Bicycle touring

Bicycle touring is the taking of self-contained cycling trips for pleasure, adventure or autonomy rather than sport, commuting or exercise.

Historian James McGurn speaks of bets being taken in London in the 19th century for riders of hobby-horses – machines pushed by the feet rather than pedaled – outspeeding stagecoaches.

On 17 February 1869 John Mayall, Charles Spencer and Rowley Turner rode from Trafalgar Square, London, to Brighton in 15 hours for 53 miles.

Three riders set off from Liverpool to London, a journey of three days and similar to modern cycle-touring adventures, in March that same year.

The title of his book, Wheels and Woes, suggests a less than event-free ride but McGurn says "it seems to have been a delightful adventure, despite bad road surfaces, dust and lack of signposts.

Thomas Stevens, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, set off around the world on April 22 1884, on a 50-inch Columbia with a money belt, a revolver, two shirts and a rain cape, spending two years on the road and writing articles which became a two-volume, 1,021-page book.

Adventure Cycling, then called Bikecentennial, organised a mass ride in 1976 from one side of the country to the other to mark the nation's 200th anniversary.

It affords him not only a country holiday, in itself a remarkable event which he enjoys immensely, however ignorant of the countryside he may be, but also a brush with a society girl, riding on pneumatics[13] and wearing some kind of Rational Dress.

[14]The book suggests the new social mobility created by the bike, which breaks the boundaries of Hoopdriver's world literally and figuratively.

All the dreary, uninteresting routine drops from you suddenly, your chains fall about your feet...There were thrushes in the Richmond Road, and a lark on Putney Heath.

Hoopdriver finds the bicycle raises his social standing, at least in his imagination, and he calls to himself as he rides that he's "a bloomin' dook[16] " The New Woman that he pursues wears Rational Dress of a sort that scandalised society but made cycling much easier.

McGurn says: "The shift in social perspectives, as exemplified by Wells' cyclists, led Galsworthy to claim, at a later date, that the bicycle had "been responsible for more movement in manners and morals than anything since Charles the Second.

A decline set in across Europe, particularly in Britain, when millions of servicemen returned from World War II having learned to drive.

In the 1930s cumbersome, fat-tyred 'balloon bombers', bulbously streamlined in imitation of motorcycles or aeroplanes, appealed to American children: the only mass market still open to cycle manufacturers.

In 1976, to celebrate the bicentennial of the founding of the United States, Greg Siple, his wife June, and Dan and Lys Burden organized a mass bike ride, Bikecentennial, from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Siple said: My original thought was to send out ads and flyers saying, 'Show up at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco at 9 o'clock on June 1 with your bicycle.'

[18]The ride eventually ran from Astoria, Oregon, to Yorktown, Virginia, site of the first British settlements; 4,100 rode, with 2,000 completing the entire route.

Adventure Cycling has mapped routes across America and into Canada, many of the rides taking up to three months to complete on a loaded bicycle.

Some companies provide accommodation and route information to cyclists travelling independently; others focus on a group experience, including guides and support for a large number of riders cycling together.

A variation on this is holidays, often in exotic locations, organised in partnership with a charity, in which participants are expected to raise donation as well as cover their costs.

The hospitality exchange website Warm Showers, which is specialized for cycle travelers started in 2005 and has over 100000 members worldwide today.

[24] Among examples of current activity given by Sustrans are 1.5m cyclists using the 250 kilometres (160 mi) Danube Cycle Route each year and 25% of holiday visitors in Germany using bicycles during their visit.

[clarification needed] In 1974, he rode through Nigeria, Dahomey, Upper Volta, Ghana, Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Guinea.

From Asia, Gua Dahao left China in May 1999 to ride across Siberia, the Middle East, Turkey, western Europe, Scandinavia, then another 100,000 km across Africa, Latin America and Australia.

A typical bicycle would have a longer wheelbase for stability and heel clearance, frame fittings for front and rear pannier racks, additional water bottle mounts, frame fittings for front and rear mudguards/fenders, a broader range of gearing to cope with the increased weight, and touring tires which are wider to provide more comfort on backroads.

For a "supported" rider, luggage carrying is not important and a wider range of bicycle types may be suitable depending on the terrain.