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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?)."
You can see many of these Twike in the streets of Zurich:
www.twike.ch
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)"
top speed: 129.7 km/h
weight of bike: 27.3 kg
A word can paint a thousand pictures
Actually, they were given sufficient distance to start from. They can choose any distance, but their speeds are measured over a 200 meter stretch.
There are also several other different classes, for more info, here are the RULES
Also for a more detailed listing of the records (with km/h and miles/h):
Go HERE.
It contains more that just land speed records.
(I also read that he is only reported to have gone faster than 80 miles per hour, but I do not see it on the official site.
Not really: There are theoretical calculations
that show, with the given power of a human,
(~500-600 Watts for professional cyclists) and
the given minimum cross section, there should be a upper limit of about 90 miles/h / 144 km/h.
For further increase you have to stretch the rider or to use drugs.
The varna diablo is even now a very narrow shell.
There were top-view pictures were Sams shoulders
were wider than the streamline of the fixed bottom part of the fairing.
probably John Howard's speed record of 152 MPH. I think it doesn't count because he was drafting off a car.
link
In the warm months, I bike to work 3 days a week (9 miles each way, suburban/urban, moderately hilly), and average about 18 mph. The difference in commute time (total time is under 30 minutes either way) between driving is very small, and faster in a bike when traffic is heavy. I am 27 and in average shape. It simply a matter of having a reasonably light road bike (a mid-level Trek, Cannondale, or Fuji -- weight about 20 lbs.) and letting your body condition itself for the ride.
I could ride on the same moderate terrain all day averaging about 16 mph, or on a long, flat highway at about 20 mph.
Making fast cars free of spoilers isn't easy. Audi tried with their TT (max. speed ~220km/h, I think), designing the whole car so that it gets enough downforce (the outer rear view mirrors are an important part of that design).
;-). Audi didn't explicitly take responsibility for that, but they do offer free upgrades for all TT owners which consist of a small spoiler and an electronic stability system and all new TTs come in that configuration already.
As it seems, they couldn't get it completely right. There were a number of accidents where TT drivers lost control while simply going straight on German highways (where else would you be allowed to drive as fast
And for those thinking that going straight shouldn't cause any problems no matter how strong (or weak) the downforce is: It doesn't matter only if there is no wind and the highway is empty. If there are transversal winds, entering and leaving the wind shadow of large trucks at high speed needs some correction to stay on course and if the downforce is too weak you can lose grip altogether. At higher speeds (say, 150 km/h and above), even normal cars are dragging a quite large cones of air turbulences behind them. These can create asymmetrical forces on an overtaking car. Normally this would rock your car slightly, but if your car is to the limit aerodynamically as the TT seemed to be this can get dangerous.
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.
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.
:)
Have you actually riden a recumbent? My RANS Rocket has an aerodynamic advantage over an upright, and I ride it safely on the street. Instead of looking at my front wheel, I am in a upright position looks at drivers directly in the eye at their eye level. I am far from invisible. I also can ride 100 miles in a day without sore arms, neck, and wrists and without feeling like I just got a prostate exam with a weed eater.
Please learn just a little about the subject before making ignorant flippant remarks. You sould like one of the upright riders I recently toasted...