On April 22, 1884, Thomas Stevens set out from San Francisco with a bicycle whose large wheel measured 50 inches, or 127 centimetres, across. By Davisville he was already having a cobbler reinforce his shoes: the route demanded plenty of walking as well as pedalling.
He reached Boston on August 4. After wintering in New York, Stevens sailed for Liverpool in April 1885 and continued through Europe and Asia. This was not an uninterrupted bicycle ride: the itinerary also included sea passages and railway travel.
The cycling portion ended at Yokohama on December 17, 1886. Stevens then returned to San Francisco aboard the steamship City of Peking. His two-volume Around the World on a Bicycle recorded roads, places to sleep and encounters along the way—an early example of a bicycle journey becoming an extended travel narrative.