- Carl Reese totaled 2,119 miles in less than 24 hours, beating the existing record of 2,023.5 miles.
- The attempt happened in a closed track at the Continental Tire Proving Grounds in Uvalde, Texas.
- Carl’s BMW K 1600 GT had ContiRoadAttack 2 EVO GT tires installed.
American rider Carl Reese is known for tirelessly seeking Guinness World Records such as being the fastest motorcycle rider between Los Angeles to New York (38 hours and 49 minutes), among other nine in his book.
But the last record achieved by Reese was just some months ago, in which he broke the Guinness World Record for the greatest distance in 24 hour on a motorcycle (individual) on a track. This attempt was done at the Continental Tire Proving Grounds in Uvalde, Texas, where the 47 year-old was able to use the 8.5 mile closed track.
Reese totaled 2,119 miles in less than 24 hours, beating the existing record of 2,023.5 miles held by Matthew McKelvey in 2014. The top speed was 141 mph and he carried out an average speed of 92 mph including all the stops during 22 hours and 52 minutes on the track. The official average speed for the entire 24 hours will be recorded as 88.3 mph.
At 3:49 AM Reese was stopped by his team for safety reasons. He did not have more tires available with 1 hour and 18 minutes of time remaining on the clock… but he had already gotten a new record!
Carl Reese broke the record on his BMW K 1600 GT, charismatically called by Reese “The Spirit of Cannonball Baker” after Erwin ‘Cannonball’ Baker. Baker set 143 records at the begining of the 20th century back in 1922 when he started the famous cannonball run from Los Angeles to New York on a motorcycle.
Reese had to modify his BMW K1600GT for long distance efficiency, so a bigger gas tank,carbon fiber rims (40% lighter than the original ones), and a new lithium battery were installed. These upgrades provided Reese with better gas mileage, shorter stopping time and faster acceleration. It was also necessary to mount two pairs of very bright LED lights on his motorbike since the track lacked nighttime lighting.
For this important event, Reese used ContiRoadAttack 2 EVO GT tires that allowed him to push to the limit every lap. The ContiRoadAttack2 EVO tires are award winning tires by Motorrad Magazine and secured the “Best Buy Highway” title in 2016. These tires are specifically made for GT motorcycles to provide great performance thanks to MultiGrip, TractionSkin and ZeroDegree Continental Core Technologies.
