好英语网世界上最高的自行车有多高？
It’s not possible to keep up with 52-year-old Félix Ramón Guirola Cepero, and it’s not wise to try. On a bright winter day, he flew down Havana’s famed Malecón on his bicycle as tourists and locals alike gawked in wonderment.
与52岁的菲利克斯·雷蒙·古罗拉·塞佩罗（Félix Ramón Guirola Cepero）并驾齐驱是不可能的，也不是一个明智的尝试。一个晴朗的冬日，他骑着自己的自行车，奔驰在哈瓦那著名的滨海大道上，游客和当地人都目瞪口呆、惊讶不已。
Guirola Cepero isn’t just faster than everyone else, but higher, too. He’s achieved a measure of local fame as the builder of the tallest bikes in Cuba. At blinding speed, and barely breaking a sweat, he cruises the streets on a 3m-tall, custom-made bike made of three frames welded on top of each other.
古罗拉·塞佩罗不仅仅比其他人快，也比其他人高。他作为造出了古巴最高的自行车的人，在当地有了一定的名气。他骑在3米高的定制自行车上穿梭在街道上，自行车有三个车架，一个焊接在另一个顶部，速度加上高度令人晕眩，而他一点也不紧张。
古罗拉·塞佩罗正在制作一辆10米高的自行车
“Look at this!” he shouted, again and again, racing away almost before it was possible to see what he was pointing out.
"看这里！"他一遍又一遍地大叫着，几乎在人们要去看他指的是什么之前就飞驰而去了。
At a traffic light, he steadied himself on the roof of a bus for a brief moment, to the annoyance of the driver. A few minutes later, he paused and leaned against a wall. Almost immediately, a teenager trying to impress his friends demanded a ride.
遇到红绿灯，他把自己停在公交车的车顶上一会儿工夫，司机对此感到很烦恼。几分钟后，他停下来靠在了墙上，几乎立刻就有想要在朋友面前耍帅的少年要求骑一骑他的车。
“Hop on,” Guirola Cepero said with a grin, and the teen, not wanting to lose face, carefully climbed the frame and hung on tight. His face froze into a grin of terror as Cepero took off, giving him an unforgettable few minutes before allowing him to climb down.
"跳上来，"古罗拉·塞佩罗笑着说。少年不想丢脸，小心翼翼地爬上车架，紧紧地握住它。当塞佩罗开始骑车，恐惧的笑容凝在少年脸上，经过难忘的几分钟后，塞佩罗才让他爬下去。
Back home, Guirola Cepero leaned the bike carefully against the front of his house on Aguacate Street in Old Havana. In order to dismount, he simply jumped down (and has miraculously managed to never break an ankle in the process). He strolled inside and greeted his wife, Franci. She smiled.
回到位于老哈瓦那阿奎科特街（Aguacate Street）的家，古罗拉·塞佩罗小心地把自行车倚靠在房前。他简单地往下一跳，就下了车（在这个过程中奇迹般地从来没有扭过脚踝）。他往屋子里走去，和妻子弗兰奇打个招呼。她笑了。
古罗拉·塞佩罗造出古巴最高的自行车
“All he ever thinks about is bikes,” she said, playfully exasperated. “Bikes, bikes, bikes. It’s an obsession.”
"他脑子里想的只有自行车，"弗兰奇佯装生气地说，"自行车，自行车，自行车。简直着迷了。"
Guirola Cepero works on his tall bicycles ‒ he has five ‒ in a workshop in his home. After more than half a century of living under a trade embargo, many Cubans have grown accustomed to shortages of basic household goods and have learned to be resourceful. Guirola Cepero is no different: his bike frames are ancient Chinese models, some of them as much as 30 years old. To add height, he uses just about anything he can find, from rebar to pieces of tin fence. The pedals are made of sections of PVC pipe that he’s cut and shaped.
古罗拉·塞佩罗在他家工作室里改装他的超高自行车（他有五辆）。在度过超过半个世纪之久的贸易禁运之下的生活后，很多古巴人已经习惯于基本生活物品的短缺，学着自己创造各种各样的东西。塞佩罗也不例外：他的自行车架来自于很老的中国车型，有些已经有三十年历史了。为了增加高度，他会使用他能找到的从钢筋到锡制栅栏的任何东西。踏板是他用切割成形后的一段段PVC管做成的。
“If I could get lighter materials, such as hard aluminium, carbon fibre, tubes with more power and less weight, I could be riding some incredible bicycles,” he said.
他说："如果我能找到轻一点的材料，比如硬铝、碳纤维、更坚实但是更轻的管子，我可以做出更不可思议的自行车。"
His reputation has allowed him to turn his love of biking into an enterprise, advertising an imported energy drink called Time Flies via a banner attached to his bike frame. He and Franci also sell sweets, chewing gum, cigarettes and cooking oil from a stand in their living room.
他的名声已经使他能把对自行车的热爱转化成商业机遇。他通过一个挂在他自行车架上的横幅广告为一种名为Time Flies的进口功能饮料做宣传，他和弗兰奇也在客厅的小摊上出售糖果、口香糖、香烟和烹饪油。
Guirola Cepero started building his tall bicycles 37 years ago, starting as a teenager in his native city of Ciego de Ávila in central Cuba. His fixation began when he spotted a member of the national cycling team pedalling a tandem bike through his hometown.
37年前，古罗拉·塞佩罗还是个少年，在他长大的城市、位于古巴中部的谢戈德阿维拉（Ciego de Ávila），他开始制造这种超高的自行车。他的痴迷始于当他看到一位国家自行车队的成员踩着一辆双人自行车穿过他的家乡的时候。
He was immediately attracted to the idea of creating something entirely new. “When I saw a tandem for the first time, it was horizontal,” he explained. “I said, ‘Well, I'm going to build upwards’.”
他立即就被一个念头吸引了：要造出完全与众不同的新事物。"当我第一次看到双人自行车的时候，那是水平并排的，"他解释道，"我说，'那好，我要造出往上延伸的'。"
Plus, he joked, “From on top of the bike I can grab coconuts.”
接着，他开玩笑说，"在自行车的顶部我就能抓到椰子了。"
But building tall bikes wasn’t Guirola Cepero’s only dream; he had other big plans, too. For a time, he hoped to flee by boat to the United States. “I tried four times,” he said, earning himself a cumulative total of 21 years in prison.
但是造出超高自行车不是古罗拉·塞佩罗唯一的梦想，他还有其他的宏大计划。有一段时期，他想划船偷渡到美国去。"我试了四次。"他说，其结果就是给自己带来了累计21年的囹圄生涯。
He’s uncharacteristically quiet when asked about the experience. “It was terrible,” he said, simply.
在被问到这段经历的时候，他一反往常地安静。他一言以蔽之，"太糟糕了。"
Even then, Guirola Cepero’s penchant for cycling never waned. “The warden allowed me to have my bikes inside the prison so I never stopped riding them,” he said, explaining that he and the warden had been friends. “I rode bikes every single day.”
即便在那段日子，古罗拉·塞佩罗对自行车的爱好也从来没有减弱。他说："监狱长允许我把自行车带进监狱，所以我一直没有停止过骑车。"他解释说他和监狱长成为了朋友。"我每天都骑自行车。"
And he still does: climbing atop one of his towering bicycles, Guirola Cepero relishes the thrill of pedalling through Havana high above the roofs of passing cars.
古罗拉·塞佩罗仍然在骑车：他爬上其中一辆如高塔一样的自行车，享受着骑车穿行在哈瓦那、高过那些来往车辆的车顶的刺激感。
Over the past few years, his need for height has intensified, and his bike-building efforts have become increasingly focused on gaining recognition from Guinness Book of World Records.
在过去几年里，他对于高度的需求愈加强烈，而他制造自行车的努力也越来越致力于获得吉尼斯世界纪录的认可。
He says he could have held the record 20 years ago. At that time, he was riding a 6m-high bike; only a Detroit-based tall-bike builder named Richie Trimble has ever built a larger one. “No one ever saw me, or paid any attention to the fact that I was riding bikes that high,” Guirola Cepero said, because he was in Cuba.
他说20年前他本可以保持纪录，那时他骑的是一辆6米高的自行车。只有一个位于底特律的超高自行车制造者里奇·特林布尔（Richie Trimble）已经造出了更大的一辆。"那时候没人看见我，或者注意到我骑了一辆那么高的自行车。"古罗拉·塞佩罗说，因为他在古巴。
Recently, Trimble came to Havana to meet Guirola Cepero. They biked the city’s narrow streets together and worked on bikes side-by-side.
最近，特林布尔来到了哈瓦那，见到了古罗拉·塞佩罗，他们一起在这座城市的狭窄街道上骑自行车，一起在自行车上工作。
“For me it is an honour that the guy who holds the world record came to meet me, and that makes me a record holder in itself,” Guirola Cepero said. “This record of friendship is more important than Guinness.”
"世界纪录保持者来看我，这对我来说是个荣誉，把我也变成了一个实质上的纪录保持者。"古罗拉·塞佩罗说，"记录下我们的友谊比吉尼斯世界纪录更重要。"
Still, achieving the world record would, Guirola Cepero said, justify the long hours he’s spent alone in his workshop cobbling together spare parts into magic.
同样，古罗拉·塞佩罗也表示，实现世界纪录能够证明他在工作室里独自耗费时间把配件修补成一个神奇的东西是有意义的。
“I'm building a 10m-tall one that I hope to finish soon,” he said.
他说："我正在制造一辆10米高的自行车，希望能尽快完成。"
