Hi! I’m Tom, originally from England, but the island was too small.
For 20 years I’ve been exploring the world by bike at every chance I get.
Why? Simply put: because it’s the closest thing you’ll find to pure freedom!
Here at TomsBikeTrip.com I share hard-earned lessons about cycle touring and bikepacking, tell original stories, and road-test new ideas.
A love of adventure has powered my 100% AI-free blog since 2006, when I first decided to travel the world by bicycle and write about it.
Welcome!
The blog: over half a million words of hard-earned, hand-written cycle touring & bikepacking advice.
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Touring Bike FAQ #3: Steel Or Aluminium Frame Material?
This is #3 in an ever-growing series of answers to frequently-asked questions about touring bikes. If you’re new here, why not start with #1: What Exactly Defines A Touring Bike? Discussing the pros and cons of different metallic alloys is probably not something you ever thought you’d find yourself doing until you began researching touring bicycles. But you will undoubtedly have discovered that there is a never-ending debate over whether steel or aluminium as a frame material is a better choice for touring bike. Let’s cut to the chase: if you are planning to keep your touring relatively short term… Continue reading →
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Touring Bike FAQ #2: 26-Inch vs 700C Wheel Size?
This is #2 in an ever-growing series of answers to frequently-asked questions about touring bikes. If you’re new here, why not start with #1: What Exactly Defines A Touring Bike? Many folk seem to think that the choice of touring bike wheel size – specifically, 26-inch (classic mountain bike) or 700C/28″ (road bike) – is a big deal. It isn’t. You can make this decision by answering two very simple questions: If the answer to either of the above questions is ‘yes’, get a bike based on the 26-inch wheel size. Regardless of what the industry would have you believe and/or which wheel size… Continue reading →
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What’s The Best Cycle Touring & Bikepacking Tent? (2026 Update)
Welcome to my annually updated guide to choosing a tent for your cycle tour or bikepacking trip. If this is your first visit, I’m glad you’ve found me! In this detailed, hand-written, 100% AI-free post, an active member of the cycle touring community with 20 years of riding experience (that’s me!) will walk you through: A quick FYI: as with all my writing, the goal here is to help get more people out exploring the world on two wheels, and to do so impartially and non-commercially. I’m not sponsored by anyone – I do this for the love of it, and… Continue reading →
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Touring Bike FAQ #1: What Exactly Defines A ‘Touring’ Bike?
This is #1 in an ever-growing series of answers to frequently-asked questions about touring bikes. If you’re researching touring bikes online, chances are you don’t yet have a touring bike of your own – or if you do, you may be unsure of whether it’s really fit for the cycle tour you’re planning. In this case, it’s useful to have a working definition of the thing you want to buy. I don’t mean a boring dictionary definition; more like a set of criteria that distinguishes a touring bike from other subcategories of bicycle. This is important because choosing a touring bike is something people invest… Continue reading →
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What’s The Best Touring Bike? (2026 Edition)
Touring bike buying advice is a popular topic, so I update this post regularly to keep the details current. I’m currently mid-way through the 2026 update, so please excuse any out-of-date information. If you’ve found this article helpful, consider leaving a comment to share your touring bike buying experience. Thanks! Choosing a new touring bike can be pretty stressful for a newcomer to cycle touring – especially when you start looking at the price tags! So it’s no surprise the most common question I’ve been asked in 20 years of writing about cycle touring is some version of the following: “Help!… Continue reading →
Books, eBooks & Guides
I’ve written a range of guidebooks and travelogues to read at your leisure, whether you’re preparing for a bike trip, living life on the road, or home and dreaming of the next big ride.
How To Hit The Road: A Beginner’s Guide To Cycle Touring & Bikepacking
First published in 2017 and updated in 2021, this book is my comprehensive newcomers’ introduction to the art of the bicycle-mounted adventure.
Every aspect of a cycle tour or bikepacking trip is covered in 34 chapters, split over three parts: pre-trip planning, initial execution, and adapting to the long haul.
As well as broad, practical advice, I’ve woven inspiring and reassuring anecdotes throughout the book – because getting away from the starting line isn’t about knowing everything, but having the confidence to begin.
Drawing on my personal experience of almost two decades of adventure cycling, more than 50 veteran riders from diverse backgrounds have also contributed to this guide, making it one of the most well-rounded introductions you’ll find to this radically liberating form of independent travel.
Whatever you’re planning and wherever you’re going, if it involves a bicycle and the spirit of adventure, How To Hit The Road has got you covered.
Janapar: Love, on a Bike
My first travelogue, originally published in 2013 and the subject of a successful crowdfunding campaign, telling the true story of my first 3½ years on the road.
This was far from your typical long-distance bike tour, however. From the cover blurb:
When twenty-three-year-old Tom Allen and his friends set off from their English village to cycle around the world, they were expecting physical hardship, extreme conditions and a serious case of culture shock. But the hours spent poring over maps could never have prepared them for the experience of life on the road: the petty squabbles, the extreme hospitality, the unexpected joys and dangers.
And then Tom meets Tenny, a feisty Iranian-Armenian girl with dreams of her own, and hits a crossroad. Should he give up his grand plan for the girl he loves, or cycle off and risk missing out on the greatest adventure of them all?
Temporarily out of print (except in the USA), Janapar is still available as a Kindle ebook from all Amazon portals worldwide.