TAMP Season 7 Episode 2 Nick Jacobs Project Biker

1. The Art of Storytelling in Biking
2. Lessons Learned: Tips for New Riders

Nick Jacobs is new to trail riding and film making.  He is an excellent film maker, and is showing great promise as a trail rider... ahem..

Nick became a friend after we met him at ABR.  Noel made him an egg bun.

You can watch his excellent films on YouTube here - Project Biker - YouTube

Summary

In this engaging conversation, Nick Jacobs shares his journey into the world of biking, detailing his transition from road riding to trail adventures. He discusses the challenges and triumphs of off-road riding, the importance of community, and the art of storytelling through filmmaking. Nick reflects on his experiences in Montenegro and his aspirations for future trips, emphasizing the thrill of adventure and the lessons learned along the way. The discussion also touches on advice for new riders and the vibrant adventure biking community.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Context
02:58 Nick's Background and Journey into Biking
06:02 Transition from Road to Trail Riding
08:47 First Experiences with Off-Road Riding
11:59 Learning and Growth in Trail Riding
14:55 The Influence of Community and Collaboration
17:59 Filmmaking and Storytelling in Biking Adventures
21:00 Future Plans and Aspirations
24:05 Reflections on the Adventure Biking Community
27:03 Advice for New Riders
30:00 Closing Thoughts and Future Endeavors


biking, trail riding, adventure, community, storytelling, filmmaking, motorcycle, experiences, tips, journey

Transcript

Clive (00:00.447)
to call it off and go home. Night.

Noel (00:00.942)
OK, well, listen. OK, well, listen, first things first, the kitchen at the hotel closes at just after half past eight. And I haven't had anything to eat yet. So. Look, I'm on holiday, I'm on holiday. The guys are down in the restaurant waiting for me to turn up, they will not eat without me. I'm the life and soul. So.

Nick (00:01.518)
We thought we can't continue without the no, you know?

Clive (00:11.763)
Fuck's sake. I've got

Nick (00:14.554)
This is going well, isn't it?

Clive (00:16.361)
two different curries on the go. we're not gonna... Fuck's sake.

Clive (00:24.319)
Okay. So you're just gonna do the first 45 minutes and then fuck off? Not really, no.

Noel (00:28.737)
Is that alright? Is that alright?

Nick (00:31.054)
I just have to ask really good questions now to condense everything into minutes.

Noel (00:32.014)
What do mean not really? I'm so sorry. there's some background to this. Some background to this. This is my second trip to Wales. My first trip to Wales was cut short because I delayed leaving for my holiday because I had to do a podcast and the person who shall remain nameless who lives in Norway didn't show up. And then I came home.

Clive (00:37.599)
Well we better get on with it then. Better get on with it then.

Clive (00:58.143)
Actually, let me start with that. That was my fault. I fucked up on the invitation so he never got the invitation.

Noel (01:02.829)
I knew it. knew it. And then I came home a day early. Then I came home a day early to do that podcast again. didn't show up a second time, which is probably also a class for

Nick (01:06.8)
So it's Clive that messes things up, I see.

Clive (01:07.143)
Second time though.

Clive (01:15.901)
No, did, no, he did show up. No, this was totally your fault. He did show up. I was chatting to him. So I'd messaged you twice in the week saying, are you going to be there next Wednesday? Heard nothing from you. The next thing is I see photographs of you in Wales. Well, I can print the photograph out, proof screenshots, photographs in Wales with your good lady partner wife. And I'm thinking he's in fucking Wales. So I messaged you.

Noel (01:33.518)
Naked.

Nick (01:37.871)
Hahaha

Clive (01:45.311)
another two times, heard nothing from you and said to Thomas, I'd, said to the person who shall remain nameless in Norway. I said to him, I don't know where he is, I think he's in Wales, he's not gonna do it, let's cancel it. And then you messaged me at eight minutes before we were due to start saying, I've just got in, I'm ready to go, and I fucking canceled it now.

Nick (01:52.816)
Hahaha

Noel (02:06.872)
How do you think you messaged me? And don't say in your imagination.

Clive (02:12.658)
On WhatsApp? I can totally show you the WhatsApp now.

Noel (02:14.797)
All right, we'll look into that later. We'll have a full inquiry.

Clive (02:18.089)
Well I'm gonna put it on our Instagram, I'll put it on the Instagram account. Yeah. Yeah, I shan't get it. Well I shan't get it now, because you've got a fucking deadline, haven't you? So we better get on with it.

Nick (02:19.746)
Listeners I am now looking at evidence proof of this message from Clive. I can attest

Noel (02:25.516)
You

Noel (02:30.483)
Anyway, back to Nick.

Clive (02:32.403)
Yeah, Nick, you better introduce yourself. Keep it brief. Noel's got to go. He's a very important man and he's hungry.

Nick (02:38.736)
Well, I've got a bone to pick with you because actually I can see the video call here says Nick Jacob's project bike. And I didn't know that that was, and I was thinking, God, they're just so big these days. They don't even know who they're interviewing. They're just getting any old person and just throwing it in there. I was like, wow.

Clive (02:45.791)
Clive (02:55.059)
Well, Noel never knows who he's interviewing, for one. And for the second one, I think it's actually the applications cut off the final letter R. And that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. Nick Jacobs, Project Biker.

Nick (02:58.053)
Hahaha

Nick (03:09.22)
Yes, I am Nick Jacobs. I'm on a YouTube channel called Project Biker where I go out on adventures, film them and try to weave some sort of narrative from them and then share them on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

Noel (03:11.565)
you

Clive (03:23.441)
That's not a full-time occupation though, is it for you, sir?

Nick (03:27.224)
No, I'm also a vice principal at a primary school as well.

Clive (03:32.585)
Primary, that's little kids, isn't it? Little annoying kids.

Nick (03:34.638)
Little kids, five to 11, yeah. So what's good is now I'm a vice principal where I used to actually have to suffer the children that totally ruined school. mean, school would be great without children, right? Now I get to just sort of tell teachers what to do or pretend that I know what I'm doing. So that's my job now.

Noel (03:46.013)
Okay.

Clive (03:51.945)
Did you used to go to school now?

Noel (03:52.394)
Do not take... I did, yeah. Yeah, there's a skill reunion this weekend which I can't face going to. That's another story. God.

Nick (04:00.543)
Ugh, sounds horrible.

Clive (04:00.59)
I didn't know you were going to say that.

Clive (04:05.929)
So Nick, you... Come.

Noel (04:06.317)
So you don't teach at all now then Nick, two small children directly?

Nick (04:13.584)
Really, if I need to go and sort of model to other teachers how to do something, then I might teach a class briefly. But you know, it's a hard job and the grind and having to face children all day and only having a short break and then a short lunch and you know, it's hard work. I don't have that anymore, but now I have this sort of added pressure of making sure everyone else is doing their job well. To differing.

Noel (04:38.781)
I've never heard a teacher describe their working life in that way, in that kind of, and having to face children all day. It's just awful.

Clive (04:39.177)
Marvelous.

Nick (04:48.048)
The little treasures, yeah. The light of my life, you know? I mean, yeah, it is a fun job. No days different, all of that stuff. But you know, actually, I really do get energized from working with children. And there are days when I sort of have to be office-based for a large degree doing admin work. I just, at some point, I'm just like, screw this. I'm just gonna go walk around school and like see a child and just talk to them so I can be, you know.

Noel (04:53.555)
Yes.

Nick (05:17.028)
reminded of why I'm here. So yeah, I do enjoy spending time with children and teaching them, but yeah, that's not my role now as much.

Noel (05:19.783)
Yeah.

Noel (05:25.896)
I would have loved to have had you as a teacher.

Clive (05:27.423)
Fair enough.

Nick (05:31.374)
I was a very good teacher.

Clive (05:33.769)
sure you were. So you're fairly new to trail biking and dear listener, we've had the great pleasure of meeting Nick live in person at this year's ABR and Nick is now officially part of Team Yaris. We've adopted him. He's one of us now. So we know all this stuff, but we're still gonna talk about it for your listening pleasure. So you're fairly new to trail biking, Nick, but you do have, you've been...

Nick (05:34.991)
was.

Clive (06:02.557)
Motorcycling for quite a while, haven't you?

Nick (06:05.252)
Yeah, so I guess the biking history was I always wanted to bike as a kid, but my parents very wisely never let me because I was a bit reckless. And then I went off to live in China for five years. Well, I thought it'd be one year, but it up being five years. And that was a real adventure going out there, you know, speaking the language, meeting new people. But when that stopped being this big adventure, I was like, right, what can I do that would give myself that sense of adventure again?

I thought, yeah, I used to want a bike ages ago, right? So I began to research like where in Southeast Asia can I go to bike where I won't need a license? I had no license. And I even had all sorts of people. And I remember this guy in Thailand was like, what are you talking about? There's no chance I'm gonna let you take a bike out and kill yourself. But then I found out that Cambodia, some places actually let you as long as you leave your passport with them. So.

I thought, well, this is pretty dangerous. So if I bring someone with me, I'll be safe, right? Clearly, that's just pure logic. So I had a friend, an American friend, try and guess his name, a crazy American friend, go on.

Noel (07:17.288)
Brad Scott No

Clive (07:17.352)
Chuck.

Nick (07:18.992)
Brad, yes, Brad, literally Brad. I knew it. And he was your classic jock American, great guy, just completely American, know, spent half his time trying to do an English accent poorly. Yeah, great guy. And I was like, Brad, come with me, buddy. Come with me to Cambodia. So he did. And we got out there and yeah, mean, you know, up till then I've never really seen a motorbike up close and thought I'm gonna get on this. And I get there and they had,

Noel (07:25.745)
Thank

Nick (07:48.974)
It was a Honda 250, I'm gonna say Reggae, which is the Asian version. I think it's a COF basically, but it's the Asian version of it back then was made until the nineties. And it was so tall and we got really scared and we almost gave up. we did it and they took us down to this, I guess an off road track, like a little motocross track. And they said, right, here's the gears, here's how to break, you know.

Noel (07:54.161)
Never heard of it.

Nick (08:18.116)
just have some time here. And so I'm running along, know, first gear, second gear, brake, turning, whatever. And then after about 10 minutes, I'm like, where's Brad? I'm like, where is he? So I'm like, lift my helmet up to like find him. And I swear as the helm is like above my head, I turned to the side and I just see Brad coming off a ramp to the side, one of these jumps perpendicular. So sideways off the ramp, the bike lands in the dust, the bike starts spinning around. I'm just thinking, what have I done? Like, I'm gonna kill this guy.

Noel (08:26.503)
Thank

Noel (08:36.437)
You

Noel (08:46.083)
Thank

Nick (08:47.214)
So I said to him, just get the bus down to this party town we were going to. And I see you there, but he's like, no, I'll come with you. Anyway, long story short, we set off and we travel across Cambodia just by road and we get to this party town called Sanokeville. And he's like, right, bikes away, let's party. And I'm like, I wanna ride still. On the way here, I saw like trails over there, trails over there. Let's keep going. And he's like, I'm here to party now. So we split up.

And I go off on my own and I just spend like a day or two in the Cambodian jungle. Again, like this is, I had no protection. Like I had a rental helmet, nothing at all. And I remember I got myself into a pickle because I went down this trail that led down this steep drop and then it just cut off. So I thought, do I do? So I turned the bike around like a 54 point turn, tried going back up it, crashed the bike.

Noel (09:29.607)
you

Nick (09:44.088)
Mirror broke, no water, no phone signal. Finally I got out and I thought, this is me. I love it. That feeling of pure panic. then in Shore Shank Redemption, when he gets out of that tunnel of shit, he climbs through it and raises his hands to the sky and the rain's falling down. It was like that. It was like euphoria. I was like, yes, this is great. So I thought, right, well, I better come back and like,

Noel (09:50.624)
You

Noel (10:09.315)
you

Nick (10:13.584)
actually learn how to ride. So when I moved back to London, I got myself a CBF 125, I think it says is the name changes a few times. And I rode that for two years in London commuting to work every day. And then I got my SV 650 and immediately went out riding to the Alps and doing road tours and so on. And I did that for like five years. So that's like the sort of background always by myself. Yeah.

Noel (10:39.339)
Was that by yourself? Was that by yourself for those first trips? Yeah. By design or why was it by yourself? Had you already worked out that it was better by yourself?

Nick (10:44.686)
Yeah, always. Yeah, I just I just went out.

Nick (10:52.4)
I'm just a loser and no one likes me. No, I have no friends to go with. Yeah No, I'm joking I think no, I think I didn't plan to go solo. I just didn't have any one that I knew doing that sort of thing Yeah, because for me, yeah for me like biking was a Tool to get to work, you know, it was just a tool to commute to work. I didn't go out riding on the weekend with it I just loved the feeling of going to work and knowing what time I'll get there

Noel (10:53.854)
Okay. But were you looking for the people to go with?

Noel (11:04.779)
Any real men friends? Yeah.

Thank

Nick (11:21.114)
because I can just read between traffic. I mean, those days, anyone from London will know the A40 Road, and that road is a, what's the phrase? Like a training ground, guess. Watching the cars, who knew what they were doing, going between, watching the bikes go between the cars, and thinking, how are they doing that? And then trying it yourself and filtering and all of that. And now, what's strange is I'm most comfortable in traffic. That's what I feel the most safe.

I invited my bike between traffic. But yeah, so I had no friends that I knew of to bike with me. So I just went out and then got used to it.

Noel (11:59.224)
Filtering is good.

Clive (11:59.345)
It is interesting because I... I can't know what you're gonna say about filtering.

Noel (12:02.966)
Well, I'd say filtering is good balancing practice, isn't it, really? Yeah.

Nick (12:09.007)
Yeah.

Clive (12:09.691)
It is a different gravy in London though. You've me so, have your wits about you so much, haven't you really? It's a lively place to drive, let alone ride a motorcycle through. But listen, I do get the impression with you, Nick.

Noel (12:23.381)
Have you ever been knocked off in London?

Clive (12:27.419)
Let me ask a question now. We've only got you for another half an hour. We want to get onto the trail riding stuff. So I do get the impression with you Nick that you're not kind of well versed in biking law. You're not surrounded, you you're not in a motorcycle gang. A lot of the stuff you do, you can see it in your videos, it's kind of new to you. It's like, these boots, they're ever so big, aren't they? Type thing.

Noel (12:28.894)
Sorry Gonya.

Noel (12:51.914)
Awesome.

Nick (12:53.456)
Yeah, I could say yeah, yeah, yeah, I could I would say so yeah, and that goes for mechanicals and doing maintenance and Knowing yeah. Yeah completely know a day what I'm doing

Clive (12:57.225)
Who knew?

Noel (12:58.559)
You

Clive (13:09.191)
Ask him the question though. Ask him the question.

Noel (13:12.415)
Did you ever fix that snapped bolt on your chain guard cover?

Clive (13:15.007)
for fuck's sake, no! No! No! What's your biggest spanner?

Nick (13:17.136)
Ha ha ha!

Nick (13:22.096)
My biggest spanner is not very big, probably 30mm, 25mm.

Clive (13:28.767)
Did you get that snap bolt out? Not really. I was using a 32 on my big KTM the other day.

Noel (13:31.198)
That's pretty big.

Noel (13:37.67)
Okay, yeah. Yeah, did you ever fix that bolt that you broke?

Nick (13:40.462)
No, that snap bolt, that snap bolt was snapped to start with and it was just, that was it, it was just gone. But that was the bolt that holds the little casing where you can adjust your gear lever. So I did the whole trip without it.

Noel (13:52.262)
Yeah. But I think we'll we'll. Yeah, but we'll slow you over tightening it in that film. Yeah.

Clive (13:59.049)
We all saw you break it. You were like fucking 14 Newton meters just by fail.

Nick (14:00.686)
You

Noel (14:03.645)
It's.

Nick (14:04.378)
Well, you know what it was? I felt so manly, like on that road where you're waiting for the train, like other bikers are there and I'm like, yeah, I'm just doing some tooling, mate. Yeah, no worries. I'll just turn this, yeah. And then, yeah, suddenly I wasn't so manly when I was like, ooh, this bolt is broken.

Noel (14:13.149)
you

Noel (14:17.649)
Tink.

Clive (14:23.111)
So what was your inspiration then to turn from gnarly London commuter on an SV650 into a Honda CRF riding filmmaking trail rider?

Nick (14:35.76)
Well, as you can have heard from my story before, adventure is a big deal for me and doing things that are that little bit scary and going out on my SV650 and doing these road trips was exciting to start with and then just became like boring because you're with the other cars, you're with these other big GS's everywhere. And I thought this is no longer thrilling me. what can I do? Do I have to change a new bike, get a faster bike or something?

Noel (14:55.797)
.

Nick (15:05.84)
I've never really thought of trail biking before. I never heard of the TOF, never heard of you guys or this whole group of people. I think, I'm trying to think what I first saw. It was either the Lightweight Adventurers, I saw one of their videos, or maybe I saw Adam Rieman, one of those two, and the mixture of watching the Lightweight and thinking, these guys have no idea what they're doing, but they're doing it anyway. This is, yeah.

Noel (15:08.2)
you

Clive (15:31.401)
They still don't. Absolute fucking idiots.

Nick (15:34.84)
It was that Spain trip they did to the south of Spain that I just, it was so endearing, like just seeing them just like so thrilled to be there, clearly on their first big trip and then muddling through it and so on. I thought, okay, what if they can do it? And then the filmmaker in me or the creative person in me watching Adam Rieman and just seeing how he would do like these epic music and then voiceover. And the thought came to me, I was thinking, I feel like I could do what he's doing, but dare I say better in my opinion.

And I'm gonna go and prove it. I'm gonna go and try it. And then I just thought, right, well, let me start to research off-road bikes. I actually found you guys, I think I searched what, I searched the classic question everyone searches. I searched what is the best tech bike? know, a million results, every differing opinion. But I found the video that Greg Villalobos made. I forget which trip it was of yours, but it had all of you and then you were all comparing the bikes at the end. It's quite old now, actually.

Noel (16:21.882)
Thanks.

Nick (16:34.806)
I think he had a PR7 if that helps.

Clive (16:38.131)
Yeah, it'd probably been the Wales one, which like which bike's gonna break down first.

Nick (16:42.116)
Yeah, that sort of thing. And then, yeah, I just got on it. And then I just thought, well, what bike can I take? And actually my plan was to rent a bike first of all, to try it out. And I realised no one will rent a bike to you because you'll just break it. I thought, what I'll do is I'll buy one that's really popular, go on a trip and then sell it. And of course, you go on a trip like that, like you can see in that first Monaco film and how do you...

Noel (16:59.033)
That's now the bike you did that trip on,

Nick (17:10.842)
How do you sell the bike after that? We bonded, so that's it. Exactly, and now we're stuck together.



Clive (19:12.479)
20 years, I've been doing this podcast for six years. I'm at ABR, I'm having a pint with Adam Rieman. You've literally made a film. First time at ABR, you're sat with me and Adam Rieman having a pint, Nick. How did that feel?

Noel (19:20.82)
Thanks

Noel (19:25.79)
you

Nick (19:28.272)
Pretty surreal, pretty surreal. I got a bit starstruck and I started to waffle about nonsense and he didn't understand what I was saying and then Clive swoops in and like, know, charms the both of us. It was, you know what though, honestly, and this isn't blowing smoke up your, like meeting you guys was a bigger deal for me because you've probably heard this before, right? But I discovered this, but like, no, as in what I to say now, I discovered this podcast not long ago.

Clive (19:48.477)
Nope. Never.

Noel (19:51.322)
you

Nick (19:56.644)
and was like, okay, this is great because, like you said before, it's like listening to two old guys in a pub and wanting to go and hear what they're saying more, you know, and so that it was a very fun environment. And then I was learning all about the bikes because I was hearing about this, this and that. And it was giving me all the information that I needed to actually understand somewhat what's going on. So then I just listened to every single episode from one to whatever it is, season seven. And then I remember our mutual friend,

Alex said that he's, so we've spoken on Instagram, Alex Johnson from Motovino, and he invited me to come and camp with him. And then the day before he's like, yeah, by the way, I'll be with the tamp guys. And I was like, what? My heroes? And then, know, got there and I met you and you were obviously exactly like you are on this, as you would expect, but you know, and it was weird because I've.

Clive (20:41.919)
Ha

Noel (20:48.818)
Yeah. Yeah. And then the next minute I'm making you the next minute I'm making you a fried egg bun.

Clive (20:57.149)
out of your mot- out of his motor home.

Nick (20:57.188)
And a cup of tea.

Noel (20:58.42)
Yeah.

Nick (21:00.014)
Yeah, it was pretty cool and you know, it was nice because you feel like you know someone when you listen to hours and hours of them talking, you know, so it was pretty cool. And it made my day because you guys kindly invited me into a group of others and I met the other Adams and Rory and yeah, that was pretty cool. So as I said, like I hadn't really had a community before that and now I sort of have a small one. So that's fun.

Noel (21:26.044)
Now you do. Yeah.

Nick (21:29.232)
Yeah, for sure.

Clive (21:29.271)
and you're very welcome. You're a good addition. So you say you got the CRF. What was it about the CRF that you particularly liked for what, and you didn't really know what you were letting yourself in for when you decided to go and ride the TET in the south of France. You just thought, but it's the CRF I need, right?

Nick (21:47.78)
Yeah, I mean, it's worth saying in case anyone listening doesn't know what films I've made and so on. I've made two series of films now. They're both films, but they also were released as episodes. The first one I went from London to Monaco and back. And I knew that I wanted to sort of stay as close to the Alps as I could, but the French tech doesn't really go fully into the Alps, but the Italian one does more of that. So I headed towards that direction. But when I got the CRF, I chose it because

it was clearly a beginner bike. Every review said it's stable, it's secure, it's reliable, it won't kill you. And I just thought, whatever happens, I need someone that won't die on me out on the trails, and that would be easy. So it just seemed like the perfect choice. But where I live in London, there's nowhere to go and practise. So I got the bike, rode it around town a little bit, and thought, where can I go and actually learn how to off-road? And there was nowhere, without going two hours away. So I thought, screw it, I'll just learn out there.

Noel (22:40.125)
Okay.

Nick (22:47.684)
So I got on the bike and went to France and the very first time I went off road was in France on the TET and crashed in 10 minutes and you

Noel (22:56.241)
Yeah.

Clive (22:58.195)
Can I, yeah, sorry, there's another slight aside there. I've told you this before, Nick, but somehow I came across your film, as you do when you're trawling through the internet. And I must have got, I think it's the second episode, isn't it, when you actually finally reach the TET. And you got on with it, was, I actually looked at it again today. You're like five minutes into your second episode and you reach your first trail and you say something along the lines of, this is my first experience of going off road.

Noel (23:23.729)
You see, had the opposite effect on me because I just thought this is such a genuinely honest film that this guy is showing his first failure. You know, and it looks to be about 10 meters into it and he's happy to show it. He's happy to show.

Clive (23:27.859)
which A, is very brave, but B, he fell off straight away. And I just thought, this guy is a fucking idiot. And I just stopped watching it.

Nick (23:37.104)
I

Noel (23:52.516)
His shortcomings in this and I thought that was fantastic that you did that. That made me want to carry on watching and see because you were obviously going to progress. You obviously got to Monaco. Monaco is in the title. So it had the opposite effect for me. I wanted to see more.

Clive (24:05.363)
Yeah, I did. came back to it and obviously watched it and recommend both of your full length feature films to everybody. They're very, very good.

Nick (24:12.942)
Yeah, it's funny actually. I've had lots of comments that I think the biggest theme around my comments or one of the things that I get as feedback is the honesty and being authentic. I didn't plan to be that way. I didn't plan to sort of write my brand is gonna be this. I just thought that's what's most interesting. And why wouldn't you? know, cause if later on I'm flying down on the bike and having a great time, that's meaningless unless you've seen the struggle that

is to get there and I actually really enjoy hammering home that point around there is struggle but then when you do get through that it makes the end of it all that more sweeter you know when you get to that location and you see a lake and it's just it looks bluer because you've you've had to struggle through the cold and the rain before that you know yeah I really I really search for that for that feeling

Clive (25:11.935)
But you genuinely... Go on, go on now.

Noel (25:11.98)
I think it's also well I think it's also worth mentioning that the videography is that the right word the filming the footage is just incredible it is absolutely amazing we were just I watched it with Ashley and we were just wowing at the some of the footage you get most of the footage you get it's just incredible I haven't seen many films of this kind of quality

Clive (25:36.319)
But it's not just the videography, that's the word we're going, let's use that word from now on, videography. Let's call it that, whatever it is. That to me is a much lesser part than the voiceover stuff. Are you familiar with Oghmeos, Zen Motoring? brilliant, dear listener, he's so cool. He's not got that many videos on YouTube.

Noel (25:41.646)
Let's use that one. It exists now.

Noel (25:53.612)
storytelling.

Nick (25:57.388)
no, maybe...

Noel (25:58.668)
Yes, yes, yes, yeah, of course,

Clive (26:05.641)
but he ended up with a BBC television series and basically what he does, just drives his car through London and narrates his journey. He used to be a...

Noel (26:15.598)
It's you Nick, it? It's you Nick. no, it's you. Sounds a lot like you.

Nick (26:18.21)
Is it? Okay. I see. No, no.

Clive (26:19.519)
It could well be Nick. This guy's a former battle rapper. He's got a bigger beard than Nick, so it's definitely not Nick. But you really remind me of him. And it's just the way you tell the story. Because obviously you've written a script. And it's really difficult to read a script naturally. Do you? OK.

Nick (26:36.25)
How dare you? I go freestyle, Clark Clive. No, I don't, no, no, no way. So you know what's funny? I mean, we have a mutual friend, Simon Josie of the Real Riders podcast. By the way, he's paid me 10 pounds to say his name, so I had to. But he reached out to me probably like episode three and you spend all this time making these videos and it's a lot of time and you wonder, are you doing anything right? And then to have someone like him who you spend...

Clive (26:49.279)
You

Nick (27:03.632)
He spent a few minutes with him and you know this is a guy that knows what he's talking about and thinks deeply about things. And he was reaching out to me to say, hey, I like what you're doing. I wanna speak to you on the podcast. And he said to me, the narration is your secret sauce. Hammer that home. Because I was saying, I'm thinking about getting a microphone in there the helmet and sort of having live talking. And he said, I wouldn't advise it because your reflections afterwards are what makes your video special.

Noel (27:32.336)
Okay.

Nick (27:33.006)
And he was right. And since then, it's funny, I remember listening to one of your episodes very early on where you were all mocking poor Greg about him saying that it's not the music that makes the filming and the music doesn't come first. And back then I wanted to sort of counter him and think, well, sometimes it does, but Greg's right, unfortunately. you know, now what I do is I start with the script and I get that right.

I watched the footage, I put it on the timeline to get a sense as to what happened that day, but I spend most of my time just getting that script right, rewriting it, rewriting it, and then I find the music and then I keep on writing it with the music playing. And I thought that's what helps me to sort of create that effect. But I've always been interested in writing. My dad was a writer, he was a journalist, and I've always sort of dabbled in some creative writing, but never really had an outlet for it and never really saw the point unless I was gonna really go for it and become a writer, you know, for real.

but it's quite fun now because I spend all this time writing but no one ever reads it. They hear it, you know, it's funny.

Noel (28:34.251)
Does it come easy to you then when you do write it?

Clive (28:38.47)
Yeah.

Nick (28:41.422)
I find it flows easily, yeah. It's just about getting started, isn't it? But once I see the footage and I start to think about, you know, it's, I mentioned the book, Travels with Charlie by John Steinbeck a lot in my videos. It's a really important book to me. And he says that he can never write hot about something. He has to let it stew for a while. And what he remembers is clearly what was worthy to remember. And the rest is just nonsense. And I really believe that. So.

I just trust that if I see the videos, it will come through. And if I remember, you know, this certain thing, or if I forget something, it means that it wasn't worth sharing with you.

Noel (29:22.217)
Do you ever look back at your films and wish you'd done them slightly differently or are you always happy with the final result?

Clive (29:22.911)
Fair enough.

Nick (29:29.264)
That's a good question. So I feel my editing has got a lot better and I feel that is very much true for the latest film and especially the last few episodes. I feel I really upped my game personally. And then when I watch back my old videos, I guess only a year in now, but you know, still old to me. I definitely, you can see that I was focusing more on the music. A lot of it was like timing to the beat and like a song would play from beginning to end because the song

was put on the timeline and I would match the video to the song. So I definitely feel that's changing. I'm trying to really focus on the script. So yeah, I wouldn't change it because it was all part of the learning curve, know, but yeah.

Noel (30:00.941)
.

Clive (30:13.417)
So are you doing anything to improve your off-road riding? Are you doing any trail riding in the UK now or not?

Nick (30:24.656)
What do mean, Clive? I mean, clearly my riding's perfect. Haven't you seen my videos? I'm literally the best. know, Riemann is nothing. No, I have had a whole day of training on off-road. Yes, a whole day. Therefore, clearly I can do anything. So yeah, if I was closer to where there were more training schools, I would be doing more of it. I watch a lot of videos on technique.

Noel (30:25.504)
Yeah.

Clive (30:29.159)
I have seen your videos, yes.

Nick (30:54.926)
a lot of, is it Lil Pavy, Brake Magazine, he's great. He's really, really clear with his work. There's a guy called, is it Breck Tax? Do know him? Yeah, he's.

Clive (31:04.947)
Yeah, the American guy. greatest skill is removing his helmet and putting a cap on without anyone ever seeing his head.

Noel (31:11.483)
Yes.

Nick (31:14.446)
He's great. You know what, actually, it was him that he shared in one of his videos. He said, don't buy soft boots because they bend. And why would you do that if the bike falls on you? And so I bought those hard boots that gave me cramp on my first day. And then on my Spain trip, the bike fell on me and would have crushed my foot otherwise. So I was like laying there thinking, thanks, Brett. He was right. But yeah, I am doing something, but not.

Not much, not as much as I should be. I'm just writing, know, learning by doing.

Clive (31:49.491)
And that's a very, speaking as a training professional, that's a very valid way of learning, Nick.

Nick (31:54.736)
Thank you. Thank you indeed.

Noel (31:55.392)
Okay.

Clive (31:58.739)
So you do most of your riding solo, is that deliberate or just because you got no mates?

Nick (32:04.196)
Yeah, so I've heard you guys talking before about this idea. It's funny. So in the Spain trip, which is my second film, I meet these Germans on the way. And it's really special because I met someone on the way and we got on. It was more fun to sort of spend the day with them. But I quickly realised, you know, I couldn't film with them. And there's no drone footage of my time with them or barely any because it was just too awkward.

Noel (32:23.431)
Mm.

Nick (32:32.994)
I felt nervous about getting the drone out. So the filming aspect of it, I feel it would be very hard to film in a group, but it would be possible. I don't know, there's something about going solo, isn't there? I know Noel leans more towards the solo side than you do Clive. There's something about...

Noel (32:49.447)
When you, you, go on. There's something about, carry on.

Nick (32:53.518)
No, there's just something about knowing that you're out there and I don't know, it's that I guess one of the themes that comes through is that I like to sort of have a bit of risk to it as well and it feels different when you're on your own and you're just getting through the terrain and surviving it and then when you meet people they're more likely to talk to you and to offer you help and so on.

something I quite like about it, but I think I mostly miss it in the evenings. I would like to have people there in the evening. My ideal scenario would be to start at point eight with a buddy or a group, agree that we're gonna get to this place by the end, but I'll see you there. That's my ideal. Yeah.

Noel (33:41.549)
Yeah, I think this is where WhatsApp, the location feature on WhatsApp is an absolute game changer for trips that you can just separate and meet up so easily now. It's so good, isn't it? But it's so interesting seeing that play out in the film, Nick, where you do separate with them and then there's that weird adjustment having been with people to then adjusting being by yourself. It's always a difficult transition, isn't it? It's a mental challenge almost to then become a solo traveler again after you've traveled with people.

Clive (33:42.484)
So.

Nick (34:09.73)
It is, and I miss them a lot, actually. really, and you can see in that Spain trip, bit of a spoiler, but I really got lost and I was really panicking. You know, I've had people on the comments, not many, but some say I sort of make things overly dramatic. I really don't. Like when I say that I was panicking and I was like worried and I was thinking, my God, these stupid Englishmen stuck on the Spanish hillside and kind of have to go and ask for help and can I even make it there and it's getting cold? I was really...

feeling that way because when you're on your own, you spiral, you know? But similarly when you're on your own and you get yourself through it, maybe it's that, maybe it's you you get through it through your own means and then when you get out and you survive it, you sort of feel like, okay, well, I, you know, I survived that and I did that on my own. So what's next?

Noel (34:56.291)
you missed an opportunity there.

Clive (34:59.657)
So do you want to be added to the Team Yaris trip to Norway next year chat group? Would you like to come with us and make the film? Great, okay, you're in. The rate, we don't charge, we don't charge.

Nick (35:08.196)
Yeah. Yeah, sounds good. I'm in. What's the rate?

Nick (35:16.208)
What's the rate that I pay you? Yeah. Damn it. Ask for money first. Then, yes, no. Yeah, no, I think it's definitely something that I would like to try out going in a group for sure. It is different.

Clive (35:19.642)
Yeah

Clive (35:23.55)
Ha ha ha.

Clive (35:30.547)
You can always share your WhatsApp location and fuck off with no or without no, whatever.

Noel (35:33.813)
Yes.

Nick (35:36.282)
You know, it's funny because I, with those two Germans, when I was riding with them, at first I said to them, shall I just leave and let you guys go on because I was going too slow? And they were cool. They were like, no, it's all good. know, stay, like, we'll wait for you. And then as I got faster over the day to try and keep up with them, I had that moment where I just couldn't see what I was doing because of the dust. I just stopped caring and I just, you know, I realised if you just trust the bike and you corner and you stay stable, it will keep you going.

and I wouldn't have had that if I hadn't had to keep up with them. you know, going in a group gives you that chance to really push yourself as well in different ways.

Noel (36:11.763)
Yeah, just give you confidence, I think, doesn't it?

Clive (36:15.293)
Yeah, definitely. So as a relatively new biker and somebody that's new to the festival scene and having mates that are bikers, what are your impressions of the adventure motorcycling community?

Nick (36:15.524)
Yeah.

Nick (36:31.84)
It's pretty awesome. You know, I've never really got on with London bikers too much. My experiences of riding in London and seeing other bikers is as soon as there's a different guy at the light, it's like rev my engine louder than yours and take off faster than you. know, obviously cities become the worst in people, don't they sometimes? But yeah, adventure biking, it's a different thing, isn't it? I really wish that I had found it before.

Because if I had known about it, I wouldn't have spent my time on that SV 650 I would have just got a CRF or something else and just gone out trail riding Go into the ABR and meeting all these people some that I knew from YouTube some that I just heard of Yeah, everyone was just so welcoming Yeah, it's it's it you know what it is It feels like now even though I've only been doing this a year. It feels like I haven't it feels like it's been like

For the last 15 years I've been in this scene, you know, it's just sort of settled very, very, very easily, you know? Yeah, it's been fun.

Noel (37:36.403)
That's nice.

Clive (37:38.303)
So you mentioned one of the things you learned following the other guys was that if you just let the bike do the work and relax and let it flow, that sounds like a great tip for new riders. Have you got any other tips, any other things that you've learned that would be good advice for newer riders?

Nick (37:52.688)
Hmm.

Nick (37:57.232)
Tips for new riders. What helped me out? You know, the CRF 300, I mean, and probably many more CRFs, it's quite something, isn't it? As a bike, for me anyway, maybe I'll try a different bike in the future and be like, what was I thinking? That bike was clunky and rough and so on. But that bike just goes over everything. It just does, from my perspective, as long as you trust it to do so. So I think the biggest thing

Noel (38:13.001)
Okay.

Nick (38:27.396)
The hardest thing to get over is the fear, but it's the most important thing. If you just stand up on the bike, let your knees absorb things, keep the throttle smooth and just keep your head up. Head up, don't look down too much and just trust that the bike will go over because it will want to move forward and the suspension is so much more than your road bike. Just trust the bike and don't let the fear capture you.

My first day in France, I definitely turned around several times on the Tete. And then after that day, I just felt so crap. I was like, how can I give up? know, that trail wasn't that bad. So I pledged to never ever turn around again. And I didn't until my latest trip, which hasn't hasn't come out yet, but I went to Bosnia and to Montenegro. And I don't know if you guys have ever been out that way.

Noel (39:23.641)
No, no.

Nick (39:25.604)
Those trails are significantly harder to anything I've ever seen before. However, I'll say this, I feel like I would have done them, but I met someone. I believe I shared it in the WhatsApp, this Dutch guy on a massive, what was it? I actually forget the bike, but it was huge. It had huge cases. And I met him at the exact moment I found the hardest part of the trail. And both of us were just trying to get up these rocks, falling over left, right and center.

and thought I can't do this and we just gave up so I've turned around once since but only once.

Noel (39:59.806)
But I would say that if you were to start in the Tete in northern France, that's a little bit of a baptism of fire, especially after my recent experience. But it's horribly rooted in places, isn't it? There's a lot of hidden dangers in the long grass of the trails of northern France. So that was a hard place to start. And you must have found it easier once you got onto the tracks, say, northern Italy, than you had done in the beginning, maybe.

Clive (40:00.703)
the

Nick (40:22.148)
Yeah, it's true actually. did in the videos online, I was like, where are these trails? You you mentioned before that you saw me crash on my very first day. I crashed only because there were these massive ruts that were so deep. I thought, well, I can't go in them. So I'll go between them. And then I got really scared and I braked. I braked and I was like, hold on. My feet can't go anywhere because there's two ruts either side. So I just slowly toppled over and I loved it. You know, I was laughing about it. I was like, this is great.

Noel (40:40.359)
Yeah

Noel (40:44.379)
Yeah, they're awful

Nick (40:51.504)
I forwarded it over for the first time and it's just funny. But yeah, that was... Yeah, it was true.

Clive (40:56.156)
It was funny.

Noel (40:58.028)
Thank you.

Clive (40:59.623)
I want to go to, I've got a bit of a rant about people and getting, because in this chat group we've got like Adam and Alex and Noel to some degree constantly wanting to update, change their bikes, get a new one. I get the wind in my face or the gear stick's not in the right place. it's not very comfortable. For fuck's sake, just ride the fucking bike. Whatever you've got.

Noel (41:27.805)
Yeah.

Clive (41:29.331)
I don't care what you've got anymore, just ride the fucking bike. Just put up with it. Do you know? No, let me finish. Let me finish. This point. Because it's important. If you don't like having the wind in your face if you're on a motorbike, if you're worried about getting your arse a bit uncomfortable, the perfect bike for you is a BMW 5 Series. Bikes in their very nature are uncomfortable. I'm not wrong, am I?

Noel (41:32.312)
But were you not even... were you not even... god.

Noel (41:50.786)
But weren't you like this as a...

Weren't you like this as a younger man trying to find the perfect bike? Yes, you settle down in later life, but in the beginning you must have been questioning which was the right bike for you.

Clive (42:07.645)
I've had two trail bikes. I've had the EXC, was, actually, Nick, you need to try out an Enduro bike at some point. Something with a bit of power, because they're a lot of fun. And then just hand it back when it's broken. But no, I've had the EXC, and then I've had the CRF.

Noel (42:09.086)
God.

Noel (42:26.746)
Ugh, such a lack of imagination. You were never curious about other bikes.

Clive (42:31.323)
Yeah, you're always curious, but I'm not gonna go and fucking keep buying them, am I?

Noel (42:34.744)
You're a one-woman man, aren't you?

Clive (42:37.976)
Just ride the fucking bike. Keep the bike, ride it.

Nick (42:40.84)
I definitely agree with you Clive. I've had my SV650 for, I don't know, seven years. I've been all over on it and yeah. I am tempted to get a more powerful bike. I am tempted. I only miss the power when I'm on a road on the CRF, obviously. And I just want to be able to flick the throttle and just pass a car. But on the trails, mean, from my level anyway, it's completely fine. It's more than fine. Yeah.

Noel (43:07.576)
I think it was muted recently that a Himalayan Himalayan might be quite good for you. What did you think of that suggestion?

Nick (43:16.58)
but what would it give me? Just more power? A bit more power?

Noel (43:18.977)
Yeah, a little bit, yeah.

Clive (43:19.187)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm less ground clearance.

Nick (43:24.45)
Less ground clearance doesn't sound appealing. I really want the bike to see, I love the CRF because it just, you know, there's been times when I've been on these rocky trails and I'm just thinking, how is this bike? Like, what is that on the floor? That boulder is just massive. How am I going to avoid it? no, I'm going over it. my God, the bike hasn't fallen over. I'm still living. This is amazing. And the next second I'm going down this like mountain pass on the road at 60 miles an hour, just sweeping around the corner.

Clive (43:27.688)
No.

Noel (43:46.102)
Yes.

Nick (43:53.178)
thinking this bike can do everything. Not well, it's not gonna do, but it's just yeah, it really is a go everywhere bike, especially for a beginner. yeah, I have been tempted. Our friend Adam almost tempted me to buy his Husqvarna 701 when he was selling it. He would send me pictures of it regularly, like just shining clean, know, just wanted to show you this, what do you think?

Noel (43:54.573)
Yeah.

Noel (44:13.27)
the

Nick (44:19.448)
I was close to it, but then I thought, what am doing? Like, I can't afford it right now and I don't need it right now. yeah.

Noel (44:22.936)
Yeah, it'd be a bad choice.

Clive (44:25.383)
It's like having a, it's like trail riding a rocket as well. That's so rapid. Absolutely brilliant.

Nick (44:29.594)
Thing is though, know, one thing I think I will say is what I will change about future trips, as you have seen from my trips and as you will see from my latest trip that is coming soon, I have ridden that COF on a motorway and then some. I've probably done about 12,000 miles in total on that bike in one year. Probably half of them have been on a motorway. That is, it can do it just fine, but.

I think I'm done with motorways. So the next thing.

Noel (45:00.524)
But why, why, why don't you like, why don't you like the CRF on motorways? Cause I always think the CRFs sing along at quite high revs on motorways. They're quite happy.

Nick (45:08.528)
They're great, they're great, but you know me, like to, so for me, like, I really want that feeling of knowing that I've gone really far and having that feeling of, yeah, I've gone there on my own bike as well. So yeah, one day it's totally fine, but I do like, I mean, last trip I rode straight shot to Austria and then I did the Slovenian TET and went down from there and that was just three days of motorway.

And then coming back, was like, I thought I would ride back nice and relaxed and it would be comfortable. But the weather came and it was so hot. So I just straight shot it all the way from Montenegro, back up to London. Four days of suffering. And I thought, what am I doing? Thing is though, I'll do this. I'll forget about the suffering. I'll do it again. Go on the road and be like, yeah, this is terrible. What am I doing? I forgot that. But yeah, story of my life.

Noel (45:49.238)
Wow. Yeah.

Noel (45:54.36)
Yes you will.

Noel (46:00.632)
you

Clive (46:03.113)
So you've got, when's your new film coming out? Tell us a bit about it.

Nick (46:07.716)
Yeah, I'm really excited actually. So this film has a bit more meaning to me. So my father passed away about 10 years ago. And since then, my mom's been living on her own in the house where I grew up. And recently we moved her into a bungalow. And while moving all the stuff out, we found loads of my dad's old things. So he took up photography after he retired and was a journalist as well. So I found loads of old cameras and lenses and loads of old, oops.

and loads of old, what are they called? Sketchbooks with his clippings from his work in there, just pages and pages of stuff that he'd lovingly created. And it was now just sat in a cupboard. when he was close to the end, he wasn't thinking about what was in the cupboard. He was probably thinking about the memories that he had in his life. And I thought, you can't take it with you. So I thought this next trip, I could do the ferry down to the north of Spain.

and do that nice loop, what is it called? The Pecos Mountains? Do that, you know. And I thought that sounds easy, but the better memories are created when you give yourself a challenge, right? So I thought I'm gonna go and do the harder thing. And I've always wanted to go to Bosnia and Montenegro and see what happens. So I did that, but I bought a camera before that. And I bought like a proper camera to film myself with because that's what dad liked. And...

Noel (47:08.775)
Yeah, yeah.

Nick (47:34.2)
rode out there and used that camera to sort of film myself thinking about him and thinking about memories and so on. And I'm building that into my next story. So I've sort of gone out for the first time knowing some of the script before I go on the trip and knowing what the hook is of the trip. So that's coming soon and it's.

Noel (47:37.62)
What?

Noel (47:51.157)
So when you say you used his camera, was that a film camera?

Nick (47:57.272)
No, sorry, so I didn't use his camera, but I bought a camera in memory of him because he would always, it's funny, he would always play around with this camera on family holidays and spend hours looking through the viewfinder and I'd be like, what are you doing? know, like, let's go have some food. And I was like, well, I'll go do that. I'll go get a proper camera and faff about with lenses and see what the attraction is. He was doing stills, I'm doing video, but I just thought it's the right thing to do if I'm gonna make a film that has him in it.

I'll do it with a real camera and I'm making it now and I'm pretty pleased with it so far. It's shipping up to be a cracker.

Clive (48:35.325)
And how much more editing have you got to do on it?

Nick (48:40.288)
I would say I'm about only a third through, I think the first third is always the hardest to get the juices flowing. You know, you have to work quite a lot out, but that's done. yeah, two thirds left.

Noel (48:47.847)
you

Clive (48:50.111)
And are you gonna release it as episodes or as a full length feature like the other two?

Nick (48:53.968)
So, yeah, so I don't know actually. I actually might do a poll for my two fans out there, you know, to find out. But I mean, what do you think? What would you prefer to watch? Would you prefer to like 10 minute episodes or a film?

Noel (48:55.27)
you

Clive (49:07.123)
I like a full length film and if you look at your stats on YouTube at Project Biker you rank your videos in popular order and it's the two full movies that are the top of the pile. I can't believe you've not done this. Looked at yourself on... Don't you not search your name on Google as that's just me. So yeah.

Noel (49:07.518)
I

Noel (49:18.037)
you

Noel (49:29.055)
See typically, well I watched the episodes and I really enjoyed the episodes. But saying that, I did watch them back to back so it may as well have been the film. But let the numbers speak, perhaps is the answer isn't it?

Nick (49:41.68)
But it could be both because people did watch episodes and then watch the film as well. But I do think if I make it into a film directly, there may be more flow to it as a whole. I'm leading, currently it's a film. Currently I've made it as a film and then we'll see what happens. But yeah.

Noel (49:45.972)
Yeah.

Noel (50:01.705)
Well listen, I'm gutted. I'm gonna have go back to my holiday at this point.

Clive (50:06.247)
thanks for your fucking time, not bad.

Noel (50:07.221)
Well, it's an old time podcast recording. Could it not have been worked around my holidays? So yeah, I'm going to have to go there. My fish and chips are about to be brought to the table.

Clive (50:10.953)
Did you

Clive (50:16.173)
Sorry about that.

Yeah, so hopefully the broadband's a bit better downstairs. So just keep, I may have to send you an email and then you may have to upload it from the app at some point when you've got better broadband. Because it's weird because you've got your camera set on 1280p but you're really fuzzy so I think you have got shit broadband there which is the problem. So you might have to wait until you've got decent broadband. But no, thanks for...

Noel (50:25.416)
Okay.

Noel (50:30.389)
Okay.

Noel (50:34.325)
Yeah.

Right. Okay.

All right, so what's the best thing to do? thank you. Go on, thank me.

Clive (50:44.886)
Thanks for popping in.

Noel (50:46.069)
Great to see you Nick, great to see you. Alright, see you soon. It was brilliant. Now I know what it's like to in Trump's America. Right. I'll just leave this on Clive, just in case something goes wrong. I'll just leave my phone on until I hear from you.

Nick (50:47.984)
It was a pleasure to see you again, Noel. See you soon.

Clive (50:52.857)
Did you like my rant by the way? Did you enjoy my rant? Thanks.

Ha ha ha!

That's staying in. Fantastic.

Yeah, you can just, you can stop, you can leave the recording and it should carry on uploading hopefully. If not, we'll sort it out when you're back. Fingers crossed. Well done. See ya.

Noel (51:16.063)
Yeah.

All right. Great stuff. Right. Bye. Bye.

Nick (51:23.546)
Bye now. Clyde, when you started this, did you think it would grow to what it is now?

Clive (51:31.209)
You know, you have these ideas, don't you? I have loads and loads of ideas of stuff that I'm gonna do that could make me rich and or famous. And generally don't follow through on those ideas. But this one, for some reason, I did. you you have an idea it might be successful. Because initially I wanted to just do

radio programs, make radio programs, because we like radio. So, you know, there was a glimmer of one day it might be something, but no, I think it's become a far bigger thing than I ever thought it would.

Nick (52:20.89)
But you say that you wanted to do something for fab and money, but you don't strike me as someone who's doing this for those reasons. You do it for the fun, it seems to me, for the fun of, yeah.

Clive (52:31.773)
No, absolutely. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, that's me being a dick really. So it is very much about the things that it's enabled us to do, the people we've got to meet through it and some of the things that we've got to do. And it really has made my life more fun because we've just got to do dumb things that we probably wouldn't get to do. And just, you know, meeting you, it's just, it led to that. It's brilliant.

We've got a new bunch of mates from it all over the country and it's ace.

Nick (53:05.946)
For sure. It's great to know I've been thinking about what I'm doing and how I can continue because it does take a long time and I would like to put out more regular stuff but there's no way of doing that. I've been thinking about how I can perhaps bring in extra money from it. I've been considering some sort of Patreon approach where I'm a teacher so I know how to put together a lesson and a course and so on. Many people that seem to watch my videos

watch it and feel quite inspired but as we both know inspiration is a short-lived thing it's not about that it's about putting that into action so if i can set up a patreon maybe or some sort of membership where you join it and you can get some behind the scenes tutorials maybe of how i how i do what i do and then even have people send in stuff for review or for some help yeah i've been i've been running that over so

Clive (53:51.518)
Yeah.

Clive (54:01.247)
Yeah, I mean, it's worth thinking about all those things. was chatting to Lel the other day. It's taken him 10 years for him to actually make a living doing his stuff. And, you know, he's pretty prolific. He's incredibly good at what he does. I think we've got about 60 Patreons. And at least 10 of those don't you can just join up for free. So we get £150 a month from it, which, you know, more than covers costs. So there is some, you know.

finance in there but I think with a lot of people there's that you have to do it for the love of it and then at some point you start getting some cash in that you can go right I don't need to work anymore I can I can do it full-time but that's that's the difficult thing then at the same time you you don't want to get away from the thing that made what you were doing successful so if we suddenly started doing a you know I don't know channel 4 TV program it's not the podcast is it people

Nick (54:43.247)
Yeah.

Clive (55:01.073)
like the podcast if we do something completely different you know we're probably not going to do it as well

Nick (55:07.118)
It's true and you can tell when a YouTube channel starts to become a bit formulaic, can't you? Or they put out just a bit too much content for them to have put that much effort into it. But I can't blame them because fair play, if you can make a living then good for you. if I start to smell that someone's on that path, I sort of start to lose that interest.

Clive (55:12.477)
Yeah. Yeah.

Clive (55:22.277)
Yeah. Yeah.

Clive (55:29.119)
Well, you can tell, can't you? mean, Harvey rides bikes is is going to be changing up what he does, I think. I think he's starting to make films. I'll take this out. Guy Markham said the same thing today. He said he's been doing, you know, he's been doing all this other stuff. He's not been making the funny little videos that he he kind of got famous for doing. So, you know, it's a funny one, isn't it? So listen, this podcast has been fucking brilliant so far. You did really good storytelling as a.

Nick (55:47.408)
Yeah, fair play. That's funny. Even... Go on.

Good.

Clive (55:58.143)
I kind of knew you would. And we're up to 56 minutes now and I'm thinking, normally we do an hour and 20 and it's like a 50 minute podcast there, but we've recorded for 56 minutes and that's probably at least 50 minutes of usable stuff in there. So it's really good. Yeah.

Nick (56:13.914)
Good. Good. Professional I am, clearly.

Clive (56:17.511)
Yeah, well I think that's the thing with people that do teaching and training. I think you do need that. You do need that confidence, the ability to speak, the ability to think on your feet.

Nick (56:28.848)
Do know what, that's part of it I feel. I think also because I have sat watching myself through drone footage and whatever, thinking about why I do what I do and trying to write it into a script, I kind of, I've thought deeply enough about it that it's at the fingertips. I could have shared a whole lot more today as well, like just thoughts and feelings that I've had about it. I've just written, I've just done a sequence.

Clive (56:37.343)
Mm.

Clive (56:44.105)
Yeah.

Clive (56:50.26)
Yeah.

Nick (56:57.296)
of my latest thing, I fucking nailed it Clive. Honestly, I don't often say this, right? Like I'm not a big headed guy, but bloody hell, I get hairs in the back of my, yeah, just the words and the music and everything came together and then it comes up with the title of the film, but it comes up with the title of the film 15 minutes into it and it's like, boom, you know, and it just works. And moments like that, know, I love it.

Clive (57:00.767)
Yeah, really happy with it.

Clive (57:20.655)
Excellent.

Clive (57:24.356)
So it'd be good to I think we've probably got enough In there anyway, so I'll just ask you one more question to Close up with and you may or may not have an answer yet. But the Norway thing is a serious serious offer by the way Me and Adam F have been talking about it I don't involve no at this stage because if no gets involved it turns from a trip to Norway into a

Nick (57:29.242)
Yeah, cool.

Nick (57:39.962)
Okay.

Clive (57:51.411)
Wales or he only ever goes to Wales, Scotland. He only goes to places you can actually ride to really cheaply and easily. So I'm going to make it happen, know, arrange it and then I'll invite him, of course, and then and invite all the, you know, Greg's crew as well. We'll see who wants to come. But.

Nick (57:56.995)
Uh-huh, uh-huh.

Nick (58:09.168)
So I'm actually due to go there anyway with my friends from China at the end of July. I'll be more than... Well, I was actually thinking I might just make my next trip out there. We'll be very lucky if the dates match up, but I'm obviously limited to the school holidays. So whenever there's holidays start, yeah.

Clive (58:12.197)
yeah. All right. Okay, because we were talking about July, you could just stay there.

Clive (58:22.152)
Huh?

Clive (58:26.279)
Yeah, yeah, of course. Well, no, yeah, no, we're thinking we were talking about July anyway. anyway, it's very early planning stages now, but we, you know, meet up with Robert Nomad, Sweden and and Thomas Hansen and there's another guy in Denmark. know as well, I'd like to. He has a bike night every Wednesday, so I'd like to go and meet up with him and go to his bike night and things like that. So it will be good fun, I think. And Norway's fucking amazing. So so anyway.

Nick (58:48.73)
That sounds awesome. Yeah, I'm in. Yeah.

Clive (58:55.527)
You've got your Bosnia trip in the can, in the edit. What are your plans for your next big trip?

Nick (59:04.28)
Yeah, actually I don't have one yet. What are my plans? Norway? Yeah, well there's Norway. I don't know, it's...

Clive (59:08.807)
Norway? Norway? Coming to Norway then?

Nick (59:16.76)
I don't know what I think I know. I know what it is. so as I mentioned, no, I thought I will, as I mentioned before, I kind of feel like I failed in Montenegro because I turned around with that guy and it was pretty cool. And you'll see in the film, he's a great guy and it was well worth staying with him for a day. But doing that meant it really changed the dynamic of my trip and it-

Clive (59:22.589)
You don't have to tell us.

Nick (59:46.03)
and I ended up making that my turnaround point and coming back. So I feel like I have unfinished business in Montenegro and Montenegro, let me tell you, is incredible. It really is. I met these two Dutch guys after I just got to Bosnia before Montenegro and they looked at me and said, you are in for a treat. And I said, yeah, but buddy, I've been to like the Alps, I've been to like Spain. I've seen some shit, let me tell you. And he was like, listen, shut up, trust me.

wait for this and he was right it really blew my mind. So I think what I might do this time is get a I have two bikes and no car so I might get an old car get a trailer ride myself down to probably Bosnia again and then take on Bosnia and Montenegro and go further into Albania and maybe even Greece and just see how I can handle that. I've got some yeah it's a it's a good enough part of the world that I've got some unfinished business.

Clive (01:00:44.711)
Sounds amazing. In the meantime you've got Surrey and you've got Wales to go and ride in and get some practice.

Nick (01:00:52.75)
Yeah, for sure. Wales does look challenging, doesn't it? It's really, you know what, the UK, I must say, I've, on my last trip, I came back to the UK and I did a little bit of UK tech from Dover back towards London. It is something else. It is unlike anything in France that I've seen, anything in Italy, anything anywhere, because it's so small, the country compared to other places. You're going around people's backyards. You're going down these like hiking trails and overgrown trees and.

It is quite something, you know, it's a... I needed to really explore it and I haven't yet at all.

Clive (01:01:28.607)
We know some good guys in London actually. We could put you in touch with really nice guys that listen to the podcast and I've met a few times. So there might be some good people to go out riding with as well over the weekend. Drag it around. Supposed to be Good Lanes in Surrey and around there. Hartfordshire. Yeah, yeah. And you've got Adam down there as well. Awesome. Brilliant. Let's knock it on the head. That's great.