India Bike Tour

Why I ride

Cycle touring can be a metaphor for how one finds their way. It’s an intimate method of exploration that offers an immediacy often absent in our modern world: subtle changes in temperature between the rise and the valley, ground-level contact between those we encounter, a slow enough pace to allow reflection, and a lengthening of time that inexplicably expands each day. Of course, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. The uncertainties can be uncomfortable, testing our inner recourses. Yet the rewards are rich, and after five decades of two wheeled, self-powered travel, it has come to feel a life practice.

This Blog contains two distinct cycle tours to India. The first in 2024, covered 1900 km (1200 miles) over five weeks as my riding partner and I traveled west to east across the subcontinent. In the second tour-February and March 2026-will be for six weeks and likely cover closer to 2900 km (1800 miles). My wife Danielle will join me the first three weeks and I will ride the second half solo. For both tours, we ride unsupported, taking everything on our bicycles and navigating our path as each day unfolds. Nothing is prepared in advance except a general direction toward whatever monument or temple we are hoping to see.

This all started when the British Ceramic Artist Matt Sherratt and I had the hair brained idea of setting off for India together. Why? To overwhelm every one of our five senses and bring back some of that spiritual and creative chaos back to our studios, where we work in solitude much of the time. That first trip we successfully navigated the bullock carts, tuk tuks, cars, buses, random cows and goats, and the notorious truck drivers. It was hectic and exhilarating, in equal measure. Perhaps like all two-wheeled travel, the experience left an indelible impression. Yet the vividness of India raised that experience to a fever pitch. India is raw and powerful. Certainly, there are moments of discomfort. But the richness of the experience is hard to overstate.

My hope is that by capturing moments from my India travel, it will inspire others to take a wilder swing at life, perhaps pushing oneself beyond our largely self imposed known limits; what we can or cannot tolerate. In his consideration of the soul, Carl Jung famously said, “We all walk in shoes too small.” As this blog dares to suggest, it might be time for larger shoes!

2026 Route- First three weeks (with Danielle)

2026 Route- Second three weeks (solo)