Inspiration: How High Can You Ride a Motorcycle?
What do you think? How many thousand meters high can one ride a Yamaha Tenere? An extraordinary off-road rider, the Spanish Pol Tarres, gave it a try!
Photos by Yamaha General
Pol Tarres is an exceptional off-road rider—it’s not always about racing to win; great feats can be achieved differently, too. He is also an outstanding racer and has even been a world champion in trials.
Tarres performs incredible feats on his 200-kilogram Yamaha Tenere. While the whole world was struggling with the infamous pandemic, he came up with his next challenge. This man makes possible on a motorcycle what seems impossible to other riders. His motivation and passion drove him to achieve a new goal – to ride a motorcycle at the highest altitude in the world.
In South America, the Andes mountain range boasts over 100 peaks that exceed 6,000 meters above sea level. At such altitudes, the human body begins to struggle for survival. Lack of oxygen causes dizziness, hallucinations, slowed reflexes, and drowsiness. Despite all this, Tarres aimed to test both himself and his motorcycle at such heights. His target was a peak called Mercedario. He did not fear failure, even though engineers had suggested that the motorcycle might not work at such altitudes with such low oxygen levels. The only way to find out was to try.
For encouragement, the daring rider took a small oxygen tank with him in case he started feeling unwell. The base camp was situated at 3,200 meters. As he ascended the mountain slopes, Tarres complained that the bike was sinking into the ground, making progress difficult. At 4,800 meters, he told the cameraman that it was extremely tough! The climbs were very long, and the terrain was challenging, wearing out the rear tire.
By the end of the first day’s climb, the rear tire was completely worn out, and the rider had no idea how long the clutch would last. The next morning, while fueling the bike and starting it at 4,800 meters, Tarres praised his Tenere to the skies, saying this bike was simply amazing.
A few hundred meters higher, Tarres mentioned that everything was extremely exhausting. From afar, the mountainside appeared quite gentle, but as he got closer, it became more and more intimidating. In reality, the mountain was relatively steep and required a good run-up.
Mercedario, the eighth-highest mountain in the Andes, stands at 6,720 meters. At 6,155 meters, Tarres pointed out that the motorcycle’s rear tire was completely worn out, as the ground was so soft that the bike sank into the gravel, requiring immense physical effort from both him and the motorcycle to climb up. At this altitude, Tarres himself was already using an oxygen tube, but he said it barely helped. Pushing the bike up would require excessive effort with such a smooth, knobless tire.
By this point, Tarres had acclimatized well and believed that he could actually climb even higher, but he considered the first test a success. The test pushed both the human body and the motorcycle to their limits. At this height, Tarres stated that he was very happy to be going home with a new record, having ridden a twin-cylinder motorcycle to 6,155 meters. The Tenere performed surprisingly well at this altitude and still managed to pull powerfully, contrary to what the engineers had predicted.
More than a year ago, on March 14th, Pol Tarres set a world record by riding a twin-cylinder Yamaha Tenere 700 to a height of 6,157.5 meters. Considering that he mentioned it was a test, we might expect a follow-up to this challenge. On his YouTube channel, you can see all kinds of possible and seemingly impossible tricks and riding techniques on the Tenere.
Watch his adventure to the summit in the video below.
