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Stock Ducati Desmo450 EDS Sets 24-Hour Guinness World Record: 900 Miles on One Bike

Silvio Sabba and Valerio Boni shared one unmodified Desmo450 EDS for 1,588 laps of a rough dirt loop near Milan, setting a Guinness record of 1,448.732 km with just an oil and filter change and no repairs.

Trail Roamer Editorial TeamOct 21, 2026 · Updated Oct 21, 2026 · 6 min read
Pictured: 2027 Ducati Desmo450 EDS (Ducati press photo; same model as the record bike, not the bike from the attempt). - Credit: Photo: Ducati

Twenty-four hours, one bike, no spare. That's the part of the new Guinness World Record set on a Ducati that should matter to anyone eyeing a Desmo450 EDS. Silvio Sabba and Valerio Boni took turns on a single stock EDS and rode it 1,448.732 km, about 900.2 miles, around a dirt loop outside Milan in one day, and Guinness World Records has published it as the greatest distance on a motocross bike in 24 hours (team).

This wasn't a jump or a wheelie. It was a long, rough, repetitive grind, the kind of punishment most of us hand out a few hours at a time, and the bike finished without a single repair.

The record in numbers

  • Distance: 1,448.732 km (about 900.2 miles)
  • Laps: 1,588 of a 912.3 m dirt circuit (a little over half a mile)
  • Average speed: 60.36 km/h (about 37.5 mph), every stop included
  • Fastest lap: 42 seconds, set by Sabba
  • Bikes used: one, though the rules allowed two
  • Time in the pits for work: one scheduled oil and filter service, under 17 minutes, with the clock running

The math holds up. Multiply 1,588 laps by 912.3 m and you get 1,448.73 km, and spread over 24 hours that's the 60.36 km/h average. Put another way, the pair averaged a lap roughly every 54 seconds for a full day, fuel stops, rider swaps and the service included. Guinness rounds the lap to 912 m on its record page and dates the record October 2, the day the clock stopped.

How the 24 hours played out

According to the full account of the attempt published by Controluce and summarized by Dueruote, the clock started at 2:08 PM local time on October 1 at Rodano, in the province of Milan. The loop followed the edge of a private farm field and was measured with a measuring wheel along the shortest line at 912.3 m. GPS put it closer to 920 m a lap, but the record uses the lower figure, backed by a technical report from engineer Manuela Maria Ponzo. Independent witnesses rotated through the whole 24 hours, with continuous timing, lap logging, video and GPS tracking.

Sabba took the first stint. The two swapped every hour at first, refueling on a set schedule, then cut their shifts down to about half an hour as fatigue set in late in the run. Their styles were different from the start. Sabba, a former international-level enduro racer, rode harder and set the 42-second best lap. Boni, a car and motorcycle journalist who specializes in 24-hour distance records, ran a less frantic pace he could hold all day.

There was one scare. At around 7:56 PM, Sabba went down and damaged the clutch lever. The bike kept working and the attempt went on without repairs. They passed the 650 km mark during the night, and at 2:08 PM on October 2 the count stopped at 1,588 laps.

Stock means stock

This is what makes the record more interesting than most. Guinness guidelines allowed the pair two bikes, one each. They chose to share a single EDS kept in its original configuration, and MXNews reports that, according to Ducati, nothing was changed to improve performance or durability.

That included the lights. Instead of bolting on auxiliary lamps for the night hours, Sabba and Boni rode on the EDS's standard LED headlight alone. The track was flat with no jumps, but it was full of holes and bumps, which is a very different thing to read by a stock headlight at speed than it is in daylight.

Apart from fuel, the only mechanical work was a scheduled service: engine oil and filter changed, plus a general check of the bike, finished in under 17 minutes while the clock kept running. Endurochampions makes the point that this came on a model that had only just joined Ducati's lineup.

The bike, briefly

The Desmo450 EDS is Ducati's first enduro, derived from the Desmo450 MX motocrosser and built around a 449.6cc desmodromic single, a six-speed gearbox, Showa suspension, an 18-inch rear wheel and an 8.5-liter tank. The feature that made it the right pick for this job is the full LED lighting the MX doesn't have. Our Desmo450 EDS launch story has the rest.

Round two for Sabba and Boni, in Ducati's 100th year

This is the pair's second Guinness record together in just over a year. On September 23-24, 2025, they rode a Ducati Scrambler Full Throttle on dirt for 24 hours, logging 1,158 laps and 1,462.114 km, a record MCN lists as the greatest off-road distance by a petrol-powered modified (road legal) scrambler in 24 hours (team).

The comparison is a neat one. The EDS run took 430 more laps but covered 13.4 km less, which tells you how much a tighter, choppier circuit eats into a 24-hour total. And the timing works for Ducati: the Scrambler record came just ahead of the brand's centenary, and this one lands in the 100th year itself.

Both riders know this game. The release credits Sabba with 661 Guinness titles in 16 years, at least 180 of them still standing, including jumping 43 people on a motorcycle. Boni now has 11 ratified records with a 12th awaiting certification, most of them 24-hour distance runs on two wheels, from a minimoto to a Vespa 50 and an electric scooter.

What it means if you're shopping for an EDS

Keep it in proportion. This is one bike, one day, one flat track and two experienced riders, not a long-term reliability study, and it says nothing about how an EDS holds up over seasons of trail riding or racing. What it does show is that a showroom-spec EDS ran 24 straight hours on rough dirt, through a crash, needing nothing more than a scheduled oil and filter change. For a brand-new model from a brand that's new to enduro, that's a useful public data point.

  • The headlight is real. The stock LED was enough to ride a rough track at record pace through the night. If you run late loops or night stages, that's worth knowing.
  • Service still matters. Even in a record attempt, they stopped for oil and a filter. Stick to the maintenance schedule in your manual.
  • The parts are the ones you'd buy. One bike in original configuration, with no special preparation, did the whole distance.

Ducati's off-road program has been busy. A Desmo450 EDX took the overall at Vegas to Reno in a three-class sweep for the brand, and R.J. Hampshire is headed to Troy Lee Designs Red Bull Ducati for 2027. This record is a different kind of proof: no factory team, just a stock bike and two guys taking turns.

A benchmark for everyone else

The number to beat is now 1,448.732 km. As MXNews points out, Honda, KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas, Triumph and others all sell sport enduro bikes, and the obvious question is whether any of them wants to see what a stock production bike of theirs can do on the same terms.

We'd love to see it. A run under the same rules, with witnesses, a certified loop and one stock bike, would tell riders more than another spec sheet. Until somebody tries, the record belongs to Sabba, Boni and one very tired Desmo450 EDS.

Sources

FAQ

What record did the Ducati Desmo450 EDS set?
Guinness World Records lists Silvio Sabba and Valerio Boni for the greatest distance on a motocross bike in 24 hours (team): 1,448.732 km (about 900.2 miles), ridden at Rodano near Milan, Italy, on October 1-2, 2026.
Was the Desmo450 EDS modified for the record?
No. The riders used a single EDS in its original configuration, with the standard LED headlight at night and no auxiliary lights. MXNews reports that, according to Ducati, nothing was changed to improve performance or durability.
What maintenance did the bike need during the 24 hours?
Besides fuel, one scheduled service: an engine oil and filter change and a general check, done in under 17 minutes with the clock running. A crash damaged the clutch lever, but no repairs were made.
How many laps did they ride?
1,588 laps of a 912.3 m dirt circuit, at an average of 60.36 km/h including all stops. Sabba's fastest lap was 42 seconds.

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