Re-Cycle

Cruising ebay this morning found me a real funny auction for a new bicycle patent.

https://cgi.ebay.com/100-MPH-High-spe...ht_1173wt_1029

Here is the actual patent.

https://www.google.com/patents?id=nj1...page&q&f=false

Sure would like to see the legs that could power this to 100mph with upright bars and no streamline fairings.

this has already been posted in the road forum apparently, don't beat me up for reposting it. I think the gear heads in this forum would appreciate the hilarity more then the roadies.

DMF 

Hey, free shipping !

HillRider

That two-stage type of gearing was used on the bike John Howard rode to a 150+mph self-propelled speed record several years ago. Of course he was riding right inside the enclosed rear fairing of a very powerful race car so, effectively, he was riding with zero air resistance. I recall the high gear being well over 300 gear-inches.

w98seeng

Don't some recumbents have 120 ghears, dual cassettes? It would also be easier to pedal a recumbant faster as there is something to push against when pedaling.

HillRider

Yeah, intermediate two-stage gearing is nothing new and if the intermediate transfer gear is a cassette and derailleur you can have an absurd number of gears. Recumbents are faster because of their improved aerodynamics, not because you have "something to push against". All unassisted (no draft) bicycle speed records have been set using a fully faired recumbent.

frantik

for ten million you'd think he could afford spell check

and it looks like he added a basically a bunch more gears.. lol

Retro Grouch 

All you have to do is to be able to turn the crank.

I've been surprised at the people who think they'd be faster on a bike with bigger wheels because "you go farther with every revolution."

davidad

That was the reason for the Ordinary or Penny Farthing.

HillRider

That's like J.S. Bach's description of the then newly developed piano. "There's nothing to it really. All you have to do is hit the right key at the right time and the thing plays itself."

Flying Merkel

If I could get the legs required to spin the top gear on this set-up, I'd pay the $10,000,000.00 As it is, I rarely use the top gear I have.

jccaclimber

Intermediate shafts are common on recumbents, and have been since before the application date on this patent. Interestingly, your power output is lower on a recumbent (yes, that means they really are slower up hills, not just in comparison to their increased flat speeds). I was talking with Sam Whittingham about power output a couple weeks ago and the gist is that his recumbent sprint power is ~50% of his upright bike sprint power. The curves don't merge until ~ the 10 minute mark. Even taking a couple years off of road bikes and riding just recumbents didn't change that.

Kimmo 

Yeah, recumbents trade biomechanical efficiency for lower drag.

On a road bike, your torso's weight is cantilevered over the pedals via your glutes. Something to push against doesn't make up for it.