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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VIDEO: Bikepacking Outer Mongolia (Part Four)
This is the last part of my series of videos from mountain-biking in Mongolia last year (start with Part One if you just found this). In this episode we find ourselves spending several days pushing our bikes down a deserted valley in search of a town whose name we are unable to pronounce, lured on by the faint hope of a big plate of deep-fried dumplings with which to celebrate the end of our trip. I really hope you’ve enjoyed these videos. Now’s the time for you to help me improve the next project. What was your favourite scene or story?… Continue reading →
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VIDEO: Bikepacking Outer Mongolia (Part Three)
This is Part Three of my series of videos from cycling in Mongolia last year (here’s Part One if you missed it). In this episode we travel along the banks of Lake Khovsgol, which on a heavily loaded bicycle is a bit more difficult than it might sound. We meet some local holidaymakers and embark on what begins to look like an unrideable ‘shortcut’ to a town on the far side of a mountain range. Please leave your comments below! Continue reading →
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VIDEO: Bikepacking Outer Mongolia (Part Two)
This is Part Two of my mountain-bike adventure video series from Mongolia (here’s Part One by the way). In this episode, we’re searching desperately for something more interesting than riding across the endless steppe. I unfortunately get ill and we have to lay up for a couple of days in the town of Moron, and then we decide to head north to Lake Khovsgol. Please leave your comments below. Continue reading →
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A Winter Cycle-Tour In Scandinavia
English seasons annoy me. None more so than winter. OK: So in December we had a couple of weeks of ‘real winter’ — sub-zero temperatures, snow, ice; something approaching the kind of kick-up-the-backside that this country needs to stir society from its mollycoddled torpor. But now it has succumbed to the all-too-inevitable British veil of grey, nondescript tedium. It seems I have no choice. Continue reading →
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VIDEO: Bikepacking Outer Mongolia (Part One)
I recently spent several weeks bikepacking across Mongolia with my good friend Andy. We decided to pool our filmmaking experience to try to create a really entertaining bicycle adventure video which also captured the scale and diversity of the country. This is the fruit of our labours — please take 10 minutes out of your day to give the first episode a try. The remaining three episodes will appear on this blog over the next few weeks. My main reason for producing these videos has been to practice the craft of editing, so your feedback on the series would really 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.