaks in. We sit down with Aaron Pufal and Karry Lebel right after their coast-to-coast run from the Red Ball Garage in Manhattan to the Portofino in Redondo Beach, where they set an officially recognised EV motorcycle cannonball time of 100 hours and 17 minutes, backed by witnesses, GPS tracking, and the cannonball community watching in real time. 

We get into the decisions that made or broke the attempt: why “what’s the range?” is the wrong question, how they used A Better Route Planner (ABRP) to pick charging stops, and why they often charged to the minimum instead of topping up. Carrie breaks down how the route had to be recalculated again and again as heat, elevation, wind, and dead chargers changed the math. Aaron explains the surprising core problem on this LiveWire setup: thermal throttling, where repeated DC fast charging heats the battery and forces slower charge rates, turning a quick stop into a long wait. 

You will also hear the human side: van life stress, comms that fail inside a metal cargo van, drafting for efficiency while dodging debris and bad roads, the rain-soaked moment where quitting felt reasonable, and the weird anticlimax of finally rolling into the finish line exhausted. If you love long-distance motorcycling, EV charging infrastructure, or any kind of endurance road trip problem-solving, this one is a masterclass in what “efficient” actually means on electric power. 

Subscribe, share this with a friend who thinks EV road trips are easy, and leave a review so more riders can find the show. What part of an electric cannonball attempt would worry you most: charging reliability, battery heat, or sleep?
Support the show
Free Music from the show on SPOTIFY and on APPLE
Aaron's Ride Outs Map HERE
Support us directly on Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Aaron-Pufal
Support us on Patreon HERE
Buy us a Coffee HERE
The Motorcycle Book and Film Clubs.
The Living List Document GOOGLE DOC
Contact the Podcast [email protected]
ADV Cannonball Rally Home
GPS Checkpoint Rally & Event App Home
ADV Cannonball Rally on Facebook Instagram TikTok
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We bounce from beer-soaked banter and Swedish summer stories into the nuts and bolts of adventure riding, including suspension setup worries and the odd ethics of modern road culture. Then we sit down with Egle On The Road to trace how travel, rally racing, and service-minded community work can turn motorcycling into a life direction. 
• Swedish archipelago travel and the strange joy of slow miles 
• Rear shock spring upgrades on a loaded ADV bike and why the right tools matter 
• Nürburgring photo finds and workplace hazing stories from the road 
• Lane etiquette rage and the problem with dashcam-driven “citizen enforcement” 
• Egle’s Scoog Sweden experience and the community that shows up when you break down 
• Growing up in post-Soviet Lithuania and learning to dream past borders 
• Peru volunteering, learning to ride from scratch, and earning confidence the hard way 
• Dakar Rally reporting, rally raid reality, and why exhaustion becomes addictive 
• Little Big Rides and women-only off-road tours that build skill without the pressure 
• Ukraine fundraising, gifting a DR650 to a new mission, and serving in Lithuania’s Volunteer Armed Forces 
• Land’s End Observatory rideout pick and practical 2026 ADV Cannonball Rally check-in steps 

Support the show
Free Music from the show on SPOTIFY and on APPLE
Aaron's Ride Outs Map HERE
Support us directly on Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/Aaron-Pufal
Support us on Patreon HERE
Buy us a Coffee HERE
The Motorcycle Book and Film Clubs.
The Living List Document GOOGLE DOC
Contact the Podcast [email protected]
ADV Cannonball Rally Home
GPS Checkpoint Rally & Event App Home
ADV Cannonball Rally on Facebook Instagram TikTok
Mailing Address ...