Rider angry at bike theft

Lee Simmons, aged 39, travelled across Hong Kong, Indonesia and Malaysia on the trusty red mountain bike he paid 600 for in Hong Kong.

He pedalled thousands of miles on it and it was left untouched wherever he parked it up all over Asia.

But after his return to his home town the much-loved bicycle was taken from his father's garage.

"Nobody thought to steal it in the poorest villages of Asia," he said. "Then I come back home and it's gone. It’s very sad really that it should be stolen here in Barnsley and I imagine someone somewhere is riding it now - totally unaware of its history.

“I don’t suppose after all that wear and tear that it’s worth that much now, but it would be nice to get it back, it does have immense sentimental value to me."

Lee had hitchhiked across Europe and all the way to Hong Kong when he decided to buy the Cannondale M800 bike and complete the rest of his three-year-long round the world trip by pedal power.

His bicycle journey also took him through Thailand and India where he saw the sun rise over the Taj Mahal while sitting on his bike which boasts on the back frame “Beast of the East”.