Robert Baldinger, live from Stockholm, Sweden & ADV Cannonball Rally News

Formerly the face of the YouTube channel, Nomad Sweden, Robert talks about breaking out onto his own platform. Robert also announces that he will be competing in the 2025 ADV Cannonball Rally! 

Robert's Home Page: https://baldinger.se/

Robert's YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@rbaldinger

Robert's Insta: instagram.com/nomadrobban

Robert's Facebook: facebook.com/rbaldinger.official

Chapters

• 22:26 Robert Baldinger Interview
• 1:18:23 Big Rally Announcement!
• 1:19:29 ADV Cannonball Rally News

Transcript

Welcome to the ADV cannonball podcast where we discuss all things on two wheels, the adventure bike cannonball, and other motorcycle related nonsense. Season three, episode eight. Welcome to adventure cannonball podcast. My name is Taylor Lawson, and I am your host. Today, I am joined by captain Aaron Pufal.

No one's, called me captain in quite a long time. I feel offended. You feel you feel offended. You feel that you forgot how to drive a boat? I think I'd drive it right in the side of an iceberg when someone asked me to drive a boat.

Yeah. This happens. Yeah. So now that we're on a summer break, you know, like, forgot to do the the the intro audio, precision setting, technique that we that we use. I forgot that.

It's like, you know, when we were doing this every week, I was, like, really, like, dialed in. But now that it's summer break, I'm like, woo hoo. Woo hoo. We will we have to maybe switch to the winter schedule quickly because we're losing our damn minds is what's happening. Where are you, and what are you drinking?

Hey. I'm, this is something that our our, our North American, listeners will be familiar with. I am tonight, I'm actually drinking a Brooklyn Brewery, Brooklyn lager, amber ale. Nice. Changing it up.

Yeah, man. You know me. Not not that much. But how about you? What are you into?

I'm into a giant glass of water because it's 10AM, and I have a full day ahead of me, unfortunately. But, yeah, I'm pleased. You know, this is what happens when you run a multinational company, buddy. Yeah. Sure.

No. I need to go work on the rally van because the, Touratech rally starts in a week, and I have sent the giant box of free swag to the Touratech organizers. So everyone in their welcome bag will get some cool gifts from us. And, and yeah. So everyone keep an eye out for that.

I'd love to hear from anyone who's going to the rally. I know that one of our competitors is going, and he's riding there like a badass, of course. And, if anyone else is going, who's listening, drop, drop a comment on our Facebook page. Very nice. So so in this summer schedule, we've had all this time on our hands to do things that you do when you have time on your hands.

You've been really busy. What have you been up to? I we've been developing the app for the cannonball rally. And it's also the bigger picture is that the app can be used for other rallies that are checkpoint rallies. So that development is going really, really well, and, the beta testing is complete, and the web app is working, and we're just working on the Android version.

So, I know that you maybe took a look at the video that I made. The video is not for, you know, how to use this for the cannonball. It is more of a proof of concept for other rallies who maybe want more information about it. Did you have a chance to skim through that? Yeah.

I mean, I got I it's thirty eight minutes long. I didn't get through all of it because my train ride into work is not thirty eight minutes. But I have to say that I did get the majority of it. And I do have this new company phone, and they don't let you wash more than a half an hour of anything because they're like, you should have gotten in the first five minutes. You're either really dumb or you're surfing the net.

So they've called me out. Wow. That's, that's Orwellian. I, you know, I don't know what to think about that. I don't know.

I mean, I was really sad. I got this new, you know, this, this, this 16 e foam, which I was so excited about. And I was like, wow. And then I got it. And they're like, we took away airdrop, because it's potential security threat.

I'm like, it just keeps going that way, man. Yeah. I think maybe next month you're on the train, you can put it on the tracks, and then you can you can stop the company oversight in your life very quickly. It's a very simple solution. Hey.

But that's just me. Thanks very much. The next time I come to you, I need, you know, a drastic dilemma issue solved. I'm coming straight to you, Eric. Sometimes drastic measures for Orwellian oversight.

You know? I I have a question about the rally app. Alright. So I did listen to it. And, so one thing you said, which I thought was super cool, and it was the same problem that we had when we were in, when we were doing the Alcan 5,000.

It was connectivity issues, and, also, you talked about that one of the early podcast in season one, when you did the Mexico rally, where if you lost connectivity, then it was trying to buffer and upload, and then you couldn't get the next way point. And it was an absolute nightmare if you were out, but you have solved that problem. Yeah. That was the big technology, barrier that I was most concerned about. And what that was was so essentially, what you do is, as a competitor, when you go to a rally, you're gonna sign your rally waiver, and then the rally staff are gonna give you a token.

A token is simply a little alphanumeric code, and you will download the app, and you it'll come to a home screen, and you'll enter in your token. And that's it. When you enter the token, the device must be connected to the Internet. So often, rally sign in is at a hotel, so you're on the Wi Fi or most phones have, you know, cell phone connection. So when you enter your token, it downloads the entire rally's worth of checkpoints into your device.

And then that's it. That's the only interaction that you ever really need or required to have with the Rally app. And then you go and run your out your your rally or event, whatever kind of event that you have, and the device doesn't necessarily have to be connected to the Internet for the entire rally. So you go do the rally. You achieve the checkpoints.

You simply ride or drive or fly or walk through the checkpoints, and it records your achievement in the phone. Now if the phone is connected to the Internet, which a lot of the times they are, then in real time, your achievements will update the leaderboard. The leaderboard can be seen by all the competitors, the rally staff, and if the rally organizers choose, by the public as well. And you can see your little dot going along the map, and you can see a scoreboard with all with all your scores achieved. And, but if you're not connected to the Internet, really to your point about technology, is it records the achievement and the time that you achieved it in your universal coordinated time.

And then the next time it sees an Internet connection, boom, it uploads it, and then all the scores are updated. So that was a major technology barrier. And, and, yeah, it's working great. It's I guess it's not a ton of beta. So it an average phone can buffer all the state.

Let's say you connect, you put the token in, it connects, and then you run the entire day's worth of checkpoints. And let's say you had, I mean, you probably wouldn't, but let's say you had a 100 checkpoints. I know that we'll be I think we had twelve, fifteen checkpoints a day. But does your average phone have enough memory or RAM to store that that buffering? Yeah.

Each checkpoint is only a one line of code. It's not like a picture. So for instance, a thousand rallies worth of checkpoints is equal to one photograph that you take. You'd have to have a really bad phone for not to be able to do that. Right.

As a matter of fact, my advice to people is, you know, you've gone through all this effort to go do this rally. Right? And my advice to people is go get a separate phone, especially go get an older iPhone or your your phone that you've retired and just use that as your rally phone and just have it on your dashboard or your handlebars and have it continuously powered and have it on. And why run the risk of of messing up your scoring by, you know, you know, running your navigation app and your and your social media and talking to your wife or something on your phone. Just leave this separate because you've spent thousands of dollars to go to this rally.

You bought a fancy bike. You've set it up. You spent your hotel rooms and all your gas. Just have a separate phone. Leave it running on your handlebars.

In this way, you won't be disappointed in missing a checkpoint because, you know, you closed your app by accident because you were posting on Instagram. I think this goes to the initial one of the sort of the, the nexus of sort of how you came up with the name of this, like, don't be an ADV weenie. Because when we did the Alacan five thousand, people were like, well, my app closed down, and I couldn't. And and and I really was there. Or you're like, they had all kinds of reasons why I'd be like, just work with the technology that's there.

Granted, that app wasn't amazing. But anyway, comment on that if you would. Being around so many rallies, rule number one is don't be an ADV weenie. And rule number two is if you're considering complaining, refer to rule number one. So, you know, we just wanna combat combat all that.

And, you know, we've done extensive testing on on the app, and, really, we want other rallies to use the app. So for the next year or so, once it gets approved and up and uploaded, we're gonna make it free for anyone who's doing a club event or maybe a giant event anywhere in the world. We're gonna make it free for the next year for everyone to use. Yeah. I think that's one of the things that's quite cool about this is that everybody who's doing the this particular route is gonna get an opportunity to use it and test it.

And then you'll have a really solid proof points. Everybody who's doing it and be like about all these solid proof points of this being used. And another thing I thought that was neat was in there and and and we'll end this ramble because you and I are nerd out on this and probably everyone's like, oh my god. Are they still talking about that? But a final point is that you made it really easy for other rally masters to use their computers to set up a rally as opposed to having to do the whole thing on an app, which I thought was great.

One of the things I always found frustrating was when you're building a rally, you're punching in, like, the checkpoint name, you're punching in the longitude, latitude, the radius of the checkpoint, the size of the checkpoint, and then, you know, the point value of the checkpoint and maybe some notes. And doing that with your thumbs can be, you know, overwhelming, and it's fraught with mistakes. So we developed a web portal, basically, a website that you can go in and use any computer to build that rally. So there's less opportunity for things to go wrong. And, if if I can, I just wanna tell one more feature is that we have a push, event messaging feature?

So it requires no interaction from the competitor, but if the organizer wanted to send out a message to all the competitors, whether they're online or offline, the messages will will buffer, is the rally master can send out a message to all the competitors from any device, so from their phone or their computer, And, those messages, go to the to the Rally app as well. So it's a really, you know, it's really a full suite of, tools for any kind of checkpoint or waypoint rally. Alright. I'm gonna shift gears here. Hey.

I we, we, I didn't, I didn't even, you know, as my 20 year old, 20 year old would say, he was like, I wouldn't have even, I didn't even clock that. So we do have some, some news from our listeners. We have a question. Nice. Fire away.

Alright. Here's the question. How did you two meet? Meaning you and I. Oh, no.

We're not gonna tell them about that prison break in Mexico, are you? I mean, it was successful. Prison break. We're still doing a podcast here, aren't we? That's right.

You can't catch me. Alright. So here's my memory of it. And you, and you'd tell me if, if you've have any actual recollection of this meeting me. So when Aaron and I were both captains in Fort Lauderdale, we didn't always we didn't always know where people were, if they were in town, if they just gotten back from a trip.

But, on on Friday afternoon, we would go on Seventeenth Street, which is, just right before the Seventeenth Street bridge and the, and the causeway to go over onto the beach side. And there was a restaurant. I don't know if it's still there. It's called Georgios and it was in a little strip mall and we used to go there and the cap and she like, it you would just show up there at noon if you were in town, if your boat was in town. And, I remember I was there and there's another Canadian captain that, we spent time with and he he brought you in.

And, and then you rocked up and had lunch with us. And then it's sort of been, you know, downhill ever since. Sorry about that. Yeah. Georgios.

I, I remember that place. It was a great lunch spot. And, and, yeah, those those those are the good old days. That's for sure. Yeah.

That was fun. Yeah. That was fun. Alright. So that was that answered that question.

Tara, thanks for that question. And then let's see here. Oh, and then I got a, I got a text from, from Conrad. Conrad was one of our first, everyday adventure rider guys, and he is one Conrad, if you remember, I'm thinking of season one or season two. I can't remember.

But Conrad is the one who went down not once, but twice, and he went down to Colombia. And he rented a d r six fifty and cruised around. So he asked me because, you know, you're Swedish, and he's living in Florida, and I'm living in Sweden. And he said, I'm coming out and thinking about buying a bike to leave out there. There.

What are people buying? He's like, do they have DRs? I was like, no. They never heard of a DR six fifty out here. He said, what do they have out there?

I said, they've got a lot of KTM because we're in Europe. Got a lot of KTM's. BMWs are everywhere. And, of course, the t seven is everywhere. Like, you know, in my 10 people on the riding group that I stood when I was doing the, the rally in Southern Sweden, school, like, in my riding group of 10 people, seven of them or maybe six of them were actually on Tenere 700.

So, anyway, so I got a message from Conrad today, and I kept sending him listings. I was like, T7 t seven t seven. And I didn't actually know. I thought I was sending him listings to buy bikes, but I sent him a listing to rent a motorcycle. And he actually rocked up here.

He's here for the summer visiting family, and he rented a t seven that I had sent him a listing to. And so, I tried to hook up with him when he picked it up because he picked it up here in Stockholm and then drove it south, near Husqvarna, actually, which is, yeah, I don't know if he's all the way down there, but to the south of here. So I sent him this this listing, and I said, hey. How's the 17? So I said, how's the T seven compared to the DR650?

So here's his comment. I thought I'd share it. He said, they have similarities, but they're still very different. The t seven, maybe now what the d r 20 the the d r was d r six fifty was twenty five years ago. They're both reliable, minimalist bikes for the rider who's focused on riding and doesn't care too much about the extra stuff, the bells, the whistles, and the things that increase price and potentially have the the issue of breaking down the electronics.

And they suit the the vast majority of riders, like, the complicated computer and the computer suspension. Those types of things are are gone. He says, but the t seven is twice as powerful as a d r and feels much more like a mid weight a mid weight bike than a d r, the d r six fifty. The t seven works great for, two up riding, and he talked about a, a big rock moto on YouTube compared five to seven, bikes sort of in that range. And he said the verdict was that if he could have only one bike, what bike would he have, Aaron?

T seven, baby. And he sent me a picture of him and his dad, and they were out riding. And this, of course, there's a picture of him with an amazing, you know, water behind him. He's in a marina. He's on the bike.

And, I asked him, of course, if you'd mind me reading this on the on the on the podcast. He says, no problem. And his dad is on a brand new Royal Enfield four fifty c c Gorilla, and he's very happy with it. It's a nimble light bike, and he's about to turn 77. So, anyway, there's a lot they're crushing it.

That's fantastic. That's awesome. Good for them, man. And then do you know the platform that you found the rental bike on? Was it a was it a platform or was it a company?

It's, it's like the, the Swedish Craigslist, and it's called, block it, b l o c k e t. And a block is a is a pad of paper. It's like a a block of paper. So it's like the place where you write notes. That's awesome.

Yeah. There's a few platforms here. There are apps that are, you know, private people renting, motorcycles. So that sounds like the same type of platform that you have over there, which which is great. It's just people renting out their bikes because most bikes are just sitting in the garage anyway.

So that's fantastic. Yeah. It's true. So, but on this, it's like you can buy baby strollers or you can buy, you know, boats or cars or, or or, you know, or t seven. So I have a listing set up.

So anytime a t seven comes up on the market, they, I get a listing. So like usually you get them in, you know, right. When it's starting to warm up, people hold their bikes in the garage all winter and then let them loose when it's time they can get more money on them in the beginning of the season. Nice. Well, listen.

You've already got a bike. You don't need another one. I know. At the other day, there was a killer special over here. There was a killer deal on the, t sevens, and I coulda gotten a 2024 t seven for for the same amount of money that I bought my demo model t seven four in 2022 or 2023 is when I bought it.

But, yeah, I was like, damn. It's the same money. It's a brand new machine. Should I? And I was like, no.

No. No. It's perfectly fine. I wanted to, mention, speaking of other bikes, It took today, the scooter cannonball starts. So, I wish everyone luck on the on the scooter cannonball.

And if you're bored and riding on your scooter and listen to us, stay awake. Make sure you eat your beef jerky and and wash it down with, with the Red Bull, and, keep on keep on going. Keep on going and get ready for a, an oil change or or servicing of your of your, scooter because the actual duration of the race or rally, surpasses the service interval of the scooter. Yeah. And, you know, the biggest thing on those scooters is the the belt clutches.

So those guys carry around, like, two or three. I probably speak out a term here, but, you know, it's a belt. That's a clutch. Right? It's it's like a snowmobile.

So, you know, those things are constantly going, and they're just they're just doing things with those scooters they should not be doing. And I I I think those guys are proper badasses. So good for you guys. I'm really sorry that I couldn't make it to the start because we're preparing for the Touratech rally. And maybe our schedules will line up better next time.

Yeah. If you just, you know, if you just hadn't bought that van, you had plenty of time. That damn van, I swear. It's just it is a huge project. But anyways, we're almost done.

So, and, you know, one of the big issues we found was I bought a all wheel drive diesel sprinter van for the rallies. And it showed up and the thing is jacked up from the factory. And, you know, my oldest fat ass trying to get in and out of this van. I'm like, you're literally climbing down from a sprinter van. It's outrageous.

So I had to go by steps for old man, you know, steps to get in and out of the van. So, anyways, I've had some challenges installing those, and I'm gonna reinstall them, properly tomorrow. And then hopefully, I can finish the electrical this weekend, and then I can start to load the van up early next week to head over to the Leavenworth area in Washington. But, anyways, enough of that. I think that, it's important that we tease a little bit, that after the Robert Bollinger interview, we have a really huge announcement.

So, if you could just stick, stick it out after the interview, Taylor's got a huge announcement. Yeah. And the, I have to say it was the first time that I had actually been in a in an actual studio. You know, you set the you set the standard, Aaron, in, you know, in in doing all these interviews in, when you were in London. Like, I was in a podcast studio.

I was like, really? What was that like? I saw pictures. It was great. Yeah.

And as a matter of fact, I haven't told you yet, but in the van, I'm setting up the infrastructure to make it the the ultimate podcasting mobile studio. So we'll have, mics in there and sound dampening, and all those awesome things. So, we're gonna have the ability to podcast from the van. So that's gonna be fun. Hey, you'll never actually have to leave there.

That's it. I'll just be in the van, just throw in a can of beer once in a while and a thing of beef jerky, and I'm all set. You'll be good. Yeah. Good.

Alright. And, anything else you wanna cover before we roll the interview? No. You just wanna set up the interview a bit and, and we can do that. Yeah.

So it was really nice. So I had a chance. I chatted with Robert and we got our schedules together, and he was in, Stockholm for a particular event. And I met him at a, at a studio, and we actually have a, we hit a video recording of it as well. So, whenever that's ready to, to roll, we'll have that on the on the YouTube channel, and you'll get to see, yeah, me and Robert in the studio.

And yeah, we chatted for an hour. I said, I asked to ask the guys in the studio. I was like, Hey, can you, can you give me a five minutes in a heads up before it's over? You know, so I, so I can sort of wrap up. And, anyway, it turns out that I, I didn't, I didn't quite like, they knocked on the door at the top of the hour, and I was like, you're done.

I was like, I got a little bit tongue tied in. I didn't like, I didn't close properly. I didn't, like, officially have a chance to award him in the, you know, the, his badass sticker, which I gave him, you know, after we left. And I was like, I meant to do this on air, but I just want everyone to know he did officially get a badass sticker. And, it was a it was a it was a nice interview.

So, listen and and learn a little bit about why he transitioned from, Nomad Sweden into his own channel. So he does share that, and, he's just really authentic. It was a nice interview. I think a lot of times with these YouTubers, especially really popular ones, is we wanna know more. We wanna know the the drama, the personal questions.

We wanna know what's happening, you know, in the background, and you did a fantastic job of asking those questions and getting answers to the questions we were all we were all thinking to ourselves about. And with that, let's roll the interview. Registration is now open to the public for the next ADV Cannonball rally. All riders on any motorcycle are welcome to join the adventure. Whether you're looking for an exciting and highly organized coast to coast ride with a group of like minded riders or a friendly competition for cannonball glory, it doesn't matter.

Everyone can participate. Head over to adbcannonball.com to secure your rally starting position today. Now back to the podcast. Welcome to Adventure Cannonball podcast. My name is Taylor Lawson, and I am your host.

And today, we are humbled to have Robert Vollinger here in the studio in Stockholm with us. Welcome. Thank you. So happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

It's, it's my first time doing it in a professional studio like this, so it's it's a cool experience to be here to start with. Yeah. I'm sort of starstruck coming into a studio like this. But you're like a technophile. You're probably going, well, I'm gonna have to get that now.

Yeah. I already noticed the version of the microphone here, so it's better than what I have. Yeah. Fair enough. Before we jump into motorcycle talk, I wanna talk about a, you know, you're not just like a one hobby guy.

I wanna talk about something that people may not know as literally translated, strike with foot, strike with hand, and the wake up. What is that what is that sport? That's Taekwondo. That's, I've been doing that since 1986 with a long pause in between, you know, kids and life and everything. But then I picked it up again when I realized I had to be flexible enough to swing my legs over a big luggage over the bike.

So the Taekwondo helps doing that. Yeah. So, I when I we tried to get together previously, and you were like, I've got a class that I'm teaching right now. So you're teaching kids. You're also known as an instructor.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I have classes three times a week. So, yeah, I've been doing that, and it's sort of my, base exercise or whatever.

You have to do something. I'm over 50 now, and I realized that martial arts is, the best way, at least for me, to keep fit enough to and flexible and balance and core and everything to be able to do the other things in life that I enjoy. Yeah. And maintaining your body, especially over 50. I'm 57 now.

And, and I find that, you know, things don't work like they used to. No. No. They say. So so they say.

So let me, let me just, first of all, I think it's really cool that you give back to the to the community. When I was in, when I was in Washington DC where I was born, I went at the age of seven before we had moved to Annapolis, Maryland, I took a I think it was June Re. It was like the big karate place in Oh, okay. Some like the mega center, you know, hundreds of people in there. And, I was, you know, I was seven so it maybe seemed like a 100 people in there.

But I remember the, the instructor stood me in front of him and he said, I'm going to teach you a very important lesson. And I said, what's that? And he stood me right there. He squared me up and he goes, pop. And he hit me in the chest.

And I and after I caught my breath, he said, here's the lesson. The best way to avoid a punch is not to be there. Oh, yeah. I was like, I'll remember that lesson, Sensei. Alright.

Alright. That's Cobra Kai style. Yeah. Exactly. There's no fear in this dojo.

There's no fear in this dojo. Exactly. Except fear the fear of the instructor. Yeah. Yeah.

So anyway, let's let's let's shift gears away from that and then, talk a bit about motorcycling. So this weekend, we chatted again about coming into the studio. You were, like, you were locked and loaded. You had your AJP all set up and ready to go with your bags. How was that trip?

What was that about? It was called we named it, ADV Hangout, as, we have all these events, around, yeah, the world. But, yeah, in Sweden, we have and you pay, and you sort of become a customer or a participant at an event where everything is handed to you with, the lectures or whatever and food and everything. So we thought that there's a lot of people starting, adventure riding and everything today. And let's do something just like a big hangout where we have a lot of experienced people, and we have the newcomers coming in.

But it's all exactly how it would be, if you were out riding, setting up camp, cooking your meals, but we all do it together and then, sort of have panel discussions on all the different topics. Not one presenter, but we're all in a big group sharing experiences. And and then you learn it's not just one way to do things, but this guy has one way to do it and, yeah, all the different personalities. So that turned out to be a real hangout. It turned out to be a hangover at the end.

But Sometimes sometimes these events go that way. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it was really, a great, style of doing things that we look forward to do again. And it it's some of the organizers.

It's us, the YouTubers like Matthias, Thomas Hansen, the Nordic, people there, but then also Moscow Moto and AJP people and so on. But it's not a commercial thing. They are really into this also just to spread it, and and share knowledge. So it's not that much about selling stuff. It's, About using Exactly.

We don't just sell things. You can actually get out there and use the equipment as well. Exactly. Yeah. Nice.

Sounds like a good event. Yeah. I'm gonna try and attend the next one. Yeah. For sure.

Yeah. And also a different thing that made it a bit like fight club, is that we didn't have a site. We didn't have, any advertising. We just went out and okay. You invite the people that you have in your network.

So there was invitation only. And now that you know me, I can invite you for the next time. Alright. Good. I won't have to, like, try to find out, stalk you guys.

It's like the, the cannonball rally used to be. Okay. Yeah. The cannonball rally, you know, it is adventure cannonball podcast. Yeah.

So the Cannonball rally actually used to be that they would send out, you know, this is pretext. It's like Burt Reynolds, you know, Cannonball Run. Yeah. And what they so you put up you put your money in at the start and then whoever ends up in, you know, at the destination gets the pool or or a large portion thereof. So it was a straight up illegal road race, which is which is why they've stopped that.

And now it's more of a rally event. Yeah. The event used to be that they would in terms of who came to it, they wouldn't put the information out and they wouldn't broadcast it because the police would just wait there at the end of the first block and pull everybody over. So in this case, it was about who you knew and they were like, okay. The starting event is at this place.

Go. Yeah. That makes it all more exciting and yeah. Fight club. Fight club.

We don't talk about fight club. We don't talk about fight club. Rule number two. Don't talk about fight club. Alright.

So one of the things that, in the way I came to know you and I think the way that most people know you is through Nomad Sweden, which was this YouTube channel that, started with a group of writers as you Yep. As you describe it. And so much of so much of what you talk about is very open. You're just very, you know, you share everything. It's like you're holding nothing back, which is one of the appeals and what makes you, I think, very, relatable.

And people and and it makes you people go, that's a normal guy. I could be that guy, and he's doing normal things. You actually pinpointed what is sort of my idea with the whole YouTube thing is that you watch Paul Tarrez and Adam Rehman and all these gods out there. But my, sort of niche is what you said. I could be that guy.

Yeah. So I'm I'm not doing anything, out of the ordinary or extreme. It's, and I'm I'm in the beginning of my journey still. I started late and so on. And the people who's who's getting into the adventure riding, they sort of can identify me.

It's not that far I'm not that far ahead from them, and I can share what I've learned so far. And yeah. So gets me closer to them, I guess. Yeah. That, that I'll I'll get into a few questions about how your how your new content has been able to change.

Whenever we start an interview or a chat, what we what we on this podcast, something that Aaron and I have been doing for a long time is we say, what was your first motorcycle? Before you answer, because you are so open with your content, tell me if I'm off track here. But about six years ago, you started riding with a group of friends. You bought a GS, a BMW GS 1,200. Yeah.

But, you're wrong. I'm wrong again. So used to hearing that. Yeah. Christmas nineteen ninety nine.

Okay. I got, yeah, Christmas gift from my wife. Not something interesting, just a small rectangular, packet. And I opened it, and it was a book. And it was the theory for motorcycle license.

Okay. Yeah. So what's this? Yeah. We're getting a motorcycle license.

So this is all her fault. So it was her idea? Yeah. She got it. I had no idea.

We never talked about it or anything. So we did that together, got the license together, and we got a motorcycle together, a Honda Shadow July, back in, yeah, in 2000 when we got the license. But I yeah. We rode it together. Then we got the kids and everything.

So I rode it back and forth, just commuting to, to work. And I realized that motorcycling is really nothing for me. I didn't really find the enjoyment of it. Just riding on this, Honda Shadow, yeah, it was nice, of course, but, then I sold it and got on with, with life for seventeen years. And that's when you know this.

Then then then it picked up because then you had the channel, then you started really sharing about those things. Yeah. And just as unexpected as the Christmas gift, I just went to a pool party with my friends. And there was, one of my best buddies, and he had got a GS 1,200. And haven't you seen the long way around, which is the start for so many?

Yeah. Yeah. And we're going. We've never been on a trip, but we're going all these different crazy places. And it just happened to have an extra, GS twelve fifty because of some reason with his wife, bike being at the workshop or whatever alone or it was too big for her.

So for a month or two, there was an extra GS. Nice problem to have. And that's why I tell my kids, get your license now. You don't have to get a bike. But when you're at the pool party or whatever, because then you you can you get the question.

Do you wanna go riding with us on that bike? I have the license. Yeah. I hadn't ridden for seventeen years, but it came back quickly. And, yeah, I really never came back from that ride.

I'm still there. Okay. Very cool. So if we if we come forward to maybe, say, six years ago when you started Nomad Sweden, that's when you got the GS. And then as you progressed, you spent more time going more and more off road.

So then you went to the Tenere 700. I have to take a moment here and say, thank you for the inspiration. Oh, yeah. Aaron, in the podcast here with me, Aaron was like, you've got a I think a t seven might be the thing for you. Go check out this podcast.

And, of course, that was Nomad Sweden. Yeah. So I do have a t seven, and and, thanks to you. You've sold one more machine? Yeah.

Many people thanked me about that. Yamaha never did. But There's still time. Yeah. So the the t seven, as you mentioned, I had the GS first, and we started riding as a group.

I always did. Always. I started making videos for everything just out of interest. But so so when I started writing, with my buddies, which became Nomad Sweden, It was natural to, new thing to make videos about, things like that. But and we started the channel.

But it was when I, got the t seven because it came early to, to Europe. Yeah. And I was among the first ones in Sweden because I just bought it from You had never ridden it. From from the pictures. Yeah.

Here's my money. Go. Yeah. And The US didn't have it for another year at least, and, same with Australia. So when I started posting t seven material, there was a lot of interest, and and the channel took off.

And, yeah, I got the start of the audience there. Yeah. And and that obviously went went well. Yeah. So one of the things I think is interesting in in your videos and in watching your content, so you obviously went to more, more off road.

You went to the t seven, then you went to the AGP recently. So usually, somewhere in your in your man cave, there's a scrambler. Yeah. You never talk about the scrambler. No.

It's, we have a private relationship. Yeah. I wanna take a page out of a Ted Simon personification book where he personifies motorcycles. Yeah. So I think that if you are if your motorcycles were talking after you turn the lights out and you walk away Yeah.

And you've got the you got the t seven, the AGP, and you have the scrambler. And I can see the scrambler saying something like, you know, Robert never takes me to events. Robert rarely buys me jewelry and talks about it with to all of his friends on video. And the other day, when he was talking about tires, he actually took a camera and put it right up my tailpipe. And I have to say, from that perspective, that makes my back tire look very big.

Yeah. You nailed it. So what is that bike that say? Actually, when my oldest, kid, wanted to get a license, I got a cheap bike just to to train on. It's the in Europe, it's the a two size.

You you cannot go with a a heavy powerful bike, so that fit the bill. It's and, didn't cost me much. And it's $19.82. So in Sweden, that means no tax, no inspections, nothing. I pay €50 or dollars for it per year in Okay.

Insurance. So, so when he got his own bike, I thought, should I sell this now? It cost me nothing. And it turned out to be the most used, old bike to rebuild and, yeah, make cafe racers and scramblers from. So I thought, now I have this nice garage.

I have a lot of time over winter, so let's keep it in and make something, and learn. I'm learning. I've never had a moped or anything. I started, yeah, it's Tinkering? Tinkering with my bikes with the t seven.

That's, a bit with the GS. But yeah. So it's a learning experience and turned out nice. I'd say. Yeah.

You mentioned cafe racer. Do you know where the term came from, cafe racer? They did some races between the cafes, right, and and who who's gonna get there first. And Yeah. They they needed to to lower the weight to be faster and take things off?

Or that's They did they did. Yeah. So Aaron was recently he did his he did his sort of the, The UK the European tour. And he went to the Ace Cafe, and he met with Sam Manicom and, Manicom. And he interviewed the manager for Ace Cafe, and he said that it used to be that the guys would put a find the longest song, put a quarter in the in the jukebox, run outside, get on their bikes, and ride around the block and try to get back and park their machines before the song had stopped.

And that's where the term Alright. Cafe racer came from. I'd like to try that. Yeah. No problem.

I think maybe you shouldn't. No. No. No. No.

No. No. But, actually, she's getting some love and, attention soon because I found, some off road tires for it. Not enduro style, but trial tires are in the same dimensions. And and I saw I'll make a vintage, Trans Euro Trail trip is in my plans.

What inspired you to so you had this really popular channel, Nomad Sweden. And what made you decide to branch off Nomad Sweden and then start your own channel? And how does that allow you to shape the content differently? So the group Nomad Sweden, it it was a group. Although, I was the one making videos from it.

That was my interest. And I, created the channel around us and everything, but we were still a group, even though I was the person making, the videos. So we had this nonprofit organization where we all four were linked and got into the perfect circle of we make a trip, which becomes a video that will finance the next trip and going on like that. And then, just like any group, we start to evolve and want to do different things. So when the group sort of, deteriorate, rates, we don't do the trips, anymore or anything.

We need to do something. And now there's money involved and and, yeah, everything like that. So it was easiest in the end to just branch off, keep Nomad as it is as long as it generates some income to the group. And I start my own track Yeah. And channel there.

So and that enables me to, do a bit more what I want. I I could start my own, little small company to be able to, yeah, invoice companies and stuff like that for, sponsorships and stuff. So it it hasn't really been a big shift in what I do because I always recorded whatever I wanted to, and that that's pretty much the same. But, yeah, the feeling is a bit, yeah, let's do this on another level now. Yeah.

Good. Yeah. Interesting fact for our listeners. So in five months, your new YouTube channel has fully one third the number of subscribers that your previous channel gained over six years. So that's quite impressive.

Yeah. Yeah. I was amazed. And the big bulk were, the hardcore followers, or the yeah. From Nomad Sweden, because I did post a thank you video on Nomad Sweden when I decided to there's not gonna be any more content here.

If you wanna keep following, follow me, then, yeah, come with me to this channel. And, yeah, first 10,000, joined in a week. And so one of those. Oh, yeah. That's good.

And yeah. So because over time on a channel where such as Nomad Sweden, where we do all these trips and so on, we get a lot of followers just enjoying one of the trip videos. But then I start changing clutches and have other videos and so on. So, the followers that followed me to my new channel are those that really want to they're into adventure riding and want to see everything that I do. So the community interaction is just as big now as it was with the larger channel because the the active people are on my channel now.

That makes sense. Yeah. And so it's it's, it's enabled you to sort of call off those who are truly interested in more of the the new topics. Yeah. Yeah.

I think one of the the things that I really find enjoyable about the the new content is that it really appeals to the beginner writer. And you're you're sort of with open arms saying, this isn't a big mystery, guys. Here's how we're doing this and invite and you really show the secret behind it. A a question about that. So so much of what you of what you present, you present in a very pedagogic way.

You explain things in great detail, probably makes you a really good instructor, you know, for martial arts as well. Were you always really tech has has the the tech side of things and the great deal of that always been an interest to you, or is that has the channel made you need to understand things in a greater detail to explain it? I am a tech geek from childhood. I always been interested in in computers and stuff like that and and details. But most of all, I've always been, an instructor.

I love to teach. And one of the things is that, the best way to learn something, because I have so much still to learn about everything, And the best way to learn is to teach. Because then you you know sort of the general principle of, what you wanna do. But to teach someone, you really have to structure it and and get the the the small details of stuff. So before I make a video, I have to go through all that.

And when I can make the video, that's a learning process for me also. So and and, many of the things that I teach on my channel, like, watch me changing the clutch plates of the t seven or, change the drive kit. The video is the first time I'm doing it. Okay. So yeah.

That's a pretty good yeah. Because you don't wanna tear that apart a second time and go, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah.

I I I'll do this for this first time, and I research how to do it and everything. And then I sort of have the material to okay. Let's just film what when I'm doing it. Yeah. You can always go, that was really bad.

And but at the same time, I remember watching a movie, and they were they were putting a tent up. And, and it was it was actually it's a movie. Yeah. That's not important. But the they were putting a tent up and it failed.

It was a they were trying to do a kid show and and the tent they couldn't make it happen. And then the guy was like, no. We should we should roll that. We should we should show kids that. Yeah.

And they was like, well, why? It was a total disaster. He's like, because kids need to know that you can't always be successful every time. Yeah. So it's a good good lesson.

Exactly. When it comes to your approach for creating authentic and engaging content, what role does your personal story play in connecting with viewers? I think, actually yeah. As mentioned, I love teaching since long before from, yeah, Taekwondo. I I've had I took the, flight license, private Yeah.

Yeah. Cessnas and things like that. And I immediately ended up in in ground school, teaching, the next, batch of, pilots. And at work, I I teach, our customers use a software. And so it's just natural to to, do the same on on, when with motorcycles and everything around adventure riding.

So I think that's just part of me, in a way. And being over I guess it starts when you're over 40. That shame, sort of being embarrassed, that disappears year for year. And now I have no problem just talking to the camera and whatever. I'm wrong.

I made a mistake. Yeah. It's like, yeah. It's not Who cares? Yeah.

Let's just carry on. Everyone's just human. I'm just a human here. Yeah. I wanna say you're, talking about content and content creation.

So you just you recently came back from your trip named Texas. You titled it Yeah. 100 and so one hour thirty five minute film, which is great. And, you had as you said, you had terabytes of data to edit when you came back. So to your process, do you have any rules of thumb or guidelines when deciding what to include and what to leave on the cutting room floor?

What are some what are some rules you have around that? From experience, the first long trip that we did, we did series because that's, what what the big YouTubers do, like itchy boots and stuff like that. But they they are living on the road, and they have people following them episode from episode and things like that. So when we did our first trip that was up north in Sweden and then down to Balkans in in Southern Europe and stuff like that, we started with episodes, showing a lot. So so the percentage of the filmed material that ends up in, the actual video is quite large because you you want to have many episodes and stuff like that.

And it yeah. The the results, the views were, like, ten, fifteen, 20,000, views for for one episode and then dropping. Mhmm. And then I I I was, at the same time, watching another YouTuber who did the same thing. But then suddenly, his channel exploded.

And what did he do, what did he do? What was different? Yeah. He was on on Iceland and posting these episodes, and he has had the same numbers of viewers as me. And then he had, like, hundreds of thousands of views on one video.

And that was his Iceland trip, but just, compressed into a long format video over an hour. So let's try that. And so so I tried that and just picking keeping the momentum and the pace up and always something happening and and and so on because you have all this material compressing it. And that video is now two and a half million views. So That the the the one from the previous that you mentioned.

Yeah. The the the recut of the series, into to that format. So, and we did that again with the Turkey trip. Almost two hours of video in one just long film. Also two and a half million views now.

So and and that's, I guess, with the algorithm and everything. But because YouTube sees that, oh, they are watching a long time here, and even thirty minutes of a two hour movie is huge for them. So that might be part of it. And, also, I noticed that the devices that that they watch YouTube on now is is, at least on my channel, is 60% on television on the big screens, which means they wanna sit back in the sofa if they're engaged in something that, yeah, they could watch a movie. They're two hours long now.

So Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So so that's now now I do long form at first, because of that. So and then in in general, I guess, because in the editing software, I can see here's all your material, and this many percent is on your timeline that of the movie.

And it's usually around 10% of, the recorded. Of the full length. People are picking up 10% of it. Yeah. Okay.

It's interesting you talk about the length of things being, there being attraction to that. A lot of the feedback that we get from the podcast is that people want it they say, you know, the longer the better because I just wanna I wanna go do something and I wanna be able to cut the lawn or I wanna be able to engage in some activity and listen the whole time. I don't wanna have to stop, take my glove off, change it, go to the next episode. I want it to just happen for me so I can see that. I have to say that I'm one of those people who just puts it up on the big screen.

It's like, I just wanna hang out and watch this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

And and if you make and sometimes, of course, some things I do is, fifteen minute format, video. And you have to be that that's a different audience or or they watch it sort of, on the phone or whatever. And you have to really be the classic YouTuber. Hey. Today, we're gonna look at this and dah dah dah.

And yeah. So I really like to spend have something, a long format, and I can just don't care about being a YouTuber, just making a film or Yeah. I yeah. So speaking about your, your film, I'd like to ask you. So it was titled 2,500 miles of culture shock and motorcycle adventure in Texas.

Yeah. So here's my question. What was the most shocking thing that you experienced when you were there as a Swede going into Texas? Yeah. I've never really been to The US, first of all.

So coming into, I've been there two times for sporting events and just flying there and back, but this was really on the ground. But but the first shock, I guess, was just in the kitchen drawers and everything at Dave's home, just guns everywhere. The there's a hollow point and a a full mantle thing there. And why do you have two different yeah. This is if you wanna shoot inside the house.

This is for outside. It it doesn't go through the walls, but this does. And, yeah. So so that's a shock. And are we bringing the guns riding the bikes on the trip?

Yeah. Of course. Don't doesn't everyone? But, of course. It's really funny you mentioned that because when you when you so I asked the question because having lived in Sweden for twelve years, I know that let's say I'm at a dinner party and, you know, I'm I'm I'm I spent the majority of my life in America, and I've been in Sweden for twelve years now.

This this month makes twelve years. And if I'm ever at a dinner party and, you know, it's getting a bit boring or I'm just just flat out not getting enough attention Yeah. Then then I can mention things like, you know, I used to carry a gun for work, and I wasn't in law enforcement. And then you see the eyebrows start dancing. So Yeah.

That's a good icebreaker. So I I, I thought that when when you when you saw that, I was like, oh, you navigated that brilliantly. You're like, yeah. Some things you packed before the trip, you know, Maui Jim sunglasses, nine millimeter. And I thought it was guys like that.

So I knew I thought that was what you'd be coming forth with as your answer. But also interesting, the sort of, there's nothing special in Texas about having a gun. Mhmm. No. And that's also something you notice.

You have a gun and people around you probably have too. And it's like having your mobile phone in the pocket. It's the same thing. Yeah. So that's interesting.

But also, southern hospitality, is a real thing. I was amazed with, how we were received, and they weren't treating us special in any way. But it's just the way, people approach you. And and, yeah. So that was really nice.

And also the way how we got the bikes, same an example there. Yeah. Yeah. Because we were looking for, sponsors and everything to help us with, yeah, sorting bikes for the trip and everything. Then I just went into Facebook adventure group there for the place that we were staying.

And we, yeah, I wrote about our problem. We need to find bikes somewhere. Any hints where we can rent or whatever? They just said, Take mine. Yeah.

We'll just drop it off. Yeah. I know that Aaron as well. Aaron has the, the 2023, triple black GSA Yeah. $2.50.

He's like, yeah. I'll just bring it down from Seattle and drop it off, but you got it sorted, so he didn't need to come down. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that was mind blowing, actually.

Yeah. It it is. Southern hospitality is a thing. Yeah. I, I lived in in, in, say it properly, Houston Yeah.

For Okay. For thirteen months and then in Dallas for thirteen months when I was in my twenties. And, yeah, it was it was an interesting experience having come from the East Coast Of The United States to that part of the world. Yeah. There's a huge sense of community and and family there.

It's quite nice. Especially since as a Swede, we're quite, culturally, further away from I mean, Texas and Sweden, that's night and day in, what you so so you would you would expect that there would be a collision there. And I guess it is, but it was never a problem. And but we we promised ourselves before the trip. We never talk politics or religion.

Yeah. Keep those two out of it, and you'll be safe. That's so we don't discuss any of that on the on the podcast ever. We don't touch any of this. Again, as I said, I've been in Sweden now for twelve years, and there's a large focus on balance in Sweden.

That's amongst the political parties. It's more equality between the sexes. Yep. And there is, work life balance in general. So my question to you is about balance.

So as a content creator, how do you balance the demands of filming, editing, writing, while keeping the experience of being out in the in doing your adventure riding? How do you keep that enjoyable with that balance in mind? Everything there are two sides to it. One is when you're on the trip, and that's when you're only recording. And I don't take as much it I don't let it, let's say, I don't do that much to get the, the content, the video, the raw material.

I send up a drone once in a while. I it's and just having a camera filming around me what's happening, it's comes quite natural. But I don't have the tripod with the big camera set up, and now we walk in this door. And, yeah, I don't plan anything really there. So when riding, it doesn't really affect my adventure or experience, like that.

Then it's a different thing coming home with a terabyte of video material that needs to be turned into video. And some people can I have these content creator friends and, oh, I have, my hard drive now is full for the full year of riding that I haven't done anything to? I cannot wait a day before I arrive, inside the door. And the first thing before I get my clothes off or anything, start, downloading the the SD cards to to hard drive and let it, work there for for a while. And so I can take my clothes off and then start there.

And then I go into, so I go into the zone for I I because I get a bit manic about until the movie or production is finished, I cannot really concentrate on anything else because they're always ideas. Should I do this? Should I do that? And da da da da. So I I I have a two, three week period where I I edit the video.

Right in. Yeah. So and I have a lot of time, since kids moved out. We work six hour days, very Swedish. Yeah.

And so on. So I have a lot of time on my hands. And, I'm married with a perfect wife that oh. Come on. You you've already set that up where when you said she got you the motorcycle boat.

So you really need to say anything else about that. Yeah. So the biggest sort of where when where I feel I need the balance is when I get home and start editing because then there's no balance. You're straight in. You're you're you're full on geek mode at that point in time.

Because I enjoy it so much, and time just flies. I'm yeah. So I that's a part with, making videos like this. Some people want to do it, but they don't really appreciate the editing. You should love editing, to do things like that because then you have both the trip.

And on my way home, I can't wait till I can get back to computer and start making the movie from it. So so you have twice the fun. But if that's a burden to you, I guess it's not for you. No. It's not your thing.

You know, when we started this podcast, Aaron does all the editing on this. Yeah. And, you know, we were newbies just and, you know, everybody starts some place. Yeah. Now we're at season three.

And the quality in terms of what Aaron has learned about this is, he's like, this is what, you know, this is what this looks like in this staccato when this happens and Oh, yeah. So he, he's learned so much. And he's like, and I learned some of this new trick in the software where you can push a button and all the all the space between Yeah. Between the sentences goes away. But he's done an amazing job, but I can totally recognize that the editing part, that it it requires you you really need to enjoy it.

Yeah. And, then Aaron's very techie as well, so I can see that that, that's right up his Strasse. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

Keeping with the same theme of balance. Yeah. So how do you navigate the challenge of maintaining your authenticity and your integrity as a person while also meeting the expectations of manufacturers who may provide gear for review, hoping for a positive review. And are there strategies or principles that you follow to ensure transparency and trust with your viewers? Yeah.

That is actually something that I've put some thought into, and and I try to navigate that. And I'm I'm also making new promises to myself because I also feel that starting out with adventure riding, you need to get any bike, and strap your gear on that bike somehow and be somewhat safe with your riding gear, of course. But and then I'm there teaching them to start, doing the adventure riding, and I have all the most expensive stuff, that are in in many cases given to me and so on. So I don't wanna, persuade that this is what you need to get started. So that's a tough balance.

So so because they watch me having this or that helmet or pants or and and the dedicated adventure gear is quite expensive. It's really expensive. Yeah. Yeah. But it's it's a tough job making good garments and stuff for adventure riding.

So I guess, it needs to be a bit pricey, but you don't need it to get started. You can over the years yeah. Build it. Build yourself. Build it.

But I didn't start with the expensive stuff. As mentioned, you need to be protected. So get a good helmet and some protection for your body, and and the rest is just be do some innovations and strap things to your bike. And that's a good way to learn also. This is not working and this is.

And so, yeah, there's a balance. Absolutely. One of the things I think is interesting is I'm reflecting back to some of the content that you provided in your previous channel. And that was about, adventure riding on a budget or something that had to do with budget. And it really talked about sort of threading the needle between, you know, where should you spend your money.

And as you've commented, like, this is the most important thing. You've gotta make sure you you know, it's like when I first bought my, my first helmet, when I bought my first bike, in The States, it was a d r two fifty. Yeah. And, I I'm there. I've got, you know, looking at this whole wall of helmets.

And then I said to the guy, you know, where should I start? He's like, well, son, how much do you think your head's worth? Yeah. And I went, that's good. That's a really good question.

I was like, well, my head can afford that one. Yeah. It's like a middle of the range. Oh, yeah. That's a good sales pitch to start off with.

Yeah. Exactly. What's it worth? What's it is it is it worth protecting what's in there? Well, my parents may not think so, but Yeah.

I have a different perspective on that. Yeah. Yeah. So and that budget video was actually my own conscience. I see.

I need to make something of about starting on the budget and not, go straight for the expensive stuff. The most expensive gear. I also noticed you did a nice one, where you like, the two top brands. We're looking at Adventure Spec and Moscow. Moscow Moto.

Yeah. And you were like, witches. And I thought that was really balanced in there because you didn't you didn't show your hand. You presented the pros and cons to both pieces of equipment, and I thought that was really well done. Yeah.

Because and that came out really clear at the ADV hangout that we the the event that we spoke of. When we because it's easy to be a YouTuber and have, the only voice on your own channel saying this is, what you should choose and this or that. And it came so clear that a lot of the experienced guys, at this event have having the discussions, they all had different priorities. And and, I need I think that needs to come out also that it every piece. Since, ADV is all about compromises.

You you ride a bike that is not the best for tarmac and not the best for off road. And you need to wear clothes that need to do everything that cannot be perfect, for all occasions. So there's always compromises. So most gear out there is really good, but there are different compromises, that suits you or not. Yeah.

It's a it is it's always a balance, as you say. Yeah. And it's important to make sure that I think one of the most important things I think that you put forth that's that's a a good message is that, as you say, it's a compromise. I mean, the whole sport in itself, as you say Yeah. Is it is a compromise between road riding and off road riding.

Yeah. And it's, you're trying to you're trying to thread the needle there. So I think that, it's a good comment about how you have to make the balance. Yeah. Absolutely.

So one of the, one of the common threads that we often hear when we speak with people who are traveling by motorcycle is that they have a different level of access into society than you would if you were taking a motor transportation. Can you share a little bit about that or share some experiences of how that motorcycle has brought you closer to the society that you're traveling in? Yeah. Absolutely. I think that is one of the big reasons why I love adventure riding.

Setting off on a longer trip, preferably into some other country or something. And when you're, let's say you do the same trip. You go you go somewhere rural, in the, yeah, backyard of of some place, and you arrive in a car, and then and you arrive, on a motorcycle. The car is if it's, from a different country since you're coming from there, you're a tourist. But on a bike, you're more received as a traveler, in a way.

And it's, people are more, prone to reach out and, yeah, talk to you. And and also it's it's, motorcyclists are also prone to small problems. They are. Yeah. And that's great.

You want those small problems to happen because my most memorable moments from all the trips is when something happened. We may have a flat, and we can sort it out. But people join in, and they come and suggest, stuff, and they help you out. And so so I have friends now that we met from wheel bearing. Yeah.

Yeah. I saw that. We we ended up in in a workshop in Prague, in Czechia, and and we're still friends. So, yeah, just traveling on a motorcycle, what you experience, the smells, the the views in instead of from inside an aquarium as a car is, And the people you meet is that the interactions is completely different. Also traveling in poorer countries.

Like, we went out way out east in Turkey. We, rode in Tanzania and everything. If you arrive in a fancy car, you're on a completely different level from them. So there's a sort of class difference or whatever. But in those, countries, everyone rides bikes.

So and when you arrive on a bike, you're sort sort of on the same level as them. Yeah. Even though the machine you're on, then you just arrived on may cost what they earn in, you know, the course of ten years or a lifetime. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But that seems to not matter. It's No. No. Yeah.

It's it's, as you say, you you you become part of the society. It's sort of they they're like, oh, here you are. Yeah. And one of the again, a common theme, if you think about Ted Simon, you know, he begins his book when he begins Jupiter travels where he talks about and there I was, you know, sitting under a tree in India where I've just run out of fuel. And he's like and that was and and, even Elspeth here when I was just recently at Skoog, and she said this when I interviewed her, and she said the common theme throughout is that, when things don't go as planned or the motorcycle breaks down as Yeah.

Prone to problems Yeah. That's when the unplanned adventure truly begins. Yeah. Yeah. So we've and I made a speech in in Latvia, actually, a presentation and talking about insurance, but not the type of insurance that you pay in advance and you get financial coverage.

But you need that guy in your group, that everything happens to. Because you want things to happen, small problems, just bring that guy that it all happens to. So it doesn't happen to you, but you get the the the unplanned adventure and everything. And I have that guy in my group. You have that guy.

Yeah. That reminds me when I was, I was I was in my, I guess, thirties. And I was, I was working. I had to become a dive instructor to or dive master, at least, to take over a a charter boat that, that I was about to run. And so I was working on Chris Sawyer's dive operation out of Saint Thomas and to get my certificates from just a basic diver.

Yep. And we used to say that, we do this big dive and, you know, this big plan. So we're we're leaving. It's about an hour and a half trip from East End Of Saint Thomas into the British Virgin Islands where we're gonna do the wreck of the Rhone. And we'd sit around on the boat.

We're setting up dive belts and we're doing the dive plan, the dive profile. And we look around, there's a bunch of guys with knives strapped to their legs. These are guys who are like sitting at, you know, they're like, you know, stock market traders during the day. And now they got a big knife on their leg. And we go, okay.

So who's got a knife? They go, you should pair up with someone who doesn't have a knife. And they go, if we see some sharks, remember, you don't have to first of all, you you take the knife out and you don't have to outswim the shark. Uh-huh. You take that knife, and you stick it in your dive buddy's leg.

You have to outswim them. Yeah. Exactly. That's the plan. That's the guy you've got in your group.

Absolutely. I don't recommend that, though. No. So let's talk about what is what's what's next for you? I'd like I do like to have also my calendar a bit unplanned, but I I I I'm going into a period now, where July and August is a bit sacred.

I keep that completely unplanned so that I can do what I like to do is just get on the bike. I have a time frame, point the bike in a direction, and just go around. So that's unplanned. But I do have a schedule because of sort of the YouTube fame thing. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm going to, Tenere travel trophy, which is coming to town in two weeks Okay. In mid mid June. So I'll just, be part of that while they are in Sweden. They go start in Denmark and then go through Sweden and up to Is it a rally event?

What other Yeah. It's sort of a, a rally in a way. No competition or anything. But, there's about 150 bikes. And, yeah, they go on this preset routes, and, it's it's quite a high profile event where Yamaha is is part of it.

So they build this, up this little tenured town at every, sort of end of each stage and everything. So I'll, I'll receive them in Gothenburg when they arrive there, and I will sort of be their chaperone through Sweden and hand them off to the Norwegians once they have left Sweden securely. So that's that. And, yeah, then we have, ABR festival, first time for me also. I'm going to Romania with a bunch of friends, YouTuber friends, so that would be some stuff.

And what I'm most excited about, is October, taking the AJP and ride the world's largest enduro race in Sweden, the Gotland Grand National. Okay. Yeah. That sounds like fun. Yeah.

So completely new experience for me. I'm never rode enduro bikes. But, yeah, that's I can check that off my list, and I get some cool numbers stickers on my bike. Little delivery for that. Yeah.

Good. Where can people wanna learn more about you. Where can they find you? What are your socials? Where can they catch you?

Yeah. Mainly on YouTube. That's sort of this main source, and I have links to my Insta and and so on there. And what are those handles? Yeah.

That's, my my name, actually. Robert Baldinger. Maybe that's hard to pronounce, but bald, as bald, if you're English. Yeah. Bald.

And Inger, like, the name. Baldinger. So, yeah, that's my channel. So that's my main place. But I I put my videos there.

And on Instagram, which is, linked from the, YouTube channel, I post a bit, yeah, more spontaneous stuff. Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you very much for sitting down with Adventure Cannonball podcast, and we really appreciate your time today. Yeah.

Thank you. It was so much fun. Thanks. Ladies and gentlemen, could I please have your attention? I've just been handed an urgent and horrifying news story, And I need all of you to stop what you're doing and listen.

Cannonball. Hey, Cannonballers. Thanks for subscribing to our podcast. We appreciate it. If you're not a cheap Canadian and want to buy us a coffee, head on over to buymeacoffee.com, or better yet, buy us a case of sweet ass craft IPA.

We'll visit on patreon.com. Links are in the show notes. Now back to the riveting podcast in progress. And we are back. Nice one.

Really, really good job. And, you know, the minute we talked about first doing a podcast, that is exactly why you're the host of this show, and I am the wacky sidekick. That was a great job, man. Fantastic. You did great preparation.

You guys sounded great on the mic. And it was really introspective to hear about what happens in the background of a YouTube channel. Yeah. Thanks for that. I think, I think, I think, first of all, I don't think you give yourself enough credit people that call me, they're like, man, the interviews Aaron did it for crushing it.

Anyway, I'm just trying to keep that brother. Yeah, he was, you know, Robert's a pro, right? Robert's a pro and he was, he's generous and he's he's gregarious. He's he's very open. And, one of the things that really that really stuck out for me is right in the beginning, I said, you know, people look at your YouTube channels and they're like, I could be that guy.

And he's like, that's exactly it. And I think that's one of the things that makes him so authentic is that people go, they can relate to him. Right. He, there's nothing not like he's got a big, you know, he's, he's on some big screen and he, you know, he leaves screen, he goes out to his G five and they fly him around the world. You know, it's like, he's a regular dude with a job, and he's he's just a super nice guy who puts out a great presence.

Yeah. He's a genuine nice guy, but he does have a a real sickness, which is he said he enjoys editing. So I think, you know, someone should study his brain for defects because, I do not enjoy editing whatsoever. Yeah. You know, everyone's got everyone's got something.

You know? So, you know, you you you deserve the medal, which is the big news is that after that interview, I'm not sure if you drugged his tea or you plied him with IPAs, but, he has signed up for the twenty twenty five ADV cannonball, and we are so very proud to assign him number five for the 2025 ADV cannonball. Boom. Yeah. That's that's that's fantastic.

I'm, I'm excited to, to see him at the awards ceremony. Yeah. So, and we will do a live on location podcast after the awards banquet at the Portofino Hotel. So, so, yeah, that's a big deal. So all the competitors, prepare your best Hollywood wheelie because, he's gonna be filming all this, and we are looking forward to, to having him.

And I'm actually letting him use my my g s a. So, so, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna tear up across the country with our longest traveled, competitor. He's coming all the way from Sweden. So, that's really, really big news. Yeah.

Great news. Well done. And is there anything you wanna talk about shipping wise? You had some changes in the in the availability of shipping recently to or from the, the cannonball start? What's that?

So we're all sold out getting bikes to the cannonball, so you're on your own. But we have plenty of availability to help you get your bike home from the twenty twenty five Cannonball. So and and, I think there are three spots available. And that's it for Cannonball news today, bud. Alright.

And I, I don't have anything else to add. So I say with that, let's roll the outro. Thanks for listening to the ADV Cannonball podcast. Please give us a five star review on your preferred podcast platform. That really helps us with the algorithm gods.

Oh, hail the algorithm gods. You can buy us a coffee on buymecoffee.com/advcannonball or directly help save this sinking ship for the price of a pint at patreon.com/advcannonball. Follow us on all the socials with the handle at a d v cannonball. If you'd like to send us a question or comment for the air, or if you are a musical artist and want your royalty free music played on our podcast, or if you'd like to contact us for advertising opportunities, email us at podcast@ADVcannonball.com. Thanks for listening, and remember, don't be an ADV weenie.

Keep your right hand cranked and your feet on the banks.