Meet the team behind Heroes on Bikes🚴

I meet this artist when I was on Noise.cash and I liked his work the project is still quite new in the NFT world but its quite a different project to most projects out there I haven't seen another project on bikes on WAX yet . Francesco from the team was happy to chat about there project

Hey Francesco

hey

How's you ?

All ok... worked on new sketches today. How are you doing?

I am good first day out in 10 days . Hoping the sketch's are for the project?

Of course it is for the project of course. 10 days? Did you do a covid quarantine?

Had covid . How did the project start ?

It all started on Instagram 2 years ago now. I am a cycling enthusiast and former athlete and I am passionate about unearthing curious stories about this ancient sport. The Instagram page has taken off, to date it has almost 13k followers. I was looking for a way to reach in a quick and easy way my followers through collectibles ... initially I thought of drawings, posters or gadgets. The "discovery" of the Crypto world and later NFTs was what I was looking for!

How did you discover NFTs ?

Uh... thanks to covid probably. At the end of 2020 my work has suffered a setback due to pandemic, and I had a lot of time to devote to other things. I approached by chance the Banano community and started collecting CryptoMonkeys Was a stroke of luck. In addition, I met many helpful people who helped me in the beginning

Why did you pick WAX to be your home form your project ?

The fact that the WAX blockchain is carbon neutral was crucial. But it wasn't such an obvious choice. Initially I thought about Opensea (it's for sure the most popular platform) but after experiencing it and already knowing the WAX ecosystem I had no more doubts.

Then there is to add that because WAX is really user friendly. My reasoning was also based on the fact that I had to reach people who don't know what an NFT is, who have no idea what a Blockchain is... in short I needed a platform that at the first use didn't need a complicated tutorial. Oh and let's not forget the gas fee very very important that wax has no gas fee .

What is your project all about ?

For now, it's all about art collectibles. At the moment we are two artists working on the project: me as you might have guessed enjoying drawing in pencil and charcoal. And then there's Caterina, a friend as well as a collaborator. She is the real artist having studied art and architecture. I have some of her paintings hanging in my living room. She specializes in ink drawing and graphic tablet work.

I'm also trying to convince an illustrator graduated from the IED in Milan, but I will not go into details because she is not yet officially part of the team.

Now 6 assets of the sketches schema are planned. Then in the second half of 2022 we will make more cartoon style assets. For 2023 the idea is to make a game based on the collection. With Caterina we are studying a board game. While I'm thinking in the medium term to a P2E. The WAX wallet can be synchronized for example to Telegram. These are all ideas that I can see being feasible, not right away of course but all it will take is for the collection and the project to catch on.

Ah so is there is already long term plans for the project ?

Yes, I posted a roadmap for the next 12 months on my blog, When I have a full team at my disposal, the roadmap for the long term will be posted. Illustrator/designer is almost in.. Then I'm going to look for some help on the programming side to create a site, and the P2E game. Before we take that step though, we will need to work hard with our initial collection.

We're just at the beginning and I know it's hard work, but like the cyclists I'm moving forward stoically. We are here to stay.

When did you drop your first NFT ?

On December 20, 2021 there was the first distribution of the asset promo through a trivia on Instagram. 10 assets were distributed that day. So far all the dropped assets have been free. Also the first sketches will be distributed with free drops, but to participate you will need to have a proof of ownership. So only those who have the promo assets in their wallet can redeem the artwork for free.

How has the community reacted to your project ?

The Instagram community reacted with curiosity I would say. Even mistrust for some in short all in all it was a lukewarm reaction and I expected it. We are in the NFT bubble, but if you approach a generalist audience you have to expect mistrust.

But my project has also an educational role from this point of view, to make as many people as possible understand how to manage an NFT.

What was the first NFT you dropped ?

How many have created since ?

Now the collection consists of 3 promos and 2 artworks sketches in total 247 pieces of the collection have been mined out of 300 available I have also made the count of the owners that are 168 each sketch will be minted into 50 assets . later there will be 4 more sketches, but they are working on my table right now and I can not tokenize them

Then there will be another promo sticker for when we launch the cartoons, but for now it has not yet been minted .

How do you create them ?

The promo stickers and logo were commissioned from professional illustrator David Rigoni. However, David was limited to the creation of these assets. The rest is hand drawn paper and pencil for me, ink for Caterina. Then we scan them in HD and adapt them with PS to be usable on Atomichub.

How long does each NFT take to create

I speak for myself since Caterina is not here to answer. For a complete pencil work I spend up to 15/20 hours drawing. Surely Caterina is faster than me. In any case there is a lot of effort on our part.

Do you have a favorite NFT in the project?

Indeed. Right now my favorite is the second sketch. I drew it myself and consider it symbolic for the collection and the philosophy of the hero. I'll send you a screen shot.

Of course .

The design is inspired by Gino Bartali. A real hero who saved hundreds of lives during WWII . What do you think?

Love it will they all be black and white ?

Those in the sketch series will all be in black and white . I only work that way. I asked Caterina to do the first artwork b&w only , even though she is more versatile and creative.

Would you like to collab with any NFT artist ?

Collaborations are a positive experience, I would definitely look for an arrangement of some sort. But a lot depends on who's asking me, I prefer to collaborate with those who share my values, so I should first know well the project I'm going to collaborate with.

Is there any NFT artist you would like to work with ?

In truth, I never thought about it. The first name that comes to mind is crypto5tache. It is true that he is very famous but if we leave out the artistic merit and the influence on the community, I think he is a good guy. He's willing to share his experience and has an epic mustache.... I assure you that mustaches were very much in vogue among our cycling heroes .

Do you collect NFTs yourself ?

Yes I have some favorite collections. I've been getting into Aetherfaucet lately, I find the agents' NFTs have something mesmerizing about them. Then of course the cryptomonkeys I find them very funny. Then periodicelem which is a chemistry themed collection. I find it super interesting

What has been the best part of doing the project ?

Other than the drawing that relaxes me. Learning how to use WAX tools in depth, using Atomichub smart contracts and working on Neftyblocks has been very inspiring.

What's been the hardest part of doing the project ?

One episode in particular I felt in serious trouble. During the first TRIVIA on Instagram half an hour before the deadline I realize that Instagram has removed the ability to put quizzes in stories to the heroesonbike account. I got really mad at Zuckerberg that day 😂. But I managed to find a solution and make the first drop

More generally I realize that you always have to keep the wheels moving. The community has built up an expectation and you can't take too long of a break.

What does your family think of your project ?

My wife supports me and she likes artwork. My brother instead is skeptical in general about the crypto world and consequently looks with distrust also at NFTs of any kind. I would like that one day my brother will change his mind and accept one of my NFT as a gift.

Have you brought anyone into the NFT world ?

Yes. There followers on the Instagram page who win contests are all strangers to the NFT world and my collection is the first approach. Then my collaborator when I seriously told her about the project her eyes lit up. Then a handful of trusted friends who I share my experiences with.

Oh wow congrats . What you like to do to unwind ?

Drawing is a relaxing and constructive way to spend free time. Then I like to practice yoga and take bike rides, these activities also help reset the mind.

Tell us something random about you ?

I have a dog that I love. She is a 4 year old Cavalier king Charles spaniel named Ohana

Where can we keep up with your project?

There is the Instagram profile where I mainly tell cycling stories

https://www.instagram.com/heroesonbike/

Twitter where I reach out to NFT collectors.

https://twitter.com/hobcollection?s=20

Telegram It is a channel of notifications all the important things pass also from there

https://t.me/heroesonbike

The blog where ideas are presented in more detail

https://www.publish0x.com/heroes-on-bike

Where can we buy your NFTs ?

For now, we have decided to release these first NFTs for free through social events. So right now the only way to buy one is to look for it in the secondary market.

https://wax.atomichub.io/market?collection_name=heroesonbike

Any chance of competition for the readers ?

I can raffle off 20 NFT promo stickers for your readers .

Oh brilliant we will do twitter giveaway . Before we finish is there anything you would like to say or add for the readers ?

Great . I hope that collectors will take an interest in the stories of the heroes depicted on NFTs to keep their memories alive .

Its a been a pleasure to chat today .

Me too. Thank you for the opportunity

Please check out his links and sub to his channel . To enter are competition check the link below

https://twitter.com/Crackers832/status/1488299461134766084?t=pGw91rC7GC5qKk5bS1rGiA&s=19