Sam Sunderland: Round the world in 19 days

Sunderland certainly deserves the publicity, but their Swiss SPEEDWEEK writer has some reservations. But first things first: the official entry in the Guinness Book of Records for the fastest round-the-world motorcycle journey belongs to the British couple Kevin and Julia Sanders. Between 11 May and 22 June 2002, they circumnavigated the globe on a BMW R1150GS in 19 days, 8 hours and 25 minutes. They covered 31,319 km, averaging around 1,600 km per day.

As Guinness World Records closed the category for transcontinental speed records on public roads shortly afterwards for safety reasons, their time remains the officially recognised Guinness record to be beaten to this day.

The attentive SPEEDWEEK reader will immediately notice: but the Sanders couple were on the road for 42 days. That’s correct; the clock is paused during the unavoidable ferry and air freight crossings between continents.

This rule also applied to Urs ‘Grizzly’ Pedraita’s round-the-world journey, during which he circumnavigated the globe from 3 August 2014 on a modified Victory Cross Country in 16 days, 12 hours and 19 minutes, covering 24,741 km. On 6 May 2018, the Swiss rider Isa Müller set off on a BMW S1000R and returned to her starting point after 23,120 km and 17 days and 7 hours. She is therefore regarded as the fastest woman ever to have travelled round the world by motorbike.

More recent: At the end of 2015 and the end of 2025, Canadians Ryan Kluftinger and Connor Bondlow, with cameraman Edwin El Bainou on the pillion, completed the round-the-world journey in 16 days, 23 hours and 27 minutes, with the stopwatch never being stopped. However, they did not ride the same motorbikes around the world; instead, two prepared Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally bikes were waiting for them after each flight. They also chose a route with the fastest possible flight connections between the continents, resulting in a distance of 21,059 km. This adventure has been documented on film under the title ‘Yalla Habibi!’ on the FortNine YouTube channel.

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This brings us, belatedly but nonetheless, back to Sunderland. He set off at 3.30 am on 5 September from the Royal Observatory in the London borough of Greenwich, aiming to beat the record set by Kevin and Julia Sanders in 2002 (namely 19 days, 8 hours and 25 minutes).

Whilst promotional photos in the run-up to the ride still showed Sunderland riding the current Triumph Tiger 1200 in Red Bull livery, he set off in the middle of the night on Triumph’s next-generation model. The as-yet-unveiled Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer features significant revisions to the front end, including a new twin-headlight design.

It’s not entirely without risk for the British manufacturer: if the new motorbike withstands the rigours without any problems, it will be the ultimate proof of reliability. A technical fault in full view of the public, on the other hand, would be highly undesirable.

Fährt Sunderland den Rekordversuch mit der 2027er Triumph Tiger 1200?

Foto: Red Bull

Sunderland aims to cover over 29,000 km on his route, which entails a daily average of just over 1,690 km – meaning an average speed of 100 km/h over a daily riding time of up to 17 hours.

The (then) Guinness World Records rules for a round-the-world motorcycle journey set out a strict framework. Sunderland must travel continuously in one direction from west to east, pass through two antipodal points on opposite sides of the globe, and complete the entire journey on the same motorbike. During the flights across the oceans, the measurement of pure riding time is paused – yet the clock for the overall logistics continues to tick relentlessly. For Sunderland, swift processing at airport customs checkpoints and at national borders becomes a crucial factor.

Sunderland’s route is divided into six sections: the first leg takes him from London through southern and eastern Europe to Istanbul. From there, he travels by air freight to Bangkok (Thailand) and continues by motorbike to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). After another flight, the journey continues across the Australian continent from Perth to Sydney. Following a leg across the North and South Islands of New Zealand, the longest section awaits: across North America from Vancouver to Montreal. The final stage then leads from Casablanca in Morocco via Spain and France back to the starting point in London.

Sunderland had originally planned to set off on this round-the-world trip as early as July 2025. Just a few months ago, Triumph brand ambassador Sunderland was recovering from a serious training crash involving a fractured vertebra, which threw a spanner in the works of his original schedule. Provided he can maintain this gruelling pace amidst normal road traffic and avoid breakdowns, he is expected back in London in just under two weeks.