I've been invited to participate in a comparison of cars versus bicycles. I agreed to the terms apart from $$$, and just added a few minor rules of my own: participating vehicles may have only 2 wheels, must be pedal-powered and must have a 10-speed manual gearbox.

What do you mean, I've set rules to allow only one possible outcome? That's a typical hostile comment around here. Every time somebody tries to tell the truth about cars, they get attacked. I gave a talk at the annual cyclist convention on Saturday and everybody there thought my rules are ever so clever. But then, they all know how to read. ;-) Why are you so afraid of a fair comparison to allow everybody to make their own judgement?