I can’t speak for DinoR, but I’d like less [of the] on-air personalities, no matter how many of them there are. Less time taken up with silliness, more time with Science.
BTW, perhaps interestingly, here’s how Wiki describes the Citroën 2CV:
I watched about 10 minutes of this, and it was terrible. As you say, very bad ‘acting’ by the two guys.
The show “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?” on the Science Channel is close to that.
More like the guys on “Fast and Loud” than the former build team members but I know what you mean.
I don’t agree but I also don’t really think it matters. I’m perfectly happy to watch a show which is “let’s take interesting stories from movies, video games, TV shows and urban mythology, and attempt to recreate them to see if they’re plausible”, as long as the stories are ones where it’s unclear whether or not it will actually work until we see it, OR are entertaining to watch, or ideally both. I loved the episode where they recreated the life-raft-out-of-the-plane scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, even though I would never have said that there was a “myth” that that was possible. And in fact, a similar-but-not-identical thing (using an inflatable escape slide rather than an inflatable raft) turned out to be entirely possible, and awesome to watch.
Both of the video game “myths” failed on both criteria, imho. It was utterly unsurprising what the result was, and it wasn’t particular fun to see it happen. And in that case, the inanity of presenting something so obviously implausible as a “myth” detracted from any enjoyment I might have had from watching a Doom level built in real life.
On the other hand, I enjoyed the bike-and-car-transforming episode quite a bit, just because they were doing neat things with not-predictable results… even without really conclusively demonstrating anything about the original motorcycle story.
I was thinking about an outrigger for their first design, but the problem is that the original problem statement is that two wheels are busted. That’s why he had to reconfigure the car to a motorcycle in the first place. Using the broken wheels defeats the stated purpose.
Maybe reusing them as counterweights would be reasonable. Skids have some merit.
That is kinda how science works. Admittedly, they could do a little more in the “What do we know about these manatees? Where in the ocean are they supposed to live?” department. Still, going to 8 different locations around the globe and using 100 divers at each location is fairly rigorous for a TV show.
I was a bit iffy on their “totally busted” result, just because they did make two somewhat functional devices, if not particularly safe or effective motorcycles that you could get out of a desert on. I’d put it in the extremely unlikely plausible rather than the extremely likely plausible or busted categories, but that’s just me.
But strictly speaking, the premise was to configure a working motorcycle within a short time that they could safely drive. That they did bust. Even if some frenchman actually did do it once. The point is replicating the circumstances to try to achieve the same result. Their attempts at replication were not successful. It’s the structure of the show that they call that “busted” rather than “we weren’t able to succeed”.
They admitted that someone did, in fact, send them proof that it happened, which is why they took the extreme effort to make it so.
Well, I enjoyed the efforts they went through to devise a safe version of real life fruit ninja. Getting the fruit rate up was tricky, and Jamie’s fruit lumberjack totally failed on that count. I’m not familiar enough with the game to know for certain, but what struck me was the online versions show people throwing the fruit directly at the ninja, whereas the Mythbusters’ version threw the fruit up in front of the ninja. The actual game only has the fruit in front, there’s no risk of actually getting hit, so that seems more accurate even if the premise of the game is that the fruit is actually going to pelt the ninja if he doesn’t slice it. I’m not sure that even if you sliced the fruit you could guarantee not getting hit.
But I did find the Doom results surprising, in that their stud player actually made within 2 seconds of his original time. That was a huge surprise to me. Yes, more fit equals less encumbered, but I still expected more of a delay. That is within the statistical window of exact time, no delay - and that is counter to the results that Jamie and Adam had. Myth plausible.
Can someone tell me why the parallel parking “myth” was called plausible? Adam pulled it off between the cones, he just never made it with actual cars. Given some more time, he surely would have gotten it. Even ignoring that, the pro (Conrad?) did it with the limo that should have confirmed it, even if they want to dismiss the countless youtube videos. Oh, and this one from Daniel Tosh. ISTM they should have called it confirmed, even if they wanted to add on that you probably aren’t going to be able to do without a lot of practice at the very least and probably some training. IOW, really don’t try this at home. I think they mentioned they spent 12 hours with him on that first day just to learn how to drift. Don’t think you’re going to get into that spot on the other side of the busy street before the car you see coming towards it. I assume that’s why they called it plausible. But IIRC the myth was simply to see if it’s possible.
I didn’t see you quoted me before I started typing about today’s episode:
I think they said the suspension was broken, not the tires. As someone else said, driving a car with 4 wheels isn’t really a myth that needs confirming. Eitherway, I’d bet that Jaime and Adam could find a way to fix a broken suspension in the field if their lives depended on it. Come to think of it, I wonder if they reused the broken parts in the new machine they made. Also, skis would have been interesting, but may not have worked well if the terrain would at all rough.
I didn’t mean that they would do that experiment, but you hit on exactly what I did mean. How about before they go out hunting for the mythical manatee they do some research as to where it’s been spotted. You’ll not I excluded those spots (Florida, Western Africa etc). This goes along with the myth they did tonight. Can you parallel park a car by drifting. They called it plausible even though it was confirmed before they started. I mean, people actually do it. Maybe not out on city streets, but it’s not like it’s unheard of.
I do like that they’re calling in pros…or at least people better suited than them. Calling in the MMA guy for the Doom episode made sense and proved that someone much more physically fit (and stronger) than them could pull it off. Calling in a the drifting guy helped with tonight’s show. In the Indiana Jones special they called in someone that knew how to use a whip. On the one hand, they have always called in experts, on the other hand, many times they’ve come right out and said ‘Jaime and I can [do something really really well] and if we can’t do it, it’s busted’. So it’s always nice when they call in a pro.
“Plausible” covers a lot of ground, from “you might could do it with a lot of practice and hours of attempts” to “you’ve got a 50:50 shot” depending on the context of the specific myth.
I think they called it “plausible” because you might get between the cars or you might ding a car, sort of like the likelihood of parallel parking normally. 
It’s possible to do, it’s possible to learn to do well, it isn’t something the average driver can pull off.
If the car into a motorcycle thing is “busted, totally busted” because they couldn’t make it work in a few hours, even though they got pretty close, they why is the parallel parking myth only plausible even though they actually did it, actually saw a pro do it and there’s tons of examples of other people doing it? As I said, in my other post, that one was undeniably confirmed before they even started it. It’s not “plausible” it’s perfectly doable, they just didn’t get enough practice in.
I mean, based on that, Adam could have busted the myth that you can crack a whip if he couldn’t do it himself in the Indy episode, even though the pro did it right in front of him.
The thing is they made it quite clear. With the engine mounted backwards and thus only reverse gear, that car simply could not get up enough speed to stabilize.
I agree that it was at least arguably incorrect to call the car/motorcycle thing busted as opposed to plausible. They did enough work to show that much of the transformation could be done… could a truly desperate mechanical genius with a fantastic sense of balance have actually made it work?
But it’s not like money changes hands based on whether they end up naming it “busted” vs “plausible”, so whatever…
Based on the rules of the show - they couldn’t pull it off. They demonstrated that in reverse only gear, the bike couldn’t get enough speed to stabilize. Ergo, busted.
Usually when examining “myths”, we only have rumors and stories to compare to. This one has a guy with a claim and pictures. But the Mythbusters were unable to duplicate it and were fairly convinced the mechanics of the contraption could not be made to work.
The parallel parking myth was stated in such a way that the average driver could do it. Yes, the average driver might can do it with a lot of practice to become an expert at spinning into a parking space. Plausible, not confirmed. Too easy to smash other cars in the process.
They also did something they don’t usually do on this one, they refused to do any outside research on this one for the first half of the project. Part of me wonders if they got burnt out after being in the sun all day and didn’t really want to work on it anymore.
Here’s a youtube video. I have no idea if it’s him or not and it’s only a 30 foot or so ride and at a few mph, but it’s better than Jaime or Adam did.
FYI, after the first clip, it’s gets really strange, might want to turn it off if you’re at work.
Did they actually say “Can an average driver do it”? I mean, if that was the case, it was a waste of an episode. Have them each try it a few times and be done, no point in spending 12 hours with a professional drifter.
No, they got further and faster.
No, in fact- no one can do it. Even on that clip, he stabilizes by using his feet.
How could you possibly know that?
as Irishman sez "They demonstrated that in reverse only gear, the bike couldn’t get enough speed to stabilize. Ergo, busted."
Do you understand how motorcycles work? 
I do understand how motorcycles work, I have one that I ride regularly, I passed an MSF class and have an M endorsement on my Drivers License. So, having answered your question, I’ll ask mine again. How could you possibly know that “no one” could do what they attempted. Just because those two particular people couldn’t pull it off doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it just means they couldn’t do it. There’s 7 billion other people on earth. In fact, that’s kind of what I’ve been talking about in this thread. I don’t always think it’s correct that they call a myth busted just because they couldn’t do it in the time they have allotted.
When someone claims they’ve disproved something because they couldn’t prove it, it reminds me of the NdGT quote “It’s like taking a scoop out of the ocean with a cup and saying there are no such things as whales because there are none in my cup.” (hence my manatee thing from above). Proving something is one thing, disproving is much harder. You said that ‘no one’ can do it, but you’re basing that on the evidence that Adam and Jaime can’t do it. I mean, has anyone, you, the Mythbusters, anyone at all even attempted to reach out to the original person and asked him to show us the bike and/or recreate it? To say that no one can do this, you’d have to ask everyone to do it. I mean, I’ll give you that ‘no one’ can turn an aquarium into a motorcycle with nothing but hand tools, but they were so close. I really thought this one deserved a “plausible, with some more tinkering it might have worked”. “Busted, totally busted” seemed way overboard. I have a feeling this one will show up in one of their redo episodes.
Also, if they had put a something between the output and the wheel, they could have used a forward gear. A tire probably would have been too big, but in all the stuff they removed from the car, there was probably something round that they could have lined with a chunk of tire tread and mounted in between.
This aspect of the show is probably the most genuinely scientific part of it.
When the build team tested whether a ball shot backwards at 60mph would fall straight down when launched from a vehicle traveling 60mph forwards, they just kept doing it over and over until they got a shot where the ball fell straight down. But the reality is that, outside of a vacuum, a ball falling inside an atmosphere, behind a truck’s wake, almost certainly doesn’t just fall straight down. If you do it a bunch of times, and the car’s vortex and the spin on the ball, imparted by the sides of the cannon, and etc. all happen to work together to make the ball fall straight down, well sure it makes a good video, but it doesn’t prove anything. You’re not doing science at that point, you’re just forcing reality to bend to the party line.
If you inherit a hypothesis and a method for testing that hypothesis, and the result is, “Unable to replicate the reported results.” Then that’s the answer. It doesn’t mean you’re right. It doesn’t mean you’re wrong. It’s just the factual, unskewed, unbiased result of that test. And anyone who doesn’t accept the results is perfectly free to review the methodology and perform their own attempt at replication. That is how science is and is meant to work. No one study is authoritative, nor should anyone believe that it is so, nor should anyone believe that the author intended it to be so.
Because the laws of physics sez you cant. That crazy Newton guy. That car had a engine that would generate just so much forward motion when in reverse- which was not fast enuf to be stable.
Yesbut- they did the myth in two parts. Part 1 was “could* they *do it in the desert with handtools”- answer no. I guess it’s possible that someone could do it, but they couldn’t . And if Adam and Jamie couldnt I will bet francs to fishhooks that guy couldnt either. In fact, given that car- I’ll bet no one could do it. Given just handtools and one day in the desert.
Next- they took the picture of how he claimed he did it, and replicated that. Based upon that- with the engine mounted backwards- it can not work. Period. You even saw his video- HE didnt make it work. He went some 20 meters, slowly, using his feet to balance.
Now if what you are asking is “given a full shop, unlimited time and your choice of cars- could you convert a car to a motorcycle?” then the answer could well be yes. But that’s not what they asked.