184 mph ...on a bicycle ... by a woman


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Old 09-19-18, 07:53 AM
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184 mph ...on a bicycle ... by a woman

No, not downhill, at a place so flat you can see the curvature of the earth: Bonneville.

American woman pedals 184 mph, smashing record held by men for more than 100 years

A 45-year-old American woman shattered a two-decade-old cycling speed record Sunday, pedaling 183.9 mph across Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats in the slipstream of a specially designed racecar.


[click to embiggen]

The record for paced cycling speed was previously held by Dutch rider Fred Rompelberg, who hit a top speed of 167 mph in 1995.

For Sunday’s record-breaking attempt, Denise Mueller-Korenek rode a custom-designed machine featuring a unique double drivetrain capable of propelling the bike forward 128 feet with each revolution of the pedals, a necessity for hitting speeds surpassing the takeoff velocity of the typical commercial jetliner. By contrast, a typically geared bike might travel about 17 feet with each pedal revolution, and racing bikes used in competitions like the Tour de France hit around 30 feet per turn of the pedals in their highest gear....


www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/09/18/american-woman-pedals-mph-smashing-record-held-by-men-more-than-years
 
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Old 09-19-18, 08:33 AM
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I've seen the video of the last man to hold the record. It looks like she went all out with her vehicle for creating the slipstream. Other interesting cycling records are the people who coast down mountains. I've skied one of the slopes and I can't imagine heading straight down like the downhill racers and crazy cyclists.
 
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Old 09-19-18, 08:34 AM
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Wow! As a kid I pedaled my 5 speed up to 50 mph on a slight down hill run ... and that was scary!
 
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Old 09-19-18, 10:43 AM
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How would you like to be sitting on the handle bars at that speed?

I remember as kids, we had bikes & if one had a flat, we'd take it off & sit on the other one's handle bars 2 miles to the country store & 2 miles back to get a patch & air it up.... all at about 15 mph.

I think the fastest I have ever gone on land was 115 in a '72 Dodge Charger I think it was. That was fast enough.... even when I was about 18 years old. Only think I want to go 185 mph on/in is an airplane.
 
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Old 09-22-18, 09:36 AM
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The downhill records are 141 mph in the snow and 107 on dry ground. The dry ground runs are usually done on the slope of a volcano because a cinder cones usually have a smooth surface and can be as much as a 100% grade (45°).

The sprinters you see on TV in professional roadraces like the Tour de France can hit a top speed of low 40s mph in a sprint. Yet this 45-year-old woman went 3.5x as fast as those 20-something men. Which shows how important aerodynamics is to all racing, but especially the forms that use an animal for an engine.

Which is why the riders in a race like the TdF spend most of their time riding duck-in-a-row, letting the guy in the front do the brunt of the work, punching a hole in the wind for his teammates. The guys in back are only working about 70% as hard as he is, so the guy in front (they call it "taking a pull") only stays there briefly, then he slides to one side and drifts to the back of the line for a rest. And the guy who was second begins taking his pull.
 
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Old 09-23-18, 03:07 AM
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Who would have thought that aerodynamics would come into play racing bicycles!
 
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Old 09-23-18, 04:38 AM
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Technically it's a bicycle. But it's also a specially engineered piece of machinery designed for high speed. Special materials and special bearings.

I'm not refuting the facts.

BUT...it's not a "bicycle" going 184 mph.

Kind of like NASCAR. Ford, Chevy, Toyota, etc... These are not stock cars. You're not going to buy one at a dealer and make minor changes and race at Daytona.

These things bother me.
 
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Old 09-23-18, 01:05 PM
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marksr:
Who would have thought that aerodynamics would come into play racing bicycles!
There is nothing so important in bicycle racing as aerodynamics.



This chart was created from wind tunnel data by German cycling coach Rainer Pivit. It shows that at 25 mph (40 kph), a typical overall speed for the Tour de France, rolling resistance/road friction and mechanical losses in the bike account for just 11% of energy expended. The other 89% of the energy the rider produces goes to overcoming aerodynamic resistance. At those speeds a rider is pushing aside about half a ton of air each minute so he can get past.

Aerodynamics outweighs all other concerns combined by almost 9 to 1.

But the riders close behind him (a yard or less) derive some benefit from the hole he punched through the air, so they go just as fast with substantially less effort. Just like in NASCAR.

This is why the mountains are so strategically important in roadracing. Because the speeds are much lower when going up the steep slopes, so not only is a rider fighting less aerodynamic drag when going uphill (because he isn't going so fast), neither do his persuers derive so much benefit from his efforts.

A rider can make more advantage out of a smaller energy expenditure in the hills than on the flats. Which is why, for the better part, roadraces are won in the hills. And why pro cyclists don't live in Florida.

Roadracing, from amateur through the pros, has no end of rules limiting the use of aerodynamic equipment. The "Energy Crisis" of the 1970s sparked a renewed interest in recumbent bicycles and they started having recumbent competitions in an effort to sell the public on their practicality as regular transportation. It was obvious from the speeds that amateur racers were capable of on a recumbent that their design has a dramatic aerodynamic advantage over the standard 'English racer' bicycle so the bicycle roadracing powers set out banning developments that might bring that technology into roadracing at the expense of the character of the sport. The recumbent itself was banned by the International Cycling Union in 1934.

The recumbent itself wasn't the end of that evolution because it made it blatantly obvious that the way forward was through improved aerodynamics, so they added a fairing to it, a slipstreamed enclosure that surrounded the rider.

But an enclosed rider can't get started without help, nor can he put a foot down when he needs to stop, so they added a third wheel for safety and convenience. And with the third wheel it was re-branded as the "human powered vehicle," or HPV (but it's still just a glorified tricycle).

The world hour record in a faired HPV is 56.89 miles. The world hour record on a standard 'English racer' bicycle is 33.881 miles. The bicycle record was set by one of the world's top roaracers, also a 4-time Tour de France winner. The HPV record was set by 'some guy' who is pretty much unknown outside of the HPV community. But he went 24 miles further in one hour.

That's how important aerodynamics is to bicycling.
 
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Old 09-24-18, 04:40 AM
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If this novelty snowballs, I can't wait to read about a kid, riding his aerodynamic bike to school and late, in front of a judge for exceeding the posted speed limit.
 
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Old 09-24-18, 04:58 AM
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When I was about 12 yrs old I got a ticket on my bicycle. Traffic was heavy and I was weaving in and out making good time. A cop saw it and caught up with me about a mile later and gave me a ticket
 
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Old 09-24-18, 05:26 AM
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A cop saw it and caught up with me about a mile later and gave me a ticket
Seriously? How much was it for and did you or your parents pay it?
 
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Old 09-24-18, 10:41 AM
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I was scared so I threw the ticket away. A detective came to the house and was waiting to 'arrest' me when I got home from my paper route. He said he was arresting me and releasing me to my mother's custody. There wasn't a monetary fine but I had to go to the police dept and watch a stupid movie about kids getting hurt on bicycles. I say stupid because for the kids in the movie to get hurt they had to throw commonsense out the window first.
 
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Old 09-24-18, 11:37 AM
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WOW!

I'd have been so scared I would've needed a change of underwear.

What was your parents reaction?
 
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Old 09-24-18, 11:59 AM
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I think it was more shock than anything else. I believe the cop had been at the house for awhile talking with my mother before I got home - pretty sure she knew the 'plan' before it happened. I don't recall getting in any trouble over it - maybe they figured the law coming out and scaring me more was sufficient.
 
 

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