Panamericana Speed Record
 

Hi, does anyone know the fastest Panamericana trip ever made?

I wonder how many days a quick and mad driver would need from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, without sightseeing.

IIRC, around 21 days and change.

Thanks Lone Rider,

From this I guess that 30 - 45 days is doable, if I don't have much time.

Anything is possible, but a 30-45 day trip would suck.
The Guinness Record for the most number of thumb tacks pushed into a person's head might be something to research.

Sorry, no offence, but I agree.

Doing it fast proves nothing and you will miss a terrible lot.

Choose a smaller area and try to really see it.

haste / waste
 

yep more skill, satisfaction and enjoyment in riding hard roads slowly, even if they are in your home patch.
cheers,
keep it upright,
andy

i agree that one shoud slow down and see the sights. but speed distance riding becomes some what of an obsession. and its also nice to know that other people couldnt do what u may have done. sometimes when i do massive days, like 20 plus housr straight, i almsot feel clean after. its like a marathon, out of 50,000 people, 45,100 are usually just there to say they ran for 4 hours straight with no food and tired as hell, just to see if they could do it.

hard distance riding is the same, u do it for yourself and for your own reasons. and at the end of the day you feel good about it. thats all that counts.

Just because other people don't do it doesn't mean they can't...it might just mean that they think it defeats the whole purpose of the trip.

As you say, people ride for themselves and for their own reasons, and that's what counts, so by all means go for it if that is what makes you feel good.

Hi raythebutcher,

I agree to what you say. For me long-distance-driving has become a bit of an obsession. At the same time, I still see with fascination the change of vegetation, climate and urbanisation passing by. Later, it gives me satisfaction to look at the map and to know I have covered the whole distance on the ground.

Don't want to sound smart ass, but I have already visited practically all of the countries on previous trips, anyway.

Travelbug,

I asked a similar question summer '06. Except I was talking of doing it in 3 or 4 months, and everyone told me that was too fast. In the end I took 5 1/2 months, and that in a lot of ways was too fast (although I did more miles). I averaged about 5000 miles per month, about the same pace as I'd originally proposed.

I do get a lot of satisfaction from the challenge of ending up at night many miles from where I started, and riding long/hard days, which to a lot of people is pointless and no fun. And also as you say, seeing your surroundings change significantly, and looking back at a map! Especially in the more remote areas (Alaska, NWT, Bolivia, Patagonia in particular). But also there were a lot of places I would have liked to stop for a couple of weeks or longer and I couldn't - it would be great to have unlimited time and take forever, but that's not possible for most of us.

I'd like to get back to South America again, and potter about more slowly, maybe north and east, Venezuela, Brasil, etc. Oh and also Central America, and Mexico, and US, and Canada, and Alaska...

At the end of the day, it's all good and whatever you enjoy. Personally though, given X months of riding time, I'd rather cover a big expanse/variety than explore an area in great detail, but do keep it flexible or it can become a chore. Ideally don't have an "end date", but as I said budget/time usually means there is one!

You can see my route here.

What's the quickest you've had sex?

Speed is the enemy of reflection.

"When I walked past the bathrooms on the lower ground level of Budapest airport, our eyes crossed. I smiled "Agreed!". She followed me into the diaper changing room. We had the longest 20 mins together. Then both ran to catch our flights. I never saw her again!"

Back to topic: the speed record for the Panamericana is now at 11 days, 17 hours, incl. Airlift Colombia-Panama, for the 23.000 km.

Overland Speed Travel Records - Gentleman Adventurer

Interesting to see this topic revived!

Not read about the 'new' record in detail (website not displaying well on phone), but looks like car drivers on shift-work? Which isn't quite the same as a solo ride! Or drive....

BTW Travelbug, how long DID you take in the end?

I'm flying into Budapest for my next trip :-D

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

I only did Montreal to Panama in 14 days. Including buying the car and business meetings on the way.

Breaking the amazing record of Rainer Zietlow is not my intention and I doubt that someone else will do so.

OK, this just pushed my hot button. Just because HUBB and ADV are about moto tourism shouldn't blind us to one of the most beautiful aspect of riding motos: speed. Many of us have spent years developing our skills, loving our fast rides with our friends. The key word being fast. I live in a beautiful city, Vancouver (although I'm 60K into an rtw) when I ride with my friends in the mountains I generally don't go slow to enjoy the views. I'm aware of them, but ripping through at speed them is more fullfilling. It's a choice: the value to me of the riding versus the value to me of the view.

So on HUBB and ADV the rule seems to be that because the riding is through
exotic places we have to slow down to appreciate it. I call bullshit on that, not because it's an inaccurate statement but because it values tourism over speed. Speed and motos and bonded at the hip.

I have friends who climb hard rock all over the world. Some really don't give a shit about the place they're in. They just want to do the hard route. They're there to climb something very hard and tick it, not gawk.

One of the benefits of riding in SA is the absense of police looking out for speeding bikes. Granted, getting caught, for example in Equador, gets you jail time depending on country. It's an ideal place to ride very fast, no better place if you do your homework. I think it should be a destination for speed attempts. I'd welcome more posts about how someone did border-x to border-y in a given time.