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BUILDING THE IMPOSSIBLE ROUTE - VEGAN CYCLIST | ROADMAN PODCAST

with Roadman Podcast

23:54·30 March 2023

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Tyler breaks down how he's built impossible cycling routes into compelling long-form content, exploring the craft of storytelling, the power of unscripted adventure, and why he regrets (but can't change) the 'Vegan Cyclist' brand name. You'll also hear how a chance meeting with Jeremiah Bishop in Vermont sparked the whole impossible route project that's now taken off globally.

Key Takeaways

Separate yourself as editor from yourself as a character—remove personal ego from the editing room and look for emotional truth and great story moments, even if they make you look bad
Don't force a story. With unscripted adventures, lean into whatever actually happened and hunt for the emotion in it, rather than trying to manipulate events to fit a predetermined narrative
Content length should serve the story, not vice versa. A 90-minute film is fine if the pacing and emotional arc justify it—32% of viewers watched a 1hr 47min Death Valley episode entirely
The vegan brand is a double-edged sword: it drives 80% of discovery traffic, but it can limit growth and doesn't represent your full identity. Launching sub-brands (Impossible Route, clothing) lets you build beyond the original name
Say yes to opportunities even when you're unprepared. Tyler had knee issues, no gravel experience, and got a bike 12 hours before the first impossible route—but that yes changed everything

Expert Quotes

"People will not remember what you say or what you do they'll remember how you made them feel"

"I don't go into content creation with a time limit... if it's a good story you it's gonna take however long it's going to take to tell that story"

"You don't know what opportunities in your life are going to fork your life and so I sort of have this just base principle of just like let's just say yes to everything and see what happens"

KEY QUOTES

“episode one season one which is Death Valley that was an hour and 47 minutes 32 of people that have watched that have watched the entire duration from start to YouTube cutting the video off right like like being 32 percent have watched that entirety of that like that's crazy right”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“the France film that cost us almost 50 Grand to do so what if what if we go and the route is too easy or we don't even come close to finishing it or our bike breaks in half or like there's so many things that could go wrong”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“I really regret the name uh a ton uh I have I probably think about changing that brand name twice a week but it's like it's it's so difficult because if you look at it as a business side when I look at my analytics the top out of my top five ways people find me the top four are some version of vegan cyclists”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT5 SECTIONS

How We Consume Content Today

It and it's so crazy how like split types of media have become over you know the last uh few years I mean if you think back like the 1950s you had two channels you don't even and that's it and like all the content that you could consume was so you know funneled into this one way and now you have you know like YouTube shorts or like tick tocks is like that's a whole new form of digesting content you have the long-form podcast which which like if you had told someone in the 50s oh yeah dude it's a hit to listen to other people sit around and have a conversation this I've been in my part of the conversation no you're not you know you're just listening to other people talk uh but the way to like digest that information is is for you know it's just amazing and then you have obviously the video long-form video stuff like how we digest content is so amazing and then how how that reflects on other people creating content so like you had a road map to sort of like figure out what to do with this because you know like the saying is like you stand on the the shoulders of giants right so like you see what other people are doing and then you're like I can do that better or I I can do it better in a in a you know a certain industry or like I can find a niche um but without seeing people do this you don't even know that it's possible and it's like you know we'll get into your YouTube stuff in a bit more detail down the road but like your latest impossible route the French one is an hour and a half and it reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend last week who's just getting into content creation and they asked me like well what's the ideal length for a piece of content they hadn't decided under medium yet and I was like well if it's [ __ ] and it's 10 seconds it's too long if it's like Avatar and it's awesome and it's four errors it's probably too short but I'd watch Avatar for six hours totally and actually we uh I've had to go to bat for myself many times on these films because every time I I submit like the first cut you know Canyon Jeremiah everyone who's not a content creator is like you need to cut 30 minutes out of that and it's like yeah but that's that's destroying the story you know you can't I can't do that and I don't go into content Creation with a time limit I literally don't like at one point I was I was worried about it I'd actually put like an adjustment layer over the top of the the timeline to say like okay here is the 20 minutes that I you know so to kind of give me an idea of like how long I have to go anyways look if it's a good story you it's gonna take however long it's going to take to tell that story now very uh episode one season one which is Death Valley that was an hour and 47 minutes 32 of people that have watched that have watched the entire duration from start to YouTube cutting the video off right like like being 32 percent have watched that entirety of that like that's crazy right and so then look I I love long form I love telling a really good story I mean obviously there's like we just like I just said there's other forms of content so I can do Instagram reels if I want to tell a story in one minute but there is a thing that okay this gets kind of hippy but like I feel the story like a road uh I can feel how this story ramps and descends I can feel it winding and curving it's so strange but it's it's like I'm holding on to a rock and when I start the project it's very rough and it's just like this it's not pleasing to hold on to uh and then over time I like rub these little like edges off of it and I start to smooth it out and I I can just keep feeling this rock with my mind which is so strange but I can feel these little rivets and bumps and I'm like I don't like the way this feels and then I just hours and hours and hours go by and you've just perfected one minute of an hour and 40 minute you know video um but I think why YouTube on this podcasts are quite different you talked about Lex Freeman before and I love the oracles pauses on podcasts that you don't really get away in YouTube there's an interview between Lex Freeman and Elon and Lex asks a question and I think the pause

Storytelling Formulas in YouTube Videos

Is something like 27 seconds of just total silence and Lex doesn't like contextualize the question doesn't clarify the question justify the question he just sits quietly that sort of stuff is slightly different but I'm so jealous of you YouTube because it's you obviously have the benefit of editing but because of that you have this beautiful story arc like when I think about captivating movies they all follow quite nice principle of There's a Hero they're the hero leaves the comfort of wherever he is if you take a Frodo he has to leave the shower to go on this journey and then the hero goes on two Journeys he goes on the journey to to ride the route this impossible route and get to the start to finish that's the external Journey but the more interesting journey is actually the internal Journey who does Tyler become in the process of completing this route that's the really interesting one and I think you capture that so well in your videos well here's what's so wild is that there's a whole algorithm and and formula to designing a story um I've read a couple books about like story creation techniques um and when you actually break it down it's so formalaic and actually ruins how you watch other videos because you're like you know if you watch a movie with these these Concepts in your head you're like oh okay this is that formula and now I know exactly what is going to happen um and it will just fit in perfectly like like you know Tetris blocks but I don't before I knew any of that I still had this ability to create a story that almost lined up exactly with what the like you know premium Hollywood Blockbuster formula is which like feels good that without even knowing that I just have this like instinct on how to tell a story um and a lot of that comes from the fact that I like remove myself from like the editor is one person me as a human is another and then me on the screen is a character so there's like this it's really strange like I'll edit without like my personal input on me you know what I mean so I'm not trying to like make myself look good I'm not like oh well I don't want to put me like looking stupid like this you know as the editor I'm like oh this is a great character moment like oh this idiot's crying on the top of a Mountaintop oh let's put this in you know what I mean like I'm not I'm not thinking about it that it's me uh and so you know that's another thing is like good content creation is the ability to separate yourself you know and just tell the story as it is and not try to like manipulate it um that's the other thing I think Tom sometimes people get into trouble is they try so hard to like force a story uh or they'll go into it and they're like this is the story I want to tell but if that's not the story that happened you know and then it's it's really risky because we don't script this uh and so what if nothing happens you know like okay the France film that cost us almost 50 Grand to do so what if what if we go and the route is too easy or we don't even come close to finishing it or our bike breaks in half or like there's so many things that could go wrong and so then it's like this is kind of it's just kind of gnarly is it scary uh but you know we we do what it is then we I get into the edit room and I'm like okay What story do I tell because there's a couple different angles you can you can take um but I always just look for emotion uh there's something that my mom has said to me a few times she said you know people will not remember what you say or what you do they'll remember how you made them feel and so like you regardless okay like if you look back in your memories a lot of times you're like I don't remember exactly what this person said but it's stuck in your mind because they gave you a feeling and that feeling lasts much longer than like what the actual verbiage was let's Circle all the way back to the the very beginning the idea for the vegan cyclist do you regret the name did you anticipate the brand taking off as big as it has and our nail kind of stuck to a name that you don't love or is it still something you're quite proud of I really regret the name uh a ton uh I have I probably think about changing that brand name twice a week but it's like it's it's so difficult because if

Why 'Vegan Cyclist' Stays the Brand

You look at it as a business side when I look at my analytics the top out of my top five ways people find me the top four are some version of vegan cyclists the vegan cyclist vegan cyclist cycling vegan uh and then impossible route right like those are my top five so if I change that what what is the you know I'm gonna take a a short-term hit with the idea that I will then grow long term because my name won't hinder people um but then again it's my life like I mean being plant-based is a huge part of my life it's something that that I don't struggle with uh at all it's not like oh well I don't want to be this anymore and I wanna I wanna go back to eating bacon cheeseburgers like being plant-based is is always going to be some component of my life now I don't like put a cage on anything I don't ever like I don't want to be religious about the whole thing like to me you you know you got to be open to change at all points like regardless of how I feel about it at this moment when I'm 60 you know I don't know maybe I maybe I want to eat free-range chickens or something I'm not sure what I'm gonna do in the future but as of right now like this is such a huge part of my life and also um it starts a conversation about diet and lifestyle that I think is really beneficial to a lot of people because I'm not an activist about it like I don't open up and go you're a bad person you need to do this like I don't even say the word vegan I just ever like I don't ever really talk about it at all uh and and so then when people are met with an expectation of this guy's gonna yell at me about food then I don't then they're like well wait I was expecting this guy to be super annoying about food and diet and he wasn't uh and then he also did these crazy things like he won a national championship then they start to then they start to go well wait a minute so he can perform he's not annoying um and Andy's plant-based like that that just dissolves that sort of immediate like idea of what what being vegan is yeah because it's kind of revolted by the community like I was in like a couple forums and just seeing some stuff and people dude like people would come onto a vegan form and be like I'm so close like all I'm eating is fish now like I feel so good and they're like you're still killing animals like how dare you think you're good and it's like bro what the [ __ ] is this like everyone's at a different point in their Journey why is everyone so black and white here uh it it anyways and so then very early on I had an opportunity to change my channel name and I didn't uh because I was getting no views like in the first year I got a thousand subscribers and maybe like 1200 views right like I mean it was just not like not going anywhere so then it wasn't really until year three that like things kinda picked up and no one really knew me or like anything was going on and so by the time the channel blew up the brand was like pretty like locked in now plant-based lifestyle is like a huge part of my life it's not my identity it's not what I would lead with like I would never go to a party and introduce myself hi I'm I'm a vegan you know like that's not what I want to lead with like I feel like I'm a guy who does I'm a filmmaker that does crazy Adventures um and then manages a family yeah I raced for a year as a vegan and for much the same reasons it sounds like you found it I went down that rabbit hole of trying to get extra performance out and I researched a lot of stuff about the anti-inflammatory properties of vegetarian diet and I took it up one step further to vegan so I raced in the US in 2013 2014 around then erikanti team estilis and I raced fully vegan that year which meant eating quite a lot of Chipotle but it was wild because I wasn't an ethical vegan I wasn't objected to Animal Welfare like I'm sure if I dug into it I'd object to it but it was just oblivious to it it was mainly for a performance so I would go to a friend's barbecue like I'm talking once a year twice a year and I'd have like a couple of chicken wings and I'd have friends who are vegan it'd be just like oh you're in a problem it's like

Plant-Based vs Vegan Philosophy

What like hold on like it doesn't have to be that binary like why can't you just do like a lot of like make a lot of good choices but then make a choice sometimes that you know isn't it totally like 90 Health like that's sort of where I fall into right like if if I live my life 90 healthy like that other ten percent it's it's marginal it's not it's that's not what like is the problem in my eyes and obviously everything in moderation including moderation itself but like I don't know I think that a lot of people are going away from that word vegan and more towards plant-based um because it's you know it's it's a little more open-ended and what I um eat animals at this point in my life like no unless I hunted it or killed it myself like that's that's sort of the out that I give myself is like if I want to eat venison then I'll get my wife's my wife's dad my father-in-law will strap on some recurve bows and go hunting for a few days and if I if I collect myself a buck then and I process it and I hike it out and I do the whole thing and I have that intimate relationship with taking a life of another animal then like okay but that amount of work for what I for having me is just at this point it's just it doesn't make any sense um but I would it's just that I would go through that experience and I think that for most people if they just reduced their meat intake to like a reasonable amount because everyone's like oh well you know when we were hunter-gatherers we were primarily carnivores and we only ate meat so if you think that this is healthy like that's not how we evolved it's like yeah but did we evolved with a faster femen right like faster famine like we would eat nothing but sticks and berries and then go run a marathon to track down your animal you know what I mean and so then you had to Feast everything and then you would eat you know nose to tail you would eat everything but that's not how it is anymore like people just eat this highly anyways it's not really a part of like um what I want to lead with this brand and and I've thought a lot about like where I'm gonna take this in the future um and so I've started two other companies to to springboard off of the vegan cyclist channel one is The Impossible route and even though it is on my channel currently the main goal is to to take impossible route onto its own channel on its own thing like its own brand that goes beyond me that like we will have episodes with people not me or not Jeremiah and I'll have a film crew and maybe even an edit crew like we can do something with that I don't I also started a clothing company that wasn't vegan related right like it's just ride bikes and that has to hemp no it's just I I mean our clothing is like top quality stuff but like it's it it's just for everyone right it's not elitist it's Moto Mountain Bike unicycle it don't matter if you ride bikes in any fashion like then this clothing this casual clothing line is for you so like our prices are lower quality's High and the designs are are cool like they're just chill like it's not super elitist so how did you how did you meet Jeremiah I've had him on the podcast and he's just such a nice conversationalist he's a he's a Storyteller he's a funny guy and he's a kick-ass bike rider what was your first interaction so the first interaction was uh in Vermont it was actually kind of a crazy and now that she like if you look back on it it's actually totally nuts how it all worked out but so um Cliff bar was sponsoring this uh this gravel race in Vermont and so they brought me out to make content so if Cliff bar is sponsoring this event they want more eyeballs on on you know their brand so they bring me out they also connect with specialized and so at this point I have no dealings with canyon really at all and uh there was supposed to be two specialized waiting at this event for me and and the other guy that I brought they had sent those specialized bikes to the wrong state so then we show we show up the day before this race um and and I mean it was like a it's like a huge travel thing to get here and we have no bikes and there's no way we're going to get them like zero chance and so then uh I just saw you know this Canyon van with like demo bikes

Meeting Jeremiah and Mauna Kea

In the parking lot and so then I ran over there and I was like hey uh I don't have a bike to to race uh and it was Jeremiah who was like unpacking the bikes and he was like the rep I had no idea who he was I'm not like I'm I'm not really a fan of the sport to be honest like I love riding bikes but I don't know anyone in the sport like I'm a moto fan like I love Motocross Supercross I I don't know anything about cycling so like I just saw him as a guy and so then we chatted we got the bike you know cool I did a video of it and then in the video people were like I can't believe you didn't know who that was like how dare you like he's a legend like you know Jesus like can you be more ignorant and I'm like what like I had no idea so then I Googled him and so then I reached out to him I was like hey man I don't know if I came off like disrespectful uh like I didn't know who you were or anything like that um so I whatever but he was that's what's so cool about Jeremiah is that he's a two-time national champion he's a legend in the sport and he comes off as a a guy right like he doesn't have this Aura where he's like something super special that you have to treat him differently and so so then uh we kind of just started chatting a little bit and then he invited me out to his Fondo um you know to do some content and we got to kind of hang for like three days in his hometown um and that was really cool so then he had this whole project to take on the world's hardest Strava segment which is uh in Mauna Kea or up Mauna Kea volcano but all road right like it's it thousands of people have done this so he was gonna try to go for the Kom on that hard segment uh and so then he was like you want to come out and film it and I was like well no I don't want to just film it dude like I'm gonna ride it like I want to be a part of it like if I'm going to do something and so then this was his project his everything like I there was no budget you know what I mean like I flew my family out on my own dime um this whole deal and so then and he was on vacation with his family in Hawaii so like it's just all kind of happened organically uh but then right before we got there uh this guy from Big Island tours cycling tours he was like well there's this other route that no one's ever done before and it starts in waiopia Valley um and it goes up this Gravel Road and like in theory it's possible but no one's ever done it before so then it was like whoa like that sounds way cooler than doing something thousands of people have done uh but at this point dude like I have no business doing this like I'm not a gravel Rider we I I got a bike the day before so I'm setting up this bike in a parking lot um 12 hours before we head off onto the first impossible route and so then you know it was just wild it was just such a wild situation and I and I wanted to be so good and like not let anyone down because I got whoever's got to edit this I'm so sorry yeah sorry about that call him don't worry it's not me uh yeah no I so I'm in a warehouse for the anyways okay I'll jump back into the the story so okay so then we start this crazy and I have no idea how long this is gonna be or what is in store uh and it's really funny because we've got the guide with us is also like a pro cyclist like he raced you know uh so um I've and I've never bought been up at elevation before so is it just like every possible thing that could be not on my side also um I was dealing with some major knee issues uh and so like my knee was like barely working but it didn't matter you know here's the thing is that you don't know what you um you don't know what opportunities in your life are going to Fork your life and so I sort of have this just base principle of just like let's just say yes to everything and see what happens because what what happens if you say no to something and then your life never takes off foreign

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How long is the Vegan Cyclist Impossible Route Death Valley episode?+

The Death Valley episode runs 1 hour 47 minutes. Tyler Pearce chose that runtime because the narrative arc required it, not because of any platform convention, and the episode achieves a 32 per cent completion rate at that length.

How does Tyler Pearce make his Impossible Route documentaries?+

Tyler Pearce produces the Impossible Route series without a predetermined runtime, letting the story dictate the length of each film. He treats his on-camera self as a separate character from his editing self, which he credits for honest, unscripted storytelling across the series.

Did sponsors try to change the Impossible Route films?+

Yes. Tyler Pearce faced pressure from sponsors to cut roughly 30 minutes from early drafts of the Impossible Route episodes. He resisted, arguing that shortening the films would compromise the narrative arc rather than improve the content.

What is the Jeremiah Bishop Impossible Route about?+

The Jeremiah Bishop Impossible Route is a feature-length cycling documentary produced by Tyler Pearce as part of his Impossible Route series. It follows Bishop tackling a demanding, purpose-built cycling route and is presented as long-form storytelling rather than a conventional YouTube video.

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Key Takeaways

Separate yourself as editor from yourself as a character—remove personal ego from the editing room and look for emotional truth and great story moments, even if they make you look bad

Don't force a story. With unscripted adventures, lean into whatever actually happened and hunt for the emotion in it, rather than trying to manipulate events to fit a predetermined narrative

Content length should serve the story, not vice versa. A 90-minute film is fine if the pacing and emotional arc justify it—32% of viewers watched a 1hr 47min Death Valley episode entirely

The vegan brand is a double-edged sword: it drives 80% of discovery traffic, but it can limit growth and doesn't represent your full identity. Launching sub-brands (Impossible Route, clothing) lets you build beyond the original name

Say yes to opportunities even when you're unprepared. Tyler had knee issues, no gravel experience, and got a bike 12 hours before the first impossible route—but that yes changed everything

Expert Quotes

"People will not remember what you say or what you do they'll remember how you made them feel"

"I don't go into content creation with a time limit... if it's a good story you it's gonna take however long it's going to take to tell that story"

"You don't know what opportunities in your life are going to fork your life and so I sort of have this just base principle of just like let's just say yes to everything and see what happens"

KEY QUOTES

“episode one season one which is Death Valley that was an hour and 47 minutes 32 of people that have watched that have watched the entire duration from start to YouTube cutting the video off right like like being 32 percent have watched that entirety of that like that's crazy right”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“the France film that cost us almost 50 Grand to do so what if what if we go and the route is too easy or we don't even come close to finishing it or our bike breaks in half or like there's so many things that could go wrong”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

“I really regret the name uh a ton uh I have I probably think about changing that brand name twice a week but it's like it's it's so difficult because if you look at it as a business side when I look at my analytics the top out of my top five ways people find me the top four are some version of vegan cyclists”
Anthony Walsh — Roadman Cycling podcast host

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

How long is the Vegan Cyclist Impossible Route Death Valley episode?+

How does Tyler Pearce make his Impossible Route documentaries?+

Did sponsors try to change the Impossible Route films?+

What is the Jeremiah Bishop Impossible Route about?+

BUILDING THE IMPOSSIBLE ROUTE - VEGAN CYCLIST | ROADMAN PODCAST

Key Takeaways

Expert Quotes

KEY QUOTES

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

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BUILDING THE IMPOSSIBLE ROUTE - VEGAN CYCLIST | ROADMAN PODCAST

Key Takeaways

Expert Quotes

KEY QUOTES

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

NEVER MISS AN EPISODE

READ THE GUIDE

RELATED EPISODES

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LIKED THIS EPISODE?