The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
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Re: The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
#2The video ends with a brief second where the cyclist explains what prevented even higher speed. I make out: "too much vibration...", "knees rubbing...", "unable to continue increasing power output". Would love to hear more about this.
Re: The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
#3The video ends with a brief second where the cyclist explains what prevented even higher speed. I make out: "too much vibration...", "knees rubbing...", "unable to continue increasing power output". Would love to hear more about this.
Note the video was from last year when they failed to set the record. This year they've done it. They probably will release a video of this year's efforts eventually.
Re: The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
#4I'm guessing something can't get much more aerodynamically shaped? I wonder if they used a power meter to measure the driver/rider's power output and whether the driver was an accomplished cyclist. It seems that at this point, it would simply be a matter of getting a stronger cyclist, say someone like Brad Wiggins who can push 430 watts for an hour over an amateur, but still respectable rider, who puts out something more like 250 watts for an hour.
The article states that riders have 5 miles to speed up before they cross the speed trap that measures. Assuming the average speed of the whole endeavor is, say, 60mph, you would want a pro time trialist who excels at hard 5-minute efforts. This chart[1] states that a world class cyclist should be able to put out 7.5 watts/kg for 5 minute efforts. Brad Wiggins weighs 77kg, so I guess theoretically he should be able to put out 577 watts, versus a "good" with the same weight who might "only" put out 350 watts in the same 5-minute period.
I would be very interested to see what would happen if you simply replaced the 85mph rider in the submission with Brad Wiggins.
[1] http://d4nuk0dd6nrma.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/...
Re: The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
#5I wonder how much impact a professional track cyclist would have. Im sure the current pilot is a strong rider, but if you got a world record sprinter into the world record bike, how fast could they go?
Re: The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
#6I'm guessing something can't get much more aerodynamically shaped? I wonder if they used a power meter to measure the driver/rider's power output and whether the driver was an accomplished cyclist. It seems that at this point, it would simply be a matter of getting a stronger cyclist, say someone like Brad Wiggins who can push 430 watts for an hour over an amateur, but still respectable rider, who puts out something…
I would imagine that power to weight ratio is more important than just the power. Also the smaller the cyclist, the smaller they can build the aerodynamic shell, thus reducing drag.
Re: The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
#7I'm guessing something can't get much more aerodynamically shaped? I wonder if they used a power meter to measure the driver/rider's power output and whether the driver was an accomplished cyclist. It seems that at this point, it would simply be a matter of getting a stronger cyclist, say someone like Brad Wiggins who can push 430 watts for an hour over an amateur, but still respectable rider, who puts out something…
I would imagine that power to weight ratio is more important than just the power. Also the smaller the cyclist, the smaller they can build the aerodynamic shell, thus reducing drag.
Actually, on a flat surface with a constant speed or acceleration, weight matters much, much less than frontal area. Weight comes into play much more when many quick accelerations or elevation gains come into play.
Because frontal area doesn't increase proportionally with weight, I would argue that power output should be the primary concern and that typically increases substantially with weight. For evidence of this, look at world class time trialists versus world class hill specialists.
Fabian Cancellara [1] is considered one of the top time trialists in the world at 181 lbs as he can put out much more absolute consistent power than someone like Nairo Quintana who is considered one of the world class climbers and weighs 128 lbs, [2] even though Nairo Quintana may have a better power:weight ratio.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabian_Cancellara [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nairo_Quintana
Re: The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
#8I wonder why for fastest human-powered they don't use more than one cyclist. I assume with eight humans like in rowing you could get up to a ridiculous speed. Might be a little dangerous though.
Re: The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
#9I'm guessing something can't get much more aerodynamically shaped? I wonder if they used a power meter to measure the driver/rider's power output and whether the driver was an accomplished cyclist. It seems that at this point, it would simply be a matter of getting a stronger cyclist, say someone like Brad Wiggins who can push 430 watts for an hour over an amateur, but still respectable rider, who puts out something…
You could really probably optimize for the 200m speed zone. As long as you can get to your top speed before it, you dont need to fly through the 5 mile zone. Better to save energy for an explosive finish.
Track cyclists sometimes do a "flying 200m." The record is 9.347 seconds which is 47.86 mph. Thats on a non aero bike with drop handle bars. It would be very interesting to see them in a perfectly aero recumbant bike like this.
Re: The world's fastest human-powered vehicle tops 85 mph
#10> The WHPSC is basically where cyclists put their knees where their mouth is, and attempt to beat the record for pedal-powered speed.
This is truly an epic pun, I'm duly impressed.