Doctors on tandem bike circle the globe in 218 days, 22 hours

Nov. 14 (UPI) -- A pair of British doctors broke a Guinness World Record by riding over 18,000 miles across the world on a tandem bicycle in 218 days, 22 hours.

Guinness announced Thursday, designated as this year's Guinness World Records Day, that Lloyd Collier and Louis Snellgrove broke the previous record for fastest circumnavigation by tandem bicycle (male) by nine days.

The pair, who both work as doctors in Australia, set off from Adelaide, South Australia, Aug. 7, 2018, and finished their journey May 16, 2019.

The men rode more than 18,000 miles across Australia, Asia, Europe and North America to raise money for Spinal Research and the Brain Foundation.

"The entire journey was littered with mechanical failures and makeshift repairs," Collier said. "Cycling through India in particular, we became incredibly inventive in fixing mechanical components in non-conventional ways."