When Canowindra's Logan Frost and his family arrived at their Alice Springs camp site on Wednesday for last weekend's 2022 Finke Desert Race they were greeted with applause.
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"People were saying, 'you do realise you are the most famous bike here'," Logan's mother Diana Frost said before Logan set off for the two day event on Saturday.
Logan's new found fame came about after the 16-year-old's bike was stolen from a motel car park in Coober Pedy.
News of the theft went viral on social media and within 24 hours of it being stolen police had recovered the bike from a Coober Pedy backyard.
"We received a phone call from police at 1 in the morning that they had found it in someone's backyard with a few branches and leaves thrown over the top of it," Ms Frost said.
Undamaged the bike didn't appear to have been ridden.
"We were just incredibly, incredibly lucky," she said
While police commenced an investigation the Frost family offered a $3000 reward for the bike's return, deciding to stay in Coober Pedy for an extra day hoping the bike would be returned.
"The Coober Pedy community and the police were just fantastic," Ms Frost said.
Ahead of last weekend's event the Logan family camped out with thousands of others in Alice Springs.
"There's every shape and form of caravan and swag, literally thousands of people here," Ms Frost said.
Even if the bike hadn't been returned Logan was going to be able to compete with plenty of offers of a replacement bike.
"We were offered a bike by so many people from the Finke community and the Westlime crew are up here too and offered him a bike. People were just beautiful," Ms Frost said.
Logan rode 230kms on Saturday from Alice Springs to Aputula (Finke), before camping overnight and returning to Alice Springs on Sunday.
He finished the first day in the Class 5 Division in 2 hours 53 minutes and 14.4 seconds.
His second day ride was comparable with a finishing time of 2 hours, 54 minutes and 27.3 seconds with an overall time of 5 hours 47 minutes and 41.8 seconds.
"Logan doesn't have the mindset that he's out there to win, just to finish the race would be amazing," Ms Frost said before the race.
Logan starting the race on his own bike is just as amazing.