I had covid when I shot this, so I look a bit waxed. Thanks for your support!

To Ben's sponsors: I trust this guy's take. I love cycling, and this guy lives our dream. He also seems like a ridiculously nice guy, and they are a rare find these days. Give Ben money for the audience he reaches. Thanks.

Thanks for the explanation Ben. Though to be honest, after watching a lot of your content you don't really owe anyone an explanation as its all there in the videos you post. And that is why I'm here anyway. Always found you engaging, straightforward and honest. Old school journalism meets new media and bikes. Keep it up - its appreciated!

Ben is the GOAT of bike reviews. Very down to earth guy. I'm glad I had the pleasure of meeting him in person at UNBOUND.

The Spirit of Gravel from a different perspective… always got time for you sir!

Thanks for this. People seriously underestimate how hard this KZfaq stuff is. You have to manage both the creative end of it with scripts, camera work, editing, and actually finding stuff worthwhile to say, while managing brand relationships and being honest with your reviews at the same time. Thanks for the videos, at least some of us see how hard it is and appreciate the work you are putting in.

one of the consistently best Chanels on KZfaq... period Thanks Ben,

Ben, congrats on taking the leap into your own independent channel and business. I’m sure it was scary but it’s so cool seeing it work. Your content speaks for itself. People are attracted to it because it is real and engaging. So happy for your success and looking forward to more! Cheers.

Ben’s authenticity is real. I’ve seen him at CO gravel events. He is personable and unassuming. I shared a brief conversation with him after an event, and he displayed the unusual ability to really lock in and listen as well as speak. Always enjoy his videos.

There are already so many great comments that cover what I feel as well. You walk the walk (ride the bike?) and not just talk the talk. Knowing that you jump in some of these difficult races with "test" bikes rather than your personal bike dialed in 100% for you and still do so well is illustrative and inspiring. Keep up the good work. 💪

I got the opportunity to ride with Ben almost 18 years ago at a multi-day event in Montana put on by a sports nutrition company. Not only is he a super nice guy, he's also a beast of a rider who really knows his stuff. So glad to find this channel!

It’s hard to find honesty and integrity in KZfaq land. You have both. It’s great to have old school journalistic views and be based on products you find interesting. Very authentic and gets me seeing and hearing of things I wouldn’t normally search for. Keep doing what you’re doing and we all appreciate this video but it’s evident you aren’t selling your opinions.

Ben - thank you. I look forward to your videos and appreciate your race-tested bike reviews. All the best for a successful 2024.

You are the man Ben: high degree of integrity and very factual in your presentation. I'll vouch for you if there are any doubters out there.

In a changing media landscape it is nice to see someone create a, hopefully, sustainable model and a unique voice in the cycling industry and sport. I don't think you have to apologize for trying to make money at it. You have always been transparent about when and who you are sponsored by and your videos have not been commercials without being explicitly labelled as such. You have managed to bring some authentic fun to your videos and as a viewer that is all I am looking for. Enjoy the ride! Ultimately we feel like you are our riding buddy on the weekend, shoot the sh*t on the group ride. Do what you love and it will never feel like work.

as someone who is about to turn 50 in a few days, I really appreciate having someone like you to watch, Ben! You're from my generation, seem honest and trustworthy, and genuinely enjoyable to watch. I wish I had your fitness and cycling skills, but.. ;) I hope you are able to continue making content and being able to have the life you love! Also, I need a cap!! :)

Appreciate all your videos and reviews, and thanks for your transparency as a content creator.

I wish every KZfaq reviewer was this transparent. Really interesting background info here. One thing about bike reviews that might be relevant is that the bike a manufacturer selects to send out for review is not going to be one randomly selected of a store floor. It’s likely highly QC’d beforehand. Ask your partners if you can pick up the bike locally so we can be sure that the reviews reflect a bike we’re just as likely to buy ourselves. Love the video content. Thank you.

We appreciate your candor and willingness to explore your bias. It definitely gives credibility to the information presented. The approach of separating the categories for paid sponsorship from the reviews is probably the best way.

An honest and transparent explanation of how things work, keep doing the same things you have and I'll keep watching.

I enjoy your content and watch regularly. I really hope this continues to work because it's helpful for us consumers.

Bravo to you. Real old school journalistic integrity. As an ex-newspaper journalist of 35 years, I’m appalled how I see so much worthless crap on KZfaq from creators who really haven’t a clue. Keep up the good work.

Love this channel. Also love that this is someone’s dream, because your job sounds cool, but would drive me absolutely bonkers. I work enough already, and full time YT content creation is a ludicrous amount of work. Appreciate your service to the community. 🤘

Thanks for sharing, I love the honest reviews and it's good to know where your boundaries are.

Not sure how I stumbled upon this guy but super glad I did. Very interesting takes on a variety of common sense topics. Keep up the good work Ben.

Ben, thanks for you videos! As a non-native English speaker cyclist from Finland I like the way how you speak so clearly and not too fast (like e.g. DC Rainmaker...). Great reviews! Keep up the good work and Happy New Year, from Janne from Finland

Ben, thanks for sharing your thoughts and experiences on this topic and all the other bike-related topics you cover. I always look forward to your content, even if its not relevant to me, as it's entertaining and earnest. Gear is fun, but the ride is better. Enjoy!

Great video Ben. I really enjoy your channel, and it’s obvious to me the kind of experience and background that you’ve had - it comes across well with your quality of presentation and reviews. I’m not too bothered if you were being sponsored and various revenue sources etc - I get to watch your videos for free and you put in all the effort and have to have an income… you deserve to be fully compensated in my view. Keep it up 👍

Honesty and trust are the biggest currencies in any business model. You, sir have both! Thanks for a great channel.

Thanks! I love riding my bike, but since I can’t do it 24/7 I get to enjoy some of the excellent material on KZfaq. Ben your work is right at the top and I get my bike fix through your excellent work!

We really enjoy the content. Hope to see you riding up in FOCO sometime.

I appreciate your integrity, as well as your reviews! Keep the great content coming please!

Ben is a trusted advisor in a world choking in marketing spoof and meaningless fluff. My Enve Mog was a great choice and due to Ben’s walkthrough on features and gremlins.

Your delivery, honesty, opinion and vibe are so appreciated. Stoked on what you bring to us in 2024.

Great vlog Ben. I find it very interesting and commend you for turning your passion into a profession.

Next level transparency. I'm subscribing to his channel for this.

Love the channel and the honesty. Hope you have a wonderfully successful 2024 Ben!

Thanks again for another look into “The Ride”. You are doing a great job keep up the good work.

You are excellent Ben! Thank you.

Thanks for choosing the hard way of trying to be a reliable source of information on KZfaq!

Thank you for taking the leap of faith and starting this KZfaq channel. As long as your here, I'm watching. Great content with easy to watch video makes it very enjoyable and educating. Oh, and definitely want a hat, please let me know when they are for sale. As a bald guy, I like my hats 😎.

You've just gained a new subscriber by your well rounded honest explanation. Ride on! 🤟🏻

Thank you, sir. Keep doin' what you're doin! I like it and apparently many others do too.

Thanks Ben, I do enjoy your videos keep them coming!

It was a good idea to dye your hair gray, you look so wise: Aristotle on wheels!

I, too, enjoy your reports. Ben, and it is great to see that you are recognized and respected by bike companies and event promoters as a trusted journalist and storyteller. And my favorite vids of yours are your event/course previews and your conversations with your peers and insiders. O and I also like your bike-and-rider checks at events, those are fun. And please do more with maybe a deeper dive into personal builds and how all those crazies are cobbling together hot rods that get them to the checkers, either first or eventually or somewhere in between. Thanks again, Ben, and I concur that there's no better time than now to enjoy the ride and all of its benefits. 😀

Thanks! I love all your videos and love the way you present your videos. Never even once I felt im being mislead by you just for sake of marketing of the bikes.

I go to you for your honesty. Plus the fact that you have such a huge experience of riding many many bikes throughout your career. This puts you at the top of my go to list for information.

I've enjoyed your channel and will be doing cc bikepacking this year. I agree with your perspective and like your presentation of the bikes and gear. Personally I have a channel and a fleet of hardtail and gravel bikes. I'm fortunate that I have the means to spend money on the bikes I like and want, plus the health and fitness to enjoy setting goals and tracking them on Strava,Polar and Garmin. I'm not interested in racing or going to cycling events and mostly ride solo or with small groups. In the next few years I will be retired and traveling and riding more often. So my channel will continue to just be a diary of things I like about bikes and being healthy. I'm happy to support your channel with view hours as a YT Premium account viewer. Plus if you get post a "buy me a coffee" I do that with other channels. I look at YT like this. Many people are working hard to improve the available content to watch because let's face it, most of the stuff on TV is crap. Anyway, have a great 2024!

Clarity, transparency and honesty. Your channel is a breath of fresh air Ben, and as much of an inspiration as it is a great bike review channel. Your stories shared about your rides / events and with the people, are the glue for your reviews. Cheers. All best wishes to you and yours for 2024.

I always value and respect you honest opinions Ben, as a manager of a bike shop it is great to get your perspective on the bikes I am not exposed to. I often refer your content to my customers so they can get a well rounded opinion. Keep up the great work!

Ben, I have followed you for many, many years…. especially in your last job as a presenter for a different channel. Your love for cycling and ability to connect and explain your riding experience to the viewers its unique and refreshing. Keep up the good work and I hope the support for your channel continues to grow. Cheers.

we need more guys like you! Honest people! Alohas from Maui!

This dude is credible, and has been for a long time. Still it was good to get an insider view on how all this works.

Great approach! Keep the videos coming. Love the channel!

Thanks Ben. I look forward to your content every week. I particularly enjoy your event/race re-cap videos. Please keep up the good work. From Colorado Springs.

You are credible and honest! Hope you make tons of money! Happy New Year!

So much great content and quality uploads this year … thanks 👍🏼

I’m sort of blown away by the fact that you only own two bikes, but then it makes perfect sense, since you always seem to be surrounded by test bikes! Thank you for this how-the-sausage-is-made explainer, and hope it works out even better for you in 2024.

Keep it up, Ben!

Wow. The consistency never wavers. You have made integrity your "brand" -- which is why your reviews are so valuable. I'm not sure anyone else would offer a "full disclosure" video like this one. But, coming from you, it isn't a surprise. Thanks.

Hey Ben, UK here, love this channel, keep up the good work

I am grateful for your awesome cycling content. Thanks for filling this niche so well!

Love your honesty and transparency. I enjoy your channel very much. Hope you have a healthy and super fun 2024!

Dang Ben! That was very insightful. You’re really living my dream job! Hah haha. Thanks so much for making this video. I have always enjoyed your direct, clear, and concise style of cycling journalism. Keep up the great work. I wish you all the success you deserve. . p.s., While I have nothing at all against any generation, I find a certain comfort in seeing a man of my own age group who is not only a great journalist, but also remaining relevant in the age of modern social technology, while also being a bad to the bone racehorse on the bike.

Love this Ben! Your openness and honesty is so refreshing!

great honesty insight, much appreciated. keep it up and best of luck to u.

Thanks for the inside information. I enjoy your channel and recognize the effort you put in to create useful and engaging content on my favorite activity!

Heard your interview on Ted King's podcast so then I found your channel. Great work, thanks for sharing your clear love of cycling.

Great post and I like the transparency. There's no perfect, unbiased way to test but I think how you have it set up is probably the closest thing to it. As long as you feel like you can be honest in your review than any fringe benefit (necessary travel to test etc,) is negligible. Great content, keep it up!

@ben Love the channel, Ben and kia ora from New Zealand. Come and ride here sometime! Your reviews and presentation are super informative and non-stressful in terms of their pacing and timbre. Keep em' coming!

Looking forward to being along for The Ride in 2024

I bought a set of Castelli Unlimited bibs after Ben’s feature. After trying one bought 3 more. Then bought their thermal ROS tight and shoe covers… Currently own a Warbird, but as I type this I keep jumping over to check shipping status on a Stigmata Apex 1x (from Mike’s Bikes) that Ben’s review helped me decide on… My best friend is ordering a Seigla rigid after I shared Ben’s feature… just a heads up advertisers.

Excellent video! It helps navigate the options and helps to define focus if one is honest and wants to get into the business!

Great video Ben, I recall first catching you on an old Bikeradar video, where you rode around with 4 or 5 power meters on your bike, very thorough analysis,great journalism and very engaging to watch, cool to see you grow your channel. Thanks for the explanation but as others have said, we know what you are about 😊

Ben love what your doing and the transparency keep up the great work

Thanks Ben! Thanks for covering NE events.

Hi Ben thanks for your great work, your channel is my go to place for my cycling needs these days mostly gravel, keep up the great work it’s much appreciated all the best for the new year

Thanks for the honest video. I've been working as a journalist in the field of cameras for many years and the story is pretty much the same. But you are never 100% independent from a manufacturer. You really need their latest product to review to generate views, especially if it's a big/popular brand, so you don't want to completely piss them off with your previous review...it just how it works...

Ben is there a niche on you tube for a bike reviewer/raconteur like yourself to go direct to their own subscriber base and ask that they provide their own bikes to you for review and testing which in turn could provide some invaluable comparison and insight between certain models and brands which would also make for interesting viewing. For eg. you could set up a test circuit and do a series of tests which could including climbing, descending acceleration etc and then provide feedback accordingly.Maybe you could test 3-4 bikes once a month in a certain class category (ie AERO). This would allow you to access and test an entire catalogue of bikes that is maybe not possible at the moment by borrowing from the public SKU's. Anyway just a thought. Keep up the good work.

Nice videos Ben, thanks for sharing this with us. Good luck with the channel, the reviews are super valuable

Thanks Ben - big fan of your work from down under!

As a recent Boulder transplant I can attest to the variety of terrain the Boulder area affords to fully test pretty much any kind of bike. Hope to see you out on the road/trail in '24.

I trust the shit out of Ben just based on pure instinct because he just thinks and talks differently than the other influencers. The industry needs more of Ben's maturity and experience.

Enjoyed The Ride today in Boulder, nice weather! Thanks for the transparency. I especially appreciate that you often test bikes by racing them; anyone who has ever raced even just a little realizes that *hit happens in races that just does not seem happen nearly as much when justing riding along...

Thanks!

Thanks for this video Ben, I appreciate the transparency. I think you’ve got a great recipe for content and I hope it continues the success.

Enjoying your videos and your in depth explanation of your ways of working!

Bravo! Glad to see that you can make some sort of living doing what you love in an honest way. There aren't enough people like you in the world! Hope it keeps working for you! :-)

Thanks so much for an honest explanation 😊

Thanks for transparency...you are one of the only guys I really trust in the bike review biz

The best in the business! My go to YT channel for fun, honest, and informative content. Hard to find reasonably unbiased bike info, as there is so much pimping and overhype for what most don’t realize are very marginal gains.

A very interesting explanation of the facts, thank you. A very Happy News year ahead.

Ben - Appreciate the meta review; like most of the commentors I've seen, I'm here because you represent a kind of everyman of cycling with an insider's knowledge and frankly, a top level amateur skill level without being obnoxious. Tough to pull off; we want to be envious but we can all imagine riding and hanging out with you. I think the quality of your reviews have resulted in as many non-sales as sales; that is if you were inclined to buy a brand Ben's review wasn't the thing that closed it for you but probably made you look harder - at both yourself and the product. It's been a good ride so far; Good luck in '24.

Great job Ben!

Thanks for your transparency.

This is a great video. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for your transparency!

Ben, your channel is inspirational, factual, and excellent bike journalism and sport. Sponsors -> continue to support The Ride - a most excellent channel. Ben's dedication to the sport is unquestionable. He is always professional, his videos are informative, and support the sport as a whole. He is positive, humble, and very creative. His credibility is unquestionable. I am so inspired by Ben and folks like him. As a vascular neurologist and critical care doctor I love cycling, and so much so that I hope to contribute to the sport, and start to review the health benefits of cycling and the folks that make the sport what it is - like Ben! If you need a doc or would like to ever bounce ideas about medical aspects of cycling and sport - please get in touch!

Thanks