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Todd is actually a world-class rider (based on the chart you provided, as well). From the article before they won the Sikorsky prize: "Reichert, a national-le

Todd is actually a world-class rider (based on the chart you provided, as well). From the article before they won the Sikorsky prize: "Reichert, a national-level speed skater, can pedal at 1.2 horsepower for a full minute" http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news/gta/2012/08/26/humanpowered_helicopter_toronto_engineers_aiming_to_win_elusive_sikorsky_flight_prize.html http://m.thestar.com/#/article/news/gta/2012/08/26/humanpowe...

irl_zebra 11y ago
EDIT: Made a mistake with the numbers! This is interesting; 1.2hp is about 895 watts. Assuming he's probably 65kg (total guess from the looks of him). That means he can do about 13.7 Watts/KG for 1-minute. According to the chart I posted above, looking at 1 minute power, that puts him as a Far to Moderate level cyclist. Even giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming 55kg, making the ratio a better 16.2 Watts/KG, that just moves him up to the "Good" category. So perhaps a lot of improvement could be had moving to a professional cyclist.
- yurisagalov 11y ago
  You are looking at maximal power output for 5 seconds (the left most column) while you should be looking at maximal power output for 1 minute (the 2nd column from left) :)
  - irl_zebra 11y ago
    Wow you're absolutely right, my mistake! Todd must be a very, very fantastic cyclist!
    - jonknee 11y ago
      Hence setting the speed record!
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
msandford 11y ago
1.2 horsepower for a minute is a damn fine effort. A college friend of mine is a domestic pro. Last I heard his max power was 1100 watts and his 30 second power was 1050 watts. One horsepower is 732 watts so 1.2 * 732 = 878 which is an entirely reasonable number for a 60 second power test. Also remember that drag goes with the speed squared, so getting a cyclist who is 20% more powerful might cause less than a 10% increase in speed, especially considering that the power of the cyclist may not be the limiting factor but instead the ergonomics of the vehicle, getting the run exactly right (being at max speed over the right 200m rather than any 200m), or something else entirely.
- darkmighty 11y ago
  I guess he has also the advantage that he can train specifically for this kind of burst power. All his other projects were of this kind -- a minute or two of maximum possible power.
  - msandford 11y ago
    It's actually a very specific power profile. It'll be 10-20 or so minutes of work for the actual run (at 30mph it's 2 minutes a mile and you'll spend plenty of time under 30), but perhaps with an hour or more surrounding. Some amount of warm up almost for sure possibly with some substantial efforts. The body has only a few kilojoules of oxygen debt that it can get into before the pain becomes too much and you're forced to slow down to stop the pain. It's important that you spend those kilojoules just right. So that means accelerating aerobically as long as possible, which is going to be a slow acceleration. You might not use all five miles, but I would wager a good portion of it. And using a power meter to ensure that the cyclist doesn't go anerobic before the critical portion is actually really smart (I don't know if they did this). The goal is to be doing 50-60mph aerobically (or whatever you can actually do) and then have a 30-60 second interval start at exactly the right point to lead to maximum speed over the 200m. But because the human body isn't as precise as our measurements, you'll never get it exactly right. Some days at the end of the 200m you'll say "I still had some legs left" and other days you'll start to fall apart before the start of the timed 200m.
fmela 11y ago
He also has a PhD, and was part of the team that designed and built it. From the wikipedia page about the helicopter: "The peak power of 1.1 kW (1.5 hp) was only generated during the first few seconds to climb to the required 3-metre (9.8 ft) altitude. By the end of the flight, power had reduced to 600 W (0.80 hp). Todd Reichert, the pilot and a racing cyclist, had specifically trained for such a power profile."

irl_zebra 11y ago

EDIT: Made a mistake with the numbers! This is interesting; 1.2hp is about 895 watts. Assuming he's probably 65kg (total guess from the looks of him). That means he can do about 13.7 Watts/KG for 1-minute. According to the chart I posted above, looking at 1 minute power, that puts him as a Far to Moderate level cyclist. Even giving the benefit of the doubt and assuming 55kg, making the ratio a better 16.2 Watts/KG, that just moves him up to the "Good" category. So perhaps a lot of improvement could be had moving to a professional cyclist.

yurisagalov 11y ago
You are looking at maximal power output for 5 seconds (the left most column) while you should be looking at maximal power output for 1 minute (the 2nd column from left) :)
- irl_zebra 11y ago
  Wow you're absolutely right, my mistake! Todd must be a very, very fantastic cyclist!
  - jonknee 11y ago
    Hence setting the speed record!
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

msandford 11y ago

1.2 horsepower for a minute is a damn fine effort. A college friend of mine is a domestic pro. Last I heard his max power was 1100 watts and his 30 second power was 1050 watts. One horsepower is 732 watts so 1.2 * 732 = 878 which is an entirely reasonable number for a 60 second power test. Also remember that drag goes with the speed squared, so getting a cyclist who is 20% more powerful might cause less than a 10% increase in speed, especially considering that the power of the cyclist may not be the limiting factor but instead the ergonomics of the vehicle, getting the run exactly right (being at max speed over the right 200m rather than any 200m), or something else entirely.

darkmighty 11y ago
I guess he has also the advantage that he can train specifically for this kind of burst power. All his other projects were of this kind -- a minute or two of maximum possible power.
- msandford 11y ago
  It's actually a very specific power profile. It'll be 10-20 or so minutes of work for the actual run (at 30mph it's 2 minutes a mile and you'll spend plenty of time under 30), but perhaps with an hour or more surrounding. Some amount of warm up almost for sure possibly with some substantial efforts. The body has only a few kilojoules of oxygen debt that it can get into before the pain becomes too much and you're forced to slow down to stop the pain. It's important that you spend those kilojoules just right. So that means accelerating aerobically as long as possible, which is going to be a slow acceleration. You might not use all five miles, but I would wager a good portion of it. And using a power meter to ensure that the cyclist doesn't go anerobic before the critical portion is actually really smart (I don't know if they did this). The goal is to be doing 50-60mph aerobically (or whatever you can actually do) and then have a 30-60 second interval start at exactly the right point to lead to maximum speed over the 200m. But because the human body isn't as precise as our measurements, you'll never get it exactly right. Some days at the end of the 200m you'll say "I still had some legs left" and other days you'll start to fall apart before the start of the timed 200m.

fmela 11y ago

He also has a PhD, and was part of the team that designed and built it. From the wikipedia page about the helicopter: "The peak power of 1.1 kW (1.5 hp) was only generated during the first few seconds to climb to the required 3-metre (9.8 ft) altitude. By the end of the flight, power had reduced to 600 W (0.80 hp). Todd Reichert, the pilot and a racing cyclist, had specifically trained for such a power profile."