I remember when John Howard set that record. That man is insane, and insanely strong.

Notice in the photo the bike is attached to the streamliner? The gearing on the bike was too tall for John to accelerate from a standstill. So the car towed him up to a nominal speed - something like 60MPH - then he released the tow bar and accelerated the bike from there.

The bicycle used schrader valves. On the first run no valve covers were used. As the bicycle passed 100MPH the centrifigal force depressed the valve cores and the tires went flat.

I think the bicycle also included a remote control throttle which permitted the rider to control the speed of the car.

- JimY