ROAM, a good format for velomobile promotion.

 Crossing the Mississippi in the Twin Cities
 (Photo made by Benji)

On the Dutch fora, there was a suggestion to copy the ROAM format to a EURO (European Rollover). Sounds like a great idea to me to promote the velomobile. What made ROAM such a succes? There are more factors of course, but I think that discipline was very important for most riders. During ROAM we had the iron discipline of a time schedule. Without this schedule and without the psychological support of other riders and the support people, I would surely have taken more rest days. The downside was that it was difficult to make daily blog posts, photo and vido uploads. Not that I think there should have been shorter trips or more days of rest! (although true days of rest instead of the "rolling stops" through Minneapolis and Chicago would have been very good for recuperation and some massage of sore muscles).
Especially regarding the video material, it would have been great to have someone with us that is good at editing the daily flow of material from all riders.  A sort of ROAM journal. I was forced to make short clips and dump the most appealing raw on YouTube, because I simply did not have time (IF the facilities had been there at the campgrounds AND if the wifi hadn't crashed continuously because of all ROAMers uploading at the same time) to make something nice out of it.

Reception at the European Embassy in Washington DC
left-to-right: American ambassador, European
ambassador and our beloved
ROAM captain: Josef Janning

Hopefully a documentary can be made with all the material. A professional has shown interest in doing this. That would be super, because the impact will last longer. Even raw uploads was difficult. I have not even one fourth of all material of interest uploaded until now. I think it's a shame. I can obviously work much better at home behind the powerful video editing software on my iMac, but that would be too late. Fun for the riders, but promotionally it's just old news.The rides through virtually unpopulated (natural) areas are beautiful, but you really must go through the large towns, otherwise you will not be noticed! We could have made a very nice coast-to-coast tour with only local media attention. By consciously going THROUGH cities like Chicago, Minneapolis and Washington, we have showed that it is more than doable, while also attracting much attention.

When it comes to performance, then there are many solo rides that are more legendary for the HPV incrowd. But the media attention for them was virtually nil. Why not combine fun and promotion? Let's roll over Europe too!