Jeff Wills

Congratulations and well done!

https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/2015/09/...-man-on-earth/

dit

great report. Thanks for posting

rydabent

I keep teasing one of my friends that is not thrilled with bikes. I ask him what he would think if he was doing the local interstate speed limit and a bike blew by him doing 10 miles an hour faster?

vic303

Congrats!

Jeff Wills

And a quickly done (but quite professional) video:

dksix

I'm sure it was under different rules for the record, and he was helped to get started but Guy Martin made it somewhere over 110MPH on a "pedal bike". For those who don't know, Guy Martin is a very interesting character.

Jeff Wills

That was drafting- he had a truck towing a windscreen in front of him. The "drafting" record is 167mph, set by Fred Rompelberg 20 years ago.
World Record Fred Rompelberg, 268 km on the bike

dksix

I thought he had to pedal at that speed for a certain distance but honestly, I'm a Guy Martin fan and it was before I was riding bicycles when I seen it. I wasn't contesting the OP's link, just thought Guy's feat was worth noting.
@Jeff Willis , I looked it up and seen what you mean. I didn't notice or it didn't register when I watched it originally, I think 112MPH on sand was crazy enough.

fietsbob

John Howard and Fred Rompelburg are coaching a Young Woman who has a goal of besting the record ..

the Battle Mountain record time is set on a Flying 200M section of the road ,

the ends before and after that are building up to and slowing down after the timed segment.

hardly a sustained freeway speed..

the last record was set by a Delft NL University class team . This one Toronto University Student-engineers .

Retro Grouch 

Uh - how does he see out of that streamliner?

JanMM

In the picture in Jeff's first post, looks like a little periscope thing - with a cam, I am sure - poking up near the rear of the bike. And, in the video Jeff posted, when the shell is removed after the ride, there looks to be a video screen in front of the record-setter's face.

Jeff Wills

(BTW: the record was pushed even higher Friday evening. 86.5mph. Incomprehensible.)

Jan is correct. Navigation-by-video is one of many aerodynamic drag reduction trick. It makes the entire forward surface of the shell to be perfectly smooth and allowing laminar flow along most of the body. The seam of a clear windscreen can't be made smooth enough (tolerances in the thousandth of a inch), so a clear "windshield" creates more drag than a camera "pod".

You can see the video monitors in the photo below. Racers using ride-by-video are required to use two separate, redundant systems in case one fails.

osco53

I averaged 14.2 mph for 22.4 miles, Sitting pretty much up right, no faring or nothing, mostly level, little bit~o~ head winds now and then.

on my 36 pound Tour Easy with seven pounds of junk and my 57 year old 173 pound self.

It was a record for me per Strava


This was a recovery ride after the day before, 8.7 miles of brutal to me single track, I bounced off four tree's before I crashed mid run. The Mud, blood and sweat,, Fantastic ride It was

DannoXYZ 

Wow, that's awesome! Any idea on what kind of average and peak wattage he was putting out for that effort?

Jeff Wills

Well, this thread started talking about real power data: The Recumbent Bicycle and Human Powered Vehicle Information Center but it kind of drifted. We'll see if they get back on track.

rydabent

This fantastic record was of course recorded using a recumbent. Too bad the stiff necked old fools of the UCI wont allow it in their record books. They claim that a recumbent rolling on two wheels, pedaled by a person is not a bicycle. How quaint of them. I guess it is because bents put their 120 year old antiques to shame.

Retro Grouch 

What would it change if they did?

rydabent

Just that the official bicycle speed record is now 85 plus.

If the old fools of the UCI built cars, we would still have hand cranks and carbs!!!

Jeff Wills

A postscript: on the last runs of the event on Saturday, Todd notched the record a little bit higher: 86.65 mph.

I have run out of superlatives.

Retro Grouch 

Me too.

1. I'm thinking regardless how low the coefficient of drag the rider deserves praise for having a powerful motor.

2. It's clearly a bicycle because it has two wheels and it's human powered.

3. A little off topic but: NASCAR racers are clearly neither stock, nor are they the fastest purpose built race cars. They are just a vehicle that meets a specific set of rules and that many folks find entertaining to watch race. Not unlike UCI approved race bikes. I have no problem with either.

JanMM

Cannot imagine being able to ride that thing in a straight line for more than an instant - much less down the course to world-record-setting speed! It's not just an amazing machine and a mad motor, but insane balance skills. Incredible.

Retro Grouch 

And relying on a TV screen to see where you are going and which way is up.

Jeff Wills

Hell, I can watch TV sitting on my couch and not know which way is up.

jyl

Jeff, are you in the video, holding some doohickey?

Darth Lefty 

I see that this is the same crew that won the Sikorsky prize a couple years ago. Well done!