WATCH: Rider Hits 80 MPH on Bike
With 104-tooth chainring
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A custom-built frame, 104-tooth chainring, and a classic car helped British cyclist Ton Donhou hit 80 miles per hour in a speed attempt in the U.K.
Donhou, a bike frame builder, said he got the inspiration for the project from the automobile speed records of the 1960s, set with rocket-propelled cars on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Unlike current world record holder Fred Rompelberg, who drafted a drag racer to 167 miles per hour at Bonneville in 1995, Donhou set his record on an airport runway behind his own car, a Ford Zephyr equipped with a fairing, to displace the air in front of him.