Framebuilder Tom Donhou has always been fascinated by the land speed record attempts of the 60s, set by those slightly mad pioneers who pushed record from the 300s up towards the 600mph mark in jet-propelled cars built in their sheds. In that spirit, he set out to see how fast he could go on a bike. This video tells the story.

The current land speed record for a bike is 268.831 km/h (167.044 mph) set on Bonnville salt flats by Dutch rider Fred Rompelberg in 1995. Donhou knew that without salt flats and a dragster to chase, that record was out of reach, but he set out on a personal quest for speed anyway.

He built the bike himself, in his own workshop, using the tubes he’d build into a bike for any regular client, and adapted his own classic Ford Zephyr to act as the pace car. A friend helped build a fairing to route the air over him. “Essentially, it’s a shed strapped to the back of the car,” says Donhou.

Cliff Polton of Royce components came to the party with a whopping 104-tooth chainring to give the bike a ‘cruising’ speed of 60-70 mph, and you can watch the results below. In the words of a certain new grandfather, it’s all “refreshingly mad”.