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The title of this is a little disingenuous, as there's an entire system to get to those speeds. You could have probably taken any track bike, put that large of

The title of this is a little disingenuous, as there's an entire system to get to those speeds. You could have probably taken any track bike, put that large of a front ring, and do what he did. He talks about the frame construction made using the same materials and techniques he uses for all of his bikes. The whole system includes a car that is used to draft behind - very close behind, much like what was done over 100 years ago, with a train[1] [1] http://www.bikereader.com/contributors/woodland/murphy.html http://www.bikereader.com/contributors/woodland/murphy.html

davidw 13y ago
The speed records for bikes being paced by vehicles are pretty crazy: > Fred Rompelberg, using a dragster with a large shield as pacer, achieved 268.831 km/h (167.044 mph) on the Bonneville Salt Flats on 15 October 1995. From the wikipedia link posted elsewhere here.
- pge 13y ago
  Rompelberg was towed up to speed by the vehicle (physically attached) and then unhooked and maintained the speed. That is different than pedaling the bike up to speed yourself.
redthrowaway 13y ago
The point, though, is not the novelty of the engineering. It's more about the builder mentality than the results. It's about a couple of guys doing something cool in their garage with limited resources.
- JungleGymSam 13y ago
  The way the title is worded indicates there's something special, novel, or innovative about the bike when, in fact, there's not. The 80mph was achieved by drafting behind a vehicle.
  - wyclif 13y ago
    The title actually implies no such thing; I didn't even use any adjectives wrt the bike. So in your opinion, I should have written "Englishman builds bike capable of 80mph on flat surfaces with the help of a drafting vehicle, a machine shop, and a landing strip." Right?
    - honzzz 13y ago
      I have to agree with JungleGymSam - the title does imply that there is something special about the bike because people assume that it's a 'bike capable of 80mph' under normal conditions. I guess people do not expect that it was achieved with the help of a drafting vehicle because than there would be absolutely nothing newsworthy about it, at least to people who know something about cycling. Anyone who has the experience of riding in peloton at 50 km/h without even pedaling knows that aerodynamic drag is everything - any racing bike is capable of 80mph with the help of a drafting vehicle.
    - anigbrowl 13y ago
      'Drafting allows bike to travel at mph' would have been more accurate and just as interesting. I liked the project and the people involved, but I was expecting a bike that could do 80mph by itself thanks to some bizarre engineering insight.
      - wyclif 13y ago
        This is exactly why HN has guidelines for editing story titles. You can't win as a submitter. I should have left it unedited as "Bike blog: Experiments in Speed [video]" which doesn't tell HN readers much about what the story is about. Someone will always, always complain that the title wasn't descriptive enough or is somehow inaccurate, no matter how long it is. Lesson learned. This is probably the last time I try to edit for clarity.
        anigbrowl 13y ago
        You have 10k karma so you can do mod bribes from the secret menu now. That's been the key to my success.
- honzzz 13y ago
  Yes, but is it really cool when anyone can do it? You could use any store bought racing bike (with minor tweaks) to do this. The only reason that you can set 'records' like this is basically because real racers with real top bikes do not value speed achieved by being dragged behind some aerodynamic shield and therefore there is no competition. I don't want to sound disrespectful but I have to admit that I was disappointed. I expected something innovative like what Graeme Obree did - that was what I call 'cool'.
  - rytis 13y ago
    But he didn't "use any store bought racing bike". He built one himself. I can't do that. Can you?
    - honzzz 13y ago
      I understand that building racing bikes is his profession. I am not trying to be sarcastic here - I just really do not get what is cool about a bike builder building a bike which (to me) seems to be not so special (if the bike were able to do 80 mph without the car... then I would be smitten). Obviously, I might be missing something. And apparently... many people admire that guy and I don't want to be a 'killjoy' - everybody doing their job well and with enthusiasm deserves admiration and I respect that.
  - jrockway 13y ago
    real racers with real top bikes do not value speed achieved by being dragged behind some aerodynamic shield I know you're trolling, but I wanted to point out that, except for time trials, this is the entire sport of cycling. The "aerodynamic shield" is your competitors.
    - lutusp 13y ago
      > The "aerodynamic shield" is your competitors. True. It would be interesting to see a careful analysis of the (probably small but nonzero) benefit of being at the front of a large pack of cyclists, on the basis that the negative air pressure wake behind the front cyclist is reduced by the other riders. I'll probably discover this has been fully analyzed. On the negative side, a tightly packed group of cyclists sometimes crash spectacularly.
wyclif 13y ago
Hi, OP here. I try not to take liberties with story titles (and those get edited by the mods anyway), but I thought it was more descriptive than "Experiments in Speed."
- ak39 13y ago
  I didn't think there was anything wrong with the title but had you chosen to title it: "Reaching the Fuck It point: Experiments in Speed" perhaps folks would have realised that the message was not really about attempting to break records on a bicycle but to answer to the audacity of whim on projects you're passionate about ... to "see it to completion". That's the lesson here ... for me.

davidw 13y ago

The speed records for bikes being paced by vehicles are pretty crazy: > Fred Rompelberg, using a dragster with a large shield as pacer, achieved 268.831 km/h (167.044 mph) on the Bonneville Salt Flats on 15 October 1995. From the wikipedia link posted elsewhere here.

pge 13y ago
Rompelberg was towed up to speed by the vehicle (physically attached) and then unhooked and maintained the speed. That is different than pedaling the bike up to speed yourself.

redthrowaway 13y ago

The point, though, is not the novelty of the engineering. It's more about the builder mentality than the results. It's about a couple of guys doing something cool in their garage with limited resources.

JungleGymSam 13y ago
The way the title is worded indicates there's something special, novel, or innovative about the bike when, in fact, there's not. The 80mph was achieved by drafting behind a vehicle.
- wyclif 13y ago
  The title actually implies no such thing; I didn't even use any adjectives wrt the bike. So in your opinion, I should have written "Englishman builds bike capable of 80mph on flat surfaces with the help of a drafting vehicle, a machine shop, and a landing strip." Right?
  - honzzz 13y ago
    I have to agree with JungleGymSam - the title does imply that there is something special about the bike because people assume that it's a 'bike capable of 80mph' under normal conditions. I guess people do not expect that it was achieved with the help of a drafting vehicle because than there would be absolutely nothing newsworthy about it, at least to people who know something about cycling. Anyone who has the experience of riding in peloton at 50 km/h without even pedaling knows that aerodynamic drag is everything - any racing bike is capable of 80mph with the help of a drafting vehicle.
  - anigbrowl 13y ago
    'Drafting allows bike to travel at mph' would have been more accurate and just as interesting. I liked the project and the people involved, but I was expecting a bike that could do 80mph by itself thanks to some bizarre engineering insight.
    - wyclif 13y ago
      This is exactly why HN has guidelines for editing story titles. You can't win as a submitter. I should have left it unedited as "Bike blog: Experiments in Speed [video]" which doesn't tell HN readers much about what the story is about. Someone will always, always complain that the title wasn't descriptive enough or is somehow inaccurate, no matter how long it is. Lesson learned. This is probably the last time I try to edit for clarity.
      - anigbrowl 13y ago
        You have 10k karma so you can do mod bribes from the secret menu now. That's been the key to my success.
honzzz 13y ago
Yes, but is it really cool when anyone can do it? You could use any store bought racing bike (with minor tweaks) to do this. The only reason that you can set 'records' like this is basically because real racers with real top bikes do not value speed achieved by being dragged behind some aerodynamic shield and therefore there is no competition. I don't want to sound disrespectful but I have to admit that I was disappointed. I expected something innovative like what Graeme Obree did - that was what I call 'cool'.
- rytis 13y ago
  But he didn't "use any store bought racing bike". He built one himself. I can't do that. Can you?
  - honzzz 13y ago
    I understand that building racing bikes is his profession. I am not trying to be sarcastic here - I just really do not get what is cool about a bike builder building a bike which (to me) seems to be not so special (if the bike were able to do 80 mph without the car... then I would be smitten). Obviously, I might be missing something. And apparently... many people admire that guy and I don't want to be a 'killjoy' - everybody doing their job well and with enthusiasm deserves admiration and I respect that.
- jrockway 13y ago
  real racers with real top bikes do not value speed achieved by being dragged behind some aerodynamic shield I know you're trolling, but I wanted to point out that, except for time trials, this is the entire sport of cycling. The "aerodynamic shield" is your competitors.
  - lutusp 13y ago
    > The "aerodynamic shield" is your competitors. True. It would be interesting to see a careful analysis of the (probably small but nonzero) benefit of being at the front of a large pack of cyclists, on the basis that the negative air pressure wake behind the front cyclist is reduced by the other riders. I'll probably discover this has been fully analyzed. On the negative side, a tightly packed group of cyclists sometimes crash spectacularly.

wyclif 13y ago

Hi, OP here. I try not to take liberties with story titles (and those get edited by the mods anyway), but I thought it was more descriptive than "Experiments in Speed."

ak39 13y ago
I didn't think there was anything wrong with the title but had you chosen to title it: "Reaching the Fuck It point: Experiments in Speed" perhaps folks would have realised that the message was not really about attempting to break records on a bicycle but to answer to the audacity of whim on projects you're passionate about ... to "see it to completion". That's the lesson here ... for me.