Bicycle Touring Pro Darren Alff-- MIA ?
 

Haven't seen any recent posts by him on his site.

Did you try to contact / email him?

I had never heard of him, but did a quick google search and see that he is still active on facebook or at least has posted there recently. https://www.facebook.com/darrenalff

Maybe his business site is slow/on hold due to the pandemic? Not too many folks are actively touring so I'd think business would be pretty slow.

Most of his tours were in Europe, where he has not been able to travel, so that puts a crimp on content. As well, I suspect as others have stated, that the CV crisis has him scaling back even his US based tours. He was as well in almost burn-out mode. I saw a video he did last year of the south of France into Spain where he announced he was stopping his video recording as he was just too tired to keep logging every day, he just wanted to bike.

People are now getting paid to bicycle tour? Where do I sign up?

Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/user/bicycletouringpro

He started touring roughly 15 years ago, maybe earlier. Started video recording maybe 5 years or so ?, posted on YT, developed a following, makes some money from that I assume, gets gear from companies to try and review, seems to get comped at hotels and the like, does some supported tours and provides a good video, so I'd bet that gets at least partly comped as well. Figured out a while back how to travel cheap, but he's doing something right as he's got 2 very expensive Co-Motion touring bikes. Sells books and how-to videos as well. I don't begrudge him anything, as his videos have been terrific to watch.

I discovered The Bicycle Touring Pro while researching for my touring bike. I might add that after watching his early videos, I discovered Mr. Alf grew up in California, near me. Again from his videos, he went to film school. Afterwards, he was smart enough to guy a simple condo in a Utah resort area that created passive income and paid for itself while he traveled the world. He published a couple books, and used early Facebook Live to record training sessions with followers. He conducted a live discussion with Co-Motion bikes that was recorded and on YouTube. I believe he is a Cancer Survivor.

As a 20 something, he is down to earth with a Huell Howser quality about him. I am guessing that he is getting into bike packing, along with his year old stealth van. I surmise since travel advocacy is currently down, he is working on improving production quality for his future projects. Just a guess. He is quite an entrepreneur, and collaborator. I noticed he started using a drone to highlight a hotel, and traveled with a music composer to cross promote. When many young adults were struggling to find a job, he demonstrates creativity and resilience while in economic difficult times.

I followed him. I am not in the know but my take is:

1. Burnt out - nothing wrong with it as long as you regroup and move on

2. May have fallen in love and reevaluated his direction

He did have some burn out issues on one of his last tours, this one thru southern France into Spain. He announced one day he was stopping his video of the tour and was just going to complete the ride to Barcelona, admitting he needed a break from his job, essentially. I commented on his YT channel that well, yes, he was burned out and needed a vacation. He would video every tour, multiple cameras and a drone at times and it was just hours each day. Then he needed to pause some days to charge the gear up. Then put into a town for a period to edit. It was a job, not a bike vacation and I think he finally came to realize he hadn’t actually had a bike vacation, probably in a decade and needed one.

I fully agree with jlmonte’s post, though I think Darren in now in his early 30’s. I admire his resiliency and perseverance, though sometimes question why he rarely wears tights or leg warmers in very cold conditions. As well he does not use padded shorts as far as I can tell, so has a remarkably tough and conditioned butt !. Power to you Darren, if you read this.