Podcasts about komoot

25 aprile, Festa della Liberazione dal Nazifascismo.In territorio Cusiano, ovvero sul lago d'Orta, e nella vicina Ossola si sono scritte pagine fondamentali di quel periodo storico. Così il 25 aprile 2025, ho deciso di partire dai Laghetti di Nonio, salire alla Quarne per mostrare non solo bellissimi panorami collegandoli alla storia e all'archeologia, MA ripercorrendo un tratto del famoso "Sentiero Beltrami".La storia del Capitano Beltrami, nato a Cireggio di Omegna) è legata indissolubilmente al periodo della Resistenza. Il giovane Architetto dopo l'armistizio del 1943 sale in montagna e divenne il capitano della brigata Beltrami, formazione aprtigiana posizionata nella zona di Quarna e della Valle Strona (il comune di Valstrona è medaglia d'argento al valor militare!). La sua fama di buon condottiero cresce fino a passare alla storia quando muore eroicamente il 13 febbraio 1944 a Megolo (Pieve Vergonte) assieme a 12 partigiani.N.B.: durante il video affermo erroneamente che Bruno Rutto fu Sindaco di Omegna... In realtà fu una persona importante a cui viene anche dedicata una via MA NON fu sindaco...TRACCIA GPShttps://www.komoot.com/it-it/tour/2188458936?share_token=aaKnhI1lQ42cs3wthMBbTGJVSdhAYhujTChh50ZpDHU0Wcd4S2&ref=SEGUICI su KOMOOT:https://www.komoot.com/it-it/user/landexplorer#marketingterritoriale #turismo #turismoresposabile #turismostorico #resistenza #archeologia

What makes the Savoie department in France so special? In this episode of the Join Us in France Travel Podcast, titled Best of the Savoie Department: Courchevel, Chambéry, Albertville, etc., host Annie Sargent and co-host Elyse Rivin dive deep into the highlights of this beloved Alpine region. Get the podcast ad-free Savoie is famous for its majestic mountain views, ski resorts, and rich regional culture. Annie and Elyse talk about iconic destinations like Courchevel, a world-class ski resort that draws visitors from around the globe, and Chambéry, the historic capital of Savoie known for its charming old town and Italian-influenced architecture. They also cover Albertville, host of the 1992 Winter Olympics, and nearby attractions that are worth a visit even if you're not into winter sports. Beyond the ski slopes, the episode explores the region's food culture—think tartiflette, fondue, raclette, and delicious local wines. They talk about summer activities too: hiking, mountain biking, lake swimming, and exploring picturesque villages. Whether you're planning a ski trip, a summer vacation in the Alps, or just curious about French mountain culture, this episode gives you all the inspiration and practical tips you need. Annie and Elyse share personal stories, travel advice, and a genuine love for the region. Subscribe to the Join Us in France Travel Podcast and never miss an episode full of French travel tips, cultural insight, and destination inspiration. Table of Contents for this Episode [00:00:15] Introduction and Greetings — [00:00:31] Today on the podcast — [00:01:07] Podcast supporters — [00:01:40] The Magazine segment — [00:02:07] Annie and Elyse about History of Savoie and Haute-Savoie — [00:03:00] Geography and Key Locations — [00:04:42] Skiing in Savoie: Resorts and Activities — [00:06:11] Recent Events and News — [00:07:58] Upcoming 2030 Winter Olympics — [00:10:45] Travel Tips and Transportation — [00:11:49] Winter Tires for the car in the mountain area in winter months — [00:14:16] Local Culture and Traditions — [00:15:13] French Tradition of Social Security Health Care — [00:17:41] Distances from the Savoie Department to Various Locations in France — [00:20:21] National Parks and Summertime Activities — [00:22:53] Find Experiences in the Area on Komoot — [00:26:14] Charming Villages and Scenic Beauty — [00:28:05] The Tradition of the Transhumance — [00:29:14] Culinary Delights: Cheeses and More — [00:36:50] Conclusion and Recommendations — [00:37:41] Thank you, Patrons — [00:38:25] Tours Reviews — [00:38:40] Discount for Podcast Listeners — [00:40:54] Train and Road Work During Summer — [00:44:13] SNCF strikes — [00:45:16]  Place de la République — [00:48:44] Next week on the podcast — [00:49:15] Copyright — More episodes about the French Alps

Die überaus beliebte Wander-App Komoot wurde überraschend verkauft – für die Gründer ein Geldsegen. Warum dieser Exit dennoch für einen Aufschrei gesorgt hat und wie es nun für die Lovebrand aus Potsdam weitergehen könnte. Weiterführende Links: „Ein Schockmoment“: Warum Mitgründer Hallermann die Wander-App Komoot verkauft hat „Verrat von den Gründern“: Die bitteren Folgen des Verkaufs der Wander-App Komoot Lauftipp: Die Welt im Laufschritt entdecken Zum manager magazin Abo Finance Forward Sie wollen noch mehr exklusive Einblicke und spannende Recherchen aus der Welt der Wirtschaft und Finanzen? Dann haben wir genau das Richtige für Sie: Mit unserem FINANCE FWD x manager+ Paket lesen Sie alle Inhalte auf www.manager-magazin.de und in der App jetzt für 12 Monate mit 25% Rabatt. Und das Beste: Sie erhalten zusätzlich 10 % Ticket-Rabatt auf die Konferenz im Mai bei der Sie FFWD live erleben. Sichern Sie sich jetzt das Angebot unter www.manager-magazin.de/forward Dieser Podcast wurde produziert von Felix Klein und Sven Bergmann.+++ Alle Infos zu unseren Werbepartnern finden Sie hier. Die manager-Gruppe ist nicht für den Inhalt dieser Seite verantwortlich. +++ Alle Podcasts der manager Gruppe finden Sie hier. Mehr Hintergründe zum Thema erhalten Sie bei manager+. Jetzt drei Monate für nur € 10,- mtl. lesen und 50% sparen manager-magazin.de/abonnieren Informationen zu unserer Datenschutzerklärung.

Thanks to Garmin for supporting the podcast!You can check out the video versions of the podcast, plus more videos from Cade Media here:https://www.youtube.com/@Cade_Media/videos00:00 Jimmi wants to change his name02:43 Are Specialized for real?12:47 UCI's latest ridiculous ruling15:24 Bad news for Komoot?21:48 Bike workshop essentials… (FUOTW)23:56 Unpopular Opinion: tyres bigger than 25mm are too big29:18 Unpopular Opinion: bike reviews need to stop using RRP37:38 Unpopular Opinion: road cycling would be more popular without the spandex40:52 Unpopular Opinion: TPU inner tubes make tubeless redundant48:33 Road tyre pressures49:05 Send us your Unpopular Opinions and Questions!49:22 Is riding in pro team kit OK?51:34 Jimmi's dumb phone era begins + weird algorithmsIf you'd like us to send in a question, story, some good news, things you'd like us to discuss or anything else, email us at wildonespodcast@cademedia.co.ukThanks and see you next time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Wir sind auf gutem Weg, eine Folge komplett ohne Erwähnung von Grafikkarten zu haben, aber diese ist es noch nicht. Zur Beruhigung: Es sind nur Leaks zum Release-Datum der Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti (Mitte April). Ebenfalls Leaks und Gerüchte gibt es zum Apple iPhone 17 Air, das dem Namen entsprechend ganz besonders luftig dünn sein soll. Keine Gerüchte, sondern ganz offiziell hat die EU-Kommission Apple als Gatekeeper im Sinne des Digital Markets Act dazu verdonnert, iOS für iPhone und iPad Drittanbietern von Apps und Zubehör zu öffnen, um Interoperabilität zu gewährleisten. Drittanbieter-Apps und Zubehör sollen also die gleichen Möglichkeiten haben wie Apple-eigene. Google stellt das Pixel 9a vor und die große News? Der Kamerabalken steht nicht mehr prominent auf der Rückseite vom Gehäuse ab, sondern ist im Gehäuse versenkt und auch nicht über die gesamte Breite. Interessanter ist da das Feld der Batterien für E-Autos: BYD stellt ein neues Ladesystem vor mit einer Ladeleistung von 1000 Kilowatt in der Spitze. Ziel sei es, Autos so schnell laden zu können, wie das Tanken bei einem Verbrenner. Und zu guter Letzt wieder die Frage "können Steam-bzw. Gaming-Accounts vererbt werden?": Wir haben mit Frau Prof. Susanne Gössl von der Uni Bonn gesprochen und ja, es geht. Das vollständige Interview werden wir in Kürze nachreichen, aber bis dahin... Viel Spaß mit Folge 249! Sprecher: Meep, Michael Kister, Mohammed Ali DadAudioproduktion: Michael KisterVideoproduktion und Titelbild: Mohammed Ali DadBildquellen: Apple/MockupAufnahmedatum: 22.03.2025 Besucht unsim Discord https://discord.gg/SneNarVCBMauf Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/technikquatsch.deauf TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@technikquatschauf Youtube https://www.youtube.com/@technikquatschauf Instagram https://www.instagram.com/technikquatsch(bald wieder) auf Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/technikquatsch RSS-Feed https://technikquatsch.de/feed/podcast/Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/62ZVb7ZvmdtXqqNmnZLF5uApple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/technikquatsch/id1510030975 00:00:00 Themen: Gerüchte und Leaks zum Apple iPhone 17 Air; Apple muss iOS im Rahmen des DMA für Drittanbieter öffnen und Interoperabilität herstellen; BYD präsentiert Ladesystem für E-Auto-Batterien mit 1000 kW; Bending Spoons kauft Wander- und Radtouren-App Komoot; Diskussion zum Interview mit Prof. Susanne Gössl zum Theme "Gaming-Accounts vererben"https://www.zdf.de/play/reportagen/die-spur-224/roblox-kinderspiel-online-gefahr-100 00:05:33 Mike ist alt und macht das an seinem Musik-Hörverhalten fest 00:14:58 Gerüchte zu Release von RTX 5060 Tihttps://www.computerbase.de/news/grafikkarten/geforce-rtx-5060-und-rtx-5060-ti-marktstart-laut-geruechten-im-april-und-mai.91868/ 00:16:43 Leaks und Gerüchte zum iPhone 17 Airhttps://www.mactechnews.de/news/article/Geleakte-Huelle-zeigt-iPhone-17-Air-mit-Kamera-Leiste-la-Google-Pixel-186848.htmlhttps://stadt-bremerhaven.de/iphone-17-air-das-soll-drinstecken/https://www.teltarif.de/iphone-foldable-apple-geruecht/news/98147.html 00:24:59 Sammelklage in den USA gegen Apple angestrebt wg. versprochener und nicht gelieferter AI-Featureshttps://www.computerbase.de/news/wirtschaft/irrefuehrende-werbung-sammelklage-gegen-apple-wegen-ki-funktionen-eingereicht.91883/ 00:28:58 EU-Kommission verdonnert Apple dazu, sich für Drittanbieter von Apps und Zubehör zu öffnenhttps://www.computerbase.de/news/smartphones/fuer-ios-19-und-ios-20-eu-zwingt-apple-zu-neuen-funktionen-fuer-iphone-und-ipad.91855/ 00:38:21 BYD stellt neues Batterieladesystem mit 1000 kW Ladeleistung vorhttps://www.heise.de/news/Fuenf-Minuten-Ladezeit-BYD-stellt-neues-Batteriesystem-fuer-E-Autos-vor-10318760.html 00:55:40 Discord: mehr Werbung in der Apphttps://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/03/discord-heightens-ad-focus-by-introducing-video-ads-to-mobile-apps-in-june/ 00:57:26 Komoot aufgekauft von Bending Spoonshttps://www.heise.

Preparatevi a un'avventura che vi lascerà senza fiato! In questo video, vi porto con me in una passeggiata culturale ad anello sulle alture di Nonio, un vero e proprio viaggio tra storia e natura selvaggia.La nostra prima tappa? La misteriosa Cappella della Muntà, un gioiello nascosto con un passato ricco di leggende. Un tempo questa cappelletta era dedicata alla beata Panacea (patrona della Valsesia). Immersi nel silenzio, ci siamo lasciati incantare dalla sua atmosfera magica e dal panorama che si apriva davanti ai nostri occhi.Ma non è finita qui! Il sentiero ci ha condotti all'Alpe Berro, uno degli alpeggi più grandi della zona, dove la vista è semplicemente spettacolare. E come se non bastasse, abbiamo esplorato i resti dell'Alpe Alebi, con il suo maestoso faggio secolare, un gigante verde che ci ricorda il trascorrere del tempo.Per rientrare ai Laghetti abbiamo deciso di seguire il sentiero T2, un percorso poco battuto ma che ci ha permesso di riscoprire una scorciatoia che ci ha portato in breve tempo in località pontetto (abbiamo risparmiato circa 30 minuti di cammino)#marketingterritoriale #storia #cultura #turismo #outdoors #adeventures #avventura #panorami #natura #italia Le colonne sonore utilizzate:Acoustic/Folk Instrumental by Hyde - Free Instrumentals https://soundcloud.com/davidhydemusicCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/acoustic-folk-instrumentalMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/YKdXVnaHfo8Angelz by ZiMPL https://soundcloud.com/zimplmusicCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0Free Download / Angelz: https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/zimpl/angelzMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/sNWkFgciVawSoar by Ambyion & GalaxyTones https://soundcloud.com/ambyionhttps://soundcloud.com/galaxytonesCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0Free Download / Stream: https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/ambyion-and-galaxytones/soarMusic promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/Vebj1BnbZHA⚠️ DISCLAIMER: Su questo canale YouTube vengono caricate gite svolte da semplici amatori ed appassionati di montagna, non professionisti. Le immagini e le riprese hanno uno scopo puramente illustrativo, e non devono sostituire in alcun modo un'adeguata scelta dell'itinerario e la consapevolezza dei rischi legati all'attività outdoor. Il gestore del canale declina ogni responsabilità per eventuali incidenti dovuti alla scarsa esperienza o a fattori accidentali.LA MIA ATTREZZATURA VIDEORegistrazione video: Apple Iphone 12 mini e Gimbal Insta Flow 360Registrazione video: Insta GO 3 SRegistrazione tempi e tracciato: Apple watch SE 2022TRACCIA GPShttps://www.komoot.com/it-it/tour/2107999467?share_token=aXeXiTHWKCEunRCRbNVGQTrex6z79rwuYjck0wIufhr8KMoADF&ref=wtdSEGUICI su KOMOOT:https://www.komoot.com/it-it/user/landexplorer

In der aktuellen Podcastfolge von "Nah am Wasser" geht es um den Wanderfrühling auf Rügen, der am 1. April startet und den gesamten Monat umfasst, in dem zahlreiche geführte Wanderungen angeboten werden. Der Tourismusverband Rügen bewirbt diese Initiative als Highlight für Wanderfreunde, wobei kuratierte und empfohlene Routen auf Plattformen wie Komoot und Outdooractive unter dem orangefarbenen Siegel “Rügen - Wir sind Insel”erkennbar sind. Katja und Axel Metz informieren sich beim Co - Vorsitzenden des Tourismusverbandes Rügen über Besucherinformations - und Buchungsmöglichkeiten über die Webseite und die Rügen App und in den örtlichen Kurverwaltungen, wobei viele Angebote für Inhaber der Kurkarte kostenfrei sind. Und sie erfahren in der Folge von der Auftaktwanderung am 1. April Zum Auftakt zu den Feuersteinfeldern bei Sassnitz-Mukran.

Philipp Gloeckler beantwortet MBA Hörerfragen und Philipp Kloeckner shortet Pinduoduo. Dazu wird noch die Summe des Komoot Exits geschätzt. Dazu sprechen wie über den Digital Markets Act, Teslas Buchhaltung und dass X wieder 44 Milliarden wert ist. Unterstütze unseren Podcast und entdecke die Angebote unserer Werbepartner auf doppelgaenger.io/werbung. Vielen Dank! Philipp Glöckler und Philipp Klöckner sprechen heute über: (00:00:00) MBA (00:24:00) Google (00:28:15) Digital Markets Act (00:33:00) Perplexity (00:36:55) Pinduoduo Earnings (00:46:00) Komoot Exit (00:53:00) Teslas Earnings (00:59:25) X (01:03:30) Schmuddelecke Shownotes Amazon unterbietet Nvidia mit aggressiven AI-Chip-Rabatten The Information Johannes Beus: Google Core Update: Foren & Communities verlieren an Sichtbarkeit LinkedIn Brüssel geht trotz Trump-Drohung gegen Google und Apple vor Financial Times Google führt neue Funktionen für das Gesundheitswesen für die Suche und Android ein TechCrunch 1,4 Milliarden Dollar sind selbst für Tesla eine Menge, um durch die Maschen zu fallen Financial Times Satellit statt Glasfaser: US-Regierung plant Milliardenförderung für Elon Musks Starlink Der Spiegel Wert von Elon Musks X „steigt auf 44 Milliarden Dollar Kaufpreis“. The Guardian Russland bespricht Raumfahrtkooperation mit Musk Twitter Elon Musk hatte ein „All Hands“ Meeting bei Tesla BlueSky Tesla fährt durch eine Wand YouTube

In dieser Folge sprechen wir über unsere neuen Bikes und Bike-Pläne. Dazu ein paar News in Sachen Komoot Preis-Gestaltung für Neukunden und ein Rückblick auf unsere ZWIFT Wintersaison mit interessanten Statistiken und ein Recap auf unseren OPEN DAY hier in Hannover. Hier alle Themen im Überblick:


Thanks to Garmin for supporting the podcast!You can get your tickets for the Attacus party here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/attacus-ss25-launch-party-tickets-1276361073329?aff=oddtdtcreatorc 00:00 Come eat pizza with us in London! 01:53 How we almost lost a £10,000 bike05:41 Bike price hikes in the USA08:12 Komoot now charging monthly fee to send routes to devices11:58 Tadej Pogačar silences reporter at Strade Bianche15:17 Unpopular Opinion: e-bikes can get you fitter than regular road bikes21:33 Unpopular Opinion: most people overdress for cold rides25:31 Unpopular Opinion: aero testing is codswallop30:00 Unpopular Opinion: any phone can be a dumb phone36:35 Send us your Unpopular Opinions and questions please!36:52 How to make your commute a training ride42:26 What's our backgrounds and how did we all meet?Support Max's Everest charity ride: https://sadiscovery.tourdecure.com.au/t/maxim-buckleyYou can check out the video versions of the podcast, plus more videos from Cade Media here:https://www.youtube.com/@Cade_Media/videosIf you'd like us to send in a question, story, some good news, things you'd like us to discuss or anything else, email us at wildonespodcast@cademedia.co.ukThanks and see you next time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heute zu Gast Sascha und Robert vom Gravel Club! Schönes Interview über die Gründung des Clubs, Events, Philosophie und am Ende sprechen wir auch Ausführlich über das Bikepacking Event „Shardana Bikeventure“. ## LINKS ZUR SENDUNG ## * Gravel Club Website https://gravel-club.com/ * Gravel Club Membership https://gravel-club.com/membership.html * Gravel Club Ausfahrten https://gravel-club.com/ausfahrten.html * SHARDANA Bikeventure (unsupported) https://www.shardana-bikeventure.com/de * LaNuragica Sardinia `25 (die eine Woche Reise mit allem drum und dran) https://gravel-club.com/unsere-events/lanuragica-sardinia-25.html * LifeCYCLE Magazin https://lifecyclemag.de/ * Steppenwolf https://steppenwolf-berlin.de/ Der Gravel Club ist eine Community für Gravelbike-Enthusiasten, die sich dem gemeinsamen Fahren, dem Austausch von Erfahrungen und der Organisation von Events widmet. Unter dem Motto “Feel Free Ride Gravel” bietet der Club regelmäßige Ausfahrten, Events und Workshops in verschiedenen Regionen an. Ziel ist es, Menschen zusammenzubringen, die die Leidenschaft für das Gravelbiken teilen, unabhängig von ihrem Erfahrungslevel. Neben den lokalen Ausfahrten organisiert der Gravel Club auch größere Events, wie beispielsweise “LaNuragica Sardinia '25”, ein Bikepacking-Abenteuer auf Sardinien. Zudem gibt es eine Workshop-Serie namens “Breakfast Club” in Berlin, die von November bis April stattfindet und verschiedene Themen rund ums Gravelbiken abdeckt. Für Mitglieder bietet der Club exklusive Vorteile und Rabatte. Interessierte können sich über die Website anmelden und Teil der Community werden. Der Gravel Club legt großen Wert auf Gemeinschaft und heißt alle willkommen, die ein Fahrrad, einen Helm und Lust aufs Fahren haben. Insgesamt fördert der Gravel Club den Austausch und die Vernetzung innerhalb der Gravelbike-Szene und bietet sowohl Anfängern als auch erfahrenen Fahrern eine Plattform, um gemeinsam ihrer Leidenschaft nachzugehen. ## INHALT ## 00:00:00 - Intro 00:02:06 - AB-Fragen: Von Strava, Komoot bis CylingWorld 00:32:33 - Gravel Club Idee & Gründung 01:07:17 - Die Gravel Club Community 01:22:53 - Welche Events stehen 2025 an? 01:45:24 - Sardinien Shardana Bikeadventure 2025: Selfsupportet Event 700km oder 900 km 02:12:36 - Outro: LifeCycle Magazin Zukunft, Cooles Schlusswort

Vor 15 Jahren kamen sechs Freunde aus Österreich und Deutschland auf die Idee einer App fürs Wandern – das ist der Gründungsmythos von Komoot. Die Plattform aus Potsdam, die Tourenvorschläge für Wanderer und Radfahrer anbietet und mit Einmalzahlungen und Abomodellen arbeitet, hat einen steilen Aufstieg hingelegt. „Wir sind auf jeden Fall weiter gewachsen und haben jetzt 45 Millionen Nutzer“, sagt Mitgründer Tobias Hallermann über das Jahr 2024 im Podcast „Die Stunde Null“. „Und wir waren auch wieder profitabel.“ Neben den Gebühren der Nutzer bindet Komoot auch Werbekunden an, was allerdings nicht überhand nehmen soll. „Wir wollten Komoot nicht mit Werbung überladen“, sagt Hallermann. „Die Leute sehen einen Mehrwert in unserer App und sind auch bereit dafür zu zahlen.“ Die Tourenvorschläge entstehen auf der Plattform in einer Kombination aus Nutzerbeiträgen und Informationen aus verfügbarem Kartenmaterial. „Wir analysieren alle Aufzeichnungen aus einem jeweiligen Gebiet – und versuchen dann, mit Hilfe von Technologie herauszufinden, wo es Häufungen gibt und was typische Tourenkombinationen sind“, sagt Hallermann. „Wenn also fünf Nutzer eine Tour machen, dann kann daraus vereinfach gesagt ein Tourenvorschlag bei Komoot entstehen.“ // Weitere Themen: Die kommende Bundesregierung muss jetzt liefern +++Eine Produktion von RTL+ Podcast.Hosts: Nils Kreimeier und Martin Kaelble.Redaktion: Lucile Gagnière.Produktion: Andolin Sonnen. +++Weitere Infos zu unseren Werbepartnern finden Sie hier: https://linktr.ee/diestundenull +++60 Tage lang kostenlos Capital+ lesen - Zugriff auf alle digitalen Artikel, Inhalte aus dem Heft und das ePaper. Unter Capital.de/plus-gratis +++Unsere allgemeinen Datenschutzrichtlinien finden Sie unter https://datenschutz.ad-alliance.de/podcast.html +++ Wir verarbeiten im Zusammenhang mit dem Angebot unserer Podcasts Daten. Wenn Sie der automatischen Übermittlung der Daten widersprechen wollen, klicken Sie hier: https://datenschutz.ad-alliance.de/podcast.html +++Unsere allgemeinen Datenschutzrichtlinien finden Sie unter https://art19.com/privacy. Die Datenschutzrichtlinien für Kalifornien sind unter https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info abrufbar.

En el capítulo de hoy os voy a hablar de aplicaciones para smartphone para practicar senderismo. Aunque yo lo llame senderismo de andar por casa, no quiere decir que se pueda hacer buen senderismo con ellas, sino que se trata de un uso más de esa maravillosa "navaja suiza" que es nuestro smartphone y que nos va a proporcionar el camino para hacer de nuestras salidas al monte una nueva aventura con la que poder descubrir nuevas rutas y parajes. Hablo de las aplicaciones: · Wikilock - https://es.wikiloc.com/ · Komoot - https://www.komoot.com/es-es Wikiloc necesita de un plan de suscripción (menos de 20€ al año) para poder exprimir su potencial, y Komoot permite un uso más avanzado sin pasar por caja, aunque también tiene plan premium. Lo interesante es que vais a poder hacer rutas con ambas aplicaciones de forma completamente segura usando mapas y tracks.gpx offline, sin cobertura ni datos, usando la antena GPS de vuestro smartphone y de forma completamente gratuita. En el audio os cuento cómo. Ambas aplicaciones tienen su homógo para smartwatch, en mi caso un Samsung Watch 4, que hacen la experiencia del senderismo más segura y divertida. Espero que os guste el audio ya que el uso de estas y otras aplicaciones similares nos abre un nuevo mundo de posibilidades para hacer de nuestra afición, el senderismo, una nueva manera de descubrir rutas y bellos parajes de montaña.

Tobias Hallermann erzählt, welche Besonderheiten es beim Gründen mit Familie und Freunden gibt – und welche Trends uns im Outdoor-Markt erwarten.

Haben Klappkarte und Kompass ausgedient? Braucht man ein GPS-Gerät oder reicht auch das Handy? Und was können aktuelle Multisportuhren? Diese und andere Fragen beantwortet Uli Benker, Autor des Standardwerks "GPS auf outdoor-Touren" und Mitglied im outdoor-Testteam, in der aktuellen Folge.

In deze Iconische Doorzetters praten we met Feike Sijbesma over zijn leiderschapsreis, de transformatie van DSM en zijn visie op de toekomst van duurzaam ondernemen. Belangrijkste Gesprekspunten en Takeaways: De transformatie van DSM onder Feike's leiderschap. Het belang van luisteren en verbinding in leiderschap. De uitdagingen van duurzaamheid en bedrijfsvoering. Memorabele Citaten van de Gast "Je moet willen kunnen luisteren naar anderen en ook iets ingeven." "Het is niet de sterkste of snelste die overleeft, maar degene die zich het beste aanpast." "Je kan alleen maar een samenleving hebben als je die samenleving ook bij elkaar houdt." Tips Tip van Richard: Gebruik de app Komoot voor wandel- en fietsroutes. Tip van Feike: Lees "How to F*ck Your Startup" voor waardevolle ondernemerslessen. Tip van Ruud: Sluit je aan bij Boardwave als je actief bent in de software-industrie.

Babbo Natale ha portato in dono nuove strumentazioni tecnologiche per riprendere le nostre avventure... Così un po' appesantito dai panettoni e dai festeggiamenti, l'1 gennaio 2025 ho deciso di raccontarvi lo strano fenomeno del doppio tramonto che avviene a Nonio durante l'inverno. Il sole scompare in un primo momento proprio dietro il monte Castello per poi riapparire per qualche istante e poi tramontare definitivamente! Ho colto l'occasione anche per portarvi alla scoperta di due luoghi panoramici davvero particolari tra Nonio e Cesara contrassegnati da due croci a situate a poca distanza una dall'altra. Vi lascio qualche link per conoscere quali strumentazioni uso per i video e dove trovare i miei percorsi segnalandovi che ho iniziato una piccola collaborazione con la famosa applicazione per escursioni e vita outdoor Komoot ... se avete piacere ed utilizzate l'applicazione potete seguirmi. TRACCIA GPS https://www.komoot.com/it-it/tour/2001932276?share_token=aCxAoukbJX5S50AGoOuJ3B12n0C34W2cvrZ2VZdgewAkSJnHjK&ref=wtd #marketingterritoriale #landexplorer #trekking #storia #cultura #marketingturistico

Mit insgesamt sechs Mitgründern hat Markus Hallermann 2010 Komoot veröffentlicht. Die App für Wander- und Fahrrad-Routen war damit eine der ersten Routenplaner-Apps auf dem Markt. Trotz Konkurrenz durch Strava und das damalige Runtastic schaffte es die deutsche Firma, sich durchzusetzen. Im OMR Podcast spricht Markus Hallermann über die Entstehung des Namens Komoot, die beliebtesten Regionen und die Frage, warum René Benko nicht als Investor infrage kam.

In deze tweede aflevering nemen we jullie mee op reis. Begin november hebben Richard, Wouter en Maarten een driedaagsee bikepackingtrip afgelegd door de regio Navarra. In deze reispodcast bespreken ze elke aflevering wat ze op die dag hebben meegemaakt.  Deze podcast wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door Shimano, Komoot en 2Moso. Speciale dank gaat uit naar Etxeondo voor alle ondersteuning tijdens deze trip en natuurlijk aan de mannen van de Yearlings voor de muzikale ondersteuning. Wil je reageren of een suggestie doen voor een onderwerp? Dat kan. Sluit je aan bij onze vrienden van de show. Of volg ons op Facebook en het oh zo hippe Instagram, jullie kunnen ons daar vinden onder @pedaleurs.cc, @Z8LTAN79 en @hengelahr.  Vind je dit nou een leuke podcast? Laat dan even een review achter. Dan help je gelijk anderen om ons te kunnen vinden. Een spraakbericht wordt uiteraard ook gewaardeerd. Wij zullen de reviews uiteraard delen in de show.  De Groute! Shimano: ⁠⁠Shimano NL⁠⁠ Etxeondo: ⁠⁠Etxeondo⁠⁠ Muziek: ⁠⁠The Yearlings⁠⁠ End game Route van de week / komoot: ⁠⁠Groute van de week⁠⁠ Vriendvandeshow: ⁠⁠Pedaleurs MERCH ALERT : The Vandal

Aktuelle Top-Navis von Garmin, Wahoo und Hammerhead im Vergleich. Garmins neue Fenix 8 mit Amoled-Display, Sprachausgabe. Wer läuft am längsten durch die Wüste, und wer kann mit seinen Bordkarten auch offline neue Routen berechnen? OpenStreetMap ist gerade 20 Jahre alt geworden - und schon jetzt auf den meisten Outdoor-Geräten zu finden. Komoot baut seinen Spitzenplatz weiter aus - was gab es dort neues, und wohin gehen die Trends im nächsten Jahr?

Franz hast Du ja schon in Folge #23 kennengelernt und ja wir saßen noch ne Weile in meiner Küche und haben über dieses Dänemark gesprochen. Hör rein! Wir nehmen dich mit auf eine super spontane, mega chaotische und zugleich völlig entspannte Reise ins Lalaland. Schön war´s

Fiore Baratti descubrió los viajes en bicicleta hace dos o tres años y, desde entonces, cualquier excusa es buena para viajar. En 2024 estuvo haciendo Erasmus en Valencia y, después decidió viajar por Andalucía y llegar al punto más al sur de Europa, hasta Tarifa.En verano, llegó hasta Cabo Norte, el punto más al norte de Europa y, como no habia sido suficiente, cruzó el océano para pedalear por Arizona. Nos cuenta todas sus aventuras en este episodio de Viajes al Extrarradio.----------------------------------------------Enlaces de interés:Instagram Fiore: @fiore.barattiKomoot FiorePodcast Greal, el secreto de las 8 llaves: https://www.catalunya.com/es/podcast-greal Instagram Dos ruedas Dos pedales:  instagram.com/dosruedasdospedalesBlog: dosruedasdospedales.com

In deze tweede aflevering nemen we jullie mee op reis. Begin november hebben Richard, Wouter en Maarten een driedaagsee bikepackingtrip afgelegd door de regio Navarra. In deze reispodcast bespreken ze elke aflevering wat ze op die dag hebben meegemaakt.  Deze podcast wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door Shimano, Komoot en 2Moso. Speciale dank gaat uit naar Etxeondo voor alle ondersteuning tijdens deze trip en natuurlijk aan de mannen van de Yearlings voor de muzikale ondersteuning. Wil je reageren of een suggestie doen voor een onderwerp? Dat kan. Sluit je aan bij onze vrienden van de show. Of volg ons op Facebook en het oh zo hippe Instagram, jullie kunnen ons daar vinden onder @pedaleurs.cc, @Z8LTAN79 en @hengelahr.  Vind je dit nou een leuke podcast? Laat dan even een review achter. Dan help je gelijk anderen om ons te kunnen vinden. Een spraakbericht wordt uiteraard ook gewaardeerd. Wij zullen de reviews uiteraard delen in de show.  De Groute! Shimano: ⁠Shimano NL⁠ Etxeondo: ⁠Etxeondo⁠ Muziek: ⁠The Yearlings⁠ End game Muziek: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly / Ennio Morricone Muziek: A Nomad's Journey / Victor Lundberg Route van de week / komoot: ⁠Groute van de week⁠ Vriendvandeshow: ⁠Pedaleurs

Wie schwierig ist die Tour? Wie ist das Gelände beschaffen und wie ist der Wegverlauf? Digitale Angebote können die Tourenplanung enorm erleichtern - Anfänger und Profis können gleichermaßen davon profitieren. Trotzdem gibt es ein paar wichtige Dinge zu beachten. Wir sprachen mit Anne Findeisen, Community Managerin bei Komoot.

In deze aflevering nemen we jullie mee op reis. Begin november hebben Richard, Wouter en Maarten een driedaagsee bikepackingtrip afgelegd door de de regio Navarra. In deze reispodcast bespreken ze elke aflevering wat ze op die dag hebben meegemaakt. Deze podcast wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door Shimano, Komoot en 2Moso. Speciale dank gaat uit naar Etxeondo voor alle ondersteuning tijdens deze trip en natuurlijk aan de mannen van de Yearlings voor de muzikale ondersteuning. Wil je reageren of een suggestie doen voor een onderwerp? Dat kan. Sluit je aan bij onze vrienden van de show. Of volg ons op Facebook en het oh zo hippe Instagram, jullie kunnen ons daar vinden onder @pedaleurs.cc, @Z8LTAN79 en @hengelahr.  Vind je dit nou een leuke podcast? Laat dan even een review achter. Dan help je gelijk anderen om ons te kunnen vinden. Een spraakbericht wordt uiteraard ook gewaardeerd. Wij zullen de reviews uiteraard delen in de show.  De Groute! Shimano: Shimano NL Etxeondo: Etxeondo Muziek: The Yearlings End game Route van de week / komoot: Groute van de week Vriendvandeshow: Pedaleurs

60 riders spend a week riding the 644 km (400 miles) gravel and road loop with the goal of making it to the finishers' party in Tucson, Arizona in a week.In this episode, I talk with Cali, Gaby and Martha, the Komoot team.Cover photo by Ashley Gruber.

60 riders spend a week riding the 644 km (400 miles) gravel and road loop with the goal of making it to the finishers' party in Tucson, Arizona in a week.In this episode, I talk with Janie from Salida and Nikita from Vancouver.Cover photo by Ashley Gruber.

In deze aflevering spreken wij Jasper Nijenkamp over zijn ultieme bikepacking trip vanuit Istanbul naar Nijverdal. Hij neemt ons mee in zijn avontuur, hij deelt zijn mooiste maar ook moeilijkste momenten. Heb jij nu ook een mooi fietsavontuur beleefd en lijkt het je leuk daar met ons over te praten in onze podcast neem dan gerust contact met ons op via een privébericht op FB of Insta.  Deze podcast wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door Shimano, Komoot en Etxeondo. Speciale dank aan de mannen van de Yearlings voor de muzikale ondersteuning. Wil je reageren of een suggestie doen voor een onderwerp? Dat kan. Sluit je aan bij onze vrienden van de show. Of volg ons op Facebook en het oh zo hippe Instagram, jullie kunnen ons daar vinden onder @pedaleurs.cc, @Z8LTAN79 en @hengelahr.  Vind je dit nou een leuke podcast? Laat dan even een review achter. Dan help je gelijk anderen om ons te kunnen vinden. Een spraakbericht wordt uiteraard ook gewaardeerd. Wij zullen de reviews uiteraard delen in de show! De Groute! Shimano: Shimano NL Etxeondo: Etxeondo Muziek: The Yearlings End game Muziek: Rain is here, Wildflowers Muziek Groute van de week: Haystak, Buddy Sullivan Route van de week / komoot: Groute van de week Vriendvandeshow: Pedaleurs

60 riders spend a week riding the 644 km (400 miles) gravel and road loop with the goal of making it to the finishers' party in Tucson, Arizona in a week.In this episode, I talk with Courtney from Pittsburgh, Tina from San Francisco, Sarah from Scotland and Ana from Alaska.Cover photo by Ashley Gruber.

Heute lernst Du unseren neuesten Berliner-Guide Thoralf kennen und was ihn antreibt. Er ist 700km gefahren, um die 160km Vereinsrunde zu scouten und zusammenzustellen. Was wir auf der Ausfahrt erlebt haben, warum wir uns trennen mussten und uns wiedergefunden haben und welche Gravelwege in Brandenburg schon anhand des Namens als „Scheißstrecke“ identifizierbar sind, erfährst Du in unserer heutigen Folge. Also hör rein, fahr nach und erlebe es selbst.   00:03:00min kurzer Abriss Ironman Hawaii mit André 00:07:30min Vorstellung Thoralf und spontaner Exkurs Tandem 00:29:30min die Ausfahrt – Havel und Rhin 01:30:00min Ausblick auf die Wannsee-Runde Thoralf auf Komoot: https://www.komoot.com/de-de/tour/1924479898 Vereinshomepage: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.erlebnis.me/⁠⁠⁠ Campai Browserlink: ⁠⁠⁠https://portal.campai.com/erlebnisstattergebnis/home⁠⁠⁠ Partner-Podcast/Youtube: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@ENJOYYOURBIKE⁠⁠⁠  OnlineshopEyB: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/⁠⁠⁠ Dan´s Bikefitting: ⁠⁠⁠https://danmiessen.simplybook.it/v2/⁠

60 riders spend a week riding the 644 km (400 miles) gravel and road loop with the goal of making it to the finishers' party in Tucson, Arizona in a week.In this episode, I talk with Eve from England.Cover photo by Ashley Gruber.

On Hands-On Mac, Mikah answers questions about adjusting a setting within the Google Maps app, whether there's a difference in audio and video quality between a Roku TV and an Amazon Fire stick, what music players will work for Android to play all the songs of an individual artist, getting legacy hardware to connect to an iPhone hotspot, and what passkeys are! Martin-Guy is a retired cyclist who uses Google Maps while cycling. However, the cycling times reference speed within the app is too fast for him. He's looking for a way to adjust that setting if possible or if there's an alternative app he can use that would allow him to make such an adjustment. Michael owns a 4K TCL Roku TV and the most recent Amazon Fire TV Stick. Is there a difference in audio or video quality between the Roku TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Lane just got a Pixel 9 Pro and stores his music in a folder on the device. He uses an app called Musicolet as his player and wants to know if there's a way to play all the songs of a selected artist in shuffle mode or if there's another app that can do this. Jon is trying to connect older "legacy" hardware to his iPhone hotspot but is having trouble doing this and wonders if Mikah knows of any tricks to get this older hardware to connect to the hotspot. Todd has heard Mikah talk about Passkeys on the TWiT network many times in the past. However, he doesn't understand what a passkey is and asks Mikah for any insight he can share about passkeys. Host: Mikah Sargent Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

On Hands-On Mac, Mikah answers questions about adjusting a setting within the Google Maps app, whether there's a difference in audio and video quality between a Roku TV and an Amazon Fire stick, what music players will work for Android to play all the songs of an individual artist, getting legacy hardware to connect to an iPhone hotspot, and what passkeys are! Martin-Guy is a retired cyclist who uses Google Maps while cycling. However, the cycling times reference speed within the app is too fast for him. He's looking for a way to adjust that setting if possible or if there's an alternative app he can use that would allow him to make such an adjustment. Michael owns a 4K TCL Roku TV and the most recent Amazon Fire TV Stick. Is there a difference in audio or video quality between the Roku TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Lane just got a Pixel 9 Pro and stores his music in a folder on the device. He uses an app called Musicolet as his player and wants to know if there's a way to play all the songs of a selected artist in shuffle mode or if there's another app that can do this. Jon is trying to connect older "legacy" hardware to his iPhone hotspot but is having trouble doing this and wonders if Mikah knows of any tricks to get this older hardware to connect to the hotspot. Todd has heard Mikah talk about Passkeys on the TWiT network many times in the past. However, he doesn't understand what a passkey is and asks Mikah for any insight he can share about passkeys. Host: Mikah Sargent Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

On Hands-On Mac, Mikah answers questions about adjusting a setting within the Google Maps app, whether there's a difference in audio and video quality between a Roku TV and an Amazon Fire stick, what music players will work for Android to play all the songs of an individual artist, getting legacy hardware to connect to an iPhone hotspot, and what passkeys are! Martin-Guy is a retired cyclist who uses Google Maps while cycling. However, the cycling times reference speed within the app is too fast for him. He's looking for a way to adjust that setting if possible or if there's an alternative app he can use that would allow him to make such an adjustment. Michael owns a 4K TCL Roku TV and the most recent Amazon Fire TV Stick. Is there a difference in audio or video quality between the Roku TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Lane just got a Pixel 9 Pro and stores his music in a folder on the device. He uses an app called Musicolet as his player and wants to know if there's a way to play all the songs of a selected artist in shuffle mode or if there's another app that can do this. Jon is trying to connect older "legacy" hardware to his iPhone hotspot but is having trouble doing this and wonders if Mikah knows of any tricks to get this older hardware to connect to the hotspot. Todd has heard Mikah talk about Passkeys on the TWiT network many times in the past. However, he doesn't understand what a passkey is and asks Mikah for any insight he can share about passkeys. Host: Mikah Sargent Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

On Hands-On Mac, Mikah answers questions about adjusting a setting within the Google Maps app, whether there's a difference in audio and video quality between a Roku TV and an Amazon Fire stick, what music players will work for Android to play all the songs of an individual artist, getting legacy hardware to connect to an iPhone hotspot, and what passkeys are! Martin-Guy is a retired cyclist who uses Google Maps while cycling. However, the cycling times reference speed within the app is too fast for him. He's looking for a way to adjust that setting if possible or if there's an alternative app he can use that would allow him to make such an adjustment. Michael owns a 4K TCL Roku TV and the most recent Amazon Fire TV Stick. Is there a difference in audio or video quality between the Roku TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Lane just got a Pixel 9 Pro and stores his music in a folder on the device. He uses an app called Musicolet as his player and wants to know if there's a way to play all the songs of a selected artist in shuffle mode or if there's another app that can do this. Jon is trying to connect older "legacy" hardware to his iPhone hotspot but is having trouble doing this and wonders if Mikah knows of any tricks to get this older hardware to connect to the hotspot. Todd has heard Mikah talk about Passkeys on the TWiT network many times in the past. However, he doesn't understand what a passkey is and asks Mikah for any insight he can share about passkeys. Host: Mikah Sargent Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

On Hands-On Mac, Mikah answers questions about adjusting a setting within the Google Maps app, whether there's a difference in audio and video quality between a Roku TV and an Amazon Fire stick, what music players will work for Android to play all the songs of an individual artist, getting legacy hardware to connect to an iPhone hotspot, and what passkeys are! Martin-Guy is a retired cyclist who uses Google Maps while cycling. However, the cycling times reference speed within the app is too fast for him. He's looking for a way to adjust that setting if possible or if there's an alternative app he can use that would allow him to make such an adjustment. Michael owns a 4K TCL Roku TV and the most recent Amazon Fire TV Stick. Is there a difference in audio or video quality between the Roku TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Lane just got a Pixel 9 Pro and stores his music in a folder on the device. He uses an app called Musicolet as his player and wants to know if there's a way to play all the songs of a selected artist in shuffle mode or if there's another app that can do this. Jon is trying to connect older "legacy" hardware to his iPhone hotspot but is having trouble doing this and wonders if Mikah knows of any tricks to get this older hardware to connect to the hotspot. Todd has heard Mikah talk about Passkeys on the TWiT network many times in the past. However, he doesn't understand what a passkey is and asks Mikah for any insight he can share about passkeys. Host: Mikah Sargent Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

On Hands-On Mac, Mikah answers questions about adjusting a setting within the Google Maps app, whether there's a difference in audio and video quality between a Roku TV and an Amazon Fire stick, what music players will work for Android to play all the songs of an individual artist, getting legacy hardware to connect to an iPhone hotspot, and what passkeys are! Martin-Guy is a retired cyclist who uses Google Maps while cycling. However, the cycling times reference speed within the app is too fast for him. He's looking for a way to adjust that setting if possible or if there's an alternative app he can use that would allow him to make such an adjustment. Michael owns a 4K TCL Roku TV and the most recent Amazon Fire TV Stick. Is there a difference in audio or video quality between the Roku TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Lane just got a Pixel 9 Pro and stores his music in a folder on the device. He uses an app called Musicolet as his player and wants to know if there's a way to play all the songs of a selected artist in shuffle mode or if there's another app that can do this. Jon is trying to connect older "legacy" hardware to his iPhone hotspot but is having trouble doing this and wonders if Mikah knows of any tricks to get this older hardware to connect to the hotspot. Todd has heard Mikah talk about Passkeys on the TWiT network many times in the past. However, he doesn't understand what a passkey is and asks Mikah for any insight he can share about passkeys. Host: Mikah Sargent Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

On Hands-On Mac, Mikah answers questions about adjusting a setting within the Google Maps app, whether there's a difference in audio and video quality between a Roku TV and an Amazon Fire stick, what music players will work for Android to play all the songs of an individual artist, getting legacy hardware to connect to an iPhone hotspot, and what passkeys are! Martin-Guy is a retired cyclist who uses Google Maps while cycling. However, the cycling times reference speed within the app is too fast for him. He's looking for a way to adjust that setting if possible or if there's an alternative app he can use that would allow him to make such an adjustment. Michael owns a 4K TCL Roku TV and the most recent Amazon Fire TV Stick. Is there a difference in audio or video quality between the Roku TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Lane just got a Pixel 9 Pro and stores his music in a folder on the device. He uses an app called Musicolet as his player and wants to know if there's a way to play all the songs of a selected artist in shuffle mode or if there's another app that can do this. Jon is trying to connect older "legacy" hardware to his iPhone hotspot but is having trouble doing this and wonders if Mikah knows of any tricks to get this older hardware to connect to the hotspot. Todd has heard Mikah talk about Passkeys on the TWiT network many times in the past. However, he doesn't understand what a passkey is and asks Mikah for any insight he can share about passkeys. Host: Mikah Sargent Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

On Hands-On Mac, Mikah answers questions about adjusting a setting within the Google Maps app, whether there's a difference in audio and video quality between a Roku TV and an Amazon Fire stick, what music players will work for Android to play all the songs of an individual artist, getting legacy hardware to connect to an iPhone hotspot, and what passkeys are! Martin-Guy is a retired cyclist who uses Google Maps while cycling. However, the cycling times reference speed within the app is too fast for him. He's looking for a way to adjust that setting if possible or if there's an alternative app he can use that would allow him to make such an adjustment. Michael owns a 4K TCL Roku TV and the most recent Amazon Fire TV Stick. Is there a difference in audio or video quality between the Roku TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Lane just got a Pixel 9 Pro and stores his music in a folder on the device. He uses an app called Musicolet as his player and wants to know if there's a way to play all the songs of a selected artist in shuffle mode or if there's another app that can do this. Jon is trying to connect older "legacy" hardware to his iPhone hotspot but is having trouble doing this and wonders if Mikah knows of any tricks to get this older hardware to connect to the hotspot. Todd has heard Mikah talk about Passkeys on the TWiT network many times in the past. However, he doesn't understand what a passkey is and asks Mikah for any insight he can share about passkeys. Host: Mikah Sargent Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

On Hands-On Mac, Mikah answers questions about adjusting a setting within the Google Maps app, whether there's a difference in audio and video quality between a Roku TV and an Amazon Fire stick, what music players will work for Android to play all the songs of an individual artist, getting legacy hardware to connect to an iPhone hotspot, and what passkeys are! Martin-Guy is a retired cyclist who uses Google Maps while cycling. However, the cycling times reference speed within the app is too fast for him. He's looking for a way to adjust that setting if possible or if there's an alternative app he can use that would allow him to make such an adjustment. Michael owns a 4K TCL Roku TV and the most recent Amazon Fire TV Stick. Is there a difference in audio or video quality between the Roku TV and the Amazon Fire TV Stick? Lane just got a Pixel 9 Pro and stores his music in a folder on the device. He uses an app called Musicolet as his player and wants to know if there's a way to play all the songs of a selected artist in shuffle mode or if there's another app that can do this. Jon is trying to connect older "legacy" hardware to his iPhone hotspot but is having trouble doing this and wonders if Mikah knows of any tricks to get this older hardware to connect to the hotspot. Todd has heard Mikah talk about Passkeys on the TWiT network many times in the past. However, he doesn't understand what a passkey is and asks Mikah for any insight he can share about passkeys. Host: Mikah Sargent Get episodes ad-free with Club TWiT at https://twit.tv/clubtwit Sponsor: cachefly.com/twit

Capitulazo en el que tenemos muuuuchas noticias relacionadas con el ciclismo. Hablamos del mundial de Gravel 2024, analizando resultados y curiosidades que han rodeado el Campeonato del Mundo. Además hacemos un recopilatorio de todo lo que ha acaecido este 2024 en la Copa del Mundo de XCO, ganadores de cada prueba, las generales y acabamos eligiendo los mejores corredores de este 2024 en XCO. Análisis MUY COMPLETO!!! Luego hablamos de Tierra Estella, del campeonato de España de ultra maratón, y os contamos porqué hemos estado el fin de semana en Asturias, qué puertos hemos subido y qué hemos comido ;-) Acabamos con una sección muy interesante en la que os vamos a recopilar las aplicaciones imprescindibles que utilizamos para ciclismo: Strava? Connect? Komoot? Que sepáis que hay muchas más y os vamos a hablar de dos que seguramente NO conozc´çais, son GRATIS y van a CAMBIAR tu manera de analizar tus actividades. Si tienes cualquier duda déjala en los comentarios que te contestamos inmediatamente!!!

Wir haben Lösungen für Komoot, Garmin Edge Unterwegs-Sync und Routenvorschläge getestet. Neue Produkte von Apple & warum Ingo lieber ne Fenix/Epix Trägt als eine Apple Watch. Aber die Fenix 8 hat viele Kinderkrankheiten! Dazu noch eine tolle Info von Roger Milenk bezüglich Konservierungsstoffen in den Squeezy Gels als Vorbereitung auf das Video von Ingo nächsten Sonntag. ## LINKS ZUR SENDUNG ## Ingo bei Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quendler/ Andre bei Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tofukind/?hl=de Ingos Bad Münder-Strecke bei Komoot: https://www.komoot.com/de-de/tour/1845047505?share_token=aKFY0tCWM16B5DJ9HHEEki7MET1cToyyIHFomy1NMoretjHFtK&ref=wtd Ernährung im Sport Podcast mit Roger Milenk: https://youtu.be/PzIUbqqcYjI?si=XvXjomStqqGo4Q3Y Ingos Video zum Thema Gels, Riegel, Wasser (Veröffentlichung Sonntag, 15.09.2024): https://youtu.be/7wpr4eBRW_4 SQUEEZY Squeezy Dispenser: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/squeezy-energy-dispenser-softflask-94234978 Squeezy Basic Formula: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/squeezy-energy-gel-refiller-basic-formula-500-ml-94234974
Infos zu Basic Furmula & Unverträglichkeiten: https://www.squeezy.de/basic-formula/ LUPINE LIGHTS Lupine im Shop: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/lupine/ CAPSULED Andrés Capsuled Video: https://youtu.be/3amkQ9lzq54?si=6pncYXDdK_GaMWLu Capsuled im Shop: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/capsuled/ GARMIN FENIX 8 51 mm https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/garmin-fenix-8-amoled-titan-dlc-schwarz/carbongrau-51-mm-94235277?c=2092177 47 mm https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/garmin-fenix-8-amoled-titan-dlc-schwarz/carbongrau-47-mm-94235276?number=94235276 43 mm https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/garmin-fenix-8-amoled-titan-dlc-schwarz/carbongrau-43-mm-94235275?number=94235275 ## PICKS ## USER PICK: Rund um den Dom - Großer Preis der Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg https://rundumdendom.de/ PICK Ingo: (Amazon Affiliate Links) Ugreen USB-C auf Micro USB Adapter: https://amzn.to/4cWHrFu Adapter anders herum: https://amzn.to/4dV4d1V Andrés Favero Video: https://youtu.be/kRgkX1pmZTQ Favero Assioma bei uns im Shop: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/favero-assioma-pro-mx-2-powermeter-pedale-mit-beidseitiger-messung-94234365 PICK André: Filterkaffee vom Kunden :-) ## INHALT ## 00:00:00 Intro: Was erwartet Euch in dieser Episode? 00:01:37 Komoot Routenvorschläge: Gar nicht mal so schlecht! 00:10:52 Ingos Planung Richtung Bad Münder mit Komoot Routenvorschlägen 00:20:00 Fazit: Routenvorschläge lässt Euch neue Strecken vor der Haustür finden 00:24:07 Lösung zur Änderung des Startpunktes bei Komoot 00:37:59 Komoot Startpunkt verschieben am iPhone nicht oder nur kompliziert möglich! 00:49:19 Lösung Garmin EDGE 1050 Unterwegs-Neue Strecken-Sync-Problematik 00:59:36 Sport-Ernährung: Warum haben Gels Konservierungsstoffe? 01:16:29 Capsuled Taschen mit Fenster: Macht das Sinn? Welche Taschen nutzen wir? 01:31:28 Peak Design Outdoor Taschen: Kickstarter läuft, wir haben Muster hier! 01:48:28 Lupine SL AX Fahrradlampen-Umbau auf 3800 Lumen! Geiler Service! 01:59:22 Apple stellt neue Produkte vor: Lohnt das für Sportler? Apple Watch Fail? 02:21:55 Garmin Fenix 8: irgendwie geil, aber viele Kleinigkeiten nerven 02:50:51 User Pick: Kriterium „Rund um den Dom“ in Magdeburg, 29.09 02:52:02 Pick Ingo: USB-C auf Micro-USB Adapter für Assioma und Varia Radar 03:06:37 Pick André: Filterkaffee, selbstgeröstet von einem Kunden 03:17:22 Post-Show: Ingos PRIME Training Readiness! Und Ermüdung. 03:24:52 Pre-Show: Apple Vision Pro Fail, DJI Drohnen Krams

Ingo landet bei seiner Bikepacking-Tour in unwegsamen Gelände! Ist das normal, wenn man ohne Computer planen muss? Wie gut sind die Streckenvorschläge von Strava und Komoot? Dazu Testberichte von André zu den Favero Assioma Pro MX-2 SPD-Wattmesspedalen und von André zum ENVE Fray mit der neuen SRAM RED XPLR 13-fach Schaltung und den Zipp 303 XPLR SW Laufrädern. ## LINKS ZUR SENDUNG ## Ingo bei Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/quendler/ Andre bei Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tofukind/?hl=de Favero Assioma bei uns im Shop: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/favero-assioma-pro-mx-2-powermeter-pedale-mit-beidseitiger-messung-94234365 Die neuen Shoks OPEN RUN Pro 2: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/shokz-openrun-pro-2-orange-94235271?c=2092177 Enve Fray: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/enve-fray-rahmenset-venom-94234790?number=94234790 SRAM RED XPLR: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/sram-red-xplr-e1-1x13-schaltgruppe-172-5mm/powermeter/42/10i46/paceline-x-160mm-cl-94235138 Ingos Gänge im Ritzelrechner im Vergleich 1x13 XPLR: https://www.gear-calculator.com/?GR=DERS&KB=46&RZ=10,11,12,13,15,17,19,21,24,28,32,38,46&UF=2220&TF=90&SL=2.6&UN=KMH&DV=teeth&GR2=DERS&KB2=33,46&RZ2=10,11,12,13,14,15,17,19,21,24,28,33&UF2=2220 Die neuen Garmin Fenix Uhren bei uns im Shop: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/garmin-fenix-8-amoled-titan-dlc-schwarz/carbongrau-51-mm-94235277?c=2092177 https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/garmin-fenix-8-amoled-titan-dlc-schwarz/carbongrau-47-mm-94235276?number=94235276 https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/garmin-fenix-8-amoled-titan-dlc-schwarz/carbongrau-43-mm-94235275?number=94235275 ## USER PICKS ## Combine FIT, GPX, CSV or TCX files for Garmin or Strava. Merge Heart Rate Power and GPS https://gotoes.org/strava/Combine_GPX_TCX_FIT_Files.php Wahoo User Maps https://www.rennrad-news.de/forum/threads/aktuelles-kartenmaterial-f%C3%BCr-wahoo-elemnt-bolt-roam-elemnt-selbst-generieren.175315/ ReLive für Strava https://home.relive.cc/ CatEar Airstreams https://www.cxcsupply.nl/cat-ears ## PICKS André / Ingo ## Pick André: European Coffee Trip
https://europeancoffeetrip.com/ https://www.roasters.app/ Pick Ingo: Die Fellerei im Harz/Buntenbock https://www.diefellerei.de/die-fellerei.html ## INHALT ## 00:00:00 Themen heute: Tour de France, Routing-Probleme, Bikepacking Light Harz 00:01:10 Epische Tour de France Femmes! 00:19:08 Ingo war Lightpacking im Harz! Streckentipps, Alltags-Reset 00:35:47 Routing vor Ort: Streckenvorschläge Strava enden als Wanderung! 00:51:44 Routenplanung unterwegs am Handy: Immer noch schwierig heutzutage? 00:59:14 Garmin-Fail: Keine neue Strecke während der Fahrt aufspielbar? WTF! 01:09:31 Strecke umkehren: Karoo fährt woanders lang? Warum? 01:14:24 Harz: Keine Bäume mehr, kein Schatten mehr 01:18:12 Andrés Test der Assioma MX2 Pro Wattmesspedale 02:05:27 Ingo ist die SRAM RED XPLR 13-fach gefahren 02:28:08 Zipp 303 XPLR SW Test von Ingo: schnell, aber kompliziert 02:37:01 Ingos Eindruck zum ENVE Fray & sein Wunsch für ein neues OPEN UPPER 02:56:42 USER PICKS: Fit-Files kombinieren, ReLive.cc, Wahoo Karten ändern, CatEars 03:06:30 PICK André: European Coffee Trip App 03:14:48 PICK Ingo: Die Fellerei 03:22:06 Post-Show 03:26:00 Pre-Show: Podcast zum Einschlafen

Herzlich Willkommen zur 111. Ausgabe des BiketourGlobal Podcast Season 2! 1989 fällt die Mauer und in Leipzig sitzen zwei Jungs in einem Keller und machen Pläne, um die neue, offene Welt mit dem Fahrrad zu entdecken. Und mehr als 30 Jahre später treffen sie sich wieder zum Live Podcast beim Gravity Fwestival in Klingemühle. Hier spreche ich mit meinem alten Freund Stephan Löw über 30 Jahre Radreisen, Freundschaft & von der Faszination, die Welt mit dem Fahrrad zu entdecken. Viel Spaß! Shownotes Stephan auf Komoot https://www.komoot.com/de-de/user/2485531431595 Stephan auf Strava https://www.strava.com/athletes/87729291 Quelle Musik Tropic Fuse - French Fuse aus dem YT Creator Studio Quelle Bilder Martin Moschek

Alles über den COROS DURA Fahrradcomputer mit 120 Std. Akkulaufzeit! Erfindet COROS das Rad (doppeldeutig) neu? Wo ist er besser und wo schlechter als Karoo, Wahoo, Garmin? Seit 2017 kommt das erst mal wieder ein nennenswerter neuer Player auf den Fahrradcomputer-Markt, die Fahrradcomputer-Bedienung komplett neu denkt. In meinem ersten Solo-Podcast und einer Art Audio-Review erzähle ich alles, was ich zu dem Gerät weiß. Dazu viele Hörerfragen, die ich über Instagram bekommen habe. COROS DURA vormerken im Shop: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/detail/index/sArticle/25646/sCategory/1999958 Hammerhead Karoo 3 im Shop: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/hammerhead-karoo-gps-fahrradcomputer-3.-generation-94234926 Garmin Edge 1040 im Shop: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/garmin-edge-1040-gps-fahrradcomputer-mit-navigations-und-online-funktionen-68924504 Wahoo im Shop: https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/wahoo-fitness/ ## INHALT ## 00:00:00 Intro: Review zum Hören als neues Format 00:07:37 Wo ordnet sich der DURA ein gegenbüer Garmin, Karoo, Wahoo? 00:22:59 COROS DURA Im Detail: Das Gerät und Design 00:31:10 Alle Funktionen des COROS DURA 00:42:06 Akkulaufzeit: Welche Vorteile und Nachteile hat die lange Akkulaufzeit? 00:44:26 Digital Dial: Gut bedienbar oder Unbrauchbar? 00:50:25 Navigation, Routing, Komoot, usw. Wie ist das Gerät für Routing geeignet? 00:57:33 Trainingsplattform immer mit an Board: COROS Training Hub 00:59:19 Welche Funktionen fehlen? 01:01:29 Fazit & Kaufberatung: für wen ist das Gerät das Richtige? 01:06:58 Hörerfragen Part I: Varia, Routing, Darstellung, Aufladen, Sync, uvm. 01:29:09 Negative Reviews von zwei Youtubern: sehr unfair, was soll das? 01:37:24 Hörerfragen Part II: Einfachheit, Karten, Roam V1, Design 01:44:52 Welches Setup fährt Ingo in Zukunft? Weiter Karoo oder DURA?

10th March 2024 The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast EPISODE 348: Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett of Komoot SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles HOST: Carlton Reid GUEST: Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett LINKS:  https://www.the-spokesmen.com/ https://www.ternbicycles.com https://twitter.com/CarltonReid https://www.komoot.com/user/655260825794 https://jkbsbikeride.com TRANSCRIPT Carlton Reid  0:13   Welcome to Episode 348 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was engineered on Sunday 10th of MARCH 2024. David Bernstein  0:28   The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e-bikes for every type of rider. Whether you're commuting, taking your kids to school or even carrying another adult, visit www.ternbicycles.com. That's t e r n bicycles.com to learn more. Carlton Reid  1:03   I'm Carlton Reid. And this is the fourth in a five part series digging into bike navigation apps. There have been shows with folks from Ride With GPS, Bikemap, Cycle.travel, and today it's the turn of Komoot. although as you'll soon hear, in this nearly 90 minute chat with Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett, we also talk a great deal about travelling the world by bike. And that's before, of course, there were smartphone apps to guide you. Jonathan, welcome to the show. And presumably you're you're in London, Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  1:51   thank you very much for having me. It's a real pleasure. And yeah, I'm in London, South London to be precise on a very beautiful sunny February morning.  Carlton Reid  2:01   It's kind of nice in Newcastle as well. So we're blessed. Now the reason I said that was because a your name. So we can get looking we can discuss that in a second and you can show me how you're you can tell me how to pronounce your, the Danish part of your name correctly. But also because cuz because we're talking here about Komoot and Komoot is a German company. But first of all, how do i pronounce your name correctly?  Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  2:29   My name is pronounced Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett. And it's actually not a Danish surname. It's a Faroese surname from the Faroe Islands. So I am I a half British, my father's English my mother is Danish, but my mother is half Faroese, her grandma, my grandmother's from the Faroe Islands, and the Faroe Islands for anyone listening who isn't sure exactly where they are, is a bunch of islands about halfway between Scotland and Iceland. And on the southern most of those islands, called Suðuroyu. There's a kind of like a mountain ridge, behind the village where like my gran and her family are from called CamScanner. And that's where that name is from. So yeah, it's it's ferries surname via Denmark. Wow. Okay, good explanation. Carlton Reid  3:26   And because I didn't know any of that, I then didn't go back and check on your, your global world. Crossing cyclist. So I noticed that you went from Iceland? Did you go via the Faroe Islands at all? Yeah. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  3:45   So many, many years ago. Now, I spent three years cycling around the world, which was a whole kind of story in episode in itself. And at the very end of that, I wanted to go and seek because my great grandmother was still alive at the time, and she was alive and kicking the pharaohs. So towards the end of this, this, this free journey, I really wanted to go to Iceland cycle there wasn't particularly advisable in the depths of winter, but had a wonderful time nonetheless. And from there, you can take a ferry to the pharaohs. So I did go. I did after sort of not really seeing any family for about three years. I did go and see my great grandmother, which was amazing. It's an incredibly beautiful place. By that point, I had seen an awful lot of devote the world and the pharaohs. You know, just like truly spectacular. And it was really wonderful that I got to go and see my great grandma because she passed away a few months later. So it was all kind of perfect. A really nice kind of like final stop before I returned to the UK. So Carlton Reid  4:52   I will admit I haven't read every single one of your blog posts from back then but I'll go backwards and I'll go back and read that one because I'm sure that Under brilliant because I hadn't spotted the Faroese part. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  5:04   Yeah, it was a really lovely thing that I got to and then at the very beginning of my, the very beginning of this huge cycle, I left home said goodbye to my dad, my mum lives in Copenhagen. So I started that cycle around the world. I mean, at the time I had, I had no idea. It would be that big a cycle. I was just trying to see how far east I could get. But I wanted to go and visit my mum in Copenhagen. So that was kind of the beginning of the journey. So it was quite nice that I had like pitstop early on, you know, visiting family and it was quite nice that again, towards the very end, I also had a pit stop visiting fan for going home. Carlton Reid  5:42   That's your mum also came out and visited you like you as your beach bumming whether that was in somewhere in Indonesia or was in Thailand. Yeah, that's Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  5:50   right. She came and visited me in. I guess I was in in Thailand, often having seen her for probably a year and a half at that point. So we had a little, very nice, relaxing beach holiday, catching up, and most importantly, not doing any cycling at the time. Carlton Reid  6:07   And I'm sure she's treating you as well. It was, yeah, yeah. Know that for a fact, because we treated our son when he was doing stuff like that. Right. So let's get back to what we're meant to be talking about here, Jonathan, that is Komoot. So before we do that, I mean, give us the history of Komoot, because, you know, would you have used it on your? So yeah, this is 2015 to 2017. Yeah, yep. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  6:37   So I think I was unfortunately, I was a little bit too early. Cuz it's been around the apps been around for about a decade now. Set up by six, six friends from Germany and Austria. They have, I guess they will kind of united by a love of both tech. And also nature, they will come from the fringes of like, beautiful parts of Europe. But a very clever bunch. Yeah, excited about like the future of tech and where it intersects with, like, you know, all aspects of reality in our day to day lives. So Komoot is a German company. But going back to your your opening comment is a German company, but we consider ourselves very much a global or at least a European company, people, the people who work for Komoot are spread out across all of Europe. So we have quite an international outlook on the world, I would say. Carlton Reid  7:39   Was that right from beginning? Or was it very localised to begin with, and then only gradually did become international? Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  7:45   Definitely, it was a gradual thing. I think Komoot I can't quite was before my time, the point because Komoot's fully remote. So one point switched and thought, Well, why not sort of recruit from across the entire continent instead of one country. And for a good number of years Komoot has been conscience consciously, international. So like had the app, the product translated to English a long time ago, we now have it available in half a dozen languages. So like, that obviously takes time and resources, but it's quite important for us to allow as many people as possible around the world to like, understand and interact with and interact with the app. So in terms of my own journey in cycling, I was kind of a bit too early on in the process is quite, it's quite funny actually, when I, when I first left, I really was not a cyclist. In 2015, when I left home, it all came together very quickly. And this was sort of the blogging, end of those blogging, glory years, I think around 2010 to the mid teens. So anyway, I found some resources online, and people were saying, Oh, you can buy a cycling computer and use that. I didn't really have much cash at the time. So I picked the cheapest cycling computer that looked like it might do the job. And it was this. This Garmin device, I can't quite recall what it was called. But you couldn't load base maps onto it, you could create a route somewhere and export a GPX file and then you could have this line to follow it. And I I was just following the North Sea coast coastline, on the way up to Scandinavia. And I spent a lot of time getting very lost. And after about three weeks on the road, I met someone who was was like, you know, you can just use your phone for this. And I didn't have mobile data across Europe. It was like before, it was quite so easy to connect to everywhere. But it hadn't even occurred to me that I could use my phone as a GPS device that it had this functionality, which feels a bit silly in hindsight, but why would I have I lived a sort of normal city life where I was always online at the time. And I hadn't realised that I could download load these map files from Open Street Map. And so I could kind of work out where I was at all times. So when I had that revelation, it was kind of blew my mind and things became a lot easier. And as we might discuss later, fast forward almost 10 years, it's now even easier than ever to have this these good quality maps offline and also to sync them with devices. But it's funny to look at where computers now, compared to my very rudimentary experiences, yeah, almost a decade ago. Carlton Reid  10:30   So the first time I came across, Komoot in certainly, you know, seared into my consciousness when my son was cycling back from China. Yeah. And I had all sorts of other ways of doing routes. But he was insistent that he was using Komoot. So all the way back from from China in some pretty hairy paid places, but parts of the world some of which I can see that you've cycled through as well. He was using Komoot and I need to ask him why he was he was using it but he did found it find it very valuable and certainly very valuable in those hairy parts of the world because it was drawing down some pretty ok maps. And it was giving him obviously really good information. So here's the pitch. Jonathan, why why use komoot? Why Why would world tourists use Komoot and why would that non well tourists want to use Komoot just you know, bumbling around the the Yorkshire lanes or the Norfolk coast towards why those two users might might wait. They want to use Komoot. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  11:41   It's really that's really cool to hear that just used Komoot for that. I've watched his like video of that long journey. It's so amazing. And they're very nice to Komoot was able to help that little bit. And I know that you've travelled a lot by bike as well, I think is funny. You know, especially with bikes, and especially with bike touring, it's been around, you know, it's been a thing for a very long time. It wasn't really that long ago that people were relying on paper maps. But that's in the same way that people used to, you know, drive around with British people with A to Z you know, in the car. And that already feels like such a such an outdated thing. I think a lot of very young people will this is probably a fact that a lot of young people don't know how to read maps in the same way that older generations do. So I would say for bike touring, it's, it's kind of like I sometimes why would you not embrace the technology that we have now, when I was cycling around the world, I did not really do any complex route planning on my phone. But now, we have commute and some similar apps and products. It's incredibly easy. The commute app is really intuitive, the algorithms are very sophisticated, it's very easy to find multiple options, but to find very suitable options, from A to B, even in parts of the world, where some of the map data is, is less comprehensive. And you can do all of this from your phone really easily. You don't have to drag paper maps around, you can very easily forecast how long it will take to get from A to B, you can very easily find out where might be a nice detour to take. There's just a lot less guesswork involved. So for the bike tour, it's a really powerful tool. But I would also say for the recreational user popping around the local lanes in the British countryside, for example, or a beginner, we have, we have a lot of tools that make it really easy to find a suitable route based on your ability. So while we have the route planner, which is great for finding ATV rides, whether that's like 100 miles, or whether that's 2000 miles across a continent, for the casual users who are doing like, you know, regular recreational loops. On our discover interface, we have, within just a few clicks, you can find routes that are based on your preferred sport type, whether you're gravel riding or road cycling, if you like hilly, hilly routes or flatter routes, or whether you're a hiker as well, because we accommodate for, you know, hiking as well. So you have these options that are tailor made for your needs within just a couple of clicks. And you can go and someone who's cycling across a continent probably understands how maps work probably enjoys looking at them, probably enjoys the process of, of stitching a route together. But for a lot of other users. That's not a priority for them. They just want to spend the time outside, having a good time without anything to worry about. Carlton Reid  14:55   There are a number of navigation apps some some of which seem to you know, be very popular in North America. Akka and some that are more popular in, in Europe. So that ecosystem seems to be very, very healthy. There are a number of apps going for the same kind of thing you know, from, you know, including one man bands like Cycle.travel. So, all of these different apps that are out there, how are people choosing? Do you think people are going through a list? And they're gonna go, Oh, I've tried that one, try that we're all like this one? Or do you think they just find one? And then they just keep on using that one come? What may? How do you think this ecosystem works? Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  15:39   Gosh, that's a very good question. And a very big question. I think for a lot of people, it's probably a question of what they used first. And that's, that goes beyond just these, like app based kind of routing platforms, if someone is very used to using was successful, use paper maps for decades, or if someone in the UK is, you know, swears by Ordnance Survey. And they've always had, you know, good experience doing that, there'll be unlikely to change unless you give them a very compelling argument or a good example. So I think a lot of people, what they first start using, becomes the thing that they become familiar, familiarity is so important, same of a lot of like tech or products that we use day to day, we're quite hesitant to change our routines. I also think within that ecosystem, people's preferences probably change quite a lot based on if they have a bad experience as well. Same with all types of different, you know, products that we consume, you know, there's probably many things that you've used day to day for years, and suddenly when it breaks or something goes wrong, you decide I want to try something different. And then I would also say the local element probably plays a significant part in it. You mentioned in like other regions, or for example, North America, the market is in a different, like perhaps different status for us or you know, different other products that are available for people, I think a lot of it depends on the local side of it has to do with your peers. So like who you explore with you trusting your your recommendation of those you go out with, or the people who give you a great experience outdoors. But also whether or not the product is is localised and translated into your language that also makes a big difference people find rightly so it's reassuring when the product is as easy to understand gives a different level of trust. So I think those are a few of the factors, that that kind of changed the state of play. But overall, I would say that it's really, it's a good thing. There are a lot of incredible, incredibly bright minds and have great innovative companies in a kind of overlapping space, often with a slightly different objective. And, you know, that's, that's just great for the consumer, because it means that we're all kept on our toes, constantly looking for ways to improve those Carlton Reid  18:08   variety of companies out there, some are chosen by for instance, you know, cycle travel companies. So when you go on a on a cycle holiday, they will, they will choose to partner with a navigation app company, and then they will send you all the routes on that. So you're basically you're almost tied in on that particular holiday to that particular navigation app. Good thing, bad thing. So is that something that it's incredibly important to discover who are actually giving these links out and and calm them? Because you know, you go on a North American owned psychology company in say, Italy. And even though you're in Europe, you're using in effect and American app, because it's an American company that's leading those tours. So is that something that you are you as in Komoot? Or your your, your your colleagues and commute are actively trying to partner with these key companies? Yeah, Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  19:15   there are. I mean, there are a lot of ways that we might sort of acquire new users. And by that, I mean, like reaching people and giving them their first experience on commute, those kinds of partnerships. I guess they probably represent like a smaller percentage of the ways to reach people. But that doesn't mean that they're not important. Particularly because if that partner whether it's a tour operator, or you know, a hotel or someone who's running a hotel, or even an event organiser, if they trust in Khumbu, and you know, I would say in Europe is you're far more likely to find that stuff that information presented to you via commitment than anyone else. That's great. because it's just reassures the, you know, the user that people look for that kind of reassurance from those those kind of places of authority. So those partnerships are really important to us. And we do work with a lot of tourism organisations, maybe even like hotels, tour operators, we do have quite a lot of active partnerships. And it's great for us because we reach that audience. But it's really good for us, we put a lot of effort into the people that do choose to work with us on educational tools, so that they understand it coming inside out, and can then give their users good experience. And that remains like super important for any of those types of partnerships Carlton Reid  20:39   can notice. If you get a bradt guidebook, a cycling guidebook, and it's you know, to the lanes of East Anglia, or whatever have you Yeah. Well, you're flicking through this, this book. And there's a little QR code. You open that up, I know, there's your route in Komoot via the Bradt guidebook. So what else have you got? Who else are you apart from Bradt, what else you out there in like a published terms? Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  21:10   Well, it's just a good question off the top of my head. And when I struggle to think of them, but quite a lot of I mean, of course, is difficult because we are so you know, across the whole of the continent. There are some amazing publications and magazines that we've partnered with across Germany, France, Italy, Spain. And I think one thing that's really nice at the stage that commutes that is, particularly within certain segments, in Europe, we are, it would almost be strange for the user to have the route presented to them in a different way. Because they're so familiar with commute. That's what they use for their group rides. That's what they use for the events they sign up to. That's what they do for their day to day riding. And so a lot of those partners like they will present stuff on Komoot, regardless, like we'd always like to help them present the stuff in the best kind of best way possible. But they're still going to be reaching out and using Komoot, simply because it's a really nice, easy way to share and present routes with your kind of users or participants. Carlton Reid  22:16   And what do you do for Komoot? So what is the community part of your job title? What is what is? What does that involve? Yes, so Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  22:25   I'm the global community manager komoot. The global part is, well, global, but it's in particular, it's about the gaps between. So we have a team of community managers spread out. In some of the markets where we have more kind of community oriented stuff going on, we have more people. So there's, there's a couple of two or three people in Germany, we have a couple of community managers in the UK, I'm kind of filling in the gaps between a lot of the markets that are growing for us, but aren't quite at the same same kind of stage just yet. And then the community, part of it is kind of two things. One thing is our external partnerships. So that could be with events and event organisers that could be with the kind of inspiring individuals that we work with, because they have, you know, a great platform, or they have a very inspiring story to tell, or they're great at motivating people that that follow them. And then on the other side of that, I have a lot of focus, particularly these days on our core community. So Komoot is, while we're really lucky that we have such a huge audience, audience, we've got about 37 million users. So there's a lot of people. And not all of those people are, you know, active every day or using commute to connect with other people and share their stories within the community. But we have millions of people who are and I spend a lot of time, as do my colleagues on how do we give these people? Like how do we reward them for their contributions? How do we motivate them to share more? How do we make sure that people are getting fed the right inspirational content based on their preferences? So elevating our kind of, and looking after our core community is also a significant part of my role. Carlton Reid  24:22   So can you is it gonna kind of go slightly backwards into your background as well, if you if you are going to set out on a kind of track that you started in 2015? Are you going to do that now? For instance, could you open up Komoot and say, you know, do me a route from London all around the world back again? Or do you have to do it in stages? How would you use if you're going to be doing it again? How would you use commute? Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  24:55   I think I think doing a route around the world probably possible but That's an awful lot of information for for one file. So I will probably break it down into smaller segments, which is to be fair, exactly what I did when I cycled around the world, and what most people probably would. And so when I when I left home, and sometimes thinking about cycling around the world is quite kind of overwhelmingly big kind of concept to navigate. But I would break it down into really small parts. So I knew that I wanted to cycle from London to Copenhagen. I knew that I wanted to visit a friend in Amsterdam, for example. So to begin with, I would focus on how do I get from London to Amsterdam, that's a kind of more sensible, you know, if you break it down to blocks, the whole thing becomes a lot more manageable, both in terms of logistics, but also mentally. So I will do the same on Komoot. One thing that sets you apart from some similar, some similar platforms is that we have a variety of different sport types you can choose from. So if you go on the route planner, you'll see that even for cycling, there's a few variations. There's like road cycling, gravel riding, bike touring, mountain biking. And that's really important because well, even even within bike tours, people have different preferences. If someone wants to get to Amsterdam, in you know, two or three days, on a road bike, credit card, touring, staying in hotels, they might want to be thinking, you know, they want to have the mindset of a road cyclists, they want to choose quick, efficient routes, they're on 25 mil tires, they don't really want to be going down toe puffs, no matter how they're graded. So these different algorithms think slightly differently, which I think is is really important. I would personally I would, for the way I was touring leisurely, I would be on the bike touring mode. But no, that's it's just important to point out there's different types based on your kind of bike and you're writing preferences. We have a tool called the multi day tour planner, so I could pick from London to Amsterdam. And then I could divide it up into let's say, I want to do it in four days, or I know that I want to do about six hours of cycling a day, I can divide it up and it takes into account the elevation on the way. So it has like a kind of consistent breakdown, which is really helpful when you're trying to forecast when you might get to a certain location. The other tool that I would definitely would be using on the route planner. One of our features is the sport specific overlays. And then you can overlay the long distance or National Cycle routes, which is super helpful. I do this and I'm always toggling between these wherever I'm out hiking or cycling, it just means at a cursory glance, I can see the long distance routes. So for example, I was at the time following loosely one of the EuroVelo. The common which number is the one that goes up along that coast. Well, I can see that overlaid on the map. And so I can compare that against the route that I'm plotting, I can make sure that I'm like loosely following it that that makes a real big difference. Both when I'm long distance touring, or if I'm even just kind of out exploring in the south of England. So those are a few of the main tools that I would use. The final thing I would add, I wouldn't have such a rudimentary cycling computer, I would still have, I'd still have one. The Garmin that I have now is far more modern and has base maps. And we actually have an app designed for Garmin specifically. And with that, I can create the date the routes on my phone. And I can just press one button send to device and I can load up the IQ app on my Garmin device. And the route will just go bing. And here it is. And if I want to change my route, halfway through the day, I can now just update it on commute on the app on my phone and press updates. And I'll get a little notification and my route will be updated. So if I wanted to cut my day short, we'll go to a different hotel or campsite an evening. And that feature is so cool. And I think if I'd had that all those years ago, there would have been a lot less faffing involved, which would have been wonderful. Carlton Reid  29:14   Yeah, I use that the other day, in fact. So I had a Garmin unit and I had I was navigating with Komoot hadn't actually changed the route because I just got on my bike after 70 miles because the wind was about 50 miles an hour ahead of me. But still, I was using it and it was neat that so I agree. So the map, I've got the app open here now and in other apps, you have a choice of quite a few maps. But here I don't I see the the Komoot map. I see a satellite map but then there's no like Ordnance Survey for the UK. So because your is that because you were an international brand and that's just what on market, yeah, there's no point just offering an OS just for one market. I mean, Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  30:03   you could obviously you could argue for it. And in the UK, a lot of people aren't really familiar with and put a lot of trust into Ordnance Survey, commutes sort of core foundation revolves around OpenStreetMap, we are such committed believers of the Open Street Map Project. And it's really at the core of everything we do. And we are constantly looking for ways that, you know, we can help to enrich the data that's there or help to facilitate improvements to it. And you're right, I think, because we are active in so many different countries, we could protect, we could try and add all of these different national maps. But the the user experience would become quite convoluted. You know, if I travel a lot using commute, I quite like knowing that I can get my head around the commute render of OpenStreetMap, which is our like, primary map, and then we have satellite map. I like being familiar with it, I like knowing that the sort of routing algorithms will give me consistent results in different places. And that's quite important to ask that we still give people like a quite a not simple, but like, you know, familiar user experience that doesn't become overwhelming or confusing for them. But we really, we really, I should stress that we like, especially in the markets where we are most active in the quality of the OpenStreetMap data is is really amazing. And it's always improving. And it always is, yeah, enough for us to give people a really good experience. Carlton Reid  31:40   Maybe it's it's an age thing then because I mean, I grew up with OS maps, maybe people who are younger than me and not so hide bound, you know, as you could you have seen before, you know, people are no longer using paper maps, if I've grown up as a user of paper maps, and I no longer use paper maps, but I use the Ordnance Survey maps on my, my phone, it generally tends to be if I'm like trying to visualise an area, then me will as somebody who has grown up with that kind of Ordnance Survey mind map, I would I would default to Ordnance Survey as that's how I explain, you know, my, my where I am. So to me that's like, wow, I need I need, you know, I need iOS to know exactly where I am. It's great to have the Open Street Map. It's lovely. And the commute version of it. But still like, Yeah, but where am I? And I need that something's very familiar. But that might just be you know, people have an older generation. And that that is obvious to my son to Josh, that had zero relevance. And he probably wouldn't know his way around and OS map, but you don't know his way around, you know, the Komoot map really well. So do you think that's just telling me Jonathan, is this just me? Is it just me because I'm very, very old? Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  33:00   If I frame my answer, as well, to be careful, I think your Ordnance Survey specifically as a very particular place in the British sort of, well, the psyche of how we spend how we map the country, is equivalent in other countries. I'll give you an example because I sometimes almost feel like as a outdoorsy person who likes Grim Adventures and is British and spends a lot of time exploring the British outside. I, you know, I should be more familiar with Ordnance Survey I confess, I have grown up in London. I didn't kind of do much outdoorsy stuff at school. Honestly, I've never really used Ordnance Survey I am, when when I started to explore, there was sort of these phone based solutions available for me right away sort of 10 years ago, revolving around OpenStreetMap. I do spend a lot of time hiking and walking for leisure. And I've just never found that I that I needed it. I'm super familiar with OpenStreetMap. I'm now an expert in how Komoot works. And so it's just funny, I think it's like different types of people, for sure, especially in the UK, but I would say also globally, is just very different, like different generations who have grown up, especially have the sort of, you know, even for example of Google Maps is sort of omnipresent in our exploring of the world and navigating I'm talking about everything now from public transport to driving. And even like the sort of sat nav, the satnavifacation, I'm sure that's not a word, but how we drive a car around the world has now had a massive influence on on people hiking and cycling. A lot of people would prefer to hike with turn by turn instructions on their phone and find that far more easy to get their head around than navigating from a paper map and pen The people could argue that that's, that's not as good. But I think if you embrace, you know, the quality of the map data and you embrace it, this actually helps a lot more people explore because there are less boundaries or sorry, less. Yeah, sort of less friction points. So less obstacles for them to to get over to outside. I'm not sure that's necessarily such a bad thing. Carlton Reid  35:23   And let's go slightly backwards in that. The name Komoot is a pun on commute. So when it was originally developed, was it as an internal city thing? Or was it always, you know, this is meant to explore the world with or was that explore the world with just something that came afterwards and is the name a bit of a misnomer, Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  35:56   is actually a bit of a misnomer, partly because it's actually like a Komoot is derived from, I think it's called the Valsa dialect, which is the region that the founders are from and it's just like as far as I understand it, a casual greeting means something like simple and practical. And so it's a it's actually slightly misleading, because that's the origin of Komoot, obviously, was Carlton Reid  36:22   Nothing at all to do with commute. Well, Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  36:25   I don't, I mean, it's not sure if it's a good or a bad thing that they're so similar, but that's the origin of the name Komoot. It doesn't, and the sort of the product and the philosophy doesn't come from commuting at all, it's about spending time outside. Of course, you could probably interpret that in many ways. Perhaps this is an alternative way of you know, commuting in nature. As it happens, many people use commute as part of their commute within town because they want to find a more scenic way of getting from A to B. But that's not the that was never the objective of the company and and still that isn't the case. Carlton Reid  37:05   Right? Interesting. So I got that wrong that Well, Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  37:10   I also had one for a very long day if that makes you feel better. Carlton Reid  37:15   It does Thank you very much. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  37:17   I'm afraid now that you'll really struggle to pronounce Komoot without saying Komoot because it's only a matter of time before for that becomes a riddle itself. Carlton Reid  37:26   Well, of course Google isn't I think it's a mathematical term isn't it? So would have been familiar to some people but most people it's not it's not familiar terms. It's just these unusual term. So anything that's slightly unusual is better for a website you know name so the fact that you kind of spelling this and you people think it means there's but doesn't but they remember anyway so that's that's the trick just remembering it. So if it's if it helps some people doing all that must be Komoot Oh, yes, he spelt with a K. And other people's know it as a, you know, a greeting in a certain language. That's also okay. So it's however you get your name remembered? Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  38:03   Yeah, very much so. Carlton Reid  38:06   So at this point, I'd like to actually cut away and let my colleague take over and we'll be back in a few minutes. So take it away, David. David Bernstein  38:16   This podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern understand that while a large cargo bike can carry oodles of stuff, many of us prefer something a little more manageable. That's why they've come up with the HSD e-cargobike for folks with big aspirations to go car free, delivered in a compact size, with its rear shock, 280 kilos, and a combined hauling capacity of 180 kilos. The robust new HSD is stable and easy to manoeuvre, even when under load. And with its Bosch eBIKE SYSTEM tested and certified to meet the highest UL standards for electric and fire safety you'll be able to share many worryfree adventures with a loved one whether it's your kiddo or Nan. Visit www.ternbicycles. That's te r n turn bicycles.com to learn more. Carlton Reid  39:17   Thanks, David and we are back with with with Jonathan of Komoot we've discovered that it doesn't mean commute and that's it you want it to mean commute. It can mean whatever you want. But Jonathan is he's the community Global Community Manager for Komoot and he's if anybody's going around the world on their bicycle or wandering around the world on the bicycle and they wanted to use commute then then clearly Jonathan would be a good guy to to learn from Andy certainly in a pretty good job for for the kind of company commute is because Jonathan, you went round the world well, we have touched on this but now let's let's explore this in in greater detail. So we've got the Komoot out of the way. Let's let's, let's talk about what where you've come from and why are you working for for Komoot? So we laughed before. Could you mention the fact that when you started, you were much of a cyclist? And I was kind of thinking, Yeah, that's right, because of what the amount of kit you took to begin with is the kind of the classic. And I made this exact same mistake when I started my cycle touring adventures many, many, many years ago, you take too much kit. So you had an enormous amount of kit. And you had a kind of an old school bike, you were you on steel, you're on a bicycle that I would have been familiar with in the 1980s, you know, a Dawes Super Galaxy,  classic touring bike of a while ago. And then you you you've, you've clearly learned a lot. In that time that you're away, but you started reading your blog, you basically picked this bike, you didn't seem to know much about cycling, and then like, a week later, you're, you're off touring the world. So describe it. Have I got that? completely correct, you were pretty much a novice, and then you went cycled around the world. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  41:18   That is, that is pretty much it. It's almost embarrassing to admit how little preparation or knowledge I had prior to leaving, but I think I was just blessed with youthful naivety time, and I didn't have high expectations at all, I just wanted an adventure. And there are very few simpler ways of finding one than grabbing a bike and kind of just heading off without a plan. Carlton Reid  41:44   Or when it's classic, absolutely classic, the way the way that kind of developed. But let's let's find out what were you doing at the time? How long were you expecting to do? You didn't have any plans at all. We literally tried to go around the world, we didn't know how long was going to take? Or were you just going to cycle and see where you got to and then just what you might give up at some point. What What were you doing? How old were you and what were you doing at the time. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  42:08   So if I rewind a little bit further, we touched upon it at the beginning of the call. I grew up I grew up in London, but my my Yeah, my father's British, my mother's Danish. We never cycled or I never cycled for fitness. I never cycled for leisure or for exploring. However, I did grow up riding bikes, it was just very much like a functional tool to get around. London is not bike friendly city. But it's a very practical city to get around and manoeuvre by bicycle. So I grew up cycling. I studied music at university. And when I returned to London, I wasn't entirely sure what to do next, like I'm sure plenty of young people. Now, early 20s have the same sort of existential crisis. I was quite fortunate that I'd been working the whole time I was studying and, and while I had an awful lot of debt, I had somehow ended up with, you know, a few grand in the bank accounts saved up so I kind of had this incredible, I was in this incredibly privileged position where I could kind of yeah, go and explore a little bit without having to take the next the next most serious steps in life. I had always travelled a lot that had been a high priority for me, I had done a bit of long distance walking, I was kind of prepared for another long hike. And then kind of had this this moment, this epiphany I suppose, where I thought well, what about cycling that could be I was really interested in human power, not human powered, rather, I was interested in overland travel. So I became kind of fixated by this idea of, of cycling and then bike touring. And, and these were, I think, a wonderful period on internet where you could find all these incredible blogs that were so relatable and so inspiring and so informative as well. And so the sort of recommendations I found online, people said, those galaxies a good bike, found one on on eBay bought it was a good pannier to take Balsam or leave panniers from Argos and got all of this around Christmas. And I left two weeks later and the plan at the time, I'd been sort of telling my peers and family I was gonna cycle to Australia, but it was it was a it was a pipe dream. But it was kind of a joke as well. It was a good way of like picking something so outlandish that people wouldn't take it seriously at all, which was fair enough given that I had never cycled further than about 10 miles. And so I I set off as I said to go and visit my mother, and I said if if this goes well, I will continue heading east and I had a fantastic first month and I continued writing to Turkey. I became very good at living, I would say extremely cheap on the road. I realised that I could probably get quite a long way. And, and yeah, I ended up going all the way to Australia, by which point I was completely broke. But I got a job and worked for a few months there. And then at that point, I, it became very clear to me that I wanted to continue and make it around the world cycle. And so I did that. And Nick got home, just under three years after having left probably having clocked around 50,000 kilometres, which is kind of a mind boggling number when I say out loud, Carlton Reid  45:32   huh? There's some people kind of do that in three weeks. I'm exaggerating a little bit, but they do it fast. And, you know, some Komoot users, Markus Stitz, for instance, did on a single speed, etc, etc. But you took three years. Now, it's not that you weren't doing some big mileages, you know, there was there was, you know, I read on your blog, you know, some days you're doing 145 kilometres. And then other days, clearly, you're, you're just doing nothing, because you're just enjoying the location. So you never had any plan to do it in a certain amount of time, you would just basically ebb and flow. It was just whatever the live through it you you kind of did that. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  46:17   Yep. And thank goodness, I personally like that. Because otherwise, I think it would be overwhelming to think about and those people who cycle around the world planning on it or trying to break records, I think it must just require so much. That's no fault and pressure, I really was just kind of going for a ride, there was never any pressure, no expectation. If I went home, whenever I was bored, that would have been fine. No one would have judged me. So I was really making up as I went along. And when I left, I had absolutely no plan to spend anywhere near that long on the road knows that I have any plans to cycle all the way around the world. I am a Tura. At heart cycling at that pace is and I've done a lot of more, sort of a dyno extreme bikepacking. I've done a lot of ultralight cycling, I've even tried a few ultra endurance races. But touring at that kind of pace, for me is just the most kind of beautiful ratio in life. Hmm. Carlton Reid  47:20   So notice, you've done the Transcontinental. So you have done these, these, these races, but your forte is basically just pootling along. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  47:30   Definitely. And if I if I continued to my cycling trajectory in between cycling around the world, and ending up doing what I'm doing currently at Komoot, when I returned home, having spent all of this time on the road, I actually worked as a bicycle courier in London for a short period, which was there's no better way to re calibrate and reintegrate into city living having spent so much time on the road and to get paid to cycle around delivering stuff and exploring, you know, a city even if it's your home city by bike. And I then started working at a company called Apidura. And I know that you're familiar of a producer, because I believe you interviewed the founder of Apidura in this past few years. And I was there for a few years. And that was really, I mean, obviously made sense. I had a lot of touring experience. But that was in 2018, which was really when this hugely significant kind of shift in interest from bike touring to bikepacking. Which you can interpret in many ways. But, but this this shift was really kind of about to explode, and then get even more exaggerated through the pandemic. So I, I had learned so much about travelling by bike and then I learned so much about the benefit of ultralight cycling and these new packing systems that were so different to taking for panniers on a loaded bike. And so I spent four years at the Jura did the roller coaster that was COVID 19. And and that was sort of the segue that led me to Komoot because Komoothas been so involved with bike packing bikepacking as an established but also an emerging sport in the last few years. Because Carlton Reid  49:19   you looking at your your bike setup. Back then with the with the Dawes Galaxy, and the bags you had on that was very much old school. And then I can completely identify with that because I'm clearly old school. And that's where I started. So you know, for panniers at least loads of stuff and caring too much, etc, etc. And you look at that now and you think no, you would have the upward Eurostyle you know you'd have the bike packing bags, you probably wouldn't be carrying quite as much Kip, although some of the place you went to. You know I'm thinking of you like your Australia video. and stuff where you're obviously having to pack. I mean, when you go across the desert, you having to pack you know, an enormous amount of water, you've got to have all of the bug kit, you know, you've got to have all of the stuff that's protecting you from the nasties. So you had some times you have gotten better how many it's not an old school versus new school thing. It's just you have to have a lot of kit in some places and and there's no two ways about that. You know? Even if you're doing a transcontinental style, you know, fast route across somewhere, you would still need a fair bit of of kit. But when you were when you started out, okay, actually good point. Did you finish on the same bike? Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  50:43   I did, I finished on the same bike and I still ride that same Dawes Galaxy as my day to day pub, one around bike. Carlton Reid  50:51   Excellent. So it's but it's like Trigger's Broom, you've got you know, you've replaced tonnes of things, or it's still largely the same bike Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  50:58   is the same frame, the same fork. And that is nice. All That Remains of the original bike. Carlton Reid  51:05   So that's pretty good going well done Dawes Super Galaxy.  Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  51:09   Yeah, there's a lot to be said. Having modern bike so us so reliable in general. But yeah, I'm very much of the steel fan club. That bike has a lot of battle scars, from various sort of unfortunate collisions with other vehicles or just the road or ice. But it's still yet it's still going strong. And, and you're right, I've had the been very lucky to experience travelling by bike in very different forms from the kind of old school bike touring sense where you carry basically your entire house, to super ultra light, you know, bike travel, where you just have a bivy bag, and you sacrifice all levels of comfort. I've also done a lot of off road sort of mountain bike touring, I think the thing that I find so wonderful about bicycle travel in general, is that there's always a new way to do it. And there's absolutely no right or wrong way of doing it, I think it's very easy to get caught up in the the idea of I must be a lightweight bike packer, or I must do it in this particular way. But really, there's no right or wrong way of doing it. We're all very different, we all travel for very different reasons. And there's different ways of, of packing for it. And, and even if I refer back to commute and the way that we're set up, we give people the tools to, to pick, you know, they can pick the fast road route, if they want, or they can pick the meandering route, they can pick the most direct one, or they can pick the most leisurely one up over the mountains. I think this whole kind of space is really set up for the user to be able to customise you know, what they're doing, and how they're carrying it based on what their objectives is. And I think that's what's really kind of charming about the whole two wheeled travel thing. Carlton Reid  53:02   See, I'm a historian of many things, but including cycling, and Thomas Stevens, if you hadn't if you've come across that name in in the past, but he was basically a big wheel rider. So what would people would call Penny farthings. And this is 1880s. And the kit he had, the amount of kit he had and how it was packed is very much like bikepacking You know, it's the big pannier bags, that's pretty much the 70s and 80s thing, you know, really, really old and I was calling that old school, but genuinely old school. So 1880 stuff is you know, Apidura-style, incredibly lightweight, hard to carrying anything at all kind of touring. So that's that's kind of where cycle touring started. And we've kind of come full circle in many ways. And so people are going out there with incredibly minimal bits of of kit and somehow surviving. So when you did your your your your cirumnavigation, and you had all this enormous kit, where you jettison bits as you're going along. And just in case you didn't you don't really need this you pick it up basically you became an expert. Just cook you're having to carry this stuff. And because you haven't to carry it, you quickly learn I don't need that Chuck it Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  54:30   Yeah, and I did get rid of an awful lot of stuff. I had some some very questionable belongings with me. Like I had my my, I mean, I was on quite a budget when I left and and while I was going so it's sort of just what am I sacrificing a bit of weight for a cheaper option, but I had like my, my mother's old coat which was this like not anything resembling a down jacket, this monstrous thing that took up half a pannier. I had a pair of jeans with me to wear like when I was off the bike. So much unpractical. kind of clothing thing, I even had like a sort of smart casual shirt, I thought I would like to dress up like a non bike person when I was in town for a weekend, or things that I would never do now. And I did get rid of a lot of this stuff slowly. And as time went on out kind of improved things a bit as they broke. But then there was a lot of things that I wouldn't change, like I travelled with, I mean, I had like a cutting board with me so that I could chop vegetables up when I was camping, and had little film canisters, filmed of spices and a proper source bird. And so I could like, eat well, and, and I wouldn't, again, a lot of bikepackers could turn a nose up at that and think God's this person's just sort of like a moving kitchen. But I you know, for such a long period of the bike, I wouldn't, I wouldn't change that at all. And on and I know that the sort of, especially at the moment with the sort of influences bikepacking has had on on taking existing cyclists and making them realise what they can achieve on the bike. I still am a big believer in taking a bit more stuff if your legs can handle it. And if you're not in a hurry, you know, riding up a mountain with the extra weight on your bag, it's not going to do your fitness any any disservice. If you can get up it. I think a bit of both comfort is quite okay. And while in general, I'm a minimalist these days, I think there's plenty of space for carrying a few extra luxury items whenever you're travelling. Carlton Reid  56:30   But did you come back? Not you but did the bike and the kit come back a lot lighter. So by the time you'd finish, because I know you you'd have to badmouth the bags that you had. But you certainly changed your your your bags halfway around because of various reasons. And other notes on your blog, you do kind of, say a few choice words about the brand you had. But did you come back with? Did you come out with a lot more lightweight than you went? On much more lightweight? Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  57:00   I would say I might have shaved off like a kilo. Like in general, I pretty much had the same amount of stuff with me. And yeah, it couldn't have bothered me that much. Because otherwise I would have gotten rid of an awful lot of stuff. So no, I actually, I actually think I returned with a fairly similar amount of weight on my bike. That's Carlton Reid  57:22   interesting, because that's totally opposite to the way I did it. So when I started out, I had so much kit, I had like a wooden hammer for hammering in the tent pegs I had, like, we just get a rock, you know, I had so many things that I just I was chucking stuff you know, from the very, very start and you've kind of quickly got used to you know, what was necessary and what wasn't. And you don't know that until you're actually on the road. So I was ended up with with a lot less kit. So I taught myself minimalism, just because, cuz, whereas you're saying you don't, it doesn't matter, you can just pedal up a hill, I was the opposite as like, No, I'm not the crane brothers. Famously, when they went up Kilimanjaro and their stuff, they they would, you know, drill holes in toothbrushes, I was never that extreme. But I would definitely want to be lightweight, as much as possible. And so I am kind of interested in taking a chopping board. So I wouldn't have done that. This is interesting about how different people approach these things. And like, I have come down to the minimalist and caring such a little like I wouldn't, personally I wouldn't, not even going on like a camping trip. Now. I won't take cooking equipment, for instance, I will generally buy what I need, and eat that and then have to then scrambled to get, you know, fresh supplies. And I know it's much more efficient to take rice and what have you and then be able to boil this up. But to me just carrying any amount of cooking equipment to me in my head, just that's too much weight, I can do this much lighter. And clearly you're you're not you're a different each to their own, isn't it? It's just different people want to do different things. And that's fine. Definitely. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  59:22   And we need to make sure that we always sort of accommodate that. Because people are so different. And and I think it's difficult, you know, in life, for example, in the cycling industry, it's a consumer driven industry, we need to convince people we brands need to convince people that they need to do things in a different way or a better way or an improved way. But really all of it comes down to like giving people options so they can do things in the way that they want to do it. And you know, there is absolutely no reason why one type of bike travelling is superior than another. They are yeah complete The different ways of doing things for different people. So ever people navigate in one particular way, if they choose one kind of route, it's not about that it's about giving people the options. And the same, like if someone wants to go on a road bike really fast with nothing on their bike, that's totally fine. And if someone wants to chuck for massive panniers on their bike, they'll probably be a bit slower. But that's, but that's totally okay. Carlton Reid  1:00:26   And so what are you doing now? During what what? How would you describe your riding, and your adventuring now, Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  1:00:33   my, I still try. And when I travel, I always want to be on a bike. If I'm not on a bike, I've fully compromised a little bit. But I also like spending time walking around being a normal person, especially if I'm on holiday with my with my girlfriend. But I do try and have one or two bike trips, big bike trips a year. Over the last few years, I've developed a sort of real love for exploring, I guess, capturing the essence of a big adventure closer to home. But in general, I'm sort of a casual cyclist I like to get out for provides every once a week if I can. I think working at QMU is quite is wonderful, but a bit dangerous for someone like me who enjoys spending time looking at maps, because the list of places to visit is evergrowing. But commute has this amazing interface. We have this route planner, which is wonderful gives people all these advanced tools to make informed decisions about where they're going and how they get there. But we also have this discovery interface where you can have these these created routes for you based on your sort of parameters, the smart, this kind of smart solutions, and does have a really big impact on me, since we launched it last year, I'm much more inclined to take a train out from London to a random station and say, load it up on commute and say, Hey, I'm in a new area. I've got three hours, give me something. So while I'm going on less epic adventures, and finding new kind of creative ways of exploring familiar places. I'm doing that a lot at the moment. And I'm extremely excited about doing more of that as the weather improves. Carlton Reid  1:02:19   And is that a curated thing? Or is that an algorithm thing. So Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  1:02:24   it's a kind of a combination of stuff. commute, we have so much user data, because we have millions and billions and billions of of users, the number of recorded tours is kind of such a big number. It's it's kind of hard to get your head around. So we're able to give people these. These like personalised suggestions so I can take the train out if I'm with a no fun with friends go out for a walk at the weekend, I can look at which train line takes me to a village that looks somewhere Scenic. I don't own a car. So I can just say I'm at this station, it will see where the people who use Komoot are heading when they record their tours. So it's very easy to get a feel for where people actually walk. Where do people go for their recreational weekend straws. And it will give me a clever or suitable solution to get kind of onto that, navigate the route and then return to the train station. And it's incredibly clever how it works. If I go on where I live now and say I want to go for a four hour cycle, starting for I live. I've lived in London for a long time and I've cycled in London for a long time. I know what all of the common roadie routes are that people take wherever they're going off to Windsor or Kent or sorry, Essex and, and if I let Komoot do this for me automatically. It's kind of amazing how it basically gives me the routes that people most commonly do. But it won't just give me three or four options, it will give me hundreds of options, which means I can go out for a new ride. And I can always find something that's slightly different to what I've done in the past. And I find that really inspiring for my, like motivation to explore. Carlton Reid  1:04:12   And then if you were in Iran, would it do the same? Or was it does it need that you know, lots and lots of people have done this before or kind of just glower three people who've done this, okay, that'll be the route we curate for this. This person has just ended up in Iran, for instance, such as yourself a few years ago. Yeah, you Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  1:04:28   need to have the use of data because it's based on what people actually do. So if we didn't have that it wouldn't we only want to do it when we're confident we give people a good experience. Otherwise, no one benefits from it. You can obviously still use the route panoramic, your own tool in Iran. The what I would say in certain regions where there is less user data, we have an editorial team that make it they're the the we create the content so we'll find what are the classic like walking routes based on like variety of sources, we have an extensive editorial team that will add this content. And they will add suitable highlights, which is what we call the contributions that the community creates to add on to the map. So that this is an amazing viewpoint, this is a great cafe to stop out if you're a cyclist, this is a really beautiful, rich line stroll. So we will help to populate the map so that the people who are used to kind of a circular thing, the better the map data is, the better that the attributions are on commute, the more local people will find, have a good user experience. And then the more they use it, the more they'll contributes. And that's how we kind of launch in in new places where there's less of an active community, if that makes sense. Carlton Reid  1:05:48   Yes, your heat mapping then, in effect, so you're you're working out where people are going, and you see you perhaps, you know, and your your fellow app. This this ecosystem we talked about before, you know, where people are cycling, you know, like the Strava, type heatmap. Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  1:06:06   Exactly. So we can I mean, it's all obviously, like, it's only when people choose to share stuff publicly. It's all like completely anonymized. But you know, we have so much data, we're just trying to harness it. And yes, we do know where people cycle we have that information that's great is quite hard to sort of digest. But if you can take that and turn it into something actionable, the end result for the user is that they can say, I'm a beginner, I've got two hours, I've got a new phone mount to go on my handlebars, I can select this tool, I can just press go. And I can head off and have an amazing bike ride for two hours. And we can be really confident that it's going to be suitable because that's what other people are doing when they, for example, select bike touring as a sport type. And the same for hiking, we won't have people won't be walking down the road, because we'll only be looking at data that's come from hikers. It's a very Yeah, it's an incredible solution is very clever. And I think it's just a great way of mobilising people, whether they're like really experienced cyclists who are just looking for something new and and bored of doing the same kind of loop over and over again, or newbies who need their handheld a little bit. And once I have a solution that they can just go off and do with five minutes of planning instead of an hour of planning for a two hour excursion. Carlton Reid  1:07:33   Now right now the bike and I don't know how much you know, this, but the bike industry, certainly in the UK, and in many other places in the world is is suffering just incredibly bad. It's just it is it is dire out there at retail. It's dire out there for suppliers, you know, post COVID, we basically just got a huge, huge, low a complete slump. You know, I did a story on Forbes of the day talking about how to 40 year low in the UK. You know, the last time we were as low as this in bike sales was in 1985. So 39 years. And that's that's that's pretty poor. Do. Do you recognise that? Is that something you can look at and say, oh, people aren't writing as much? Or is that just purely at retail and people still riding that is not buying? Jonathan Kambskarð-Bennett  1:08:24   Is a good? It's a good question. I actually saw that Forbes article and is it's definitely bleak reading. But I've worked in the bike industry for a number of years. It's like, I know many people who share the same kind of anecdotal experiences that things are changing. It is a problem with retail and definitely like have these hangover kind of effects from the pandemic that still making it really hard for people to forecast well. And, and it's just been so unpredictable for a few years now. Komoot is lucky because we don't deal with a physical product. But we are subject to the same the same kind of you know, these kind of cultural shifts, whether people are collectively interested in exploring or cycling, we're not immune to that we might not have the same issues that a bike manufacturer has, but we still get impacted by the same changes. And it's hard for us to predict these major shifts in usage in the same way that it's hard for an

24th February 2024 The Spokesmen Cycling Podcast EPISODE 347: Richard Fletcher SPONSOR: Tern Bicycles HOST: Carlton Reid GUEST: Richard Fletcher, Isle of Man TOPICS: LINKS: https://www.the-spokesmen.com/ https://www.ternbicycles.com https://twitter.com/CarltonReid https://www.cycling.im https://www.bikestyle.im https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru1PYzU1k_w https://www.visitisleofman.com Carlton Reid 0:13 Welcome to Episode 347 of the Spokesmen cycling podcast. This show was engineered on Saturday 24th of February 2020. For David Bernstein 0:29 The Spokesmen cycling roundtable podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern are committed to building bikes that are useful enough to ride every day and dependable enough to carry the people you love. In other words, they make the kind of bikes that they want to ride. Tern has e-bikes for every type of rider. Whether you're commuting, taking your kids to school or even carrying another adult, visit www.ternbicycles.com. That's t e r n bicycles.com to learn more. Carlton Reid 1:04 The plan was to record this interview while riding to Laxey on the Isle of Man with cycle guide and event organiser Richard Fletcher, pointing out the roads long used by fellow Manxman Mark Cavendish, but then weather! I'm Carlton Reid, and I was on the Isle of Man for the AGM of the British guild of travel writers. members could choose a one day fam trip activity. And while others chose spa and yoga retreats or cookery sessions, all indoors, I had asked to go cycling. I brought my road bike on the Steam Packet ferry from Heysham and was eager to hook up Richard with a radio mic and then chat, as we pootled along. The driving rain put paid to that idea. And after a bitterly cold two hour ride, we drip-dripped into a Douglas bike shop. Right. And I've just seen a photograph of you there that I took on the road, and you're smiling. But there's sleet. There's rain, there's basically we're riding through it almost a river coming up through to Douglas. So that was pretty grim out there. Richard Fletcher 2:23 Yes, as bad as it gets over here. But yeah, you're out on your bike. And there's the worst places to be. So as long as you don't do more than an hour and a half in that sort of that sort of weather, then it's fine. Right? Carlton Reid 2:35 So warmed up, we had a cup of coffee, and a bit of cake in Noa's bakery, and that's Noa. And next door to that is Bike Style. The bike shops who are now sitting on very nice sofas here, in in a nice bike shop. I'd like to say overlooking, you know, the scenic wonders of Douglas, but we can't actually see a great deal. And when we were out riding this morning, you you basically you took me out to some scenic places, but we didn't actually see anything. So just describe the ride that we did this morning. What would we have seen if it would be a beautiful day? Because we're kind of going towards Snaefell, weren't we? Richard Fletcher 3:12 Yeah, well, the hills, the route, we went on the hills all around it, basically. So and yeah, on a clear day, that's what you see. You can you can see the island from sort of side to side and top to bottom only when you're out it's particularly if you get some height. But today, because it's hilly, you get white-out effectively. So yeah, there's quite low cloud and you don't see a lot. But yeah, it would have been a nice ride if our view wise if it had been clear. Carlton Reid 3:42 Because we did get pretty damn cold out there today. So the route you were originally planning to take me on would have been towards Laxey Richard Fletcher 3:52 We'd have gone north of the east coast of the island. And you get some stunning views on the East coast. Well on all the coastal routes on the island, and the island basically has villages and towns dotted around the coastline. So as soon as you come in from the towns, you start climbing, and you go either over a hill into a valley and over another hill and back to the coast. The island is only 12 miles wide and it's been its widest point, and 36 miles long. So you can cross from coast to coast or top to bottom in a day. But there's lots of minor roads. I think some of the roads we went on. They were most of them were single carriageway roads to the benefit that is the nicer island because they're quiet, very little traffic. But yeah, it's just today was a rough day for it. Carlton Reid 4:42 So if we had done that ride, which we're planning to do towards Laxey would have basically written past Cav's house, yeah? Richard Fletcher 4:51 Well, he's born and brought up in Douglas and Laxey still has a house in Laxey. And Laxey's got a lot of history from it was an old mining village years ago not a big population there. It's people have a possibly have an impression of Cav that because he's a sprinter the same of the Tour de France with a sprint train that he's a rider for the flatlands but the he was born and brought up over here where you there are hills everywhere you go. And in his amateur racing, I think you see that that he's used to coping with that type of terrain. Carlton Reid 5:29 And tell me about Dot Tilbury because Dot Tilbury you're talking about basically before when we're in the coffee shop about a big funnel of riders. Then at the bottom, you would spit out these well known riders that we've all heard of. Richard Fletcher 5:42 Yeah, I mean, I've been cycling for 40. More well, more than 40 years and until Dot came around, and the cycling tended to be quite insular. And people would get into cycling because their parents had all their brothers or sisters. Dot started a children's league on a Tuesday night, more than 20 years ago now. And it started attracting more and more children into it, who weren't anything to do with the normal cycling scene. And within a relatively short space of time, it got to the stage where she was getting 200, then 250. And now 300 kids would turn up on a Tuesday night and be introduced to cycling as an activity. And that's been going on now say for over 20 years. And I'd say for a small population out the Isle of Man 86,000 people, that's the most directly cause of of the high standard of cycling because you use the word then there is a sort of wide funnel of kids becoming involved in cycling. And yes, there's when they get to 14, 15, 16. And all the distractions come around or other activities come around, particularly in this day and age where there's so many alternatives to to spend your time still a larger number drop out at the bottom of the funnel than would have if she didn't run that league. And I think she's the most direct link to the success of of elite cycling over here. I remember when did that exactly set that up? I don't exactly 20, 20 something years ago be more than 20 years Carlton Reid 7:20 Where Where does she where's that is it's just like an off road circuit? Richard Fletcher 7:24 It's on a perimeter road around the National Sports Centre. So it's about half a mile round pan flat. And it's like an oval, like a 600 metre version of an athletic track effectively, but it's tarmac. And they race round there on a Tuesday night, they start when they're almost just off balance bikes then through to when they're 16. And they that's where they get into cycling, and then as they get to the older age groups, and they then move into the more sort of traditional cycling. Dot also takes them away on trips. So they go to places like a day on the Manchester Velodrome they take part in the youth series that British Cycling runs. And we run around with that over here. So they get to perform on home soil as well. In fact that is coming up in April, this year, there'll be over 200 kids come from the UK, the best 200 Kids in the UK will come over to ride in the Isle of Man. And about 50 of Dot's kids will be in those races as well. Carlton Reid 8:32 Because you're one of the organisers of yeah, they used to it Richard Fletcher 8:36 I recently do, the youth has been running for 14 or 15 years now. And last couple of years, the organisers sort of change over time, became involved and become involved. So Emma Dyer who has been involved for many years and organising it Rob Holden, ex professional cyclist and myself are the three main organisers but it's a big team of people that put it together and it's closed roads Yeah, we get Road Club full road closure which is one of the USPS if you like of them coming to the Isle of Man that the kids aren't used to riding on closed roads they used to running on closed circuits around parks and things like that. And we get the national escort group guys come over so it's quite a an atmosphere for the kids the it's not to to France but it's sort of to ride on closed roads with national escort and we bring Tony Barry's neutral service cars over as well so they've they've actually got a almost like professional experience that they get and I think that's why I like coming over for it. Carlton Reid 9:39 And one of the ways you're able to close the roads is the Isle of Man government is pretty well used to closing roads for the TT so is that part of it? You can you they are used to closing roads? Richard Fletcher 9:53 Yeah, they are and there's an acceptance by the public there's always some resistance to close. as roads, whatever it's for, and we try and minimise that. But yeah, the sort of structures and the policies and laws are in place to help you do that. The TT happens has happened for 100 years. 1907. Yeah. That that's an established thing over here. What people probably don't know as much about is that at this, the bicycle TT started in the 30s. And it was, again, it was because they couldn't do it. on the Isle of Man; in the UK rather. So you had the I don't know, whatever the governing body of cycling was then. And you had a breakaway group called British League of racing cyclists. And they, they got together with the Isle of Man. And we ran one of the first big mass start races over here in the 1930s last century. And that for a time that became the biggest race in Britain for cycling, so you had top names like Tom Simpson, and all the big riders at the time came over and race the Isle of Man, the International, before in this sort of following the Second World War, Carlton Reid 11:12 when there was no nothing like that everybody was time trialling, yeah, famously and alpaca Yeah, you know, black alpaca going out in secret in the morning Richard Fletcher 11:20 Yeah, so the road racing scene was established, cycling was established then right, and then became Manx International Cycling Week, which ran through till 2003, which was a week long festival where we close roads for two the whole week for cycling. That went into decline mainly because people's habits changed. And they didn't want to take a week off from their work holidays to come to Isle of Man for cycling when Majorca and other places were, were beckoning. So now we tend to have smaller scale races, we had the we've had rounds of the British National series for seniors. So the premier calendar, we've hosted the national championships. And consistently we've run the National Youth and junior two sets around the British youth series and around the British Junior series, the Peter Buckley series, which it's still I still call it that. Peter Buckley was actually from the Isle of Man. And when the Commonwealth Games gold medal, and you're from the Isle of Man too, so you're a born and bred Manxman Yeah, I spent a little bit time off the island but mainly on the island. Yeah. My wife's from the UK. And my dad was from the UK. So it's, but yeah, it's been my home is here. Carlton Reid 12:40 And tell me a little bit about how you sort of semi funded Cav's early career with some cash, but indirectly. Richard Fletcher 12:51 Yes, that's my claim. And I don't think Mark would want to know about it or agree with it. But Mark's mother. For many years, Adele ran a dance workshop, not far from this shop, actually. And both my daughters did ballet. So I spent quite a lot of money on pointe shoes over the years with with Adele. And so I say that and that was about the time Mark was getting into cycling. So yeah, I must have contributed in a small way to Yes, Carlton Reid 13:16 yes. And he of course had a dance background at first. Richard Fletcher 13:19 I believe so. I think I think a lot more is made of it than that. But yeah, when I think he was nine or 10 or 11, I think he did some ballroom dancing. So I wouldn't be surprised if in the next three or four years, he appears on Strictly or something like that. Be a good candidate. Carlton Reid 13:37 And he's got a house, you said at Laxey. He's got houses dotted around, but one of them. One of them is certainly here. So he would be a known figure here. And I'm here, obviously for the the AGM of the Travel Writers Guild, and even you know, the top big wigs. And when we had our gala dinner, they mentioned Mark Cavendish. Yeah, you know, so he he's a known figure, quite apart from in the cycling scene, but he will appear and he will do local, local, right. He Richard Fletcher 14:10 He comes up frequently to see his Mum and Dad, who both live on the island. And yeah, when you see, he goes out with the local lads on both training rides, and you'll he'll, he'll pop up and do events as well. I run a sportif each year, and I haven't had any contact with him. But the British Cycling entry system that was used, the entries pop up in your email inbox and there's one M Cavendish OBE, who just paid his entry fee and rocked up like any other rider to it to just make a big thing about you made the day because he's turned up and he was late getting to the start and we sportifs quite relaxed. But when he got to start on when went round with the lads who were strong enough to ride with him, and he because he was They started you went past everybody in the event and it made the event all you could hear in the sort of coffee shop afterwards was because Cav passed me on this hill or Cav passed me here. So it's great, but he does. He just slots in. And I think I think I don't know, you have to speak to him. But I think he enjoys the fact you can just behave normally over here and go about his business without getting accosted for this, that and the other. So, Carlton Reid 15:23 So we're about on the roads before most of the people were getting with this wide berth. But we had a couple, and it was such atrocious weather. And they were coming past at speed. Yeah. And that wasn't that wasn't very nice. And you might have told one of the drivers they shouldn't have been doing. And that was it was a horrible close pass. So how much respect do you generally get? And could it be some of it down to you've got that funnel of riders, and you've certainly got somebody as famous as Mark Cavendish, that, you know, the big wigs talk about him? So might there be some, even if it's just a small bit of people's brains? Like why can't you know, close past those cyclists; one of them might be Cav and then I'm in the national news? Richard Fletcher 16:10 It's a bit subjective, my gut feel, because I do do quite a lot of riding off the island is my gut feeling. I think the drivers over here are a little bit more considerate than elsewhere in the in the in the British Isles is a bit subjective. But generally speaking, I think the overall rise in popularity of cycling, whether it's here or in the UK, has also contributed to maybe people being a bit more aware. I don't I don't think it's it's not malice of people in cars. I think it's it's ignorance of, of the fact they're inside us. steel box, and you're not. So it's not something that would ever I mean, I've been cyclists for many years, it's not going to put me off cycling anyway. But I think it is the it's still the main barrier to people taking up cycling who aren't experienced cyclists. So it's a bit of culture change people's personalities change when they get in the car. And then that's, I see to unbonded really, but no, it's not too bad over here. And the roads themselves because they're not big roads, people have to drive with a bit of care and attention most people to give you plenty of room. Carlton Reid 17:23 So, okay, well, a few seconds ago you said British Isles rather than the UK. So Isle of Man isn't in the UK isn't in the EU, ever. It's but it's part of the British Isles, and it's a crown dependency. There are different rules here. Because if you've got your own government and one of those rules, or lack of rules, is you can go as fast as you want in a car on certain roads. And that's partly maybe a legacy of the, the TT that's been going on. So if you've got this TT circuit, and even on Ordnance Survey maps, it says, you know, this is the TT course. But these are public roads. These are these are not not closed circuit at all apart from when it's running in June, and the roads are closed. So at those roads being no speed limits, means some drivers, not all of them for some drivers are going to be going crackers on those roads, because then you can overtake a policeman, police car 200mph nand they can't do anything about it. So does that mean cyclists avoid that, that course, that road? Richard Fletcher 18:31 There's only one section that most cyclists avoid. That's the what's called the mountain road. It runs through Ramsey over alongside Snaefell the only mountain on the island and drops down into Douglas. So whereas 20, 30 years ago I used to commute over that road. Most people would avoid it now and I would avoid now is because and there's a number of reasons for that. One is that yes. A lot of drivers do put the foot down when they get on a mountain road. There are safe passing places on the mountain road. If you were doing excessive speed and you took a police car, they would still pull you in because it's below there's no speed limit. It's allowing us to do art drive. Um, I'm not sure the legal definition but in a safe manner effectively. So it's not unlimited speed, it's driving to the road conditions and if you overtook them at 70 and it was misty, they put you in so it's them. There's there is some control over it. But particularly motorbikes because of the history. They like to really push it over the mountain. And it's so I wouldn't go up there on a bike now for two reasons. One, you can although we've got terrible weather today, and even in on a summer's day, the mountain in patches can be misty. So you could set off from Douglas or Ramsey in bright sunshine. And once you get above 1000 feet or whatever in the mist, and the speed differential between a car even not absolutely ragging over the mountain, and the bicycle going uphill is such that you be at risk of being hit from behind. Because the driver just wouldn't see you in time, Carlton Reid 20:17 Do motorists avoid it, do they also seem motorists to go I'm not gonna get that because Richard Fletcher 20:22 I mean, I say I lived in Ramsey and commuted to work in Douglas, for 20 years. And I could, I could probably drive the mountain road blindfold. But I do know some drivers and even taxi drivers who don't like riding, because the because it's the TT course there are no cat's eyes in the middle of the road. So it's actually quite a difficult road to drive in the mist. You need to know where the roads going up ahead. So yeah, there are some motorists avoid, as well. Carlton Reid 20:54 So that's a 37 mile stretch of, in effect, a triangle of roads that are marked on the OS map as the as the TT course. But the island has something like 688 miles, all other roads. So we're talking, you know, 640 Odd miles of other roads. Yeah. So that's something that right, avoid them. You don't have to sometimes use that road to link up with other things, you can always avoid it. Richard Fletcher 21:23 And the funny part is that the when we have bike races or their motorcycle races, there mountain road, because it's very, there are maybe three businesses on the mountain, or I think you went to one victory cafe, that they were allowed actually to close the mountain road with very little resistance, because they're alternative routes around the island for motorists. And there's not many people live in the mountain road. So it's it's actually a lot, it's a road you wouldn't use when the roads are open, it's for an event, you can often get a road closure on the mountain road quite quite easily because of that. But now the other road, most of the active cyclists, they wouldn't use a TT course because they are effectively the island's equivalent of sort of arterial roads. Most of the traffic is on those roads. But it means the roads the side I mean, we went on some of them today can't learn without being able to see where we were. But they're the roads that run alongside or crisscross those roads. And the traffic is fairly light. Still, we didn't have a chance to go up to the north of the island where it's the northern plane is flat. But that's where virtually all the local racing takes place. Now because there's very little traffic it's mainly just farmland, but farms and fields. Carlton Reid 22:48 At this point we'll cut to a break. Take it away, David, David Bernstein 22:52 This podcast is brought to you by Tern bicycles. The good people at Tern understand that while a large cargo bike can carry oodles of stuff, many of us prefer something a little more manageable. That's why they've come up with the HSD e-cargobike for folks with big aspirations to go car free, delivered in a compact size, with its rear shock, 280 kilos, and a combined hauling capacity of 180 kilos. The robust new HSD is stable and easy to manoeuvre, even when under load. And with its Bosch eBIKE SYSTEM tested and certified to meet the highest UL standards for electric and fire safety you'll be able to share many worryfree adventures with a loved one whether it's your kiddo or Nan. Visit www.ternbicycles. That's te r n turn bicycles.com to learn more Carlton Reid 23:52 Thanks, David. And we are back with Isle of Man Mr. Cycling, Richard Fletcher. So describe where maybe Kev or Pete Kennaugh where they would have ridden where would they go? Do you think would they have a standard training ride? Or would they mix it up? Richard Fletcher 24:09 No, they mix it up and I know Cav's thing that he doesn't like to repeat the same road on any training ride. I think he covered that when he did a piece over here with Matt Stevens. But they ride the ride all over basically. And you can it's for small island, there are a lot of roads, you can you can mix it up. And you tend to look at the weather and see which way the winds blowing and decide a new route then rather than have a planned route, but they will know both those two and any boys have been involved in cycling over here you get to know every road on the island basically. So Carlton Reid 24:51 you would link it up in your head and then just kind Richard Fletcher 24:54 of criss cross and go where the coffee is really Carlton Reid 24:59 and then Then on this trip, maybe they're just pulling our leg I don't know. But the bus driver everybody who's been talking to us on this trip has been stressing the folklore element of the Isle of Man, which I wasn't really terribly familiar with at all. So everybody is stressing, you know, you've got to when you go across the Fairy Bridge, you've got to say hello to the fairies. How much of this is would you tell that to the tourists? And how much of that is no people on the island genuinely, you know, believe in this stuff. Richard Fletcher 25:36 I don't know if I believe in it. A lot of a lot of the people buy into it. Carlton Reid 25:42 And why? Richard Fletcher 25:44 Because I'm I'm not one of those I'm not a superstitious person. But there is. I mean, there is a big Celtic background the history of the Isle of Man is interesting. So don't buy into all the folklore stuff. The background history of the island where the Vikings were heavily involved in the Isle of Man if you look at it geographic on a map, you can see that if you're military strategist, where would you base yourself if you want to rape and pillage all over the British Isles, you got the Isle of Man because you can bet your base here and strike out and hit violent Wales England or Scotland from it. So the Vikings were have a big influence on the islands. Longer history. And then because of that, the Scottish Lords got rid of the Vikings and then the Lords of Darby took over from the Scots. So there's a lot of not folklore that but there's a lot of good, meaty history about the island. The the other stuff? I don't know, I think it's it's the stuff about mythical creatures and fairies is, is probably because you then you've got a small island race basically. So you get myths and things from a an environment like that. But yeah, it's uh, it's, it sells a lot of gin. Yes. Carlton Reid 27:17 Definitely good stories. Yeah. And we've been given, you know, books of folklore. And so you've got to say, hello to the fairies Richard Fletcher 27:25 doesn't mean the other Celtic nations have similar things. So Irish, Irish methylene and Welsh and Scottish as well. That so there is quite a strong Celtic presence here. And there are quite, there's quite a lot of exchanges between, particularly in the arts around the Celtic side, so you've got them Normandy, Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and they do get together, particularly in the art side and, and share the same sort of music and poetry and everything else. It doesn't overlap as much in into sport. Although we've got a really interesting event coming over here in July this year, called Pan-Celtic, which is like an ultra endurance event. And I was amazing guy, I didn't know anything about the event until earlier this year. And the guy who organised a guy called Matt Ryan, who lives in north Wales, the opening entries for it and had to close them within 48 hours later because he'd filled the field and it's people from all over the world coming. We completely coincidentally bumped into a German couple on a cycling holiday and they said Are you from Alabama? We're coming for the pan Celtic this year. And so they're flying in, mins booked to Gatwick and Gatwick to here to do this event that starts does 100 mile loop around the Isle of Man and they're getting on the ferry and they go off to Scotland right around there. Carlton Reid 28:59 You know the route and what they what are they doing loose route Richard Fletcher 29:03 it's about like it's about 1500 miles in total. It's one of these ultra distance the other man is strange and it's been set as the because we got very right it's been set as the first stage they've been classed as a time trial. It's not it is a race and it isn't a race it's a it's a race where nobody wins anything is the way that if the organisers describes it, but it's a personal challenge thing so when the clock starts normally on the pan Celtic it doesn't stop until you get to the very end whereas for this year because the argument is being used the first stage they don't do a ride through the night here and then get their morning ferry over to patient and then ride I think they go north then and ride around Scotland for the rest of it. But I'm seeing the rest of the room Carlton Reid 29:48 because normally on the pan Celtic it's if you get to the ferry port late well you're gonna get the ferry the next day and that's that's added to your time. Yeah, where is this one? And usually they're gonna stop the times there is like a time drive. Richard Fletcher 30:04 Yeah, because it's a three to four hour journey over I think so yeah, they're they've got they've got a big enough window the starting at seven o'clock on Saturday evening and they've got to do better thing is boundary and five miles. So the very least 8.45 next day so I can't see anybody missing that that they should have a little bit sleep actually Carlton Reid 30:27 do what route they're doing actually on yeah went Richard Fletcher 30:30 through the route with the organiser because he we've actually got another big cycling event the next day. So we needed to avoid clashing with that. And it basically does a big loop of the island round round the perimeter mainly but they cut into they've got the participants left some interesting clients did it as well they go burn the client pool faulty will, which is effectively going up the mountain it's not the mountain road TT causeway but it's the it's a, it's a nicer if you can have a nice climb, it's a nicer climb than the TT course one Carlton Reid 31:07 and they are avoiding the TT course completely. There's not not not hitting it at all Richard Fletcher 31:11 on it for about a mile. And that's it because when you get to the top of that climb, you actually go backwards along with TT good for you then go back into the interior. But that's that's fine. It's then it's the middle of summer it'll be the middle of the night when they get there as well. So there won't be a lot of traffic on that road. Carlton Reid 31:31 So that's it as you're saying before there's there's there's no cat size on that road. So that's a road that maybe people avoided that night anyway. Richard Fletcher 31:37 Um, yeah, this well. There are alternative routes. So yes, you will, they will fit in on if there's not misty then you would go that way. Because the quickest way from north to say, most direct way. But generally speaking in nighttime, it's quiet anyway. Carlton Reid 31:55 So last night, we had a talk from Milky Quayle. Who's one of these guys who who averages 186 miles an hour on his motorbike as he's going around the corner, sometimes hitting 200 miles an hour. And he was one of the questions I asked him was, you would die if you hit a pothole at 30 miles an hour, nevermind 200 miles an hour. So the local authority, the government must be pumping a huge amount of money into keeping that road. absolutely pristine. And there's never going to be a pothole on that road. However, does that mean that other roads, the roads, maybe the cyclists are on? Does that mean they're getting short shrift there because they're getting roads where there's gonna be potholes, and then all the money has been pumped into that mountain road? Richard Fletcher 32:46 The don't know the answers are so the there's a perception certainly that the TT course will not upset from the TT course it has a priority. And it is always, as you say, perfectly maintained. And it has to be actually sculptured sometimes to accommodate the motorcycling. So the the course has probably got faster over the years, because it's been improved. There's a on the mountain road section, there's a couple of places where the road is actually been that not banked. But is lends itself to is certainly not off camber for it that way. So that there is a lot of money spent on the TT course. But that's justified by the fact that the TT races are revenue generating. So whether the, whether that means it whether that's to the detriment of other roads is a moot point. Some people locally would say, definitely, whether it's financial or just resource wise, in terms of the time spent. And generally speaking, I think our roads are fairly good. I tend to ride a gravel bike now anyway, so on You seek out rough road sometimes. So it's not as I don't think we certainly don't think we're the roads elsewhere. The roads outside of TT girls over here are certainly not any worse than UK roads now. And I'd say overall, slightly better than a lot of areas of the UK. So be it as much the time I think is nCn calm the isn't more than the money you've got limited resources to do road maintenance. So if you're spending quite a lot of that time on a TT course you've you've a limited timeframe. Carlton Reid 34:40 By the same token, you probably got some pretty good experts who are probably using some pretty good scientific equipment to spot potholes forming and that might benefit. Richard Fletcher 34:52 Maybe not seeing that but we've got the we've got reporting so you can report potholes and they do that for very quickly to them when you report them. When it's inevitable, you'll get where and turn around. Look at the weather today. It's there'll be, I'm sure when this week is out, there'll be a lot more potholes than they were last week. Carlton Reid 35:15 So, so far, we've talked about road cycling, and you've talked a little bit about gravel cycling there. What about mountain biking? Richard Fletcher 35:22 Mountain biking is is a growing thing. It's been under exploited. I think Carlton Reid 35:26 in that get in the bank shop here. I'm just turning my head. It some of this road bikes over there. But there's a tonne of mountain bikes. Yeah. Richard Fletcher 35:33 I mean, the there are 26 plantations over here Carlton Reid 35:37 are found they are what we would call Forestry Commission. Yeah, yeah, Department Richard Fletcher 35:41 of the Department of Government that looks after them and uses them for growing trees, basically, and harvesting those trees. But within those plantations, a lot of them have had over the years. sanctioned and unsanctioned trails built, they tended to be built, historically, they've tended to be built. And then forgiveness, asked afterwards, rather than permission to go and build the trails. And the government, the barn has been quite friendly in that respect, in that they generally want to encourage access to those plantations. The we tried to formalise that in the last couple of years and recognise that we've probably got as many trails and the quality of those trails and the accessibility Australia is just as good as some of the sort of identified cycling parks in particularly in Wales, Scotland and Ireland more recently, but we've never really produced a a tourism product that, and we've never really joined them all up. So there's been quite a big effort in the last two years to do that. And there's a there's a scheme, just kicking off at the moment government agreed funding in October last year, to produce effectively a, an Isle of Man trail Park. And that's taking a cluster of seven plantations that are quite close to Douglas, and joining them together, they're about they're only about four road crossings to join them together, because they either abort each other or they're, there's a road crossing to get into the next one. So that's a project that's, that's starting now. To join those up. And then I think it will be used as a as a tourism product, but also be of great benefit to local population. And then you're involved in that. Yeah, the I'm involved in advising the government on it. The the rise of gravel cycling as well, because a lot of it. Within those plantations, you have forestry, roads, fire fire roads. And so we're going out from this bike shop actually, on Saturday and on a gravel ride, and we'll take in at least two of the plantations during that if the weather improves. Carlton Reid 38:03 So the government is pumping money into into these plantation rides. It recognises all the big wigs recognise Mark Cavendish, or they use Mark Cavendish as something to talk to a general audience and there's not wasn't a noise of scientists at all. It's an audience of, of just general travel writers who they were talking to. So is their awareness that cycling is important to the economy and potentially could become even more important in future. Yeah, Richard Fletcher 38:35 it's growing thing that the Isle of Man's tourism product has changed over the years. If you go back to my childhood, it was a bucket and spade tourism, where the the mill towns of the Northwest would shut down for a week and the there was Scottish week, there was Irish week. And it was that type of holiday that fell away when the trips to Spain and things like that came about. So that was one section. Then it it moved on to basically in more niche tourism, such as around the heritage railways and things like that. And that became very popular. More recently, so last three, four years. All the studies and reports that have been done around the future tourism on the island says actually that generation is these strong say flatlining because that flood that is declining. The new demographic, a tourism want the outdoors and that's what the Ironman has got in spades. So, the activities such as I think the government does now realise that activities particularly such as walking, cycling, golf as well, there are numerous golf courses over here. And then anything, the more sort of general, outdoor and active type of activities are they will be the future tourism on the island. So cycling and walking in particular are being focused on we've got some I'm not a hill Walker at all. But the the that is as an asset over here this does access all around us there's an 82 mile coastal path, go the route route fall on them that is under use is it's not known about really, but it's there. And it doesn't need a lot of work to make it a top rate tourism product, like some of the the Pennine routes that you have in the UK. And cycling wise. Yes, the there's mountain biking has been absolutely recognised and the see the money has been allocated to do that. And I think that will become a product and I think gravel and sort of lead you into road as well. So I mean, the challenge that mean chance, I think is is for cycling is getting a bike go via Carlton Reid 41:02 the ferry. I mean, some people might fly but the ferry it's a brand new ship. Yeah, Richard Fletcher 41:07 they use those pretty friendly with the bikes. I mean that there's room yeah, there's actual Carlton Reid 41:12 room where you put your bike? Yes, and you hang them up. And it's like what most varies, even in fact, I don't know any ferries where there's a room where you put your bike? Well, that's come about Richard Fletcher 41:20 because I say about three or four years ago, there was a recognition that the future lay in those niche, outdoor active elements, the various brand new so we did a gap analysis effectively. And what's the difference between the Isle of Man and an established cycling destination to take the weather out of it because if you comparing, say Croatia to the Isle of Man or basically to the weather booked the other things, the more the more basic things are the same. It's they're having cycling friendly accommodation, which can be the most basic thing where you don't get looked at as if you're from a different planet when you turn up in lycra with a bike through to the proper cycling friendly hotels, which would have secure bike storage, maybe a little workshop, side tap to clean your bike, that type of thing. So looking at the combination in the Government Department concerned has now a registered recycling friendly hotels and gives them advice as to what they need to do. In terms of that. The very youth was another one where back in my day, the crew were really friendly, but you'd roll up down the ramp and it says sticky bike over there mate. And it'd be just put against the side of the deck where all the cars work. Now as you see the new ferry the Manxman has got a dedicated cycle storage park so it's that type of messaging if you like people coming over that actually cycling is welcome here the big ticket items are things like putting together a proper trail Park product the route became in on blinded by rain in the last couple of miles went past what's called a nunnery estate which is an older stately home and been in talks with the owners of that put a close road title circuit in it. And they're quite keen on that funding won't be an issue. But but that so there is recognition particularly around so I think that it's it's a it can become an an important tourism product. Carlton Reid 43:31 And when people are laughing they because maybe not in February Richard Fletcher 43:36 no I don't think and there's a big push to try and encourage visitors to the island in what they call the shoulder periods. But no if I was I'm blunt about these things when people ask about the Ironman and cycling cyclists more enjoyable in good weather. It's as simple as that. So yeah, you would come in the not this year the high season but he come between April May June July August September. I wouldn't I personally wouldn't do a trip outside those months I'd be them a lot of people would say well there's no such thing as bad weather just blanket but Carlton Reid 44:14 we had some good kit on today and we still got cold I Richard Fletcher 44:18 know yeah the the sort of you were you can tweak the sides a bit on now are around mountain biking because you what we tend to do with the locals anyway. On a day like this, if you were going to go out you go on a mountain bike in the plantations and you don't hear the wind and basically So building that mountain bike trail Park product could actually extend the season because yes, you still gonna get money, but you don't get score and worse because you there's just no wind in plantations. That's where I would probably do my gravel riding or mountain biking Not quite not quite as bad as this but you can extend it a little bit in that respect I think Carlton Reid 45:05 so people listening to this they thought right definitely not in February but in the months that you've just recommended summer basically they want to come across they want to see this this fantastic very with its dedicated bike room they want to do the same roads that cab has done and other top local riders they want to do the plantations maybe on a mountain bike How did they find out about this and how do they find out about you? So what social media and what websites can they go look at will the Richard Fletcher 45:41 there is a cycling website we're trying to build up quite a lot now called https://www.cycling.im and that will become hopefully one of the main portals to visit Isle of Man website as well has quite a lot of information. But nowadays a loop it's not totally reliable you can easily find on Strava or rider GPS routes on the island that aren't somebody's commuter route, but they are actually a decent ride. So it's quite so much easier nowadays I think to find you yourself new routes or or you can you can hire a guide but it's small enough Island to find your way around. What where it's more difficult I think and that's why we're putting the work into is on the mountain bike side. I go out with mountain bike I'm because I'm mainly road cyclists. I'll go to mountain bikers and I'll go trails I never would have found if I hadn't gone out with the group that did the old time. So the idea with trail Park is that it will just be on trail forks are one of the products like that it will actually be very well signposted. So that you can the the network we've designed is it's about 64 kilometres of trails. And we agree right start the project actually although it might seem cosmetic, the most important thing is the signage. So people can without a guide or or necessarily GPS files that they can find their way around and find the know where the coffee shop or the toilet block or whatever on their ride. So that's it's probably going to take 18 months to complete it but the aim is we'll have that a credible product for people wanting to do that for the start of the 25 season. Carlton Reid 47:38 So famously Majorcar is a destination without cycling product and clearly part of the attraction of of New Yorker is nice weather yeah early season well yes or late season one and but also beautiful road but the certainly the nice weather is a is a is a pool, but here could become a cycling paradise could become either a cycling paradise in many ways already, but could become even bigger in the future, especially with like short haul stuff you having to be necessarily, you know, in the future, we're gonna have to start basically holiday much closer to home. Yeah, I don't like climate change and not flying everywhere. And taking a ferry is much more ego than flying to Majorca. So cyclists could come to the Isle of Man and not go to Majorca Richard Fletcher 48:33 and I think to say the weather is important factor. But yeah, it is more the hassle of I mean, I've done it all my life cycles since I was 15. Taking your bike on a plane is a faff, it's now because I'm old and grumpy when I go I do still do a lot of cycling outside of the UK. But it was hired by want to do that. Now if I go to France of France, alright, well, France is different. Unfortunately I've got a friend lives in France with a house and I leave a bike there. But I'm gonna go anywhere else Spain or Italy or further afield I was hired by because I don't like the faff of going through airports and boxing it up and unboxing it and wondering whether we'll get there. The ferry is a lovely way to do that you can just literally ride on the boat. So yeah, that that is the best way for cyclists to get the Isle of Man is to bring it to bring their bike on the ferry. That and yeah, I think it is a viable alternative is going it's going overseas without going too far. Carlton Reid 49:38 You're going out of the UK, Richard Fletcher 49:41 You are going out of the UK and the rod. There are a variety of road to get here is quite fun. That to me. The sweet spot for a visitor is about a three or four day trip. And then you can ride different roads every day and enjoy them in that way. Say they it's been record week, we spoke to a few of the tour on cycling tour operators because one of the other things in sort of gap analysis that was done is it the Arman is not on in the portfolio of a lot of tour operators. Some like there's a company that I've done some work with bikeadventures.co.uk, they, they've got the Isle of Man because I did a trip for them, basically, and, but a lot of the larger ones don't have the Ironman as a destination. So we need to convince them that the Ironman should be a destination on their portfolio, and then put together the trips for them to do. So that's another sort of initiative that needs to Carlton Reid 50:42 get across here before those companies put it on and they become saturated. And it's another Majorca. Yeah, Richard Fletcher 50:48 it's we've got we've got lots of space that we could handle. Carlton Reid 50:53 Thanks to Richard Fletcher there and thanks to you for listening to Episode 347 of the spokesmen podcast brought to you in association with Tern bicycles. Show notes and more can be found at the-spokesmen.com. The next episode will be about the bike navigation app Komoot, but it soon veers off to a discussion of a round the world cycle trip. That show will be out at the beginning of March. Meanwhile, get out there and ride ...

Kettenwachs Follow up: Unsere Erfahrungen mit der Reinigung des Antriebs und erste Ausfahrten. Passend zum Jahresende ein Ausblick auf 2024 und wir diskutieren, ob Strava & Co. Challenges eher Fluch oder Segen sind. Dazu News von Komoot, Orbit 360 und tolle Picks :-) ## LINKS ## Vereinsstragen Podcast mit Dan und Ingo:
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https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/zwift Orbit 360 Events: https://www.orbit360.cc Orbit Doku: https://youtu.be/aa8xeEg3fTc?si=fq044-oCqyjzUMXY Cyclowachs bei uns im Shop:
https://www.enjoyyourbike.com/cyclowax/ Strava macht abhängig (Spiegel Artikel):
https://www.spiegel.de/fitness/strava-abhaengig-von-der-app-newsletter-spiegel-laeuft-a-8fde94de-4a2f-4654-9ae0-4aa8cad8ae81 Winterkleidungsvideos:
Nie wieder frieren: https://youtu.be/xEKPs3j7yUI Lenz Handschuhe: https://youtu.be/HMawqia0fFo 30seven Handschuhe: https://youtu.be/SMBwDjXuM7g ## PICKS ## 
André: Molekühl Hüfttasche https://www.molekuehl.eu/ Ingo: Longivity Buch von Peter Attia (Amazon Affiliate Link): https://amzn.to/3tuCB1x (deutsch) https://amzn.to/3S1sUkN (englisch) ## INHALT ## 00:00:00 Intro 00:01:34 Podcastfolge über unseren Verein (Vereinsstrategen.de) 00:06:01 ENJOYYOURBIKE @ ZWIFT , The Prezel am Samstag! 00:11:49 Orbit Serie 2024, neues Sneak Peaks Ultrarennen 00:34:09 Neu: Komoot mit nativer Navigation auf Garmin Geräten 00:42:56 Wir haben unsere Kette gewachst: Fails und Erfahrungen 01:28:56 Strava: Motivation, Challenge vs. zu viel Druck und Übertraining 02:05:02 Festive 500? Schaut Euch unsere Winterbekleidungsvideos an 02:12:14 Unsere Pläne für 2024, privat und geschäftlich 02:23:01 Picks: André pickt seine Molekühl Hüfttasche 02:28:16 Picks: Ingos Buch über Langlebigkeit (Longivity das cooler Wort!) 02:53:16 Outro und danke für ein schönes Podcastjahr!

Introducing thoughtbot's ongoing maintenance service. Need reliable support and maintenance for your software? Look no further. Our expert team handles upgrades, bug fixes, UI adjustments, and new feature development. And the best part? Our maintenance packages start at just 5k per month for companies of all sizes. From Ruby on Rails to Node, React, and, yes, even PHP, we've got you covered. Trust thoughtbot for top-notch support and optimized performance. To receive a custom quote, contact sales@thoughtbot.com. __ Maggie Bachenberg, CEO, and Trisha Ballakur, CTO, are the co-founders of Pointz, a mobile mapping app that helps navigate bike and scooter riders through safe routes in cities. Victoria talks to Maggie and Trisha about their cycling backgrounds, how they met and became co-founders, and what they feel is the differentiator for their app versus what was/is already on the market for biking-related apps. Pointz (https://www.bikepointz.com/) Follow Pointz (https://www.instagram.com/bikepointz/) on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/bikepointz/), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/bikepointz/), LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/bikepointz/), or TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@bikepointz) Follow Maggie Bachenberg on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiebachenberg/). Follow Trisha Ballakur on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/trisha-ballakur-070138187/). Follow thoughtbot on Twitter (https://twitter.com/thoughtbot) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/150727/). Become a Sponsor (https://thoughtbot.com/sponsorship) of Giant Robots! Transcript: VICTORIA: This is the Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots Podcast, where we explore the design, development, and business of great products. I'm your host, Victoria Guido. With me today is Maggie Bachenberg, CEO and Co-Founder of Pointz, and Trisha Ballakur, CTO and Co-Founder of Pointz, a mobile mapping app that helps navigate bike and scooter riders through safe routes in cities. Just to get us started here, are you both cyclists? And if so, where do you do that at? What's your city? Where do you bike around? MAGGIE: Yeah, we both bike. So I live in Providence, Rhode Island, along with Trisha, and use my bike primarily as a transportation device. So I'm riding around from my house to work, to get groceries, to my friend's house, kind of all different types of purposes. TRISHA: Yeah, and I grew up biking but kind of stopped after age, like, six or seven. And it was only when I got to college at Brown, where I met Maggie, that I got back into it and felt more confident to get back on the bike. And that was completely actually because of Pointz. VICTORIA: Oh, that's nice. Yeah, speaking of confidence, I am not confident on a bicycle. I actually only learned after college. [laughs] And there's a video out there of my college friends helping me learn how to ride a bike. It's very cute. But still not my expertise. So I'm excited to learn more about it and learn about how Pointz could give you that confidence. So, whoever who'd like to start, why don't you tell me about what caused you to want to create Pointz? MAGGIE: Pointz was originally kind of my idea. And I got into biking in 2017 when I did a long-distance bike trip. I biked from Virginia to California. And it was my first time doing long-distance cycling, and I just kind of fell in love with it. But I realized that when I was riding, it was pretty scary to navigate cities in particular. And so, a lot of locals would redirect me onto different routes that were safer. And I was confused why this wasn't captured in a mapping app already. And so, that's kind of where the idea was seeded. But I didn't start working on it until I got to college and met Trisha. VICTORIA: Great. So you got to college, and you saw that there was a need to have easier access to biking and biking information in an area, right? MAGGIE: Yeah, exactly. VICTORIA: Very cool. What was that initial process like? It was just the two of you, and you started building stuff? How did you really get the traction going early on? MAGGIE: It started with doing some customer discovery interviews with local cyclists. And so we interviewed over 100 initially and just asked kind of what their biggest barrier was to start riding. And we kept hearing this recurring theme of people not feeling safe enough to go on different routes. And so we brainstormed a bunch of different ideas in a class that Trisha and I were in together. But we ended up landing on the one that we're working on today, which is, like, you know, the rating system, and then also putting the rating system of bike friendliness into a routing algorithm where people could actually find routes. VICTORIA: That's very cool. And was there anything that really surprised you in that customer discovery process? MAGGIE: Just maybe the consistency around people's fear and, like, I guess, being nervous on a bike because we were interviewing people of all types of backgrounds and experiences. And even people that were more experienced had this fear of getting hit by a car because of lack of infrastructure and that sort of thing. TRISHA: Doing customer discovery and chatting with so many different types of riders...and we call them riders, bike riders, rather than cyclists for the distinction that, you know, in the bike riding community, there's a lot of very avid fitness-geared cyclists, maybe who want to go on their bikes to burn calories and challenge themselves. A lot of people they would call themselves someone who rides a bike. And it's to those types of people where safety is really critical, especially in allowing new people to go and try to ride a bike for the first time or the first time in many years. And so, that's something else that we noticed from those customer discovery interviews is identifying the different types of riders. VICTORIA: Thank you. That clears it up for me because I never know to call someone a cyclist or a rider, but it makes sense that cyclist is more, like, the athletic pursuit versus riding and, you know, just trying to get about your day. [laughs] And it also makes me feel better that even people who are really experienced riders have fear of being unsafe or getting hit by a car because that's certainly what I'm thinking about when I'm [laughs] venturing out there. So, what was your initial build like for the app solving this problem? TRISHA: Initially, we had a couple of different Brown University interns or students working on it together one summer and myself included. And that evolved to me and this one other student who was working with us figuring out how to transition the app from, like, an iOS Swift native app to React Native so it could be cross-platform. And we had to teach ourselves React Native for that. So our intern at the time he had done an internship during the summer at this one startup where they taught him React Native. So he had done a couple of projects there. And I had a little bit of experience writing in JavaScript but really not as much as him. And so, together, we worked on coding the app from what we had in iOS in Swift, which was pretty limiting. But, at the time, it wasn't very much. But we were able to replicate that in React Native during; I think it was my junior...Maggie in my junior winter break. That became the start of our MVP, which had many, many more iterations to get all the features in and was a little bit slow to build until when we released it out, which was our senior year in about March or so. VICTORIA: So that's really exciting. So, like, how long did it take you to really get to that initial MVP with the team that you have? TRISHA: It took quite a bit longer than expected, as with all sorts of technology when you're building it for the first time. So what was important to us throughout the process was making sure that all the features we put out there were really well tested, and were useful, and were actually solving the problem of providing safer routing. And to get to that stage, at first, we, you know, we had an app in Swift. Then we wanted to make it cross-platformed, and we needed to have the routing algorithm actually take those different weights, the different bike friendliness ratings of the roads into account. And that took a lot of researching and talking to mentors. So there were quite a few really hard challenges to get to the MVP, which is why it spanned about a year to get to that point. But throughout it all, we worked with other students at Brown. Then we pulled in some front-end contractors from online, like contractor sites, who were awesome. And we were just focused on being really scrappy to get it out in March of 2022. VICTORIA: That's great. And maybe it felt like a long time, but I feel like a year for a really solid MVP is pretty good, [laughs] especially when you have those safety concerns, and the quality of your data, and what you're giving out is super important. So now you've got the MVP, and I believe you just raised your round of seed funding last year. What was that process like for you? MAGGIE: Yes, so the round of funding that we did, we raised the first initial amount actually going into our senior year, and that was from a firm called Rogue Venture Partners. And we also got a little bit of it from their Women's Fund. And, yeah, that was the kind of piece of funding that got us started and allowed us to really, you know, add additional resources to the product to get it out there, at least the MVP. And then, after that, we got a little bit more funding from them. And then we raised money from Techstars as well because we got into their accelerator at The Roux Institute. That's kind of in association with Northeastern, and that was out of Portland, Maine. I guess it wasn't really necessarily, like, a cohesive round. It was, like, a couple of different checks that all kind of went into, like, our early funding for Pointz. And I would say it was very much so based on, you know, our relationship that we had with our initial venture firm that were working with Rogue. They actually mentored us for quite a few months before they invested in us. So they started mentoring us our junior year when we were in school. And then we got the deal together September of 2021. VICTORIA: That's awesome. Well, congratulations. And I'm glad you were able to find the right partnerships, and mentors, and funding that you needed. What did you find was really the differentiator for your app versus what was already on the market for biking-related apps? MAGGIE: There are a couple of different types of competitors, so there are the biking-related apps that you just mentioned, and then there are the general kind of use case apps like Google Maps or Apple Maps. And so, for the bike-related apps, the main thing that's different about Pointz is that we're more focused on, like, bike riders in general, so people that are riding around for transportation and recreation, not so much the cyclist type of a person that Trisha described earlier. So, you know, a lot of our features are geared towards people that are getting around the city or maybe are exploring a city or a neighborhood. It doesn't necessarily have to be a city, but that's kind of the focus. Whereas for other cycling-specific apps, like Komoot or Ride with GPS, it's focused a lot on, like, the fitness side of things and the recreation fitness side of riders. And so, at least the Ride with GPS and a few other of, like, the technologies that are available to more hardcore cyclists tend to have a more sharp learning curve. And ours was built more as, like, a general use case in navigating and exploring. VICTORIA: That makes sense. So it's more for people like me who are trying to go the most scenic [laughs] or the flattest and the safest way, not necessarily the fastest or the more fitness-focused aspect of cycling and biking. MAGGIE: Yeah, exactly. And, you know, we actually built this for people like us. Granted, I did do that long-distance bike trip. But, generally, I don't consider myself that hardcore of a rider, I mean, in my daily life. So it's for people who don't really identify as a cyclist and are more just, like, riding their bike around and, honestly, for people who are new to riding in general. Because a lot of our riders have recently gotten into biking or have recently moved to a new area, and so, they're just trying to figure out, you know, where are the good places to ride? Where do I feel safe? And, you know, how can I get more comfortable on my bike? VICTORIA: I'm loving this idea because I have a bike that's been sitting in my patio for over a year. [laughs] I haven't used...my partner is like, "Can we get rid of it? Because you don't use it." But I'm like, "I will. I will use it." I know my neighborhood problem is that there are giant hills if we leave our street here. So getting out is fine. But getting back in [laughs], it's like you need an electric bike. So that's very exciting. So, tell me more about now that you've graduated and you're taking this up full time; what does the future look like? What's on your horizon? MAGGIE: I mean, we've been working a lot with one of our advisors on, you know, getting to the point where people really love the product, and that's been kind of happening over the last year. We met Anuj Adhiya from Lenny's Newsletter. We've been working with him to really hone in on what the thing is that people really love about Pointz and make that experience better. And then also figure out what exactly the persona is so we can target them eventually with marketing, which is kind of the stage that we're at right now. So we were seeing our retention curves really evening out in especially a couple of cities that we're targeting. And so, this summer, we're focusing on getting our user base up in Los Angeles and then trying to figure out how, like, a playbook for scaling up a user base in a specific geography. Right now, a lot of our users are distributed throughout the United States. And there are clusters, but there's not, like, a huge spike in one city. And so, that's what we're working on right now is figuring out how to get a geographic kind of density to happen. VICTORIA: That makes sense. And it sounded like the app also uses a lot of user-generated data for safety ratings and things like that. Am I getting that accurately? TRISHA: Yep, that's correct. And what we do is we have a bunch of different layers of our data that we pull from. We have a base layer of data that comes from OpenStreetMap, and then we build on top of that. We rate all roads on a one through five bike friendliness scale. And building on top of that, we pull from city-specific data sets from cities, and towns, and municipalities. And then, we layer on the crowdsourcing similar to how Waze does at the top. VICTORIA: Got it. So taking advantage of that open data, the open city data, and what other data the city is putting out there. Are you finding that you're using whether or not a city has open data to inform if you're going to expand into that location? MAGGIE: Kind of as a focus point. So, the way it works right now is Pointz is available actually anywhere in the U.S. So; it doesn't matter if you're in a city or a rural area, you can use Pointz. And you can use it for routing and navigation and all the features that are available. However, we only have visualized the ratings in all 350 or so urban areas in the U.S., and so those are all visualized, but not all of them have the supplemental city-data. And so, the way we decide when we pull in city data is based on gaps in, like, the base layer. So, if we're seeing that there are a lot of accuracy issues in a specific city, we'll go, and we'll look and see if there's a more accurate map that the city has put out or that an advocacy group has put out. And so, we've done this recently in Chicago, Minneapolis, Portland, Oregon, just to supplement the base layer of data, and it has helped a lot in terms of accuracy. And users or our riders really like it. VICTORIA: That's great. And what is your current level of usage in the app? How well have you been adopted? MAGGIE: Are you talking in terms of, like, user numbers or just, like, our engagement levels? VICTORIA: Yeah, whatever you're using to measure your level of engagement or number of users on the app. Like, what are your stats looking like? MAGGIE: Yeah, so, we use...we have our overall signups. And then we have a subcategory of, like, active and engaged users. And so, for our overall signups, we're at just over 9,000 total signups since we launched the MVP, and we haven't marketed it at all kind of until right now, where we're trying to push it out in LA a bit more. And then, in terms of our engaged cohort, I'd have to pull up the exact number. But last I checked, it was around 1,800 monthly active users. We kind of look at that cohort, and then we break it down into, you know, who's even more engaged in that? Who's coming back every week, every day? Mid-Roll Ad: VICTORIA: Introducing thoughtbot's ongoing maintenance service. Need reliable support and maintenance for your software? Look no further. Our expert team handles upgrades, bug fixes, UI adjustments, and new feature development. And the best part? Our maintenance packages start at just 5K per month for companies of all sizes. From Ruby on Rails to Node, React, and, yes, even PHP, we've got you covered. Trust thoughtbot for top-notch support and optimized performance. To receive a custom quote, contact sales@thoughtbot.com. VICTORIA: And with me here, I have Richard Newman, who is the Development Director on our Boost Team, to talk to me a little bit more about what maintenance actually looks like once you've built your software application, right? RICHARD: Hi, Victoria. VICTORIA: Hi, Richard. You have experience building applications. I wonder if you could describe to a founder who's considering to build an application, like, what should they consider for their long-term maintenance? RICHARD: Well, like you said earlier, part of what you're going for with that long-term maintenance is making sure the health of your project, of your application, is always there. And you don't want to be surprised as you're continuing to work with your users and so forth. And so, a number of things that we pay attention to in maintenance are, we're paying attention to keeping the application secure, providing security updates. We want to make sure that the ecosystem, basically, all of the tools and third-party services that are tied to your application that, we're responding to those sorts of changes as we go along. And then part of it is, occasionally, you're going to find some smaller issues or bugs or so forth as your user group continues to grow or as needs continue to change. You want to be able to respond to those quickly as well. And so, a lot of what goes into maintenance is making sure that you're paying attention and you're ahead of those things before they surprise you. VICTORIA: Because what can happen? Like, what are the consequences if you don't do that ongoing maintenance? RICHARD: Well, the security updates those happen across gems and in the platform sort of tools that are there. And so, if you're not keeping those up to date, your exposure, your vulnerability to being hacked, or having a bad actor come into your application start growing on you if you're not doing the maintenance. The other ones that can come up is there's new interfaces that these third-party services...they may be updating their APIs. They may be updating how you're supposed to work with their tool. And so, those can occasionally break if you're not paying attention to what's going on or you're suddenly surprised by an upgrade that you have to make. And then, finally, there's this long-term sort of code change that just builds up over time if you're not keeping it refactored for the changes that are upcoming in a language or the gems that you work with. And then, suddenly, after a while, it suddenly gets to the point where you have a lot of work that you might have to do to rehabilitate the application to take on some of the newer features that are being released. And so, that makes it that much more difficult, that much more friction about being able to deliver updates for your users or to be able to respond to changes that are happening out there in your application. VICTORIA: Right. So, if you don't have that ongoing maintenance, you could run into a situation where, suddenly, you need to make a very large investment and fixing whatever is broken. RICHARD: Absolutely. It's going to be very tough to plan for if you weren't keeping up all the way along and, yes, absolutely ends up being much slower if you have to remediate it. VICTORIA: That makes sense. I wonder if you have any examples of a project you've walked into and said, "Wow, I wish we had been doing a little bit more maintenance." [laughs] And maybe you can share some details. RICHARD: Yeah. We had a fairly large application that involved a number of clinic services. So, we had an application that users were going in every day and counting on our fast response. And, over time, we've got surprised by a database upgrade that had to happen. Basically, the database was going to be changed by our third-party hosting service, and that hadn't been tested. There hadn't been procedures in place when we discovered this need. And there was a very hard date that that change had to be done or else the entire application was going to go down. And it came at a very inconvenient time, at the end of the year around Christmas, that we had to respond to all of that. And had we been in front of it and just updated it every quarter and staying current with it, it wouldn't have been nearly the lift that it turned out to be. We were facing a pretty hard deadline [laughs] there to keep things going. It was very, very stressful and disruptive for the team and potentially for the clinics. VICTORIA: Right. And it always happens around a big holiday or something like that, right? When it all comes to a head. So... [laughter] RICHARD: Absolutely. You want to be in control of the timeframe and not have the timeframe be in control of you. VICTORIA: Right. And if you have a team like thoughtbot supporting you, you can go on your vacation with a little bit more knowledge that if something breaks, there's someone there who can respond and fix things, and you don't have to interrupt your very valuable time off. So... RICHARD: [chuckles] Absolutely. VICTORIA: Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Richard, for joining me today. I appreciate you coming here to talk with us. And we'll talk to you again soon. RICHARD: Yeah, it was a pleasure. Thank you. VICTORIA: I'm wondering if you have any incentives built into the app for users who are, like, contributing data back, or maybe they're writing every single day. Are there any little challenges or achievements that you could unlock within the app right now? MAGGIE: We do have some gamification, yes. And so, the way that people can earn points on the app...we call them points with a Z because of the name. The way that they can earn those points are a couple of ways. So, one is through riding their bike and using Pointz as a navigation tool or as a tool to record their ride. And so, for that, you get one point for every mile. And then the second way is by contributing to the map, so either crowdsourcing an amenity like a bike parking that isn't on the map already or by adding information about a hazard that might be on the map, like, for example, a car parked in the bike lane. And for each of those, you know, you get one point. And so, yeah, we have that gamification system built out and a couple of...like, we have a leaderboard. And then, also, we have, like, a way for you to kind of go up in your avatar on the app. But besides that, we do monthly contests. And so, this past month, we partnered up with a company called Po Campo, which makes stylish bike bags that can be taken off your bike and then worn as, like, a purse or a handbag. And so, they sponsored the prize, which is one of their bags, and whoever kind of gave the highest quality and quantity of crowdsourcing reviews and miles ridden they're the winner of the contest for this month of June. VICTORIA: That's very cool. I love to see that and hear about what strategies people have for engaging with their users within the app. I'm curious to go back to, you know when you two first met, how did you know that you were going to be good partners to work on this project together? TRISHA: One of the ways that we knew that was because we had first been introduced to each other from our mutual friend who is a close friend of both of ours, and she had been telling the other person about each other. And it was one day where we just met up, and we really clicked. But, at that point, Maggie was looking for someone who could work on the mobile development, and I didn't have any experience with that. However, I joined a club, which Maggie was leading, which was called The Women's Entrepreneurship Group. And we got a chance to work together and plan out many events, including a large conference right before COVID hit. Like, we saw how we'd worked together. We really enjoyed it. And we had very similar aspirations and motivations towards entrepreneurship. When I had the chance to basically join what Maggie was already working on with Pointz in the summer of 2020, I knew that that was going to be a great opportunity. And we decided to become co-founders by the end of the summer. VICTORIA: That's very cool. And I know how important it is to have the right team together to work on a project like this and to start something up from scratch. So, were there other big turning points? And you mentioned COVID, so I'm curious how that affected the growth and progress of this effort. MAGGIE: Yeah, to be honest, in the heart of COVID, like 2020, we weren't really built yet. So, it didn't quite affect us a whole lot, just because the product didn't get launched until the spring of 2020 to actually, you know, kind of publicly. But there were a couple of other turning points in our company, one of them was Techstars and kind of the progress we made during Techstars. We joined the accelerator, and we were having a bit of a hard time getting tech kind of pushed out really quickly. It was taking us a long time to build the features. And so, Trisha and I kind of evaluated why that was happening. And we came up with a process that worked a lot better, which we still use today. And speaking of team, we got a couple of really awesome teammates that made a huge difference on how quickly we could turn around features and bug fixes. And so, that was a really big turning point because we were able to iterate much more quickly and get feedback from our riders a lot faster. So that happened November, December of last year, of 2022. The other big turning point, I would say, is the slider that we released in March of this past year of 2023. And so we were having a hard time retaining users and getting them to really like the routing because people who bike tend to be very opinionated. And if the route isn't exactly kind of how they wanted it, they would be upset. And so, we'd fix it for one group of users, and then we would upset another group that didn't want that, you know, added to the routing. What we ended up doing was releasing this safety slider, which has the fastest routes on the left side of the slider and then the safest or the longest routes on the right side of the slider. And that really helped people get a wide variety of routes that fit their use case. And it's helped a ton with retention. And also, the feedback we were getting from users really changed from, like, really honing in on a very specific issue with routes that they were getting to general feedback about how we could enhance the app and keep people coming back more consistently. TRISHA: I just want to emphasize again that, yeah, the team is really critical. And, like, on our team, we have really awesome people who are 10xers and just great. Also, have someone who worked at MapQuest and has...I think our combined mapping experience is around 20-plus years. So it's really awesome to have that sort of a team together. VICTORIA: Yes. And, you know, talking about it now on the podcast, in retrospect, I'm sure it all seems like it came together, and it was kismet, and everything just worked. But was that how it really felt? Or were there moments where you doubted it and thought, maybe this isn't going to come together? MAGGIE: Yeah, definitely. There were moments of that feeling. One thing that gave us a lot of confidence was getting to the point where we felt like we could really iterate quickly and release features at a consistent and predictable cadence. So that gave us confidence that you know, there is a process for this, and there's a process of gathering user feedback and rider feedback, and then translating that into features, or bug fixes, or UI fixes. I think that gave me a lot of confidence that we could solve it. But, of course, it always takes a lot longer than you expect. And our advisor, Anuj, always says that 80% of what you're going to do won't work and 20% of it will. And it's all about how quickly you can iterate and figure out what works. And sometimes you get lucky, and it happens quicker. Or maybe you have unique insight into the problem, and you can guess, and it works out quicker. But I don't know; I definitely think it's been a learning process for everyone on our team. VICTORIA: That's great advice. And now that you've got your velocity up and you have your confidence, what's on the horizon? Are there new features that you all are working on that you're excited about? TRISHA: Yeah, so we're really excited about leaning into the whole generative AI trends that are happening, especially with ChatGPT and others. One thing that we've been hearing from most of our riders, people who use Pointz, is that using the app to create routes, which will allow them to explore new places, go to a new coffee shop that they've been hoping to go to but just don't know how to actually get there is critical. And most of our riders on Pointz are people who are new to a city. Maybe they've only lived there for a max of one year or less. So, exploring the area around them is really important to them, and that's why they use Pointz. And so, leaning into that, we're going to be releasing, in the next couple of weeks, a new explore feature where someone can go and, you know, describe to Pointz what type of route or...not even route, what type of things they want to see in a city, and Pointz will come up with that. It'll learn their preferences and continue to suggest really awesome places to get to, which they can do car-free, basically, through bikes, because they can be safe and, you know, they can rely on this app to get them through the city safely. VICTORIA: That's really exciting. And I'm excited to try it out myself [laughs] once you have that feature launched. Maybe you can tell me how that feature plays into...or what your success really looks like for Pointz in the next six months. MAGGIE: Yeah, so I think that feature is something that will be, I mean, of course, we got to test it, but I think that it will help people kind of use Pointz as an exploration tool more effectively. People are already using it for that, but it's not specifically built for exploration. Right now, it's built more for, I guess, routing to, you know, new places but not specifically, like, oh, let's go on a route that takes me through all these tourist destinations in the city I'm visiting. But this new feature will allow people to use it for that more. And I think, overall, you know, our mission at Pointz is to help people feel comfortable riding bikes so that they can drive less and feel like they can get around in a sustainable fashion, rather than having to rely on their car so often. And this feature is tied to that in the sense of, like, people can use it as a tool to help them, you know, find the safe route or a route they're comfortable with, and then use it to explore an area but maybe a bit more geared towards, like, tourists or, you know, more recreational-type use cases. VICTORIA: That's very cool. Thank you so much for sharing that. And what is your biggest challenge to achieving that success? MAGGIE: I think biking is a first step in that process of helping people feel like they can be more car-light or car-free, you know, use their car less. There are obviously a ton of other factors that go into whether or not you're driving, or you're taking a bike, or you're taking public transportation. And, you know, our next steps after we have really nailed this product are to explore those opportunities and build tools that help people choose alternative transportation more often. That's what we're excited about going into the future. You know, there's a ton happening in cities all across the U.S., not only for biking but also investments in transit, infrastructure, and whatnot. So, you know, young people and people of all ages...I think a lot of people feel comfortable and that they don't want to be sitting in traffic a whole lot [laughs] because that's not fun for anyone. And, you know, traffic and congestion is always frustrating. So, as much as we can reduce that, I think that's the mission of our company. And, of course, it takes a ton of scale. But it's a big goal, but we're going after it. VICTORIA: That's great. You know, I heard about a town in the U.S. that actually had banned cars and was pedestrians only for the whole town. It's like, what a great idea. [laughs] But I love it. I love that you're working on it. And I wonder now, you know, you're a couple of years into it. If you could go back in time and give advice to yourself when you first started this project, what advice would you give yourself? MAGGIE: For me, I would say to get a minimal viable product more minimal, [chuckles] so reduce it to, like, a single feature, get it out quickly, and start getting feedback more quickly from, like, a very practical, you know, piece of advice. And then, like, an overall piece of advice would be just to be more confident earlier on. It took a long time for me to gain the confidence of, like, being a thought leader in the space. And, you know, I felt like I was young, so there were all these people that knew more than me. But I think everyone has a really unique perspective, and if you really lean into that and share that with the world, it can inspire a lot of people. And you just have to be confident enough to do that. TRISHA: Yeah, I definitely second what Maggie just said. I think also from the tech perspective, if you're someone who is maybe more inexperienced, like, I just got out of college and did this, and I have never worked a full-time job before anywhere except this. And so I think there was a lot of doubt that I had of being able to lead the technical side because I didn't have 20 years experience working somewhere. But, actually, at the end of the day, that doesn't matter. It just matters that you're able to be in touch with what it takes to build certain features and talk to the users, or your riders, or whoever because they're the ones who are going to be dictating whether this is a success or not based on what you build. It's really not good if you're building and wasting a lot of resources and time on features which nobody wants or nobody uses. And so, that's been core to why I think I've gotten a lot of confidence in being able to be, like, the tech leader in this app and in this space. VICTORIA: Yeah, I'm curious to hear more about that. You touched on this really being your first full-time job. So, how do you build your personal brand as an executive leader in this company that you're building? TRISHA: For anyone who does startups, they'll know that it's a lot of figuring it out as you go, and things that you're taught in school don't necessarily translate well to the startup world because, like, I did, like, a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. I did operating systems. I built a whole bunch of random stuff in school, and I studied for hours and hours. Of a lot of that, the most important thing, which actually translates to working in my field, is the perseverance to, like, keep going and working really hard. Otherwise, none of that stuff which I learned honestly translates. I had to learn everything myself with regards to building mobile apps. And I think the foundations were really critical from school but not really much of the hours of studying. I don't think that that's necessary, but I think it's necessary to build that sort of perseverance mindset. VICTORIA: That makes sense sort of to reflect that back a little bit, just having the perseverance to keep pushing, and keep learning, and keep understanding what is it going to take to build the features that you want? And that's really the core of being a CTO, right? TRISHA: Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. VICTORIA: And, Maggie, I wonder about you as well, like, what resources are you drawing on to really perform as a CEO for this company? TRISHA: One thing that I read a lot is...it's more product-focused, actually, but it's product and growth-focused. It's Lenny's Newsletter, which I mentioned earlier. I use that as a resource a lot. I listen to their podcasts, and I read their articles. And then secondly, I interact a lot with other CEOs and founders because I think that's one of the best ways you can learn is from other people who are in it right now, maybe are a couple of steps ahead of you, or who have done it before. And so, I lean into that quite a bit. And just, you know, try to get advice from people, take what makes sense, and apply it to what we're working on. VICTORIA: That sounds great, yeah. I can relate to that; just building your personal network with people who are in similar roles helps you stay in touch and understand what other challenges people are facing and what you might face someday, right? [laughs] That's really cool. I love that you have all that set up. And is there anything else that you all would like to promote today? MAGGIE: I would just say to anybody who's interested in biking or maybe is, like, a beginner rider, we'd love to have you try out the app and then explore your area and give it a try one weekend when you have some time and see if you feel more confident, you know, given the routes that are on more green and protected roads. VICTORIA: I'm really excited to be talking to you because I am that person. I need this app. [laughs] I'm excited to try it out. Thank you, Maggie and Trisha, for joining us today. [laughs] It was a really great conversation, and I'm excited to follow along and see what happens with Pointz in the coming years. You can subscribe to the show and find notes along with a complete transcript for this episode at giantrobots.fm. If you have questions or comments, email us at hosts@giantrobots.fm. And you can find me on Twitter @victori_ousg. This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot and produced and edited by Mandy Moore. Thank you for listening. See you next time. ANNOUNCER: This podcast is brought to you by thoughtbot, your expert strategy, design, development, and product management partner. We bring digital products from idea to success and teach you how because we care. Learn more at thoughtbot.com. Special Guests: Maggie Bachenberg and Trisha Ballakur.

Hello! As you lounged peacefully by a pool or sipped a drink with a little umbrella in it, have you ever wondered what a more *adventurous* summer holiday might look like? Let Ed and Geoff inspire you for your next cycling tour with this episode - Lycra optional! But is it really that easy to jump on your bike and take a trip? We hear from someone who's made a career of it with world-record holder Mark Beaumont. Recognising that most of us are not up for ultra endurance, we find out what some of the more realistic options are with Jill Warren from the European Cyclists' Federation. Finally we hear from two self-proclaimed former cycling novices, Abi Melton and Lea Cooper, who tell us about the highs and lows of their first cycling tour, and why it's never wise to bring a ukulele with you…Plus: Is Ed really the best-dressed politician? Let us know!GuestsMark Beaumont, long-distance cyclist and current world-record holder for the fastest cycle around the world (@MrMarkBeaumont)Jill Warren, CEO, European Cyclists' Federation (@JillWarrenECF)Abi Melton and Lea Cooper, Authors of Gears for Queers (Insta: @gearsforqueers)More informationCheck out Mark's website, his Komoot and watch videos of some of his records: the North Coast 500 and cycling round the world in 80 days (GCN Channel, Youtube)A video of Mark on his penny farthingMark mentioned British Cycling's Breeze Initiative for womenGet some inspiration for your next holiday on the EuroVelo websiteA bikepacking / cycle touring kit list from Tom's Bike Trip and bike costs from the Gears for Queers blogAbi and Lea's website, including some pictures of their very first tourBuy a copy of Gears for QueersAbi and Lea mention the Warm Showers website Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.