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New human-powered world record

easyracers.com — Traveling 53.43 miles (85.97 km) in one hour from a standing start in a specially designed recumbent bicycle, "Fast Freddie" Markham just set a new world record and won an $18,000 prize. At 49 years old, Fast Freddie was a surprise winner, which must have something to do with the bike. And yes, the course was flat.

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  • beelz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+454 mph . thats as fast as my geo and gets better mpg too
  • those, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Cool looking bike. Doesn't look very stable in the video. Must be hell hard to ride
    • fifty50, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If you look at any bike, they'll rock back and forth like that from the rider shifting his/her weight while pedaling. The magic of gyroscopes keep them upright though.
    • sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Most record attempt recumbent bikes are very hard to ride. At low speed they are almost impossible to ride. If you have never ridden a recumbent, you basically drive the bike under you to stay up. This requires many quick and skilled adjustments when going very slow. Then you combine this with the very small front wheel throw and at slow speeds you can't even turn enough to stay up. The extreme sealed streamliners also have cameras and video screens inside for the driving. This was the case for the bike that set the speed record over 1 mile. I believe the hit 80 mph.

      This research will then allow us to make cars that can go fast on magnitudes lower power than we currently use. If functionality wasn't a main factor, it wouldn't be hard to have a car that can do 200 mpg at 70 mph.
  • Wolfboy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2from the article:
    "Some attempts were made by professionals and top amateur cyclists ***witch*** did produce several world records."

    No fair using witchcraft!!
  • w0mbat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I wonder if you could go faster getting several ppl in tandem. Increases the power more than you increase the wind resistance; at over 50mph wind resistance is a big factor.
    • akashra, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Generally no. In the early days of events here teams tried this - rules still allow for them too. But the weight added of having to push not only the weight of another person, but the frame capable of holding the strength does tend to add a lot of weight and cause problems. For simplicity of deisgn we see very few two-seaters nowadays (though I've seen plenty of commercial ones out on the roads etc).
    • recursive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Theoretically it should be able to go quite a bit faster on a tandem. Weight only matters while accelerating or climbing, which doesn't happen much on these courses. The aerodynamic drag wouldn't increase much and power should double. I know it's more complex, but if done properly, this approach should theoretically produce a big increase.
    • sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It is definitely true with standard recumbents. You get double power for less than double increase in parasitic drag. Some of the early speed records were performed with Easy Racer tandems, but very few of the modern one have been tandem teams. Most of the awards and records are structured around how fast a single rider can go. This is why most of the designs have been single rider. More info on HPV records and designs can be found on International Human Powered Vehicle Association (http://www.ihpva.org/).
  • akashra, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1I'm involved in running schoolkids events for these here in Australia - currently six are run in the state over the year on road courses. However one of the community teams is already working towards beating the above figure, and they're also developing a two-wheel recumbant, which they're aiming for 100km/h average on. I haven't seen the bike, but it's a fair effort if they're able to do it.

    85km/h isn't terribly impressive though - we've clocked a number of HPVs at over 80km on the back straight of a 1.3km circuit (who were promptly penalised, since they're not supposed to be exceeding 60km/h for safety reasons) - and they have to navigate some reasonable corners on that one. Keep in mind this is also an event not open to community/open teams - ie, high schools only.

    In the early years of these events, we were seeing teams who had sponsorship from companies such as Ford, with carbon-kevlar monocoques worth over AUD70,000 *per bike*. A few years later they realised they could shave off 15kg by ditching half the shell :) It's quite amazing how much commercial design comes from innovation originally developed by the school teams though.

    If you're interested, perhaps have a looksie around www.racvenergybreakthrough.net, one of such events run down here anually.
    • zoxed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3> 85km/h isn't terribly impressive though - we've clocked a number of HPVs at over 80km on the back straight of a 1.3km

      RTFA: the new record is 85 km/h for 1 whole *hour*.
    • akashra, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I'm well aware of that - the point I was making was that considering we've seen schoolkids do it over shorter periods without too much trouble, I'm surprised that in a HPV that a professional athlete or similar with a sponsored bike wouldn't be higher.

      The other thing is, look at the size of the front wheel and the number of teeth. I'd imagine it's geared for sustained high gearing, which makes a huge difference.
    • sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Of course 85 km/h isn't impressive over a mile. The record for 1 mile is 126.55 km/h, set by Sam Whittingham at Battle Mountain, NV in 2001. 85 km/h is VERY impressive over an hour. You kid's vehicles have the ability to sprint as fast as Freddie was able to ride continuously for and hour. Heck, I was pulled over by the Indianapolis Police for doing 55 in a 45 on a stock Vision R40, with a fairing on the front. They just wanted to see the bike an let me go without a warning even, but there is no way I could keep that up for even 3 minutes. Talk to a Physics teacher about instantaneous velocity versus average velocity...
    • recursive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hell, I can easily hit 32mph (and higher) on some of my bikes. If only I could just keep that up for an hour, I'd have a world record! (record for track bikes is 31.something)

      There's a big difference between sub-minute power and sustained 1 hour power.
    • orxor, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0sacherjj: They couldn't give you a ticket or a warning since speedometers aren't required on bikes. I don't know how it is in Indianapolis but in NY there's no speed limit on bicycles for that reason.
    • surfing, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0*****, I could do this on my beach cruiser.
  • Rhino_Jockey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'd commute in that.
  • pcheaven2k, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1About 10 years ago I had a specially built 24 speed mountain bike that I built myself. Anyway I was hauling ass through Fort Lauderdale, FL and got pulled over and issued a speeding ticket for doing 63 mph on my bicycle. Funny thing is I frequently went faster than that. I had a digital speedometer that used radar bounced off the road to determine speed and I got over 70 on flat ground on a regular basis.
    • recursive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Do you live in Madison? Because there's a guy here I've heard talking the same nonsense. Unless it was a motorcycle, or you were riding in a hurricane, either you're lying or delusional. The top speed reached by world class sprinters on anything approaching conventional bikes is 45mph. These are the top sprinters in the TDF. At that speed, accelerating by 1mph is a tremendous effort. 70mph on flat ground is so far beyond reasonable that it's not even funny anymore.

      What gear ratios were you using? The top gear ratio on most mountain bikes spins out around 30mph. I know you built it yourself or whatever, but the smallest cog I know of is 11 teeth. (8 for bmx) The biggest chainring I've ever heard of is 60 teeth. That's still not a high enough ratio, not to mention most people wouldn't even be able to turn the pedals over once.
    • cdahlkvist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I call *****. Let's see the ticket. As recursive pointed out (and these I have only seen special order) the largest manufactured chainring is 60 teeth. Sure, you had it specially built but I doubt you have the strength or stamina to reach and maintain a speed of 45mph (or your claimed 70mph speeds) without some sponsors with some big $/research behind your bike design (in which case you would be touting it around the world).

      My guess is your speedometer is broken, the cop was drunk and you were riding down a mountain (in Florida) while a hurricane pushed the tornado you were riding in front of....or YOU ARE A LIAR!
    • recursive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1>I had a digital speedometer that used radar bounced off the road to determine speed

      I didn't even notice this part. I think I know why your spedometer was inaccurate. Haha. You should try one of these. I think you'll find it reports lower speeds.

      http://www.cateye.com/en/products/viewProduct.php?modelId=53&catId=6&subCatId=0
  • EBFoxbat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm guessing I can't just go downhill...
  • sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Wow, what a crock. I have hit 55 mph only spinning at around 130 rpm cadence on a pretty decent downhill. This is on a front fairing recumbent which has 1/2 the drag of your mountain bike. I also had a bit over 120 gear inches. A mountain bike, on flat ground, going 70 mph, is being towed by a car.
  • sacherjj, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, I was trying to reply to the buried comment about the guy on a Mountain Bike routinely riding 70 mph. Apparently I hit the wrong reply to indicator. I don't think the speed record is a crock. I've actually met some of the riders and seen a few of the bikes that attempted the 1 mile record in 2001.
  • JamieThompson90, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I can get 34 on flat about 45-50 downhill if I'm lucky, just using my mountain bike. I do a lot of riding about 150 miles once every 5 days. But holy hell that's fast 54 :O wouldn't like to slip up.
  • franksmith, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Fast Freddie is a animal...

    The guy has been a Nor Cal racing icon for a long time.

    WTG FRED!!!
  •  

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