seriously? that’s really awesome. i was just talking to a friend the other day who told me you can’t really find chain rings with 60+ teeth, but it looks like that one’s got about 200 or so…
assuming you could even get this thing started and the chain doesn’t snap on you…you could probably achieve some ridiculous speeds with this bike.
and why’s the fork installed like that???
This is a motorpace bike. It’s designed for use behind a motorized vehicle that breaks the wind. The reversed fork and small front wheel are to allow the rider to get closer to the lead vehicle. Originally bikes like this were used on tracks, with the lead vehicle being a tandem or a triplet. Later, they switched to motorcycles. Look up “Motor-paced racing” on wikipedia — in the “External links” there’s a film of a guy riding a bike quite a bit like this one (and almost dying). The record speed achieved at this point, by the way, is 167 mph (in 1995, on the Bonneville Salt Flats behind a modified dragster).
Looks like about 124 teeth on that chainring to me, by the way. This doesn’t look like an ordinary motopace racing bike to me, by the way (I have one of those), but something custom-made for a record attempt. Does it have any known history?
what a beautiful bike!
seriously? that’s really awesome. i was just talking to a friend the other day who told me you can’t really find chain rings with 60+ teeth, but it looks like that one’s got about 200 or so…
assuming you could even get this thing started and the chain doesn’t snap on you…you could probably achieve some ridiculous speeds with this bike.
and why’s the fork installed like that???
I think the fork is on backwards.
and the front wheel is smaller too. That is so damn neat though. Really neat.
This is a motorpace bike. It’s designed for use behind a motorized vehicle that breaks the wind. The reversed fork and small front wheel are to allow the rider to get closer to the lead vehicle. Originally bikes like this were used on tracks, with the lead vehicle being a tandem or a triplet. Later, they switched to motorcycles. Look up “Motor-paced racing” on wikipedia — in the “External links” there’s a film of a guy riding a bike quite a bit like this one (and almost dying). The record speed achieved at this point, by the way, is 167 mph (in 1995, on the Bonneville Salt Flats behind a modified dragster).
Looks like about 124 teeth on that chainring to me, by the way. This doesn’t look like an ordinary motopace racing bike to me, by the way (I have one of those), but something custom-made for a record attempt. Does it have any known history?