A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
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A New American Town - Bentonville, Arkansas
The Magic of Mountain Biking in Bentonville: A Conversation with Seth Alvo
Tune in for a lively conversation with our host, Allen Woody and Seth Alvo, the brilliant mind behind one of the globe's most renowned mountain biking YouTube channels, Berm Peak.
In this episode, Seth shares how he got his start as a YouTuber and cyclist. He delves into the unique allure of mountain biking in Bentonville, offering an audio tour of his favorite trail, Cease and Desist at Coler Mountain Bike Preserve. Plus, get recommendations on how to spend a perfect day in Bentonville, complete with restaurant recommendations and accommodation options.
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Welcome to Visit Bentonville's podcast in New American Town. As always, we're coming to you from Hackston Road Studios off the bustling Bentonville Square, and I'm your host, alan Woody, joining me in studio. Today we have Seth Alvo from Berm Peak, his YouTube channel, which, if you're into mountain biking, you know exactly who this guy is. How many subscribers do you have right now?
Speaker 2:On the main channel, that's over two and a half million Nice he is.
Speaker 1:Seth is the creator of the most popular mountain bike channels in the world, which is really really cool. And, Seth, you don't live here, but you come here often. Where do you live? Tell me a little bit about Seth.
Speaker 2:So I'm in western North Carolina at the time I find good things.
Speaker 1:It compares a lot to this area actually In a lot of ways.
Speaker 2:there's really good mountain biking, but the infrastructure isn't like Bentonville. Bentonville is in a league of its own when it comes to infrastructure.
Speaker 2:But where I live oh yeah, it's great here when I live we have lots of back country trails and really rough stuff and big descents, but it's hard to get to. And I really like to come to Bentonville because it's like an ongoing experiment, it's like pulling all the stops out and making a place good for mountain biking. And when I talk to people about it or when really like you know hardcore mountain bikers here about Bentonville, they're like it's in Arkansas, there's only 200 feet elevation change. That's not mountain biking. I'm like, well, have you ever been there, bro?
Speaker 2:I got news you should go there and see what they did with that 200 feet, because it's second to none.
Speaker 1:Is that a real statistic? Because I can't imagine that.
Speaker 2:No, I mean in the Bentonville proper it's just hills. I mean, if you go out there, especially a place like Eureka Springs, you know there's bigger hills and rougher back country stuff. But in Bentonville it's all built, it's purpose built mountain bike trails and jumps and flow trails and I love that stuff. Who doesn't like going fast and having fun? I don't know anybody that doesn't like going fast and having fun. Right, and so the accessibility of it, like I said, is in a league of its own, and whenever I come here, I'm just I'm happier for the duration of the time I'm here, because I can just walk out of the door wherever I am staying, ride my bike someplace and have a, even if I'm going to the grocery store, I get to have a good time and bro you don't dabble Like you come to Northwest Arkansas, you stay, you ride a lot.
Speaker 1:So you're here for a month right now, right, oh yeah, and yeah, it's all well. A kudos to you on your weather. If you brought this with you, you're hired. You need to stay because this is amazing. Do you have a particular season where you prefer to mountain bike here?
Speaker 2:I would say this month exactly.
Speaker 1:It's looking good right now.
Speaker 2:I was here in the spring and it's awesome too. Yes, sir, any time we're to, the weather's great. Anywhere in the country is a good time to mountain bike there, and so October is pretty good. It just started cooling off. The leaves are going to be changing, it's going to be mint.
Speaker 1:It's really starting to pop here. Yeah, it's unbelievable. Now tell us a little bit about your your YouTube channels. Berm Peak, is that the one you started?
Speaker 2:first. Yeah, so it was originally called Seth's Bike Hacks, and love that. Nobody in 2015 started a YouTube channel with the intention of becoming a professional YouTuber. Right, if it wasn't a thing? No, it was, but very few people knew about it, and so if somebody asked me what I do today and I say I'm a full-time YouTuber, they raise their eyebrows but they know what I mean by that. Back in 2015, they would look at me like I had three heads, and so I, too, had no idea that was an option, and so I was just putting content out there.
Speaker 2:I'm just making videos and, uh, first I called it bike hacks and then, when people started watching it, I realized that domain was taken, and so I called it sets bike hacks and, uh, it's kind of a weird stupid name, but I never knew it was going to be. I never knew people are going to watch it, so it never dawned on me that people would like me. I didn't even know it was an option. And so, after a while, I started getting all these subscribers and I'm like what is it? Why would you subscribe to this? You know people log in. That's the confidence we love. So people log into YouTube and my subscribers schooled me on it. They do be in the comments. When are you going to post again? Hey, I just subscribed to you. I can't. When do you post? What's your video posting schedule? I was like all right, I guess there's a lot more to this, yeah, and uh, that's gotta be flattering too.
Speaker 2:Well, it is because I made the content for locals.
Speaker 2:Uh, people, people locally knew who I was, because I was the guy on like a group road ride who'd ride my bike up on the railing or something and jump off and uh, um, you just frightened me Well yeah if I die, I die I grew up riding BMX and you know street and all that stuff, skate parks and so a lot of that always stuck with me and I just thought, okay, I'm going to make some content and just share it on Facebook for my friends, you're going to do what you love.
Speaker 1:Totally share that. Yeah, do you think and this is a little bit off topic do you think a lot of people who who try to become content creators go about it the wrong way, like because what you're describing is a very organic way to make wonderful content, where it's all about the content it started? I'm just doing what I love to do. I'm making the art I want to make instead of I want to make money, so I'm going to make art. Does that make sense? Am I making sense?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it does, and clearly a lot of people go about it the wrong way. I mean, first of all, they underestimate it. Maybe not anymore Now, everybody knows it's a lot of work, but they underestimate it. And a lot of people do go in with the wrong intentions and the wrong goal. Uh, I don't think it's a bad goal to want to make money and make a living for yourself, why not?
Speaker 2:It's a great, it's a great um goal, but you are competing against people who are passionate about it, and so you're never going to beat them just being motivated by success or money you you're going to have. You're going to be competing against people who are motivated by way more things.
Speaker 1:And that leads me to my next question Beautifully Great job. It's like you've done this before. What, speaking of motivation, what? And being good at something? You have to set yourself apart. You have to differentiate yourself from everybody else, because there's thousands of people who love to ride mountain bikes and can video it. So what do you do differently that makes your content so popular?
Speaker 2:I just don't care what anybody thinks of me.
Speaker 1:I just want to share.
Speaker 2:I just want to share mountain biking the way I see it. There, there's a lot of content creators who are afraid to appear that they don't know what they're doing or that they're going to make a mistake, or Because they are viewing their audience as these hardcore, advanced mountain bikers, and so they need to come correct. I don't care, because I know that most people are not like that. Most people forget stuff on their ride. Most people run into something on their bike that they've never seen before and they've got to look it up. Most people order the wrong size of something or the wrong part and I just include it in the video, and people can relate to that a lot more than somebody who is and I'm not throwing shade at other content creators, because there's plenty of fantastic ones, but talking down to their audience and I that happens all the time yeah, and I don't think that talking down to your audience is a good way to keep them watching. A fair point.
Speaker 1:So Not very many of them. You know what I really like about that. Show how it makes me feel inadequate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right, right, exactly I totally understand that.
Speaker 1:Now, what are you looking forward to? You know maybe what's your favorite trail in Northwest Arkansas. I was going to say what are you looking forward to riding, but you've been here riding for a couple days or a week or so. So what's your favorite trail, what's the one you can't leave here without hitting?
Speaker 2:So I haven't ridden close to all the trails that you have here and it is hard to pick a favor. I've never thought of that. I really, really like Cease Desist at Kohler Bike Park and there's jump lines or a dime a dozen. There's tons of jump lines, but I really, really love that jump line. There's a cool drop in, there's a really cool berm and transfer at the beginning and then there's just these perfect jumps and then the trail ends with this really cool feature called Drop the Hammer, where you go off of this big drop and there's a landing and there's a big jump after it.
Speaker 2:It's hard to explain on a podcast what it's like. I can see you trying with your hands and everything. It is hard, yeah, it's a lot of bang for your buck. You don't have to climb very far to do it again and it's just fun and it's accessible and you can do it with your friends and they don't have to be super advanced. Everybody can ride that trail and no matter how good you are or no matter how much of a beginner you are, you can roll over the jumps or fly over the jumps and have a good time and then at the end, when you get to drop the hammer. You can either have a fun time watching or a fun time actually riding it. Fair enough and a good decision.
Speaker 1:There is smart Making a good decision there at the end is probably a good idea. So I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit, because you do really well with this. I like this. So tell me if you're talking to somebody, a buddy, who's coming to Bentonville for the first time, lay out the perfect day, and I'm talking everything from the trails to the restaurants to the stay.
Speaker 2:So the essence of Bentonville is staying someplace where you can access the trails easily, and that's pretty much everywhere. Honestly, I would say, get as close to downtown as possible. Wake up in the morning and ride your bike someplace to get breakfast. Don't just sit around, don't walk someplace. Get on your bike. There's bike racks everywhere. There's strength in numbers, it's not going to get stolen. You can sit outside right next to your bike, have some breakfast and then breakfast place that you like. I love press room for breakfast Right near here too Very good idea.
Speaker 2:Press room is awesome for breakfast and then just get on the greenway. Don't have a plan, just get on the greenway and off of. Especially if you've been here for the first time. That's going to be mind blowing. Now, on the greenway on either side there's what mountain bikers call single track, which is just typical mountain bike trails, and they're on either side. And on the greenways where I live there's a bunch of just vegetation that they probably cleared the whole thing with the bulldozer 20 years ago and then, you know, briars and thorn bushes and stuff grew there. They put mountain bike trails there here and that's mind blowing. When I see it for the first time Now, those are not the best trails I've ever seen. I've seen it for the first time. Now, those are not the best trails in Bentonville, but it's mind blowing that you can use them to actually get places. Oh, that's a little hack right there, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Use the trails to get to trails, and that's that was the intention, and so you get on them. It's going to be all downhill from downtown Bentonville. If you get on the greenway and you're going to run into things, you're going to run into this feature called the masterpiece. It's a jump line that is one continuous sculpture made of metal and concrete. It's mind blowing. If you keep going, you get to the castle, which is a bike park that you can pedal up and run laps, and by the time you get there, you will have run into a whole bunch of people and they'll tell you where to go Nice.
Speaker 1:And you just kind of go on the wind.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say so.
Speaker 1:That's what.
Speaker 2:I did the first time I came here. I just got out there and started riding and talking to people.
Speaker 1:And my next question was literally going to be do you have any like Bentonville, specific bike hacks, since bike hacks are your thing, but you just laid out an awesome one right there. Do you have any extras?
Speaker 2:Well, bike hacks was what I did originally. Now I do anything relating to mountain biking and just you know the lifestyle of a mountain biker, but I really like having a cargo bike here. While I brought my cargo bike here because I want to do all my grocery shopping, or when I go to pick up food, I want to get it on my bike and I think if you're going to stay in Bentonville for any appreciable amount of time and you can rent a cargo bike or you have one that you can bring, just try it. It's pretty cool, because if you don't live someplace where you can actually use one, you don't know how satisfying it feels to go into town, get a heinous amount of groceries and just stack them all onto your bike and ride them home Right.
Speaker 2:It's easier than parking your car and trying to find parking and walking into the grocery store.
Speaker 1:Well, and it makes your bike trip a more immersive experience. It's kind of like for a fisherman, you go to Canada, where all there is to do is that.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah. And so you're just biking. It makes your vacation more immersive, but what it really does, it makes your grocery store experience a lot more fun.
Speaker 1:Fair point and getting there and back a lot more fun too, something you actually look forward to instead of something you have to do. Exactly I love that. Well, seth, this has been absolutely informative and delightful. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your trip to Bentonville to talk to us today. Well, thanks for having me. Thank you so much to everyone listening as well. Remember you can catch all of the new American Town podcast episodes on streaming channels. Following our social platforms. We're going to visit Bentonvillecom and don't forget to follow Visit Bentonville on Facebook, instagram, twitter, linkedin, youtube and TikTok. We have a lot of exciting events coming to Bentonville in 2023. Check out our event calendar and plan your trip today. Thanks for tuning in. We'll see you next time.