I understand their position because you could easily argue its discrimination to include feats by disabled people ... like saying do they have a category for first black man to ride around the world or shortest man to ride around the world. By categorising people ... you ARE discriminating. You are defining them by their disability / status.

The other issue for them is instead of having one category ... first person around the world, you would have thousands of categories. First blind man to ride around the world, first deaf man, first dwarf, first paraplegic, first spina bifida person etc etc etc. Then there is first deaf woman, first blind woman etc ... then there is the first paraplegic deaf man etc ... it multiplies into thousands of potential categories.

Maybe its just me, but I dont like ANY categorisation of people, whether the reasons are positive or negative.

By removing the focus on the person, GWR can focus on the act. First trip around the world by motorcycle, fastest sailing of the Atlantic, longest motorcycle jump ... or whatever ... that way they can remove themselves from categorising people.

Then there is the grey and somewhat controversial topic of defining how you categorise people.

.... but thats all for external people like me or GWR...

If YOU choose you market your trip as the first paraplegic to ride around the world (subject to my post above re Dave Barr), then there is nothing stopping you. There is no doubt about it, it will be easier for you to get sponsorship and publicity for that than for non-disabled people to get sponsorship for a ride around the world. The fact that GWR wont make a category for it doesnt mean jack squat. There are loads of bike travel records that are quite well known but either non existent as a Guinness category or did not go thru the hoops before the trip to get it verified by GWR. Either way, nobody doubts them. And I really dont think it takes away much from the marketability of the story.

Dave Barr above is the first guy to ride a Harley around the world. They fact that its not verified by GWR doesnt really detract from the achievement.

I wouldnt be put off by it. Do your trip and be proud of it.

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first off, you don't strike me as the sort of guy that takes the easy way but as a back up plan incase china s too expensive or just not happening make your way to s.korea or japan a ferry to vladivostok is easy enough then the trans Siberian hwy mostly tarmac now just 10 % roadworks in the summer 09 when I did it. Then to Mongolia or stay in Russia all the way to Europe. Plenty of urinals oops sorry ural’s in the old ussr mostly in the countryside being piloted by drunk farmers so parts should be ok.
Be sure to contact me when you get to the UK garage and accommodation sorted.
Jack

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Compass expeditions adventure motorcycle tours

Hi, sounds like a great plan. I am a T9 para and my legs are definitely on holiday and I like your idea and plan. I have been using a chair since 2006. What did you do about the reverse shifter for the ural? Did you fab a lever for that. Did you put the shift lever on the right side so that you can clutch with your left hand. How has the reliability been with your ural, I have heard great things and sometimes the occasional problem. I was talking to Ricky James's (injured motocross racer) Dad and he said that Ricky uses a pingle electric shifter, he has raced the Baja 500 on his Honda. I do love the look of the Ural. One cool thing if you did start traveling is to visit a rehab hospital or two and do some motivating. When you are first injured most people have no idea of what you can do, they figure you are screwed. In a lot of countries things are not very good if your in a chair, kinda weird considering a lot of those countries have more than their fair share of war, injuries.

Anyone ever know how to get in contact with Handy Man?

I'm a paraplegic with an unfinished RTW trip as well and I've got many questions for him. Looks like he hasn't been on this site for several years. I can't googleify any other results for him either.