Scooter Cannonball 2021 // Day 3: PA to MI, Stealth Camping at a Marriott Hotel

[@clarson2916]

An old motorcycle mechanic in Flagstaff Arizona told me, never doubt the Yamaha (or Honda) engineers, or try to re-engineer what they have given you. Those words if wisdom have served me well :)

[@chipm2544]

You guys are rocking it. I’m enjoying every bit of your adventure. Like the stealth/clandestine camping. Better to beg for forgiveness than ask for permission.

[@MotoMuscleChick]

Hell yeah. I'm about to get a scooter when I save up enough money. Super excited to be economical and cheap but enjoyable

[@cubgsan]

Good day to you ! I am a HONDA Cross Cub Grandpa from Japan. Your nice Cub trailer and adventure video is so great ! Awesome! I enjoyed !! Thank you so much for sharing !! Have a nice day !

[@ontherebel11]

Yeah buddy! nothing better than a Sunday evening after all is quiet to sip on some wine as i live the fairytale through you! Thank you QM for bringing us mortals along! The way you capture it feels like i was there! Awesome!

[@JUNIT808]

Oh Man...I missed you folks. Grove City is my home town. Could have activated the local Zuma and Ruckus guys!

[@earlsmithson4749]

Quasi, good catch on the tire. I notice a lot of gray hair on those machines and being one myself I know how tuff a ride like this can be. Looks like you and Adrian got a handle on this thing so keep your usual great vids coming. Good Luck. 👍

[@QuasiMotard]

Thanks for the feedback and watching the videos! I don't know what the median age was for the riders in the SCBR, but I'd guess it was ~50 years old. I'm 50 in this video (51 now), but I'm not completely gray yet... still hanging onto a bit of my youth! I've been taking these crazy road trips for over 35 years, so I'm no stranger to long hours and gluteal fatigue on a bike. The Super Cubs presented a unique challenge due to their cramped seating position and small fuel tanks. We stopped every 85-95 miles to refuel the tiny 1-gallon tanks, so that allowed us to stretch our legs and to get some blood flow back into the glutes. Ride, refuel, repeat! Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@ZoahPorre]

That yellow buggy thing was pretty cool @ 30:00

[@grahamambridge2856]

My honda Anf125 clutch does the same in 3rd gear up hills when the clutch needs adjusting. 10 second job though and fixes it for several months. Warm regards U.k.

[@jdbmoto]

Nothing like a good back stretch while riding 8:02

[@QuasiMotard]

By the end of our 10K-mile trip, Adrian had mastered his yoga stretches and he could nearly ride that Cub backwards! 🤣👍 --QM

[@ericsemple4820]

7:58 into video and Adrian doing his downward dog yoga move!

[@coyote8777]

If you were referring to the Honda ADV150 my top speed was 62 mph.

[@TheRealSuperJ]

The weather in PA is usually like that.

[@joecamel6835]

It's 400 below here so don't give me that shit .

[@supersteve8305]

You guys are having so much fun on this trip. I love it, and your channel.

[@kevinnashskitchen3517]

Looks like you were on M50 in Monroe county as you came up into Michigan.. Few minutes from me. Cool..👍 What an Iron man like day or 2 you had there on this one.. 😂

[@taebert]

Sorry to hear that the weather during the PA portion of the ride was such crap. I remember tracking the ride on-line last summer. There was some really bad weather here in the north east. On your T-2 ride you went through PA not far from my normal riding areas. When you crossed the west branch of the Susquehanna river at Milton you were probably 30 straight line miles west of my home. I have been thinking about adding a super cub to my stable but am a little concerned that a 190# man will have a problem on the hills here in the Appalachian mountains where I live. Any thoughts? Love your videos. I have been waiting for the SCB videos to come out. This time of year I live vicariously through these videos while waiting for the roads to clear up enough to get a bike out.

[@Terry_1111]

I thought I'd like to do this, but after thinking about it...I don't think I want to, after all! I enjoy your channel very much and appreciate all that you share. Safe travels to you, always!

[@QuasiMotard]

Thanks for the feedback and for watching the videos! The SCBR isn't for the faint of heart... it's a real test of man and machine with no guarantees of safety or success! The long hours on the road cause fatigue, which can have disastrous consequences. It only takes a second of inattention to go off the road or overcook a corner. Then you're eating weeds and gravel and desperately trying to avoid broken bones. Slow and steady is always the best approach for these rides. Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. The object is to have zero errors in riding and navigation. We fared well through our journey, but, in retrospect, there were a few sections that I would have skipped due to gravel and washboard roads. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@onanysundrymule3144]

This is pretty awsome good Sir, and I am in the mood for some road trip footage. Kind regards.

[@todmills]

Ah, pretty close to my Ohio home in this video; I've been on several of these roads.

[@gibson4ever28]

Very nice videos, just came about it today and its great to see those landscapes across the US. The Super Cub also looks like a great little bike. Greetings from Denmark.

[@DC2100Motors1]

This is what I want to do with big bikes one day. Old school cross county run

[@ttinc2067]

👍👍👍 stealth camping, Steve Walis going to be jealous......

[@QuasiMotard]

🤣 LOL! I watch Steve's channel and enjoy his stealth camping adventures. I've been doing these crazy trips for 35+ years, so I can identify and sympathize with many of his camping situations. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@secretdaisy6484]

Another great segment. Thanks for sharing. 👍☮️🌞🛵❤️

[@stevetaylor8698]

Those four way stops would drive me crazy, they are crying out for a roundabout to be installed.

[@QuasiMotard]

Agreed! Most of the USA's infrastructure is set up this way and roundabouts are very rare here. I think it's terribly inefficient in terms of fuel and time wasted. Most motorists here have the bad habit of rolling through stop signs without really looking to see what is coming in the other direction. I usually cut most of that out of my videos because it introduces friction and negativity into the comments. I'm no choir boy... I also roll stop signs, but I always slow down to a walking pace and check all directions before proceeding. Cagers here in the Houston area are notorious for blowing stop signs and red lights at 25+ MPH without giving it a second thought. I have hundreds of video clips with police vehicles, loaded school buses, pubilc buses... all sizes and flavors of vehicles blatantly running red lights and stop signs. That's Houston, for better or worse... it's a zoo! Yikes! 😉👍 --QM

[@Dronesteve-72]

In the uk especially the east of the highways have money left over they put in a roundabout - we have like one every half mile

[@TheRealSuperJ]

At 7:19 you were 10-minutes from my house! That’s I-76 west.

[@TheRealSuperJ]

it's so cool to watch you guys ride through Medina county, Ohio, where I live. It was the area where QM said everyone keeps their lawns well kept. Then at about 22:40, you went by Town & Country RV in Clyde, Ohio, where I bought my Jayco travel trailer.

[@QuasiMotard]

We were already suffering from Cannonball Brain Fog by the third day. We didn't even know where we were half of the time... just following GPS and hoping for the best! 🤣👍 --QM

[@slam854]

Like your additional front lighting. Where do you talk about them? Dave Moss motorcycle tuning has a great episode on tire pressure. Throw out recommended pressures. Your rear tire should have around 42psi. Front tire may be not far off that. Surprised me. Stock, I'm running 29f 33r.

[@QuasiMotard]

Those are the Denali DM driving lights. I don't have a specific video about them or the installation process because I was in a hurry preparing the Cub for a road trip. The lights are mounted on the original reflector brackets, and I bent the brackets to clear the leg shield. The power harness is run directly to a fused connection at the battery. The on/off switch and relay is powered through a switched 12V line on the ignition switch, so they are only active when the bike is powered on via the key switch. On the issue of tire pressures... we did some fairly extensive testing and tuning while we were on the road pulling our trailers. We settled on 30 PSI front, 36 rear, and 22 for the trailer. That seemed to give us the best handling with the least amount of squirm at highway speeds. We tried higher pressures in the rear tire, but it exaggerated any "tail wag" that came from the trailer. Higher pressures in the trailer tire also made the trailer too flighty and erratic. We were already burning through rear tires every ~3600 miles, so I'm sure that higher pressures in the rear tires would have accelerated the wear by focusing more weight onto a thinner contact patch in the center. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@roywalls5595]

I check that SherpaX trailer I think will not work on my Piaggio mp3 because cvt & belt drive! I am not a engineer but thinking making my own! QM

[@slebdad]

Great series, noticed you passed not to far from Cleveland, saw you were riding on SR3 near Medina.

[@AdventureByJake]

I know this is an old video, but I wonder if your trailer tyre psi was too high? Maybe this was set based on trailer being heavier than it was. A lower psi would have widened your contact patch and spread out the wear. The flip side to this is a super high psi would of lowered the rolling resistance - helping the average speed but at expense of the time taken to change the tyre, and so potentially more personal fatigue than if hadn’t of needed to this do this maintenance job. Guess it’s always a balancing act with a cannonball!

[@Voltomess]

28:07 What's the name of that awesome app with map and speedo on the screen and all that and how to use it?

[@QuasiMotard]

That is the GoPro Telemetry Extractor ( goprotelemetryextractor.com/ ). It's a fantastic tool, and it's very flexible/customizable. It's not cheap at $300, but I think it's worth the investment for these videos. I will be including the overlays in more of the upcoming SCBR videos so viewers can appreciate the inclines and road conditions a little bit better. The GoPro cameras tend to flatten-out the landscape, so they don't convey the real experience of riding with inclines and lean angles. Unfortunately, building the overlay interface and double-encoding the videos is a pain in the butt... lots more time and storage space involved to produce videos this way. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@Voltomess]

@@QuasiMotard Nice thanks. $300 isn't that cheap but also isn't that bad for good quality software. And I love when I see those widgets on the motovlog screen. Have a wonderful day.

[@TheLwaller09]

"It's just dense dense overcast and 70% chance of rain all day today" All of us from Ohio : "Yep"

[@SCMOTO]

Enjoying every minute bud

[@QuasiMotard]

Thanks for watching! I'm trying to burn through my Cannonbal editing queue and release 1-2 episodes per week until it's finished. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@bertusgrobler2146]

Hi QuasiM,. I'm watching some footage from the'21 SCBR. I have a question: that red tank mounted in the stepthrough. Is it a fuel tank plumbed into the fuel line? Enjoying the rewatch!

[@QuasiMotard]

Howdy, Bertus, and thanks for watching! That red auxiliary tank is one of only two "Neil tanks" in existence! I have one on my Cub, and Adrian has the other one. Our buddy, Neil, custom fabricated those tanks and mounting cradles for us before the 2021 Scooter Cannonball Run. They hold about 1.3 gallons, but they aren't plumbed into the main fuel supply. The fill nozzle is facing upwards to make it easier to refill while mounted on the bike. The can slides out of the mounting frame from the right side by releasing a tension lever at the front-left of the frame. Neil included a long, curved fill spout that attaches to the top of the can if we want to refuel the bike directly from that jerry can. We used them as emergency fuel supplies and as "transfer tanks" during our extended road trip. You can see a shot of Adrian transferring fuel to a No-Spill can here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIrNnolte9Z_ha8 . Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@bertusgrobler2146]

@@QuasiMotard thanks for that reply. Looking forward to the next one.

[@steveparish9210]

The Ohio turnpike was thrilling!

[@andreacerutti5090]

Da alcuni motociclisti che avete incrociato deduco che il casco negli Usa non è obbligatorio😅

[@QuasiMotard]

È corretto! La maggior parte degli stati negli Stati Uniti non ha leggi sui caschi. Guido sempre con il casco, ma a molti altri motociclisti non piacciono. A ciascuno il suo... Preferisco tenere il cervello dentro il cranio! 😉👍 --QM

[@andreacerutti5090]

@@QuasiMotard grazie, non lo sapevo. In Italia è obbligatorio e lo mettono tutti anche se alcuni scooteristi usano lunette che valgono poco. A Napoli sembra non lo usino ma Napoli è una eccezione👍

[@REZrblde]

27:23 do different states have different helmet laws? That guy on the CB4xx wasn't wearing a helmet.

[@QuasiMotard]

Most US states don't have helmet laws, and it's not usually strictly enforced in the states that do have those requirements. Texas and several other states have restrictions that require minors (under 18 years old) to wear helmets, but no other restrictions for adults. I ride with a helmet 99.9% of the time just for safety and peace of mind. Occasionally, I'll ride around the corner to the supermarket next to my neighborhood without a helmet, but that's about as far as I'll go without safety gear. 😉👍 --QM

[@REZrblde]

@@QuasiMotard oh alright. Reading this feels so strange to me because at where i live theres a mandatory helmet law,jail for 3 months+$1000(about $600+ USD) fine if you do not wear.

[@ZundappCZ]

Have you noticed reduced mileage or engine performance with the p-shooter exhaust? I like the sound but I don't want to harm my bike's performance.

[@QuasiMotard]

Yes, the engine performance and top speed were reduced with the P-Shooter exhaust. Mileage didn't seem to be affected, but it was hard to determine because we were also pulling trailers for the 10K mile trip on the Scooter Cannonball Run. I don't recommend the P-Shooter exhaust at all. The durability and performance were very poor. Adrian's exhaust lost the stainless-steel outer tip somewhere on the road. Mine warped internally from heat and caused the tip to twist upward by almost an inch. Two thumbs down for SP-Takegawa! 👎👎 --QM

[@jamesmcdaniel5259]

Hay motard man I dig your videos especially your cannonball run

[@QuasiMotard]

Thanks for the feedback and for watching, James! I am trying to burn through the Cannonball editing queue to publish at least 1-2 episodes per week until that's finished. Be sure to subscribe and enable the "bell" icon to be notified when I drop new episodes! Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@charlesdano5382]

Hey Quasi! Greetings from Manila. Is your bike trailer a custom made? I really like it and wanna build one for my scooter.

[@6fiddy309]

Just happened to wake up.. Low and behold another Quasi video..👍🤠👍.. Quasi..have you ever owned a Vespa..?..🤔

[@QuasiMotard]

No, sir... never have owned a Vespa. The new GTS's look really nice, and I would consider getting one if they weren't so crazy expensive! 😉👍 --QM

[@cresshead]

Superb episode.

[@QuasiMotard]

Thanks for the feedback! 😉👍 --QM

[@LordFiercelove1]

Please tell me where I can buy a trailer like your's. I have a small displacement bike as well.

[@raybrown86]

Where did you get the trailer and other rails and parts from?

[@QuasiMotard]

These trailers are made by KipMoto: kipmoto.com/pages/sherpax . Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@_gypsysoul]

I love your videos! A question about the Cannonball...when you finished in California do you then ride all the way back home? If so that's a dual Cannonball! 🤣

[@QuasiMotard]

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, we rode the entire route to and from the SCBR endpoints. So, that was: - Houston, TX to Bar Harbor, ME (~2400 miles) - Bar Harbor, ME to Eureka, CA (~4550 miles) - Eureka, CA to Houston, TX (~2400 miles) There was a bit of extra riding around during that trip, so our total was around 9750 miles when we reached Houston. We moto-camped about 70% of the trip and had a blast! Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@steveparish9210]

@@QuasiMotard that's pretty incredible!

[@supersteve8305]

You two are bad to the bone. I rode from Dayton Ohio to Key Largo Florida (four days in hotel) and back (straight through on return) on a 1340 cc HD Heritage Softtail, and that kicked my butt. You two are amazing.

[@DragosRDS]

Superb videos ! One question about the Shepa. Do you run the shock absorber on the soft side or stiff? Does it wobble on the road on high speed ? Are you carefull about the position of heavy stuff when you arrange the weight in the box ? I have one and it wobbles unbearable at 50 km per hr with only 20 kg of luggage inside. I don't feel safe at all

[@QuasiMotard]

We were running the boxes heavy on the trailers with all of our camping supplies, motorcycle tools, spares, etc. So, we ran the shocks at the highest spring preload setting on this trip. We also adjusted the trailer tire pressure up/down until we found a happy medium that provided better tracking... the magic number for us was 24 PSI. We only experienced trailer wobble problems when we had over 90 pounds (41 kg) inside and on top of the box. There was a pendulum effect that happened sometimes above 55 MPH (88 kph). We reduced the weight in the trailer and repacked to have the heaviest items low and forward in the box, and we removed extra weight on top of the box (tires, fuel, etc). That solved the sway and "tail wag" that we experienced. Otherwise, the KipMoto SherpaX trailers performed perfectly! I rode hard through twisty mountain passes, and I was cornering so hard that I was dragging my Rotopax fuel containers on the bends. If you are having "tail wag" issues, then you might want to try placing all of the heavy weight forward in the box and as low as possible. Here is a good video showing the effect of poor weight placement with normal automotive trailers: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJ66kJqwmc1pqtE . Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@alanszymczak6173]

Another Great Video! Soy Beans- Video Time 28:42..

[@bnski]

These are great! My daughter inquired last night why everyone is hauling balls ⚽️🏀🏈⚾️🎱😂!

[@davestraight8219]

quasi has bought a gsxr cub by mistake :D cos tyre - i have crisps and bagels cos its hissing down here and due to medical cant do stuff so quasi videos (YES CRISPS AND ALSO ITS ALUMINIUM :P )

[@QuasiMotard]

Nope... you people on the other side of the pond insist on adding unnecessary letters to words. Alumin-I-um, neighbo-U-r, colo-U-r... etc. It's just fluff! Save the letters and the keystrokes! 🤣👍 --QM

[@davestraight8219]

@@QuasiMotard colonials are all the same :D they speak faster so shorten stuff - aussies are the same lmao :D

[@BurgerBob2314]

That was a very intimate moment with the man in the Michigan shirt 😂

[@roywalls5595]

Thanks for the video! QM

[@2dollarbill650]

Uneven wear is caused by the crown of the roads in New England.

[@justasmackevicius765]

Hey up. May I ask you how many miles you have on that bad boy

[@QuasiMotard]

My 2019 Super Cub has ~15.5K miles on it now. Nearly all of those 15K miles are from touring and road trips, and 10K of those were from the Scooter Cannonball Run. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@highlanderdetroit5370]

Great videos, how much was tire , Where did you buy it? How many mile on Cub ?

[@QuasiMotard]

Thanks for the feedback! I purchased the Michelin Pilot Street 2's from CycleGear.com ( www.cyclegear.com/tires/michelin-pilot-street-2-tires?query=10042555 ) for $52.95/each. My 2019 Super Cub has ~15.5K miles on it now. Nearly all of those 15K miles are from touring and road trips, and 10K of those were from the Scooter Cannonball Run. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@3goldfinger]

As Some Guy Rides says, nothing better than a bad idea.

[@robedmunds7163]

Great vid, next best thing to doing it, he says in bed with a cup of coffee and a bacon sandwich.

[@QuasiMotard]

MMmmm... BACON! Everything is better with bacon! 😉👍 --QM

[@skipmyers2341]

The other crop is soy beans. Welcome to the Midwest.

[@jake88ci]

honda adv does 65mph wide open . So if the guys you saw where doing thbat speed soon the engine will blow up

[@QuasiMotard]

Actually, no! The Honda PCX150/ADV150 engines are nearly bulletproof. Those machines can sit at wide-open throttle bumping off of the rev-limiter all day long and never skip a beat! All of the Honda scooters survived both the 2021 and 2023 Scooter Cannonball events without any mechanical failures. There were a few accidents and withdrawls from the event, but not due to mechanical problems. I rode my 2015 PCX150 in this year's Cannonball, and it performed flawlessly. I had a minor gravel accident at 35 MPH that destroyed the plastic fairing, but I was able to tape it together and continue the event and ride it back home to Texas. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@ApastronRetro]

Love the vids

[@QuasiMotard]

Thanks for the feedback and watching! 😉👍 --QM

[@davestraight8219]

is that a bulge in your jacket or are you just pleased to see me :D - no its just snacks :D

[@QuasiMotard]

LOL! We had our jackets packed full of extra junk most of the time. Gloves, granola bars, water bottles, batteries... you name it! I looked like a demented, low-budget Santa Claus with that bulged belly! 🤣👍

[@samratsuklabaidya7368]

🚩JAI SIYA RAM 🚩

[@ericmartin6657]

I would take more frequent stop breaks to not be so hard on the bikes.

[@QuasiMotard]

I would normally agree with that sentiment during any "normal" road trip. However, the Scooter Cannonball Run is a timed and scored event, so stopping to rest lowers the riders' scores. Our pace was already slow due to our small engines and the trailers slowing our progress, so we didn't want to stretch a 12-hour day into 14+ hour day with extra rest stops. There was another interesting point about our trailers and how they limited our top speeds. We can normally maintain 60-65 MPH on the highway without the trailers, and I typically see 115-119 MPG at that pace. The trailers slowed us down to 53 MPH average, and my fuel economy only dropped to 109 MPG average across 9850+ miles. That means the engine might have been working harder, but it wasn't consuming much more fuel. We weren't operating near the engine's redline in top gear (drag-limited speeds), so running full throttle didn't make much difference in consumption or engine wear (that we could determine, anyway). Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@KevinHernandez-vh9dl]

Stoplights are really painful. Those 3-5 mins of riding clip sounds like a ww1 prop plane at full speed.

[@QuasiMotard]

Agreed! Occasionally, we would get an alternating resonance between our exhaust notes, and it would sound like a twin prop airplane making lazy S-curves in the sky. We had earplugs in 99% of the trip to save our hearing... those SP Takegawa P-Shooter exhausts were quite loud! 😉👍 --QM

[@deanjollow2892]

I guess no 50cc scooters allowed. Looks like a ton of fun.

[@QuasiMotard]

Thanks for the feedback! 50cc scooters are allowed in the SCBR, but not many people are brave enough to attempt the run with such small engines. These 500+ mile days would require 20+ hours of seat time at 35 MPH average speeds, and the highway sections would be dangerous. It might not even be possible to complete some of these sections in less than 24 hours, so that would result in a DNF for that day. 😉👍 --QM

[@deanjollow2892]

@@QuasiMotard I figured as much.. I’m rolling out in May for a northern Canadian tour,no hurry obviously,just gonna see where I get. Be fun just the same. Enjoy the videos meantime. Stay safe.

[@KADIAK_023_RUS]

🔥🔥🔥👍👍👍🇷🇺🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇸🇷🇺🇺🇸

[@mlbabineaux]

send that shitty tire back to michelin. get a new one for free.. that's bs :)

[@KeithRowell-l7j]

The way your bike and trailer are .what is top speed of them

[@QuasiMotard]

Our maximum sustained speed during this trip (while pulling the loaded trailers) was 53-55 mph on flat ground. We had a few downhill runs where we saw 72+ mph, but the uphill stretches slowed us down... 28-32 mph uphill in the Rockies was brutal. Cheers! 😉👍 --QM

[@KeithRowell-l7j]

@@QuasiMotard so these are 150s os 125.thats still not bad for the weight of them both.plus the rider