What do you do with an A2 license, loads of time on your hands, and an itch to travel?
Break a record, apparently – and although MCN tells us the record is still being verified by the Guinness Book of World Records, the mid-pandemic feat itself is impressive, to say the least.
The report tells us that 22-year old Jack Groves set out for a trip around the world on a Himalayan shortly after he finished his studies, “despite having only an A2 licence and had most of his riding experience on a Herald 125 which hadn’t seen the streets since he started university.”
“The idea was to do a motorcycle trip,” Jack explains in the article.
“I wasn’t sure what form it would take, but then I saw Kane Avellano’s article in MCN in 2017. It was the first time I’d heard of the record, and I guess it just struck me as being something really cool and different.”
“I did the math in my head and worked out if I left after studying, then… bar nothing happening like a global pandemic… I’d get back a year earlier than Kane.”
Unfortunately, the odds were less in favor of the young man on the latter front, with Groves experiencing border closures, delayed waits, and an eventual rush to the finish line with mere weeks to spare.
The trip, as a whole, took Groves through France, along the Alps, then to Austria, Slovenia, and down the Balkan mountains into Greece, where he continued “through Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and then crossed the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan before riding Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the Pamir Highway.”
In China, the youth consulted a guide, where he continued on to Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and thence to the Land Down Under, after which he hitched a ride with his bike to Argentina to continue the trek, landing in Bolivia and barely hopping the border into Peru before the borders shut down.
Nine sunny months later (at which point he had learned Spanish and traveled a good chunk of the surrounding land), Groves continued up to Mexico, where he tossed his bike on the nearest flight for Spain. One lengthy wait thanks to the Suez Canal, and he was home..bar the majority of the drama, anyways.
“I didn’t do Africa or the Road of Bones. I’d like to do Siberia, Mongolia… There’s lots I’d like to do,” Groves admits.
“It would be really nice to show people who are riding 125s, or aren’t even riding, that it doesn’t have to be a massive effort to go and have an adventure.”
A big congrats to the young adventurer; we hope he gets that record!
Be sure to check out our list on the best Small Displacement Motorcycles Available Under 200cc, as well as other free adventure-driven souls that we’ve had the pleasure of interviewing recently.
Drop a comment below letting us know what you think, and as always – stay safe on the twisties.