Some people still think that motorcycles are only for men. And they are very much surprised to see a stylish and beautiful lady behind the wheel. But to see her with her sleeves rolled up, elbow-deep in oil, is even stranger. But the fact remains. Women not only play football and fly into space, but also drive a motorcycle quite convincingly and even take part in races and make trips around the world!
In 1982, at the age of just twenty-three, the Englishwoman Elspeth Beard set off on a 35,000-mile solo trip around the world on her 1974 BMW R60/6.
Taking only her limited savings from her pub job, a tent, clothes, and tools, and attaching everything to the back of the bike, she was going to test herself to the limit. She had been riding since she was a teenager and had already made two solo trips to Scotland and Ireland. Still, that experience wasn’t enough to prepare her for the adventure that lay ahead.
Elsbeth bought a used 1974 BMW R 60/6 flat-twin from a friend with 30 thousand miles on the clock. Her motorcycle trip around the world began in New York. “It cost $340 to ship the bike and $197 for my own flight,” she recalls. From New York, she traveled to Canada, and then on to Mexico and Los Angeles. From Los Angeles, she shipped her motorcycle to Sydney, while she went to New Zealand for the first time while her motorcycle was being transported. It was then that her luck began to run out…
In Australia, Elsbeth got into her first major accident, which forced her to stay in the hospital for 2 weeks. In Singapore, her luck ran out again when all of her valuables were stolen – including her passport with all visas for countries she had not yet visited, as well as the registration and delivery documents for her motorcycle. It took 6 weeks to replace all the lost documents.
On the way to India (via Burma), a second major accident occurred when a dog ran out in front of Elsbeth’s bike from behind a truck on a dangerous main road. The motorcycle hit a tree, and Elsbeth was again severely injured, but surprisingly did not break any bones. She spent two weeks recuperating and caring for the impoverished Thai family whose tree her motorcycle had hit! “They didn’t speak a word of English and I didn’t speak a word of Thai, but we communicated in sign language,” Elsbeth said. The biker repaired her broken motorcycle on her own, which impressed the Thai family.
Elsbeth returned to London almost three years later. She rode off-road, through countries affected by the war. She repeatedly witnessed civil uprisings that forced her to forge documents and escape sexual harassment. On her way, the motorcyclist also encountered numerous biker gangs and corrupt police officers, always convinced for some reason that she was selling drugs. She survived life-threatening accidents that left scars in her soul and scratches on her bike.
In an era before email, the Internet, cell phones, navigators (and in some parts of the world without easily accessible and reliable maps), Elsbeth did something that seems incredible today.
If there is something truly masculine in the world, women will certainly come to it and show that they can do the same and not worse. In motorsports, no one is surprised by female rally teams anymore, but motorcycling has long remained almost the last citadel of purely male sport. The world is gradually getting rid of stereotypes about “women’s” and “unwomen’s” activities. There are more and more girls on bikes, and they ride professionally.
Let’s strike another blow at the existing stereotypes. Girls on motorcycles are not only motorcycle tourists and motorcycle athletes, they are also bikers. Today, there are many well-respected women’s biker clubs in the world. Such girls will give a head start to many boys who are motorcycle enthusiasts. The first officially registered women’s motorcycle club was established in 1989 in America, but we are sure that women’s unofficial clubs existed before that.