The Guinness World Record for the greatest distance covered on a motorcycle in 24 hours is now credited to Spaniard Iván Cervantes, who smashed the old record by over 600 km (370 miles) while averaging a speed of 167.79 km/h (104.26 mph) on July 9, 2024.
Cervantes, a five-time Enduro World Champion and Triumph Global Ambassador, traveled 4,012.53 km (2493.27 miles) on a Triumph Tiger 1200 GT Explorer, beating the previous world record of 3,406 km (2116.39 miles) set by American Carl Reese on February 26, 2017 at an average speed of 141.9 km/h. Reese held the record for roughly six years before Cervantes put his name to it.
As an aside Reese also held the famous “Cannonball” LA to NYC solo motorcycle record from 2015 to 2019 – but although he did have notaries at the start and finish line to verify his time of 39 hours and 49 minutes, Guinness has long refused to hold records in categories it deems dangerous and illegal.
Triumph
The bike that was deployed for the Guinness World Record was selected at random from Triumph’s Hinckley, UK, factory production line. Apart from riding the bike in and doing the initial service before the attempt, no more alterations were made to the vehicle. Not just that, the bike only needed one scheduled tire change halfway through the attempt when the stock Metzeler Tourance tires were replaced.
That’s a good advertisement for Metzeler; during Reese’s record run, he burned through two front tires and four rears – Continental’s Road Attack 2 EVO GTs.
The world record was set at the High-Speed Ring at the Nardò Technical Centre in Italy, where not only did Cervantes break the old record, he did it with around five hours still to go. The total distance he covered is greater than the distance from LA to NYC, as the crow flies.
In addition to being a five-time Enduro World Champion, Cervantes has won 21 Spanish Enduro Championships and five Spanish Motocross Championships. He has also come out on top at competitions like the Baja Aragón, 1000 Dunas Raid, and Basella Maxi-Trail Race. He was named one of Triumph’s Off-Road ambassadors in July 2021, assisting in the development of their next line of enduro and motocross bikes.
Cervantes worked closely with Professor Andrew Bagshaw of the University of Birmingham to properly structure his diet and sleep schedule prior to the record attempt. He even used his own Tiger 1200 Rally Pro to prepare for the feat. But it is fairly obvious that no amount of training could fully prepare one for riding in circles at high speeds for 24 hours without any sleep.
Triumph
“It’s not easy to ride for 24 hours in a row but, in the end, the record is mine with this amazing bike,” remarked Cervantes. Apparently, he would even throttle the bike with his left hand to reduce stiffness and physical strain, allowing the right side of his body to recuperate.
Diving into the specifics, Cervantes covered a total of 317 laps of the circuit, with each lap 12.649 km (7.86 miles) in length. He reached speeds in excess of 200 km/h (124 mph), and used a total of 520 liters (137 gal) of fuel in the attempt. Over the entire 24-hour time period, he made only 18 pit stops.
Things have come a long way – literally – since 2009 when Omar Al Mamari of Oman became the first person to set a Guinness World Record in this category. He rode a total of 2,062 km (1,281 miles) at an average speed of 94.1 km/h (58.5 mph) on his Honda CBR 1100.
Source: Guinness World Records
