Traveling by bike has given me many life lessons and one is not to give up. Whenever you have a problem, don’t give up and go on and on, and in the end if you don’t give up, then you get ahead.
Climbing a mountain is hard but you end up reaching the top if you don’t stop. If you stop going up, you never get there.
— Pablo Calvo
bald pablo (@bikecanine) is the founder of Bikecanine.
Pablo is an ex-firefighter who has spent more than 5 years traveling the world on a bicycle full-time with his dog Hippie, and who takes advantage of these adventures to carry out all kinds of solidarity projects for which he has already raised more than €50,000.
In addition, Pablo manages the largest YouTube channel on cycling, with more than 500 videos and 7.5 million views; he is the creator of the course “Traveling by bike with a dog”, in which he teaches you how to train your dog so that he feels comfortable riding a bicycle with you; and he is the co-author of the book “North Cape Expedition”, in which he narrates the epic bicycle journey that took him in 2015 from the north of Spain to the Arctic Circle.
In this interview, Pablo and I cover his entire career, from his beginnings as an opponent to his current life as a traveler and YouTuber, and we talk about topics as interesting as…
- How Pablo came up with the idea of starting to ride a bike with his dog
- What did Pablo do to raise more than €25,000 in a single summer for different charitable causes?
- Why Pablo decided to leave his lifelong position as a firefighter to live traveling
- How has Pablo managed to get paid for doing what he likes the most, which is riding a bike?
- Or until when Pablo plans to continue doing what he does, and what do you think about making having a partner compatible with his current lifestyle?
This is one of the most beautiful and exciting interviews I’ve ever recorded, because Pablo is an incredible person, one of those who makes you regain faith in humanity, so I’m sure you’ll love it.
But hey, I prefer not to anticipate anything else and that you discover it yourself, so without further ado I leave you with the great Pablo Calvo.
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quick index
0:47 – Presentation of the guest
2:20 – Start of the interview
2:28 – How I met Pablo
8:44 – Where does Pablo’s love for animals in general and dogs in particular come from?
11:04 – Why as a child his parents did not let him have a bicycle or a dog, which are now Pablo’s two great passions
13:03 – Why was he so bad at school and high school?
15:11 – In which job while studying
7:55 p.m. – Why when you finish art high school you decide to prepare for firefighter opposition
23:12 – Why did you think you would be able to get out of the opposition if you didn’t like studying?
25:12 – What other courses did you take while studying the opposition
29:49 – How he met his dog Negrito
33:34 – Why, although he decides to throw in the towel with the oppositions and go to Ecuador to volunteer with animals, he finally does not do it
38:34 – How did you manage to pass the oppositions
40:33 – Why did you decide to make a trip from Gijón to Santander by bicycle?
43:47 – How he took his dog Negrito during the trip
45:24 – Who is Hippie and how does it come into your life?
49:32 – What did your job as a firefighter consist of and whether you liked it or not
52:59 – Why the death of his father marked a before and after in his life
58:59 – How was your second bicycle trip between Gijón and Seville and what changes or improvements did you make compared to the first?
1:02:33 – How Bikecanine was born and what this project consists of
1:08:33 – What did you do to raise funds for childhood cancer?
1:15:39 – After the success of that first challenge, what objective is set for the following year?
1:21:21 – What problems and unforeseen events did you have on your third trip?
1:25:24 – Why you decide to make a calendar to raise funds with photos of firefighters in real interventions instead of firefighters showing abs
1:28:55 – What can you think of to continue doing bike trips and raising more and more money?
1:54:25 – What happened when he returned to Guijón after 3 months of leave traveling with the bike
1:56:38 – What did you learn when you decide to train in digital marketing to achieve a source of online income that allows you to leave your job as a firefighter
2:09:48 – What do you do after leaving your job as a firefighter?
2:14:19 – How was the experience of traveling with your partner?
2:16:54 – What was your day-to-day like during the trip to the North Cape?
2:20:22 – Why once he arrives in the North Cape, instead of returning to Spain by plane with his girlfriend, he decides to return by bike and how was the return
2:29:55 – How he and Anina share the tasks when they decide to write the book Expedición Cabo Norte
2:33:28 – What happened when he finished his part of the book and Anina was still doing hers
2:36:58 – What did you do when during your next trip you realize that you have almost no money in the bank
2:40:27 – How did it work for you when the strategy of uploading a daily video to YouTube
2:41:44 – How did it go with the membership you created from videos
2:43:05 – What happened to him in Malta so that he had to change his plans and return to Spain
2:47:37 – Where did the idea of your “Epic return to Spain” come from?
2:51:23 – Why he made the radical decision to close what was his main source of income
2:56:21 – What can you think of having a beer with Oliver Trip
3:04:42 – How the participants lived and how he lived the travel camps in Portugal that he organized
3:10:32 – Were those camps economically profitable or they were not
3:13:54 – How Pablo ended up doing a reality TV show on Cuatro
3:26:25 – After self-publishing Expedición Cabo Norte with Anina, how did Pablo get a publisher to publish the book?
3:30:07 – Pablo’s opinion on publishing with a publisher
3:33:37 – How about the experience of touring Spain meeting your fans and promoting the book?
3:37:07 – What does your trip “Nomads of the East” consist of?
3:39:29 – What happened so that when he arrived in Georgia he stayed there instead of continuing to travel?
3:45:59 – What have you been doing in Georgia and how you have experienced the coronavirus crisis there
3:48:58 – What are Paul’s current means of income and what he lives on today
3:54:04 – Pablo tells if he is happy with the life he has created
3:57:26 – Where does Pablo come from that generosity and desire to contribute to charitable causes?
4:00:01 – What are the differences between the Pablo who made his first bike trip and the one he is now?
4:05:32 – How long does Pablo think he will continue with his lifestyle?
4:11:18 – Where does Pablo recommend starting for someone who wants to take a trip like the ones he does?
4:13:29 – What does he explain in his course “Traveling with a dog”
4:16:08 – There is a big difference between the videos that Pablo uploads now to his YouTube channel and those he uploaded before, what is the key to making this leap in quality and what recommendation does he have for someone who is starting to create their videos?
4:21:59 – What are the 3 books that have impacted you the most or that have changed you the most?
4:30:02 – Advice, message or final recommendation for listeners
(6 ratings, mean: 4.8)
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