Talk:Motorcycle land-speed record

message: e.g. 47.3 (units? assuming mph) for 50cc seems ridiculous (I went faster on my street scooter)
Date format looks inconsistent, e.g. 8/03 with no links to anything.
What about Burt Munro?
:Munro on the Indian not mentioned?  Shame!  No units?  Well, besides being kept, the list needs serious work--I didn't even look at it, although I was surprised anyone would nominate it for deletion.  Still, Munro on the 1920 Indian not mentioned is a more stunning lapse than failure to use units, imo. KP Botany 19:29, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Looks completely wrong

message: Glad to see a speedy keep on this, and not much debate the other way, too.  KP Botany 16:31, 14 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Speedy keep 

message: While I'm far from an expert on this subject, this seems to me to be a very limited list of US national and class records and doesn't appear to include any FIM approved international records (the top record is currently somewhere in the region of 350mph). I'm glad what's on here is on here, but it does need to be qualified and clarified (i.e why are there 23 different 50cc records?)and greatly added to. Mighty Antar 01:32, 5 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've removed the entire section, and the external link Bonneville Nationals Incorporated it copy-pasted from. jnestorius(talk) 07:37, 19 October 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Motorcycle land speed records 

message: It isn't clear from the sources which records were originally measured using mph and which were measured in km/h.  It appears the conversion used in most cases was 1.61 km/h = 1 mph, rather than 1.609344.  This means you will change the answer somewhat depending on whether you apply the convert template to the mph or the km/h value on the table. It would also be awkward to favor one or the other as appropriate for nationality, especially since when a country went metric is going to muck that up further.  It's probably fine the way it is for now, until it can be checked against the official FIM documents.  This does not appear to be online any more.--Dbratland (talk) 22:58, 15 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  How to use convert template for mph and km/h 

message: Deleting a graph of speed by year because it is "mere decoration"? It seems obvious to me that a line graph of mph vs year illustrates the rate of change in speed records, and it illustrates how the rate of change was fastest during periods of intense competition, while the slope was flatter when there was less interest in record attempts. You can figure all this out by staring at the crosstab for a while, of course, but the graph communicates that information more efficiently. So there are benefits besides "decoration". I'm not aware of any drawbacks to including a graph here; it isn't as if the page has an excessive number of images.<P>Any reason not to put it back? --Dennis Bratland (talk) 02:19, 28 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't see it adding anything. The table of speeds & dates does the job just as well. Read it. All I see is a a decoration containing no new information.  TREKphiler any time you're ready, Uhura  02:24, 28 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, I doubt you'll convince many other editors that it's equally easy to estimate the slope of the line by calculating in your head the time span between dates and the difference between the old and new records. You could just as easily argue we shouldn't convert mph to km/h because the reader is perfectly capable of doing that for themselves. But I guess we can wait and see what they have to say. Can I ask again if you know of any drawbacks to the presence of the graph? Is it causing any harm you know of? --Dennis Bratland (talk) 02:36, 28 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: That's a faulty comparison, since simple observation gives an adequate sense of scale. And the test isn't "harm", it's "value": what does putting it in add that's not available already?  TREKphiler any time you're ready, Uhura  03:11, 28 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: It's multimodal. It communicates the information in more than one medium, which adds to the richness of the content. People learn and understand better when given information in more than one media. Some individuals understand information better in visual form than in text; these individuals benefit from graphical presentation, while those who learn best from text are not inconvenienced.<P>The value of graphs is widely accepted: Wikipedia has a page dedicated to the purpose of creating more and better graphs: Wikipedia:How to create graphs for Wikipedia articles. Template:Infobox political party/seats converts a single data point into a graph as a multimodal visual aid; it's used on 500-1000 articles. There are a number of Featured Articles which use graphs which communicate information which is also contained in the text. You would call it redundant, but it's clear there is consensus in favor of using both text and visual modes. For example: Storm botnet, Daylight saving time,Caesar cipher, Hepatorenal syndrome, Influenza...<P>And so on. The consensus that using graphs, even to illustrate a very simple set of data, even a single data point, is in principle beneficial. If you were to cite a substantive flaw with the graph, that could be fixed. But your objection lacks substance and boils down to I don't like it.--Dennis Bratland (talk) 04:11, 28 June 2011 (UTC)

text: "boils down to I don't like it" It boils down to, I don't see it adding anything useful, as stated. My likes or dislikes have nothing to do with it.  TREKphiler any time you're ready, Uhura  12:53, 28 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Graph is mere decoration?

message: There are numerous mistakes of riders, dates, speeds etc and the content is generally not fit to be published 
The pre WW2 organisation was the FICM, which was reconsituted as the FIM and moved from London to Geneva after the war.
Flying start records were or are set by measuring elapsed time over distances which could be 1 kilometre and/or 1 mile. Thus the time needs to be stated and the speed calculated directly from thr time.
The only authoritive source is the FIM in Geneva whom I have recently visited on this very topic. For its 75th anniversary FIM published (but did not date!) a complete account of all speed records since it first recognised them about 1920. Of course it can makes mistakes too and there are some obvious typos here. But this is its only current statement on what the historic records are.
FIM states times and speed in km/h by capacity class and so to find the "worlds fastest" you have to go through at 2 tables each for 1300cc, 1000cc, 750cc and 500cc (at least). The fastest may be either in the flying mile or flying kilometre. 
Certainly this needs fixing -  yet another book has just been published with what I believe to be mistakes in its record table.
I have a prepared a spreadsheet based on FIM information for the period 1920-1939 which I am happy to share but I have no idea how to do it.
Let me know via this if I can help.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.210.165.70 (talk) 10:02, 3 October 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: You could upload the spreadsheet to Google Docs. I assume that the records you are referring to are these - http://www.fim-live.com/en/sport/world-records-attempts/events/ --Biker Biker (talk) 10:26, 3 October 2011 (UTC)

text: Log into your gmail account. Click the Documents tab at the top. On the left, click the red box that says Create, then choose Spreadsheet. Click File > Import. Click Browse and find your spreadsheet file. Then click Import at the bottom. When it says "File imported successfully" click Open now. In the upper right, click Share. Next to where it says "Private - Only the people listed below can access", click change, then choose "Public on the web" or "Anyone with the link". It will then give you a URL to copy. Copy that URL here. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 03:01, 10 November 2011 (UTC)

text: I'm finding the spreadsheet viewable, but not readable... It looks blurry to me.  TREKphiler any time you're ready, Uhura  06:28, 13 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd select the relevant cells in Excel, then go to a new Excel sheet, and right click, "Paste special" and select "Values only", to remove the extraneous features from the sheet. Save that copy, and upload it to Google docs. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 15:59, 13 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Content wrong 

message: Wasn't there previous consensus that Paul d'Orléans/thevintagent.blogspot.com is considered a reliable source? I can't seem to find the discussion now. Here's some refs I found:
* http://www.bikeexif.com/the-vintagent
* http://www.forbes.com/forbes-life-magazine/2011/0509/collecting-motorcycle-diamond-in-brough-patrick-cooke.html
* http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-british-motorcycles/1933-velocette-ktt-mark-4.aspx
* http://www.cycleworld.com/author/pdorleans/
* http://www.gizmag.com/roper-steam-cycle-set-to-smash-motorcycle-auction-price-record/20309/
* Black Falcon. Paul D'Orleans. Cycle World. New York: Oct 2011. Vol. 50, Iss. 10; p. 48
* Battleground Vegas. Paul d'Orléans. Cycle World. New York: Apr 2011. Vol. 50, Iss. 4; p. 18
* Taking Flight. Paul d'Orleans. Cycle World. New York: Oct 2010. Vol. 49, Iss. 10; p. 28 
--Dennis Bratland (talk) 16:33, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Note also that this question has come up for Kevin Ash's blog. His articles that have been published in a third party publication, and gone through an editor, are fine. But I'm not entirely comfortable citing either Ash's or d'Orleans's blog, if nothing else than because there's more chance of error when they acted as their own editor. In the case of this citation http://thevintagent.blogspot.com/2010/10/oec-zenith-and-stolen-record.html the obvious solution is simply to add inline citations using the same sources that d'Orleans used for his blog post. --Dennis Bratland (talk) 16:41, 14 November 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  thevintagent.blogspot.com 

message: I suggest a move to Motorcycle land speed record (now a redirect) is apt, both because it agrees with the automotive record page, & because it agrees with common usage on the subject.  TREKphiler any time you're ready, Uhura 01:50, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Going fast 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Motorcycle land-speed record. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20090208065626/http://www.fim.ch:80/en/flat/photos/photosworldrec.htm to http://www.fim.ch/en/flat/photos/photosworldrec.htm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 10:33, 19 February 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on Motorcycle land-speed record. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110228020305/http://www.fim-live.com/en/media/news/2010/news-detail/article/1286193134-new-fim-world-record-bonneville-raceway-utah-usa/ to http://www.fim-live.com/en/media/news/2010/news-detail/article/1286193134-new-fim-world-record-bonneville-raceway-utah-usa/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 13:08, 6 February 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified (February 2018)