High Times

Let us return for a moment to the topic of tall bikes. You will recall that on Labor Day weekend out in Asheville, NC Michael Mooney took a serious shot at the tall bike record held by our friend Terry G. I have done a little further research and some hands on investigative reporting to bring you the following report. Terry's bike was 18 ft, 5 inches tall. He rode it more than 1000 ft. to establish a new world record on June 26, 2004. Michael Mooney's bike was listed at 43 ft. That's more than twice the height of Terry's! If you're going to play, you may as well play hard. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective) he didn't meet the minimum distance requirement and so officially failed in his attempt to shatter the record for the world's tallest rideable bike. So Terry holds on to his record for now. I have a feeling, though, that Mooney's going to take it one of these days. He came very close on his last attempt, but the bike was damaged as it fell.

For the linguistically challenged, here is a visual comparison:

18 ft, 5 inches

43 ft

By contrast, I rode this tall(ish) bike the other day. We didn't do an official measurement. But it probably comes in at around 5 or 6 ft. That was plenty high for me. Trying to navigate the rather narrow path around the pool was particularly precarious. But I managed successfully to complete a lap.