Lone Rider: The First British Woman to Ride a Motorcycle Around the World

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By 1979, she had her first motorcycle—a second-hand Yamaha YB100. Soon, the Yamaha was sold and she moved up to a 250cc Honda. By age 17, she had discovered the range and freedom a motorcycle provides on the open road and she began to think about touring Europe, and eventually, the world. When she mentioned the idea to her friends, it was met with disbelief—then laughter. It is a journey that will change you forever, traveling is so important to understand other cultures and this understanding helps make the world a safer place. I discovered strengths I didn’t know I had, taking yourself out of your comfort zone is never easy but very rewarding. The hardest thing is to leave but once you’re on the road you will discover so much about yourself and the world you will never be the same person again.

The keys were still in her ignition, so I twisted them. She fired up immediately, and didn’t sound too bad. Not for the first time, I thanked solid German engineering. Behind me, the family cheered, clapped, talked excitedly. Why is this book so highly rated? This is the only book I have ever regretted reading. It offended me on every level...as a reader, as a motorcyclist, as a man and as a citizen of Earth. If I had done these events depicted in this book, I would have told absolutely no one. She seemed to literally hate every culture/person she encountered on her trip. She didn't embrace the differences, she viewed them with contempt. And if people didn’t ignore it they were simply rude or insulting. It was a stark reminder of how things used to be, and how attitudes have changed over the last few years.I always meant to write a book about my ride, but I didn’t bother because nobody was interested so I just got on with other things in my life and just sort of forgot about it.” Elspeth Beard was the first English woman to ride a motorcycle around the world. In Lone Rider, written 30 years later, she recounts an epic journey that would defeat many a man.

Long, David (May 2015). Bizarre England: Discover the Country's Secrets and Surprises. Michael O'Mara Books. ISBN 978-1782433767 . Retrieved 19 April 2016. Seeing the classic structures of Europe on family vacations in her youth gave her an interest—and she had a talent for—architecture but that would have to wait. She had something more on her mind. a b c d "Famous Firsts For Women". Trivia South Africa. 21 August 2014. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016 . Retrieved 19 April 2016. It was here that they suffered their first police hassle. They suspected them of carrying drugs, but a full search revealed nothing. This part of the trip felt like a small holiday, especially along the coast, where they spent time eating and swimming. They survived the road of death between Zagreb and Belgrade and they were finally into mainland Europe and then onto the terrifying system that is the German Autobahns. There was a brief detour to the Netherlands to meet Robert’s mother and then for the first time in 799 days, she was home. Before I met Elspeth Beard it was hard to find much information about her and her epic ride. Partly because she had moved on with her life and all memories of the trip had been pushed to the side.

Elspeth Beard on a nasty accident in Australia

Two wheels, that is, and by herself. This was a time when women riders were extremely rare, the internet didn’t exist, and the world was a much larger place. There was no one to look to for inspiration or guidance, because, unlike now, there weren’t thousands of motorcyclists riding around the world. I was 23 and felt invincible, I didn’t think about personal preparation I just prepared my bike and left. The second leg of her ride took her across Australia, where she had a nasty fall and ended up in hospital for two weeks, up through Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, India and Pakistan before reaching Iran and then making her way to Europe, finishing in the city where it all began, London. Today, Elspeth Beard is an award-winning architect based in the U.K. We had the opportunity to do an e-interview with her, posing a dozen questions in follow-up to her book. Here’s what she had to say: After riding through Iran in seven days it wasn’t long before Elspeth was on her way through Europe, an experience that wasn’t quite as she had expected.

People just didn’t want to talk about it, even my friends didn’t because they couldn’t actually relate to it. Now people can because people travel a lot more, but in those days people didn’t really travel a lot, especially doing these kinds of trips. A wonderful read and if you are in any way an adventurer, motorcyclist or traveller (or for that matter - all three) then this book is a must for you. I met this Dutch guy, Robert, and he was on a BMW 800. We were up in Ladakh when all the trouble in the Punjab was brewing and we knew that when we came down again, the area was shut. Lone Rider has really encouraged me to pursue the aspirations I hold dear to me even in the absence of support. It's so hard to find other female motorcyclists - let alone ones that have undertaken a journey as monumental and gruelling as hers - and the feminist in me was galvanised in a way she hasn't been for a long time. Elspeth's story was a stark reminder that the best adventures are not necessarily the ones that will feel worth it every step of the way, and it certainly underlined the importance of having conviction in your own decisions.The whole biking industry hadn’t really woken up to the fact that women wanted to ride motorbikes, so you couldn’t buy the clothes, they didn’t make it for women. I was always wearing boots that were too big for me. Elspeth Beard has just published a book this summer, the one that we talked about in an interview with her last year. We'll remind you that it's the story of a 23 year old woman who in 1982 set off on a solo motorcycle trip around the world. Something relatively unheard of in those days, for both women and men. In fact, on her trip she only met two other motorcycle adventurers in the 2 1/2 years she was on the road. That was me on my first bike, my little Yamaha,” she tells me, scrolling though her old pictures on her tablet. “I must have been about 18 or 20? There was my first helmet. That was my second bike, my Honda 250. Me at the airport. That’s what my bike was like, you can see I’ve got the big five gallon tank on there. All her journals, tapes and photographs of her 1982-1984 world tour were kept in a cardboard box in a cupboard for years. It wasn’t until 2008 when an article by freelance journalist, Paul Blezard was published that her extraordinary story began to spread. In 2014 Hollywood were interested in her life. It became clear to Elspeth that a book needed to be written first to get the story correct. Dyslexia, completing architectural studies, then purchasing a water tower, the book was never realized until that point. The book, Lone Rider was published in 2017. It was the 2018 winner of the Best Extreme Adventure Book.