I have no experience of taking one across deserts. Maybe you are referring to my using one as a long distance luggage trolley - a role it performed very well.
I am filled with admiration for this chap. From the photos, we was riding on decent roads which he’d have to be of course with such a bike. I suspect that you could expect most bikes to ride 3000 km without problems.
The triumph of this exploit across North Africa is the human one, not really the engineering. How did he put up with it? I’d not have thought the ergonomics of the Strida would be ideal for such a task, but I’d have little doubt that a Strida could do it if the rider could.
If he’d done it on Saharan roads on a cheap mountain bike, he’d have done it easier and with one set of tyres. The tyre wear he got seems extraordinarily bad. He wore out a tyre every 267 miles!!!
I also wonder what the drive pulleys are like after the sand.