Driving through Canada.Supplied
In semi-secret, in the wee hours of a September morning in 2024, motorcycle riders Ryan Kluftinger and Connor Bondlow as well as filmmaker Edwin El Bainou rode off from the town of Hope, B.C. on a pair of Ducati Multistrada V4s heading east.
They rode east across North America, then Europe, India, Southeast Asia and Australia before riding down through Alaska to arrive back in Hope, B.C. from the west, exactly 16 days, 23 hours and 27 minutes and 21,059 kilometres later. They covered more ground than the average Canadian drives in a year, in just under 17 days.
In doing so, they claim to have set a new overland circumnavigation record, going around the world by road faster than anyone else. There are no real rules for this feat, no governing body for this sport – if you can call it that — only a requirement that contenders circumnavigate the globe by vehicle.
They filmed a documentary in the process, called Yalla Habibi!, which premiered in late December at Vancouver’s Rio Theatre and is now available to watch online. The incredible first-person footage of riding faster than 200 kilometres an hour to catch a flight in Istanbul, dodging kangaroos at night in Australia and squeezing between trucks in India is terrifying and, yet, strangely appealing.
“To me, at least, motorcycling just is dumb fun. It’s silly and it’s exciting, and this trip is that,” said Kluftinger. It was also dangerous, he readily admitted. It’s so dangerous that Guinness World Records no longer recognizes the feat.
Squeezing between trucks in India.Supplied
Edwin El Bainou filmed the documentary Yalla Habibi! while riding pillion.Supplied
Two previous overland circumnavigation records stood at around 19 days – unbeaten for more than two decades – but those records didn’t always count flight time or rest days. Kluftinger and his compatriots counted every second. They started the clock when they left Hope and didn’t stop it until they returned in just under 17 days. They didn’t just break the record, they absolutely obliterated it. And, for what?
“We thought we maybe would get to the end and, I don’t know, would have a big celebration or realize that we learned something about ourselves or find some type of meaning for life that was at home all along,” Kluftinger joked. “I don’t think any of us pretended that we learned a whole bunch from it.”
Instead, perhaps the truest point of this remarkable death-defying race – other than being an exciting trip – was simply to sell more people on motorcycling and therefore on motorcycling gear, which their employer sells.
Kluftinger, Bondlow and El Bainou all work in various roles at Montreal-based FortNine, a large online retailer of motorcycle and powersports gear. Motorcyclists will probably recognize Kluftinger as RyanF9, who – for 10 years – has hosted a series of clever, funny and insightful motorcycle-related videos of increasingly impressive production quality on FortNine’s popular YouTube channel (2.28 million subscribers and counting).
“We make videos that advertise FortNine and turn a profit through advertisement. And the movie was very much the same,” Kluftinger said. “We thought we could do it lean enough that we’d be able to produce something that we could sell and at least break even, so that we could say to our bosses that this wasn’t just fun and games.”
Ryan Kluftinger after randomly getting a bloody nose while speeding to make a flight.Supplied
All told they estimate the total cost was between $200,000 and $300,000. And that includes a second round-the-world trip in 2025, retracing their route to get additional footage for the documentary. FortNine footed most of the bill; the only paying sponsor was Insta360 action cameras.
As for the choice of Ducati motorcycles for the trip – rather than the typical BMW GS or bombproof Japanese machine – Kluftinger explained that they approached several manufacturers about lending their bikes to this project. Most said no, either for logistical reasons or because the project was, “A: quite dangerous and B: quite likely to fail,” Kluftinger explained. But, Ducati said yes.
The Italian firm – now under the Volkswagen Group umbrella – didn’t just provide two bikes either, they had a pair of fresh Multistrada V4 Rally bikes ready and waiting for the trio after each flight, as well as various fixers to help navigate borders and airports around the world. (Shipping the bikes on commercial airliners would’ve slowed the whole trip.)
Despite the fact Bondlow spent a year carefully plotting the optimum route in his spare time, they still ended up doing a lot of logistical work on the fly. Border crossings were usually slow and tense.
At the same time, the trio had to adapt to different rules of the road. In Malaysia, Kluftinger recounted, trucks would be speeding at 160 kilometres an hour on the highways, whereas in Australia they got pulled over the instant they went over the limit.
Indian roads, meanwhile, seemed chaotic and loud. “They’re not road-ragey,” Bondlow said of drivers in India. “No one’s on their phone, because if you’re on your phone you’re gonna die. Everybody’s focusing and trying to get through [traffic] together and communicating,” he said.
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Onlookers take video while the trio drive across India.Supplied
When on a motorcycle, “if you want to let someone know you’re coming through, you can lean over and smack the side of a truck, and they’ll be like, ‘oh, okay, sorry, thank you’ and they’ll move.” Each place had its own unwritten code.
In case it’s not yet clear, racing around the world isn’t glamorous. El Bainou rode pillion on the back of Kluftinger’s bike, holding him with one arm and the camera with another. Bondlow’s legs swelled up from edema after sitting on the bike for so long.
Edwin El Bainou filming and Ryan Kluftinger on their RTW Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally.Supplied
The trio sleeping on the ground in Australia.Supplied
Taking a break and stretching at night while driving across Australia.Supplied
They often ate at gas stations and sometimes slept by the side of the road when the exhaustion and hallucinations became too much.
As impressive – and/or deranged, depending on your perspective – as their record-breaking adventure was, the record might not stand for long. Last summer, before the FortNine trio had properly announced their record, two-time Dakar Rally winner and motorcycle racer Sam Sunderland said he’s going after the overland circumnavigation record in partnership with Red Bull.
Kluftinger said they later met with Red Bull representatives who agreed to hold off on their record-breaking attempt until 2026. “Which is very gracious of them,” he added.
But even with Red Bull’s deep pockets and Sunderland’s skill, breaking Kluftinger and Bondlow’s around-the-world record of 16 days, 23 hours and 27 minutes will certainly be a challenge.
Taking a break in Australia.Supplied