MAP: CASEY GREENE
The longing for adventure soon manifested itself in a bold new plan: an aroundthe-world bicycle tour. Although at least one person — an English-born American named Thomas Stevens — had already circled the globe by bicycle, Lenz’s trip was to be unique for two reasons: he would be the first to attempt the journey from east to west, and he would bring his camera. Lenz pitched his plan to a popular recreation magazine called Outing, which, to his surprise, agreed to pay him to serialize his adventures from the road. The Overman Wheel Company of Massachusetts threw in a Victor safety bicycle and supplies, and Lenz’s series of articles for Outing, “Around the World With Wheel And Camera,” was born. He hit the road that spring on a Sunday morning after a goodbye bash thrown by his wheelman pals. “Mr. Lenz will have a long but pleasant trip, and will doubtless have some interesting stories to tell the boys upon his return home,” wrote the Pittsburgh Dispatch. The date was May 15, 1892, Lenz was 25 years old, and expected to be gone for two years. The first stop was Washington, DC, where Lenz gathered a passport and a letter of introduction from Secretary of State James G. Blaine before heading to Outing’s New York City offices for a proper sendoff.
“People crowded around me in such numbers that I found it impossible to mount my wheel, much less make the start,” he wrote of the 100 cyclists who accompanied him from City Hall on June 4. The early Outing articles detail the three months Lenz spent crossing the North America continent; which included such joys and travails as variable road and weather conditions, the quest for meals and lodging, and descriptions of the many
characters he encountered. Word of Lenz’s journey often preceded him by telegraph and newspapers, and he was greeted by local wheelmen as a long-lost cousin, feted with club dinners and accommodations. He soon found himself a minor celebrity, and notwithstanding the occasional downpour or mechanical troubles, appeared to be having a blast on his “world tour awheel.” Twelve days out from New York, Lenz crossed into Canada at Niagara Falls for a
India. Lenz was deeply moved by the Taj Mahal near Agra, India.
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short detour of the first foreign country of his trip. Upon reentering the United States at Detroit, he pressed on to Chicago where he observed the busy preparations for the World’s Fair of 1893. Lenz’s first brush with serious danger occurred while he was en route to Minneapolis. A train suddenly emerged from around a bend as he was crossing a steep ravine on a railroad bridge. Lenz narrowly escaped death by dangling his legs and heavy bicycle over the bridge’s edge. “The train fairly flew by within two feet of me causing the bridge to tremble and groan as if it were ready to go down,” he wrote. “My feelings at this moment can be better imagined than described.” The spectacular scenery of the American West awed Lenz, who spent five days exploring Yellowstone National Park by wheel. He later tumbled 30 feet down a Montana pass after being distracted by gorgeous mountain views, but he escaped with only a few cuts and bruises. Upon crossing the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, Lenz rested a few days in Portland, which was bike-crazy even in 1892, before he pushed on to his final American destination of San Francisco. There he immediately drew a crowd after arriving October 20: “My wheel, loaded
with baggage, canteen, revolver, the Indian bow and arrows, and an old buffalo horn from the plains, was a curiosity to the mass of business men, clerks and workmen, and soon the crowd swarmed about me, trying to hear me answering a newspaper
fully loaded. But tougher days lay ahead, and it was with some trepidation that he sailed for Japan in late October. However, Lenz sounded a confident tone in a letter home, in which he urged his uncle to calm his
Grand Trunk Road. Lenz pauses along the famous route in northern India.
reporter who was on hand to do the usual interviewing.” By Lenz’s estimates, he had pedaled 4,587 miles in 107 days, a respectable 45-mile-a-day pace considering that his single-speed bicycle weighed 110 pounds
worried mother: “Always try to drive the fear from her, as I will no doubt get through everywhere without trouble.” Following a brief stop in Hawaii, Lenz’s steamship pulled into Yokohama harbor in mid-November. He was anxious to see
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