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Following on from the Surly thread - is it an accepted 'thing' like LeJog is, or transatlantic sailing? Is there a common route that people have worked out? Or are you a crazy person riding into extreme danger? Obviously I'm not expecting signposts and a Greggs every 30 miles but a sense of others having done it before would certainly give me a little more confidence. If I ever were to try it, which I probably won't.
Go westward, don't bother trying to get a Visa through the dodgy areas of the middle east (Iran). Watch out for big land trains in remote Australia and try to not get your back broken by an arsehole in a pickup in the USA. Sean Conway's' book is a good read on the subject as are Al Humphries books on his more relaxed 4 year journey.
My dad and his partner did it back in 1999-2001. The original plan was 'just' to ride to Australia but once they got there decided to carry on. Blog here if you are interested: http://www.transworldcycle.com
simply put, step out your front door, turn left or right as necessary and pedal until you've reached your front door again, there really doesn't need to be any more to it than that 😉
if you're going for a record there are a few rules and countries that you have to go through to make it count, but apart from that anything goes
there are a few countries that you might want to avoid, and some might require visas so a certain amount of home work is required to make the journey smoother
Mark Beaumont has a book out about his round the world record, and Juliana Buhring's book is a good read.
there's *tons* of stuff out there once you start digging
For record attempts there are a few rules including a minimum cycled distance but if it's just a (very) long tour then it's up to you to decide what you want to see.
Logistically I'd start with looking at the FCO (Foreign Office) website for security and safety info about the countries your route passes through. Then I'd look at visa requirements for those countries and if there's any restrictions on where you can arrive from or length of time you can stay on the visa (Russia and the USA would be the big ones on this due to their size). Then look at health requirements: some countries require Yellow Fever immunisation if you enter from anywhere but Europe or North America for example.
Jenny Graham.has just done this. Worth attending one of her wee talks if you get the chance.
Make sure you have no clue whatsoever about how a bike works - did that guy ever make it out of Scotland (his starting point)?
My mate did this. He worked for 3 or 5 years living on his budget for travel. That saved him a solid 20k (I think, might have been more, he told me once what his overall budget was, it wasn't all that high) and set off. www.crazyguyonabike.com is an invaluable resource for those kind of long distance touring plans. Willy wrote a blog about it, and I believe he's working on book. He went east from Ireland, through the eastern block, then south to the Ukraine and across through to Iran and onto the 'stans. Up through Russia, China, down to Australia and then flew to South America, did that then flew to South Africa and cycled up the Capetown to Cairo road before aiming back across Europe to home. It was spectacular to follow and his stories are something else.
https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1mr&doc_id=15431&v=T3