[Closed] Interesting bicycling facts

Grab a copy of Rob Penn's book "it's all about the bike" and have a read of that

https://www.exploratorium.edu/cycling/humanpower1.html

Anyone who says it's not a Scottish invention is a liar. Fact!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/macmillan_kirkpatrick.shtml

I read a good article about Pierre Lallement last week. He's supposed to have been the first person to put pedals on a bike. Can't find the article, but he's worth a Google.

Well according to paton's link, Kirkpatrick put pedals on a bike before Pierre was born... so which history to believe eh?!

Interesting bicycling facts

Bikes are totes amazeballs.

#sciencefact

Decathlon's range of bikes is called B'Twin because when said in a French accent it sounds like "between", and bikes go between your legs.

Both male and female round the world record holders are Scottish.

The only world hour record holder who designed and manufactured his own bike is Scottish.

The inventor (or re-inventor) of the pneumatic tyre was Scottish.

In Angola, bicycles are legally classified as animals.

The inventors of the aeroplane (the Wright brothers) were bicycle mechanics and business owners.

In Angola, bicycles are legally classified as animals.

Best fact ever. 😀 #fact

The James company built a penny farthing that weighed 11 pounds.

Jack Lauterwasser built a singlespeed all steel bicycle for racing in the 1930s that weighed only 17½ lbs.

(Steel bikes don't have to be heavy, just carefully made)

People who don’t like bicycles have more DNA in common with a crab than they do with you or me.

The first paved roads were for bikes, not cars.

Edward Elgar used to ride his bike on the Malvern's quite a lot.
I use this when confronted by walkers who claim that bikes should not be allowed on the hills..

On the subject of roads

https://interestingengineering.com/john-loudon-mcadam-the-father-of-the-modern-road

The world speed record for cycling down a glacier is 242 km/h.

Danny Macaskill is actually from Croydon but learned himself how to talk scottish so he could justify smashing his bike through ancient croft houses on his popular video series.

On the subject of Pnuematic tyres

https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/Robert-William-Thomson/

I once telephoned a shop to order some pnuematic bicycle tyres...
Come on paton.. 😉

Nicola Sturgeon was the first person to land a triple tailwhip at the 1996 X-Games in Dundee

The invention of the bike lead directly to boring old farts talking about bikes on the internet.

🙂

Scotland was originally invented in England as a holiday resort to ride bicycles on until its rich deposits of midgies and sub-aquatic gas were discovered and it was sold off in order to fund a national network of hovercraft.

In the UK more bikes are owned by 2 car households than by no car households

If you took all of the Santander hire bikes in London and put them nose-to-tail in one long line, they would fall over.

By law, the dutch have to cycle a minimum of 25km a week with fully loaded baskets in order to press the country down on to the sea bed and prevent it floating towards Norway.

If you took all the hire bikes in Manchester they'd be in teh canals

An anagram of mountain bike is minutiae knob.

Looking at that scatter graph above and logically extrapolating from it, I think we should be looking into the predicted ultra low-energy travel options afforded by salmon on bicycles.

Also we may want to check whether a rat is actually a particularly large flying insect.

Road cyclist's don't shave their leg hair for reduced wind resistance, it's to make their pubic shrubbery look more manly.

By law, the dutch have to cycle a minimum of 25km a week with fully loaded baskets

@joemmo you joke, but a question on “repareren van een lekke band“ (describing how to repair a punctured bicycle tyre) is actually on the Netherlands Citizenship Test.

Whereas one of the questions on the British Citizenship Test is listing three of the seventeen officially recognised swear words to shout at cyclists while leaning out of a van.

An absolutely belter of an effort! (which I hope will continue as its brilliant)

From the interesting...

The inventors of the aeroplane (the Wright brothers) were bicycle mechanics and business owners.

To the suspect...

Danny Macaskill is actually from Croydon but learned himself how to talk scottish so he could justify smashing his bike through ancient croft houses on his popular video series.

To the downright bizarre and hilarious!

Nicola Sturgeon was the first person to land a triple tailwhip at the 1996 X-Games in Dundee

Chapeau!

The furthest anyone has cycled in a 365 day period is 86,537 miles by Amanda Coker in 2017.

The bottom bracket was invented by Swiss engineer Gustav Bottom.

The furthest anyone has cycled in a 365 day period is 86,537 miles by Amanda Coker in 2017.

Wow. Cycling that far is impressive enough, let alone while you’ve got a 365-day period.

he furthest anyone has cycled in a 365 day period is 86,537 miles by Amanda Coker in 2017.

That's 237 miles everyday without a single rest day. She's nails! That's a proper sufferfest.
Assume she did it in the lovely consisten climate of the southern US states.

If you turn a bicycle upside down, stand in front of the front wheel and then try to undo the pedals, fifty percent of the time you won't.

In November 2007 in - you guessed it - Scotland, 51-year-old Robert Stewart was placed on the sex offenders register after outraging hostel cleaners by performing a perverted act with his gnarpoon.

North Korean scientists have trained a termite colony to pedal a specially adapted bicycle around an 20-metre obstacle course. And the little bastards can manual too.

There are 9 million bicycles in Beijing.

A chain drive can be up to 98% efficient at energy transfer. An engineering marvel.

There is some question about whether Macmillan was credited as the inventor of the pedal bicycle because of a publicity campaign by his nephew, and the real inventor was Thomas McCall:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_McCall

But McCall was Scottish as well.

Bikes can ride themselves quite nicely with no-one on them, until drag slows them down enough and they fall over.

As well as being an award winning potential energy assisted bicycler, Daniel Hart is an accomplished player of the Theorbo and can often be found playing baroque music in the pubs around Redcar and Saltburn.

The cantilever brake was invented by Swiss engineer Gustav Cantilever.

All chavs, neds, scally's can wheelie with a fag in their mouth. It's in their DNA.

The bicycle tyre puncture repair kitt was quickly discounted in the development process of the popular Knight Rider TV series

No matter how good you think you are on a bicycle, there is a guy on an obscure forum called geex who is better than you..at everything

Fact..

Riding a bike makes you more attractive to the opposite sex.

molgrips
Subscriber
Bikes can ride themselves quite nicely with no-one on them, until drag slows them down enough and they fall over.

And no-one can quite explain how they do this.

They are called bicycles because they have two wheels.

The furthest anyone has cycled in a 365 day period is 86,537 miles by Amanda Coker in 2017.

And in 2019 has only done 190.2km so far.

“As well as being an award winning potential energy assisted bicycler, Daniel Hart is an accomplished player of the Theorbo and can often be found playing baroque music in the pubs around Redcar and Saltburn.”

This. Crying

And no-one can quite explain how they do this.

It's because the contact patch is behind the steering axis...

And the gyroscopic effect of a spinning wheel.

The average person will lose almost a stone in their first year of cycling to work, so it's okay to eat cake and enjoy several post-ride beers

Despite being promoted by Boris Johnson, so-called experts have concluded beyond reasonable doubt that bicycles not only exist but can be shown to function within the constraints of our shared reality.

The Boris bike was invented by Swiss engineer Gustav Boris.

You need some Beryl facts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_Burton#Record-breaker

In 1967, she set a new 12-hour time trial record of 277.25 miles[5] – a mark that surpassed the men’s record of the time by 0.73 miles and was not superseded by a man until 1969.[6] While setting the record she caught and passed Mike McNamara who was on his way to setting the men's record at 276.52 miles and winning that year's men's British Best All-Rounder. She is reputed to have given him a liquorice allsort as she passed him.[7] Apparently, McNamara ate the sweet.

And beaten by a woman only in 2017.

Swiss engineers named Gustav were invented in the 1800's  by an Ayrshire blacksmith named Wullie Carmichael

French bicycles are transexual: le velo (masculine) la bicyclette (feminine) 🙂

The furthest anyone has cycled in a 365 day period is 86,537 miles by Amanda Coker in 2017.

And in 2019 has only done 190.2km so far.

And she did the whole thing on a circuit at "Flatwoods Park" in Tampa, which appears to be a 7 mile loop. **** that.

The original plan for The Italian Job was to stage the chase scene on Moulton bikes, but Benny Hill vetoed it.

The bicycle is the only thing that makes you feel like this no matter what your age.

In 1995 Chris Boardman made a washing machine from bicycle parts as part of his attempt to regain the world laundry record from Graeme Obree. Although he failed in the final rinse, Boardman later went on to business success by changing his name to Chris Hoy, becoming scottish and launching a range of miniature tricycles in conjunction with shell suit retailer JD Sports.

An efficient bicycle and rider at 15mph runs at the equivalent of 912 miles per gallon.
[source]

Every year between 12,000 and 15,000 bikes are pulled out from the canals of Amsterdam
[source]

God prefers Sam Hill to Aaron Gwin
[source]

Your mum's a bicycle.

Fact.

Sagan only groped that podium girl because he was overcompensating for accidentally calling Cancellara "dad", backstage.

One bhp is equivilent to 700 watts. That means that the entire tour de France peloton are putting out less power than a 50cc moped on an average tour stage..

If my maths is correct and assuming 250 watts average for a stage.

Edit..it's not..50cc doesn't put out 50 bhp! So the same as a fiat panda.

The human powered vehicle 200m record stands at 89.59mph.

The vehicle doesn't have any transparent section in its bodywork - the rider views the world through a camera mounted on top of the vehicle relayed to a monitor within.

Bugger that.

You need some Beryl facts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryl_Burton#Record-breaker

In 1967, she set a new 12-hour time trial record of 277.25 miles[5] – a mark that surpassed the men’s record of the time by 0.73 miles and was not superseded by a man until 1969.[6] While setting the record she caught and passed Mike McNamara who was on his way to setting the men’s record at 276.52 miles and winning that year’s men’s British Best All-Rounder. She is reputed to have given him a liquorice allsort as she passed him.[7] Apparently, McNamara ate the sweet.

And beaten by a woman only in 2017

I knew her. She and my wife got on quite well together.

The largest tension-spoked wheel in the world is the London Eye.

APF