The new world record for riding a motorcycle the longest distance on a track in one day has been set with a BMW K 1600 GT – and it could have been even longer!
Carl Reese set the new Guinness World Record with 2119 miles (3410.2km) at the Continental Proving Grounds in Uvalde, Texas, breaking the previous record of 2023.5 miles (3256.5km) set by Matthew McKelvey in 2014.
He actually stopped after 22 hours and 52 minutes because his team ran out of available tyres for the K 1600 GT, so Carl could have gone about an extra 150km.
To save time, Carl ate on the “run”, although he did take toilet stops.
The top speed of the K 1600 GT was 141mph (227km/h), his average speed was 92mph (148km/h) including all stops, but the official average speed for the entire 24 hours is 88.3mph (142.1km/h).
In 2015, Carl set a record for crossing America from LA to New York on his K 1600 GT. He did the 2829 miles (4552km) in 38:48 hours.
The Californian also set six other records in seven months during 2015, all aboard his mile-munching K 1600 GT.
Read our K 1600 GT review here.
Motorcycle world records
Motorcycles have been making and breaking Guinness World Records for more than a century.
Here are some of the more interesting world records:
The biggest simultaneous motorcycle burnout record was set by 300 people on Saturday, April 11, 2015, in Tagaytay City, Philippines. It smoked the previous record of 213 bikes by Harleystunts and Smokey Mountain Harley-Davidson in Tennessee in August, 2006.
The tallest rideable motorbike is 5m tall, 10m long and weighs about 4 tonnes. Made by Fabio Feggiani, it had to travel 100m to gain the record n 2013.
But it wasn’t the heaviest bike. That record belongs to the Harzer Bike Schmiede which weighs 4749kg and was built by Tilo and Wilfried Niebel of Zilly, Germany, out of military surplus parts.
Harzer Bike Schmiede the world’s heaviest bikeThe smallest rideable motorcycle was the “Small Toe” made by Tom Wiberg of Sweden in 2003. It has an 8cm wheelbase, 6.5cm seat height and weighs just 1kg. it has a top speed of almost 2km/h with its 0.3horsepower motor. Wiberg rode 10m in 2003 to clinch the record.
Tom Wiberg on his bikeWheelie fast
The world’s fastest wheelie on ice is held by Swedish racer Robert Gull with an overall speed of 183.8km/h over 100m.
Riobert Gull performs ice wheelie stuntMeanwhile, “StuntWars” creator Todd Colbert did a 100m wheelie at 130km/h on his stock 1992 GSX-R1100 in 1998 with nine people on board, smashing the previous record of eight people.
The longest wheelie belongs to Yasuyuki Kudo of Japan who rode a wheelie on his Honda TLM220R for 331km at the Japan Auto Research Institute proving ground in May of 1991.
The fastest wheelie is 307.86km/h by Patrick “Ghost Rider” Furstenhoff on a Honda Super Blackbird 1100cc turbo at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground, Leicestershire, England, in 1999.