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Anyone who watches this and thinks "But why?" and "People have done this before with a bigger budget and gone faster!" are not looking at it right. Tom is a on
by buro9 13y ago
Anyone who watches this and thinks "But why?" and "People have done this before with a bigger budget and gone faster!" are not looking at it right.
Tom is a one-man frame builder, and he took the resources he had available to him: His old car, his existing skills, his local area. And he's pulled them together to recreate the kind of pioneering that took place 50/60 years ago for setting these records.
He knew from the outset that he wasn't going to get the record, he didn't even get an athlete to ride the bike as he rode it himself.
What he did do was go on this incredible journey of exploring the limits of his own skills as a frame builder, of looking at what it takes to go so fast on a bike, and he did it with virtually nothing.
And he's not the only one. A lot of people I know in the cycling world, in the design world, and in the tech world seem to be shaking off their cynicism and pessimism, and throwing themselves into projects that help them push their own individual talents.
It's the hacker culture of taking something apart, and putting it back together, and sometimes the entire point is "Why the hell not?". It doesn't have corporate backing, or government nods, it's just a few guys doing something they love and letting no obstacle stand in their way.
It's easy to say "Why bother, it's not going to be the record", it can be harder just to recognise and applaud them for their individual effort. But that's what should be done.
- ak39 13y agoThis is the single most inspiring comment on HN is a looooong time! I just love those moments in life when the absurdist in you, the one thinking of taking runs at windmills, convinces your otherwise cynical and pessimist self to STFU and "fuck it!". Do it. :-) If nothing, it's the stories at the pub with your mates afterwards that it's all about.
- democracy 13y agoGreat video! Very inspirational!
- marknutter 13y agoYour comment is the perfect antidote to the pathetically pessimistic comments elsewhere on this thread. Thank you!
- teddyh 13y agoI think the problem is the title - it sets up high expectations. When it turns out that an ordinary store-bought racing bike would have worked just as well, and the high speed is reached not by the bike being special, but by drafting behind a car, then the disappointment sets in. If the story had been "Guy builds racing bike from scratch, goes drafting with it just to see what it can do", then it would have been the cool inspiring story of the hacker spirit. But now it wasn't - it was framed.
- vinceguidry 13y agoIt's not really possible for a human-powered bicycle to go 80mph. Air resistance tops you out at probably around 50-55mph and there's not much that can be done, the power output of human legs has a hard ceiling. So inherent in a story about a bicycle going 80mph is some way around that limitation.
- buro9 13y agoIt is possible, the record is 82.33mph ( http://www.ihpva.org/land.htm http://www.ihpva.org/land.htm ) and Graeme Obree is currently working to best that and aspires to go significantly beyond it: http://www.gizmag.com/graeme-obree-beastie/28234/ http://www.gizmag.com/graeme-obree-beastie/28234/ It's actually happening this week and they're out there right now doing it: http://obree.com/obree-news/297-ihpva-world-land-speed-record.html http://obree.com/obree-news/297-ihpva-world-land-speed-recor...
- vinceguidry 13y agoYeah, there's not that much difference between drafting behind a car and using an aerodynamic shell.
- lambda 13y agoThere's a huge difference. In one case, the car is displacing all of that air; in the other, you are. Now, sure, an aerodynamic shell helps with that, but you still have to be the one to displace that air mass, while with a car you have a powered source doing so.