In 1982 at the age of twenty three Elspeth Beard set off on a solo trip to ride her 1974 R60/6 BMW motorcycle around the world. The journey took two and a half years, covering 35,000 miles. She set off alone with no sponsorship or support, in an age before email, mobile phones and satnavs and it was not until 2008 that she discovered that she had become the first British woman to ride a motorcycle around the world.
In 2008 BMW commissioned and published a short article about the round the world trip for BMW International and as a result of this her story gradually spread.
In 2015 she decided to write a book about the adventure and her book ‘Lone Rider’ was published in the UK in 2017.
We talk about how little interest anyone really had in her trip, before, during and after and how she felt about that.
We talked about resilience, stubbornness and determination in the face of accidents, robberies and even a miscarriage.
We discuss how she managed her money and how she dealt with many many unwanted threats to her personal safety.
There is a poignant and vivid theme throughout the book of a young woman discovering herself and how to understand love, with a tangled love story mixed in with the girls’ own adventure stories.
The chat comes almost to an end with us talking about how this formative trip helped to shape the rest of her life, giving her the confidence to take on anything and everything.
And finally, we discuss who should play her in the movie. Sadly, we’re both too out of touch to know anyone currently able to play a very tall, very bold 23 year old biking pioneer. Answers on a postcard, please!
https://www.brand.bmw-motorrad.com/en/experience/stories/adventure/elspeth-beard.html
Instagram: @elspethbeard