Neat idea, he needs to learn how to edit video though.

Posted at 8:33 am on Jun 9th, 2009 by fartface

contour hd, cant wait!

Posted at 8:50 am on Jun 9th, 2009 by grovenstien

It reminds me a french guy called “Antoine de maximy” who films his trips, where he wants to sleep in people’s house all around the world …
the serie is called “J’irai dormir chez vous” you can look it up on youtube, and he uses also an arm to handle a camera faced to his face …

Posted at 9:12 am on Jun 9th, 2009 by Taha

I don’t know about anyone else, but this looks like a 5′ wide bike unless the picture is deceiving. Neat idea, but I couldn’t imagine riding this down a small two lane road with cars in both directions. It’s going to piss off a lot of drivers.

Posted at 9:21 am on Jun 9th, 2009 by earl

Beautiful work. I hadn’t intended to watch the whole thing, but it was really well done. Very moving stuff here Mike.

Posted at 9:33 am on Jun 9th, 2009 by Lucas

How did I know that the one comment on this was going to be a troll…

This film took DIY as a mantra in almost every aspect. My only complaint is that I wish it was longer so we could meet more of the people he met along the way and hear more of his own thoughts and experiences.

Posted at 9:57 am on Jun 9th, 2009 by userjjb

@Earl

It may be 5′ wide at it’s widest point, but it’s not like it has a 5′ wheelbase. The bike takes up the same amount of room as far as motorists are concerned since the boom cam hangs off to the right side of the road.

Posted at 10:04 am on Jun 9th, 2009 by userjjb

Brilliant!

I didn’t mean to watch the whole thing either, but it was so interesting.

Also, as hinted at in the credits, this is Mike Beauchamp from http://www.therevox.com.

Posted at 1:11 pm on Jun 9th, 2009 by ak77

I had no intention to watch more than a couple of minutes, but I got really into it. Awesome work Mike. Well done, quite inspiring!

Posted at 1:20 pm on Jun 9th, 2009 by andrew

For a neat version of the hardware in this project, check out UncommonProjects hack: http://uncommonprojects.com/site/work/ybike

(no, I don’t work for them! I’m just a GPS enthusiast! It’s really a great project – ENJOY!)

Posted at 2:29 pm on Jun 9th, 2009 by James Blond

A guy from Vancouver built an e-bike and rode across Canada for $8.57 worth of electricity.

Some build details are at: http://www.endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5652

I know he attached a camera to that bike, and took one photo a minute the whole time he rode (I think using a timer circuit attached to the cam’s trigger? It’s probably on one of the sub-pages on that thread, but I’m missing it), but I can’t find a link to the video that resulted.

Posted at 5:04 pm on Jun 9th, 2009 by Danny Mal

I absolutely loved this docu.

Posted at 9:12 pm on Jun 9th, 2009 by tikka

wow, didn’t even realize this was an hour long.

great vid.

Posted at 12:38 am on Jun 10th, 2009 by jproach

great stuff…

Posted at 1:22 am on Jun 10th, 2009 by kingpin

Absolutely awe-inspiring
nice one for following through the desire to do something different

Posted at 5:15 am on Jun 10th, 2009 by Hopo28

lol. does the Coke make him cry? bet he was regretting that lead battery.

Posted at 8:45 am on Jun 10th, 2009 by the drain

Hi there. I have only just watched the first 10 minutes of your film and I just wanted to comment and share a few thoughts. A friend called Angus shared this page with me. He said it made him feel good about life again. Please know, acknowledge and appreciate that you, and what you did, has changed someone’s life, all be it a little, in a positive way.

I feel for your struggles all the way through. The stomach pains, the flat tires, the helmet hair-do, the climbs, the weather… but most of all documenting it all. Great technical achievement with the side cam (construction), the editing, music, the titles, and shooting (various angles and shots), and scenery. Very well made. Doing the trip is hard enough, but documenting it, man that is tough! Oh, by the way, people who haven’t done a trip like this won’t ever get it or appreciate it.

Nice to see other riders – with dogs! I love the down hill rides, I know you do too. So few people, it must have been very introspective, as well as good exercise. Did you pick up any chicks? What was your top speed? Did you ever forget to unclip you pedals? Nice to get a bit of radio too.

For most people there needs to be a destination and a purpose, but its not essential. Some find the purpose as they go along or when they finish. Others never quite finish. Either way, its amazing what the human body can achieve with the right spirit. With all that you achieved, with all the people that you have reached, why not add a deeper message? peace? ecology?

I never saw a bear during my 11000 km trip around japan, but I wore yellow for some other symbolic reason and hit lots of hills too. Check out my trip on http://www.flickr.com/photos/1manjapan/tags/1manjapan/
(you start at the end of the trip so jump to page 40 if you want to see the beginning). See you on the road one day. Love the beard!

Posted at 9:42 am on Jun 10th, 2009 by Charlie

Great documentary Mike. Brought up a whole slew of fond memories of one of my own bicycling adventures.

Posted at 9:50 am on Jun 10th, 2009 by Roberto

No clue if the entire video was a yawner or not – with no fast forward I dropped out after the first 30 seconds had no useful content.

Posted at 12:23 pm on Jun 10th, 2009 by vonskippy

jeebus ! he rode across Canada on that bike seat ? maybe they don’t have recumbent’s in Canada ? if i rode and hour on one those old style bikes my “huevos rancheros” would be swollen to the size of softballs (no pun intended).

Posted at 12:51 pm on Jun 10th, 2009 by anon

anyone notice he was listening to “off the wall” at the 48:30 mark?

Posted at 3:53 pm on Jun 11th, 2009 by nod

Great wings at 26:00 :)

Great film, great adventure, great sentiment.

Posted at 3:19 am on Jun 12th, 2009 by James

Awe inspiring, quite an achievement there. Love the fact that he did it because he wanted to. The sense of freedom must have been intense, I get it every time I ride a few miles, let alone a few thousand.

Meeting the other cyclists was cool, especially the girl with her dog – ace.

For me, the film shows that most people want to do things too quickly, and the cars whizzing by reflect that. Whats the rush? The faster you go the less time you have to enjoy the view.
The comment left by Earl about pissing off the drivers reflects the sort of fascist attitudes some drivers have when it comes to cyclists and other slower road users. He rode 6000+km unassisted, give ‘im some slack.
Top film, Top bloke.

Posted at 5:39 pm on Jun 12th, 2009 by hoonz

Inspiring. great music and video. That’s one tough trial. So, what’s the next adventure?

Posted at 12:22 am on Jun 13th, 2009 by Mike

Great movie, enjoyed it very much.
Well edited, well fitting music too.

Some remarks:
- As a cyclist from Europe (the Netherlands) I have the impression that Canada is beautiful, divers and vast, but not cycle-friendly. As far as I could see in this movie, there were no cycle-freeways, prohabited to cars. One must have a rare kind of attitude to cycle for more than 3 months along roads dominated by fast passing cars! Rather stressy. In other words he must be a real kind of hustler having done this.

- Estonshing that he can not produce a well constructed motive to cycle cross Canada. If one thing comes up by cycling it is that the mind is totally free, because the body moves automaticly.
Due to cycling (or any other thing one does automaticly, even washing the dishes) the mind often comes to ideas and thoughts, that would not appear sitting in an easy chair next to the fire. He has had 3 months of time on his bike to motivate this trip and all he concludes is that he finally wants to reach the Atlantic.

Nevertheless I admire this guy, because of his toughness. It’s time for him to cross Eur-Asia:
13.000 kms…….

Posted at 1:10 pm on Jul 7th, 2009 by Gerard H.