Riding around the world is a rare feat but it has been done by a wide variety of riders as the epic journey is something that some aspire to as a lifelong goal. The trip has a different nature for each (knowledge, escape, relaxation) but there are a few odd ones. There are the riders that would stop by our office as they made their way from Alaska to Chile on their around the world sojourn. Tired, relaxed, frazzled, happy …. but mostly happy. Invariably there would be some odd choices of motorcycles for the trip but if you eliminated BMW GS and KLR bikes you would make a severe dent in the list. Typically these riders would be spending months if not years on the road soaking up the local flavour, meeting people, having experiences – basically enjoying the trip. That brings us to Grizzly Pedraita. Grizzly eschewed soaking up the atmosphere in favour of speed. He has just completed a around the world, five continent circuitous trip of 47,390 miles in a shade under 120 days. That’s a world record. His bike for this journey? A Victory Cross Country Tour. The bike was partly stock but obviously needed a few modifications to handle the non-pavement portion of the trip.
Victory’s press release outlines the trip as such:
From Daytona Beach, Fla., he traveled 3,971 miles in six days and 14 hours to complete the first leg of the ride in Panama City, Panama. He then continued traveling south 6,269 miles for nine days and 23 hours to reach Ushuaia, Argentina, at the tip of South America. From there, he returned 2,088 miles to Santiago, Chile, loaded his bike onto a plane and transferred to Australia, where he spent six days and five hours riding 4,604 miles west across the continent from Sydney to Perth.
From Perth, Grizzly and his Victory were flown to Cape Town, South Africa, and awaited clearance through customs. Thereafter, he took 13 days and 23 hours for a 7,509-mile journey from Cape Town to Cairo, Egypt, and a ferry to take him across the Mediterranean to Tarragona, Spain. From there, he rode 5,447 miles in six days and 23 hours from northern Spain to Gibraltar to North Cape (Nordkapp) Norway.
Grizzly then turned his wheel east, riding through St. Petersburg, Moscow, Irkutsk and Vladivostok during an 11-day-7-hour, 7,280-mile journey across Russia, a 4-hour and 249-mile tour through South Korea, and a 5-day-11-hour and 2,989-mile ride through Thailand and Malaysia.
From Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Grizzly loaded his bike onto a plane and traveled to Anchorage, AK, before resuming his ride in a 9-day 1-hour and 6,984-mile zig-zag tour across North America through Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Chicago and Santa Monica, Calif. to his finish in Daytona Beach.
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