Tom Donhou ‘Experiments In Speed’ 100mph video trailer released

Tom Donhou, he of Donhou Bicycles fame, just sent us over a video trailer for his recent attempt to cycle through the 100mph barrier on his own handmade creation. The bike, which stole the show at Bespoked Bristol, features a massive 104t chainring and low slung handlebars.

Tom is fascinated by the glory days of speed record attempts during the 60s, and that spirit of adventure and the engineering challenge has clearly inspired him, as he has set off in pursuit of his own personal record. Tom has built a bicycle - without the aid of advanced computer software, wind tunnels and a team of engineers it should be noted - which he feels fits the brief.

"I built this with the intention to feel it out. I don’t know how fast it can go. [100mph is] my best guess as to what I can do. I built the bike how I thought it should look. No wind tunnels involved, it’s all grassroots. It’s done in that spirit of those guys in the 60s testing jet engines in their sheds."

So here’s the video trailer, to whet the appetite before the full documentary is released. It’s got a certain Le Mans/Steve McQueen feel to it, we think.

Tom will be using a Ford Zephyr as a pace car. If you’re wondering, the current record for a motor-paced cyclist is an astonishing 166.9mph, held by Fred Rompelberg (he broke 11 world records in all), which he set in 1995.

Turn the date back to the 1930s and 1940s, and there was a string of motor-paced records, with Alfred Letourneur pushing the speed higher on successive occasions, going past 100mph in 1941. That was on a Schwinn behind a modified midget racer.

The desire to go fast on a bicycle is evidently still strong. Most recently Frenchman François Gissy, who set a new world speed record in the rocket-powered bicycle category, going 163.4mph.