Why Did We Start a Patreon?

As a creator, I've always been intrigued by the thought of starting a Patreon account and offering closer access to Bernie and I through a paid subscription. I've seen other creators do it but at the time I didn't feel like I had more to offer someone who was willing to pay a monthly fee. Some of these creators would use Patreon as a place to post their YouTube videos early before everyone else. While that's fine and all, I felt that wasn't enough and hesitated on doing it until I had something more to offer. Fast forward to May of 2025 when I started noticing just how lazy I had become, riding my bike just two times in all of April. Thinking back to some comments that were left on our videos about not having anyone to ride with or wanting to support our channel in other ways, I started thinking more about how we could possibly use Patreon to deliver a closer connection with our viewers. That's how Da Crew-sers started. What if we could create a small community of supporters who not only wanted a closer connection with us but could also use some motivation to ride more? That's what I initially thought could work using Patreon. I wanted it to be a place where users could not only comment but create their own posts and share their own info or photos. Unfortunately I hadn't done my homework enough on Patreon and quickly learned that only the creator could post new content. That's when I turned to Discord and how our Discord Server started. Discord is the place to do what I was thinking about all along, to create that space where users could post about their daily rides, seek and give encouragement to others, and form a tighter bond with not only Bernie and I but everyone else who signed up. As a Patreon member, you are automatically given premier access to our Discord Server and can post your own ride or bike photos to share with us. I will also post links to behind-the-scenes live streams when we film new videos. As the user base grows, we'll add more channels to it. I really think this is where the value of the membership comes in. Patreon is the vehicle to collect those monthly fees but Discord is where the real community comes in. If this interests you, please join us!  It's less than a Starbucks coffee per month and whatever we collect from this will go straight towards travel costs to help get us to events like DirtyFest.