Day 2: Porthleven to Falmouth

Day 2 began in Porthleven, and it was exactly the kind of place that reminds me why this journey matters.

Porthleven is a beautiful seaside town, with lovely people, and this morning the weather was kind — apart from a breeze that I thought might take my brolly and my piano.

After the emotion and intensity of finally leaving Land’s End yesterday, it felt good to begin the day with music in a place like that.

I busked in Porthleven before setting off, and I am very grateful to everyone who stopped, listened, spoke to me, and supported what I am doing. These are the moments that make the miles mean something. A piano in a harbour town, people slowing down for a few minutes, and music becoming part of the day.

From Porthleven, I rode to Helston.

It was meant to be a shorter ride today, and I had hoped to busk Helston, but not every town gives you the right place to stop. Sometimes the hardest part is not getting there, it is finding somewhere safe, suitable, and respectful to set up with a full-size piano, the dogs, the Vok, and everything that comes with it.

In the end, Helston was not the right stop for today, so I carried on.

That turned the day into a longer ride than originally planned, taking me on towards Falmouth. The route was still beautiful, but days like this are a reminder that this journey is not as simple as drawing a line on a map and following it. Every day has to be worked out properly. The road, the hills, the battery, the dogs, the places to stop, the support vehicle, the weather, the livestream, and the safety side all have to come together.

We have also been getting a lot of questions about the Vok.

The Vok U is the cargo bike carrying the piano, and there is more information about it on The Journey page of the website. It is built as a heavy-duty electric-assist cargo bike, and if you have been to London, you have probably seen similar cargo bikes being used as delivery vehicles.

So let’s get into what electric-assist actually means.

I am pedalling. The Vok is not driving itself, and it does not move down the road unless I am pedalling it. The electric motor assists while I pedal, which matters when I am carrying a full-size acoustic piano, the dogs, and the full rig.

That assistance does not take away from the effort. It is what makes the effort possible.

After the first couple of days, I have realised there is no way I could have done this journey without equipment like the Vok. Not safely. Not with the piano. Not with the dogs. Not day after day, across this kind of terrain.

The point was never to make it easy. The point was to find a way to make it possible.

That is also why battery planning matters so much.

The climbs matter. The weight matters. The wind matters. The road surface matters. The direction of travel matters. Even whether there are enough downhills to regenerate some power back into the battery can make a difference.

That is one of the things we have to talk through in the team briefings before each ride.

Most days, we run with one battery in the Vok and one battery in the van charging, so there is always one ready. If we know it is going to be a long or difficult day, we can plan differently. If the route looks like it might push the battery too far some say, The Stig can meet me partway to swap batteries so I can keep moving safely.

Today was a good example of why that planning matters.

As I made my way through Tremough and down into Penryn, the battery was getting very low. For a while, it looked like I might need the spare. But the downhill sections into Penryn, and then from Penryn into Falmouth, allowed the Vok to regenerate enough power to get me safely in without needing to change the battery.

That is the kind of thing people do not always see when they are watching a livestream. Sometimes you can hear the coordination between the PianoMan team members in the background, the route checks, the battery checks, the questions, the decisions, and the constant adjustments that keep the day moving.

There is a lot more planning and coordination involved in continuously cycling this journey than people might expect. We will get more into the challenges of finding suitable routes when we take a very zig-zaggy route from Falmouth to Truro early next week. That will probably explain better than anything why this is not just a straight line from Land’s End to John o’ Groats.

For now, I am in Falmouth.

I will be busking here for the next few days and taking a small break from pedalling while we regroup, plan the next section, and give the legs and the Vok a little breathing room.

Day 2 was shorter than yesterday in some ways, but it still had its own challenges, its own decisions, and its own moments that reminded me why I started. Not just the miles, but the pauses in between. The places where I get to stop, play music, talk to people, and remember why I wanted to do this in the first place.

— James

Day 2 Counter
Porthleven to Falmouth
Miles travelled: 18.1
Average speed: 12 mph
Elevation gain: 1,086 ft
Elevation loss: 1,280 ft
Towns busked: 1 — Porthleven

Journey Total
Total miles travelled: 46.2
Total towns busked: 3