There’s a comment often made about high mileage bikes, - “This one’s been to the moon and back.”
In 1994, the Vancouver Sun published an article about Argentinian, Emilio Scotto, nine years in to an epic journey on a 1980 GL1100 Honda Goldwing.
Emilio set off in 1985. He’d never ridden abroad, didn’t have any contacts and had $300. His goal was to ride the distance to the moon and back - nearly half a milllion miles (about 769,000 kilometres). For comparison, a trip around the world is a mere 25,000 miles (around 40,000 kilometres) as the crow flies.
When the newpaper caught up with him, Scotto still had just over 105,000 miles (170,000
kilometres) and one continent (Antarctica) to go.
By the end of his journey, a year later, he’d been through:
- 213 countries
- 10,339 imperial gallons (47,000 litres, 12,500 US gallons) of fuel
- 1,300 litres of oil
- 86 tyres
- 12 batteries
- Thirteen 64-page passports
- 1 engine
