Valerio Boni, a 62-year-old Italian motorcycle journalist, achieved the goal of entering the Guinness Book by covering 751,488km in 24 hours on a pocket bike, for the “Polini Minibike 24h” project.
Imagine riding for 24 hours on a pocket bike with a displacement of 40 cc, with your knees practically under your chin and an uncomfortable driving position, always with the throttle at full throttle. All on wet asphalt. Challenge the boredom and repetitiveness of a circuit (the kart track in Castelletto di Branduzzo) and the inevitable joint pain. Yet this is what Valerio Boni achieved as an epic feat by entering the Guinness Book with this new world record. During the 1440 minutes of his riding, which began at 17:30 p.m. on Tuesday May 11, on a Polini pocket bike prepared for the occasion with lights to face the night, he totaled 751 km, beating the previous record held by the Australian Mark Brown, who in 2005 had covered 250 kilometers.
Setting out in the rain at 17:30 p.m., the Milanese journalist continued to cover kilometers until 24 hours later, when a second strong storm forced him to stop for about an hour and three quarters, then start again. Despite three accidents, after 24 hours, 17 stops to refuel, 1 change of front and 3 rear tires, 1 new chain, 2 pairs of new pads and 1 clutch, Wednesday the 12th at 17:30 p.m., Valerio crossed the line arrival on the Polini 910 Hull RS 6.2 HP minibike and now only the official approval of the result by the Guinness World Record is awaited.
Valerio Boni is no stranger to such ventures. In 1978, at the age of 18, he traveled across Europe aboard a Fantic Issimo: in 13 days he covered 4.220 km, he also rode a Vespa for 24 hours, and undoubtedly had new crazy ideas in mind !
