Time for some escapist videos. Post a fave in the replies. (page 3) - CycleBlaze

Bicycle Travel Forum

Time for some escapist videos. Post a fave in the replies. (page 3)

John PescatoreTo John Pescatore

This is not a touring video, but a fun and interesting test of an e-bike (more than) leveling the skills between a non-cycling wife and a cycling fanatic husband.

Disclaimer: the company FLX that makes the "Babymaker" bike set out to raise $20K via crowd-sourcing and ended up getting closer to $5M! The two founders are very savvy at using social networking for promotion - the Vegan Cyclist in this video has a good track record, but I'm sure he was at least loaned the bike since he is considered an influencer. The video starts out with a very quick "Support by FLX" screen.

Reply    Link    Flag
3 years ago
Jacquie GaudetTo John Pescatore

Hi John

I couldn't watch even half of that.  It was so very sexist and cooked-up that it was painful to sit through the first few minutes.

Jacquie

Reply    Link    Flag
3 years ago
Jean-Marc StrydomTo John Pescatore

Hi John

The guy is Alee Denham of CyclingAbout fame.  Not bikepacking at all but actually cycling , fully loaded, the length of the Americas.  We met him more than two years ago just south of Rio Tranquilo in Chilean Patagonia.  My remarks to Leigh at the time were that he looked like a "tough bastard", and indeed he, is albeit a very friendly and likeable TB.  His journey northwards has encountered a few challenges and it has taken longer than he expected (he told me at the time that he was hoping to do it in eighteen months).  He is currently somewhere in Mexico, if I am not mistaken, cycling on his own again.  His web site has some nice videos of cycling through South America,

Reply    Link    Flag
3 years ago
John PescatoreTo Jacquie Gaudet

Hi, Jacquie - it was definitely cooked up, I think he is now making most of his income via YouTube and mentioned in a video that his views seemed to go up when he added what he would have once considered "cheesy" graphics/animations. 

I have a 29 year old daughter and feel I'm usually pretty sensitive to the sexist side of things. I think on Cycleblaze, maybe touring in general, there are a lot of touring couples. On the group rides I do, it is more common to see one half of a married couple riding, because the other half is either not a cyclist at all or not a fast/far type of cyclist, etc.

That video showed the example of the husband is the fanatic cyclist, the wife not so much - especially with a small child at home. My wife is a runner, in great shape, but never enjoyed cycling as much and felt on longer/hillier rides she would slow me down. When our daughter was born, I bought a trailer and would pull my daughter - and often a friend or our dog. That extra load acted as a great equalizer - no e-bikes back then!

My wife and I watched the entire video and I just went out and asked her what she thought. She knew the Vegan Cyclist's backstory already, I'd shown her one of his previous videos about his family, and said "I already knew he was kind of a 'tool' and acted like a hipster dufus. But, since we watched the entire thing and she got to talk at the end, I didn't come away feeling it was sexist." But, she could see how he comes off that way.

Reply    Link    Flag
3 years ago
John PescatoreTo John Pescatore

Video of a solo tourist, mainly making the point that we need to do physical distancing not social distancing to fight the pandemic and that as a solo tourist he was often physically distant from friends and family, but not necessarily socially distant. 

I can't say this video is my "fave" - the background music chosen is too somber for me and the first/last minutes use audio clips about the Coronavirus - but the video shots of the Argyll region are beautiful.

Reply    Link    Flag
3 years ago