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Biking @ 80 MPH
sadclown writes "Saturday marked the conclusion of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Battle Mountain Nevada. Canadian Sam Wittingham now holds the world record for human powered speed on land, 80.55 mph, on the Varna Diablo, a fully enclosed 60 pound recumbent bicycle. Other competitors included Matt Weaver, with his video-camera-navigated bike (no windows)the Kyle Edge, World (conventional bike) Sprint Champion Jason Queally, with his bike the Blue Yonder Challenge, designed by the formula one race car designer Reynard, and the UC Berkeley team, The Bearacuda, in which two riders pedal back to back. Wittingham's new record is nearly 8 mph more than his record last year. Hopefully some of the aerodynamic technology can be applied to commercially available vehicles (cars, maybe?)."
(FYI: I've got biking in my blood. My uncle on my mom's side, and my cousin on my dad's side were both national cyclists for Trinidad. Although I love cycling, I've never done it competetively.. and for what it's worth, I'm also Canadian).
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
What does he do, just keep peddling until he crashes into something and dies?
BTW, isn't it possible that by being heavy and aerodynamic, this bike lets you go faster than other bikes, but takes more energy to do it?
sounds like hard work to me... especially on a monday morning.. ugh work..
"Never let the truth get in the way of a good story..."
I don't think this would be so beneficial for more modern cars, as they are pretty advanced in this particular field. The new Mercedes R230 (SL) has a really low cw value of 0.29 for an open roadster.
-- The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'.
Can someone tell me why you would need a breathing mask for this? And if you look at the pictures, two of those bikes doesn't even have windshield, talk about danger riding one of these things on a crowded street...
kawai
You can see many of these Twike in the streets of Zurich:
www.twike.ch
No! Don't do it!
Please, slashdotters, post everything in metric, except when dealing with nautical measurements (there's a good reason for a nautical mile!). Only America is still stuck with an archaic measurement system that requires more conversion factors than positive aspects to it..
Think about it: the SI system is even used by American scientists! It pains me to see how everyhting is turned into pounds and ounces and how you have to grab a calculator to calculate how many inches in a mile.
CowboyNeal, just think, at more than 2cm per inch, you'd be THAT MUCH TALLER and LONGER!
Boycott Imperialist sites! Post in metric!
behind sports cars:
"The fastest speed achieved on a bicycle was 204.73 kph (127.243 mph), by Jose Meiffret (France), July 16, 1962, on the German Autobahn from Freiburg, behind a car (see below Events)."
+
"245,077 (152.75mph), John Howard (20-7-1985) Bonneville (USA)"
Given open ground, I do not doubt that the speed record will eventually go much higher if you had a sufficient distance to ramp up to speed.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
top speed: 129.7 km/h
weight of bike: 27.3 kg
A word can paint a thousand pictures
how long until we see a PC sim for this? ;-)
mi save tingting long peles bilong mi long Niu Ailan.
Some of these chassis are large enough to hide a few hamster wheels.
I'm really impressed with Matt Weaver who built his own cycle, the Kyle Edge, and hence didn't have the same time for physical training that winner Sam Whittinghham had.
.18 second slower than the winning time, and his time of 46.78 in the mile is only 1 second slower than the winning time of 45.78. No one else came close.
His time of 5.73 in the 200M is only
Next year, my money's on Weaver to win!
... but some guy from germany resently patented a bike with an additional front drive (see picture)
This should bring the next speed improve. You can reed more about it here (in german).
Here is a translation - I leave it like this because its sounds so funny -):
- Translation Results by SDL International --
That patented is "Tigerbike" especially smart conceived bicycle. In front and back wheel drive leave in this construction independently from one another make use of. A tip speed can be reached of 50 km/h by the additional front wheel drive. This drive functioned over a step warehouse appropriate in addition over the Lenker. This be connected over a chain with a Ritzel mounted at the Vorderrad. A hubs control provides also at the Vorderrad for the suitable translation. In the manual actuating of the front wheel drive can nevertheless problem-free directed become. With this practicable fitness machine, one trains the entire body during a drive.
...damnit, that's just the coolest fucking name for a bike that I've ever seen.
Who would honestly buy a freaking 'Schwinn' or 'Mongoose' when they could get a....VARNA DIABLO.
I request, neh, DEMAND that this project be taken on.
--- Matthew Hill
"To quote the self is an act of the self riteous and uninitiated sub-moronic" - Matthew Hill
These auto paced records aren't really human powered. The current world record holder is Fred Rompleberg with 166.94 mph. If you look at the photo at his site, you can see how the bike is partway covered by a fairing behind the dragster that's pacing him. The force of the air rushing in to fill the vacuum behind the fairing creates a suction effect that pulls the bike along. Almost all of the power is comming from the dragster's engine, not the rider. He might as well just use a rope.
It takes a lot of oxygen to produce the power needed for a world record attempt. He is sealed inside a carbon fiber shell with no holes. If there was an open window for the air to blow in, that would ruin the aerodynamics. He uses the breathing mask with air tube to help get air inside without compromising the aerodynamics.
... recumbent. People have experimented with recumbent supine and prone in the past in an effort to get just that extra aerodynamic advantage. Since friction and rolling resistance are pretty much negligable on a racing bike, air resistance is the major force. I remember an article many years ago (before the web existed) in Scientific American on the subject where someone calculated that if you could cycle in a spacesuit in a vacuum (lots of ifs) a decent rider should be able to do over 200mph.
You can buy recumbent HPVs for road use, but down there the trucks aint gonna see you. keeping out the way should give you an extra speed boost even if nothing else does. Some models have things like flags on long poles to give you a chance of being seen.
This sig made only from recycled ASCII
Isn't that fast enough to travel on a motorway/freeway......
also.. what if the police get you with a radar gun... can you get a speeding fine ?
Cruise TT
I always thought it was part of being geek NOT to be interested in sports!? ;)
Please tell me I'm right... otherwise I'll have to fake!
42 + 1 = 42
Can you imagine cycling through Cambridge (England) at 80mph? That would really piss off the Taxis ;)
Does anyone know if the riders of these bikes are tested for performance-enhancing drugs? All the aerodynamic tweaking would be moot if the human-powered vehicle land speed record gets broken because one of the riders went on a 'roid binge.
"Hopefully some of the aerodynamic technology can be applied to commercially available vehicles (cars, maybe?)."
:)
Nah I don't think so. The aerodynamic technology developed for vehicles like cars and motorcycles is done with supercomputers cracking some big ass 3D fluid dynamic equations. I don't think that Mr powered_speed (Sam Wittingham) and his fellows can afford that
That "aerodynamic technology" developed for bicycles are stoneage knowledge for those who designs advanced cars.
2 reptiles beneath your current threshold.
Reynard actually design cars for the American 'Champ Car' series, afaik they don't design any of the Forumla One cars.
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
7.95MPH faster and a bolt of lightning, and we'll see the world's first time-travelling bicycle!
If you were to put a small electric engine and a powersource in these bikes then you would have a light, fast, simple, one man craft for easy transportation, parking and economic use.
I do belive that an electric engine with the same effect as a human would be light. Only one problem as I can think of battery weight.
Look a monkey!
Even thou this type of contest is not to provide city bikes, I still think they could pave the way for useful transportations within our citys. These pioneers will provide the technology that very well could be used to create a new type of "city bike".
I ride my bike through Copenhagen everyday, to work and back. I would love a "bike" with shielding to protect me from the rain, and dynamics that would allow me to move with more ease.
I hope that these competitions continue and in time some new discoveries and technical breakthroughs will benefit us all.
-:) Oh no - not again.
www.rednebula.com
Years ago, when recumbent cycle 'technology' wasn't as well known as it is now, I had the opportunity to ride both recumbent bicyles and tricycles created by a company called Greenspeed here in Melbourne, Australia.
My experience with the bicycles was less than perfect - it takes a slightly different balancing technique to ride with your centre of gravity lower than the centre of the wheels. The handlebars are also beneath the seat, rather than up in front. I'm told a couple of weeks experience would be plenty to feel at home though.
On the other hand, the trike is a joy to ride. Not quite as fast (if you're going for the speed record) but fantastic for cornering. I hit a corner a lot faster than I'd dare on a 2 wheel device, and it swung around without even lifting a wheel. Truly a fantastic piece of machinery.
At AU$ 3,750 for the economy model, these things aren't cheap - but hey, I can drool.
The real problem is trying to convince designers and the John Q. Public that aerodynamics are "cool", not the body styles with extraneous bulges, scoops and corners.
science is a religion
i seem to recall reading about some bike with some crazy gear ratio that got somewhere around 250 mph, but it had to be towed up to at least 70 or 80 mph to overcome the bike and rider's inertia
i think i read about it in popular science or scientific american a couple years ago
anyone know what I'm talking about?
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
What about the ARM ?
Maybe I'm wrong, but I honestly don't think that there are tremendous gains in automobile aerodynamics on the horizon. Automobile manufacturers can already greatly increase the aerodynamics of their product, but only at a sacrifice to ergodynamics and practicality. The future for more efficient automobiles lies mostly in the development of smaller and more efficient power conversion (IE the engines) and the development of alternative fuel sources. Besides, the featured cycle looked to have the same lines as a Ford Probe concept car from over a decade ago, so I don't think there's much to be learned here. On the other hand, I think it's absolutely cool that cycle riders can achieve true highway speeds, even if they have to be in incredible shape and practically dislocate their shoulders to fit into the vehicles.
GreyPoopon
--
Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?
I hope it goes without saying that they made a lot of sacrifices in personal comfort and minimalistic design that the average consumer isn't going to pay for. Nobody is buying the aero cars now. For all the kudos that the Japanese hybrids got, they aren't selling today. Shame, too. I'd like to see hybrid take off :-(
"Can I say you're my lovepuppy?" Founding member of SODAMNHOTT
A stable tricycle with this technology is commercially available in europe from a dutch company, "Velomobiel". Their "Quest" costs Dfl 12,500, approx. $5000,-
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
I've known for years that you can go really fast on a bike, when you are in good health and in shape and have a short distance.
What I want is a bike that I can ride at some [fast] speed all day on my own power. Assume my exercise is only riding the bike to work (which if areoboic is enough to keep me in shape, but I'm still not pro level)
Remember that I'm only getting older. 7 years ago my body was at about the peak of its ability. I've got a long way to 40 and my body is already in decline. I'm looking for something I can use when I retire and still make good time.
WTF is the point of this story? The current cycling speed record is already 166.9mph so 80mph is peanuts.
I think a better way to say it would be "This bike is more aerodynamic and therefore lets you attain a higher speed with the same energy input from the rider."
In the slower (but lighter) bike, more of the rider's (driver's?) energy is consumed by drag.
The energy the rider supplies should be viewed as nearly constant, and then you can compare different bikes by looking at how much performance you can get for the energy the rider has to invest.
At speeds that these guys ride on even after taking due cautions What magnitute of injury can rider suffer in a crash? Also i rememember reading somewhere that in the Tour De France while riding downhill riders approach 100++kms and they have at that speed nothing but their skills to count on for brakes at that speeds tend to Jam.Can anybody enlighten.... PLEASE:Moderators dont sleep....The mods are downright stupid and idiotic!!!!!
Wanted : A Signature.
Some cool pics from last year's contest can be found at the same site:/ wo rlds-fastest-bicycle-2000.htm
http://wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/speedruns2000
They're worth looking at because they show more interior details of the bikes, including small video display units and breathing masks.
If you want to see an almost-recumbent car, check out this prototype from Corbin Motors:
http://www.corbinmotors.com/
It's the closest implementation I've seen of the faired recumbent style. Of course it'll go 110 mph using dead dinosaurs, and it is amazing looking.
of human-powered anything, they would rather leave 16 pieces of junk running for a year, just to read slashdot and increase uptimes, and compute for seti. How pitiful, turn off your machines people. No one really cares about your uptimes or how many packets you crunched. Im a hardcore biker, by the way.
If you really want to make a "__speed__" record on a bike, you should jump out of an airplane while holding onto one.
Free unix account: freeshell.org
Bikes are banned. (From important parts of the city centre at certain times of day.)
Yes, this is completely crazy, but the next meeting of the Area Joint Committee may be an opportunity to do something about it.
If human running speed is 20 mph and human biking speed is 80 mph, then horse running speed is 45 mph and horse biking speed is 180 mph. It runs on oats and hay! This will change the world!
My every day commuter is an Optima Baron purchased through yellowbike.com. I've hit 32 mph on a completely flat road with no wind and have maintained in excess of 25 mph for just under ten miles. This unfaired, very low recumbent has turned my morning commute into a daily time trial.
Geek speed!
First entomology, then virology, and finally bioinformatics systems. Bugs follow me wherever I go.
For sure the majority of spoilers on consumer cars are absurdly useless. Indeed I remember in the mid/late 80s when you could get the Mustang 5L (did Americans call this the Mustang 1.32G? :-}) in two variants: The plain jane version, and the "GT" version chocked full of ground effects and spoilers. In actual tests the GT version was somewhat slower than the plain version because of the added 40lbs+ of ground effects, plus the fact that they were aerodynamically horrendous and thwarted rather than helped the car.
The coolest thing about F1 cars is that most of the ground force is caused by air going under the car and sucking the car into the ground. Indeed they banned things like Venturi tunnels under there because the ground force was getting too extreme.
... simply the most amazing thing no one has ever heard of!
It has been a blast! I've ridden it 2200 miles (3540 km) in less than 3 months, and I've taken the longest rides I've ever taken, including a 124 mile (200 km) ride on August 26. No way I could have done that on an upright!
Other riders who have tried to draft me report that there is just a very small pocket really close to me that's draftable. I don't have a fairing or a tailbox on the bike.
In my experience, it is slower uphill, faster on flats, and much faster downhill. Some find certain designs more comfortable or prefer certain handling characteristics, so test rides are important. Short wheelbase is a bit tricky to ride at slow speeds (particularly turning, due to crank/wheel interference). At speed, the Rocket corners like a sports car. A very light touch is needed on the handlebars at regular riding speeds.
No chance of me breaking 80 MPH! I have made it to 40 on relatively serious downhills like one on the Illinois River bluff near Ottawa. In the mountains, I'd need some lower low gears to climb mountain grades, though; even some of the river bluff hills on the 200K ride were tough.
I'd say it was the best $1000 I've ever spent.
Oh, no! You have walked into the slavering fangs of a lurking grue!
I noticed that the winning bike used chains to drive the wheels. I know that chains are cheap and readily available at bicycle stores, but aren't there more efficient drive mechanisms? Like a drive shaft, perhaps? I'm not an engineer, please illuminate me.
Hi,
:-o
Incredible speeds for bikes!
I think it was in 1990 when we organized an open HPV championship in Muenster/Germany. There the conditions were quite bad (a lot of side wind), and the fully faired racers achieved a top speed of 92 km/h (ca. 57mph). The most interesting machine was a fully faired recumbent tricycle, built by a french ESA engineer (the european equivalent of NASA) for his son, a french rowing champion. He used is hands for pedaling via a special gear and had a moving seat, like in a rowing boat. So, he could use the same trained muscle groups as for rowing. Unfortunately the whole tricycle started to develop a pitching motion at high speeds due to his movings and oscillating body mass. Still, he topped out at more than 90 km/h. Thats for different powering mechanisms.
Someone also asked, how fast a "standard human on an unfaired bike" can go. Well, then many people hit top speeds between 60 and 70 km/h for the flat 200 m distance, with 1 km flat street for accellerating. As for myself, an unfaired homebuild recumbent bike easily got me up to 62 km/h without special training.
Ok, ok, dont compare it with the speeds mentioned in the article
-----
"Its not the speed that kills you, its the sudden stop!"
You just need to go.
My landlady is 81 years old and rides her bike every day - A single-speed upright bike, with a basket in the front for her groceries. She's healthier than me.
The Chinese restaurant near my old office has a man of at least that age who delivers lunches on a bike - 5 or 6 bowls on a tray balanced on his shoulder, held by just a corner.
Here, I see mothers with 2 or even 3 children on their bike, out running errands - Hard to imagine a mother of 3 in the US who doesn't feel she needs a minivan to take the kids somewhere.
You don't need some $2,500 custom mountain bike - Get yourself a solid used Raleigh 3 speed with a basket and USE the damn thing. I see business men riding to work on their bikes in a suit and dress shoes in traffic on a 90 degree morning, or riding along in torrential rain, carrying an umbrella. If you live within a few miles of your work and your supermarket, you will use your bike and stay in shape. If you live way out in the suburbs, yes, you will probably have a nice trophy bike decorating your garage, that you will occasionally load on the back of your car to drive to the bike trail.
Too many people think of exercise like it's some kind of pill you take occasionally to feel better - It's a lifestyle choice. A choice that is too easily dismissed for the sake of convenience. Convenience of living in the 'burbs and driving those two blocks to the mailbox. Sure, there are reasons that people do these things, but they really don't help you when you're feeling old at 40.
For me, 40 is less than 5 years away and I look and feel 25 - I bike every day. I'm no health nut either - I smoke more than a pack of cigarettes a day and can drink obscene quantities of beer. I believe it is due to the excercise that has become part of how I live my life. Last week's health checkup confirmed that I am in great physical shape and I know that's not due to my diet...
You don't need to go fast - You just need to go.
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo
-- My Weblog.
There is no reason people can't use both.
For any scientific, engineering, or technical use, the metric system is great. The math is clean and consistent.
But its hard for people to relate the metric system to their daily lives. The imperial system is based on common things around us, like the length of our feet. That makes it much easier to for people to visualize how long something is when they hear "25 ft", and as such makes the imperial system more useful in our daily lives. There is no reason that imperial and metric systems can't live together in peace.
I've seen that as an option to keep the rear windows clean on SUVs. The problem is that it makes the back of the car lighter at high speeds, resulting worse pavement friction
science is a religion
my question was not whether it had brakes, but whether the cyclist could see where he was going...
Is there a rule that prevents recumbent bicycles from running in road races? Or is there a technical reason (maybe they're not so great for hill climbing ??) that makes them not the best choice.
What happened to the Cambridge cyclist who was pulled by the police for excessive speed and then charged with "furious cycling", or somesuch arcane law from the horse age ? AFAIR, he was only doing 30mph, or some everyday sort of speed, not even anything particularly fast.
FAT frickin chance. Car makers have known how important aerodynamics are since at least the 1930's (check out Bucky Fullery Dymaxion if you have any doubt). Car designers are tasked with making the least expensive (to produce) cars that they can.
Until our children are no longer molded into castrated sheep democracy remains a fake and a danger. -A. S. Neill
Just FYI, Sam does many things outside actually riding a bike - For one, he runs a custom bike shop, where he builds bikes, including recumbants. That's right, he's not training all day every day, as you seem to assume.
Didi Senft, known as The Devil who cajoles riders in the Grand Tours of european cycling builds some very unusual bicycles, including world record holding largest bicycle
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The parent is no more off-topic than all it's parents, which haven't been moderated "off-topic". What's more, it has "SERIOUSLY OFFTOPIC" in the title. It was on-topic for the thread though. Whatever... you've been metamoderated as "unfair". Get a fucking clue about moderation.
You can get a speeding fine on a bicicle, consider 20mph zones... I've heard of people getting stopped for going over 20 in them.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
If we use a bunch of energy efficient cars nobody will ever develop a Electric car that actually works. SUV's and Minivans can also hold a lot more people than your tipical 4 door sports car. When you get right down to it, a Mustang can use more than a lot of SUV's. If the price of gas went out of sight, it would be simple to use Alchohol... but do to a bunch of people who drink, um "beer" and the like, it's illegal.
Ultimatly I'd rather have a flying saucer than a energy efficient car.
Don't think you're going to be able to sell a electric car because it "saves the envirenment", in truth the power plants are ruining it with Coal just about as much as cars do with gas. The advantages of a electric car would be humoungus, but not including envirenmental, unless the government actually starts encouraging nuclear power.
An electric car (without heavy batteries...) would be able to
1. Accellerate faster
2. Have a higher top speed
3. Faster stoping (just flip it in reverse)
4. No Transmission, therefore lighter.
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
Where is the parent moderated "-1, Off-topic"? It seems completely relevant to its parent, which is "3, Interesting". Too bad I can't metamoderate it.
No, seriously. A guy near my house tried to ride his bike down the toboggan slides. He didn't make it past the part that is nearly vertical. He found out the hard way that the slides were made of wood and got many many many splinters in his arse. OUCH!
I've heard this over and over again.. and having travelled around the world a bit, I've come to two conclusions.
The first, is factual. There is no such continent as 'America'. Canada, the US, Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica... are all in 'North America'. Brazil, Argentina, Chile, etc... are in 'South America'. So saying 'America' must mean something ELSE....
The second is observational. When anyone in the world says 'American', they mean someone from 'The United States of America'. I even hear my fellow Canadians refer to them as 'Americans' all the time, you probably do it too. How else do you refer to our neighbors? United Statsians? Get real.
'American' is a term, the world over, that refers to those citizens of the United States. Get used to it.
I do not consider myself part of 'America'. I am from 'Canada'.
yeah, right. if you really were capable of doing that, dude, you should be racing in the tour de france.
Why does Major League Baseball still use wooden bats?
Why did the Indianapolis 500 (effectively) outlaw turbine engines?
Inertia, Sponsors, Tradition, Record books.
Uh, 30MPH is hardly "everyday sort of speed". Unless there're downhills involved, this is fast enough to win most traditional-format bicycle races, and is way too fast for a sidewalk situation where there are pedestrians present. Of course, on a street, mixing with motor vehicles, 30MPH is no big deal (and could hardly result in a citation, either). More likely the guy was dinged for 30KPH (a more common 18MPH or so), through pedestrian traffic, hardly what we Yanks call "reasonable and prudent" (I _know_, I've done it).
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
In Canada the limit is 20KMh. I'm already over that with just half a rotation of the pedals.
Second of all, so-called "aero" bikes, used for velodrome competition in the olympics, are produced by the big bike companies (huffy, trek, etc.) using the most cutting edge techniques and materials. No expense is spared and the bikes cost about $100,000. Matt Weaver, who is currently second in the world in hpv racing, says his homemade bike cost him only $10,000. "Aero" bikes go about 45mph on the track. Hpv's now go 80mph on the straight-away.
Now imagine Lance if he not only devoted his life to recumbent racing but had $100,000 recumbent equipment sponsored by Wheaties or whatever.
Time trials would average 55 mph instead of 30. Assuming a balance between uphills, straights, and downhills in le Tour, they would be 10 mph slower, 25 mph faster, and as much as 50 mph faster respectively. The gains outweigh the losses.
Le Tour has always been a proving ground for new technology - quick release wheels, deraillours, light weight frames, etc. What will eventually happen is the HPV'ers will set up a renegade tour to prove their mettle. They will adjust the course for less hills (again, they won't have the advantage of world class athletes, equipment, and sponsorship) but they will concoct something as challenging as le Tour. Maybe then they can attract enough attention to be taken seriously.
I don't think you would reach 166mph this way... at least not on an ordinarly shaped bike. The air friction would slow you down to 100-140mph.
Aside from the ultra-conservative rules governing the Tour de France, there are some practical problems.
In the early 20th century the Tour was comprised only of simple bikes with "fixed/free" rear wheels. Rear wheels had two cogs--one on each side. One side had a freewheel, the other was fixed. To change their gear ratios the riders had to stop and flip their wheels around.
Derailleurs were common in touring bikes well before it was accepted in professional racing. Let me quote an excerpt from http://chainguard.org/jfderail.html:
"derailleurs were not generally allowed in road races because derailleurs required freewheeling, and mixing riders with fixed and free wheels produced problems on the turns, when fixed-gear riders were limited by pedal scrape on the turns while free-wheeled riders were not. However, there was also a series of special races for derailleur-equipped bicycles, typically hill climbs, that were sponsored, at least in part, by the derailleur manufacturers."
Perhaps if the racing sponsors and cycle manufacturers sponsored recumbent-only races, recumbent cycling would become more widely accepted.
Wow. That's pretty impressive. Especially when at the beginning of this year, I took a ride on a recumbent bike with a microjet on the back, and didn't get nearly that fast.
Yah, some bike freaks in North Seattle put a real engineer-designed jet engine onto one of their bikes as a marketing stunt, and I was stupid enough to take it for a ride on city streets. But I only got up to about 45mph with a jet engine, fercrissakes! (Of course, I weigh ~275#, and the turbine had an output of under 20ft/lbs at 150,000rpm...)
Jon
I think not...(*poof*)
Strap a flux capaciter on that thing and go an extra 8MPH and you're in business!
Then theres that 1.1 jigawatts problem... got plutonium?
Next step: add wings!
Now that would rock.
Nevrar
20 stages :
- 10 flat stages
- 3 medium mountain stages
- 4 high mountain stages
- 2 individual time-trial stages
- 1 team time-trial stage
Say he eats it on the high mountains by a lot. Doesn't he still have enough of an advantage on the remaining 16 stages to carry the race?
Really, I could care less which one of these is faster in the Alps. I just want the market to be flooded with recumbents. Then I'll pick one up at my local used bike shop for $75 and ride to work at 35mph. Is that so wrong?
To get rid of the flat front grill of cars you have to first design a different style of radiator, one that doesn't require air to funnel through its fins. I'm not sure how to go about doing that.
Besides, airflow only becomes an issue at higher speeds. Most of the gas wastage comes from commuters going at speeds less than freeway speeds, either on heavily traffic-lighted roads where there is a lot of idling, or on jammed highways that are supposed to go faster, but don't during the mis-named "rush hour". The times of greatest gas wastage are times when airflow doesn't matter at all.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
Don't forget the ever popular dolphin bike. Talk about streamlined. Whew. People look kind of silly flopping down the road, though.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Really one of the reasons "Americans" (I'd call us Yanks, but that's found to be offensive in several corners) are pretty clueless about the international classes is because we have such a plentiful array of our own. Set a USAC (Indy 500) car, a formula A (SCCA) car, and an international F1 car next to each other, and you have to get rather close (closer than a TV camera usually gets) to tell the difference. I'm sure there are other types as well that look much the same. There are _many_ SCCA classes which vary mostly in maximum engine and wheel sizes, USAC has recently split into two factions, and to top it all off, Americans put a lot of attention into "Stock Cars" (the only part that's from a production vehicle is the sheet metal) which further dilutes our interest in anything with open wheels (call a NASCAR fan a "Yankee" and he may open fire). There are only so many entertainment dollars to go around, we can't go to see _everything_!
And, really, all this discussion of automobiles should be moderated "off-topic"
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
Most people avoid riding bicycles in street traffic because of safety concerns. This is where HPV's come in. A recumbent tricycle is extremely hard to tip over compared to an upright. The lower the trike, the more stable it is. While the problem with hills persists, this design is absolutely ideal for children, not to mention seniors, beginners, and anyone who just doesn't feel that comfortable teetering around 3 feet in the air on two wheels.
Where I live, New York City, there are few hills. The main inclines are on bridges and are only about 3/4 mile long (you could walk it in 10 minutes). Most recumbent riders say they have no problem attracting the attention of motorists, although many add flags for visibility.
I agree, however, that power assist is the answer. The Varna Diablo is, as far as I know, an unusually heavy bike for these kinds of competitions; most of the other bikes weigh about 30 lbs less. This proves that the substantial additional weight of batteries and a motor doesn't prohibit the vehicle from high speeds. More research and development is needed. Maybe if gas becomes unattainable in the near future people will reconsider cycling as transportation.
Never been to england, but in japan on a US military base it was specifically illegal to bicycle drunk. Apparently some guy went down this killer hill one night and lost control (I've gone down that hill myself many a time, and it's hard to do it sober when the wind's blowing hard). Bashed his head open and was killed immediately.
In my home town (small town in north oklahoma), if you're riding a bike or just walking late at night you'll be pulled over. They claim they like to keep track of people out at night - sounds rather orwelian to me. I'd understand if they were making sure you weren't out stumbling around drunk, but after the second time getting pulled over by the same damn cop and made to stand in the cold for a freaking hour while he sat in his nice warm car running every check on my ID, I started thinking they just do it to piss pedestrians and cyclists off.
Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach either, do tech support.
Funny - they don't even sell deodorant here. (I buy at least a half-dosen sticks each trip to the states.) Add these super lightweight summer suits and the guys do fine. BO is probably less acceptable here than in the states, too. Foreigners often have a tough time with that.
When I wore a suit to work on my bike, I had to carefully plan what I would wear. (Dress shirt folded with my jacket in the front basket - no backpack.) Small towel for drying off. (See the other reply...) And if that didn't work, a shower at the healthclub at lunchtime would. You also had to remember which intersections didn't have a shady spot in which to wait for the light to change or find a better place to wait.
Still it was *way* better than being crammed into a Tokyo train with your jacket and tie on. They are just as crowded as you've probably heard.
It's fall here now and much cooler - Biking to work now is a joy.
Plus, you will thank yourself when you are 40...
Cheers,
Jim
-- My Weblog.
Recumbent advocacy literature does claim safety as a plus. Mostly, this is based on a low likelyhood of flying over the handlebars.
:)
I'm also an urban cyclist, but I value my high perch, and pretty attached to it. Seeing over other cars in side streets, and being able to turn and see behind me (ok I know mirrors are an easy counter argument), makes me feel in control. The high perch allows you to take traffic laws "under advisement" in your riding. Not seeing as well, limits your opportunities to safely excersise your judgement. Its an issue for me, anyway
My point is that even if people have wrongly preconceived recumbents as less safe, they may these preconceptions firmly entrenched.
March 1998, Christian Taillefer reached 212.139km/hr, that's 132m/hr for you Americans.
It was on a Peugeot bike ridden down a ski slope. There used to be information off the Peugeot website, but the best I can find right now is a brief summary.
When science becomes a religion it is no longer science. Religion is based on faith, science is based on fact. When science is taken religiously then all objectivity is lost. Good examples of this are extreamist environmentalists, and people like Carl Sagen whose results are based more on their beliefs than their 'research'.
> for a contest like this where the designs are what are supposed to be competing
I don't think it is supposed to be just about the designs. Most cycling is mainly about the athletes, but they don't make them all use standard bikes - there are strict rules about what they can use, but every team is trying to get any technical advantage they can.
Lance Armstrong's autobiography is called "It's Not About the Bike". And he would be great on almost any reasonable bike, and buying a Lance Armstrong Signature replica of his bike won't make you ride like him. But that doesn't mean he doesn't care what bike he rides - http://www.lancearmstrong.com/tdf2001/bikes.htm
Remember Chris Boardman at the 1992 Olympics? There was a huge amount of discussion about the Lotus monocoque bike he rode.
> and not the one that could hire the best rider
But it's not as simple as there being a single best rider. There's a best rider _for a given bike_. A smaller rider will let you have a smaller frontal area, but may develop less power. A rider who has trained for years on upright bikes may be more powerful than another rider, but only so long as the riding position isn't too different from the standard one. If you follow some of the links, the Blue Yonder bike was wider than some because Jason Queally didn't feel he would be able to develop his full power if he was at all confined - and they didn't get the fastest time, although they had an Olympic champion riding.
A contest just for designs would be interesting, but that doesn't mean there is no place for a contest for the best machine/rider combination. (Though unmanned vehicles with a standard dummy passenger and standard electric motor might be easier to design for than a random pool of riders).
Look at motor racing - they don't use randomly chosen drivers to decide the constructors' championship - who can attract the best drivers to their team is part of the competition.
rant
Lots of serious scientists fully believed in the peltdown man until it was revealed as a hoax. Does that make them non-scientists or prove that all science is quackery? No. Likewise, there have been religious hoaxes that have pulled the wool over people's eyes that were not the miracles that were originally claimed. But that doesn't invalidate their whole set of beliefs.
I know a statistically significant number of people who have had things happen to them that can't be easily explained by science, yet they are still facts. I refuse to believe that every person whom I have spoken with that has had something happen to them that can't be explained by science is pulling a hoax. If science ignores facts it can't explain, how does that make it different from a religion?
I consider myself a scientist and a Catholic. I have had many discussions with my religious friends that generated horror when they relized that I didn't believe that Genesis didn't happen verbatum. When I showed them that Pope John Paul II's explaination that showed creation and evolution are compatible, they realized that they were making some assumptions about what each attempted to explain that were wrong. Even Darwin said he was exploring God's creation when he presented his research. I see no inherent conflict between science and my religion (although many may disagree).
So what, exactly, is the difference between (solid) science and (solid) religion?
Might be a chance of getting mainstream sponsorship in the near future - it looks as though Cannondale might have picked a good time to lauch there own recumbent.
l is t.pl?DBmode=full&DBform=HTML&DBstorynumber=228
http://www.eland.uklinux.net/cgi-bin/articledb_
Has some story and pictures.
That's just great... telling people that we are just dominant enough, etc. Makes you sound like a moron. Why don't you tell them that we have the bomb while you're at it.
In case you haven't noticed (remember 9-11?), the best way to get people to hate you and your beliefs is to shove them down their throat. Some people who were politely perched on the fence might now have decided to dislike us "dominant" americans. As if we needed any more of that...
Next time, try being a litle more humble. I love America very much, but, after all, we are just human beings like everyone else... no better or worse than the rest of the world. We may have different values and beliefs, but we still live and die pretty much like everyone else. You and I are not more important than anyone else.
Was this paced or unpaced?
That's a BIG difference!
Instantataneous peak speeds can be thrown way wild by errors in the reed switches of the computer sensors.
45 MPH _paced_ is very fast, but credible.
45 MPH (64 KPH) _unpaced_, and he said it was on a flat, isn't credible on normal equipment. Sure, we're looking at a story about radically stramlined machinery that's capable of _sustaining_ 40 MPH, but I doubt that Cycle-King was using that sort of equipment for his land-speed record.
30 MPH (42 KPH) is fast enough to win most races.
45 MPH is 50% faster and that's a huge difference.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
In my home town (small town in north oklahoma), if you're riding a bike or just walking late at night you'll be pulled over. They claim they like to keep track of people out at night - sounds rather orwelian to me.
Me, too. I think somebody oughta get a lawyer and bring harassment action against them. If they can't show that they also stop motor vehicles as well "to keep track of people at night" you've a good case for some kind of discriminatory harassment. Unless the municiplaity in question has an adult curfew (unlikely but there are stranger things in effect) they really have no cause to stop someone for merely riding a bicycle.
And what's so special about night time? Do they stop you in the daytime "to keep track of you"? And _since_when_ was it the Police's job to keep track of people, anyway?
An ACLU attorney would have a great time with this one.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
If your car gets 30 rods to the hogshead, I suggest you check your gas tank for leaks :-)
(Yes, I got the Simpsons reference, thanks).