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Motorcycling History: Ms. Elspeth Beard
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Motorcycling History: Ms. Elspeth Beard
A motorcycling pioneer
Elspeth Beard is an architect and
motorcyclist, and she is famous for being the first English woman to
ride a motorcycle around the world.
She achieved this feat in 1982, in the days before GPS, Internet, email
and mobile phones. The bike she chose for the trip was a used 1974 BMW R
60/6 flat-twin, for which she paid £900 ($1800) in 1980 – a substantial
sum at the time, especially for a machine that already had 30,000 miles
on the odometer.
Elspeth used the bike for her first
long solo rides to Scotland and to Ireland, then to mainland Europe and
Corsica, racking up over 10,000 miles in her first two years of
ownership. At age 24, Elspeth had
finished the first three years (of seven years) of architectural studies
and decided to take a serious break from her responsibilities and began
planning to ride around the world.
She had saved around $1,900 working behind the bar at her local
pub in Marylebone, central London.
She made plans and began her journey.
She started the first stage of her
trip in New York: “It cost £175 ($340 at the time) to send the bike and
£99 ($197) for my own air fare,” she recalls.
From the Big Apple she rode up to
Canada, then down to Mexico before reaching Los Angeles, adding 5,000
miles to the odometer. From
L.A. she shipped the bike to Sydney, but stopped off to see New Zealand
on foot while the bike was in transit.
Elspeth then spent seven months
working in a Sydney architectural practice and living in a garage,
gaining experience and replenishing her diminished funds.
She spent weeks constructing her
own lockable, top-box and panniers out of folded and riveted sheet
aluminum before setting off on her travels once more.
She rode all over Australia, and
had her first big accident on a dirt road near Townsville, in
Queensland. She was left with a
concussion, but luckily no broken bones.
She still has the Bell “bone dome” helmet that she’s convinced
saved her life (and which she carried on wearing for the rest of the
trip).
In Singapore she had a disaster of a
different kind, when all her valuables were stolen, including her
passport with all the visas in it for the countries she had yet to
visit, and the registration and shipping documents for her bike.
After an enforced six week
sojourn in the island state replacing all the lost documents, she was on
her way again.
Her trip was filled with much more
adventure as well as additional perils, which included having another
accident and spending time in Turkey recovering from illness.
By the time she got back to her
native London, Elspeth had been away for three years and added 48,000
miles to her R60’s odometer.
Upon her return, she stripped and completely rebuilt the engine herself;
the motorcycle is still in running order today.
Elspeth finished her architectural
studies, founded Elspeth Beard Architects, and later redesigned Munstead
Tower in Godalming, turning it into her home.
Brick-built and 130 feet high, Munstead Tower was erected in 1898
to supply water to the surrounding homes in Munstead and neighboring
villages and was in use for approximately 70 years.
The water tower had been out of use for nearly twenty years when
Beard bought it at auction in 1989.
With that project, she won the 1994 Royal Institute of British
Architects award for South East England.
In 2017, Beard wrote a book about
her adventure. See the link
below. She still owns her
architectural firm, which is based in a converted stable in Godalming.
Discover more about Ms. Beard
YouTube short videos
Elspeth Beard - one of the early globetrotters. A short recap of Ms. Beard’s story, 3 min. 46 sec. Posted July 8, 2016 by BMW Motorrad
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=7O4Xp6Qndfw
A short recap of Ms. Beard’s story, 3 min. 47 sec.
Posted May 8,
2018 by Culture Trip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1_DZaKhwhA
YouTube full interview
This is a full interview with Ms. Beard by MCN (Motorcyclenews.com) in
three parts Part 1: Travelling the world, by Elspeth Beard | Interviews | Motorcyclenews.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xaxo5EIJhrY
Part 2: Travelling the world, by Elspeth Beard |
Interviews | Motorcyclenews.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwBYy5Clm5U
Part 3: Travelling the world, by Elspeth Beard |
Interviews | Motorcyclenews.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvogDFH67bs
Elspeth Beard’s Autobiography Check out Ms. Beard’s autobiography, published in 2017, available at Amazon:
Lone
Rider: The First British Woman to Motorcycle Around the World
Photos
of Ms. Beard’s stunning, award-winning home
Check out a page at Elspeth Beard Architect’s website that features
details about the construction and great photos of the interior of Ms.
Beard’s home:
Elspeth Beard Architects Page: Munstead Water Tower
Photos of Ms. Beard
Elspeth Beard on her trip around the world. Location and date unknown.
Note the hand-built top-box and pannier.
|
Elspeth Beard at Leh Pass in the Himalayas
Pictured with her 1974 BMW R 60/6 flat-twin in 2017
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