This Motorcyclist Just Rode How Far On Water for a Guinness World Record?

Kove and ZXMoto founder Zhang Xue just set a record for the longest distance traveled by a motorcycle on water. But the MX450 needed a few mods to make it.

By: Robbie Bacon

Oct 30, at 7:51am ET

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You've probably heard of Kove and ZXMoto founder, Zhang Xue, if you've followed RideApart for long enough, because he's a bit of a legend around these parts. An executive in the motorcycle industry who has as much passion for riding as Xue is rarer than most imagine. Well, now he has gone and done something else to make us like him.

On October 25, Xue rode a modified ZXMoto MX450 40.74 kilometers (25.31 miles) across a river route in his hometown of Mayang Miao, Huaihua, in China's Hunan province. According to China Daily, the ZXMoto founder completed six laps of the course in front of Guinness World Records officials, who examined GPS tracking, timing information, and audiovisual evidence, before the adjudicator, Xiong Wen, confirmed the record.

Xue didn't just grab an MX450 and hit the water; the record attempt involved around a five-month development program, which involved refining the bike's buoyancy, power delivery, and waterproofing. Flotation structures were added to keep the bike and rider out of harm's way should Xue fall. Even if he did, components were sealed to keep water out of the bike's engine.

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The MX450 used a front ski to make steering easier and a rear padel-style tyre, which helped the bike maintain steady propulsion along with the revised power mapping. Interestingly, this wasn't the first time Xue had attempted such a record, as his first, out of four attempts, took place in 2009. The fact that Xue attempted this record before doesn't surprise me; he's a motorcycle fanatic, but the fact that, until this run, his longest water ride was just 20 meters is pretty crazy.

The previous world record was an already impressive 31.8 kilometers (19.76 miles), meaning Xue broke it by 5.5 miles. But now I ask, now long before someone hands Travis Pastrana a 20-year-old 250 2-stroke and he sets off to assert his dominance on water?