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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UK Cycle Touring Festival 2015: Earlybird Tickets On Sale Now!
Heads up, folks – today we’re launching the first round of ticket sales for the UK’s first Cycle Touring Festival! Earlybird tickets are discounted, but there’s a limited quantity available, so I suggest you get in there early before word gets out. [UPDATE: Earlybird tickets are now sold out – but lots of regular priced tickets are still available!] Click here to buy your tickets → Here’s everything you’ll need to know about the event: The festival is on 1–3 May 2015 at Waddow Hall, Clitheroe, Lancashire (this is the first May bank holiday weekend). Our aim is to bring together and grow the… Continue reading →
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Free Photo eBook: Bicycling Around The World by Paul Jeurissen
There are lots of bicycle travellers out there. There are also lots of excellent photographers. When they happen to be the same person, and the results are shared with the world, we’re all in for a real treat. Photographer Paul Jeurissen and his partner Grace Johnson have been pedalling the world for years, and have amassed a huge collection of images. And they’ve just made the very best of them available in a PDF eBook. I’m not going to harp on about its contents, other than to say that the images and stories are stunning and inspiring, and that all of us (especially those… Continue reading →
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Save The Date: 1st–3rd May 2015 for the UK’s very first Cycle Touring Festival!
If your calendar is anything like mine, you’ll already be fighting off an encroachment of frankly irritating weddings, bachelor weekends, milestone birthdays, must-visit festivals and other far-future shenanigans. How are we supposed to fit any adventures in? Can everybody stop getting married already? If you’re in or near the UK, though, the 1st–3rd May 2015 is one weekend you’ll want to put a big fat circle around right away. (Here’s a handy link to auto-add it to iCal, GCal, etc.) Because, thanks to the diligent efforts and sheer enthusiasm of these two world cyclists (welcome home, guys!), those dates will see the UK’s first ever… Continue reading →
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Tom’s Horse Trip (And Other Adventures)
It was a good few years ago that I named this blog Tom’s Bike Trip. At the time, it represented all I desired to do and write about, as well as remaining relevant to everything I’d written on this blog’s predecessor over the previous few years. I still feel, of course, that there is incredible scope to explore the world by bicycle. But for a while now I’ve also been looking for a way to rediscover a particular feeling I had when I first started out — a feeling of rapid growth in my learning from the need for new skills to handle new experiences. I felt… Continue reading →
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Adventure DVD Gift-Pack Sale Launches Today
Just a quick heads-up to let you know that I’m participating in a ‘flash sale’ this week, in which you can get an exclusive bundle containing 3 well-known indie adventure films for a ridiculously discounted price. You can check out the films included and watch all 3 trailers at adventuretravelfilms.co.uk, a special website we’ve set up to host the offer. I’m sure that every regular reader who’s ever going to watch Janapar has already done so (and Al, Leon and Austin are probably all writing the same thing on their blogs), but that’s not really the point. This offer is mainly designed as an affordable gift idea for… 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.