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.
-
Eurobike 2014: Will The Pinion P1.18 Be Rohloff’s First Serious Competitor?
One of the more curious component developments at Eurobike this year of interest to touring gear nerds was the Pinion internal gearing system. Pinion — or so I was told by one of the bike manufacturers who’ve incorporated the system into new bike models this year — was developed by a group of breakaway engineers from Mercedes Benz, which some might say is a big hint that even at this early stage the gearbox deserves to be taken seriously. Internal gearing systems are nothing new, of course. High-end world touring bikes have been built around the Rohloff Speedhub for many years,… Continue reading →
-
Eurobike 2014: Introducing KTM’s Award-Winning Life Lontano P18 World Touring Bike
This is the first in a series of posts I’ll be making this week (and this week only) that’ll be sure please all the touring gear nerds out there. It’s based on a thorough scouring of the world’s biggest bicycle industry tradeshow, Eurobike, in search of anything and everything related to our favourite cycling niche: touring and adventure. The major theme of 2014’s Eurobike exhibition was electric-assist bikes, e‑bikes, pedalecs, whatever you want to call them. Bikes with electric motors. E‑bikes, of course, have no obvious practical application in the field of cycle touring (though I’m sure someone will prove me… Continue reading →
-
What Happens When A Non-Cyclist Spends 3½ Years Travelling The World By Bicycle
When I tell people I rode a bicycle 15,000-odd miles across Europe, Africa and the Middle East for fun, but that I’m not a cyclist, I get some funny looks. I try to explain that it wasn’t thunderous thigh-muscles I wanted but visceral life experience, fresh out of university with a head full of theories and not a job opportunity in sight. No commitments, no prospects, and no desire to grab a backpack and bus the planet’s roads: the combination of bike and tent would allow unmatched freedom, and screw the wild-camping laws while I still rode in countries that had… Continue reading →
-
Save More Money & Have More Fun By WWOOFing Around The World By Bicycle
Today’s guest post is by 28-year-old Erwin Zantinga, a Dutch bicycle traveller who has spent the last six years Working Worldwide On Organic Farms (WWOOFing). Given its obvious relevance to the #freeLEJOG experiment, I asked him if he’d be interested in giving us an introduction to this now well-established world of casual outdoor work on the road. Take it away, Erwin… It was 2008 and I found myself almost crying because of her departure, a new friend I’d known for just two weeks. It’d been an intense fortnight of working, eating, talking, dancing and hanging out in lovely Sweden — Eekerö, to be precise — on a small piece of the… Continue reading →
-
6 Steps To Planning Your First Ever Overseas Cycle Tour
If the hustle of modern life is stopping you from getting out there on your first bicycle adventure, try following these six simple steps: Come to think of it, I should probably get around to doing this myself. Yes. I really should. I work too hard. I need a break – a break from writing all this stuff about adventure cycle touring. Right. That’s it. I’m going to go and ride my bike. I leave tomorrow. Bye! Think it’s more complicated than this? Click here and let me prove you wrong. 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.