Why Don't You Fly?' Back Door to Beijing - by Bicycle

In May 2000 Chris Smith left Worcestershire by jumping on his bike and cycling to Beijing - by way of the Indian sub-continent. The 16,500 mile journey took him thirteen months to complete and required three sets of tyres, three chains and two pairs of boots. His family and friends, on hearing his plans, were a mixture of enthusiasm and doubt, with one friend exclaiming, ‘Eighteen months by bicycle? Why don’t you fly, Christopher? You’d be there in 18 hours!’

But the experience is the journey and the inner journey taken at the same time. This book goes beyond gender, age, class and education and is more than a cycling travelogue, but is the story of the human condition as exhilaration and exhaustion exchange places against the backdrop of physical endeavour.