Cycling and high-jumping

[jack]

Cycling

A human can cycle more than twice as fast as they can run. Does that mean that you could make a "bicycle" for a horse that could go a lot faster than a horse could run?

I assume that we wouldn't ask the animal to balance, so the frame might have to be larger. And if the animal is larger/faster to start with, and air resistance is a square or cube of velocity, it may not achieve the same number of times as fast. And a horse is probably a bad choice because it can be a bit skittish, but what would be best? Something trainable? Something good at kicking? Something with a high strength to weight ratio (which correlates strongly but imperfectly with land speed)?

People have tried putting monkeys on bikes and equines in treadmills. Has anyone ever tried to make a non-primate pedal powered vehicle built for speed?

High jump

Which animal can jump the highest in absolute terms? Human? Horse? Big cat? Dolphin or whale? Does it make a difference if you assume the basic idea of the high jump (ie. mostly measure centre of mass, but require a lot of dexterity to get over the bar)?

Comments

[naath]

A human can cycle more than twice as fast as they can run. FSVO human, where said human has put at least as much effort into cycling fast as they have into running fast. (Over short distances I can run at 10mph, I can cycle at 20mph ... on a very good day, down hill, with a following wind - but I've worked much harder at my running speed than my cycling speed and my bicycle is definately not optimised for speed). Where cycling wins as a transport method (for me) over running is that it is a lot less effort to cycle than to run.

Tricycles are generally heavier and less aerodynamic than bicycles; my gut-feeling is that the tricky balancing part is a crucial element in keeping the weight of the bike down.

[corrvin]

I am now happily imagining what sorts of cycles each of my cats would like, and how fast they would zip around on them.