A motorcycle entrepreneur from China has set a new Guinness World Record for riding the longest distance across open water on a specially modified motorbike.
Zhang Xue, who runs motorcycle company ZXMOTO, rode his bike more than 40 kilometres (25 miles) along a river in Hunan Province, smashing the previous record of just under 32 kilometres.
His motorbike, a modified ZXMOTO MX450, was fitted with special skis to keep it skimming above the water, along with a bigger fuel tank and extra waterproofing.
A ski at the front of the bike helped him steer, while the spinning back wheel pushed water backwards to push the bike forward across the surface.
Rather than riding in one straight line, Zhang covered the huge distance by riding back and forth across the river many times.
It wasn’t always smooth sailing for Zhang. Back in 2009, when he first tried riding a motorbike on water, he fell in four times and only managed to travel about 20 metres.
This time, though, years of practice and some clever engineering paid off in a big way. Zhang’s record-breaking ride shows that with enough persistence – and the right gear – almost anything is possible.
Guinness World Records has thousands of different titles for all sorts of unusual achievements, and this amphibious motorbike ride is now officially one of the strangest and most impressive.
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