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AeroVelo Breaks Human-powered Land Speed Record

Posted by Soulskill on from the zoom-zoom dept.

yyzmcleod sends news that AeroVelo, a Canadian team of engineers and students, has built a bike that successfully broke the human-powered land speed record. (This is the same group that built a human-powered helicopter in 2013.) The team's Eta recumbent speed bike managed a speed of 85.7mph (137.9km/h). The previous record was 83.1 mph.

6 of 21 comments (clear)

  1. Fixed summary by U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M · · Score: 2, Informative

    yyzmcleod sends news that AeroVelo, a Canadian team of engineers and students, has built a bike that successfully broke the human-powered land speed record. (This is the same group that built a human-powered helicopter in 2013.) The team's Eta recumbent speed bike managed a speed of 137.9km/h (85.7mph). The previous record was 133.7km/h (83.1 mph).

  2. Re:Stupid question but... by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually, no. It's not just weight. In that reclined position, a camera in the nose and a monitor provides a better picture than looking through a long curved 'window', that you're looking at mostly edge on.
    As far as weight....once you get it up to speed, a few ounces more or less doesn't really matter.

    This has been done before.

  3. The fastest unpaced bicycle by NotSoHeavyD3 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just pointing out if you're allowed to use slipstreaming (you pedal behind a car which is blocking the air for you) the world record is actually 167 mph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

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    1. Re:The fastest unpaced bicycle by AikonMGB · · Score: 2

      Just pointing out that the focus of this attempt, and thus the record category, is explicitly the human-powered aspect; they set their sights on the human-powered land speed record because it aligns with their ambitions and mission statement. To them, the speed is really just a metric to measure the efficiency of their design. AeroVelo is all about what we can achieve using the power output of the human body, which is why their world-first human-powered ornithopter and human-powered helicopter were also Big Deals(TM).

      Slip-streaming would take away from the human-powered aspect; to them, it's about a lot more than just the speed. That's not to take away from other record categories, which are all impressive in their own right; I'm just trying to explain why AeroVelo targeted this one specifically and why the fact that it is unpaced (and even the very low limits on legal wind) is part of their identity.

  4. Re:Stupid question but... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Using the camera provides a substantial improvement in riding position, which translates into an improvement in aerodynamics. Easy Racers did the same thing while they were still around, and chasing land speed records.

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  5. Re: Stupid question but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The camera is in the little wing above the bike. Seeing the bike in the picture, and having the camera higher really helps the pilot control it. The view is MUCH better than any windshield we did for our past bikes, and the aerodynamics are better too, getting large regions of laminar flow