Day 15: Sometimes the Journey Has to Come First

Today's ride took me from Paignton to Exeter, passing through Newton Abbot.

I know quite a few of you expected me to stop in Torquay, Teignmouth and Newton Abbot. Believe me, I wanted to.

Unfortunately, today wasn't one of those days.

One thing this journey has reminded me is that although you see me riding a PianoBike across Britain, that's only one part of what I'm doing. There is a business behind this project, and there are responsibilities that continue whether I'm cycling, busking or resting.

Yorkie and I have more than one business venture together, and because she doesn't live or work in the UK, there are times when she'll send me to meetings that she simply can't attend herself.

Today was one of those days.

Getting to Exeter for a business meeting had to take priority, which meant I couldn't stop and busk in Torquay, Teignmouth or even Newton Abbot as I'd originally hoped.

I know some people were disappointed, and honestly, so was I.

What most people don't see is just how much planning goes into every single mile of this journey. We're not just looking for the shortest route. We're looking for the safest one.

The bike, the piano and everything I'm carrying comes to around 525 kilograms. At that weight, a route that looks perfectly reasonable on a map can become completely impractical in reality.

That's why we spend so much time planning routes in Komoot. Yorkie builds multiple options for each day, looking not just at distance, but at sustained gradients, road camber, traffic, surfaces and places where the bike has the best chance of succeeding. Sometimes the longer route is actually the easier route.

Today's planned route still went through Newton Abbot, but it deliberately avoided the steeper climbs around both Torquay and Teignmouth.

Unfortunately, technology had other ideas.

For some reason Komoot refused to load the route guidance today, so I had to switch over to Google Maps just to keep moving. Google Maps is brilliant at getting most people from A to B. It just doesn't know it's trying to move 525 kilograms from A to B. It doesn't know which hills we deliberately avoid or why a few extra miles can actually save far more energy than taking the shortest route.

As we've continued north, we've also noticed something interesting with the VOK.

Every now and then the power seems to drop away suddenly, but not where we first expected. It doesn't seem to be happening on the really steep climbs. Instead, it appears to happen more on long, sustained gradients of around three to four percent.

We're still trying to understand exactly what's causing it, but every day teaches us something new about both the bike and the journey.

One thing I do owe you all is an apology.

I'm behind on the blogs and I'm behind on social media.

When this journey started, I genuinely thought documenting it would be one of the easier parts, it hasn't been. Between riding, business meetings, planning routes, analysing data, fixing equipment, replying to messages and trying to stay on top of everything else, the days disappear much faster than I ever imagined.

But I've also realised something else.

I've discovered that I enjoy busking far more than I enjoy streaming my busks.

After many, many, MANY years of livestreaming my busks, that surprised me.

When I'm sitting behind the piano on the street, it's the people around me that give me the energy to play. Someone smiles. Someone asks about how the piano got there. A child starts dancing. A stranger tells me their story. Conversations begin between songs. Those little moments keep my mind engaged just as much as my hands on the keys.

That's what I've always loved about busking.

Streaming has started to feel very different.

I appreciate every single person who joins a live stream. I really do. The fact that people choose to spend their time watching and supporting me is something I'll never take for granted.

But I've noticed that online I'm often just background music while people go about their day. Sometimes the chat is almost silent. Other times, people arrive and immediately start posting song requests before they’ve even said hello to me, my mods or my chat.

There's nothing wrong with that.

It's just made me realise that what fuels me isn't simply playing the piano.

It's connecting with people.

I need that engagement. I need the conversations. I need the interaction. It keeps my mind engaged, and when my mind is engaged, the music seems to come far more naturally.

Without even meaning to, I've found myself enjoying the busks that aren't streamed more than the ones that are. For a little while, I get to forget about cameras, algorithms, trolling, and whether the internet connection is behaving.

I simply become a busker again.

Someone playing music for the people standing in front of me.

That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on sharing this journey. Far from it. It just means I’m still learning how to balance living this experience with documenting it.

Yorkie keeps reminding me that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and she is right. I need to experience it while I am living it, not spend every moment looking at it through a screen or worrying about whether I have captured enough content.

At the end of the day, I would rather experience the journey properly than document it perfectly.

I know many of you are following every mile, every blog and every update, and I’m incredibly grateful that you are. Thank you for sticking with me while I get caught up. My hope is to have everything back on track over the next few days because there are still so many stories I want to tell.

If I do stream a busk, come in and say hello. Tell me how you are, join the conversation and have a catch-up with me. I appreciate every person who gives their time to watch, and the interaction genuinely makes a difference to how connected I feel while I’m playing. What I value most is seeing familiar names, meeting new people and feeling that we are sharing the moment together rather than simply existing on opposite sides of a screen.

Tomorrow is another day, another road and another opportunity to meet someone I haven’t met before, learn about them and learn a little more about myself too.

And that’s the part of this journey I love the most.

— James

Day 15 Counter

Paignton to Exeter

Miles travelled: 28.5
Average speed: 11.7 mph
Elevation gain: 1,856 ft
Elevation loss: 1,812 ft
Locations busked: 1 — Paignton

Journey Total

Total miles travelled: 192.6
Total locations busked: 8