Photo: Catherine Wedmore
Yamaha rider John Ryan had 140,000 miles on his 2005 FJR when he started his record-breaking continent crossing, but his run from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, to Key West, Florida, was carried off nearly flawlessly.
Earlier this month, Ryan covered the distance, 5,645 miles, in 86 hours, 31 minutes, beating a previous record by 9.5 hours.
He ran into trouble at the start, with a snowstorm forcing him back to Fairbanks, a cut tire on the Dalton Highway, and then a punctured oil pan that forced him to visit a heavy-duty mechanic in Prudhoe Bay for some welding.
Underway, he ran into rain from Edmonton to Madison, Wisconsin, and made a 200-mile wrong turn in Tennessee, but the Yamaha, fitted with Metzeler Z6 sport-touring tires and a custom-built fuel tank, handled the load, and he made it to the bottom of Florida in less than four days.
See roadracingworld.com for the complete press release (don’t be alarmed by a reference to Edmonton, B.C. — the city is still where it belongs, in Saskatchewan), and see bmwmoa.org for some forum chat and pictures of Ryan preparing his FJR.
Dare I ask how many amphetamines were consumed during this dangerous act of stupidity?