Cyclist Frank Lenz Left from Pittsburgh in 1892

Image from The Wheel and Cycling
Trade Review, 1888

On May 15, 1892, Frank Lenz began his multi-year bicycle tour of the world. He would never return to his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Frank reported on his progress for Outing, in both words and photos. His plan was described in the May 1892 issue:

"Mr. Frank G. Lenz, a well-known wheelman, of Pittsburg, Pa., will, on May 15th, start on a world-girdling tour awheel. He will ride a 'Victor' pneumatic, and profiting by Mr. Stevens' experience, will travel westward instead of eastward, thus taking advantage of the sequence of the climatic changes. The journey will be across the States to San Francisco, thence to Japan, China, India, Afghanistan, Asiatic Russia, Persia, Turkey, Servia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, France, England, Scotland and Ireland. Mr. Lenz, besides being a man of indomitable pluck and energy and an accomplished rider, is a thoroughly practical mechanic and a photographer of no mean ability, equipped with the best of cameras and a mechanism of his own invention. Cyclists and photographers not only, but all readers of Outing, will, we doubt not, await with interest the contributions from the pen, pencil and camera of this wheelman of the world--Frank G. Lenz--to whom Outing and Outing's readers will bid God-speed."

Frank Lenz disappeared in Turkey and, although his body was never found, an investigation determined he had been murdered, most likely in May 1894. To learn more, you may want to read the book, The Lost Cyclist.