Guy Martin makes a Mountain Bike

[Mr Larrington]

I enjoyed the programme very much, but I'm a bit confused as at what record they actually broke? Surely HPV and upright bike records are separate categories, no?

I was contacted by BHPC chairman Alan Goodman (who has an uncredited role in the programme as "Observer in red waterproof"), IIRC during my time in the Gulag, about 24-hour records in general and multi-rider HPV records in particular.  I couldn't find any reference to the latter but was able to point him at CTT and UMCA.  The latter organisation is the one that sanctioned the Fedrigon/Gremley record they were initially aiming for.

UMCA will happily accept records for any class of machine, though I believe you have to be a member to set one.  There was a move afoot a few years ago to unify UMCA/CTT/$HPV road records, but I don't think anything ever came of it.

Careful study of teh R00lz leads me, and others, to believe that a UMCA member could ride the Mersey Roads 24 on/in anything human-powered...

[LEE]

I thought it was really good TV.  Let's be honest, it's not merely a program about setting a record.  It's a program about Guy Martin trying to set a record.

He's a likeable character, he's enthusiastic, seems to have no fear (other than of being stood in his undies next to another bloke) and makes for good TV.

It's "Science-ertainment". Fred Dibnah was far from the most efficient Chimney knocker-downer (the correct term for it) or the most qualified Historian but that's not the point. 

Look , he has a working Merlin Engine in his living room ferchristssake!  He can do no wrong.

[mattc]

(finally watched this ... )
Yup,  great entertainment, with some interesting engineering/cycling factoids sprinkled in there.

A very minor query-cum-niggle ...  The 100metre speed trial they did; IIRC they were around 10secs on uprights, so around 23mph. I can average 23mph over 10 miles! I'm often last in club 10s, with many riders averaging 26-27mph.

Was this a realistic "demonstration"? Are my figures wrong? Are they actually both plodders, and/or with hardly any cycle-specific training behind them?

[TimC]

Guy beat Laura Trott in a sprint last series - and managed 112mph on a bike in that same episode. I wouldn't call him a plodder!

[Exit Stage Left]

(finally watched this ... )
Yup,  great entertainment, with some interesting engineering/cycling factoids sprinkled in there.

A very minor query-cum-niggle ...  The 100metre speed trial they did; IIRC they were around 10secs on uprights, so around 23mph. I can average 23mph over 10 miles! I'm often last in club 10s, with many riders averaging 26-27mph.

Was this a realistic "demonstration"? Are my figures wrong? Are they actually both plodders, and/or with hardly any cycle-specific training behind them?

From a standing start.

[tiermat]

(finally watched this ... )
Yup,  great entertainment, with some interesting engineering/cycling factoids sprinkled in there.

A very minor query-cum-niggle ...  The 100metre speed trial they did; IIRC they were around 10secs on uprights, so around 23mph. I can average 23mph over 10 miles! I'm often last in club 10s, with many riders averaging 26-27mph.

Was this a realistic "demonstration"? Are my figures wrong? Are they actually both plodders, and/or with hardly any cycle-specific training behind them?

From a standing start.

If you watch the program, the 100m is NOT from a standing start, it's a flying start.

Bear in mind, too, that they are both MTBers, so used to spinning very low gears for hours at a time, so yes, plodders, if you want to put it like that.

[Mr Larrington]

The recumbents were Ratracers which eschew such fripperies as multiple chainrings.

[Pingu]

Ben Nevis in England 

[David Martin]

Is there a machine that has such emotional impact as a Spitfire on us Brits?

Colossus?

If you haven't met the rebuild in the, erm, metal, then I highly recommend it.  Feeling the heat and listening to the clatter of the relays is every bit as good as the drone of a Merlin.

I'd love to see the mercury memory stores from the earlier models too..

[David Martin]

Tandem's just a bike for two people though, innit. Innit?

From the lat. "at length"

You know that, I know that, but hoi polloi like, don't. Innit.

For those poor benighted souls who have not benefited from a classical education and are likely to make up the bulk of the audience, a tandem *is* just a bike for two people, and they're not likely to be fussed about whether the riders are side by side, in line astern or indeed facing in opposite directions.

Do you reckon most folk are more likely to get a sense of what he's trying to do if they hear 'tandem,' or if they hear 'sociable recumbent tadpole tricycle'?

Cos a tandem is as m'learned friend alludes to, a numebr of riders greater than 1 arranged in a serial manner. So you can have a tandem triplet.

cf. Road tax, hoovering with a dyson and so on..

[David Martin]

Is there a machine that has such emotional impact as a Spitfire on us Brits?

I went to RAF Montrose a few months ago. I was stunned by just how big a Merlin engine is. A spitfire isn't so much a plane as a bloody great engine with wings attached and a Pilot desperately hanging on for the ride.

[Torslanda]

Is there a machine that has such emotional impact as a Spitfire on us Brits?

I went to RAF Montrose a few months ago. I was stunned by just how big a Merlin engine is. A spitfire isn't so much a plane as a bloody great engine with wings attached and a Pilot desperately hanging on for the ride.

Anyone who has flown a Spitfire* would probably disagree, they would describe it as being barely in control of a thoroughbred but I get the gist of what you're saying.

*Sadly I am not one of them!

[LEE]

Is there a machine that has such emotional impact as a Spitfire on us Brits?

I went to RAF Montrose a few months ago. I was stunned by just how big a Merlin engine is. A spitfire isn't so much a plane as a bloody great engine with wings attached and a Pilot desperately hanging on for the ride.

Yes...so you'd be crazy to put one in a car.

Here's Jay Leno's (a man who really enjoys the trappings of wealth)

"There's no replacement for displacement"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-I3Cl1RICg

[Biggsy]

A very minor query-cum-niggle ...  The 100metre speed trial they did; IIRC they were around 10secs on uprights, so around 23mph. I can average 23mph over 10 miles! I'm often last in club 10s, with many riders averaging 26-27mph.

Was this a realistic "demonstration"? Are my figures wrong? Are they actually both plodders, and/or with hardly any cycle-specific training behind them?

Your figures are right enough, but they weren't using time trialing positions and I bet there was a headwind.  I reckon even I could have beaten them with no headwind, and I'm only barely fit these days.

[citoyen]

I thought tonight's episode was fantastic. Great telly. But I was left wondering what happened next between him and the French girl...

[Mr Larrington]

I thought tonight's episode was fantastic. Great telly. But I was left wondering what happened next between him and the French girl...

You and me both   I'm also wondering why they didn't appear to fair the "suspension arms" or use wheel covers

[Tim Hall]

And did you clock the head boffin's T shaped shirt slogan?

"x=n+1"

[pcolbeck]

I liked the comment at the end from the girl form the design team who burst into tears when he crashed "he's a bit of a nutter isnt he". Well yes he is.

[pcolbeck]

I thought tonight's episode was fantastic. Great telly. But I was left wondering what happened next between him and the French girl...

I though he was engaged to his manager Steph.

[citoyen]

And did you clock the head boffin's T shaped shirt slogan?

"x=n+1"

Yes! Only a brief glimpse so had to stop the tape and rewind to make sure I'd read it properly.

[citoyen]

I though he was engaged to his manager Steph.

Possibly not for much longer if she sees the way he was carrying on last night.

[tiermat]

I though he was engaged to his manager Steph.

Possibly not for much longer if she sees the way he was carrying on last night.

...and on the Pike's Peak one.

Interestingly his Wikipedia page USED to say " He recently built his own house with his fiancee."

That line was removed on 28th June this year, make of that what you will.

[Mr Larrington]

And did you clock the head boffin's T shaped shirt slogan?

"x=n+1"

Was it just me or is there a remarkable resemblance 'twixt said boffin and Von Broad otp?

[LEE]

He absolutely loved being in that crash (apart from ruining his helmet's custom paint job).

[Torslanda]

He absolutely loved being in that crash (apart from ruining his helmet's custom paint job).

FTFY. That lid is scrap . . .