Such special words to read! Can’t tell you what comments like this mean to us. Thank you 🙏

Thanks!! It was a Sony PDX 10p

Excellent! A much more fun way to do it. Half the adventure is navigation and if it’s all done for you, you miss out on half the experience. It’s all too easy now. And it’s good to remind ourselves that we don’t have to do it with the internet. Leave the internet behind I say!

Thank you Manfred! It might take a lifetime to work out the next instalment. But watch this space!

Hello Oli, So amazing to hear that you were inspired to go on your own trip! How long and where to?! Our state of the art camera (for 2005) was a Sony PDX 10p. We shot 4:3 because we didn’t really know how to work it and so didn’t even realise there was actually a 16:9 setting. Another FWE twist of serendipity.. Best of luck with your adventures and filmmaking. Let us know how you get along! Cheers, Ben & Jamie

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It absolutely was a different time. I spend a lot of time now harking back to it! Thanks for your saying these things, means a lot.

The feeling of living only once and of not being ok with following the traditional, expected path, got so intense that we had to DO something to alter our future for the better. FWE was the result. Life can be complicated. Glimpses of freedom / simplicity.. moments of clarity.. seem to come around so rarely within the fog of sedentary life. But if the opening words of the film helped to open up one of these far-between portals to another way of life, and if the intensity of feeling is there and you are able and truly want to, jump through before it closes. Who knows when it might open again?!

❤

I once heard that the greatest modern luxury is being offline. So few of us can live with it or can be brave enough or afford to live without it. It’s the real world little things that matter.. the exploration, true culture, genuine ‘authenticity’, none of which are found in a tourism setting, especially after jetting in and heading straight for the power adapter for phone charging to spend the entire time rubbing in / hamming up / filtering a superficial encounter with people and places so as to say you’ve ‘done’ it, gobbling up ‘experiences’ without nourishment or satisfaction or soul, packaging them to combat insecurities, to look good, and to be ‘liked’. None of this is a journey.. it’s just another ‘destination’.

Bonjour oui 100 % d'accord avec toi Vive le vélo ! Gilles

Thanks Wayne! Happy to hear you have been motivated! Go for it!! You certainly don’t need a flashy bike. I would recommend a comfortable one in good working order though. I still go on rides around the uk on a £100 bike I got in 1998 with 4 gears. It’s comfortable and I may have upgraded the rims and tyres since purchasing… I don’t use my round the world bike very much, mostly because it’s a bit too robust for smaller rides and I’d also be devastated if anything happened to it. Jack’s bike of FWE is still in China somewhere no doubt..!

Thank you, William. We feel very grateful to have had the opportunity. Never say never!

We were introduced to an amazing guy in Los Angeles who came onto the project as executive producer. We asked him if we could bring on Sean Penn, he said he can’t get him, but there is this guy called Peter Coyote who is interested.. The rest is history. Having Peter on board for FWE has been one of the great privileges of our lives and we still have to pinch ourselves.

@@benwylson3089 okay…. sorry, but i have questions if you see this and have time. did you know his name or were you unaware… did you get to meet him? have you seen “the national parks:america’s best idea”? he’s narrated so many great docs. he is like a needle gliding across a record’s grooves.

No probs! I did know of him. And I was fascinated by his life and his time living in San Francisco - his beat generation story. Have you read his books? Try ‘Sleeping Where I Fall’ Although we have never met in person, he became a bit of a mentor and has sent me his books including notes of encouragement. My favourite line of his which Peter gave me was ‘see yourself as a nugget of gold at the bottom of a fast flowing river, lodged on the riverbed. Watch the froth pass on by’ - he helped me through a very difficult time and I’ll be forever grateful for that and his contribution to the film. He just got it and he supported it. We worked on the VO over an old school phone line. I was in Lowestoft, UK. He was in Sausalito, California.

@@benwylson3089 thanks so much for sharing, and for the book rec. will definitely read. what a beautiful metaphor he shared about believing in one’s intrinsic value and meditating your doubts away. crazy how we can “meet” someone online that become a significant and trusted mentor to our lives and our mental health. i have experienced the same. i hope you and peter are living in happiness and good health. very best to you and yours. i love to rewatch great docs, and I will definitely revisit here.

Thanks for the kind words Roland. The age pre-phones with the internet in them feels rosier and rosier as the years roll by. Just lucky to live that. And here’s to Peter! Cheers and tailwinds, Ben

@@benwylson3089 Thanks for the reply Ben! And you're right; as I'm nearing 51 now, I more and more feel like moving away from internet and social media and just live life without it. I guess that's because we now realize (and also by seeing documentaries like yours) that those times where much more impressive. I'm going cycling in Denmark this august and take your film as an inspiration to cycle as 'offline' as possible. And yes hopefully with tailwind :)

​@@rolandmd73 Here's to your direction! I'll aim to follow your lead. Thanks again and have a great ride offline in Denmark! Cheers!

Peter Coyote only narrates for Ken Burns when he’s not narrating Free Wheels East, which, as it happens, is a lot more of the time..

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Have replied in one in my previous comment!

Thanks Peter! The film is just a tiny part of it all and we’ve been hoping to write an unabridged book / do an exhibition for years. One day.. For now the whole thing remains rather underground and to this day it only captures the attention of the few that stumble upon it. We are passionate about getting the story out there because it does seem to resonate with those that find it. Perhaps one day it will be unearthed by someone of influence, but for now it remains in obscurity. And actually, given the non-commercial nature of it all, maybe that is how it is supposed to be! All the very best, Ben

Thank you! Pleased to hear, from two fellow bike riders!

Thank you!! Always so grateful for comments like this 😊😊 🙏

We left in 2005 and the film was made in 2010!

Well I never! A ‘priest’.. I have also - after a quick google - seen them called ‘bonkers’. Thanks for getting the exact essence of it all. The world has gone mad and these were simple times about real, personal exploration, rather than exploration for the ego or to make money or to provide dopamine hits for money. Cheers and tailwinds! Ben & Jamie

This is the man who narrated The Vietnam War, Peter Coyote. So no rip off… only this time it was us working with him rather than Ken Burns.. 😅

@@benwylson3089yes stole the idea not the man..i think its brilliant !!

@@user-ku4yk4ut4z 🙏🙏

We didn't do anything 'properly', I'm afraid - as this was only really about riding bikes for ourselves as we had done on BMXs on backstreets when we were little, not proper 'cycling'. We never really thought about safety and nobody ever really told us it was unsafe at the time. Kids these days are much more conscious of safety and I don't dispute that it's a good idea to wear helmets and shoes! At the time, it was about grabbing the brush and daubing paint indulgently rather than following the technique of trained draftsman. Our clothes, when we wore them, were flowing, grime-ridden cotton. Nothing was breathable or practical. We never wore sunscreen and we rode along motorways without a hard-shoulder simply because it looked like the shortest route. We did not see the future at the time. We only saw the moment. I do not contest that this was reckless, but it was all part of the freedom, even a freedom from the responsibility of looking after our bodies. At the time we'd have preferred to join the roadkill than to give up even this trace of freedom... which is something that most responsible people can't understand. In short, we were irresponsible and I apologise for the that.

You are far too kind - thank you.

Great to hear and here’s to your trip. Hoping you do it and it’s the experience of a lifetime!

here here , im 44 and would love to do something like this

Pero no uses GPS ni celular!

Peter Coyote - he did ‘the war in Vietnam’ and also played the scientist in E.T, amongst many other things..

Thank you Bee Keeper! Love back to Norway!

Hi @jenssen97 - what a brilliant message - thank you for taking the time to send this and for your points. - We drew and painted the maps ourselves on my old drawing board and my sister made them digital. There are some BTS images of this on of this on the Free Wheels East Film facebook page, buried somewhere.. Can't guarantee they are to scale. - think we have some archive from Berlin, but it was not filmed well enough / relevant enough to make the cut.. Nothing to do with Berlin!! One of the best cities there is. - I believe strongly the world was better for the mind and soul then. I hope the film reminds people of that. - ah.. the Thorn Raven tour - the best bikes in the world. Would buy the same thing today. But I still have one! - Thanks so much once again, great to know what resonated with you!! All the very best, Ben

On average it cost us £38 per week in 2005 for a year on the road. But you have to camp out and mostly be in very inexpensive countries to do this. Things are a little more expensive now.. but even if you spent 100% more than we did.. you are still on a luxury budget there!

Thanks Martin!!

Thanks Bob, glad to hear you enjoyed it. All the best, Ben

Haha - it is true! Jamie really didn’t get a single puncture.. The rim tape slipped early on my rear wheel and once that was discovered and fixed I must have introduced a spec of dirt, which at high pressure eventually caused another puncture. This happened time and time again, I guess.. Thanks for the kind words, Steve!

You must do that! You’ll never look back.. Tailwinds!

@@benwylson3089 thanks dude!

Thanks for the encouragement and hope you enjoyed the second viewing! Would love to know the quotes that resonated!

@@benwylson3089 "Feeling trapped for a very long time." "I couldn't see myself living the rest of my life in a fixed situation or lifestyle." "When you realize that you don't have to live your life based on what society tells you." Society, parents all predetermine what and how we as individuals should live our lives. Yes, there is probable success in following what society tells us to do and live. However, it depends on what we as individuals define as success. Working like a dog for someone else for years and years, acquiring a bunch of stuff that either ends up being sold for less money than we bought it for, giving it away or throwing it away. Doesn't make a lot of sense. Yet the majority of people fall into this mindset. We don't have a U-Haul truck following us to the grave site. I like new things just like everyone else, but everything wears out eventually (2nd law of thermodynamics. Matter wears down and out, it doesn't evolve stronger, better, like the lie of evolution tells us). My parents are in the last stages of their lives. They have acquired so much stuff. Three separate homes and everything that goes along with that. After they die, I don't want to deal with all their stuff....what a burden! I don't want any of it either. Then their stuff becomes my stuff. No, not me. I want to be unencumbered from stuff. Especially from other people's opinions of how I should live. I tend to separate myself from those types of people.

Thanks for sharing this - I fully understand. I like to have very few things but to make all of the things I do have both vital and a sort of old friend. It would be devastating if anything ever happened to my old leatherman for example. So, have less things, less things that are vital and are for the sake of. Materialism and the need to show off, to be seen as a success in the eyes of others, is destroying the planet and our minds - it’s a tonic to be burden free. I’m living within sedentary life now, but am very wary of its trappings so am constantly reminding myself of everything I do not want for me. But I can fully understand the draw of ‘things’ and am careful never to be sucked into the whirlpool of wanting more. If I can be around the natural world and maintain sustenance for myself and my family, then I have it all. Success is here and now, not somewhere in the future and I am very very lucky. Most things on the open road are unnecessary, so riding bikes seems to be the ultimate antidote to the madnesses of the modern, mobile phone wielding human. Good luck with it all and here’s to simmering away the unnecessary!