Around the World in 774 Days

Rummaging in a second-hand bookshop recently, I was able to make an addition to my little library of Victorian and Edwardian cycling books.  I bought, at very modest cost, an original copy of 'Round the World On A Wheel', by J Foster Fraser.

In July of 1896, Fraser, then 28 years old, set off with two friends to ride around the world on their Rover Safety Bicycles.  It was a good time to do it, as there were no cars and a Briton abroad was worthy of guarded respect.  They clearly had the means to fund the trip; there was no sponsorship and they could afford good accommodation when it was available.  They also endured some pretty terrible accommodation, as might be expected.

There's not much about the bikes - they look, from the very few pictures, to be absolutely standard Rovers of the day; here's a contemporary advertisement from the CTC Road Book:

The absence of cars meant, in general, an absence of metalled roads, and some of the riding sounds truly awful, but there were also long periods of good riding where they averaged around 100 miles per day.

The bikes were periodically serviced using parts that were sent out to pre-arranged points on the trip.  It is not clear how this was done, or who did it.  Except for punctures they seem to have had few problems, though the spares used were extensive, and may have included a replacement bike.  None of this appeared to concern the adventurers.  As the picture below shows, the bikes show considerable similarity to today's 'Gravel Bikes', apart from the complete absence of gears or brakes.

To summarise the trip, I cannot do better than the author himself:

'We took this trip around the world on bicycles because we were more or less conceited, liked to be talked about, and see our names in the newspapers.  We didn't go into training.  We took things easy.  We jogged through Europe, had sundry experiences in Asia, and survived the criticisms of our country from the Americans.  For two years we bicycled strange lands, and came home a great disappointment to our friends.  We were not haggard or worn, or tottering in our gait.  We had never been scalped, or had hooks through our spines; never been tortured, or had our eyes gouged; never been rescued after living for a fortnight on our shoes.  And we had never killed a man.  It was evident that we were not real travellers.'

Fraser was knighted in 1917, I do not know why, but I surmise that it may have been connected with his travels in Russia in the two preceding years.

If you're interested, Kindle or facsimile copies of the book are available from Amazon.  I found it a good read.

Mark