CONGRATULATIONS to Matt Bishop and Reece Gilkes for being the first people (who are mad enough) to circumvent the globe on a Honda SH300i with home built sidecar!
Whilst they did complete the journey a little bit of time ago - they got back in January 2019 - the Guinness Book of Records is now placing them in their 2021 edition under “Epic Journeys” section, and crowned as holders of the “Longest Scooter Trip with a Sidecar” record.
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Their monu-mental journey took 15 months, covering 35 countries and over 34,000 miles, and was carried out for charities working against modern slavery and human trafficking. They are currently the only pair to traverse the globe on a scooter and side-car, and the pair raised an impressive £7,215 over the course of their voyage, split between their choice of 10 charities.
What’s even more incredible is the fact that the Honda scooter was fitted with a home-built sidecar, and the prior to setting off the pair had literally zero experience on two wheels or sidecars. They attribute their successful trip to the kindness of strangers they met along the way - as it's always said, it's not the destination that matters, but the journey...
Matt, quoted on the Banbury Guardian:
“We knew we would struggle and that was the point. The idea was to see how far we could get with only very little money and the help of complete strangers.”
A Honda scooter in uncharted lands
The trip covered the globe, of course, and the lads went through it all, ranging from the scorching heat of the Sahara desert to the icy frost that is the Siberian wilderness. They apparently even ran in to hippos in Africa, and bears in the Americas - frightening enough, but being sat in a sidecar would have made it all the more terrifying.
If you fancy reading all about their trip, they’ve released a book retelling their journey, with £1 going to charity with every sale.
Well done boys, you have a pint each from Visordown waiting for you.
