Thomas Stevens was one of the great endurance pioneers of the Victorian age and is widely recognised as the first person to circumnavigate the globe by bicycle. Born in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, in 1854, he emigrated to the United States before returning to fame through adventure and travel writing. Setting out from San Francisco on 22 April 1884 aboard a penny-farthing bicycle, Stevens crossed North America before continuing through Britain, Europe, the Middle East, India, China and Japan. He completed the cycling portion of his journey in Yokohama on 17 December 1886, aged 31, after around 2 years and 8 months of travel and approximately 13,500 miles actually ridden.

His route also required sections by ship, ferry and rail, unavoidable realities of global travel in the nineteenth century. What makes the achievement so extraordinary is the machine itself: a high-wheeled penny-farthing with no gears, primitive brakes, no suspension, limited carrying capacity and little protection from weather or dangerous roads. Stevens endured deserts, mountains, political unrest, language barriers and severe mechanical problems, yet still completed a journey few believed possible. He later became a journalist, explorer and author, but his greatest legacy remains proving that human determination and endurance could carry a cyclist across the world long before the age of modern roads or modern bicycles.

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