Novice biker’s world record hope

[Bob]

Motorcycling husband and wife Simon and Monika Newbound are confident they have broken an endurance record for their round the world trip. Taking three years and a day, they travelled 168,000 kilometres, from Ireland to North America, visiting 54 countries.

They expect the confirmation of their success from Guinness within two weeks.

The trip is all the more remarkable when you consider Mrs Newbound was a novice biker, who only passed her test some eight weeks before setting off on the adventure. She found driving in Iran the most dangerous "Travelling on the good European road prepared me - but driving in Iran was difficult because the biggest bikes there were 200cc and they weren't prepared to deal with the fast BMW bikes we were riding on the roads. They were missing us by small distances.”

The couple intend to break another world record, aiming to visit more than 102 countries in one continuous journey. They also intend to visit all seven continents in one journey.





(With thanks to Biff for pointing me at this one - I think I'd have found it, but nice to get a heads up to save time!)

[bugjuice]

Iran was difficult because the biggest bikes there were 200cc and they weren't prepared to deal with the fast BMW bikes we were riding on the roads. They were missing us by small distances

so who was overtaking who then?

[ManDownUnder]

Iran was difficult because the biggest bikes there were 200cc and they weren't prepared to deal with the fast BMW bikes we were riding on the roads. They were missing us by small distances

so who was overtaking who then?

In IRAQ???

The little bikes pass no-one
The big bikes pass the liee bikes
The RPGs pass the bike bikes ('less you're in their sights)
and the Yanks pass the buck...

Just my take on it anyway.
MDU

[bugjuice]

In IRAQ???

The little bikes pass no-one
The big bikes pass the liee bikes
The RPGs pass the bike bikes ('less you're in their sights)
and the Yanks pass the buck...

Just my take on it anyway.
MDU

yeah, got that lot (nice points ) but they say the Iraqians (??) aren't used to big fast bikes, implying that they were speeding (which probably isn't the best idea), and then they say that they were being missed by small distances.. Which, to me, implues they were being overtaken. If you over take, don't you set the perameters, not the overtakeeeeeeee?

[Bob]

yeah, got that lot (nice points ) but they say the Iraqians (??) aren't used to big fast bikes, implying that they were speeding (which probably isn't the best idea), and then they say that they were being missed by small distances.. Which, to me, implies they were being overtaken. If you over take, don't you set the perameters, not the overtakeeeeeeee?

I've not been to Iran (Ed's note: Iraq is the one next door), but I have visited a middle eastern country - well the side of Turkey that borders on them anyway. And the attitudes to vehicles - especially motorbikes is, frankly, worrying.

Vehicles tend to stick more or less to their side of the road, but things like motorbikes are, well 'marginalised'... so they get shoved right over to the side of the road, often being shoved pretty much in between the "this is the side of the road" line and where the tarmac ends!

You also tend mainly to see very small machines (although there are a few lads in Turkey riding ZX600's) in that neck of the woods - very low incomes mean lots of little bikes.

A big bike, with the ability to overtake - but also with a lot of additional bulk just isn't something that they're used to seeing or understanding it needs a bit more room to work with. So when some psycho truck driver decides that today would be a good day to see if the needle can be forced off the speedo, they don't tend to give people a lot of room to move!

Don't want a religeous fight to break out in here (and if it does, I WILL kill the thread!), but to me, there does seem to be an attitude of "If it is my day to meet my maker, so be it" in that part of the world.

So combine a lasse-faire attitude to personal safety, the smallest of nods towards the speed limit, no concept of larger bikes and overtaking moves that consist of the slightest move over, often expecting the smaller vehicle (in this case a bike - and as I've said, there is not much concept of bigger bikes), to just get out of the way... and you've got some worrying moves being made on you!

[marty]

the 168000km novice biker. shit - what does that make me - it happens to be 16.8kms to my work.....only 9999 trips to go

[Bob]

Coming from a country where there are powerful bikes that can accellerate, manouvre and so forth, despite what we all think, car/truck etc drivers are aware that bikes are fast, move and this sort of thing.

But, go to a country like Iran, where the largest bike is some old trundler probably capable of 60mph... and it takes an eternity to achive that? Then there is no concept of a bike being able to do what the Newbound's BMW's can do.

So think about this scenario. You are riding along and decide to overtake.

Problem 1: the driver you are about to overtake has no concept of a bike being able to overtake him. So he will not consider you a 'threat' and will pay you no attention, as clearly you cannot get past him, so you will not try.

Hey presto, you are invisible. So he isn't thinking about you suddenly pulling out and accellerating past him. So there is a good chance he'll just go whereever he wants on the road without considering you might be there.

Problem 2: the drivers coming the other way. Again, they have no idea of what you can do. So they'll maybe notice you sitting wider than the vehicle in front of you...but you are "only" on a motorbike - and in their country, motorbikes are silly little things that poor people ride, with no power and just trundle along the road, more or less out of the way.

So they're not considering you suddenly pulling out and overtaking. So, once again, you are effectively invisible. And the above scenarion applies once again, but this time heading towards you.

It is a hazard perception thing. In NZ/UK, people are aware of bikes being big, powerful and so forth, so do pay a degree of respect. But in Iran and the like, bikes (or at least the ones they are used to) cannot perform and are marginalised. So no respect, no concept of performance being there to allow them to do what we know a big bike can do.

Suddenly, going from Europe [Footnote 1] where bikes are appreciated and encouraged, to a nation where bikes are paupers silly little machines that live in the shadows... and a whole different culture hits you.

But hopefully not literally...





[Footnote 1] By 'Europe', I mean Continental Europe, not the UK. It seems to me that the Europeans by and large like bikes and approve of them, unlike the UK where we are still trying to put to bed the old 'Mods and Rockers' thing from the 1960's!