24 hour distance record smashed and other crazy motorcycle records

American Carl Reese has ridden into the record books after covering 2,119 miles in 24 hours on a BMW K1600GT to comfortably beat the previous record of 2,023 miles.

Reese was forced to stop with over an hour remaining, after the abrasive surface at Continental Tire Proving Grounds in Uvalde, Texas, completely destroyed his entire stock of four rear tyres and two front tyres.

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Reese covered the distance at an average speed of 90mph, peaking at 141mph. He’s no stranger to riding huge distances, spending much of his spare time setting huge distance records on public roads.

Once the record was completed, Reese got four hours sleep before driving 17 hours back to Los Angeles!

We had a look on the Guinness World Records website to see what other crazy motorcycle records are out there, and these are our favourites.

Metzeler’s three world records

Metzeler have set three world records by riding Honda Africa Twins and CRF450s up the Nevado Ojos del Salado volcano in Chile. The records stand for riding from sea level to 5900m in 22 hours 30 minutes, reaching 5960m on a twin-cylinder bike, and reaching the highest altitude ever on two wheels – 5977m in 22 hours 40 minutes.

Highest tightrope crossed on a motorcycle

130 metres above Benidorm, Mustafa Danger became the highest rider to traverse a tightrope on a motorcycle. The tightrope was a kilometre long and a human counterbalance below the bike was used. Rather him than me.

Longest journey by motorcycle

457,000 miles, covered by Argentinian Emilio Scotto between 1985 and 1995. Counted as a single journey since he never returned to his country of departure until the end of the trip. During his journey Emilio visited 214 countries. Impressive. 

Fastest motorcycle wheelie on a tightrope

32.9mph. On a tightrope. On one wheel. Johann demonstrates his wheelie good (not sorry) tightrope skills in the video below (skip to 3 minutes 13 seconds for the wheelie), although there doesn’t appear to be any rear tyre on the bike. 

Largest human motorcycle pyramid

You’ve probably seen the videos of 20 or so stunt riders  perched on top of a few bikes. Well the record is 201 riders balanced on just 10 bikes. We don’t even know how this is possible.

Longest distance riding backwards on a motorcycle

I’ve never tried riding backwards on a bike, but I can’t imagine it’s easy.  Dipayan Choudhury of the Dare Devils – the Indian Army Corps of Signals Motorcycle Display Team managed to ride backwards for 125.52 miles! 

Most motorcycle engines started simultaneously and most horns sounded simultaneously

This odd record went to the Southern Philippine island of Mindanao, where 3,184 motorcycles started simultaneously and 3,177 sounded their horn, breaking the previous record of 1,446 and 1,425 respectively by some margin.

Fastest speed dragged behind a motorcycle

We don’t know how you even come up with an idea like this, but Gary Rothwell was dragged behind the back of his Suzuki Hayabusa at 156.3mph, using 2mm thick titanium soles on his boots.

 

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