The World's Longest Bicycle Is A Complex Centipede Of Metal And Chain

Some Guinness World Records are genuinely impressive, like driving 1,759 miles on a single tank of fuel, or an R/C car that goes 234 MPH. Others are just strange, and the world's longest bicycle certainly fits into this category. A bicycle's main advantages over a car are that it is smaller, lighter, and more maneuverable. This 181-foot 7-inch beast is the exact opposite.

A Dutch team of engineers built this contraption, which looks more like a steel girder on wheels than Amber's Orbea Terra H40. The wheels are so wide they look like they came off a steamroller, a far cry from the 20mm time trial tires I used to ride. On the plus side, this means the bike can balance itself, which is good because I have enough trouble picking up my motorcycle, let alone this ginormous contraption. A single rider in front manages the steering, though I can't tell how effective it is. Steering something this long makes the 22-foot box trucks I used to drive seem like Miatas in comparison.

This bike is big and bulky, yet the drive system shows some rather clever engineering. Four riders in back pedal together to move the bike down the road, slowly. The build video shows a series of gear reductions that enable the riders to pedal at a reasonable 60 RPM while the back wheel turns only a few times per minute. Several different chains and gear sets not only enable the riders to work together effectively, but also to achieve a remarkably low gear ratio. Humans riding bikes are more energy-efficient than any other animal on the planet, but it still takes four of them to move something this large and heavy. This is no titanium Litespeed Unicoi.

There are some who might say that using a total of five riders is cheating, and this is properly a tandem bicycle, which is a different Guinness World Record category. This is true, but the same team also holds the world record for a single-rider bicycle using a similar design. That one is far smaller at a mere 180 feet, 11 inches long. Being eight inches shorter than the tandem should help it fit just fine on the extensive Dutch network of bicycle paths, right?