McGill University professor Larry Lessard stands with his bike by the ocean in Japan. He had planned to visit universities in England, Sweden, Belgium and Japan during a sabbatical year, but decided instead to bike around the world.Supplied
When Larry Lessard pulled up out front of his home in Montreal last Saturday, he was followed by 15 friends who were also on bicycles.
This isn’t how the 63-year-old professor of mechanical engineering at McGill University usually travels, but this was hardly a typical homecoming. Prof. Lessard had finally finished a more than year-long, round-the-world bike journey to promote recycling and sustainability.
Begun in July, 2022, Prof. Lessard’s trip saw him cover 22,500 kilometres on his bike, visit 21 countries and give presentations at 28 universities.
“In the beginning, I didn’t really even know why I was on this trip, when I was maybe searching for the meaning of life at the same time,” he said.
With a sabbatical year coming up, Prof. Lessard had originally planned to visit universities in England, Sweden, Belgium and Japan. Then he had an epiphany.
“I thought, ‘Well, why don’t I just bike to these places and just bike around the world at the same time?’”
Mr. Lessard entering Turkey during his ride. He hoped to inspire the next generation of mechanical engineers through the talks he gave at universities during the trip.Supplied
The search for the meaning of life might have been on his mind, but Prof. Lessard also had more practical goals, including inspiring the next generation of mechanical engineers through the talks he gave at universities.
“The first thing they think is, ‘When I graduate, I’m going to design Ferraris.’ They want to do things that are really cool,” Prof. Lessard said. “I’m trying to tell them that in the future there’s going to be a lot of jobs on recycling and sustainability and, you know, saving the planet. So maybe you should be doing thinking about that instead.”
He has also been filming his journey and plans to use the footage to create a documentary about the project, called Bike62, a name inspired by his age at the beginning of the trip.
“It’s about cycling and recycling,” he says of the film. “And a lot of adventures along the way. So you know, crazy bike paths and bridges and eating bugs and all kinds of stuff.”
With a PhD in composite materials such as carbon fibre, Prof. Lessard spent the early days of his career doing research for the aerospace industry. But his youthful idealism that composite materials could build a better world soured when he realized they were just being used to build more planes.
“I just got fed up of supporting the aerospace industry and decided to go into recycling,” he says.
Most days, Prof. Lessard aimed to ride 100 kilometres, starting around 10 a.m. and finishing at 5 p.m.
“After 130 kilometres, that’s my limit,” he says.
There were mishaps along the way, like leaving his sunglasses at a café and having to ride 10 kilometres back to get them, or forgetting his laptop in the bathroom of the Tokyo airport.
I’ve learned the importance of good equipment, that’s for sure,” he says.
He had five flat tires during the first 4,000 kilometres of his trip. (Upgrading to better tires solved the problem.)
Larry Lessard with his bike on a jungle river in Cambodia. He filmed his journey and plans to use the footage to create a documentary about the project, called Bike62.Supplied
After a long day’s ride, he would spend the night in hotels or guest houses.
“There’s a network for cyclists called Warmshowers.com,” Prof. Lessard says. “These are all cyclists and when they’re not cycling, they host other cyclists. It’s couch surfing for cyclists.”
The trip has helped him better understand the financial priorities that often limit recycling and how connected we all are, Prof. Lessard says.
In many places, “when the recycling programs becomes too expensive, they end up shipping their garbage to a third-world country, and we don’t really find out about these things,” he says.
“We push the problem onto other countries. The reason there’s lots of garbage in Vietnam is because, they’re manufacturing all kinds of stuff for us so that we can get cheap T-shirts and stuff. We can’t just ignore the problem because countries like Canada are causing the problems in those countries.”
His time on the road has not been all hard days of riding and having heavy topics on his mind.
“When I first got to Thailand, I took a month off from this trip. And I just did all kinds of fun stuff. I went to islands. I ate all kinds of insects. And I spent one day taking care of an elephant,” Prof. Lessard says.
Some of the hardest riding he did during the entire trip was in Canada, followed by a long stretch of smooth sailing.
“Crossing the Rockies, there was some pretty heavy climbing days there, going up and down mountains. So yeah, that was a bit of a tough part. The prairies – they’re very flat,” he says.
Now that he is home, Prof. Lessard is eager to spend time with his three children and ease back into some old routines.
“I’m really anxious to get back with my ball hockey team and play some hockey again,” he says.
And he’s realized the meaning of life was right there where he started: his kids, his friends, his community. The simple things we so often take for granted. Enriching it all is a greater sense of connection.
“I feel like everyone’s my friend,” he says. “I have more of a sense that I can make a little bit of a difference.”