Bushy McKelvey is still chasing world records

Motorcyclists who chase dangerous world records can be – how do you put it – different. Take, for instance, Bushy McKelvey. At the age of 58, he is a professional motorcycle riding instructor, a former motorcycle Guinness World Record holder and a current motorcycle Guinness World Record pursuer.

Oh, and he has two prosthetic legs – both the results of motorcycle crashes. McKelvey recently attempted to set a Guinness World Record for an individual riding the greatest distance on a motorcycle in 24 hours. The veteran biker held this record, at a distance of 3 256.5km, from 2014 to 2017, after setting it at the Phakisa Raceway Oval near Welkom in the Free State.

But it was beaten on 26 February 2017 when American racer Carl Reese achieved a distance of 3 406.17km at the Continental Tyre Proving Grounds in Uvalde, Texas. Hellbent on getting his own back, McKelvey returned to the Phakisa Oval on Tuesday, 29 September to try and reclaim his record.

Using a KTM 1290 Super Adventure S, borrowed from KTM SA, McKelvey tackled the four-kilometre banked oval with enthusiasm, but there were problems. For one thing, the Phakisa Oval had severely degraded since his last visit, with grass, rocks, surface cracks and potholes keeping average speeds below 200km/h.

By the Wednesday at 2pm, McKelvey had completed 901 laps, or 2 262km at an average speed of 185km/h, and was 505 laps short of the set target. By then, achieving the record in the remaining time was not going to be possible and the painful decision was made to abandon the attempt.

So, has this discouraged him from pursuing another elusive Guinness World Record certificate?

Like hell! In fact, his next attempt is already being planned. On 19 and 20 December, he will attack the record on a 13km stretch of straight road in KwaZulu-Natal, riding up and down it for the full 24 hours.

“I rode my first motorcycle at the age of four, being taught by two motorcycle mad older brothers,” he recounts. A series of two-wheelers followed, and when the Post Office retrenched McKelvey in 2003, he became a fulltime motorcycle riding instructor in Pietermaritzburg.

Over the years, he suffered, through no fault of his own, two dire crashes.

“I lost my left leg in 1999 after a hitand-run crash with a car. Then, in 2008, a drunk driver hit me at speed and I lost my right leg. Once I could walk on my prosthetic legs, I figured not much more bad luck could be destined for me, so I resumed riding.

“Also, I now knew that race tracks are safer for bike riders than public roads, so I went racing,” he says.

The prosthetic limbs have made their mark in the local motorcycle racing circles.

“In 2005, I raced a Suzuki GSXR1000 at Kyalami, outbraked myself into the WesBank Corner and took a violent tumble through the sand trap next to the circuit. I came to a halt in a cloud of sand, having knocked the wind out of myself, and decided to lie still until I could breathe properly again.

“Then, the track marshall who attended to me went deathly pale and started shouting the race must be stopped on his radio, as I was going to die right there, very soon. See, what upset him was the sight of my right leg lying in its racing boot, about seven metres away from me. He actually thought I lost my real leg during the fall.

“The other marshals also started going ballistic, so I sat up, requested everybody calm down, and could somebody please bring me my leg?”

– news@citizen.co.za