World's Longest Bicycle Is 55 Meters Long and Rideable!
A team of engineering enthusiasts in the Netherlands has broken the record for the world's longest bicycle.
The bicycle, which was built in the village of Prinsenbeek, is 55.16 meters long. According to Guinness World Records, that's as long as two blue whales!
The Dutch team beat the record set in 2020 by Australian Bernie Ryan, whose bicycle was 47.5 meters long.
The team was led by 39-year-old Ivan Schalk. He started the project in 2018, but says he has been dreaming about it since he first read about the record in The Guinness Book of World Records as a child.
To break the record, the team needed to build a vehicle with two wheels, one behind the other. It had to be steered with handlebars attached to the front wheel, and powered by one person pedaling.
The team built the front and back parts of the bicycle themselves, including the very wide wheels. But the long central frame was made by a company called Unlimited Productions, whose owner is an old school friend of Schalk's.
The team says the frame is long enough to be used as a bridge over the local highway!
Two team members were needed to ride the finished bicycle: one steering at the front and another pedaling at the back.
And on April 30, 2024, they broke the record by riding the bicycle for a distance of 100 meters.
The same team had already broken the world record for the longest tandem bicycle in 2023, by adding more pedals and traveling the same distance with more riders. When used as a tandem bicycle, Guinness says it was actually a little longer, at 55.35 meters!
The world's longest bicycle can now be seen in Prinsenbeek's local history museum.
