TIG Welding the Bike Frame

Jason used steel tubes for the frame – specialist

tubing made in Birmingham by a company

called Reynolds – because he reckons British

is best and steel gives him the best results. It is

stronger and stiffer than aluminium or titanium

but more supple than carbon fibre, so it absorbs

bumps better.

The tubes were TIG welded, which is a form of
arc welding like MIG welding but the electrode
is made of tungsten (TIG is Tungsten Inert

Gas) and doesn’t melt into the weld. Instead,

the welder feeds metal into the weld from a rod

held in his spare hand. This is a more laborious

form of welding that is used for jobs that

require maximum precision.

The rest of the bike build involved sourcing

the right kind of tyres, and Jason took advice

from the Continental company. The kind of

tyres used by road racers would be too skinny

for us. We really needed something a little

wider that would give me more traction, better

grip. The wheels were to be fairly standard, if

high-quality-items but it was the gearing that

was key to helping me break the record. To

the untrained eye, the rest of my 100 mph bike

might not look like anything too much out of

the ordinary, but the gears were always going

to look different.

Right: The incredible

Rourke bike on a stand to

try to keep the sand out

before we really got going.

48    Britain’s Fastest Bike