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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When Can You Go Cycle Touring?
This post is part of a series of inspirational short essays exploring the who, what, when, where and how of cycle touring and bikepacking. The ‘when’ of setting off on a bike trip is an easy one: as soon as you would like. That might be next summer, when you’ve got the the equipment sorted, the route planned out, and the weather is optimal. It might be in a couple of years’ time, when you’ve saved a huge chunk of cash, quit your job, sold your house and are ready to begin your brand new life on the road. Or it… Continue reading →
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Who Can Go On A Bicycle Tour? (Hint: Not Only Cyclists)
This post is part of a series of inspirational short essays exploring the who, what, when, where and how of cycle touring and bikepacking. It is sometimes assumed that cycle touring is the exclusive domain of the lean and lycra-clad. Since when did a ‘normal’ person get on a bike and routinely crank out between fifty and a hundred miles a day without breaking a sweat? That requires fitness, and therefore training, and therefore a passion for sport and competition, and determination and pain. Which seemingly only describes a talented and slightly masochistic elite of cyclists. Except those baseline assumptions are false.… Continue reading →
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What Is Cycle Touring (aka: Bikepacking)?
This post is part of a series of inspirational short essays exploring the who, what, when, where and how of cycle touring and bikepacking. Getting on a bicycle and going somewhere new is one of the most accessible ways to have an adventure. It doesn’t need to involve quitting your job, spending years planning, or embarking upon an odyssey of self discovery. It doesn’t need to look heroic on social media. It doesn’t require “epic” days in the saddle, or energy gels, or a Strava subscription, or lycra. Nor does it have to involve physical hardship, highway traffic, vast mountain… Continue reading →
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The Best Way To See The World Is On A Bicycle, And Here’s Why
When you get into a car, or onto a train or plane or bus – even when you leave the house on foot – you do so almost always with the intention of arriving somewhere. You have a destination in mind, and your chosen mode of transport is simply how you’re going to get there. When you pack a suitcase, buy a ticket, plan an itinerary or open a guidebook, you are participating in a kind of travel that casts experiences as individual options, and places as destinations to go to and return from. Time spent actually in motion is something… Continue reading →
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Bikepacking Southern Iran: The Journey In Pictures
I very much hope you’ve enjoyed the last couple of weeks of daily blogs from the road! While I wanted to keep the focus on the writing (and on stimulating your imagination!), it’s also nice to look at a few retospective visuals. This selection represents this best of this short but much-needed jaunt across southern Iran. Do come and join me on Instagram for the coming year, won’t you? 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.