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.
Jul 6, 2006 View in Crawl 4
beelzJul 7, 2006
54 mph . thats as fast as my geo and gets better mpg too
thoseJul 7, 2006
Cool looking bike. Doesn't look very stable in the video. Must be hell hard to ride
recursiveJul 7, 2006
Do 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.
sacherjjJul 7, 2006
Of 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...
orxorJul 7, 2006
sacherjj: 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.
recursiveJul 7, 2006
>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. <a class="user" href="http://www.cateye.com/en/products/viewProduct.php?modelId=53&catId=6&subCatId=0">http://www.cateye.com/en/products/viewProduct.php?modelId=53&catId=6&subCatId=0</a>
surfingJul 7, 2006
s**t, I could do this on my beach cruiser.
franksmithJul 8, 2006
Fast Freddie is a animal...The guy has been a Nor Cal racing icon for a long time.WTG FRED!!!
pierrejeanDec 21, 2008
Perfect candidate for a green cycling shirt:<a class="user" href="http://www.procyclingshirts.com/tour-de-france/the-maillot-vert-or-green-jersey/">http://www.procyclingshirts.com/tour-de-france/the ...</a>