Meet Ultra Romance, the Guy Who Just Wants To Ride His Bike All Day – IOTW Report

Meet Ultra Romance, the Guy Who Just Wants To Ride His Bike All Day

Tuesday, 27 June 2017, 18:47 BFH Uncategorized 56

illustr8r sent me this and made sure she put “bike” in the subject line so it would catch my attention.

I read the story, and honestly, I’m conflicted.

On one hand, the guy says he went to college and was on the expected trajectory, getting a job, a house, a wife and a family, but bills and paperwork gave him lots of stress, so he concocted a different path.  (He never went down that road of family, house, paperwork.) That’s okay. So far he’s not impacting me. So far.

He works on his dad’s fishing charter boat for 6 months and then he rides his bike all over the world for the other 6 months.

He sleeps outdoors and leverages his agriculture knowledge to forage for food and figures he can live on 10 dollars a day.

That’s sounds great, but what happens if/when his knees blow out, or some other ill befalls him, and prevents him from pedaling around, stress free?

My guess is that he’ll still be sleeping outdoors, under a cardboard box in Seattle, still unable to handle “paperwork,” or work.

Now he’s my problem.

But, until then, I’ll reserve harsh judgement, mainly because I doubt this guy votes.

56 Comments on Meet Ultra Romance, the Guy Who Just Wants To Ride His Bike All Day

  2. Haha! Fur, you’re too funny! If the guy ends up living in a cardboard box in Seattle, he’ll be Seattle’s problem, so don’t worry about that. How old is he? At some point he will grow up and bend to the desires of his clan because his familial culture will kick in at some point, I imagine. In the meantime he’s just doing his part to make 40 the new 20. And thank God at least he’s honest about it and won’t drag a wife and innocent children into his Peter Pan Syndrome. Gotta give him that. Most guys who don’t want to grow up still don’t want to give up the ready sex of marriage and someone who will cook for them like their mothers did.

  5. “decided to model his life – in part – after hunter-gatherers, who he says took an average of 9 hours a week to procure everything they needed to live”

    Horse shit!

    It took them nine-hours to make a single arrowhead

  6. And in 30 years you (not me, I’ll be dead) will read about the plight of the poor senior citizen who has to choose between food and medicine because he is “less fortunate” then the rest of you. Meanwhile my 6 adult kids are all gainfully employed, working their asses off so they can support assholes like this guy (either now or later).

  13. While in school to study psychology to become a loss/grief counselor, I spent quite a bit of time looking at adult development and the various rites of passage that usher in, or cause adults to mature. Back in the “olden days” these so-called rites were built in to our culture through a combination of the need to provide for ourselves (hunting/farming/raising large families to help with the work) and the religious training that was a given at that time. Today, however, we have none of these things built in to our culture. We can do whatever we like, whatever gives us pleasure and we are protected — either by the nanny state, or by over-anxious parents — from the rites (or “hard knocks”) that would have jump-started our growth into maturity. But, because it seems imprinted on our DNA, we continue to have a need to mature. Some kids get pregnant or make pregnant, some kids go through the ritual of joining gangs. Some grow up in the relative safety of the military — or a prison, strangely. Forrest Gump “just started running.” This guy’s rite of passage is riding a bicycle.

  14. He buys lots ‘o yogurt and dark chocolate from Whole Foods? Ten grand won’t stretch too far in that joint.
    When near the ocean, he can get seaweed and crabs. Medicine is expensive Benedict.

  16. As far as I’m concerned, my principles say he has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If this pursuit makes his life happy, that’s good. For him.

    Unless and until he stakes a claim on me (as distinct from asking me) for help, then he can go on about his life any way he sees fit. And I’m free to pursue my happiness in very different ways from his.

  17. @JDHasty — “Nine hours to make an arrowhead!” Haha! Yeah, and then you have to build a bow and make an arrow that flies true. I didn’t know Whole Foods took trades! hahah!

  20. So, he still wants the benefits of living in the world and uses places like Ebay, sells and trades bike parts but he doesn’t like capitalism. He doesn’t buy anything unless it will benefit him. I think his parents raised a brat. That’s what he is a self-serving brat. What’s he gonna do when his dad dies and he can’t do his biking gig any more because he will have to make that nasty capitalist money to continue doing his Forest Gump act. He might even fall off that bike and injure himself, become a quadraphonic, then for sure the working capitalist will have to take care of his sorry ass. There’s a Twilight Zone episode in this somewhere. Like the guy who loved to read and he surviv3ed the nuclear blast. He went to the library that was still standing, and rejoiced that the books were all his. Then he tripped and feel and his coke bottle glasses broke into a million pieces. Same with the brat, no legs, no bikey.

  23. Geez and I thought that my brother who is an avid bike rider was nuts. He was a breech baby coming out feet first lickety split ready to ride his bike as we joke about him. And he’s still as skinny as he was forty years ago from all that bike riding. One of my friends who is just as crazy is a master bike builder and rider is 70 and still going at it strong. Both of them I don’t worry about because they’re both normal except for liking to go on extremely long bike rides. I gave up trying to keep up with them years ago. My brother and a cardiologist friend rode all the way the across N. Idaho on the Trail of the Coeur d’ Alenes a bike path on an old abandoned railroad grade from Plummer, Id. to Mullan, Id. and over Lookout Pass into Montana and then rode all the way to Hamilton, Mt. south of Missoula in about 20 hrs. or so a few years ago. And he always wanted to do the extremely insane Ride Across America from California to the East coast back when the RAM was popular in the 80’s. I watched part of that race one time where the riders would rid pretty much ride non stop 18-20 hrs. a day across the country in about 9 or 10 days. It was insane but some people can do it.

  24. Sounds like none of you has a clue. First, people who have shares on fishing boats generally make SERIOUS money during their 6 month season. Second, my bet is he has serious money saved simply because he does not spend it at trendy coffee shops, expensive clothes, rent/mortgage, cars, insurance, and other rat-race frillery. Last, he obviously is in better shape than 95% of stay at home beer belly slobs who are clearly just jealous.

    He can obviously move on to a more standard wage slave lifestyle if and when he feels like it.

  26. I am so sick of these self absorbed grown up babies. No sense of country, community or the hard labor people do everyday building bicycle parts and his little tent and his clothes and his food and….so he can forever be a ten year old.

  29. He doesn’t like capitalism but makes enough money on Dad’s fishing boat to ride a bicycle half the year. Seems that capitalism is what makes his lifestyle possible. It wouldn’t bother me if he wasn’t so he is so smug and clueless.

  30. There are people who spend years walking the Appalachian Trail, or coastal cruising a 30″ liveaboard sail boat, or bicycle camping around Europe.
    Sounds like he’s not hurting anybody, he’s paying his own way, and he’s not some welfare queen costing the taxpayers a 4 BR apt and churning out low-IQ future criminals who’ll repeat her drag on society x 4 from cradle to prison to grave.
    I hope this guy’s having a ball. Agreed, if you need a helmet for cooking you’re doing it wrong. 😀

  33. AS A LIBERAL, I of course found something to complain about: his excessive CO2 output. To save the planet from Global Warming and White Supremacy, he would be advised to spend his 6 months off under a tree and breathe very shallowly and don’t move very much.

    The fact that he is not reproducing, is a bonus.

  35. This song comes to mind: John McDermott/ The Band Played Waltzing Mathilda/ with Lyrics.

    When I was about sixteen I biked a portion of the South of Ireland for two weeks with a group of friends. It was hard going but we had fun. I had a 1950 model BSA bicycle with no gears. BSA means Bloody Soare Arse, believe me. After that summer we all went on with our lives; school, work, immigration etc.
    I hope you like the John McDermott song with video.

  37. Sounds like none of you has a clue.>>>

    None?
    I think I gave the guy a fair shake.
    He’s a free spirit paying his own way in order to be Peter Pan.
    Nothing wrong with that at all.

    I just hope he doesn’t turn into the guy, and we’ve seen it millions of times, that fritters his working age years away only to become old and unable to pay his own way, relying on the kindness of strangers that will subsidize his short-sighted hedonistic youthful days.

    Nothing wrong with framing this story that way.

  42. As Ronaldus Maximus said Each generation must fight for its freedom. It is not inherited. Bike riding will not do the job.
    At some point “It’s time to stop rovin’ there’s work to be done.”

  47. Moe Tom, I have heard The Band Played Waltzing Matilda sung by the Irish band Da Danaan. It is a very haunting song about the Aussies returning home from World War 1. And I love the singing of Delores Keane (she was part of Da Danaan at one time) an Irish lady who can really belt out traditional Irish songs. She sings a great version of Far Away In Australia which I really like. I love Irish, Scottish, English Celtic music and traditional American music with Scots/Irish influences.

  49. This is a lifestyle that works for this fellow, but would not work for 99% of most other people – so there is no need to worry about hordes of middle aged men pulling up stakes, jettisoning the wife and kids, and seeing the world on a bicycle. He does in fact work, and I’m impressed he can live life on his own terms as long as he has.

    People like this are also usually very independent, and don’t go for the government benefits. This guy bikes all over the world, and I doubt he collects any government money while he is in New Zealand or Norway. Like biking, this independence is also a lifestyle and I would bet that he won’t end up as a ward of the state.

    I know quite a few people who did similar things after college (and in a couple of cases after grad school and one after working for a couple of years). They lived very cheaply but well, and didn’t have the responsibilities of spouse, kids, mortgage, car payments, miscellaneous bills, and other trappings of modern day “success.” None of them sponged off of the government, and all went on to establish careers after the wanderlust wore off.

    As I get older, I do have a few regrets – and not doing something like this is one of them. I doubt I would have lasted as long as Ultra Romance, but it is an experience I wish I had tried.

  55. I am glad to see more people with a clue speaking up, especially perceptive Wyatt.

    “BB. He’s concerned with bird droppings, not cracking his empty skull.” is most certainly clueless and unfunny as well. I think he was wearing the helmet because his ears were cold. There are other accepting comments that don’t stoop to make fun of anybody not like them. What is this blog comment pool: high school with the nerds vs the jocks or perhaps 3rd grade recess where the bullies steal other kids lunch money ? Have a little tolerance for people who choose alternative lifestyles that hurt no one at all; you might learn something deep or significant.

  56. Fred Trout’s right.
    The guy very probably has several books stored away in his brain already for future publication, besides whatever his lucrative part-time job pays. I have personally met professional fishermen (and Alaska truckers) who only work 6 months a year (or less) but make more than the average yearly wage earner.
    I am just reading a bunch of jealous frumps who didn’t/don’t have the cajones to follow unfamiliar trails, and be young all the way to the hilt while they are young.
    I also read highly judgmental, not “reserve judgement” on criticizing a balls-to-the-wall, see-it-all-before-I-die lifestyle.
    It’s called “jealousy”. Just free yourself by the admission of it.

Comments are closed.

iOTWreport.com ©2024 ----- iOTWreport is not responsible for the content of comments. All opinions in comments are solely the commenter's.