Josh Herrin sets new Guinness World Record for fastest elbow drag on motorcycle

He tops just over 100mph on his Yamaha whilst his elbow is touching track, setting a new Guinness World Record (but of course, you could do it too).

Guinness World Record Josh Herrin
Guinness World Record Josh Herrin

EVER dragged your elbow on a trackday? Or even out on the road (yeah right)? And did you know that there’s now a Guinness World Record for fastest elbow-drag on a motorcycle? Of course there is, there’s a record for everything!

Well, Josh Herrin headed off to Buttonwillow Raceway Park in California to set the current record, and whilst it took a few failed attempts on a Yamaha R1m, he swapped out to a more-familiar Yamaha R6, reaching 100.9mph (162.4 kph) whilst dragging his elbow on the ground.

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Josh Herrin is 5’8” - which makes it all the more impressive - and races in the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship, with a stint in Moto2 under his belt in 2014.

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Guinness World Record for fastest elbow drag

Fair play on this, the track doesn’t exactly look smooth (on a slow-mo replay you can really see the suspension putting in a shift), and whilst you may be able to touch your elbow down at your local track, this was a case of actually dragging elbow for 30 meters. At 100mph. 

Guinness World Record Yamaha R6
Guinness World Record Yamaha R6

Josh Herrin, after achieving the record, said: 

“Normally, when I’m riding, I touch [my elbow], and it just skims [the ground] and I lift it back up. Almost like a feeler for me, to let me know what my lean angle is.

So now when I’m having to push-off on it, it’s kind of making the bike get light because I’m putting all of my weight on my elbow, so the front wheel was getting light - it was actually kind of scary! But it ended up working out good.”

I’ve got to say, it’s incredibly impressive that he achieved this - well played Josh Herrin. 

Have a watch of the accompanying video here: 

(If you want to skip to the good bit, go to around the 6-minute mark)

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