I return to my fascination with unique records and what the human mind comes up with by looking at this feat using feet that I think is pretty cool.
Kurt Osburn woke up one morning and said to himself “I’ll set the world record for riding a bicycle across the country while popping a wheelie.”
And actually Osburn did that sometime back in 1999. He’s now in the process of trying to break his own Guiness World Record. And Osburn is the indoor and outdoor record holder.
I admire Osburn and am also jealous because as a kid I could never execute the art of popping a wheelie on my bicycle and it drove me nuts watching all my friends do it so easily. I mean how hard could it be? I thought to myself. But every time I tried to pop a wheelie got my tire like one inch off the ground.
So I’m really fascinated by Osburn’s talent. The 49-year-old from Las Vegas started his trip riding a while popping a wheelie at Santa Monica Pier on Oct. 12. He arrived in Tucson on Monday, covering 500 miles of his trip.
His goal is to make it to Cocoa Beach, Fla., wheeling the entire way, a distance of 2,900 miles. He’s also raising money for children’s disability charities in the process.
Osburn doesn’t just want to break his own record he wants to shatter it. In 1999 he wheelied from Hollywood, Calif., to Orlando, Fla., in 75 days. He said his goal this time is to finish the trip in 45 days.
As mentioned above, Osburn is also the indoor world record holder. He wheelied for 11 hours inside the Anaheim Convention Center in 1998.
No word yet if Osburn has been asked to host his own game show, “Wheelie of Fortune.”
— Charles Whisnand
