The world of bicycling's living legends became a little smaller earlier this month when Britain's Ian Hibell was killed by a hit-and-run motorist while he was bike touring in Greece.
Nic and Andy tell about their friend's death at their UK-based Bike Brothers website.
Reportedly a motorist hit 74-year-old Hibell on the Athens-Solonika highway while racing another vehicle. Neither one stopped, but witnesses got the license plate numbers and police later arrested them.
How did Hibell gain worldwide attention and acclaim from cyclo-touring? Basically he took his bicycle where no one had before, then he wrote about it.
Darien Gap
One of his most noted adventures was his 18,000-mile bike tour (with diversions) from Cape Horn to Alaska via the Pan American Highway between 1971 and 1973.
It is noted as the first overland Trans-American Expedition because Hibell and his two companions traversed the Darien Gap, a swamp and jungle at the border of South and Central America that to this day is the only “missing link” in the Pan American Highway.
The old video briefly shows some of the hardships they had to endure.
More tours
Next came a bike tour from Norway's Cape North to Cape Town, South Africa. Then crossing the Sahara Desert.
Many of these bike tours found themselves into the 1985 book, Into the Remote Places
Hibell also wrote about some of his many adventures in an article for Adventure Cyclist Magazine, July/August. 2005.
Hibell's bikes
If you have a chance to peruse the BikeBrothers website, you'll get a good idea of the type of hard scrabble bicycle touring that Hibell immersed himself in.
There are many pictures of Hibell's various touring bikes, including one that had a lever-operated mud scraper system and another with a self-designed built-in pannier frame.
There also are some amazing pictures from his tour through Peru, and elsewhere.
Hibell's life had a tragic ending, but he did leave a rich legacy and is an inspiration to many cyclo-tourists on the road today.
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