Japanese rider Masaru Abe has smashed the world record for a continuous wheelie at the Kawaguchi Auto Race facility in Saitama, Japan. After over 13 hours on his Yamaha Jog scooter, Abe covered 500.5322km, which obliterated the distance of 331.0195km, set by motorcycle trials rider Yasuyuki Kudo in 1991, but fell short of his own 600km target. To give you some perspective, Abe rode almost from Mumbai to Goa on one wheel.
Riding on one wheel for long isnt’t easy, as you’d understand. Two hours into the attempt, Abe started experiencing lower back pain and had to down painkillers that he wished to take at least after six hours later.
The previous record holder, Yasuyuki Kudo played a key role in mortivating Abe. Abe had done practice runs of over 10 hours and a pre-race visit to see Kudo for motivation (which involved 22 hours straight driving). Aged 33, the same as Kudo when he set his own record, Abe finally passed his compatriot’s mark at 3:28pm – eight hours, 18 minutes and 43 seconds in. He raised his left arm in victory and pointed to the sky to huge cheers from the crowd.
After 12 hours, Abe was crying out in pain and shouting, “It hurts! I hate this! I want to stop,” followed by words of encouragement to himself, “You got this, don’t stop!” The pain finally became too much over an hour later, Abe bringing his front wheel down at a breathtaking distance of 500.5322km to more than earn the name Wheelie King.
Abe explained, “If I didn’t go further than what I thought my own limit was, then someone else would. I thought if I were going to try to break the record, then I would have to post unattainable numbers that would leave people speechless. That was the most pain I have ever felt. Both of my arms were numb from the pain and I had lost feeling in them. My vision was blurred… I was only partially conscious. I was completely dehydrated. I’d never experienced that before.”
Although the track was oval-shaped, Abe maintained a speed of 40kph through excellent body balance and throttle work for lap after lap (688.495m per lap) with 39.2km achieved after the first hour.
Check out the video of the feat embedded below