A few years ago, at age 30, I expected by age 40 to either be married, or of no fixed abode. (There is, of course, a lot more to the story.)
I had been planning the construction of a velomobile and trailer, with solar panels, batteries, digital piano, small fridge, more than 20L of water capacity, integrated sleeping quarters… essentially a miniature, human-powered RV (in fact very close to New Zealand’s freedom camping vehicle rules; with a few realistic changes it could be certified). Suitable for roaming Australia, only needing restocking/dumping every three or four days. Obviously much heavier than backpack travel (laden, 120–140kg, excluding rider; but at least this wasn’t my grand-piano-cycle design¹), but significantly more independent in other ways. I planned to build it, then cycle around Australia for a year (average 50km/day), then unless my situation changed, sell my house and continue indefinitely.
Well, I moved to India and got married last year instead. So my velomobile will never happen. :-)
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¹ It calls for some pretty crazy gear ratios if you want to be able to climb any sort of slope, but I worked things out enough to be confident the concept is sound, with careful component choice (e.g. the tyres I’d otherwise prefer to use are only rated to 150kg, so either different ones will be needed, or doubling the wheels in some way). Less thoroughly imagined is the pipe-organ-cycle. Horizontal mounting honestly makes it surprisingly practical… though you might want to stop at 16′ pipes, five metres long is already getting unwieldy. Sadly I don’t think wind harvesting would be viable to drive an organ of any real size; you’d need a separate blower.
I biked around the US for 1.5 years, and loved every minute of it. Initially I had a hammock (Hennessey) and then a 1 person tent. Lived at a whitewater rafting company, was invited into a music festival, and was invited into people's homes and fed 2-3 days a week.
I stopped to do the family thing, but gearing up to take them on bike trips soon.
I had been planning the construction of a velomobile and trailer, with solar panels, batteries, digital piano, small fridge, more than 20L of water capacity, integrated sleeping quarters… essentially a miniature, human-powered RV (in fact very close to New Zealand’s freedom camping vehicle rules; with a few realistic changes it could be certified). Suitable for roaming Australia, only needing restocking/dumping every three or four days. Obviously much heavier than backpack travel (laden, 120–140kg, excluding rider; but at least this wasn’t my grand-piano-cycle design¹), but significantly more independent in other ways. I planned to build it, then cycle around Australia for a year (average 50km/day), then unless my situation changed, sell my house and continue indefinitely.
Well, I moved to India and got married last year instead. So my velomobile will never happen. :-)
—⁂—
¹ It calls for some pretty crazy gear ratios if you want to be able to climb any sort of slope, but I worked things out enough to be confident the concept is sound, with careful component choice (e.g. the tyres I’d otherwise prefer to use are only rated to 150kg, so either different ones will be needed, or doubling the wheels in some way). Less thoroughly imagined is the pipe-organ-cycle. Horizontal mounting honestly makes it surprisingly practical… though you might want to stop at 16′ pipes, five metres long is already getting unwieldy. Sadly I don’t think wind harvesting would be viable to drive an organ of any real size; you’d need a separate blower.