Customer Reviews

Once Around On a Bicycle

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I love the adventure travel genre, but this one doesn't make the grade. The book is the day-by-day diary of a round-the-world cyclist. Adventure? Excitement? Not!

A typical day's entry reads something like: "Left at 9:30 and rode xx Kms. to 'name of town'. Horrendous headwinds all day. Checked into a hotel -- can you believe they only have 2 satellite channels on the TV? No McDonald's in town so I went to the hotel restaurant and had a steak." No kidding.

After a bout of food-poisoning he takes a month off in Perth, Australia. This time period includes September 11, 2001. His jornal entry? "Did nothing".

If you want adventure bike travels read something by Anne Mustoe instead.

I struggled to find any interest in this book. It was very much the samey on every page-miles travelled, listing (by name) fast food joints he ate at(sponsorship??),lack of satelite channels on tvs,efforts to visit mass on Sunday(was he trying to impress his mother here?),and moaning about reversing his tracks to get a motel/hotel that fitted his high standards.The book only picked up a little steam in the closing stages-even then it was not great stuff, nothing of any real interest at all-simply a log of miles travelled and fast food eaten. There are many travel books out there, this one is not up there with the good ones-you would be better off reading the excellent-"Miles from Nowhere" or "Hey Mom can I Ride my Bike Across America"-I know they are old compared to this one-but are- by far much much superior.Sorry Michael but,this will be one book I won't be reading again.

I have had a passion for reading bicycle adventure books for over thirty years but I could find NO ADVENTURE in this book at all. It was devoid of insight into the countries, people, food, culture, ride or rider. To be able to bicycle 14,000 miles in such a sterile, non-engaging fashion is amazing to me. For a true bicycle adventure turn to "Odysseus' Last Stand", "Moods of Future Joys" or the classic "Miles from Nowhere". My appologies to the author.

Mr. Clancy has done a great disservice to himself and all those who relish great adventure. To give him his due, he did what many have dreamed but few have done. He is also straightforward and has a good, if subtle sense of humor. But Michael, why did you bother? I can't believe that in a trip of over 15 months around the world, you never bothered to have more than a 15 minute conversation with anyone, never ate the local food, rarely stopped to explore, deliberately holed up in dreary hotels, ate only at McDonalds, and subjected us to long discriptions of your often uncooperative technology while never telling us a thing about yourself. I didn't buy the book just to read about how many hills you climbed, I bought the book to find out about you, your dreams, trials and tribulations, emotional experience, etc. What motivated you, how was it different than you expected, what did you learn? What was your life like before you left, during, after? Give us something, Michael. Besides a blow by blow of every fast food joint in the world.