He’s 77 and a heart attack survivor. Now he’s trying to ride a motorcycle around the world
By Tamara Hardingham-Gill, CNN
(CNN) — He got his first motorcycle at 15, and Steven Barnett, originally from Los Angeles, has ridden across nearly 80 countries in the five decades since.
Now, at 77, he’s preparing for the biggest adventure of his life: an attempt to set the record for the oldest man to motorcycle around the world.
Barnett, who moved from the US to Panama two decades ago, is scheduled to fly to Madrid, Spain, on March 7, before embarking on a trip across 27 countries, including France, Australia and Peru, covering an estimated 50,000 miles.
The retired professor expects the journey to take at least a year. He says he is looking forward to getting on the road and “having no idea what’s going to happen tomorrow.”
Though he’s only been planning for a few months, a heart attack last year — which left him requiring stents — convinced him not to delay.
“You never know how long you have,” he tells CNN Travel. “You’ll never be as prepared as you would like to be, but that’s not an excuse for putting things off.”
Incredible challenge
Barnett says he was inspired after reading a CNN article about Bridget McCutchen, who was vying to become the youngest woman to solo circumnavigate the globe by motorcycle.
He reached out and met her in Panama in December 2022, about a year before she successfully completed the journey.
“I said, ‘Wait a minute. If she can do it as the youngest woman, why can’t I do it as the oldest man?,” he says, admitting the idea hadn’t really occurred to him until he learned of her story.
After discovering there was no listed record holder, he contacted Guinness World Records.
“I figure 78 or 79 is far enough up there to set a record,” he adds. Guinness World Records confirmed that this was the case and his application was accepted.
A veteran of long-distance motorbike trips, Barnett says he loves “the freedom to go anywhere” and “connect with people and locations that you just can’t do when you are enclosed in a car.”
In October, he bought a brand new motorcycle, a Suzuki DR650, and spent several months modifying it for the journey, adding a bigger gas tank and stronger suspension.
With medical clearance — including a heart scan — he’s eager to fly to his starting point in Madrid. “Everything’s good,” he says. “Once I get on the plane, it’ll be a big sigh of relief.”
From Spain, Barnett will make his way across Europe, riding through France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.
Physical challenges
In order to meet Guinness World Record requirements, Barnett must ride the same motorcycle for the entire journey, and document this progress. He may use other transport only for sections “otherwise impassable by motorcycle.”
He’s excited about visiting places he’s never been before — especially Central Asia, where his route will take him through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan before heading on to China.
From China, he’ll ride down to Laos, Thailand and Malaysia, then through Indonesia, before flying to Australia, where he hopes to “get in some scuba diving” as well as cross the continent. After that, he’ll ride through Chile, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia on his way back to Panama.
“That’s the plan,” he says, “knowing that plans never work.”
It’s unclear if or how the current Middle East crisis will impact his journey.
While Barnett feels fit enough for the trip, he acknowledges his age will shape his approach.
“It used to not bother me to be on a dirt track out in the middle of nowhere,” he says. But now, he’d rather be riding in busier areas.
“I’ll be much more careful about that this time around … Because I can’t lift up the bike the same way I did when I was 50.”
Barnett says he’ll stay in hotels, hostels and guest houses en route, but camping is out because he doesn’t like sleeping on the ground. Budget won’t be a concern, nor will taking time off work — retirement, he says, has some perks.
While he enjoys taking in the sights, he says it’s “the people you meet on the way” who define the experience — like befriending and “bumming around” with another motorcyclist in Brazil despite no common language, and being invited to eat with a family while riding to a waterfall in Laos last year.
Roller coaster journey
“It’s a roller coaster,” he adds. “Some days you say, ‘This is so cool being out here. This is the greatest thing in the world.’ And other days you say, ‘Holy beep, what am I doing out here?’”
He plans to pack light but will be bringing his toy raccoon Rocky — a “great icebreaker,” he says — and his mandolin.
“I hope to both meet some other people to play with and maybe learn some local musical influences,” he says.
Barnett has been sharing details of his trip via social media, and says he’s been stunned by the response.
“I’ve really encouraged a lot of people,” he says. “They say, ‘Wow, you’re doing that at your age, that’s really cool and kind of inspiring.’ So that makes me feel really cool.”
His wife of 43 years, Karen, has supported him, as has McCutchen, the young motorcyclist.
Despite being, as he puts it, on “the opposite side of the poles in terms of age, gender and place in life,” they’ve stayed in touch, with McCutchen offering pointers from her own journey.
“I think that she can be an example that I pass on to others — young and old — to just go for it,” he says.
The heart attack, he says, only strengthened his resolve. Two months after his health scare, he set off on a three-month ride through Vietnam, visiting UNESCO-listed site Ha Long Bay, and the Ho Chi Minh Road.
“My cardiologist thought I was crazy,” he says. “But I told him that’s what he fixed me for.”
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