TOUGH RIDES — CHINA

THE ROUTE

A full loop out of Shanghai, autumn 2010: north to the North Korean border, across Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang — the Turpan Depression at 150 m below sea level, then the Karakoram Highway to a 5,200 m pass at the Pakistan border — down the G219 into Tibet past Lake Manasarovar, Everest Base Camp and Lhasa, and home through Shangri-La, Guizhou and Guilin. Certified by Guinness World Records as the longest continuous motorcycle journey within a single country: 16,240 km.

THE WORK

Ryan and Colin Pyle rode the BMW F800GSs; Chad filmed the entire journey from the support Land Cruiser — HD main camera, bike-mounted and helmet cameras, audio, and the nightly data wrangle into Pelican cases of hard drives. A road movie with no second takes on anything, cut into six episodes for Travel Channel (2013).

LOGISTICS

Sixty-five consecutive shooting days across every terrain China has — including the restricted far west and Tibet, where permissions are their own expedition. Camera power, storage and repairs planned like fuel stops; the production office lived in the truck.

Outcome

• GUINNESS WORLD RECORD — 16,240 KM
• 6 EPISODES · TRAVEL CHANNEL · PRIME
• FRANCHISE LAUNCHED + BESTSELLING BOOK

Credits

• DP — CHAD INGRAHAM
• RIDERS — RYAN & COLIN PYLE
• BOOK — THE MIDDLE KINGDOM RIDE