Designed and built by Dutch engineers, the world’s longest rideable bicycle is 180 feet long, roughly the same length as 4 double-decker buses. Ivan Schalk had been thinking about building the world’s longest bicycle since reading about his predecessor in the Guinness Book of Records when he was a child, but he only embarked on the project in 2018 as a way of filling his free time. He sought the help of like-minded people in his home village of Prinsenbeek in the Netherlands, and together they spent about 4 years working on the behemoth. According to Guinness, a maximum of 2 people are allowed to sit on the bicycle, one at the front at the handlebars and one at the back to pedal. However, Schalk also allowed 3 other people to sit on the long metal structure connecting the front and the back of the bike. They didn’t help in any way, but were used merely to add weight. Unfortunately, Guinness decided that there were too many people riding the contraption to qualify for the longest bicycle record. The team was slightly disappointed by the original decision, but they decided to simply take the record for the world’s longest tandem and then go for the record for the world’s largest rideable bicycle as well, this time with the required two people on it. They recently got the confirmation from Guinness that they are now the proud owners of two world records: one for the world's longest tandem and one for the world's longest rideable bicycle.
