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

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I was very touched and leant towards her, intending to hug her, but my eyes were drawn to something extraordinary behind the woman, on the table. The dog I’d run over. In our second segment this week, Editor-at-Large Neale Bayly talks with master mechanic David Behrend. David’s amazing career has taken him all over the world as mechanic and Crew Chief for some of the greatest riders in Moto America, World Superbike, and Moto2. David is now Technical Director for Andreani Suspension USA; if you have suspension or handling questions—David is the guy to help! Elspeth lives just outside London in an amazing water tower she redesigned and refurbished herself over a seven-year period. She’s an award-winning architect with her own firm. When her book first came out, if you Googled her, all the information was about architecture and her business. Nine months later, it’s now motorcycle this and world traveler that.

This book read like a spoiled rich girl doing something to annoy her mom whom she seemed to resent. Case in point, when she met up with her parents, she dragged them out of the "nice part of town" and showed her the slums in an effort to show her how tough and brave she was for enduring such conditions. In 1982, at the age of just twenty-three and halfway through her architecture studies, Elspeth Beard left her family and friends in London and set off on a 35,000-mile solo adventure around the world on her 1974 BMW R60/6. Elspeth: No. I’d heard of Ted Simon and his book Jupiter’s Travels and I tried to read it. I got to chapter one and I just gave up. I think I was reading it for the wrong reasons. I was reading it to find out how to do it, Ted’s book was the only thing around about riding around the world at the time but, well, I’m not much of a reader anyway. But when I was on my bike with my helmet, everybody assumed I was male anyway. It didn’t occur to anybody that I was a woman, especially in those days. She rode her 1975 BMW R 60/6 flat-twin into Canada before heading south to Mexico where she sent the bike to New Zealand and later Australia.

Forging documents

The last section of the book broke my heart. I wished more than anything I could give her a hug during those trying periods of her life. I'm thankful that she took time to write this book. I'm thankful that she had the guts to do such a daring journey on a motorcycle.

ostsin selle raamatu autori enda käest pärast seda, kui ühel motomessil ta esinemisele sattusin - ta rääkis väga hoogsalt ja meeleolukalt ära selle loo, kuidas ta 22-aastaselt endale (tolle aja kohta) võimsa mootorratta ostis, seda parandama ja hooldama õppis ja sellega siis ümber maailma sõitis. nagu raamatu pealkirigi ütleb, esimese briti naisena.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. For a few moments, not knowing what to say or do, I hesitated. Then I accepted the offer of the curo, clasping my hands together in front of my chest and bowing my head with a smile to show my thanks. Once I’d got over the thought of what I’d been eating for the last week, I realized I felt comforted to know what had happened to the dog. I had killed it and provided food for the family. No wonder they were so welcoming to me. I was determined to make up for lost time, and although I had abandoned any hope of catching the cargo boat to Madras as planned, I hoped I could find another way. I was spurred on by a deep desire to get to Kathmandu by any means so that I could be reunited for a short time with my parents. Eighteen months had passed since they waved off a rather reluctant traveller from Heathrow. It was a long time and I really needed to see them. * As a fellow twenty-three year old woman on a long distance, solo motorcycle trip (albeit significantly less than 35,000 miles), it was unlikely that I wouldn't enjoy this book. However, I didn't expect to enjoy it quite as much as I did. It was the intimacy, vulnerability, and rawness of her memoir that engaged me, and I really identified with Elspeth's character in a way that I hadn't expected to. I often find it difficult to stumble upon women like her, and I think that part of the reason I was so enthralled with her story was the headstrong and unapologetic way she responded to what were often devastating and incalculable challenges. I think it’s completely different now. You get many many more women riding bikes, but it’s a slow process. "I think women have realised they have a voice"

Elspeth Beard (born 28 April 1959) is an architect and motorcyclist, noted for being one of the first English women to ride a motorcycle around the world. [2] [a] She later redesigned the historic Munstead Tower in Godalming, winning the 1994 Royal Institute of British Architects award for South East England. She now owns an architectural firm based in a converted stable in Godalming. [4] Personal life [ edit ] After spending eight months working in an architect’s office in Sydney, while living in a garage with her bike, Elspeth Beard once again hit the road having saved up enough money. A great read and a terrific story, documenting Elspeth Beard's trek on a motorcycle across the USA, Australia, Indonesia, Malayasia, Thailand, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and the brisk finish home to London through Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany and Holland. Along the way she learns how to cope with incredible challenges and understands how adaptable and strong she can be in a range of situations: her trek, her motorcycle, her relationships, her parents – and her life after the trip. 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.a b Davies, Bryn (29 March 2017). "Elspeth Beard bares all about her remarkable round the world ride". Adventure Bike Rider . Retrieved 19 November 2018. Elspeth Beard has shared some of her audio files with Adventure Rider Radio, the sound of her younger voice all those years ago that she recorded to share with her parents. And, we also talk to someone who was in a position to either empower or disempower her while she was on this trip, something Elspeth wasn't aware of at the time that we created this episode for you, our listener. After spending so long on the road, Elspeth’s perception of life was entirely different than before she left. “The whole trip was completely life changing”, she told me. “I think it made me the way I am now, I haven’t really stopped doing things. I’m always doing stuff. I physically built this house,” she remarks as she gestures around the grand room we’re sat in. 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.

I think it makes you not afraid of anything, it gives you a lot of inner strength. I’m sure there are other ways that you can achieve that, but that’s how I did it.” After her motorcycling feat, Beard bought the derelict Munstead Tower in Godalming, a 130-foot (40m) former water tower built in 1898. Over five years, she renovated and converted it into a habitable house. The renovated tower was featured on a 1995 episode of Home Front, and in 1994, the tower won the Royal Institute of British Architects award for South East England. [16] [9] In 2019 Beard and the tower were featured in the Season 3 episode 1 of Ride with Norman Reedus. [ citation needed] The principal bedroom of the tower also featured in the 2022 film Rogue Agent.

Travelling as a lone woman

It was a bit like if Neil Armstrong came here and was talking about what it’s like to walk on the moon, you can’t relate to it because it’s so far away from your reference.” Whether you ever contemplated long-distance extreme touring for yourself or not, Lone Rider is an exceptional read. Any motorcyclist could find that aspect of the story fascinating, indeed, but the truth is, anyone interested in an epic story well-told will want to give it a read. Elspeth stated, ‘For most of us motorcycling represents freedom. This is how they see motorcycling – it gives them the freedom and because motorbikes are relatively inexpensive compared to cars, it is a form of transport they have got some chance at actually being able to get, to give them the freedom to go out and to do things.’