For 6 hours and 31 minutes, Oscar Delaite pedaled his Rose Bikes Sneak without the front wheel touching the ground, obliterating the previous longest-bicycle-wheelie record of 50.7 miles (81.59 km), held by USA's Richard Flanagan.
Delaite wanted this one to count for the record books, and with cameras recording, he made his attempt at a Guinness-approved 200-meter indoor running track in Vittel, France. At just over six and a half hours and 752 laps later, the Frenchman stopped pedaling, crawled off his bike, and flopped to the ground with a new unofficial world record of 93.5 miles (150.4 km) of continuous wheelie.
"I finally achieved my wheeling record goal!" Delaite said on Instagram following the feat. "After a year of preparation, I did the longest wheelie in history: 150 km in 6 hours and 31 minutes without stopping."
You can watch the reel on Delaite's Instagram here: Oscar Delaite's 93.5-mile wheelie.
The only mods made to the very average-citizen-looking bike – aside from removing the fenders and kickstand – were some sponsored ThickSlick rubbers from WTB, and the saddle being tilted forward to ease the ischia-burn for the nearly 100-mile sit-and-spin.
Guinness requires record attempts like this to happen on approved tracks, to ensure fair conditions and no external wind interference. Makes sense. Guinness verification is still pending while the data and video are verified, but it might be safe to say we now have a new world record. Either way, it's an incredible feat.
This wasn't Delaite's first Guinness rodeo. He already holds Guinness titles for the longest wheelie with no front wheel at 62.4 miles (100.5 km) and the longest one-handed wheelie at 1 hour, 46 minutes, 36 seconds.
There are dozens of other wild bike records that make little to no sense – here are a few:
Back in 2013, someone in India built a 66-foot-long (20-m) bicycle in India and 50 people all rode it at once for more than 100 feet (30 m). Having personally ridden three-up on several occasions, 50 seems like plenty.
According to internet lore, Clément Leroy holds the record for doing a 24-hour-and-26-second-long track stand – where you balance on a bike without moving forward or backward or touching the ground with your feet. It's on his Wiki, but I couldn't verify it through Guinness. My PB is about 60 seconds, what about you?
In 2018, American Denise Mueller-Korenek nearly hit the 2-ton mark, reaching 183.9 mph (296 km/h) on a bicycle. She did so while drafting behind a specially designed dragster on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. That's just hairball, no matter how you look at it. I think I've seen 31 mph (50 km/h) on a bicycle once before. I remember the fear well.
Dieter "Didi" Senft – also known as Didi the Devil and "El Diablo" – the guy in costume with the trident at the Tour de France – built the world's biggest rideable bicycle in Germany at 25 ft 7.09 in (3.7 m) long and 12 ft 1.67 in (3.7 m) tall and weighs a hefty 330.69 lb (150 kg). Now that's a big bike.
And yes, bears in tutus really can ride bicycles. Since the early 1900s, trained bears were often part of traveling circus acts where they'd ride bicycles around arenas. I can't help but wonder who it was thought that was a good idea. While it's mostly banned now, it's probably one of the weirder things in cycling history.
I'd love to hear your greatest bicycle stories in the comments!
Sources: Bike Radar, Oscar Delaite Instagram
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