Bunk-a-Biker Home Page
**Purpose Statement**\
Bunk-a-Biker is a worldwide community of motorcycle riders who voluntarily provide accommodations to traveling bikers. It’s a self-moderated network to be utilized along the road for meeting new friends, making road family, and getting support for maintenance needs. While it is a privilege to use, it’s not rightfully designed to be used purely for the sake of saving money but instead to promote the togetherness and support of a motorcycle-enthusiast community.\
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BaB was started on Facebook but has branched onto Instagram and the general web. You can follow the Facebook page or Instagram with the above buttons, or join one of the Facebook groups below. You do not have to be on Facebook to use the network.\
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Links to each Facebook group:\
[Africa ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babafrica/)\| [Austria ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babaustria/)\| [BeNeLux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babBeNeLux/) \| [Canada ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babcanada)\| [Central America](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babcentralamerica/) \| [Denmark ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/Babdenmark/)\| [Finland ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babfinland)\| [Germany ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babgermany/)\| [Great Britain](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babgreatbritain/) \| [Iceland ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babiceland)\| [Italy ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babitaly)\| [Mexico](https://www.facebook.com/groups/Babmexico) \| [New Zealand](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babnewzealand) \| [Norway ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babnorway/)\| [Poland ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babpoland/)\| [Portugal ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babportugal)\| [South America](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babsouthamerica/) \| [Spain ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babspain)\| [Sweden ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babsweden/)\| [Turkey ](https://www.facebook.com/groups/babturkey/)\| [United States](http://facebook.com/groups/babnorthamerica)
| [The Map](https://www.zeemaps.com/bunk-a-biker_world) | [Like us on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/bunkabiker) | [Follow us on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/bunkabiker/) |
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## *How to Support BaB*
Bunk-a-Biker is a FREE service and will always be free. If you love it, use it frequently, or appreciate the hundreds of hours put into making it run smoothly, please consider supporting it!\
If you sign up with Patreon for $5, we will send you a copy of the logo for personal printing of merchandise!\
Patreon is for monthly contributions, PayPal and Venmo are provided for one time donations.
| [PayPal](http://paypal.me/bunkabiker) | [Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/BaBandMMV) | [Venmo](https://venmo.com/ZeeTraveler) |
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## Bunk-a-Biker; A Brief History
Bunk-a-Biker was founded by Kjetil (Che-tyl) Lystad of Oslo, Norway and who still resides in Sarpsborg, Norway. Kjetil would offer his place to his biker friends that were traveling and his name began to get passed around to other riders as someone who would host you. So in 2014, he got the idea to start a motorcycle riders specific page after seeing CouchSurfing becoming popular. “Screw it, let's make this group be for all bikers to unite under the idea of offering their place to their fellow riders who traveled through," he said. The name "Bunk-a-Biker" immediately popped into his head, catchy and simple, and at first he promoted it locally and to his friends. Then along came the Facebook group 'Bunk-a-Biker Norway' that was founded on February 2nd, 2015 followed by the Facebook page of the same name on October 15, 2016. Soon the ball was rolling and members were offering to start branched-off local groups for Denmark, Sweden, the US, and so on. Unfortunately, Kjetil got sick and had family obligations, so he had to focus on his health while the ball of momentum slowed down and eventually came to a halt by 2017.\
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Along came Zee Traveler, an ambitious community leader and passionate traveler, who adored the idea and wanted to use her skills and time to make it flourish. In June 2019, she was unable to ride for six weeks due to a motorcycle wreck and decided to spend that time helping build a community that could help all traveling riders. Instead of starting her own, she reached out to Kjetil with her offer to build up BaB. He was excited to see that she shared his same vision of what it should be and let her take over. Her reputation from founding and running Minimalist Motorcycle Vagabonds preceded her and soon people were happy to see activity in the groups again.\
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While she had been a member of Bunk-a-Biker US since May 12, 2017 and an admin of the group since April 21, 2018, she was unable to do much to help when the map service changed policies. Lacking a map, it was difficult to work with the idea so later on, with the financial backing of a few loyal fans of MMV, the map service was paid for. To this day, Patreon supporters help with the cost of the map, website, and time spent running BaB. ([Click here to see how to support the community.](https://www.bunkabiker.org/donate.html))\
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It took the following 2 months to get admin abilities on all groups so the groups could be linked, information standardized, and then to focus on advertising the newly active community. She spent most of her time at the beginning helping members learn to use the map, making sure the map stayed organized, running the page/US group, and explaining what Bunk-a-Biker is... and still does that to this day. After some traveling in Eastern Europe post surgery, she spent November and December of 2019 designing a logo, building this website, recruiting people to help with the Facebook groups, and starting an Instagram. \
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Now her main focus is to build connections in the countries with few to no hosts and build it up to be the largest network of bikers who host bikers. She is also actively looking for help running the Facebook groups so she can work on breaking away from social media to promote the community on the general internet. She interviews with writers, podcast hosts, and Youtube hosts as much as she can to spread the word of Bunk-a-Biker. Please share it with all your friends!
## Frequently Asked Questions
**Q: What is Bunk-a-Biker?**\
A: Bunk-a-Biker is a worldwide community of motorcycle riders who offer to host traveling riders at their homes for free. The idea isn't for a free place to stay, it's for building and promoting an uplifting, positive, and supportive community where you can meet your fellow bikers. (or simply, it’s like CouchSurfing for bikers)\
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**Q: How much does it cost to use Bunk-a-Biker?**\
A: Yes, it is free to use and will always be free to use. If any hosts try to charge, please report it [HERE](https://www.bunkabiker.org/report.html).\
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**Q: Who founded and runs Bunk-a-Biker?**\
A: Kjetil Lystad from Norway founded Bunk-a-Biker and in June of 2019, Zee Traveler offered to help Bunk-a-Biker start growing again after an inactive period. She now runs it. Read the top of this page for a more detailed backstory on BaB.\
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**Q: Where is the map?**\
A: The map can be found at:[ ZeeMaps.com/Bunk-a-Biker_World](http://zeemaps.com/Bunk-a-Biker_World) It’s a normal webpage so it's recommended that you bookmark or favorite it on your web browser.\
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**Q: How do I save the map for quick access?**\
A: Simply add "[https://www.zeemaps.com/bunk-a-biker_world"](https://www.zeemaps.com/bunk-a-biker_world") to your bookmarks on your preferred internet browser. (Safari, Chrome, FireFox, Internet Explorer, etc)\
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**Q: Why doesn't Bunk-a-Biker have an app?**\
A: Being a free platform, there is no money to invest into having an app developed. Zee doesn't have the knowledge, or time, to design one herself but would be happy to work with anyone who could help.\
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**Q: Why can't I do route planning on the Bunk-a-Biker map?**\
A: The map host, ZeeMaps, is a paid service that stores all the information for each host. They don't offer navigation on their maps and thus we are limited to the way they're designed.\
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**Q: How do I use the map as a guest?**\
A: [Click here for those instructions.](https://www.bunkabiker.org/guestinfo.html)\
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**Q: How do I add myself to the map to be a host?**\
A: [Check here for step-by-step instructions](https://www.bunkabiker.org/pinhelp.html). If the map options don't load, try another web browser. (Facebook often won't load it correctly)\
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**Q: Why is my pin not showing up on the map?**\
A: This could happen for a number of reasons. If you recently submitted to the map and got the message "your pin was submitted for approval", it will be approved in 1-10 days. If you didn't receive that message, you didn't fill out the form properly and the map didn't take your submission. Make sure you added an email and that it accepted the location you provided before trying again.\
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**Q: Do I have to also be a host if I want to be a guest?**\
A: Definitely not. It takes all kinds to make a community so that means people who can host and people who are mostly guests. You can do neither, either, or both.\
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**Q: How can I stay safe as a guest/host?**\
A: There's many suggestions on this matter for hosts [HERE ](https://www.bunkabiker.org/hostinfo.html)and guests [HERE](https://www.bunkabiker.org/guestinfo.html).\
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**Q: What can I ask from my guests when they stay at my house?**\
A: You may ask whatever you want from your guests except payment for staying. Some acceptable things to ask for are a picture of their drivers license, advanced notice, for them to bring all their own supplies, no smoking, no drinking, to be ready to leave at a specific time, etc. Be openly communicative so both you as a host and your guest know exactly where the boundaries are set. More info can be found [HERE](https://www.bunkabiker.org/hostinfo.html).\
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**Q: Why doesn’t Bunk-a-Biker have a rating system?**\
A: This comes down to cost, and an advanced website that could do that is too expensive. Bunk-a-Biker is free and is supported by Patreon subscribers or donations while the rest comes out of Zee's pockets. All the time put into running it is basically community servitude.\
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**Q: Why don’t we do a registration system or record driver’s licenses to vet the hosts/guests?**\
A: The first reason is again, the cost. The second reason is that there’s a lot of laws around safeguarding private information that’s stored online. The third reason is that just because we took their photo doesn’t mean they’re safe. It’s a false sense of security I don’t want anyone to rely on. It’s up to each Bunker/Bunkee to evaluate who they meet and decide whether they are safe. Everyone is always encouraged to get details about their hosts and guests for their own peace of mind, publicly announce who they're staying with, and to inform their family where they'll be.\
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**Q: Why isn't the map pinned at the top of the Facebook group?**\
A: It is but because we can't change the way Facebook functions, we can't do anymore to make it noticeable than we already have.
[Click here if you need to report a problem](https://www.bunkabiker.org/)