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The Toughest Test in Cycling

wsj.com

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Re: The Toughest Test in Cycling

#3

Post by lavamantis »

Right at the beginning of my obsession with cycling, I read about this record and it's most fascinating challenger: Graeme Obree.

Nicknamed "The Flying Scotsman", he made his own bicycles out of washing machine parts and invented a few new riding positions before being banned by the UCI.

Pretty interesting cat. http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/asportingnation/...

Re: The Toughest Test in Cycling

#4

Post by KerrickStaley »

The fastest bikes in the world aren't uprights, they're recumbents with streamlined fairings. The world-record holder is this one (although for a distance of 200 meters rather than a time of 1 hour): http://www.gizmag.com/human-powered-speed-record-2013/29103/

The UCI bans recumbents in all racing competitions however: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle

Re: The Toughest Test in Cycling

#5

Post by paulgerhardt »

KerrickStaley wrote: post #4

The fastest bikes in the world aren't uprights, they're recumbents with streamlined fairings. The world-record holder is this one (although for a distance of 200 meters rather than a time of 1 hour): http://www.gizmag.com/human-powered-speed-record-2013/29103/ The UCI bans recumbents in all racing competitions however: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle

I suppose that really depends on what your definition of "fastest bike" is.

Recumbents have gotten to 80mph - maybe topping out at 100mph.

Eric Barone took his mountain bike to 130 by riding down a mountain.

Matt Hoffman got a bit faster than that by jumping out of an airplane with his.

François Gissy got a bit faster than that by strapping a few rockets on – 207mph.

The UCI didn't bother to recognize this records either.

Re: The Toughest Test in Cycling

#6

Post by eng_monkey »

lavamantis wrote: post #3

Right at the beginning of my obsession with cycling, I read about this record and it's most fascinating challenger: Graeme Obree. Nicknamed "The Flying Scotsman", he made his own bicycles out of washing machine parts and invented a few new riding positions before being banned by the UCI. Pretty interesting cat. http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/sportscotland/asportingnation/...

> he made his own bicycles out of washing machine parts

Wasn't it just the bottom bracket that he reused from a washing machine?

Re: The Toughest Test in Cycling

#7

Post by sib »

paulgerhardt wrote: post #5
KerrickStaley wrote: post #4

The fastest bikes in the world aren't uprights, they're recumbents with streamlined fairings. The world-record holder is this one (although for a distance of 200 meters rather than a time of 1 hour): http://www.gizmag.com/human-powered-speed-record-2013/29103/ The UCI bans recumbents in all racing competitions however: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle

I suppose that really depends on what your definition of "fastest bike" is. Recumbents have gotten to 80mph - maybe topping out at 100mph. Eric Barone took his mountain bike to 130 by riding down a mountain. Matt Hoffman got a bit faster than that by jumping out of an airplane with his. François Gissy got a bit faster than that by strapping a few rockets on – 207mph. The UCI didn't bother to recognize this records ei…

I'd suggest that it's pretty simple to separate into "on [net] level ground [with no more than a trivial amount of slope at any point], powered only by a single human" vs others...

Re: The Toughest Test in Cycling

#8

Post by Pxtl »

KerrickStaley wrote: post #4

The fastest bikes in the world aren't uprights, they're recumbents with streamlined fairings. The world-record holder is this one (although for a distance of 200 meters rather than a time of 1 hour): http://www.gizmag.com/human-powered-speed-record-2013/29103/ The UCI bans recumbents in all racing competitions however: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recumbent_bicycle

I'm not really interested in tech that can't be transferred out of the event, so it always bothers me that these events throw the baby out with the bath-water when they demand either pure traditionalism or alternately allow insanely impractical things like fairings.

I'd love to see some kind of event that accomodates the challenges of real-life like wind and traffic, but still allows experimentation with bleeding-edge tech.

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