NEWS: It's been around the world and it gets stolen...in Edinburgh

By Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
July 2, 2008

AN intrepid motorcyclist who drove through some of the most lawless countries in the world has returned to Edinburgh - only to have his prized machine stolen.

Adventurer and author Gavin Francis, 32, of Albion Road, completed a near round-the-world bike trip from Edinburgh to Sydney two weeks ago.

His 1982 BMW R80rt motorcycle was parked outside a friend's house in Montgomery Street after the trip was completed.

When Mr Francis went out to check on the vehicle - which had survived its travels through Europe, the Middle-East, Pakistan and South East Asia - early yesterday morning he found it gone.

To add insult to injury, police later found it in a vandalised condition in nearby Brunswick Street Lane. It could now be heading for the scrapheap.

The thieves seem to have cut through the security chains on the front and back wheels, moved the bike to a more secluded location and tried to hotwire it. When their attempts were unsuccessful they abandoned the bike.

Mr Francis said: "I've parked that bike in Beruit, Amman and Delhi, and it spends one night in Edinburgh and gets stolen.

"After completing something so positive as a road trip to Sydney, I wouldn't like to become embroiled in a negative story about the criminal elements in Edinburgh, but it is pretty sickening."

Police told Mr Francis the damage to the vehicle was so severe they had to impound it.

It is unclear whether he will be able to recover it, as it is no longer roadworthy.

He added: "The police won't release it until they've had a word with my insurance company, and they won't allow it back on the road in the condition it is in.

"They said it was probably going to be a write-off. I don't know if I'll ever get it back, even for sentimental reasons.

"I've been told the chances of catching whoever did this are slim. The bike was uncovered so fingerprint evidence will be useless because anybody could have touched it."

Police confirmed they were investigating the theft of a motorbike from Montgomery Street.

Peter Woollven, branch secretary of the Edinburgh & District Advanced Motorcyclists Club, which provides security advice to its 130 members, said that recovery would be up to the owner's insurance company. He added: "It depends on his insurance terms and conditions. The same thing happened to me some years ago with a supposedly written-off motorbike.

"I had some trouble getting it back, but when I did I restored it and got it back on the road.

"I am truly dismayed to hear about the theft of this gentleman's bike. It would be a shame if a bike that's travelled so far ended up consigned to the scrapheap."

Mr Francis now intends to record his - and the motorbike's - travels throughout the world in a forthcoming book.

The author has just completed a book based on previous adventures in Arctic Europe, entitled True North, which took him from the Shetland Isles to the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, and Lapland.