I posted recently about *Round The World On A Wheel*, the 1897 account of an around-the-world bike trip by John Foster Fraser. He doesn’t discuss his rig very much but he does give something of a pack list as they are about to set off across Burma (modern day Myanmar).
I thought some of you might be interested if for no other reason than to highlight how differently they approached their trip than someone today might.
They never camp and are not carrying a tent or cooking gear as I assume such equipment in the 1800’s would have been pretty bulky and weighed a ton. They rely solely on finding shelter along the way – either by actually banging on local’s doors or sleeping in structures such as railway offices and telegraph huts.
How does this packlist compare to what you would take if setting off round the world?
>In the frame bag was a package containing blocks of writing paper upon which adventures were to be recorded; there were three stiff note-books, pens, pencils, and ink; there was a medicine chest, charged chiefly with quinine and chlorodyne; there was a little parcel of repairing material, a pouch of tobacco and a pipe (essentials), handkerchiefs, sun spectacles, comb, soap-box, tooth-brush, a reticule filled with buttons, needles and thread, darning needles, two balls of wool, and a spare inner tube. In the bag fastened on the special carriage over the back wheel was an extra shirt, two extra pairs of stockings, two extra pairs of drawers, a cloth cap to sleep in, a pair of pyjamas, a towel, and a pair of heavy hob-nailed jungle boots for use when cycling was impossible. On the handle-bar was a carrier for a coat and mackintosh, and while on one side hung a water bottle, on the other was fastened a revolver case. In the front hung another bag. In the smaller compartment was a volume of Shakespeare, and in the larger a plate, a collapsible cup, knife, fork, and spoon; the odd corners to be filled up with food.
>Altogether the bicycle so loaded weighed seventy pounds; and as my riding weight was 166 pounds, altogether the machine with cyclist turned the scale at 236 pounds.
>Lowe was carrying a camera, a tripod, bottles of vile-smelling stuff he called chemicals to develop with, a red lamp, rolls of film, and what not. Lunn had maps, a bag containing nuts and screws, valves, solution, rubber, canvas. Also he had letters of introduction in Chinese, our visiting cards in Chinese, and another bag to carry bars of silver to be sold at various points of the road for Chinese coin.
MonsterKabouter on
The bros
Any_Dog_5261 on
But bruh, where did you get that frame bag? and do you think it’ll fit my Grizl?
3 Comments
I posted recently about *Round The World On A Wheel*, the 1897 account of an around-the-world bike trip by John Foster Fraser. He doesn’t discuss his rig very much but he does give something of a pack list as they are about to set off across Burma (modern day Myanmar).
I thought some of you might be interested if for no other reason than to highlight how differently they approached their trip than someone today might.
They never camp and are not carrying a tent or cooking gear as I assume such equipment in the 1800’s would have been pretty bulky and weighed a ton. They rely solely on finding shelter along the way – either by actually banging on local’s doors or sleeping in structures such as railway offices and telegraph huts.
How does this packlist compare to what you would take if setting off round the world?
>In the frame bag was a package containing blocks of writing paper upon which adventures were to be recorded; there were three stiff note-books, pens, pencils, and ink; there was a medicine chest, charged chiefly with quinine and chlorodyne; there was a little parcel of repairing material, a pouch of tobacco and a pipe (essentials), handkerchiefs, sun spectacles, comb, soap-box, tooth-brush, a reticule filled with buttons, needles and thread, darning needles, two balls of wool, and a spare inner tube. In the bag fastened on the special carriage over the back wheel was an extra shirt, two extra pairs of stockings, two extra pairs of drawers, a cloth cap to sleep in, a pair of pyjamas, a towel, and a pair of heavy hob-nailed jungle boots for use when cycling was impossible. On the handle-bar was a carrier for a coat and mackintosh, and while on one side hung a water bottle, on the other was fastened a revolver case. In the front hung another bag. In the smaller compartment was a volume of Shakespeare, and in the larger a plate, a collapsible cup, knife, fork, and spoon; the odd corners to be filled up with food.
>Altogether the bicycle so loaded weighed seventy pounds; and as my riding weight was 166 pounds, altogether the machine with cyclist turned the scale at 236 pounds.
>Lowe was carrying a camera, a tripod, bottles of vile-smelling stuff he called chemicals to develop with, a red lamp, rolls of film, and what not. Lunn had maps, a bag containing nuts and screws, valves, solution, rubber, canvas. Also he had letters of introduction in Chinese, our visiting cards in Chinese, and another bag to carry bars of silver to be sold at various points of the road for Chinese coin.
The bros
But bruh, where did you get that frame bag? and do you think it’ll fit my Grizl?