The Man Who Would Stop at Nothing by Melissa Holbrook Pierson

Author:Melissa Holbrook Pierson [Pierson, Melissa Holbrook]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-09-25T16:00:00+00:00

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MOTORCYCLISTS ENDURE

Britons Kevin Sanders and his wife, Julia, hold the record for riding the seventeen thousand miles from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, thirty-five days, in 2003. The Wall Street Journal, in a January 8, 2010, article on an Argentinean motorcyclist, Ivan Pisarenko, who had spent four years traveling the route, reported: “The number of people . . . attempting to ride the length of the Americas has grown at least tenfold in the past decade, to roughly 2,000 a year.” Despite the fact that this figure must certainly be greatly inflated, it is also true that “adventure riding,” of which long-distance riding is a large subset, has been growing as a sport: sales of touring bikes more than doubled between 1998 and 2008. The outsider activity is now extremely popular.

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There were eighty-six sanctioned special rides listed in late 2010 on the Iron Butt Association’s website, including such small matters as the Transanatolia (West to East Turkey in less than twenty-four hours; three completions); Circuit of Ireland (a lap of the country in less than a day; four finishers); Gibraltar to Nordkapp in three days (seven certificates); a SaddleSore 7000 (a week of thousand-mile days; four completions); Black Sea to the White Sea in thirty-six hours (one); the Why? Whynot! Insanity (Why, Arizona, to Whynot, Mississippi, in twenty-four hours; one finisher); and the South Africa Four Corners Ride Gold (none—so far). New rides are being added all the time, as the association magnetizes riders from all over the world, with branches in Taiwan, Russia, Finland, and Ireland. Among others. To submit a ride idea, you just need to have a concept that is, in President Kneebone’s words, “interesting and twisted—preferably both,” and to map it. Oh, and ride it first.

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Simon and Monika Newbound, of Great Britain, left from Dublin in 2002 with the goal of breaking the Guinness World Records achievement of a continuous ride of 99,600 kilometers (61,900 miles). In three years and one day, they completed their round-the-world trip (which included fifty-four countries and every state and province in Canada and the United States), on their BMWs (F650GS and R1150GS). Their ride was formally recognized by Guinness in 2005 and listed at 183,000 kilometers, or 113,700 miles.

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Two Canadians, brothers Colin and Ryan Pyle, set a Guinness World Record for their 2010 motorcycle journey around China, the “Longest Journey by Motorcycle in a Single Country.” They spent sixty-five days on the road circling China on BMW F800GS bikes. Their 17,674 km journey was the first by riders who fully circumnavigated China by motorcycle in a single journey.

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Don Arthur, retired surgeon general of the U.S. Navy, in 2002 ran the Motorcycle Tourer’s Forum Four Corners tour (Maine to Key West to San Ysidro to Washington) in four days, ten hours, and forty-two minutes—the fastest time ever.

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In 2001, Phil Mattson cranked out thirty consecutive SaddleSores (a total of 30,603 miles) on a Harley FLHTCI to master the IBA’s self-styled Longest Month ride. In May 2003, Michael LaDue did the same, on a Honda GL1800.

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