
A Cuban man trying to build the world's tallest bike - hwayern
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170406-the-cuban-building-the-worlds-tallest-bike
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swimfar
To put that into perspective, here's a cool video of a guy riding through LA
on a 14.5' (4.4m) bike.
[https://vimeo.com/64653759](https://vimeo.com/64653759)

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Fezzik
AND it's a fixie?? Is that the norm for tall-bikes? We have a bunch here in
Portland (Ore.) and I always figured they had breaks but never really looked
closely... but I see none in the video. That seems 10x as terrifying.

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Tiktaalik
A fixie for a tall bike makes sense because one can (presumably?) track stand
to keep the bike upright while stopped. Otherwise you gotta hope there's a
stop sign you can lean up against or just never stop...

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codingdave
Well, his technique of having a crowd of cops and fellow riders to block
traffic for you seems to work for getting around without having to stop. Maybe
not practical for everyday riding, though...

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jacquesm
I'm amazed it works as it is, he's going pretty slow at times. All it takes is
one person not noticing and it's done.

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lostlogin
It's a long fall - if vertical that's about 1.7s and if he falls in an arc it
would be longer. It could easily kill the person that gets hit too.

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hathawsh
Does anyone know what the rules are for breaking this record? If I attached a
small hot air balloon to the top of the bike, I could conceivably make a
ridiculously tall bike that's safe to operate. In fact, to keep within the
rules, I could keep the balloon at equilibrium most of the time (so it doesn't
lift the bike at all) until an emergency. Would the balloon invalidate my
attempt to break the record?

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danielvf
The records are by the distance from ground to the top of the seat where the
rider sits.

This would preclude the balloon trick. :)

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jacquesm
Not really, the balloon would be attached to the top of the bike at let's say
15 meters high and would itself go maybe another 5 or 10 meters up trailing
the wire to the bike.

So the rider would still be at the right distance from the ground, it's just
that the bike can't fall over anymore because the balloon will help to catch
it. You could sit still all day long on that thing (or until the wind caught
the balloon...).

The downside of the scheme is the negative feedback loop in the bike once it
did became unbalanced. When it's almost balanced it would not take much
upwards force to keep it that way but once it starts to become unbalanced the
force required will very quickly overpower the balloon.

Or you'd have to make the balloon so large that it would be _just_ incapable
of lifting bike + rider off the ground.

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CydeWeys
The balloon isn't necessary. Inverted pendulums become more stable the taller
they get. Think of trying to balance a short pencil on your palm (difficult)
versus balancing a broomstick (much easier). Tall bicycles are inherently very
stable, and don't need any help with balancing. The difficulty is in climbing
that high up to the seat.

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tempestn
Would be nice to have in case of an unexpected stop though...

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CydeWeys
I don't think it would be. It'd have to have an upwards buoyant force of most
of your body weight to really be effective. At that point we are talking about
a huge balloon, meaning it'll cause a lot of air resistance which will cause
problems when you're attempting to ride. You'll also lose a lot of traction. I
think in the end it'd make it easier to be tipped over (especially if it
catches a wind gust), and so would be self-defeating.

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tempestn
OK, so.. a pressurized helium tank that could be blown into a balloon in an
emergency like a submarine ballast tank...

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jacquesm
Ugh. I had a bit of an unfortunate accident last summer with a recumbent and
just looking at this hurts, that's a very bad height to fall from, I had
plenty of damage being 8" off the ground.

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sevensor
My thoughts exactly -- I fell off an ordinary bicycle at moderate speed last
year, and suffered three cracked ribs and a concussion as a result. This
fellow is courting disaster!

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bullfightonmars
Tall bikes are intentionally absurd but so fun to ride, it's hard not to smile
from ear to ear while rolling down the road perched high above the world.

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LostWanderer
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-XS4aueDUg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-XS4aueDUg)

How Cuba DIY's its existence Quite bunch of interesting hackers

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bitslayer
Here in Asheville, NC we had a fellow who built and attempted to ride a 44 ft.
(13.4m) tall bike at a festival. He did not ride far enough to make it in the
record books. But it was exciting.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WgBeW4LXcU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WgBeW4LXcU)

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donquichotte
Hah, splendid! One of my favourite Makers on youtube, Laura Kampf from Köln,
also built her own "tallbike". It's smaller than Cepero's, but there's a video
of her actually building it:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWZnGQiSbtQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWZnGQiSbtQ)

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xrange
> After more than half a century of living under a trade embargo, many Cubans
> have grown accustomed to shortages of basic household goods

Are there countries other than the U.S. with an embargo against Cuba? What's
stopping them from trading with China or Mexico or Canada or the E.U.
countries for basic household goods?

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CydeWeys
They aren't a rich country, and so don't have a lot of money to buy imports
with. Not having access to the main large nearby trading partner doesn't help.

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pvaldes
This is innecessarily dangerous. It only would take a stroke of wind or an
accidental kick to kill the biker. If this guy accept some ideas; such bike
should be designed as a tumbler doll and add a seat belt for the biker. If you
can mechanically raise the heavy piece to balance (lower) the upper part could
even have a supercool mechanism to dismount or save low obstacles.

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grizzles
We must seem like ants to them.

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teh_klev
Archive.is copy for those of us inside the UK:

[http://archive.is/EXWhb](http://archive.is/EXWhb)

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soyiuz
I vote for less rectangles and more triangles (like the smaller bike in the
picture). It is more structurally sound that way.

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theoh
Maybe someone who knows more about structures can comment, but I guess the big
issue is how rigid the joints are. A triangulated structure is good because
the joints don't need to be fixed--they can be hinged pin-joints and the frame
is still rigid + easier to calculate structurally. But if the joints are very
rigid, you can go with slightly less efficient option of rectangular framing
if that's more convenient.

In architecture it's sometimes called a Vierendeel truss,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vierendeel_bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vierendeel_bridge)
and it's very handy for avoiding inconvenient diagonal columns. (There are
some high-profile buildings that use it, e.g. the Salk Institute in La Jolla,
the HSBC building in Hong Kong.)

~~~
soyiuz
A triangle structure is significantly more rigid than a rectangular one.
Vierendeel truss needs to be super rigid to resist flex. Not good for a
bicycle.

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hippich
how one gets on top of it, how to stop on the light, how to hop off?

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bullfightonmars
Getting up and down? With something this tall, it's a rolling ladder, you stop
against a building, or have someone supporting your stop.

Stopping at a light? Ideally you don't, you time the light, ride in circles,
or hope oncoming traffic stops for you. I wouldn't recommend the latter.

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fuckemem
I've seen riders with cleats who can stop without putting their feet down.
This is even without a fixed gear.

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schoen
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_stand](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_stand)

A common skill for expert cyclists, but maybe not a good idea to rely on if
you're going to fall 4 meters or more to the ground if you lose control of the
track stand.

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davidw
Not to mention it'd be a lot tougher from that high up in the first place. I
can do that on a mountain bike pretty easily for a minute or so, but at
broken-bone height? No way.

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CydeWeys
Why do you say it'd be tougher from that high up? I suspect it'd be easier.
Inverse pendulums are more stable the longer they are.

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rbreve
what happen if he falls?

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loeg
Hopefully he lands on his feet.

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Florin_Andrei
At 10 meters you're likely to break something even if you land on your feet.

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slavik81
My reference would be the 10m diving platform at my local pool. Looking down,
it was terrifying enough jumping into water from there.

Naively, v = sqrt(2gh), so you'd be hitting the concrete at ~50kph (30mph).
Though, perhaps you could somehow use the bike to lessen your fall.

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jacquesm
> Though, perhaps you could somehow use the bike to lessen your fall.

Or you might get it to give you a nice little kick after you've already landed
yourself.

At least that limits the damage to the bike ;)

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gerdesj
"We're sorry but this site is not accessible from the UK as it is part of our
international service and is not funded by the licence fee. It is run
commercially by BBC Worldwide, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC, the
profits made from it go back to BBC programme-makers to help fund great new
BBC programmes. You can find out more about BBC Worldwide and its digital
activities at www.bbcworldwide.com."

British Broadcasting Service branded site is unavailable in the UK. Weird.

~~~
flukus
You just saved yourself 2.5MB of bandwidth and a 10 second page load.

Is anyone talking about changing the funding model of the BBC though? It
doesn't seem cut out for the online world.

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monk_e_boy
They do bring it up every so often, but any politician that is interviewed
about it is generally interviewed on the BBC. Also, the public love the BBC
and don't mind paying.

The BBC is really good online for us in the UK. I know a few people who work
there and they are using cutting edge tech on a shoe string budget. They
really do a brilliant job.

Personally I don't mind paying for the Beeb and some other people in the world
get it for free.

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SmellyGeekBoy
Wow, I thought I was the only one!

I don't get the anti-license fee brigade. If you don't want to pay just don't
watch the BBC TV channels. The BBC won't even stop you reading their websites
and listening to their radio stations commercial-free if you don't pay. Seems
like a good deal to me.

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nmeofthestate
> If you don't want to pay just don't watch the BBC TV channels.

You need a license to watch other broadcast channels like ITV C4 (not on
catchup though) etc. I don't have one because I don't like the BBC's politics
editorial positions.

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zoner
I will pay the bbc tax only if I can read articles from bbc in the UK. (I'm
not watching live TV though at all)

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vertex-four
This isn't an article by the BBC "proper", it's by a separate organisation
which is owned by the BBC, but is solely funded by the BBC's overseas
operations.

