New Bicycle Land Speed Record 184mph

pbarry · #1 09-17-2018, 02:46 PM

https://www.bicycling.com/news/a2328...-speed-record/

Lewis Moon · #2 09-17-2018, 03:01 PM

I may be mistaken but I believe that's the overall land speed record, not just women's.

fiamme red · #3 09-17-2018, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lewis Moon

I may be mistaken but I believe that's the overall land speed record, not just women's.

It is. She broke Fred Rompelberg's record, set in 1995. She previously held the women's record at 147.74 mph.

183.93 mph is insane. She was going nearly as fast as an Isle of Man time trialist.

dddd · #4 09-17-2018, 03:15 PM

I hope they took some good video that makes this easier to imagine.

tlarwa · #5 09-17-2018, 03:15 PM

That is insane. I can't imagine being dragged behind a dragster at 100mph while sitting on a bicycle ... the margin of error must be essentially zero!

bicycletricycle · #6 09-17-2018, 03:21 PM

awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!

icepick_trotsky · #7 09-17-2018, 03:23 PM

The double gear ratio boggles the mind. 62:12 twice.

fiamme red · #8 09-17-2018, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dddd

I hope they took some good video that makes this easier to imagine.

You can watch Neil Campbell setting the UK record here on a converted tandem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckum7dmwhqw.

This is a record that depends heavily on technology: of the car, the fairing, and the bicycle. Also on location (Bonneville Salt Flats is the ideal place).

NewDFWrider · #9 09-17-2018, 03:40 PM

Here's the Wall Street Journal article, which features a video of the ride.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/she-jus...=hp_lead_pos11

I wonder if KHS will see a pop in bike sales. (John Howard was her coach, which is also remarkable to me as I now feel super old).

dddd · #10 09-17-2018, 04:34 PM

Wow, she actually had that big gear spinning!

The bike apparatus must have been well designed for stability, the geometry and tires likely straight out of the motorcycle world.

pbarry · #11 09-17-2018, 06:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lewis Moon

I may be mistaken but I believe that's the overall land speed record, not just women's.

Fixed it.

zmudshark · #12 09-17-2018, 06:44 PM

Proves that small diameter, fat tires are way faster.

Louis · #13 09-17-2018, 06:47 PM

I understand the "behind a fairing" thing, but IMO it would make a lot more sense if the rider had to come up to speed using their own power. Using the motor-powered vehicle for that really does make it a bit meaningless.

onsight512 · #14 09-17-2018, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zmudshark

Proves that small diameter, fat tires are way faster.

lol

fiamme red · #15 09-17-2018, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Louis

I understand the "behind a fairing" thing, but IMO it would make a lot more sense if the rider had to come up to speed using their own power. Using the motor-powered vehicle for that really does make it a bit meaningless.

From You Need to Slide Instead of Tumble: An Interview with Denise Mueller-Korenek:

Quote:

I couldn't understand how you can get a bike to go as fast as you did or to get it up to 167 mph. It looks so weird. They had to do all this sort of different gearing and manipulation. You had to be towed up to 90-100 mph just because the gearing was so different that you couldn't even pedal until you got that fast. Is that right?

Yep. And it's only one gear, so it's just like a velodrome bike or fixie or whatever you want to call it. I liken it to having a car and literally the only gear that works is Overdrive. You're not pulling out of a shop into their parking lot in Overdrive. It ain't gonna move because the engine can't turn overdrive over until you get to a speed where it all of a sudden can turn the gears and the engine.

It’s the same thing with my legs. I can't turn that gear to 400 & 85 inch gear, so each revolution of the pedals goes 125 feet. There's no way I'm going to turn that with one pedal crank at 125 feet. So, I have to get pulled up to a minimum of 90 mph and that's where my RPMs is about 67. And that's just being able to barely push that. Then I'm able to ride that all that way on up to 150 mph where my RPMs are 107.

That's a big swap to only have one gear between 90 to 150 mph but that's how it has to work. And in fact, to go faster - which is the plan - we're probably going to have to have the release speed a little bit higher, unless we develop some sort of multi-gear system, which is sort of worrisome to introduce because no matter what we do it will be experimental and at that speed, you don't want to.