Category: Touring Advice
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The Best Cheap (Sub-£1,000) Touring Bikes for Low-Budget Adventures
Many of the cheap touring bikes listed here did not survive the pandemic, so the latest edition of this post is shorter than before. For further options, you may wish to head over to the updated-for-2024 list of best touring bikes at all price points. As cycling continues to grow in popularity, many manufacturers have begun producing cheap, entry-level touring bikes aimed at cyclists and travellers on a lower budget. For me, as a long-time evangelist for the bicycle as the best way to see the world, seeing more cheap touring bikes on the market is a welcome trend. Some… Continue reading →
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Как отправиться в кругосветное путешествие на велосипеде: три простых шага
Шаг 1. Раздобудьте велосипед. Какой именно — не имеет значения. Главное, чтобы он был удобным и исправным. В любом случае, без велосипеда вы далеко не уедете. Шаг 2. Увольтесь.* На путешествие потребуется несколько лет, так что напишите своему начальству в заявлении на увольнение о том, что вам, конечно, очень жаль уходить с работы, но у вас есть более важные дела. * если вы студент, пенсионер или безработный, то этот шаг можно смело пропустить. Шаг 3. Отправляйтесь в путь. У вас не получится объехать весь свет, если вы никуда не поедете. Поэтому закрепите на велосипеде палатку и спальный мешок, попросите соседей приглядывать… Continue reading →
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First Glimpse: The New-For-2019 Oxford Bike Works Expedition Disc
When visiting the UK earlier this year, I popped over to Oxford Bike Works to catch up with Richard Delacour and to check out a prototype of the new Expedition Disc touring bike he’s been working on. This disc-equipped specification will be part of Richard’s custom-built bike lineup as of 2019, so I wanted to share some insights on what else makes this new touring bike different from the original Expedition and, perhaps more interestingly, why he decided to go down the disc brake route after years of steering clear of them (neither pun intended). Why Put Disc Brakes On An Expedition… Continue reading →
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What’s Really The Difference Between Bikepacking & Cycle Touring?
Over the last few years we have seen the rise of a new sub-discipline of bicycle travel. It’s called ‘bikepacking’, and it’s become such a hit that almost every mainstream bike manufacturer now produces at least one ‘adventure bike’ or ‘bikepacking rig’, or includes the word in their marketing spiel for bikes that might fit the bill. Specialised bikepacking luggage, too, has proliferated, from a few cottage industries turning out bespoke, hand-stitched frame bags to pannier giant Ortlieb launching a line. Someone I know who helps run a bikepacking website told me they get over one million hits per month. (For comparison,… Continue reading →
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komoot: The Most Powerful Route Planning App For Bikepacking & Cycle Touring?
Full disclosure: komoot provided financial support for my 2018 tour of Armenia, and I published this review as part of that agreement. In 2023 I updated the post to reflect the app’s evolution. Lots of people have been asking about the route planning and navigation apps I’ve been using on my recent bike tours. The app I’ve mostly been using since 2018 is komoot (with a lowercase ‘k’), the creation of a Berlin-based team of developers, which is finding increasing favour with recreational outdoor users – and it also happens to be an excellent route planning and navigation tool for cycle tourists… Continue reading →
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Tom’s Guide To Cycle Touring In… England
This is #2 in an occasional series about cycle touring in each of the 50+ countries I’ve had the pleasure to ride through. I’m working my way through the list chronologically (and wishing I’d started earlier!). Read about the background to the series here. The first country I went on a big bike trip in was Scotland. But I went with friends. The first time I tried it alone was in my home country: England. I forget the precise date. I have neither photos nor diaries to reference. But it was some time in late 2006. My destination was Abergavenny,… Continue reading →
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Brutal Indonesia: Cycle Touring Sulawesi On Folding Bikes
This is a guest post by Marco Ferrarese. I met Marco on the road last year in Armenia and knew a fellow free spirit when I saw one. Turns out his back catalogue of adventures is fascinating, and he’s a damn fine writer too. So when I heard he was off on his first unplanned bike trip – on a folding bike across Sulawesi – and since we’ve been on the subject of cycle touring in southeast Asia recently, I invited him to tell us about it here. * * * “I… can… do… it!!!” Even my thoughts were exhausted. I was… Continue reading →
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Tom’s Guide To Cycle Touring In… Scotland
Scotland was where it all started. Little did I know my first week-long cycle tour – an ill-advised crosscountry jaunt through the West Highlands – was going to have such a profound effect. It seemed unlikely at the time. For that week in May, Scotland did not hesitate to deliver its traditional punishments of mountains, midges and rain, and my companions and I were, to put it mildly, ill-prepared for any of it. We suffered. We were tested. We were found sorely lacking in almost every department: the arrogance of youth piling headlong into a chasm of inexperience. Fun it… Continue reading →
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Coming Soon: The Cycle Touring Country Guide Series
A new blog series combining personal stories and curated links, resulting in a light-hearted inside look at what a cycle tour in each featured country might feel like, with some carefully-selected starting points for follow-up research. Continue reading →
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Last Chance to Get Tickets for The UK’s First & Best Cycle Touring Festival
The UK’s 4th annual Cycle Touring Festival is rapidly approaching – there are now less than two months to go until that weekend of cycling, camping, workshops and talks in the lovely surrounds of the Forest of Bowland AONB in Lancashire. Founded and run by my good friends and fellow world cyclists Tim & Laura Moss of TheNextChallenge.org fame, I was proud to have played a small part in organising and promoting the inaugural event back in 2015, after a fairly nonchalant chat about the idea during a picnic in Esfahan a year previously. It’s ironic that I’ve been too… Continue reading →