About our Cannonball Adventure

Hi there,

glad you are having a look at our Scooter Cannonball Blog.

Maybe you are wondering who these crazy guys are that think they can ride all across the US, coast to coast, from San Francisco to Ocean City,  on 25+ year old Vespa P200 motor scooters?

Oh…did I say across the US?  Maybe I should have added that before the official start of the Cannonball we are stupid enough to make the trip on our scooters from Vancouver, BC, to San Francisco, and right after the Cannonball we are planning to head from Ocean City, MD, to Toronto, ON.  Sounds like a challenge (aka. stupid idea), right?

OK…this is who we are….

Roy Cross (aka. “Rocket”) – Rocket lives in Mission, BC, and if you get to know him, you understand when I write that he always seems to be a man on a mission, never resting, a friend you want to have who is always up to helping others getting their scooters fixed and on the road.  Rocket was born and raised in the UK before immigrating to Canada.  He’s been around Vespa scooters forever and did not seem to miss too many scooter rallies in the UK in the eighties. He’s a true “Scooter Boy” at heart.

Roy Schatz (aka. “Roy”) – That would be me. I live in Surrey, BC, with my lovely wife Delia who is giving me a kick in the butt now and then to get things done.  She knows I need it, I guess.  Anyway digressing here… Like Rocket I was born and raised in the old world before immigrating to Canada.  I am German and you can tell that I didn’t grow up in North America when I get that glazed look in my eyes when people talk about TV shows of the eighties and think it is amazing that I never heard of them.  When I was 16 years old I did get my Vespa PX80 in Germany…way back in the early eighties. I neglected my scooter for many years, before getting it back on the road several years ago and since then Harry, my PX scooter,  has undergone several transformations.  Right now he is running with a brand new built P200 engine and Harry is running better than ever before.

Both Rocket and I belong to various Scooter Clubs.  The local Club both of us belong to is the Greater Vancouver Vespa Riders (GVVR).  Check out the Clubs website and forum at http://www.gvvr.org and http://gvvr.proboards105.com/index.cgi respectively.

Rocket is also a member of the Worst Scooter Club Ever in Vancouver, BC.

We both want to Thank our sponsors for helping us making this Scooter Cannonball adventure possible for us, in particular

– Chispa, Vespa Bellingham
– Vespa Kelowna
– Matthias Schwartz, aka. Dennis, aka. owner of ScooterMd / Fastuff