 I'm going to turn the camera off, but anyway, just to know everybody, I love you. I certainly do. There's a lot of good people in this world. And that's what charges me up. Keeps me going. All the good people in this world. Ta-da! That was the video. And I just want to say that we just went live on YouTube! Welcome to New York City! Alright, so we're going to put that right there. See, we don't want to block your view. Nope, we don't want to do that. And I want to get a shot of this. So many cameras. You know, I'm a YouTuber. I've got to film everything I do. We're pretty much going to do that same shot again, but with this camera. Okay, here we go. Let's see. Alright, it's time! I will do it! A little warm-up. This really means the world to me. I never thought this would be possible when I started a YouTube channel about six years ago. This was the goal, but I never thought it would actually happen, right? I said, hey, I'm coming to this city. And maybe you can come listen to my stories and hear you all are. So this is absolutely a dream come true. It was fun to chat with some of you before the event started and get to know your story. I got to meet Sal yesterday. Pizza Tripe took me out for some of the best pizza in New York City, which was very cool. And it's just a privilege. And we're here at Priority Bicycles in New York City. And you've heard a lot about Priority Bicycles right on my channel. They have been absolutely wonderful. I don't even know what the word is. Family, team members, partners. I'm not a sponsored athlete, but I just, I love these guys like their family. And they have taken good care of me. And they give me the freedom to design bicycles. And that's how the 600X came about with our good friend Eddie back there. Hi, Eddie! So there's a few people here who said they have the 600X, right? Eddie is the brainchild behind the 600X. So say thanks to him as well. We collaborated on that together. And that also is a dream project. I'm going to make sure this is a little bit more, there we go. Remember we're live here, let's see. Is that better? People, hi, hi everybody. I thought I would start by saying how I met Priority. People wonder, like, how did you get teamed up with this bike brand in New York City? You're a bolder guy. How did this all happen? And so in 2016, I was invited to a press trip. And a press trip is where PR agencies invite journalists to go cover some new product or some new hotel or something around the world. And back in my day of being like a travel journalist when I worked with the travel channel, I got invited on these things a lot of times. And there was one PR company I worked with called Diamond PR. And they took me around the world and it was exciting. And they always knew that I loved bikes because whenever I went and did these, you know, travel trips with them, and I'd be like, hey, can I rent a bike and make a video about biking? And I once did it in Aruba. I rode a bike all the way around Aruba. Phone is talking to you. And so they invited me to this press trip in Minneapolis, which is a great city, but I'm not sure it's such a great city in February. And so they're like, Brian, we know you love bikes. We're doing this press trip in Minneapolis. You'll get it. You'll get it. Nobody's looking at it. It's all good. And I was like, I don't know if I want to do it. Want me to figure out how I can do this one? They said, come to Minneapolis in February and we're working with this bike company and they're releasing this new bicycle. And I was like, man, I don't know if I want to go to Minneapolis in February. That sounds kind of cold and horrible. But at the last minute I said yes to the press trip. And I went out there with Dave and Connor. And we connected like brothers. You probably met them when you walked in. Dave and Connor have been in a lot of my videos. They're the founders of this wonderful company. And we kind of connected like we were brothers. We're the same age. We like the same things. And we rode these bikes, the continuum. Does anybody have a continuum? It's a cool bike. We rode the continuum. It was one of their newer bikes at the time. Late Calhoun. Over ice. They put snow tires on these bikes. And we had this fun little adventure for a couple days. And we came away as very good friends. And I'm so grateful that I went on that press trip. And when I left the trip they're like, hey Ryan, we'll send you one of these continuums and you can make a video about it on your YouTube channel. And I was like, okay. And that's the very first priority video I ever made was about the continuum. You might remember it if you're an old school fan. And that's how it all came to be. And from that point on, they would send me their bikes. And I would test them and try them out. The next bike in the line was the 600. And I loved that bike. I made a video about that. And that's essentially how it started and how I built up this partnership. And I'm forever grateful. And I like to call it up. So we have Connor here. We have Dave there. We have Lauren in the back. You may have met Lauren also. Has been with priority since the very early days. I see Nelson back there. Hi Nelson. Has anybody called Nelson with a broken bike issue? Because you're going to be talking. Yeah, you know. Nelson's the guy that you've talked to. We've got Benjamin right next to him. Hi there, buddy. Eddie's back there. Are there any more employees? There are more, but not here right now. Oh, great. Oh, there's Greg right there. Greg does all the social media. Yeah. So if you follow priority on Instagram which is very cool. I'll give the secret away. Greg's a good guy. How's everybody doing out there? Hi, hi, hi. So I want to make this kind of casual and informal. A lot of you have probably watched my videos so you know a lot of the stories. So I want to open this up to questions. But I'll start off with a couple stories to get things fired up and then we can ask questions. How does that sound? And don't be shy. Please ask questions. It's fun. And we'll just get started that way. So how did I get started as a biker and a bike packer? And this is a story that I haven't really shared yet in a video. When I was five years old I was diagnosed with very high blood pressure. And I'll never forget it, but the nurses came in and they checked it. It was 160 over 140 at five years old which is nuts. And then they're like, no that can't be. No kids have blood pressure that high. Then they bring somebody else and check it like, oh yeah, it's 160 over 140. And so as a young boy I went through lots of tests and they went out of the hospital and they never quite figured out what was causing my high blood pressure. But I remember the doctors, many doctors saying the best way to combat this issue is to have a strong heart. So he's like, you need to run. You need to move moments. And I was like, okay. And so from that moment on I started running. I was a weird elementary school kid that would wake up before school and go running. And I took it really seriously. I don't want to die, I want to have a strong heart. And that's how I essentially got into being an endurance athlete at a very young age. And I started cycling as well. And so that has motivated me throughout my whole life. And then of course as we all know you feel better about yourself. You feel more alive. You feel vibrant. And I just stuck with it and I loved it. And I got a little bit competitive. I was fairly fast when I was young. I had dreams of going to the Olympics. I ran track in Colorado in the summers and then in high school. But I always rode a bike. But at that point cycling for me was just commuting. I had never been on a bike ride or any type of adventure. And I remember watching an Earth Day special when I was very young about saving the planet. This must have been some of the first media about Earth Day and what humans were doing to the planet. And as a little boy I was really impacted by the message and what we were doing to precious Mother Earth. And at that moment I said I am never going to drive a car. I'm going to ride my car every day. Because in my mind that was the best way to keep this planet clean. Everybody here probably has a car that is a driven car so I'm not a car hater. But at that moment I'm like I'm going to ride my bike everywhere I go. And so I just started riding everywhere. To school. To soccer practice. To all the things that a little boy would do. And I remember going on a long bike ride once with my friend Paul. And my mom had always warned me about Paul because Paul was kind of a troublemaker. And Paul took me down this highway to this mountain biking and it was the first feeling of absolute freedom. I went further than the confines of my neighborhood. Because up until that point I had gone that far. But now I was like far. A place where a car would usually take me. And I was on a bike and it just felt so good. I remember riding back with him and being starving. Because when you burn that many calories you get so hungry. I remember we stopped at an all-you-can-eat buffet and I ate everything and it felt so good. And then I went home and I remember my mom and my friend Paul. She's like don't you ever take my son on a ride like that ever again. Especially not on the highway. And that was my first taste of like long travel on a bike. And then you know throughout high school I went on my friends turn 16. I decided I don't want to drive. I'm sticking to this whole environmental you know protest where I'm going to ride my bike everywhere. And in Boulder, Colorado they have quite a bit of money. And they all got cars when they were 16. And I was like I'm just going to ride my bike. Not only because I love my bike because I was raised by a single mom and she didn't have money to buy us cars. It wasn't even an option for me. And I just kept riding and riding. And I remember like riding the school, the freezing cold, the winter mornings and my friends would drive past me and their cars would honk at me and they'd be like sucka. But you know they thought that they were all relate to that right? It feels good even when it's freezing cold to ride your bike or just to be outside. And you know fast forward till today and a million ventures in between I still have never owned a car in my life. I ride my bike everywhere I go. The number one question I get from people is how do you go on dates? And the answer is you know I put women on the handlebars or tandem. Who here has been on a tandem date? Yeah, you guys were talking about it earlier. Tandem dates are the best dates. Right? And then I graduated from high school or up from college sorry and decided that I didn't want to get a job in the real world. You know I got a degree in Broadcast Journalism and I was trained to be like a local news anchor which was fun and exciting but that's not what I wanted to do. I always had a piece of wanting to make the world a better place and I decided to join the Peace Corps and so I went down to Honduras for two and a half years and I worked with kids and those two years were some of the most challenging yet rewarding years of my life. I absolutely loved it even though it was very hard and as we all know the hardest things in life usually reap the greatest rewards and on a daily basis this would happen I lived in a small village on the western side of Honduras in a stucco house that sometimes had running water sometimes had electricity it was a totally different world from Boulder, Colorado who's been to Boulder? Okay so a lot of people have been to Boulder Boulder is a very nice affluent city I've never experienced anything like this it was eye open to see how not only Honduras is but to realize that's how a lot of the world is so fortunate and from that point on I was like I want to do everything I can to help people in whatever fashion that is and whatever that means but those two years were extremely impactful I worked with kids, I worked in schools I coached girls and boys soccer teams because I got a degree in broadcast journalism I started a youth news TV show and I got cameras donated from UNICEF you all know UNICEF it's a nation's segment that helped children around the world you might remember on Halloween when you walk around with a little UNICEF box and you get people to put money in it you have a little competition at school that's UNICEF so they donated some cameras to me and we started essentially like a garage level TV show when I taught these kids how to very basic shooting and editing skills and they would run around all week and film stories that meant something to them they finally gave them a voice in their community that they had never had and I was working with kids that were aged like 10 to 16, 17 in high school and it was really fun to see what they came up with it was really powerful because kids in Honduras they're kind of like the forgotten age they don't get a lot of respect or attention and they're just like there's a lot of times the families have lots of kids and they don't get the attention that they deserve and so I was there essentially it was like a big brother to all these kids and it was the coolest job I've ever had and so that essentially was my project in Honduras and I decided that instead of flying home from Honduras like the rest of the Peace Corps volunteers I was with, I would cash in my ticket use the money to buy a bike and I would ride home great idea right everybody should do this so I did that you know a few people at the beginning I think I'm going to ride my bike home from Honduras they're like that is stupid that is a crazy idea why would you ever consider that and then I would tell like the kids that I was working with and they're like yeah you should do that that sounds so fun, it sounds like a great adventure kids are always so enthusiastic about anything right and so and the kids in Honduras said you should go, on the other end my mom and her friends in the United States the kids in Honduras went out and I gave away all of my stuff after the two years but I lived there packed up a trailer full of camping equipment and it will still forever be one of the most impactful days of my life that I left Honduras definitely one of the saddest days because I had lived there for two years and I had become like a big brother to these children and leaving them almost in a way felt wrong but I came there and I was this like fun loving gringo guy and then all of a sudden I was leaving and it was really hard to say goodbye because at that point I didn't know when I would be back I didn't know if I would be able to stay in touch with these kids this was way before social media and Facebook and all that stuff they definitely did not have internet in Honduras at the time and it was really sad and scary but at the same time it was exciting because I was getting on my bike and I remember that morning saying goodbye to everybody and I'm tears streaming down my face and getting on my bike and being like wow this is real this is it, I'm really doing this I've been planning it for months actually two years and I got on that bike and I had one paper map I didn't have any GPS, there were no cell phones no smartphones and I had a paper map and I had Honduras my little village which was called La Esperanza in Boulder, Colorado I drew a line on this one paper map I'm like I should be able to follow that map all the way there and it worked out I followed that exact same route the whole way home it worked out back in those days I wasn't looking at a phone every day to see where I should turn left or right I was talking to the locals which was a great way to connect with people and so many people the entire way home and I was you know I was a little scared most people outside of my world in Peace Corps and Honduras were like this is crazy haven't you watched the news don't you know how dangerous Central America is and how dangerous Mexico is and I was like no I think it's going to be okay and luckily I spoke Spanish so that definitely helped and I slowly made my way every single day asking people for directions people would invite me into their homes a lot of these villages I went through had never in their lives met a white guy Mexico is a pretty touristy country but not where I was riding my bike and it was fascinating and it was beautiful and it was there that I realized how generous most people are and at that time it was Mexicans but really it's people all over the world people want to help other people and I would roll up on my bike and my trailer and obviously it sparks questions like this is weird we've never had a crazy white dude on a bike in our village before and they would all kind of come out and I was like the center of attention for a little bit to tell my story of what I was doing it was a fun cultural exchange moment and I did that the whole way home never ever once felt in danger in Mexico quite the opposite people would go out of their way to help me I remember once a truck driver pulled over in front of me and I'm riding up and I'm like I hope this isn't going to be a weird situation what's he going to do why did he stop on the side of the road why is he waving at me but I got up to the cab and he's like hey there's no gas station for the next 70 kilometers and I saw you on your bike in the middle of nowhere and I want to give you this gallon of water and I was like are you kidding me like you stopped your car and it still happened you've watched my videos you see what these people do the trail magic is a real thing that is when I fully realize the magic of humans and trail magic I made it home it was so exciting when I crested the hills coming back into Boulder it was a beautiful December morning I'd left in September this adventure took three months I remember it was like about nine degrees it was freezing cold the boulder flat irons were lit up with the morning sun and it was one of those moments but I'll never forget and I came over this hill coming into town after being not only on the road for three months but away at Honduras for two years so I'd been away from home for a long time and I rode down I saw like a group of people off to the side of the road and some of them had flags I'm like who are these people what's going on and it was a lot of my friends and my mom and other people and I went down to greet me as I rolled into Boulder and I went up and I hugged my mom and I remember she was crying and I was crying and she was like don't ever do this again and at that time I said I won't allow my problems because the stress is around of course it stresses moms out to do something like this because it is scary itch but to me I never felt endangered and that is essentially the story of how I got into this I felt so alive nothing in my life had ever made me feel that way before every day was a new adventure every day had a different ending I didn't know how anything was going to end up I would just wake up pack up my gear get on my bike and go and I just trusted that everything would work out and I trusted the people along the way and it all worked out and it not just worked out but it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life up until that point a lot of you have done bike tours I talked to some of you before this you can relate there is a lot of magic out there and at this time in the world when we watch the news and everything is scary and we think that humans can be so horrible and mean and judgmental you think back to these adventures and you are like no most humans are good most humans are definitely good and want to help out one another and when I get scared a couple of times I tap back into those memories and it just fills my heart with joy knowing that there is a lot of people on this planet and the news can be sensational and they focus on the negative stories but the good far outweighs the bad on this planet can we agree with that? I would agree with that so that is a quick story of how I got into riding my bike and that first adventure and I would like to open it up to questions now because a lot of you most of you know my stories and so maybe you have some specific questions that you've always wanted to ask me and now is your time do we have any questions? here we go so the question from the audience was at the end of the day how much energy to still talk to people? it's hard sometimes because you know I put out a lot of energy not just riding my bike all day but documenting these rides were you watching these videos and you see me like pushing my bike up a hill you have to remember that I've run to the top of the hill already placed the camera on the tripod run all the way back and then I get on my bike and then push it back to the top over and over and over throughout the day or I pull out my drone not just physical but emotional energy and you know if you saw my most recent Colorado Trail adventure you realize like that was the hardest thing I've ever done so to answer your question people energize me that's my favorite part of riding my bike is connecting with other humans that's the magic like when I rode off from Honduras and met people every single day and I might be tired and I might be exhausted I might think oh I don't have it in me and once it takes a couple like sentences and words to get fired up I'm like oh this is a really cool moment and you have a story too because everybody's story inspires me as well and that happens day after day after day when I'm on these bike rides and you'll watch a lot of my videos and you'll say Ryan meets a lot of people along the way and I really do my sister-in-law was watching my videos recently and she's like do you interview and I'd never realized that from the outside looking in it's like I'm constantly sticking my camera in people's faces and the answer is no I don't interview everybody I meet but I do I'll stop on my bike if somebody's out there and we'll just start chatting oh what's your story what are you doing out here whether it's on the Colorado Trail or on like a road tour like love cycles and then I'll be like hey you're pretty interesting and I have a YouTube channel and I love sharing other people's stories and I think your story would be inspirational would you mind if I film talking to you and so that's kind of how it goes I never just run up to anybody blindly and say you know hey how you doing what's up my name is Ryan I have a YouTube channel that's party you know I usually ask people's permission for sure so that's the answer to the question is people give me energy and I stay in touch with as many people as I can you know there's a lot of people from my old old touring days but I'm still in touch with smaller when you start meeting people everywhere you know this it is a giant planet there's 8 billion people or whatever but it feels a lot smaller once you travel to other countries and you make friends your videos bring so much positivity to people and sometimes it seems to forget what an incredible athlete you are because you make much of what you do look easy you just ran the level 100 yeah so my question is what is a a typical day like for you and what is your training are you training for all these things that you've not been doing so the question was how do I train for the adventures that I go on and there's 20 million people watching right now or maybe not quite though so yeah I've always been an athletic kid like I said when I was young I started running at a very early age and I was pretty good and I ran a lot and I really seriously wanted to be an Olympian I was never I never got close to that point but I was a pretty fast runner and so I you know it's a mix of like muscle memory my body has just done this for a lifetime but also I'm always active like I don't have a car so when I go anywhere I'm on a bike I run 5 days a week you know I live in Boulder high altitude the mountains so I'm like running up and down hills all the time it's funny I'm actually pretty under trained for a lot of the things that I do I should probably train more but luckily I have some good genes and I put in the work but that's I don't know if that's a pretty good answer to your question but because I don't have a coach I don't do anything like regimented I don't even I never run with a watch I don't like document my rides or how fast I'm going or elevation really I only do that for like YouTube or it's who want to know like how many miles I've ridden and how the elevation like I've never paid attention to that until just recently I just got my first bike computer last year other than that like I would just get on my bike and ride I didn't know how many miles I didn't have elevation or whatever so it's all kind of new to me but as far as like how I pull these giant adventures off it's like always in pretty good shape and I go from adventure to adventure to adventure yeah which do you prefer the solo trips or trips where you're with a group of friends good question question is do I prefer solo trips or group trips that's a very good question and there's a lot of value in both I love my solo trips because I really get to just be out there and figure things out of my own and there are moments when it's very scary and it's very lonely a lot of people ask me you're always so positive you're always bouncing off the walls and the answer is no I'm a human just like everybody I go through dark times and sad times and lonely times but I do think it's really beneficial from time to time to do these alone trips and just be out there and just you're really just listening to my thoughts and what's going on internally and paying attention to the little things and nature and I love that just taking those little moments to appreciate the delicate beautiful little pieces of nature and when I'm with other people it's a lot harder to do that like when I ride with John and Mira or I ride with Dana I love it but I'm talking to them the whole day side by side which is really fun but it's a completely different experience and it is fun to have that shared experience when you see the sunrise and you hug and it's like oh my god are you seeing this because when you're alone it's like oh my god I'm alone this is cool and luckily I do get to share it with all of you on YouTube and there are moments people ask me a lot like does it ever get hard to always be documenting everything you're doing and a lot of you watch Love Cycles right with Ally and that was a tricky one because the whole point of that ride was to fall further in love with Ally I just met this wonderful woman we fell madly in love and just like a month after meeting her we decided to ride across the country and there were many times at the beginning of the ride where it's like there is a sunrise there is a rainbow and I'm like oh my god this is so amazing and Ally's like put down the camera put it down I want to experience this with you and only you and it's hard because if I don't film it so I got better at that as Love Cycles went on to really kind of honor what Ally had requested and we did have more of those magical moments together and then I would sneak the shots when I needed to get the shot and that didn't have anything to do with why we broke up people always ask why did you break up Ally is still a very close friend she will always be a very dear friend to me you watch that whole adventure she's an amazing human she's one of the most thoughtful people I've ever met she challenged me in ways that other humans have never challenged me she's super smart and so we'll always have love for each other it just didn't work out as a romantic relationship and it was hard it was really hard to say goodbye to that because I thought she was the one I thought we were going to get married I really truly did and she did the same way and you know we did Love Cycles to see and it just didn't work out and that's okay and it's important also I think to share these stories with YouTube because love stories don't always have a happy ending you know that's a very real thing and there's a lot of criticism with Instagram and YouTube about people only show the shiny parts of their lives the best moments and that's why I made the video about why we broke up because you would all come on this fairy tale adventure of Ryan and Allie riding across the country and all of a sudden she wasn't in my videos anymore and people wanted to know why and I tried to you know explain that in the most respectful way possible and it was hard you see that video I'm choking up it's heart wrenching but I have a friend for life and her name is Allie and she's not my wife and that's okay here we go absolutely time doesn't take you said it's a lot of work if you did into this how much time would you say question is how much time does it take to make these videos right yeah how much time so it takes a long time this is my full time job this is what I do a lot of people think oh Ryan is a YouTuber and he must have another job no this is my job and that was always the goal I worked in the TV world for many years my dream was to be a travel TV show host I wanted to be like Mike Rowe you know they got dirty jobs or you know even Steve Irwin the crocodile hunter I thought that was like the coolest thing ever I can totally do this because I think I'm dynamic and fun and I can tell stories and it didn't quite work out I had some success in the TV world it just was really hard to navigate and I decided okay no more TV I'm gonna try to do this YouTube thing and build up my channel big enough to the point where I can make a living doing it and the first few years were really hard I put a ton of effort into my videos the same amount as I put in now and nobody watched my mom watched him of course but I'm a fan hi mom but I didn't really get many views back in the day and it was scary I was like okay I just ditched the TV world where I did make a living and now I'm trying this YouTube thing and I'm seven years old I should be at the point of my life where I'm like making money all my other friends are like deep into their careers and I'm like I'm a YouTuber and I like videos and like nobody really understood it but I was just relentless and that's one of my personality traits like I just don't give up and I just kept with it and I knew that if I kept sharing these stories that it would make me happy it would fill me because the main goal of my channel is to put something of value into the world to make the world a better place going back to my message from Ponder and that was my media and I just stuck with it and the video started getting a few more views and some friends would tell their friends and it's caught on to a degree my channel is bigger than I ever thought it would be and I'm incredibly grateful and I had 130,000 subscribers now which to me is huge thank you it's not huge you look at some of the other YouTubers with millions of subscribers but it's really that's a lot of people really it's so many people so it's my full time job I spend every day editing when I'm not on an adventure I'm at home editing the editing process takes a long time because I'm shooting with three different cameras I have a drone, I have a GoPro, I have my Sony the interviews and the flower shots the depth of field, like beauty shots the GoPro gets all the movement shots when I'm on my bike, whether it's on my head and the drone obviously gets the beautiful drone shots and it takes a while to put those all together build a story out of my footage and then I spend a lot of time finding music I'm part of a music library called Music Bed and I really want the music to be good because audio is a huge part of telling stories and I spend lots of time just typing in like acoustic with some cello and it takes forever to find these songs but it's worth it in the end you guys like the music that I put in there? yeah, okay, cool because it's not easy to find those songs there's thousands of thousands of songs that I sit to but how much would it add to the distance of my bike? oh how much time do I have? because I did a long bike ride I don't know how it's hard to calculate how much time I spend every day filming but it's a lot I wake up the first thing I do is start filming I set up the shots maybe an hour and a half to two hours extra maybe it really depends how much of what I do is planned and how much of spur of the moment maybe we should move this a little like a typical ride every day not what does it plan on doing so I don't really plan much at all that's kind of my MO with life in general I just kind of go with the flow and whatever happens happens and that's how it is with these bike rides too I dreamed up the Colorado trail I'm going to make this happen I'm going to go out there and I'm just going to start pedaling and we'll see what happens so I would say almost none of it you don't have a list of shots no I definitely don't have a list of shots I know in my mind I'm like I need to get some drone shots at some point in the day I need to get some close ups of some beauty at some point in the day I hopefully will meet somebody it's not a guarantee I'm going to meet somebody hopefully we'll meet some interesting people that I can film and I go through this in my mind I'm like how long can I keep making YouTube videos of essentially doing the same exact thing over and over and make it interesting and it works out you don't pre-plan do you as you go along you probably go without a laptop or anything are you making metal notes as you go along use this shot and use that shot this is the way I'm going to put it together so when you get to the editing process you've almost already got an outline in your head the question is do I have an outline an outline in my head as I'm riding is that kind of an idea of the narrative as I'm going along and the answer is yes I have gotten pretty good at knowing what I need and I only shoot what I need at times a lot of people think I'm just filming all day long the GoPro just starts in the morning and ends at 5pm I'm pushing pause continually throughout the day and so yeah I will get the shots in the morning okay I've got three tripod shots that will be good transitions from the last scene I would like to get a drone shot that can take the viewer and give them a perspective of what they're seeing right here I just interviewed somebody and now I need something to get me out of that interview and take me forward and so those are all things that I am thinking about but again it's hard because it's not a guarantee I can always get those things I worked in the TV world where everything is scripted and it's like okay we're going to go here we're going to do production shots then we're going to get some B roll then we're going to move over to this section and you know there's a whole scripted list everything is a one man band which is absolutely incredible there aren't that many people in the news business to do that yeah they're one man band to shoot but do they go back and edit a complex piece together and the answer is probably no yeah it's hard but I've done it so much that I like to feel like I'm somewhat good at it now I didn't get the shots I needed and now I have to figure out a way to tell the story with shots that I don't have in my most recent video that came out last week on the Colorado Trail it's when this hail started and just everything went chaotic I was filming and the GoPro battery died and it was my hands were frozen and I just couldn't like have I didn't have the energy to take out another battery put it in the GoPro and risk getting it wet and other cameras were like packed away and I had to keep down for it I'm like I need to be filming this but I'm not like I didn't really capture that moment and it was unfortunate and so in that way I had the problems I was like okay so I went from here where it's like the storm is starting and then over here there's hail all over the ground what happened between this and this you know and I need to tell that story without having the shots and so I just used a couple of you know texts and I was like and then the hail broke loose and it sucked yeah it's tricky what bikes do I own I own only priority bikes I have the 600X I have the 600 I have the Apollo I have the coast which is the cruiser I have the current which is the e-bike I think that's it somebody else here I said well right how many of you have so how many is that wow okay so here's as many priorities as I do excuse me I do my full suspension mountain bike is a reed and that's made in Colorado 10 miles away from my house that is my raging trail bike and it's super fun I have many questions but I don't have distance to so number one so probably very influential so imagine that you're a secretary mayor what do I need to do to make more environment for the bicyclists okay great question and then the second one is you had the campaign for kids who were getting bikes recently okay cool so the question is where did all the money go that I raised for the kids did I give it to the kids and number two is if I were like a mayor or somebody in charge of like infrastructure how would I make the bike world or the United States more friendly for bikes is that right okay so we'll start with the bicycle advocacy one you know I'm a big believer that if more people are on the streets riding bikes it's going to be safer for everybody because cars are going to be more used to seeing bikes on the roads like in Europe and cars respect cyclists more they're just used to it it's a part of life it's a part of the roads countries built on the highway system and cars and then the cars ruled and I would love to see more protected bike lanes the number one reason why people don't ride bikes because they don't feel safe like my mom she's a perfect example she doesn't get on a bike a ton because she doesn't feel safe even on the streets of Boulder which is a very bike friendly city so I usually ride with my mom to make her feel safer so I would love to see more protected bike lanes I would like to see enforcement be a real thing you know distracted driving is absolutely horrible and it's getting worse my video last night that came out about this talks a little bit about that you could be driving your car and you know snapchatting and not paying attention to anything and you're probably going to get away with it because how many cops are going to see you in the moment doing that and that's a tricky one to enforce but I think we actually need to enforce these types of laws in New York City I love riding my bike around here but cars park in the bike lane constantly you know and it's like this is really dangerous you know and so I don't know exactly what I would do but I would put a lot more money into bike lanes protected bike lanes enforcement and of course free taco stands on every street corner right? yeah we need that question number two what happened with the money of the fundraisers you know a lot of you remember we auctioned off a 600X this past spring we raised $45,000 it was absolutely amazing some of you may have you know bid on that bike or bought raffle tickets did anybody do that yeah okay a few people did sorry you didn't win we'll do it again we gave money to a Navajo youth bikepacking group in Arizona and it's run by a really cool guy named John and he started this nonprofit recently to take kids out on bikes and bikepacking trips and to help them connect back into nature and so we gave them quite a bit of money and they used that money to buy bikes for the kids and you know food and stuff for their trips Dana is the one who helped administer a lot of this stuff we all know Dana yes she's the best and we gave a lot of money to the Blackfoot Nation up in Montana doing similar things to those kids she also is very connected with the Boys and Girls Club in Pueblo, Colorado where she was born and gave a lot of money to those kids same things bikes bike programs and that's essentially where all the money went for that project and we're going to do it again we're going to keep on doing this and see how many more kids we can get on bikes as we all know the younger we get on bikes the more we're going to stick with it for the rest of our lives it's not going to be that hard or in middle age or whatever to try something new you're just scared and you just don't want to do it or it's just not a part of your culture really but if you start riding a bike as a kid that's part of your life you love it and you're going to continue doing it so that's where the money went it's so true the only solution is more bikes more bikes I'm a big believer that bikes can save the world bikes can solve a lot of the world's major problems I really believe that from, you know, oil and gas consumption to just pollution to even things we don't think about like noise pollution cities would be a lot quieter if everybody rode bikes instead of drove cars that's okay yeah very cool what's your name again thank you so we have a gentleman in the audience who says that he makes bikes and every time he makes a new bike he gives away another bike to a child which is so cool, thank you for doing that and I think that's a huge really tough question okay, you want to go now? if you have to make a choice yeah this is a good question the question is Nutella or peanut butter man Nutella is so good but it's really like candy it's not healthy at all in any way shape or form I feel like peanut butter is somewhat healthy especially if you buy like natural peanut butter so if I had to choose one for the rest of my life I'd probably choose peanut butter yeah and also I've been learning more recently about the palm oil that goes into Nutella and the deforestation that happens in Indonesia and most products that we use in life from shampoo to Nutella to other things use palm oil and I'm really trying to be mindful about choosing products that don't have palm oil what, Nelson? Nelson from Priority asked us smooth or chunky peanut butter smooth all the way what are you talking about? wow thank you, Lauren smooth it just goes so much better on bananas and apples you like the crunch, huh? I like the crunch Dave are you okay with this employee? you're a crunchy guy too oh man okay we have half of them yeah, fair enough we're all individuals here I respect everybody's opinion even though it's horrible do we have any more questions? here we go one of my favorite characters is your mom should she ever give you a hard time at any point? so, what's your name again? Dave one of his favorite characters is my mom because she's so beautiful and he has a crush on her that's not what he said does she ever give me a hard time? oh yes my mom is a ball buster she has been since day one and you know it's scary for her like I said at the beginning single mom, four kids we're all she has she's like the hero mom she did everything working a full time job and then she went to college to get a degree so she could get a better job and provide for us and so we are really everything to her and I go to places like Mexico or Cuba knowing that there are dangers involved with bike touring and it's a serious thing and I try my best to ease her mind I call her either every day or I text her just to let her know, hey mom I'm camping, it's all good you can go to sleep tonight and you can rest well knowing that I'm safe and I do that every single day on my bike trips completely silver grey you wonder why the bike trips so she does give me a hard time but she is in her own special way she is supportive but she's not like a cheerleader she's not like, oh that's a great idea Ryan go to Baja, never no way I usually have to smooth that one over so I'm going to do this thing called the Baja to Vi there's going to be days where it's going to be super hot but I'll be fine, it's okay mom it's all good any other questions? so this is from one of our virtual viewers okay cool, virtual viewer question you are Keith Walters oh Keith, right on from upstate New York he wants to know your take on pursuing your passion as a career oh cool, that's a very good question question is, what's my take on pursuing a passion as a career good question Keith if you're watching this somewhere so I feel like one of the luckiest guys in the world because I get to make my passion my job I get to get paid doing what I love but this goes a little bit back to what I was saying earlier where it's hard it's really really hard and I started with a channel with zero subscribers and zero following and you'd have to start somewhere and it's all about perseverance and you get to make a video and you think it's the most amazing thing in the world and you're like yes I'm going to be the next Casey Neistat you upload that baby and then you get 17 views and you're like oh man what's going on and like 5 out of 17 are my mom watching it 5 times and then you make another video and you're like oh this one's different it's good and you try to learn what YouTube is all about like you make a sexy thumbnail you make the video shorter and you're like okay I've got the formula all together and it doesn't get many more views and you're like wow okay it's kind of heartbreaking in a way and especially like I said at that age of 37-38 years old it's like is this sustainable can I keep doing this can I ever make this work or should I go work at Taco Bell which would probably be great because I get to be around beans all day long but it's one of those things where it's a balance between doing what you love working your butt off to make it happen but also realizing that there are times when it's not going to work out and at times when it is scary and times that you might need to take other jobs to fill in the holes and I've had to do that a million times with what I do just to make money and there's a reason why I have a pretty simple life my diet's pretty basic I don't have a car I don't have a lot of expenses so I don't need to make a ton of money like a wife and kids or something and I had to like provide for people I don't know if I could pull off what I'm doing or what I did I'm very fortunate another thing is I lived at my mom's house till I was 30 and I lived in the basement so I didn't have any bills so I was able to pursue these things whereas if I was paying rent and had a car and all these other expenses and it all comes out on YouTube and you guys see it happen every week Connor what about like for not thinking about the context of 7 day or longer adventures what about like the what's the role of like the everyday adventure for you what time is it by the way 757 oh 757? wow we've been doing this for a while alright well let me know when you guys ever get bored of my stories Connor asked about everyday adventures and what was that what's the role of everyday adventure what's the role of everyday adventure that's great my motto in life is get out there and it doesn't have to be giant you know I love just going on small trips sometimes it's in Boulder it's got a little overnighter where I ride my bike you've probably seen the video where I ride my bike 5 miles to my mom's house or camp in her backyard or pee in her bushes you see that one you know and it's really just about getting outside and connecting with people it doesn't have to be far away it doesn't have to be exotic people write me emails all the time where they're like oh I want to do what you do but I can never take 3 months to ride across the country or whatever it is it's like you don't have to you can go on a small trip Dave takes his kids on these awesome local trips in New York all the time to like Staten Island and other places that are nearby and to those kids Staten Island is like you know another world away and it's exciting and so that's kind of how I look at everyday adventures and every time I jump on my bike or I'm running it's an adventure I don't know what's going to happen I always feel like magic happens when you step out your door if you're inside all day like nothing magical is ever going to happen but if you walk out of your door something is going to happen you might see a beautiful thing a cool cloud you know you might meet the love of your life you might get the best burrito ever whatever it is but once you leave your house and do something and just push yourself a little bit magic happens because it's very easy and it happens to me where I just I don't have motivation sometimes where I'm like I don't want to run today I'm just tired and I come up with all these excuses and you know I'll have all my running gear on but then I'll be like you know what I need to dust my house really quick and I'll just like avoid doing things and oh I dusted my house you know what I should probably vacuum now and I'll just keep on doing things that will prevent me from actually stepping outside my house but once I do this is amazing like why don't take me so long to get here yeah okay so you became also interested in building the 600X so could you tell me a little bit about how that progressed so the question is what was the progression of building the 600X with Eddie so this is a really fantastic story it was March 2020 pandemic had started all of my travels had been cancelled this was the point where I still took outside jobs away from YouTube because I needed to make a living everything was cancelled I didn't know what the heck I was going to do with my life and I started thinking oh I've always wanted to ride the Great Divide it's one of the world's most beautiful routes but I wanted to ride a priority but at the time priority did not have a bike that would really work for the Great Divide and I called Dave and I'm like Dave what are the chances we can you can make like a mountain bike eventually and Dave said well actually our guy Eddie has already been thinking about this and he thought the same thing that somebody should ride this on the Great Divide the prototype and give us feedback so that's how it happened it was like magical look I thought about it and Eddie thought about it I didn't meet Eddie until two days ago so it's not like we knew each other and we were chatting it just kind of happened yeah okay yeah a little bit and so you know we just went back and forth and I was like I kind of got to build my dream bike a lot of you watched Baja where I rode the Trek 1120 and there were a lot of things about that bike I didn't like so the 600X really is like the dream bike of everything the Trek 1120 didn't have and front suspension which was really important to me so you could do some technical stuff like the Colorado Trail or technical terrain the ability to have a dropper post so you can get low and you know get back and I'll flip over your handlebars lots of eyelets to mount and bags and all those things like mountain bike geometry you know a lot of people think I've got a lot of comments on YouTube they're like well the 600X is just the 600 with shocks and I'm like well it's not at all it's a completely different bike the geometry is all different you know wider tires and the shocks up front and way stronger wheels and everything so I wanted to make a bomb proof bike and Eddie you know he's worked in the bike industry forever so he knows all the details of like what needs to happen and I just kind of would shoot ideas at him and we'd go back and forth and that's how we made the prototype that I rode down the Great Divide the first time and then when I went when I got back from that trip I said how about we do this and this and this and some other ideas that's where we changed out the fork to the Wren fork we made it so you could have wider tires on it which was really important to me so I could take it to a place like Baja it can hold you know with some tires a three inch tire and think about the forks you have to meet the people who made them yes so I met the guys who make the Wren fork in Baja on my second trip they were sitting outside of a store and it was my birthday that day actually and I rolled up and they had recognized me for my YouTube videos and started talking and we stayed in touch and at that time I was like okay cool you work for a bike company didn't even register that I might work with them someday Wren has been a great partner really good people alright we had a question over here Rachel the best burrito I've ever had this one was pretty good thanks Connor for catering this I love the mission burritos in San Francisco I would say some of those burritos are some of the best you know burritos they don't really have burritos in Mexico but like beans and tortillas in Mexico are absolutely amazing when they're like homemade and you've seen a lot of those Baja videos those ladies that are just making flour tortillas right there in front of your face fresh beans yeah those are some of the best so the question is if I had to get rid of beans or tortillas which one would it be oh man because tortillas can take peanut butter and jelly and honey they're like ooh that's talk of just beans you know that's not as good as to scoop out beans ah man I would I would keep the beans I definitely love beans there's a lot more protein in them tortillas would get old after a while so that's the answer to your question right on can I ask somebody else who hasn't asked the question have you asked one yet or is it your wife sorry you through your channel you have now become white and influenced have you influenced your siblings in any way doing this and what do they think that's a really unique question that I'm going to ask is I have become somewhat of an influencer have I influenced my siblings in any way and the short answer is not really they're all pretty different from me my youngest brother Ethan is the most game for doing adventures an adventure I did a long time ago that's on my youtube channel that you probably haven't seen as I rode the west coast from Vancouver to Cabo San Lucas my brother Ethan came with me for the first three weeks of that and that was our first other bonding adventure that we ever did so he's definitely the most open to the things he's married and has two little kids so he doesn't really have time but he rides a bike he's a mountain biker my other brother doesn't really bike that much and my sister definitely doesn't bike but my sister actually surprisingly is like my number one fan even though she can't relate to anything that I do on the channel at all like biking and long distance running I mean she's like I just watch it because I love you so yeah it's really sweet and I didn't I never thought that she watched my videos it's funny you know what most of my close friends do not watch my videos they have no clue what I do it's like all these other people that watch my videos my friends I guess figured they can get the stories from me straight up any other questions here we go how does he smell? the question is I got to go on a run with Scott and what's it like being near this legend he's a really nice guy he's exactly the person that you have read in the book and you may have seen in videos he's a very sweet human and that's why people love him and he is a legend he's amazing we tried doing the appellation trail this fall he was going to try to go for the record again he ran the if you don't know who Scott Jerrick is I know because a lot of people the bike people like really don't like my running videos and so they don't even like they see all running videos like they don't even watch it so there are some running videos on my channel and Scott was in a recent one and he had set the record for the appellation trail in 2015 running from Georgia to Maine in 45 days an average of 50 miles a day over some of the most insane terrain in the world and remember just to put it in perspective on the Colorado trail I was going maybe 45 miles a day on a bike he was running 50 miles a day which is absolutely insane and so he tried to go back this year and reset the record somebody had beat his record so he was going for 40 days which would have been 55 miles a day and it just it didn't work out he got injured toward like a fifth or sixth day but yeah he's one of those guys one of the most legendary ultra runners in the history of the United States and he's won all the big races and he's one of those guys that can just tap into somewhere the well and just push through just about anything and you know in that video you also saw his wife and his kids which was really fun to like get to know like Scott that's not just runner Scott but like dad Scott and he's really sweet and he's a mentor and maybe I meet somebody maybe I have kids and you know I would like to take on a lot of the traits that Scott has he's a good guy yeah yeah yeah okay yeah question is do I run across anybody on my adventures like birders essentially I love watching birds I made a little bit of everybody I can't specifically say that I I remember meeting people out there that are birders but they're definitely you know in Colorado there's always people hiking the trails with binoculars and checking that kind of stuff out and when you're on a bike it's you know a great opportunity to like see these types of things because you're out there in the middle of nowhere and you're not loud sorry it's not a very exciting answer okay here we go the question is what would I recommend as far as if you've done some short trips and now you want to jump to a bigger trip what would I recommend is that the great divide is a really doable route and it's long it's 2700 miles and it seems super intimidating but it's very rideable it's nowhere near as hard as the Colorado Trail you could ride it on a gravel bike you know you don't need a mountain bike and there's towns every 50 miles and there's the whole way so you don't need to carry a ton of stuff you can resupply easily so I would really say the great divide if you want to do something big or not even the whole thing but just you know a thousand miles of it or just one state people ask me about my favorite section of the great divide it's Montana you can do 700 amazing miles in Montana that would be really mind-blowing you know from like a weekend trip to Baja that will just blow your brains away you're like oh my god what do I get myself into same with the Colorado Trail but what other what maybe like just a regular road tour that's not a trail and you'll see in a lot of my videos recently I haven't done a lot of road touring lately because I'm spooked by cars you know and although there's a lot of great roads to ride in this country and I will do some more adventures in the future I've just been more into the dirt stuff lately and it's just safer you're never going to get the Colorado Trail might be hard but you're never going to get hit by a car which is great I'd add if I could in addition to your answer add great rails to trails like the gaps you know the Cape Chum, Missouri oh like just there's so many beautiful short rails to trails that are like off-roads beautiful costals it's like Empire State Trail here is awesome I guess I did a lot of it with Ali doing the whole Erie Canal and down from Albany through New Pulse and all that I would love to yeah and it's 700 miles total all the Montreal almost yeah that's so cool and you know I get a lot of emails about like I'm intimidating I love what you do I love watching your videos I want to try this but it scares me I don't think I can do it physically it's so hard and really what I always tell people is like just go your own pace like you don't have to race it you don't have to like hammer out huge miles go and just enjoy and have fun and go 10 or 20 miles a day and stay in a bed at breakfast maybe you don't like camping and there's a lot of ways to do bike touring there's no right way doesn't have to be hardcore you know my adventures this summer have been a little bit more hardcore than normal but that's just the kind of the way it's worked I didn't intend for the New Mexico section of the Great Provide to be as hard as it was but there was just snow everywhere and wind and other things that made it very difficult yeah a wish list of trail oh yeah there's so much I want to do I'd love to ride around Iceland hopefully next summer I can finally get to Great Britain and ride the lands end to John of Groats which is essentially the length of Great Britain I'd love to ride the length of Sweden from the very bottom of Sweden to the top of Sweden I was an exchange student in Sweden so my heart is in Sweden for sure there's the Natchez Trace down in Tennessee that goes from Nashville to Natchez Mississippi it's like 500 miles scenic byway there's the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina that's supposed to be amazing there's a bikepacking.com all the time all the time it was like dream about all the roots that they have and they have so much cool stuff so yeah there's a never ending you know well of fun things to do on bike yeah here we go Sal how important is it for you to know the language of where you're touring what do you consider your tour and future how important is it to know the language of where I'm touring it makes a huge difference if you can speak the language that's one of the reasons why I love touring in Mexico bye guys see you later it's okay thanks for coming take a burrito yeah so that's why I tour a lot in Mexico because it makes a huge difference when you can speak to the locals not only for just logistical reasons but because it just makes it a more rich experience when you can actually interact with people if I was touring in Asia I mean I try to learn some words here and there but obviously I don't speak any Asian languages except for a little bit of Japanese arigato yeah you know I've spent some time in France and even France is like such a beautiful country but I don't speak any of the language it's frustrating you walk into a boulangerie and you're like I wish I could talk to you but I can't you know but if I could have one superpower in this world I wish I could fly or I wish I could get you know super strong or whatever I wish I could just know all the languages on the planet and plot me anywhere in the world and just be able to speak fluently I think that would be the coolest super skill out there super power right? even like middle of the Amazon just like whoop be able to speak with them yeah cool so I have some things that I want to give away and some burning questions what's your blood pressure? what's my blood pressure? I don't know so after I was diagnosed with high blood pressure I was on medication that I took every single day until I was about 26 years old and I would go to the doctor a lot and they would monitor it because it was very you know high and they said we don't know what's causing it which might mean that he might someday grow out of it and that's kind of what I'm hoping what happened when I was 26 I went off the medication and my blood pressure essentially stabilized so right now it's a lot better it's like 120 over 90ish which is pretty normal now sometimes 130 right now in this moment my blood pressure is sky high because I got to meet all of you alright okay let's hear some giveaways what do you say? alright so I bought some socks from Colorado with bikes on them with the Colorado flag I brought some for all the employees here at Priority Bikes and I also these are really cool Priority T-shirts okay so I have trivia and whoever answers first I'm just gonna throw it at you okay I think it's still going hi guys let's see what can I ask about John and Mira how long you follow John and Mira on Instagram okay Rachel does John and Mira are about to set off on what? a world tour all the way around the world they are gonna ride their bikes for the next four years all the way around the world by the reason he has a gearbox yes he has a Gates belt drive yes absolutely yes I convinced him very dear friends they have just left today from Canmore heading down south and I will meet them at some point in the next month or so hopefully in Utah or Arizona and we're gonna ride together for a little bit I am not gonna spend four years riding around the world but I will meet them from time to time as they travel which is gonna be really exciting and they are as wonderful as you see in those videos Mira every day wakes up the mischievous uncle that lets her get away with everything and John's like the dad and every morning she will wake up and run from his tent over to my tent start batting at my tent throw me a stick exactly like that in the video it's not like I'm staging anything and I always feed her I sneak her food and stuff I love that dog with all of my heart and up until meeting Mira I like animals I like dogs that's the reason why I have really fallen in love with dogs she introduced me to a whole new level of love does anybody here have dogs probably some of you excuse me am I gonna get a dog that's a big question not right now I will at some point for sure or I'm just gonna steal Mira sorry John if you're watching just gonna get the party basket exactly so actually John is also gonna ride across Antarctica which is crazy and if you've watched some of his other videos he's a pretty established mountaineer climber guide guy so this is kinda up his alley but he will not take Mira across Antarctica so he has to give Mira to somebody for a little bit so I'm hoping that I get Mira alright so I only have one pair of socks left what should this question be oh ok that is a good new Pauls yes here you go new Pauls thank you Rachel right on ok now we're gonna give away these bikes Mira are there any more questions before we finish I have a closing statement my friend Paul he's still one of my best friends in his presentation he was the troublemaker that took me on the long ride and pissed my mom off he's still a cyclist we go mountain biking all the time he's a really tall guy if you follow my instagram you might see him sometimes we go mountain biking together he doesn't really do the bike packing thing but we definitely mountain bike a little bit is your mom black and feather now? a little bit cause she still knows what I ain't got with Paul like we get a little rowdy everybody has that rowdy friend but the question the limit is quite a bit that's Paul for me but it's a good thing alright so I really want to thank you all for being here tonight this really looking at you all right here in your eyes and seeing your faces means the world to me I made this channel to connect with people and to tell stories and to hopefully inspire people and some of you have told me already tonight that my videos have inspired you and there's no other thing in the world I love more than hearing these stories and this is my emotional paycheck right here I came all the way from Colorado essentially for this event to meet you and you came from far away you came from Washington DC that's amazing and I never thought this would happen it's a dream come true so thank you all so much for being here for watching my videos for being my patrons and stay tuned for more and let's hug it out thank you all so much for hosting this event for being a supporter for being so awesome because they're paying me a ton of money I ride their bikes because their bikes are amazing so thank you so much thanks for being here we're just so grateful to have your videos to inspire us thanks for this whole crew for being here thank you for having us absolutely and thank you all for tuning in I'm going to turn it off right now we'll see you down the road my friends goodbye