Motorcycle Gal

Editor’s Note: In the early 1980s, twenty-something Elspeth Beard became one of the first British women to ride around the world on a motorcycle. She caught hepatitis, crossed Iran during a war, was hospitalized in Australia after a gnarly crash, and had everything but her bike and clothes stolen in Singapore. Her trip was eventful—and glorious. Here, she shares the prologue from her book, Lone Rider, along with some of her favorite images.

For five long, hot, tiring days, I’d ridden toward the equator, skimming the Burmese border on the skinny section of the Thai peninsula, somewhere between the lazy beaches of the south and bustling Bangkok and the plains to the north. I had to be in Penang in three days to catch a cargo ship across the Bay of Bengal to Madras.

I had ridden up to the Thai–Burma border in search of a route through to India and onto Nepal. Until now, I’d traveled rich in time, but poor