The International Human Powered Vehicle Assn. hosts speed championships at Battle Mountain, Nevada every year. This year the top speed was recorded by Todd Reichert pedaling AeroVelo -- a recumbent bicycle with a very low air drag fairing. He first broke his old top speed with a new record of 88.26 mph (142.04 kph) and then backed it up later with 89.59 mph (144.17 kph).
Results from this year's event:
- http://www.ihpva.org/home/
- Results from previous years and more details: http://www.recumbents.com/wisil/whpsc2016/speedchallenge.htm
IHPVA rules for the 200 Meter Flying Start Speed Trial were written around 1970 when the club used Ontario Motor Speedway (now a shopping mall) for top speed runs. As such the rules allow the course to include a tiny down grade (2/3 % grade -- 8 inches in 100 feet or 2/3meter in 100 meters) which matched the slope at OMS. Since the human engine is only good for one or two full out sprints per day, records only require a single run (unlike car records which require a return run on the same course). Windspeed is also regulated to minimize any tailwind or sailing assistance.
In the 1980s a road outside Battle Mountain was identified as a good course -- at high altitude for low drag and with a legal amount of down grade. Since then the Nevada highway department has joined the fun by paving that stretch of highway with very smooth pavement and leaving out the noise bumps along the side of the road (which would destroy high pressure bike tires). During the event the road is closed for a few hours every morning and evening when the wind is at a minimum.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by VLM on Wednesday September 28 2016, @02:10PM
Just to save anyone else the time, human powered hang gliders mostly have a Vne around 50-60 MPH.
Pilots can and do fly above Vne, but the mfgr only certifies the airframe up to Vne, so pilots can and do die when they exceed the specs.
Here's an interesting piece of hang gliding trivia, wide spread obesity is killing the hobby because there are not that many gliders rated over 200+ pounds. True medically only a third of the population is obese, but people can be too fat to hang glide while also being too thin to be obese (over-tall, I guess)
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:07PM
In regards to BMI, what you describe may be overweight (BMI goes Underweight, Normal, Overweight, Obese). I am overweight by BMI. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:26PM
Hmm yeah you can mush this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index#/media/File:Body_mass_index_chart.svg [wikipedia.org]
Up against
https://www.willswing.com/hang-glider-placard-specifications/ [willswing.com]
or
https://www.willswing.com/hang-gliders/falcon-4/ [willswing.com]
And the optimum height for a heavy but non-overweight falcon4-145 pilot is 5 foot 3 inches tall. Or the max no exceed is non-overweight pilot 6 foot 3 inches tall. A skinny basketball player could have problems with that glider.
Admittedly that's a pretty small glider like for kids and teens to train on.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 28 2016, @09:06PM
A few years ago a current All Black was listed as being obese according to his BMI.
He played as a hooker, so not particularly tall, but hugely muscled. Also of Polynesian origin, so he probably tended towards being big.
If I remember right it was Keven Mealamu.
This guy [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by slinches on Wednesday September 28 2016, @06:23PM
I think hang gliders would be considered wind powered, rather than human powered, anyway
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday September 28 2016, @06:40PM
I don't think a hang-glider really counts as human-powered - the human isn't the greatest inputter of energy to the system in getting to 50mph, is it?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday September 28 2016, @07:30PM
After push off, the hang glider pilot can contribute no energy to the Glider+Payload package. (I spoze they could flap their arms but if that worked we wouldn't need hang gliders.
Hang gliders are off topic here, I don't know why the OP tossed them in....
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 28 2016, @07:43PM
After push off
Before push off is exactly why I put them in. Clearly regular gliders getting a tow up to 5000 ft can't count because thats an avgas burning Cessna towing it. Thats also why parachutes don't count.
There is some argument for mountain climbing base jumpers, that is obviously completely human powered. Also luge sleds, maybe if humans pull the thing into place by hand.
If you don't allow "stored human energy" in the form of base jumpers then you shouldn't allow "stored human energy" in the form of human labor to make the bicycle and the tools to make it.
Hang gliders are the fastest clearly uman powered thing I can think of, other than the bicycle in the story and they're not built to fly fast enough.
In a fit of boredom I tried to calculate a displacement hull that could go that fast if a human pushed it and it would be large enough to have issues with the curvature of the earth and would be too massive for a human power output to get it up to full displacement hull speed. There would be wind issues.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday September 29 2016, @07:42AM
If you don't allow "stored human energy" in the form of base jumpers then you shouldn't allow "stored human energy" in the form of human labor to make the bicycle and the tools to make it.
There's no energy stored in the bicycle during its manufacture, or least none that is converted to work during a ride.
Once it's built, all the energy to power it up 90mph comes directly from the human (minus the very tiny incline of the road, which is only really for historic reasons).
As for BASE jumpers, while they (usually) gain gravitational potential energy by climbing to the top of whatever they're going to jump from, they don't have to expend the energy to do so themselves, and once they've got to the top there is no physical link between that potential energy and how they gained it. In the actual performance of the dive, they expend very little energy.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @03:15PM
Engineering always involves technical tradeoffs. Here, from a recumbent bike designer standpoint, they are walking the fine designer line between developing a aerodynamically low profile structure that has a volume that maximizes the amount of smugness it can hold. It sounds like a straightforward problem, but it is a lot harder than people imagine, because every little bit of smug is important.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:30PM
aerodynamically low profile structure that has a volume that maximizes the amount of smugness it can hold.
Hmm yes the famous ratio of volume vs coexist and bernie bumper stickers. Amateurs keep plastering on more and more stickers but the pros know once its entirely covered you need to move on to more advanced techniques, such as using gluten free soybean oil as a bearing lubricant instead of petroleum derived sources.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday September 28 2016, @07:35PM
The recumbent was designed to keep the belly supported in a why where it will actually fair the airflow. There's a reason they call them bellybikes in some circles.
(Had and rode a Recumbent for several years. )
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by CirclesInSand on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:42PM
88.26 mph (142.04 kph) and then backed it up later with 89.59
Holy crap. This is a bicycle you could ride on the interstate highway with and get a ticket for going too fast.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 28 2016, @05:56PM
Yes. Honorary speeding tickets have been given in the past by cops (with pre arrangement). The first one of these might have been after Freddy Markham in Gold Rush won the Du Pont prize for pedaling slightly faster than 65 mph -- that was in 1986 -- http://www.easyracers.com/racing.html [easyracers.com] and speeds have continued to increase since then.
A side note is that hpv racing has been a training ground for many top vehicle engineers. Making the most of a very low power "engine" really brings out creative solutions.
(Score: 1) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday September 28 2016, @08:32PM
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by Username on Wednesday September 28 2016, @08:54PM
Whoever’s idea it was to use public funds to pave a road and remove safety features so one guy can ride his bicycle down it should be removed from office.
Go make you’re own road. Can even make it U shape so the tire stays in a straight line.
(Score: 2) by Techwolf on Wednesday September 28 2016, @10:12PM
It was probably the county that did it, smaller roads are usually county roads and the county is responsible for them. The county probably asked the residents to allocate the budget for paving and road and attracting more tourists.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 29 2016, @01:01AM
The county/town of Battle Mountain may have lobbied for it, but the repave was done by the State of Nevada highway department. The stretch of road that the HPVs use without the noise makers is near town and is mostly a mine haul road (also serving some big ranches). If you fall asleep and go off the road nothing will happen except your car will get sandy--it is high desert and there is literally nothing to hit.
In Nevada they like high speeds -- their freeways used to have no speed limits until the national 55 came in from the feds. Even then, when I got a ticket for 65 on a Nevada freeway (1986), it was for $2 (two dollars) and was titled "Waste of a Resource".
Nevada also closes roads for the Silver State open road race,
http://www.silverstateclassic.com/records.aspx [silverstateclassic.com]
Current record 217.5570 MPH average over the 90 mile course -- from that page:
> ...
> 5. All holders of the Public Highway Land Speed Record will be listed on two perpetual trophies, one in the Capital Building of the State of Nevada in Carson City, and the other to be maintained at Silver State Classic Challenge office in Las Vegas, Nevada.