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Testing went really well yesterday. The car was the limiting factor but factor but we knew that would be the case. A few tweaks to the bike and car during the day and we are in a good place. :-)
Follow the progress on Facebook today:
https://www.facebook.com/operationpacemaker/Pic from yesterday:
https://instagram.com/p/BkMgpjyB67R/ -
Cross over drive so that we can get a gear ratios big enough.
64t on the front, that drives a 15t which drives a 58t on the opposite side of the bottom bracket. That then drives a 13t on the rear wheel.
Would be the same as having a 245t x 14t on a standard bike... about 460 inch gear in old money.
We can increase that gear by changing the combination, some this line there for instance:
68t x 14t x 64t x 13t would give an even bigger gear of about 580 inch which would be needed for World Record speed. That's something like 255t x 12t on a normal road bike. -
No. As I said above... long wheelbase for stability. Small wheels are that are motorcycle wheels. They don't make bicycle wheels and tyres that can deal with the speed Neil is aiming to do.
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While the pace car is punching a hole in the air it still takes a significant amount of effort to achieve those speeds. Just try pacing behind a fast wagon on an A road at 50mph. It's not like riding on the rollers. :-)
The reason for the shape of the bike being "unconventional" is that to keep the bike stable at that speed they've gone for a long wheelbase. It does not need to turn fast... just needs to be stable in a straight line. They've also gone for motorcycle technology (wheels and front end) as bicycle tech, especially the wheels and tyres, is just not designed for those speeds. So that also influences the design of the bike.
Not having to be "aero", much like a stayer or derny racer, also influences the position.
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It sure is. Moss build the bike from a mix of Reynolds tubing. Mostly 953 Stainless with bespoke 3D printed Stainless Steel lugs and yokes.
It’s a beast. :-)
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For the number crunchers out there... the gearing on the bike, which is based on a fixed gear cross over drive, will be about 460” in old money.
That’s equivalent to around 245x14 on a standard road bike...
Will be even bigger for the World Record attempt.
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This might be of interest to some of you. I’ve been working with Neil “Soupy” Campbell for a few years now on his quest to become the worlds fastest cyclist.
His aim is to break the long standing Absolute World Speed Record of 268.831km/h (167.044 mph) set by Fred Rompelberg in 1995. This is a motor paced record.
He’s already broken Guy Martin’s British record back in 2016 on an old tandem behind a VW Passat and next week aims to break the European record of 127mph.
The new bike is built by MOSS Bikes who also build bikes for the Redhook Crits.
You can follow his progress on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/operationpacemaker/) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/operationpacemaker/).
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Yeah we got Neil upto 135mph. The runway is really too short to push it much further. With a more powerful car we might be able to accelerate harder over the 1st km but it gets few scetch in the braking zone. The timing traps are right on the end of the good surface. As Neil exits the last gate he’s onto a very rough surface under heavy breaking.
Here is a video of the record run:
https://youtu.be/pL1YU89ob_0