There are moments in motorcycling that transcend the sport. Moments where a rider, a machine, and a mission combine into something that genuinely moves people. Pat Cornell’s ride is one of those moments — and it is now in its final chapter.
Known across the riding world as Vroom Old Man, Pat set out on 1 May 2025 aboard a 2025 Indian Pursuit PowerPlus 112 with a goal that most people would dismiss without a second thought. Ride an average of 1,000 miles a day across a full ride year. Raise $125,000 for the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation. Do it for his wife Janice, whose family has battled this progressive, inherited neuromuscular disease for generations — a disease that attacks muscles, heart, lungs, and quality of life, and has already taken two of her sisters.
Pat chose to ride because they cannot choose to stop being ill.
This week, Pat messaged IMRGlobal directly with a simple update. He is at 194,812 miles. On 25 April 2026, he plans to roll into a dealership in Florida and cross the 200,000 mile mark. On 5 May, he goes in for shoulder surgery — an operation he has been deferring throughout the entire journey.
He is almost home. And he needs our family behind him for these final miles.
The Record
What Pat has achieved is not a consecutive days record. Life intervened along the way as it always does — a hospital stay following a serious crash, appearances at Daytona Bike Week, and time spent as part of Indian Motorcycle’s 125th anniversary celebrations in California. Pat has been present throughout this community, not just on the road. But the mileage he has accumulated over his ride year is a record that stands alone. More miles ridden in a single ride year than anyone in the history of motorcycling. On one bike. In the service of one cause.
The Crash That Would Have Ended Most Rides
On Day 73, Pat came off the bike and suffered a broken collarbone, a fractured rib, and a torn rotator cuff. He was hospitalised and off the road for around five days. Doctors advised him to stop. Most riders would have. Pat went back to the bike, rode injured, and kept going — not out of stubbornness, but out of purpose. The people his fundraising supports do not get the option of deciding when to stop being ill. Pat understood that, and it kept him in the saddle.
The shoulder has never fully recovered. The surgery scheduled for 5 May is the consequence of everything he has pushed through to stay on the road. He rides toward Florida knowing that the pain waiting for him on the operating table is partly the price of what he has chosen to do for others.
The Machine
Pat’s motorcycle throughout this journey has been a 2025 Indian Pursuit PowerPlus 112 — donated by Indian Motorcycle specifically to support the ride and affectionately known as Pappy. What followed was an unplanned but remarkable real-world endurance test of the PowerPlus platform. Pappy has consumed more than twelve sets of tyres, three fuel pumps, a replacement stator, multiple sets of brake pads, and three to four sets of rims. The PowerPlus 112 engine has kept turning through all of it.
Indian Motorcycle dealerships across the country supported Pat throughout — prioritising his service stops and often running three-man crews to turn the bike around quickly and get him back on the road. It is a partnership that reflects what the Indian Motorcycle community can look like when it rides with purpose.
The Fundraising
Pat has now raised $125,690 for the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation — surpassing the original $125,000 goal he set himself at the start of the journey. That money funds research, care, and support for families living with a condition that remains largely unknown outside the communities it devastates.
But Pat did not stop at 125,000 miles when he reached that number. He kept going. The fundraising can do the same. Every additional pound, dollar, or euro raised goes directly to the Foundation and the families who need it.
What Comes Next
When Pat rolls into that Florida dealership on 25 April it will mark the end of a ride year that began nearly twelve months earlier. After surgery and recovery, IMRGlobal will be sitting down with Pat for a full Zoom interview — a proper, unhurried conversation about the ride, the mission, the machine, the crash, the pain, the community that carried him, and what comes next. We are very much looking forward to that conversation and we will bring it to you in full.
For now, Pat needs three things from our global family.
He needs us to share his story — every share puts Myotonic Dystrophy in front of someone who has never heard of it.
He needs us to donate — whatever you can, directly to the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation in Pat’s name.
And he needs us to make some noise — so that when he rides those final miles into Florida on the 25th, he knows the IMRGlobal family around the world was riding with him every mile of the way.
Follow Pat’s final days on Facebook — search Vroom Old Man.
Go on Pat. Bring it home.
What we are going to do to help Pat is simple. For every T-shirt or Hoodie sold through the IMRGlobal shop before 31st May, we will donate $2 directly to the Myotonic Dystrophy Foundation in Pat’s name. For every other item sold, we will donate $1. If you would prefer to donate directly, you can do so here — every pound, dollar, and euro goes straight to the Foundation and the families who need it most.
Every order counts. Every donation counts. Every mile counts. Let’s bring Pat home.
