Pole to Pole

On a Motorcycle

Shinji Kazama is the only man in history to have ridden a motorcycle to both the north and south poles and he also set a world record by riding higher up Mount Everest than any motorcyclist had ever been. In his first full interview with the western media, Kazama-san tells us how, and why, he rode to such incredible extremes, often in temperatures of -54C. Meet the original, and greatest, adventure bike rider of them all

Words: Stuart Barker

(Shinji Kazama interview translated by Sayaka Konishi)

Images courtesy of Shinji Kazama

Although he is quite rightly celebrated in his native Japan, few Westerners have ever heard of Shinji Kazama and that is a wrong that needs to be righted because he must surely be considered the greatest adventure motorcycle rider of all time.

            In 1993 Kazama became the first man to have reached both the north pole and the south pole on a motorcycle. To date no-one has replicated this feat. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Kazama's achievements. In 1985 he also reached the greatest height ever achieved on a motorcycle when he rode 19,701 feet up the glacial slopes of Mount Everest. He was also the first Japanese rider to win the Paris-Dakar Rally and has ridden across Asia, Africa, Australia and Europe as well as riding from the tip of southern Chile to Lund in Sweden. Many of these trips he completed with a leg so badly mangled in a Dakar crash that he very nearly lost it and would have bled to death where he lay had it not been for the prompt actions of a rescue helicopter crew.

            Kazama has rarely given interviews to the Western media, mostly because he simply hasn't been asked, but we managed to track down the modest 66-year-old at his home in Japan to get a rare insight into the mind of a man who is capable of such extraordinary feats on a motorcycle. 

The Beginnings of an Obsession

Shinji Kazama was born in Yamanashi prefecture in Japan on September 26, 1950, and first rode his brother's motorcycle when he was 14. 'I tried to ride it up to the top of a steep hill next to my house' Kazama says. 'I had gone about 150 metres and couldn’t ride any further so started pushing the motorcycle up the hill and when I arrived at the top I thought “What a fantastic view!” I was fascinated by the view from the top of the hill and so I became obsessed with riding a motorcycle in nature. That view remains in my memory to this day.'

            By 1980 Kazama was riding up much steeper hills and set new altitude records on Mount Fuji in his native Japan and Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. In 1982 he became the first Japanese rider to compete in the Paris-Dakar rally – widely regarded as the toughest race in the world - and in 1984 he won the 500cc class at the same event. But his next riding challenge was bigger by far – he decided to ride a motorcycle up Mount Everest.

Tackling Aconkagua, in Argentina, 1989: the highest mountain outside of Asia

Mount Everest

In 1985 Shinji Kazama set a new elevation record by riding higher up Mount Everest on a motorcycle than anyone had ever gone before, reaching a height of 19,701 feet before being halted by sheer exhaustion and sheer rock faces. The year previously, he had reached a height of 19,291 feet on Pumo Ri, one of Everest's neighbouring peaks, but then set a new record on Everest itself.

            For Everest, Kazama used a Honda TLR trials bike, modified with lessons he'd learned on the Pumo Ri expedition. Lightness was key in reducing the effort required to control a constantly spinning and sliding bike at such high altitudes – for much of the way, Kazama was actually riding up a glacier. Each part of the TLR, including the swingarm and fuel tank, was shaved of weight by any means possible. The engine was bored out to 250cc and Keihin made a special carburettor that allowed for quick and easy adjustment of the main jet size by turning a dial. The bike also had specially-designed Yokohama tyres fitted with 500 two-inch-long spikes.

            The snow was much deeper than Kazama had anticipated (up to three feet) so the bike was spinning hopelessly for much of the time, forcing Kazama to dismount and push. At almost four miles high, the sheer exertion meant he had to stop every 80 feet to rest and he eventually came close to utter exhaustion and had to stop.

            Kazama held his Everest record for almost a decade until, in 1995, Hungarian Istran Juhasz rode a Honda XL250R to 20,205 feet.

            Reflecting on his Everest trip, Kazama says 'Riding up Mount Everest was a different type of difficulty compared to the poles. In the deep snows of the Arctic and Antarctica I had a very rough time because often I could not ride due to the tyres being buried in the snow. On Mount Everest, where the oxygen concentration is low - it's only 40% compared with normal oxygen concentration - the power of the motorcycle dropped to 40% as well. So I had a hard time lifting and pulling the weight of the motorcycle.

            'The most difficult thing was just to keep riding towards the top of the mountain while maintaining the motivation to continually overcome altitude sickness and decreased physical strength. Since we knew from the outset that I could never actually reach the summit of Everest on a motorcycle, it was an adventure of fighting with myself and constantly asking myself “When will you put an end to the challenge?”

            'Above the height I reached, the rock face is sheer vertical so I don't know if it's possible to go further on that route. I repeatedly experienced fainting and collapsing. I tried to be calm and waited until my breathing got better each time, while I kept riding the motorcycle with full power in thin oxygen until that point. I even had to resort to pushing the motorcycle to the upper part of the mountain, like I did at the poles. Eventually I told myself “I have worked hard enough. I will forgive myself for stopping here.” I finished at 19,701 feet.'

A mountain to climb: Shinji San rode to 19,701 feet on Everest - higher than any rider had been before

The North Pole

On March 8, 1987, a 36-year-old Shinji Kazama set out from the Warhunt Islands (now known as Nunavut in northern Canada) with the aim of becoming the first man to reach the North Pole by motorcycle. The expedition was the culmination of five years of planning and was born of a desire to keep chasing different horizons as Kazama explains. 'I first thought about riding to the North Pole when I reached the finish line of the Paris-Dakar Rally in 1982. To me, the horizon is unique and interesting - I feel an irresistible attraction to it. The reason I took part in the Dakar Rally was to meet the horizon of the Sahara but when I reached it I felt I had to get out - I felt a vague sense of terror about remaining in the same place.'

            Fuelled by this need to chase new horizons, Kazama set out for the North Pole with a back-up crew that consisted of two fellow Japanese and two Inuit guides, mounted on two snowmobiles, while Kazama himself rode a heavily modified two-stroke, air-cooled Yamaha TW200 with a TY250 engine. 'The Yamaha TW200 was still under development at the time' says Kazama. 'Honestly, it's best to ride on a caterpillar on snow and ice but for me it had to be two wheels. A motorcycle is at a big disadvantage on snow and ice because it's supported by only two points so I chose the TW 200 because it has very wide tires. The modifications I had to make cost 14 million yen (around £190,000 in today's money). All of the parts had to modified in order to function properly in extreme cold.'

            Although the straight-line distance to the pole was 470 miles from his starting point, shifting ice conditions meant that in reality Kazama faced a 1,250-mile journey over some of the most unforgiving terrain on earth. Temperatures regularly dipped as low as -45C and played havoc with the bike, distorting metal parts, shattering plastic parts, and regularly seizing the suspension solid.

            And it wasn't only the bike that suffered in the extreme temperatures – Kazama was operating at the very limits of human endurance too. 'I never got accustomed to the cold' he says. 'On the contrary, there were moments when I feared for my life. I couldn't even stand up when the temperature went down to minus -45C in March. A banana becomes as hard as a hammer and a plastic bag becomes a spray of mist and then completely disappears when the temperature drops below -26C and the coldest temperature I rode in was -54C.'

            To put that in context, the temperature in your freezer at home will only be about -18C. In a bid to try and insulate himself against such extreme cold, Kazama resorted to all kinds of makeshift clothing materials. 'I was wearing clothes made of GORE-TEX with an inner cotton lining that was also being used by an expedition to the Himalayas and which could supposedly tolerate extremely cold weather' he says. 'But I prepared other clothes from various materials - sleeping bags, furs, tent canvas, etc. I also had woollen socks, woollen gloves and a woollen face mask. I even lined my Arai helmet with fur! I learned that clothes made from natural materials such as fur and wool were the best for protecting yourself in extremely cold weather. Also, the tyres I used on the North Pole trip were mostly made from natural rubber because if I had used normal ones the blocks on the tyres would have come apart due to the cold.'

            The expedition was obviously fraught with danger, not least from polar bears - and Kazama wasn't even armed. 'Fortunately I didn't meet any polar bears but I did see their tracks in the snow. I didn't have a gun with me but for sure it's better to have a rifle or a .45 Magnum just in case of emergency.'

            Danger is never far away when you're, quite literally, riding on thin ice over the Arctic Ocean. 'I wanted to ride gracefully up to the North Pole but actually I had to push my bike a lot when we were on the ice. Salt water ice usually doesn't break easily so I would say that ice with a thickness of around 20cm should be able to hold a motorcycle. But most of the ice we traversed was only about 10cm in thickness. At one point I was riding along and suddenly the front wheel fell into the ocean. If I had fallen in, I would have gone straight to the bottom of the ocean, which was about 6,500 metres (over 20,000 feet) deep at that point. And it was so freezing cold that I just couldn't have done do anything about it.'

            Kazama tried to follow a set schedule every day in an environment where (in the weeks he was riding) the sun never dipped below the horizon, even at night. 'I spent eight hours riding my bike then I used another eight hours for sleep and rest. The remaining eight hours were spent preparing for my trip in the morning or setting my tent up and preparing for rest at night. I tried to set a regular behaviour pattern.'

            Following this routine whenever possible, Kazama and his team finally reached the North Pole on April 21, 1987, after 44 days of riding. Sadly, he was too exhausted and too cold to enjoy the moment or feel any sense of triumph. 'I was so exhausted that I think I reached the North Pole mostly by chance in the end!' he laughs. 'Honestly, when I got there, my only thought was “I don’t have to push my bike anymore!” I just wanted to get back to my warm home as soon as possible.'

Kazama rode in minus 54 degrees- three times colder than your freezer!

No mod cons: accommodation, North Pole style

The South Pole

Five years after reaching the North Pole, Kazama left his base at Patriot Hills in Antarctica on December 8, 1992, and set course for the South Pole, some 870 miles away. The intention was to reach the pole on New Year's Day, 1993, but bad weather and deep snows caused delays. Kazama again used a heavily-modified two-stroke, single-cylinder Yamaha TW200 that had a specially insulated engine to protect it from the extreme cold. A catalytic converter was added in order to minimise pollution of the pristine environment and a custom-made exhaust was fitted to keep noise levels down to 70 decibels. On occasion, a steerable ski had to be fitted to the front wheel of the bike to allow Kazama to ride over particularly soft snow. Kazama nicknamed the bike 'Whisper-Dancer.'

            Fuel was obtained from prepositioned caches along the way - some dropped by Michael Palin's pilot during filming of the BBC series Pole to Pole, while Palin gamely waited in a tent in the middle of nowhere. 'It was a great honour to be interviewed by Michael Palin for Pole to Pole' Kazama says. 'I felt pleasure that he has the same values in creating travels and romances as I have.'

            Kazama's team carried all other fuel drums with them but, halfway to the pole, they were horrified to discover that one drum contained kerosene instead of gasoline. Kazama was forced to put his bike on the back of a snowmobile for a short period to compensate for this lack of fuel.

            On December 14 the team encountered such a ferocious blizzard - a total whiteout - that they were blocked in their tents for five days. When they finally did get moving again, the snow was so deep it slowed progress from 60 miles a day to just four, although this later picked back up to around 30 miles per day.

            Being so isolated and far from help would fill most people with terror but Kazama says fear was replaced by other, unexpected, feelings. 'Rather than feeling fear, I could not help but feel a deep love for the human civilization that I usually don't feel anything for. I felt nostalgic seeing all the shapes and colours of the aeroplanes that carried relief supplies to me. Perhaps fear goes away when people become extremely sad and isolated.'

            But what if something had gone wrong, so far from help? What if he'd crashed and broken a leg? Kazama says 'If an emergency occurred I was supposed to contact base camp, which was about 1,700 kilometres away. A chartered rescue flight was scheduled to come if I could wait for about half a day but the charter flight fee was serious - I would have had to pay the airline eight million yen' (equivalent to £112,000).

            Riding over such extreme terrain proved utterly exhausting on both polar expeditions and it was almost impossible to predict how long each trip was going to take. 'It was so hard I almost died!' Kazama says. 'There were many times when I could not ride at all due to the deep snow or because of big rocks all over the surface of the ice so I had to push the motorcycle, day after day. It could take an hour to go 10 metres but then in the next hour I might go 10 kilometres. The schedule for those journeys could not be predicted at all and there is nothing as painful as a trip in -50C when you don't know when it will end. Most of the time my trips to the poles were just pure hell, pushing my motorcycle.'

            Finally, on January 3, 1993, after 28 days of riding and pushing his motorcycle  over 870 miles of the most inhospitable terrain on earth, Shinji Kazama became the first man ever to ride to both poles on a motorcycle. It's a record which still stands to this day. And at least he was able to absorb and enjoy his achievement on that occasion. 'Five years after I reached the North Pole, I also reached the South Pole and my heart filled with pleasure that I had reached the two poles by motorcycle. I told myself “I conquered the earth with a motorcycle!”'

Kazama's specially-built Yamaha TW200

Mission accomplished: Kazama bags his second Pole

Paris-Dakar: Triumph and Disaster

In 1982 Kazama became the first Japanese rider to take part in the Paris-Dakar rally in what was only the fourth running of the event. He finished 18^th. Two years later he won the 500cc class in the Paris-Dakar – the toughest motorcycle race on earth.

            But disaster struck in 2004 when Kazama very nearly lost his life in the Dakar. He was hit head-on by a big rig truck in Morocco and his left leg was so badly mangled he would have bled to death by the roadside had he not been airlifted to hospital so quickly. Kazama spent the next 13 months in hospital and needed 12 operations to save his leg. He now walks with the assistance of a cane but hasn't let his injury stop him from riding all over the world and in 2018 he intends to compete in his fifth Dakar rally. 'I can't ride as well as before because my left knee and ankle are disabled and don't bend well and my feet can't rest in the usual position on the footpegs' Kazama says. 'Even though I competed in the BAJA 1000-mile race in America last year, my physical challenge is still ongoing. But I'm planning to participate in the Dakar Rally again next year.'

Kazama was a 500cc class winner in the 1984 Paris-Dakar enduro - the toughest race on earth

Next Stop – the Moon!

The United Nations World Health Organisation appointed Kazama as a goodwill ambassador in 2007, in particular to promote its Bone and Joint Decade campaign that ran from 2000 to 2010. In the same year he took part in the Trans-Eurasian Continental Tour which involved riding 11,250 miles from Vladivostock in Russia to Cabo da Roca in Portugal in just 52 days. In 2008 he rode 13,125 miles across Africa and the following year traversed Australia, meaning he had taken the Bone and Joint Decade message to six continents.

            Then in 2010, along with three other physically-challenged riders, he travelled from the southern tip of Chile to Lund in Sweden on motorcycles, bicycles, dog sleds and boats. 'I’m just not wired to sit around the house' he says. 'I need to be outdoors, trying to do things that other people wouldn’t do. I think that maybe the accident gave me a purpose to do these things. I'm not doing these things just for me anymore, nor for personal gain - it's all about how I can raise awareness and provide hope and inspiration for others who share my handicap.'

            So what's left to achieve on two wheels when you've ridden to both ends of the earth and set a world record for riding up Mount Everest? 'The next goal is to ride on the moon on a motorcycle!' Kazama says. 'I rode my motorcycle to the horizon all over the world and my slogan was always “shoot for the horizon!” The Sahara Desert was wonderful, especially as I could see 360 degrees of horizon view, but I wanted to explore the ultimate horizons. It took five years to stand on both the North Pole and the South Pole where all horizons intersect at a single point. At the poles I had reached two points on the surface of the Earth that are “sphere surfaces” so they're different from a simple horizon and I thought to myself “the North and South Poles are the terminal stations of my motorcycle adventure.” Immediately afterwards I started to think that I would like to see the whole spherical body of the Earth in its entirety and, since then, I have dreamed about going to the moon with a motorcycle. The human imagination, and dreams, are eternal, so I will keep dreaming.'

Even Shinji's helmet had to be modified for the cold! 

           

Timeline: Kazama's Incredible Achievements

1980: Sets new elevation records for riding up Mount Fuji and Mount Kilimanjaro

1982: First Japanese rider to take part in the Paris-Dakar Rally

1984: Wins the Paris-Dakar Rally (500cc class)

1985: Sets a new elevation world record by riding 19,701 feet up Mount Everest

1987: Becomes the first man to reach the North Pole on a motorcycle and also wins the Rallye des Pharaons (250cc class) in the same year

1993: Reaches the South Pole and becomes the only man in history to reach both the north and south Poles by motorcycle – a record he holds to this day

2004: Left leg completely mangled when he was struck by a truck during the Paris-Dakar Rally. Needs 12 surgeries and 13 months in hospital to save the leg

2007: Appointed goodwill ambassador for the United Nations World Health Organisation

2008: Traverses 13,125 miles across Africa

2009: Rides across Australia to complete his mission to take the Bone and Joint Decade charity message to six continents.

2010: Takes part in the Trans-Eurasian Continental Tour, riding 11,250 miles from Vladivostock in Russia to Cabo da Roca in Portugal in just 52 days. Also travels from the southern tip of Chile to Lund in Sweden by motorcycle, bicycle, dog sled and boat.

The world's greatest motorcycle adventure rider as he is now