Sam Sunderland: World record attempt abandoned following breakdown in Australia

As SPEEDWEEK readers will know, the record for the fastest round-the-world ride is attributed – though not without some controversy – 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. In doing so, they covered 31,319 km, averaging around 1,600 km per day.

It is not entirely undisputed because, for safety reasons, Guinness World Records closed the category for transcontinental speed records on public roads shortly afterwards, which is why the Sanders’ time is still recognised as the officially registered Guinness World Record.

Sunderland wanted to beat this record. He set off from London on 5 September and rode to Istanbul in two days. From there, he travelled by air freight to Bangkok (Thailand) and then continued by motorbike to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). After another flight to Perth (Western Australia), the plan was to cross the Australian continent.

Am Start gab Rekord-Inhaber Kevin Sanders letzte Ratschläge

Foto: Red Bull

Or so the plan was, because in the middle of the Central Australian outback, Sunderland came to a standstill due to a technical fault with his Triumph Tiger 1200, a pre-production model from the upcoming 2027 range. Neither his support team nor the mechanics who were called in were able to fix the problem within 24 hours. That was the end of it; Sunderland had to accept that he would no longer be able to make up the lost ground.

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Naturally, a professional like Sunderland isn’t going to criticise the motorbike; he simply states that it suffered damage which led to a technical problem that needed to be rectified.