Category: Creative Projects
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3 Adventure Travel Podcasts Worth Checking Out This Summer
Podcasts come and go pretty frequently, so good ones are worth keeping bookmarked, as smartphones make it easier than ever before to listen to on-demand radio shows as you travel or whenever else the opportunity arises. Rather than overwhelm you with a massive listing that you’ll never get round to sifting through, here are three podcast suggestions on the topic of travel and adventure I’ve come across over the last few months, all of which are well worth checking out if you’re looking for new listening material on the theme of travel, adventure, expeditions and the great outdoors. (You may… Continue reading →
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Tom’s Expedition Bike: The Full Specification & Parts List (Geek Alert!)
‘Tom’s Expedition Bike’ was designed to meet my needs after years of touring all over the planet and advising hundreds of budding cyclists on trip planning and bike selection. It was conceived as the last expedition-grade touring bike I’d ever need – a true touring bike for life, and the summation of everything I’d learned during more than 20,000km of riding on five continents. (Full story here.) To get it built, I collaborated with Richard Delacour from Oxford Bike Works. I never expected it’d be something he’d offer commercially – but that’s how things have turned out! What follows is a complete list of the… Continue reading →
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A New Expedition Touring Bike From Oxford Bike Works (Designed By… Er… Tom Allen!)
Can’t afford expensive bikes? Do yourself an enormous favour by ignoring what follows and reading this instead. I never imagined I would one day be able to call myself a bike designer. (Or a writer, or a filmmaker, for that matter.) But now I can – as of today. And here’s how it happened: Last summer I was enjoying a nice few weeks of bicycle-mounted wandering in central Europe. Germany, France, Switzerland and Austria, to be precise. I was riding with Leon McCarron (with whom I also went adventuring last year in Iran and Patagonia), his wife Clare, and my wife Tenny.… 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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What Name Would You Give A Heavy-Duty World Touring Bike?
After last week’s rather vocal debate on the ethics of commercialism in adventure, I figured it was time to get firmly back to what we all love: travelling the world on two wheels. (Less talk, more action, and all that.) Now, as long-term readers will know, I’ve never had any particular fascination with touring bikes themselves. Though I’ve written the odd blog post on the topic, this has mainly been in order to get people here via search engines so that I can talk to them about how getting on a bike and going somewhere is a far better use of their time than endlessly… Continue reading →
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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 →
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And the winner is…
Well! This competition has been something of a revelation. Mainly in terms of the sheer variety of trip ideas submitted. Who’d have thought that there were folk out there planning to tour the breweries of the world, explore countries while researching historical-mythological novels, use bike touring to find a new home, and string lectures along the route of pedal-powered journeys? There’s something really reassuring about all of this. There’s an abundance of imagination and passion out there. It’s inspirational to get an glimpse of it through this giveaway, this tiny cross-section of the adventurous journeys that are taking shape right now,… Continue reading →
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About That Time I Went On Iranian TV
Those of you who’ve been reading this blog for a while will know that my mission for 2013 was to learn Farsi (Persian) in a year. This was put to the test on my recent journey to Iran, in which I spent six weeks attempting to follow the country’s longest river from source to sea. (Photo essays here.) It was also put to the test last week, when Tenny and I were interviewed about Janapar on the Iranian TV channel Manoto, broadcast from London and now one of the most watched channels in Iran. If you’re remotely interested in watching some of… Continue reading →
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Everything you’ll need to know about choosing gear for cycle touring in a single resource
If you missed it back in February, you’ll be pleased to know that my latest eBook, Essential Gear for Adventure Cycle Touring, is now available to the public. Combining the hard-earned wisdom of more than 50 experienced long-haul cyclists into a single 257-page volume, reading Essential Gear will take the pain out of getting kitted out for a ride of any length, location or budget – particularly if (like most of us) you’re not really a ‘gear head’. I’ve written this guide to impart you with the broadest range of distilled wisdom about gear choice for a cycle tour, more than any other… Continue reading →
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The Definitive Janapar FAQ
Over the last 18 months I’ve held Q&A sessions at something like 50 screenings of Janapar: Love on a Bike around the UK, as well as a handful abroad. With a lot more people coming to the story in recent weeks due to a global release on iTunes and Google Play Movies (as well as on Amazon Instant Video in the USA), I thought it’d be a good time to attempt to answer as many of the questions I’m asked most frequently about the film. (Warning: this Q&A will potentially contain spoilers. If you haven’t seen Janapar, this will all make… Continue reading →