Author Topic: My childhood friend is riding his bicycle from Jacksonville, Florida to Alaska  (Read 7701 times)

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Offline krisman101

He left with no income and no savings. He's using a $90 bicycle and is currently in northern California.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXxDaFxqAdLgkG9oI8Smjkw

Offline Twilight

Think that was done already wasn't it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7ArZ7VD-QQ

You always here these stories of how bicycle touring relies so much on the kindness of others when out and about in the rest of the world...get some world bicycling tour folks that have utilized that generosity out there in the world, and ask them to kick in a donation of something to help build a bike/gear/etc... Build the guy a full touring bike with proper panniers and all the gear from donated stuff. Don't tell him it's happening and surprise him somewhere on his journey. Utilize different platforms of social media in bike touring and see if the kindness that others have benefited from really will pay it forward to help him. Have all the parts sent to some place ahead of him to someone who is mechanical, would volunteer some time to do the build, have it waiting for him somewhere and surprise him with it. Would be fun to add to the Youtube channel too.

He needs rain gear if anyone is reading and has extra :)


Offline hikerjer

I'm afraid I'm going to come off snarky here but if I do, I guess that's just the way it is. I have no problem with people traveling on a minimum budget but somewhere there is a time to be responsible for yourself.  I wonder if it's really  proper for your friend to expect and be dependent on the kindness of others to support him on his "vacation".  It smacks of entitlement to me. Whenever I traveled during my youth, I always worked, scrimped and saved to do it. That's not to say I didn't receive and accept help from people, many of them complete strangers. I most certainly did. But I wasn't dependent on them nor did I expect it of them. It was just a very nice dividend when traveling.  And it happened a lot for which I  am grateful.

Offline TCS

I see you posted identically worded blurbs on the same day here and on bikeforums.

Existing patreons drying up?

Blaine Bare, call your office!
"My name is Pither.  I am at present on a cycling tour of the North Cornwall area taking in Bude and..."

Offline krisman101

Think that was done already wasn't it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7ArZ7VD-QQ

You always here these stories of how bicycle touring relies so much on the kindness of others when out and about in the rest of the world...get some world bicycling tour folks that have utilized that generosity out there in the world, and ask them to kick in a donation of something to help build a bike/gear/etc... Build the guy a full touring bike with proper panniers and all the gear from donated stuff. Don't tell him it's happening and surprise him somewhere on his journey. Utilize different platforms of social media in bike touring and see if the kindness that others have benefited from really will pay it forward to help him. Have all the parts sent to some place ahead of him to someone who is mechanical, would volunteer some time to do the build, have it waiting for him somewhere and surprise him with it. Would be fun to add to the Youtube channel too.

He needs rain gear if anyone is reading and has extra :)

That would be AMAZING! I've never directly asked anyone for donations before and I don't see why not. I'm sharing his story with different travel and bicycle websites because I think it's incredible and have hope to build his YouTube channel to create a stronger following. I agree that would be great content.

I'm afraid I'm going to come off snarky here but if I do, I guess that's just the way it is. I have no problem with people traveling on a minimum budget but somewhere there is a time to be responsible for yourself.  I wonder if it's really  proper for your friend to expect and be dependent on the kindness of others to support him on his "vacation".  It smacks of entitlement to me. Whenever I traveled during my youth, I always worked, scrimped and saved to do it. That's not to say I didn't receive and accept help from people, many of them complete strangers. I most certainly did. But I wasn't dependent on them nor did I expect it of them. It was just a very nice dividend when traveling.  And it happened a lot for which I  am grateful.

He doesn't expect anything from anyone. He does stop to work when necessary and he never asks for money from anyone. He tells them his story what he's trying to accomplish and they reach out on their own free will to help and support. He makes it his obligation not to directly ask people for money. To him this isn't a vacation - it's a mission. I do appreciate your comment and hope you watch more of the videos from start to finish to get a better idea.

I see you posted identically worded blurbs on the same day here and on bikeforums.

Existing patreons drying up?

Blaine Bare, call your office!

Yeah I did. The idea is to get a wider audience. No, I don't think he has any patreons to begin with haha. But thank you for commenting.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2019, 10:47:33 pm by krisman101 »

Offline Twilight

"...it's a mission."

Right on then!


It's OK...I get snorky people.

That's all fine and dandy, but the reality is, some people just are unable, can't, or just simply won't confound, fit in, comply. There is a laundry list of reasons why, and I can understand many of them today. I am not speaking for this young man, and I am not saying "everyone" should go do this now.

But he is doing it. It's being done. And sometimes you can just meet folks where they are at in life and bless them for whatever stupid reasons others will find a million different reasons as to "why" it is a bad idea or just stupid.

Life unsupported sucks. It's awful and it sucks. And someone just "suddenly" finding their inner bearings, moral compass, or whatever other societal norm they have to be squeezed into a box because they don't fit in somewhere else, and often times that box is awful within itself and more often than not, a dead end anyway.

If you don't have a mother and father that are gifted in some way in life from the onset, being family morals, strong work ethics, some type of education at least enough to self educate at some point, and even some financial support coming out of the gate, a hand up, whatever....life can be extremely crude. Foster to prison pipeline statistics alone will tell you how flawed your thinking really is. Do you honestly think you just have something else in you that statistically, all those kids do "not" have innate in them somehow?

I didn't go through enough of the kids videos to see what his home life is like, what he was leaving behind, his hopes in this, etc... to speak enough for him. If he was a black kid in the hood, I would say, "Right on!"

I also think with as elaborate as his youtube channel is, just unpolished, and let's face it, the main character isn't your normal character type that appeals to a widespread American middle class working audience, but I think opportunities and doors "will" open for him just by what he is doing alone. He is also gaining more practical life experience in some ways than most people will get in a lifetime in his trip. Seeing the side to life that he is witnessing comes with it's own life lessons, experiences, and wisdom.

As far as my idea...there are thousands of people doing what he is doing right now just more supported, and lucky enough to have marketable skills to self support like typical tech nomad life folks can do because of their own luck of being born into better opportunities and education. They have gofundme and other crowd sourcing methods available to them also.

Not to mention seeing a community that praises so much on the kindness and hospitality of others throughout the world allegedly, even with forums, blogs, and articles dedicated to such things, and then profiting off of those stories in their own crowd sourcing, donations, etc... it would be nice to see folks utilize technology in other ways of doing cool things collectively and coming up with ideas that haven't been done before and giving opportunities to folks that might not get them normally.

You have seen the TV show "Idiot Abroad" correct? Seem to work out real well for those folks.

Maybe he is the next up and coming star...community gets him a touring bike, and we turn him into the next "Human Abroad" kind of thing. He youtubes all of it, ends up touring all over the world, donations and some kind of a lotto system to where his next place to discover is, send his personality in to talk with folks and the locals, and as he grows and rises, more and more opportunities and doors open for him. Now it turns into a small production company and website. He has a couple of people employed, including himself, and I would say more wisdom and skills to last a couple of lifetimes of how to figure things out eventually.

Or...maybe he just gets blessed with a bike out of it and ends up riding his entire life and somehow that opened a door up for him along the way even if just spiritually. But more importantly, the community comes together and does something it never did before, and then people see how cool of an idea or event it was, and people in the community become inspired to do other things or even bigger ideas collectively to bless, help, support folks, or just because they can and it was fun to watch and be a part of.

The snarky folks can snark the entire time, and the folks who aren't snarks and might think it is a cool idea, might just donate something to the cause and watch something cool come together.

And I completely get that there will be people that just absolutely hate the idea all together, think it isn't right, get on the entitlement bandwagon, whatever....

But you have to admit this kid is brave, has guts, more than most people, his personality is rather unique and although a little raw, there is a sense of innocence and wonder to him. I think he will figure something out or life will for him. I think he will be just fine.

This is entiltement: https://www.google.com/search?q=Kim+Kardashian&rlz=1C1AVFC_enUS829US829&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiL1f68mfTgAhURK30KHSHBCVYQ_AUIDygC&biw=1920&bih=937#imgrc=FQvhBH-_RnTMxM:

Not that kid on a $90 bicycle in the rain that we are talking about.

Just "some" thoughts...
« Last Edit: March 08, 2019, 11:17:07 pm by Twilight »

Offline hikerjer

Hey, maybe you'd better lay off the caffeine a little. 

I still think it might be a better option to work and save a little and then  start his vacation, tour,  mission or whatever. It's called being responsible.

Offline Twilight

"Hey, maybe you'd better lay off the caffeine a little. "

LOL...I did just have a Mountain Dew which I hardly ever have caffeine too. OK

Offline krisman101

Just some thoughts?

I got chills reading this! You hit the nail right on the head with every sentence! Would love to read more of your thoughts. Your encouragement, positivity, and belief is worth more than you know. Thank you.

Quote
I didn't go through enough of the kids videos to see what his home life is like, what he was leaving behind, his hopes in this, etc... to speak enough for him. If he was a black kid in the hood, I would say, "Right on!"

This inspired me to try and convince him to get more personal with the audience. I think this is very important. We talked last night and he asked me if I watched his most recent video. I admittedly said I buffered through a majority of it. I don't want to see sped up montages of him riding his bicycle on a highway. I'm here for the struggle. The relent. The inspiration. To live vicariously through his unconformity, adventure, and unknowing of what's to come. To know how that person was brought up would bring a deeper level of attraction to the character. Thank you for that.

Quote
As far as my idea...there are thousands of people doing what he is doing right now just more supported, and lucky enough to have marketable skills to self support like typical tech nomad life folks can do because of their own luck of being born into better opportunities and education. They have gofundme and other crowd sourcing methods available to them also.

Not to mention seeing a community that praises so much on the kindness and hospitality of others throughout the world allegedly, even with forums, blogs, and articles dedicated to such things, and then profiting off of those stories in their own crowd sourcing, donations, etc... it would be nice to see folks utilize technology in other ways of doing cool things collectively and coming up with ideas that haven't been done before and giving opportunities to folks that might not get them normally.

The conversation of how to gain more subscribers came about last night as well. He dreams to obtain a large audience, inspire them to think outside of the box, and teach them that they don't have to settle. Not to have the biggest donations. As my contribution I decided to take it upon myself to blindly reach out to different bicycle and travel forums as the first steps in hopes to find a target audience to watch his videos. My foot is in the door and I hope to open more avenues and have more conversations with people like you.

Quote
Maybe he is the next up and coming star...community gets him a touring bike, and we turn him into the next "Human Abroad" kind of thing. He youtubes all of it, ends up touring all over the world, donations and some kind of a lotto system to where his next place to discover is, send his personality in to talk with folks and the locals, and as he grows and rises, more and more opportunities and doors open for him. Now it turns into a small production company and website. He has a couple of people employed, including himself, and I would say more wisdom and skills to last a couple of lifetimes of how to figure things out eventually.

Now that's a dream I'd like to be a part of. I believe he's 100% capable of making that happen.

Quote
Or...maybe he just gets blessed with a bike out of it and ends up riding his entire life and somehow that opened a door up for him along the way even if just spiritually. But more importantly, the community comes together and does something it never did before, and then people see how cool of an idea or event it was, and people in the community become inspired to do other things or even bigger ideas collectively to bless, help, support folks, or just because they can and it was fun to watch and be a part of.

Beautiful.
« Last Edit: March 09, 2019, 12:55:36 am by krisman101 »

Offline Twilight

It's called being responsible.

Just out of curiousity, and not to compare apples to oranges here, but what about someone like her?

https://nypost.com/2017/05/26/serial-killer-who-kept-woman-chained-in-container-pleads-guilty-to-seven-murders/

What if that woman eventually never gets it together? Society stops caring? She falls through the cracks? And she is homeless, busted out, and decides she wants to get on a bike. Wouldn't that be "irresponsible" of her?

What about a child that was put in other tragic gross context we can imagine up, maybe equally traumatic in it's own context....it's their fault for not being more "responsible?"

I guess that I just don't see the difference between Betty Beautiful riding off into the world, having every Barney and Betty across the world opening their doors to her because she is sweet, well spoken, and "cute," and because she (or he if that be the case) is more apt with technology, maybe vocabulary, grammar, etc... than most, her world touring turns into novels, movies, and sponsorship, while his is a lack of responsibility.

Guess I just don't understand the difference is all. Because someone has telecommuting skills and can utilize the internet more based on their personality or looks doesn't seem very fare to me. That seems pretty "irresponsible" of a society to allow such indifference's to happen.

But maybe that's the Mountain Dew peaking.


Offline Twilight

He dreams to obtain a large audience

I would not let this be a factor, driving force, and just let it happen or not happen. This would actually be my biggest concern with anyone or anything surrounding it. Although I gave Youtube as an example of "what if," it wouldn't be a "what if" I would probably encourage, suggest to someone, or chase that type of life personally. I couldn't imagine the type of human that would be the finished product of stardom in any capacity. I can be devils advocate on both sides of the fence on this. So I am not the best person for support here.

Personally if it was my son doing it or trying for an audience, I would encourage him to "not" do that and take another path personally. Not so much his journey, but the audience and stardom thing. I assume you will loose your soul in their eventually and not know who you are anymore long term. But those are just assumptions, I really wouldn't or don't know.

Offline BikeliciousBabe


Yeah I did. The idea is to get a wider audience. No, I don't think he has any patreons to begin with haha. But thank you for commenting.

That's not what you wrote on Bike Forums:

"Of course he has a very small financial support group and there's nothing wrong with that. They're doing it on their own free will."

I think the OP is the rider trying to drum up support via YouTube. I am not the only one.

Offline John Nettles

  • World Traveler
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  • I ride for smiles, not miles.
Please let this thread die.

Offline Twilight

"Please let this thread die."

Embarrassment to the establishment?

LOL