High-Speed Bicycle Inspired By Land-Speed-Record Cars

11 years, 3 months ago - 16 August 2013, Autoblog

Inspired by the backyard engineering of land-speed racers who built 600+miles-per-hour rockets on wheels, bicycle frame builder Tom Donhou built a bike intended to exceed 100 mph under pedal power alone.

As themini-documentary video below attests, Donhou was able to reach about 80 mph behind his aerodynamically optimized Ford Zephyr 6 draft car (complete with column-mounted manual shifter), but he'll need a draft car with a higher top speed if he wants to top 100 mph.

To pedal the bicycle to such a high speed, Donhou also needs the correct gearing to get him there. The huge 104-tooth chain ring connected to a 13-tooth sprocket should suffice, as he proved with a run to 164 km/h on rollers. Don't expect to see him riding up any hills, though you may soon spot him testing the bike on public roads behind his next draft car: a friend's more capable Ford Capri Cosworth.

We hope the Capri's much higher top speed will allow Donhou to go even faster on his next run, but until then, watch his first experiment in speed in the nicely produced video below.