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posted by takyon on Wednesday September 19 2018, @03:59PM   Printer-friendly
from the push-pedal dept.

VeloNews reports: Mueller-Korenek rides 183.9mph, smashing world record

On the Bonneville Salt Flats, tucked in behind a 1,000-horsepower drag race car, Denise Mueller-Korenek hit 183.932 miles per hour, smashing a 23-year-old world record.

"It was a crazy wild ride to 183.9 mph, but so worth the sacrifice and years of focus on becoming the fastest human on a bicycle in the world," said Mueller-Korenek after breaking the record on September 16.

She hit the record speed on her second attempt, breaking Fred Rompelberg's 1995 Paced Bicycle Speed Record, 167mph.

Mueller-Korenek, 45, is familiar to top speeds on Utah's salt flats. She previously set a women's world record of 147.75mph in 2016. This Sunday, the mother of two took the world record outright, paced by an overhauled version of the dragster that paced Rompelberg to his record speed.

Also at NPR.


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @09:15PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 19 2018, @09:15PM (#737230)

    Correct, the intermediate shaft is called a "jack shaft" and this is a two stage speed-up chain drive (normal bike has a one-stage speed-up drive). Also, from the video, it appears she had a freewheel (allows coasting with pedals stationary). Most of the paced records have been set with track bikes (no freewheel, pedals rotate with the rear wheel).

    Video embedded in this article, https://www.bicycling.com/news/a23281242/denise-mueller-korenek-breaks-bicycle-speed-record/ [bicycling.com]

    I believe the last time that a single speed-up drive was used was Dr. Alan Abbott, MD -- ~140 mph in 1973 and his bike had a fixed gear, like a track bike:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUmabVbz0ys [youtube.com]
    The front sprocket, shown at the start of the video is something like 100 teeth (classic 10-speed road bike is 52 teeth)--this explains why higher speeds required a two-stage drive. Note that Abbott used one hand to hold onto the car at the start, and he didn't have to hold very long before he could start pedaling.

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  • (Score: 2) by Nuke on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:15PM

    by Nuke (3162) on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:15PM (#737473)

    I believe the last time that a single speed-up drive was used was Dr. Alan Abbott, MD -- ~140 mph in 1973 and his bike had a fixed gear, like a track bike

    I think I know what you are saying, but practically all bikes use a "speed-up drive", ie the wheels turn at a higher rpm than the pedals. The exceptions to that are some children's bikes/trikes and the antique "ordinary" types ("Penny Farthings" and "Boneshakers") which have pedals directly on the front wheel axle.

    Also exceptions are some modern bikes that I have seen with about a hundred different gear ratios, some of which by the looks of it involve a smallest chainring (the pedal cog) with fewer teeth than the largest sprocket (the one on the back wheel) - a pointless arrangement really because if you are going that slow you might as well get off and walk it. This is especially so as these bikes often also have small wheels and their owners pedal painfully slowly even at the best of times. I notice from the video that Mueller-Korenek was pedalling at about 120 rpm or more, typical of a short distance effort; a long distance racing cyclist will pedal at typically 90 rpm on the flat, varying with individuals.