Escape By Bike

Anyone interested in adventurous cycling journeys can easily find travelogues, advice, and pictures about such trips – but rarely are they combined into one package like Escape by Bike, let alone produced by anyone with the depth of experience that Joshua Cunningham has acquired.

• Pros: Lots of guidance from an experienced practitioner to help inspire and plan your own journey
• Cons: Unlikely to be wholly relevant to your own expedition

Cunningham has been undertaking adventurous trips since his teenage years, spending 'consecutive summers...initiating myself into the world of cycle touring by exploring portions of Europe with friends.' Not only did this 'form the basis for a near-unquenchable thirst for cycling adventure', it provided the knowledge necessary to undertake the expedition described in Escape by Bike – his most challenging mission so far.

Escape by Bike claims to be 'equal parts travelogue and practical guide', which is true – but it might be underselling the book. With some travelogues the actual journey is almost incidental, however 'epic' it may be, its main purpose being to provide opportunities for humour and self-inflicted mishaps that can be woven into an entertaining story – see Tim Moore or Andrew Sykes, for example.

The journey in Escape by Bike starts in Dumfries and ends in Hong Kong, which is a suitably daunting trip for most people to earn some respect. Cunningham's narrative is straightforward and informative, but does not try to include every last detail; it also provides the basis for all other aspects of the book.

Like any good travelogues you will participate in the journey vicariously, sharing in the highs and lows of such a ride, learning about local cultures – and all the time appreciating the benefits that doing it on a bicycle can bring; sometimes you really want to be there yourself, and at other times you are thankful that you are not.

Practical advice is scattered throughout the pages, positioned alongside the most appropriate part of the trip. Five environments are covered, being forests, mountains, deserts, tropics, and cities, with each being encountered at some point on the journey – and each making different demands on equipment: 'you'll learn that with appropriately tailored bikes and gear, struggles are minimised and enjoyment heightened to the full.'

There is sound advice on bike selection, and although modification and personalisation are encouraged, 'essentially...there are five main setup categories: traditional, expedition, mountain, extreme, and ultralight.'

Suggestions for non-bike equipment are divided into weight levels, giving lists suitable for light, medium, and heavy packing. Your requirements may differ, but this provides a good starting point which you can adapt as necessary.

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At what point should an iPad/tablet feature in your packing? 'Medium' is the proposal, with a laptop, hard drive, speaker and solar powered charger helping the 'heavy' category to earn its name. Spokes appear in 'medium', although you will have to install them with a suitable multi-tool from 'light', as a proper spoke key does not appear until 'heavy'. You might make different choices.

The coverage of equipment rarely mentions any particular brands, providing instead general guidance and points to consider. This does make it less likely to become dated, but don't expect to see recommendations for specific products: for that, online resources like this website are endorsed.

It is clear from reading other travelogues that travelling cyclists often have the same experience as Cunningham, which is that 'Visas and travel permits are the biggest barrier to unbroken overland travel' – and there was plenty of opportunity for such impediments on a journey that involved 64 countries. What follows is an extensive list of points to resolve before leaving – and the sensible advice to have a Plan B, just in case.

Cunningham addresses several other questions that a prospective traveller may have to consider: is it better to travel alone or with others? Should you take vaccinations? Tent, tarp, or bivvy bag? In all cases Cunningham gives you the pros and cons of each to help you reach your own decision.

Even if you don't want to read yet another travelogue, or don't plan to undertake an expedition of your own, you can still enjoy the impressive photography. With shots ranging from the informative, through the artistic, to the dramatic, the quality and quantity are sufficient to qualify this as a coffee-table book – but this has not been achieved at the expense of the other elements.

I really appreciated the informative captions, because in many cases the pictures prompt questions that start with what, when, where (or even why), so it is good to have the answers readily available.

Pictures like this rarely happen without significant amounts of time and planning behind them, yet Cunningham is meant to be cycling 13,000 miles at the same time. I don't know how he managed to achieve both, but he has set the bar very high for anyone planning a similar style of book.

Verdict

Combines the best elements of a travelogue, a practical guide, and a coffee-table book