Episode #9
Electric Motorcycle Cannonball Record Set
Send us Fan Mail 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 Podcast@ADVCAnnonball.com ADV Cannonball Rally Home GPS Checkpoint Rally & Event App Home ADV Cannonball Rally on Facebook Instagram TikTok Mailing Address ...
