Eden Hill Journal

Ramblings and memories of an amateur wordsmith and philosopher

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Location: Maine, United States

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Loving Pain

I have, unfortunately, not been giving FatBoy very much use this year and it's a pity. I need the exercise. Sometime last week I went on YouTube and searched for fat bike cross country touring or some such thing and came across this unusual set of videos made by a physically fit couple who recently, soon after first meeting, decided to bicycle from Astoria, Oregon to Brooklyn, New York last summer. It took them two and a half months. Some of their journey was planned ahead but a lot of it was spontaneous. There are over thirty episodes, many of which I watched over the past week.

The dynamic overriding this journey was basically OK here we are in love and being enormously intimate for a new couple. How can we make this relationship last? So they interview a lot of the people they meet and ask them for love advice which then gets edited into the episode covering whatever part of the country (or Canada since they zoomed through Ontario on their way to Niagara Falls) that they were touring when they encountered these people. They bike busy highways, high mountain passes, back roads, and bike paths that go on for hundreds of miles. They love ice cream! They often bike a hundred miles a day and camp out somewhere and bike a hundred more the next day and the next. They ride new Trek gravel bikes provided by and serviced by Trek whose factory they tour over halfway through their ride while their bikes are tuned back up to perfection. They join a motorcycle rodeo, ride with a huge fundraising bike ride in Iowa, go to a state fair, ride along the Erie Canal headed for New York City, bike through grown-in forests, vast wheat fields and open plains, eat local foods and even splurge on junk food at times. Oh and the drone footage is at times just spectacular. It was just the two of them, no big film crew.

They finished their journey and documented it well but I'll spoil the fun. The relationship didn't last a year. The guy used his YouTube channel to post the videos of this journey and a very recent post tearfully announces the end of the love relationship.

But oh my doesn't it ever make me wish I was out there biking some of these trails they biked! I keep wondering if FatBoy, now with his street tires, could be rigged with enough gear to keep me riding for days on end. Two and a half months? A hundred miles a day? OK maybe not. Atlantic to Pacific? Not right away thank you. But exploring? Never done it. Sure would be a good way to break into adventure motorcycling though!

Anyway, here's the YouTube channel::
Ryan Van Duzer

Check out the LoveCycles series for the epic ride videos.

By the way, it might be worth noting that it took me many videos before I was able to detach myself from the enormous size of this guy's ego. If you can make it to that point, all the rest of what's in these videos is worth taking the time to enjoy!

Oh and why did they break up? I don't know!!! Maybe it was the gluten dynamic?