Aero92

In case any readers here haven't already seen this, you may enjoy this 10-minute video of Sean Costin's amazing, blazing trip around the ADT Event Center Velodrome at the Home Depot Center complex in Carson, CA.

AdamJaz

Badass.

aikigreg

indeed! I'm fairly certain I could get near 27 on a good day with the tica, but I think my heart would stop at 27.01

Aero92

Hey Greg! Come on out and have some fun at the 'drome. Just email Roger Young and see if you can get some open track time. It's close to LA International Airport and I live about 7 miles away. I'll even bring the NME and do some ontrack shots for more excitement. I'll get my CPR cert upgraded for defibrillator use too. Cheers, Jonathan

aikigreg

After you get my CPR, and pay for the airfare form Texas, I'm all over it They don't let me use the local velodrome - big wusses!

And I';ll revise my earlier statement - I think just over 26 is more likely, after looking back at some of my TT races. Though indoors on wood is a huge advantage of course, which I've never tried.

JanMM

Let's see.....my commute to work is 9 miles and I can do that in around 30min. That's about 18mph (on a good day with favorable winds and traffic). Sean went more than twice as fast for twice as long. Making me feel like Mr. 'Bent Turtle. Wow!

Wheelchairman

48 clicks in one hour . I gotta get me a lowracer . How old is Sean Costin?

AngryHamster

Sean is 41. Young enough to break his own record several times. I have no doubt that he will break the 30mph barrier. Strong dude!
AG

markw

Man, where was the announcement for this?? I would've come up. Now JV has something to shoot for. Just did the math, that's about a 50:06 40k tt.

slvoid

30 mph in 1 hr, indoors, w/o wind, on a perfectly smooth track, on a low rider... are you sure that's not a typo?

Didn't lance armstrong average something like 33mph on a tt bike in a time trial?

markw

Yes, but it wasn't an "hour record" attempt. He had climbs and descents, and probably a tailwind. There are quite a few pros that could probably beat this, however, most don't attempt it. UCI has two categories,
UCI hour record, and Best Human Effort. Bordmans 35mph record is a "best human effort". UCI being the UCI, it's got it's head somewhere. To be fair, best human effort records for the UCI should allow HPV's.
The reason Best Human Effort exists is to allow for equipment improvements, and nothing improves an unfaired bicycle aerodynamics like a recumbent.

BlazingPedals

IIRC, Lance's TT speed was for a 10K time trial. (6 miles) I don't think Sean's record is expected to survive very long; it was just something to put on the books as a starting point. Encourage follow-ups, so to speak.

markw

Lance did a 50K tt at around 32mph or so. But that's an uncontrolled environment, hills, tailwind, etc. I'm sure he'd be up there with Bordman and Merckx on a UCI bike.

Mooo

Le Wiki sez that on 18 November 1933 Marcel Berthet France trundled his laid back velocipede 49.99 km in one hour. That's 2 more than 47.89km.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record

which page goes on to say that the "standard" hour record passed this distance in 1966.

Not sure what set of limiting parameters make this, a good effort to be sure, a "world record."

cat0020

Lance also have decades of racing/training background.. what kind of racing/training career does Sean Costin have?

What's the age difference between Lance and Sean?

Was Lance riding a multi-speed TT bike for the 50km, I think Sean was riding a fixed gear low-racer..

rjacob

I would have thought a low racer would be faster than an upright. Chris Boardman's hour record is 56.375KM which is over 35miles in an hour. That kind of makes the LowRacer's 29.76 miles look kind of slow by comparison? Am I missing something?

cat0020

Chris Boardman was also a cyclist with decades of racing/training experience (competed in the Tour de France but never finished), Chris Boardman was much younger than Sean Costin when he attempted the hour record.

rjacob

So what exactly is this record? It's obviously not who went the farthest around a track on a bike in 1 hour, since Boardman went much farther. Is this an unfaired recumbent record? I would think that the recumbent would offer much better aeodynamics than the upright so have an advantage. If so, that makes the record kind of lackluster. Yeah, it's way way faster than I could do. But it seems like touting a jet airplane doing 180 mph, while a prop plane does 225. The recumbent isn't restricted to UCI specs. So you would think opening up requirements to ride any kind of bike you like (ie a lowracer), would allow for a faster record than a bike that has to meet UCI specs.

cat0020

For sure if Chris Boardman trained and raced on a recumbent for decads, he would (most likely) have a better record than Sean.. but would Sean achieve similar result if he trained and raced as Chris Boardman did on a DF bicycle?

Records exist to be broken, that's the mentality of a racer at least.

Mooo

I think what's being asked is:

How many and what kind of qualifiers are attached to make this a "world record?"

30 miles in an hour is nothing to sneeze at, but to boast about it... details. We need details.
One armed asthmatic Spanish American War vets? Yeah, super.
40-something amateurs on lowracers... meh. Interesting, but not real interesting.

rm -rf

I thought it sounded slow, too. It appears that the WRRA is a new organization, so there haven't been many attempts.

WRRA rulesThere is a separate organization: International Human Powered Vehicle Association: https://www.ihpva.org/ which includes faired bicycles, too. (and boats, etc)

Mooo

ahh, so it's kind of an "I love me" sort of thing for the low racer set.

Makes sense now.

markw

Not really, he could've used any unfaired recumbent bike. I think it really comes down to the fact that no one has tried to break the unfaired recumbent hour record. That record has been at 27.99mph since 1933 when Faure set it. The 1932 49.99 and 1938 50.53 records were on faired bikes. Most the recumbent racers are going for top speed, or racing faired bikes. Sean just beat the other guys who have mentioned (JV) trying it to the punch. I'm sure Sean has sparked interest in it now, so we'll see how it goes.

Trsnrtr

And, Sean has publicly said that he hopes that others will be inspired to raise his record. So, anyone who thinks they can do better, needs to get out there and do it!

cat0020

Like I said:

Records exist to be broken, that's the mentality of a racer at least.
The most difficult ones to beat are your personal best.