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Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record

443 points by coryfklein 8y ago

oh_sigh 8y ago
Wow - the gearing on that bike must be insane!
- schoen 8y ago
  The article says she couldn't even start to pedal until the bike was already at 100 MPH (!). > Behind it, Mueller-Korenek sat on a bike with gearing so steep that she needed to be towed to around 100 mph before taking over under her own power.
- bacon_waffle 8y ago
  From a photo in the article, it looks like two stages of insane.
- pianom4n 8y ago
  Bike from her previous record (which looks similar to the one in the article): https://www.knfilters.com/images/press/Mueller-Bike.jpg https://www.knfilters.com/images/press/Mueller-Bike.jpg
- obmelvin 8y ago
  The KHS bike she rode was a dragster in its own right. The low-slung, chopper-style bicycle is more than seven feet long and outfitted with 17-inch motorbike wheels for stability at insane speeds. It also demands a two-wheel drivetrain to propel the absurdly tall gear. “The drive ratio is 62:12, twice,” said John Howard, Mueller-Korenek’s coach, who once held the motor-paced record himself at 152 mph back in 1985. “That’s roughly 488 inches, or approximately 128 feet per revolution. She’s traveling nearly 130 feet every time she turns those cranks. It’s pretty mind-boggling.” It's pretty crazy. 128 ft per revolution!!!!
  - caf 8y ago
    Since I've had to convert several numbers to metric now to make sense of them, I though I'd put the conversions here for anyone else that's in the same boat: 183.9 MPH = 296.0 KPH (record speed, average over 1 mile) 100 MPH = 160 KPH (approximate speed at which tow rope detached and she began accelerating under her own power) 128 ft = 39 m (linear distance travelled per crank revolution)
  - r_c_a_d 8y ago
    The wheels must have been a little bigger than 17 inches, since (62/12) * (62/12) * 17 = 453.8 Massive gear. I wonder if anyone could get that moving from a standing start. A huge 1km TT rider maybe?
    - mqlkib 8y ago
      Don't forget about π, with it you get 18.3 wheels. No problem with really fat tires, I think.
      - r_c_a_d 8y ago
        When I read this I thought, what is n? You mean pi, right? Yes, 18.3 inch wheel is what I got. Here in the UK, the "wheel" size includes the tire as well, I think. I guess if the rim is 17 inch diameter then 18.3 is only a tire width of 0.65, which isn't very fat.
- antongribok 8y ago
  If the gears are 62:12 twice, would it be correct to say the final ratio is equivalent to 31:3?
  - schoen 8y ago
    No, when you put gear ratios in series, they'll multiply rather than adding, so it's rather equivalent to 3844:144, or in least terms 961:36.
    - userbinator 8y ago
      More simply, it's a ratio of ~26.7:1 --- the wheel turns approximately 26.7 times for each turn of the crank. Using some of the other numbers mentioned here, we can calculate that at her top speed of 296km/h she was pedaling at ~126RPM, and the wheels of the bike spinning at ~3377RPM. If we knew the torque, or alternately the "stroke" of the crank and the average force she was exerting, we would also be able to find out her power output in W or HP. Edit: some searching around reveals that 120-130RPM is usually where peak power is for cyclists, which corresponds with roughly where she was at top speed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17562069 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17562069 ...and it makes me wonder if she had another gear, would she be able to keep accelerating beyond that. She would've probably been producing 1-2HP at that speed.
apo 8y ago
Didn't see a video on that page, but it's here: https://www.bicycling.com/news/a23281242/denise-mueller-korenek-breaks-bicycle-speed-record/ https://www.bicycling.com/news/a23281242/denise-mueller-kore... That must have taken a lot of training. One wrong move and it's game over.
- 07d046 8y ago
  Crazy. But I'm not so sure about this claim that the coach makes: My theory is that women are able to push that aging envelop a little further than men and are more capable of long-distance peak performance At the top end, the strongest men are always stronger than the strongest women, and age impacts women more quickly than men, judging by rowing results: https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/racing/records/world/2000 https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/racing/records/world/...
  - jchrisa 8y ago
    In my day to day life in the biking world, the women who don't train can keep up with the men who do.
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      Might be because men are more likely than women to be overweight, or at least out of shape?
      - craftyguy 8y ago
        [citation needed]
        saagarjha 8y ago
        Here’s one: https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/adult-overweightobesity-rate-by-gender/ https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/adult-overweightob... The numbers were a bit higher than I expected: 70% of men in the US are overweight and 60% of the women? Wow.
ourmandave 8y ago
Once they finished that phase of the run, the danger of a calamitous fall wasn't over: Holbrook and Mueller-Korenek had to work in tandem to slow down some 70 mph over a final mile, to reach an exit speed of 110 mph. Yeah, once your only going 110 mph on a bicycle, the danger is pretty much over. /s
- jiveturkey 8y ago
  I like how she was wearing a helmet. You know, for protection.
  - tachyonbeam 8y ago
    I would think that some protection is better than none, but besides that, the wind is probably very uncomfortable at that speed.
    - mertd 8y ago
      The truck in front is blocking the wind though, which is the point. Assuming she was going all out to fight the leftover wind, it probably felt like 40mph.
      - derefr 8y ago
        I wonder what sort of ridiculous speeds could be attained by a cyclist in a [long] vacuum chamber. I suppose the athlete would need to wear an EVA suit (or a diving suit? the requirements are sort of between the two), so that'd be a bit of a damper on their peak performance, but still.
        userbinator 8y ago
        There's a comment here that references a record set on a treadmill: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18020912 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18020912 ...over 200MPH. Of course, that sounds more like a skill involving reduction of friction and outputting as much power through the legs as possible than the more difficult act of also controlling a bike at those speeds.
jl2718 8y ago
This is insanely dangerous. One whiff of the slipstream and you are dead. As for physical difficulty, the bike setup she uses takes about 1.5 watts per mph of rolling/gearing resistance, although the back end of the slipstream gives some forward pressure. The drag vehicle is likely the limiting factor.
- jannyfer 8y ago
  Is it that dangerous? I thought motorcyclists wearing protective gear were safe if they fell slid to a stop. The danger would be from crashing into other things, but most of this place looks flat?
  - berbec 8y ago
    If she fell out of the slip stream, she wouldn't have fallen over. She would have been thrown off the bike by hitting the 175+mph wind. It would be like walking out of your house into a Category 5 hurricane. She could have been tossed and likely died.
    - olivermarks 8y ago
      plenty of motorcycles doing 300 mph at Bonneville (there's even a Triumph mc named after the place). Her posture isn't ideal I agree compared to drag and speed trials bikes https://youtu.be/3Cq-DfTTPFw https://youtu.be/3Cq-DfTTPFw
      - DasIch 8y ago
        These motorcycle drivers are continuously exposed to wind pressure though, in her case she would be suddenly exposed to it which probably would be not unlike hitting a wall.
        mileycyrusXOXO 8y ago
        In addition, her bicycle is not aerodynamic and likely weighs between 20-30 lbs, whereas a race a race motorcycle is very aerodynamic and might weigh between 400-500 lbs. I'm sure the rolling weight of the wheels would dramatically impact stability as well.
liquid153 8y ago
So she gets pulled by a dragster, how is this different from sitting on a side car, or being pulled by a trailer. This seems dumb.
- throwaway2048 8y ago
  She got pulled up to 100mph then accelerated under her own power to the final speed, due to gearing being too insane to start from 0.
- jiveturkey 8y ago
  She is only being pulled to start (the gearing is too tall) and to be in an aero envelope.
- zandl 8y ago
  I guess in a way it just saves time, she could have some set of gears to manually work up to that speed. Assuming you could fit that many gears on a bike, but yeah it’s not precisely what’s I’d expect either.
  - anonytrary 8y ago
    I think I understand where the comment is coming from. It's like saying the fastest car in the universe is the Tesla roadster in space. At what point does this become about semantics? Does getting hurled into space count as a car being fast? Does getting dragged by a car and letting something else roll along after decoupling count as being fast? The headline is misleading in that regard.
- giobox 8y ago
  It would be a heck of a lot dumber for the purposes of setting this particular record fitting the weight of the not insignificant number (and range!) of gears it would take to let human legs accelerate the bike to that speed... Remember, she is doing over 180mph at probably somewhere in the region of 80-120RPM at the cranks, that’s an _enormous_ gear to push. It’s the same reason you don’t start your typical car in 6th gear from a standing start. For what it’s worth, people do try standing start records using a car for a slipstream and a very large fixed gear, it typically limits most riders to ~100MPH. Given the huge jumps in cog size needed it’s hard to do multiple gears on a push bike for something like this without building pretty complex (and likely heavy) transmissions. You’re certainly not going to manage it on Shimano derailleurs...
nostromo 8y ago
Seems like the whole being towed by a race car bit is cheating.
- fishtoaster 8y ago
  Might want to reread the article. It's only towed by the car until it hits about 100mph since below that speed, it's not really possible to turn the pedals due to the insane gearing. Above that speed, the race car detaches and the bicyclist pedals up to 183.9mph.
  - grendelt 8y ago
    Yep. Getting towed to get enough speed still seems... something.
    - usrusr 8y ago
      It's hardly a rounding error compared to all the drafting. Nobody who has ever ridden a bike fast in and out of a slipstream would waste much thought about that little towing assist at the beginning, it's almost comparable to the little push the official gives to send a time trialist down the ramp.
  - noonespecial 8y ago
    I guess the real question is, how much of the propulsion (after the rope connection is detached) is actually from pedaling and how much is just a pneumatically coupled "tow line" from the car. Still quite a feat to control a bike at that speed with near certain death so few inches away.
    - s0rce 8y ago
      Does the higher air pressure from behind actually provide net thrust. If you neglect that you still have some air resistance, rolling resistance from the tires on the ground and various frictional losses in the bike. Overall, since the record on rollers indoors is higher (200 mph iirc) it seems being pulled being a vehicle isn't a huge benefit.
jiveturkey 8y ago
The previous effort failed to set a record because the lead vehicle (range rover) wasn't fast enough!!!
- dsfyu404ed 8y ago
  Yeah, getting a relatively normal vehicle to drag an enclosure with the aerodynamics of a brick (it has to punch a big hole in the air otherwise it wouldn't shield the rider from wind resistance) at a little less than 200mph is somewhat of an achievement in itself.
hirundo 8y ago
Woman Proves that Men Don't Have a Monopoly on Performing Insanely Dangerous Stunts for Dubious Status Symbols
- reversecs 8y ago
  Its weird that once a woman does something for the first time people highlight that the person doing it is a woman. Its a little patronizing imo.
  - fein 8y ago
    Everyone is equal, but hey heres a WOMAN that did a thing! I'm happy she achieved this, but the cognitive dissonance from HN is depressing. That being said, I never knew these records were done with a draft vehicle. It kind of takes the human out of the equations to the point that I don't care if a man or woman set this record. It seems like the pure record would be whoever has the land speed record in a bike unassisted by a tow and slipstream. I have more respect for whoever did that over some person that needed a mechanical advantage via a draft and a tow.
    - qbrass 8y ago
      That would be Todd Reichert going 89.59mph. http://www.ihpva.org/hpvarecl.htm#nom01 http://www.ihpva.org/hpvarecl.htm#nom01
sulam 8y ago
I like how the brakes are connected to the tow apparatus— because, you know, who needs brakes at those speeds?
edoo 8y ago
Motorcycle dragsters know not raise their torso off the bike around 120+ mph. Your body acts like a sail and you go flying off the bike. The high speed accidental dismounts in this sport will be interesting to watch.
- newnewpdro 8y ago
  You just serve as an air brake. As long as you're holding on it's not that big a deal on a sport bike. It sure helps with braking distance though since you can counter the lift of the rear should you need to emergency brake from such speeds. Source: individual who has ridden liter bikes > 180MPH many times.
toomanybeersies 8y ago
The fastest I've ever gone on a pushbike was around 80 km/h (50 mph), down a hill. It's pretty fun and a great adrenaline rush, but holy shit it's dangerous. It's not like I was wearing protective gear, my polystyrene helmet and lycra wasn't going to protect me at that speed. All it would've taken for me to fuck myself up was a large stone or a nail in my tyre or even just speed wobbles. I stopped hill bombing pretty quick. It's not really worth the risk. The fastest I've managed on a flat is around 60-70 km/h, drafting behind a random car. That's also not safe, if the driver tapped their brakes, I'd go straight into them. There's something so cool about going at car speeds, but without a motor.
- komali2 8y ago
  As I get older, every time I find myself cruising at 50mph in traffic on the freeway on my motorcycle, I ask myself how the fuck younger me thought this was an acceptable speed at which to start lanesplitting. Was I insane? Nowadays I'll start around 40, more like 30, and never more than 10 over. It's a shame so many motorcyclists die young, before they get a chance to "grow into" some safety sense. I distinctly remember talking with my friends age 12 about how (apologies) "gay" helmets were on our bicycles. We'd speedbomb hills too, it was fun. I remember feeling no fear back then. I remember my parents telling me "you're an idiot for thinking you're invulnerable." Why do we think that way when we're young, that we're immune to damage? What changes? We experience more death firsthand? If I hadn't had to clean up car accidents and watch a friend lose her intelligence to a helmetless bicycle accident, would I still feel invulnerable? I wonder about this woman - did she do this because she lacked the fear? Or did she feel it, and all the positives of doing it overruled her fear? Maybe she was just confident enough in her safety measures to do it anyway?
  - sbr464 8y ago
    You aren’t alone. Younger me is a scary person.
  - blihp 8y ago
    When you're young and lucky you lack both the experience of bad things happening to you and others and, if you're healthy, you think 'well I've always felt pretty much the way I feel now and when I get hurt I heal pretty fast' so you don't think too much about it. Also, most of the people around you tend to be in the same state, though there were probably at least a few exceptions but they were so few that they're easy to overlook. Then you get older and experience aches and pains where there were none before, when you get hurt instead of shaking it off you either take longer to heal and/or need a trip to the doctor, maybe you deal with a nasty illness/injury or two, see people you know dealing with and/or taken out by nastier things. Throughout all this you start becoming your parents saying things like 'stop running around with that... you could put an eye out' (hell, by this time you probably met someone who did just that) I figure in a few more years I'll be driving 20mph in the fast lane with my blinkers on... after all, what's the rush? Hey kids, get off my lawn! ;-)
Kapauldo3 8y ago
She's broken the glass ceiling of stupidity.
_wmd 8y ago
I'm not one to pay attention to such things normally, but the repeat gender and stupidity references in this thread seem to jump out, encouraging a vague sense of disappointment, and leave me wondering how the comments would look if it had been a man setting the record. Is a 105 year old man riding a bicycle ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327936 ) or jumping from the stratosphere ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4652150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4652150 ) less "stupid" or "dangerous", and inherently more "inspiring" or "incredible"? Is wearing a pressure suit somehow less "cheating"?
- Timmah 8y ago
  Maybe you should stop projecting your sexism into others?
- saagarjha 8y ago
  I'm not seeing it. Would you mind pointing it out to me?
- cheez 8y ago
  I don't see it...
tankerdude 8y ago
Instead of “Skate or Die!”, this is totally “Draft or Die!” Timing craziness and so many things that could go wrong....
schoen 8y ago
There's an interesting variety of record categories for bicycle speed; this is the very fastest one¹. motor-paced/unpaced: do you have a motor vehicle providing aerodynamic assistance in order to reduce air resistance? downhill/level ground: do you ride your bicycle on a flat surface or down a mountain? faired/unfaired: do you have a canopy attached to your bicycle to reduce air resistance? recumbent/upright: do you ride your bicycle lying down or sitting up? indoor/outdoor: do you ride your bicycle outdoors or on a velodrome track? ¹ Wikipedia also describes a treadmill record in which the cyclist encounters no air resistance at all, only friction between the bicycle and the ground and mechanical friction within the bicycle. That record is 207.9 MPH (!).
- takk309 8y ago
  Don't forget about one of my favorite cycling records, the penny farthing 1 hour record. It is a record that has been standing for 132 years![1] [1] https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/mark-beaumont-take-132-year-old-penny-farthing-hour-record-379826 https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/mark-beaumont...
  - schoen 8y ago
    Evidently Beaumont set a new British record on his attempt, but didn't break the world record: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-44503724/mark-beaumont-beats-127-year-old-penny-farthing-record https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-44503724/mark-beaumont-beats-...
maym86 8y ago
Would it be possible to build a bike like this but with multiple gears to get to speed from a standing start and not be towed? Is 100mph tow detatchmemt a required limit for the record?
- acomjean 8y ago
  I think you could, but you'd need a long way to get up to speed. The power needed to accelerate (Force=Mass*Acceleration) would be huge. I would imagine it would be a lot greater than steady state, where the only thing slowing you down is wind resistance. The windblock was clearly designed to minimize that force. I don't feel comfortable going much of 80mph sitting in my car.. I can't imagine doing it on two wheels. I don't think my car actually can go that fast...
  - BeeOnRope 8y ago
    Well the power needed to get from 100 mph to 183 is a lot more than from 0 to 100, at least in kinetic energy terms which is proportional to velocity squared. I think the main problem is that you'd be tired out getting to 100 mph, but that with the gearing so high it would be very difficult to start from a standstill without tipping over.
- s0rce 8y ago
  I thought about that too. I'm not sure how big spacing you'd need between gears so the jumps aren't too abrupt. You probably want something like a motorcycle transmission to handle the high speeds. Maybe something like the pinion gearbox but with much higher gears and larger spacing to get you to 200mph at a reasonable cadence.
  - wtallis 8y ago
    The front chain isn't moving any faster or enduring any more intense forces than a normal bicycle drivetrain, so it can be replaced by an off the shelf road bike gear set. With a 30-speed drivetrain this could provide a low gear that's about the same as the high gear on a road bike, so it would probably be possible to get moving from a standstill. In the highest gear, you'd be able to go at least 160mph pedaling at the same cadence that was used to set this record. And that's just with the off the shelf components. A custom set of gears could probably stretch out the ratios enough to provide a high gear that's equivalent to the record-setting configuration.
gesman 8y ago
Would be interesting to know what's her peak speed was? Did she break 200 barrier?
- hannasanarion 8y ago
  I imagine it would be hard to measure, since the car blocks radar and could have a different peak speed
  - taeric 8y ago
    That said, couldn't you just do a differential speed? Measure radar to the car, and from the car to the bike? With some extra math, I'd think you could easily establish her speed. Though...I also don't think the radar is necessary. Just rpm of the tires would suffice. No?
  - NietTim 8y ago
    Just measure the car, not like there's much of a difference anyway.
basicplus2 8y ago
I remember doing some calculations years ago and calculated that if one was capable of riding in a vacuum one could reach a speed of over 2000km/h based just on friction of moving parts and road
jdlyga 8y ago
And I feel like I'm going fast when I hit 15 mph
bch 8y ago
I think I never see her coasting. Fixed gear?
- schoen 8y ago
  That doesn't seem likely to me, because she doesn't pedal when she's being towed at the beginning. She only begins to pedal at around 0:30 in the video. So I conclude that there's a freewheel. Someone might suggest that the extraordinarily high gear ratio means that the initial acceleration involves just a tiny foot movement, but I think it would be severely disproportionate to what we see -- one of the interviews referred to the bike moving 128 feet per pedal revolution (quoted elsewhere in the comment thread). Clearly the bike has been towed much more than 128 feet before a pedal revolution has taken place, right? I would think a fixed gear under the circumstances would be very dangerous for various reasons, including the extremely long deceleration time at this speed and the extreme hazard of applying friction brakes. A fixed gear would mean that giving up the attempt (or even just ending it normally) requires a long period of continued effort to avoid injury and a very likely loss of balance. I wanted to contrast this with velodrome speeds by pointing out that this is over 3× the unpaced velodrome speed record and that the unpaced velodrome record allows the cyclist much more overall control of the situation. On the other hand, I don't know for sure whether the motor-paced velodrome record (which is about 2/3 of Mueller-Korenek's new outdoor record) used a fixed gear.
  - tomglynch 8y ago
    It's fixed gear. It doesn't seem like she's pedalling at the start because the gear ratio is soo large, so large in fact the bike can't even be pedalled at speeds less than 15mph.
    - schoen 8y ago
      But if so, shouldn't there have been several pedal revolutions at the start? Surely she was towed much more than several hundred feet?
      - 8y ago
tardo99 8y ago
I mean, couldn't someone just skydive while holding a bike and make a similar claim?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- anonytrary 8y ago
  In other news, the world's first Cheetah flies on a concord jet, further bolstering the Cheetah as the fastest feline in the world.
skookumchuck 8y ago
"to protect the cyclist from the wind" No, it's to eliminate aerodynamic drag, since nobody is strong enough to pedal against that anywhere near 180. It's awful hard to get a car to push against that. Nevertheless, going 180 mph on a bike is extremely dangerous. If you had any failure of the bike/tires, brushed against the slipstream, the towing vehicle suddenly speed up or slow down, you'd be dead. I also expect the drag racer would need modification. They're heavily optimized for a few seconds at full power, not a controlled cruise at moderate power. You'd likely need an automatic cruise control setting for precise speeds, a much more effective cooling system, and a clutch that doesn't engage with a huge jerk.
- TylerH 8y ago
  "protecting the cyclist from the wind" is simply the layman's way of saying "eliminating aerodynamic drag"
DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
I'm trying to understand the magnitude of her accomplishment. Based on the help she got from the car and the bike's unusual gearing, it sounds like her main athletic accomplishment was to accelerate a bike by 83.9 MPH. Am I missing something?
- ronaldj 8y ago
  Post a video when you do it. :P
  - kranner 8y ago
    This is a really unproductive class of response to criticism. It's unreasonable and pointlessly limiting to restrict criticism to people who can potentially replicate the results. Also the ad hominem aspect really sours the mood.
    - DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
      FWIW I wasn't even criticizing. I was just trying to get my mind around the physics of it all.
    - anyfoo 8y ago
      It depends on what it is a response to. If someone says that a particular feat is no accomplishment and easily replicable for essentially anybody (not e.g. in comparison to other participants), it doesn’t strike me as too unreasonable to call the person claiming it out on that. Sports are different from, say, someone criticizing art that way, where an appropriate response to “I could have done that” is often “but you didn’t”.
      - kranner 8y ago
        But in this case that commenter did not say "anyone could have done it". My interpretation of that comment was that the actual accomplishment is different (and lesser in terms of athleticism) from what the headline suggests. Does that deserve a "but you didn't" rejoinder?
hackerbabz 8y ago
Does anyone know why they used a dragster? Maybe cheaper to modify it to run for 5 miles than buying a sports car that can hit 180mph?
- rdlecler1 8y ago
  Probably need a clean slipstream.
anonytrary 8y ago
I applaud this, but at some point "riding a bike" becomes a somewhat inaccurate and/or incomplete description of what's happening here. There's so much auxiliary stuff required to make this possible that it seems like a bit of a stretch to call this "riding a bike". The footnotes kind of matter.
- croo 8y ago
  My thoughs exactly. They are behind a car and bike specially crafted for this and they pulling the bike up to speed - probably because the bike is non-fuctioning under 100 kmph or so. Great technical feat but it's not "cycling as we know it".
juskrey 8y ago
The thing to tell your children: never do anything that will cost you a life on any single smallest error.
NietTim 8y ago
These 'cycling' speed records are so lame. Go peddle into the wind if you want a record, I don't consider this normal cycling. This is just cheating.
- rcxdude 8y ago
  This is why there are different records for this kind of thing.
  - NietTim 8y ago
    Hence why I said these
- jrockway 8y ago
  Is there any cycling record category that doesn't try to reduce wind? Time trialists use special bikes and gear to reduce the effect of the wind. Road racers try to be behind someone that can block the wind for them. This is yet another category with the same theme.
  - NietTim 8y ago
    You're talking about reducing drag. There's a difference between trying to reduce drag and piggybagging behind something that almost complete eliminates wind, and perhaps even helps because of the way the air flows around the chute and creates a push effect behind it. Just the same as what's happening here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwwuCK-3iQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwwuCK-3iQ I disagree that this is even close to the same as other categories.
radoslawc 8y ago
Bike technical details: https://www.facebook.com/FireCycle/videos/533738473717627/ https://www.facebook.com/FireCycle/videos/533738473717627/
- minitoar 8y ago
  This guy is rad, I met him on the trail and we bike toured down highway 1 for ~3 days together. Amazing to see him in this video like 10 years later!
Markoff 8y ago
title is misleading, it's MOTOR PACED BICYCLE, not just bicycle
frgewut 8y ago
How much energy is actually transferred from car to cyclist? Records with too strong assisting wind often are not recognized. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_assistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_assistance
- tomglynch 8y ago
  This record is fastest speed on a bicycle while drafting. I don't think wind assistance matters.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
daef 8y ago
There's a video describing the attempt from 5 days ago: https://youtu.be/cZhrqKrljig https://youtu.be/cZhrqKrljig (WIRED)
close04 8y ago
Having a world record for something that requires so much skill and determination that it takes decades to beat it quite the achievement. Impressive by any measure. Congratulations to her! > Moments later, Holbrook yelled out into the open air of the Salt Flats, "Beat that, Fred!" Fred I assume is 72 year old Fred Rompelberg, who set the previous record 23 years ago. This challenge might be more appropriate 23 years from now :). Makes me think of the contrast with Felix Baumgartner who in his 2012 historic jump intentionally missed the free fall time record by a few seconds to not take every single record away from the previous holder, Joseph Kittinger, who held them for 52 years.
- saiya-jin 8y ago
  > Makes me think of the contrast with Felix Baumgartner who in his 2012 historic jump intentionally missed the free fall time record by a few seconds to not take every single record away from the previous holder, Joseph Kittinger, who held them for 52 years. That's what I call having a class and deserving my respect. Yelling some stuff about beating 23 year old record, well, has not. Materials improved tremendously, and out understanding of achieving high speeds too. It's like topping some old Everest record speed ascent when materials got much lighter, critical gear more reliable etc. And then yelling at Messner to beat it. Not cool at all...
  - fileeditview 8y ago
    Generally I would agree with you but maybe they just know Fred in person and maybe he appreciates the joke?! Maybe they were just loaded with adrenaline and couldn't help themselves. However most probably they value the person holding the previous record and you just understood it in a too personal way. What I want to say is we shouldn't be too fast with judgements (in this case and in general).
  - tom_ 8y ago
    Did you really just spend 1 minute of your life writing that.
- ubermonkey 8y ago
  ISTR, reading other coverage, that Rompelberg was at Bonneville for this attempt, and that he and Holbrook are friendly. I suspect we're losing something here, and that the comment is more goodnatured than taunting.
maurits 8y ago
Courtesy of the dutch traffic police, here is a torpedo shaped 'Quest' bike doing 62 on the bike path. No electric assist. [1] [1] https://youtu.be/7ubFk5uve9g?t=31s https://youtu.be/7ubFk5uve9g?t=31s
ratsimihah 8y ago
A woman and a suspension fork, not what one would expect for a speed record, is it? Not to be sexist or anything, I love it!
dsfyu404ed 8y ago
So someone breaks a world record by a really big amount and the top two comment threads are virtue signaling about how unsafe it is to ride various two wheeled vehicles fast and to borrow the words of another commenter, people talking past each other about 'highest performing males outperform highest performing females at almost everything' vs. 'average women are better at some things than average men.' Way to go. This is supposed to be a tech message board. /rant over. Now can someone tell me what the construction differences are about this bike that makes that speed possible. For starters a normal bike tire won't like that speed let alone for that duration. Is she using tubed tires? I can't think of any application where tubed tires go that fast at all let alone for that long.
- adam-a 8y ago
  There's a good video about this which shows some details on the bike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhrqKrljig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhrqKrljig Apparently it uses motorbike wheels, and it has a double reduction gear system. There is a cool section where the journalist tries to ride it without a tow-start, very difficult to peddle under normal circumstances.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- svmentality 8y ago
  This website is a pile of shit nowadays
- blauditore 8y ago
  I don't see many such comments. And frankly, meta-complaining doesn't make things much better either.
GrumpyNl 8y ago
Its done in a slipstream, place her in a vacuum and she will go much, much faster.
S_A_P 8y ago
I am not taking away from this feat because that is an amazing speed. Someone having the courage to stay on a bike going nearly 200 mph is incredible. I don’t want to get into the gender aspect of this either. My question is that it seems peculiar to even attempt a speed record under circumstances that are so completely artificial. Trailing a vehicle that blocks the wind? Having to be towed more than half way to the final velocity? Sure it’s a record, but it isn’t one that reflects any real world scenario. I would be very interested in what the speed record is when someone gets on a very expensive well engineered bike from a stop and under ideal yet still realistic conditions is able to reach x mile/km per hour under human power only. I don’t mean this as snark either it just seems like there are infinite stilted scenarios where we can imagine some “world record” such as “world hang gliding speed record holder exceeds Mach 1 while tethered to supersonic plane”. Maybe I’m answering my own question here when I say maybe it’s about the engineering required to do this safely.
- contravariant 8y ago
  You'll want to look into the hour record then, currently held by Bradley Wiggins at 54.526 km.
- mannykannot 8y ago
  I also feel the same way about using reaction motors (jets and rockets) to set land and water speed records - they seem to fall into the rather arbitrary category of "let's do everything we can to go as fast as possible except put wings on on it." Ultimately, though, it is even more about the courage to try it than the technology.
  - S_A_P 8y ago
    indeed- the idea that you can strap a rocket to anything to increase its velocity really only serves to advance things like braking and tire technology. That is, however, a valid pursuit.
  - NullPrefix 8y ago
    >except put wings One could argue that spoilers fall into the category of wings. Only difference is the lift direction.
ajaygeorge91 8y ago
Spoiler alert :P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFTqHbgsKs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFTqHbgsKs
huhtenberg 8y ago
Technically, she managed to maintain a speed of 184 MPH by pedaling her bicycle, in a slipstream, for less than a minute. It's very brave of her to attempt this, but it's as detached from the actual cycling as it gets.
- bla2 8y ago
  From TFA: "Mueller-Korenek sat on a bike with gearing so steep that she needed to be towed to around 100 mph before taking over under her own power." So no, she didn't just maintain 184 MPH.
  - whamlastxmas 8y ago
    The semantics of it are silly and pointless to discuss, since she's not accelerating those extra 84MPH using only her own power. There's a lot of aerodynamic influences happening here and this is more of an engineering feat than an athletic one.
    - bla2 8y ago
      The GP is factually wrong, this isn't "semantics". Your comment moves the goalpost to "well the aerodynamics help". This is true: The slipstream moves at the speed of the car ahead, so it's like she has no headwind slowing her down. She still needs to accelerate 84 MPH (on top of maintaining 100 MPH). Think of doing this on a gym bike where you don't have headwind either. This is very much an athletic feat. It's also an engineering feat, but again TFA: "As they targeted the overall record, their team revamped the same dragster that was used to set the men's record" -- they're reusing last time's engineering.
      - whamlastxmas 8y ago
        This record is like having a record for bench pressing with the aid of hydraulic lifts. How much do the hydraulic lifts help? How much is the person contributing? The whole premise just seems really stupid, and it's even dumber if they were to make the headlines "Woman smashes world record bench press at 23 tons". Just throw someone in Elon's hyperloop vacuum tubes on a bicycle fixed to the rails, make them wear a pressurized diving suit, and let them go to town. I'm sure they'd break 184MPH and it would be an equally pointless dick measuring contest.
gnufx 8y ago
It might be interesting to know about the technicalities of such things, like computational ones. The Liverpool group¹ that recently got hand-powered records did a fair amount of CFD modelling a few years ago, and presumably more recently (and somewhat restored faith in mechanical engineering students doing research computing). 1. https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2018/09/13/record-breakers-ulv-team-break-hand-cycling-records-with-arion4/ https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2018/09/13/record-breakers-ulv-...
24gttghh 8y ago
Meanwhile, the fastest un-paced record for a bicycle is: Todd Reichert 2016, 144.17 km/h (89.58 mph), Faired Recumbent, -0.6% grade, unpaced[0] [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cycling_records#Speed_record_on_a_bicycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cycling_records#Speed_...
jwilk 8y ago
Text-only version: https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=649221471 https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=649221471

443 points by coryfklein 8y ago

oh_sigh 8y ago

Wow - the gearing on that bike must be insane!

schoen 8y ago
The article says she couldn't even start to pedal until the bike was already at 100 MPH (!). > Behind it, Mueller-Korenek sat on a bike with gearing so steep that she needed to be towed to around 100 mph before taking over under her own power.
bacon_waffle 8y ago
From a photo in the article, it looks like two stages of insane.
pianom4n 8y ago
Bike from her previous record (which looks similar to the one in the article): https://www.knfilters.com/images/press/Mueller-Bike.jpg https://www.knfilters.com/images/press/Mueller-Bike.jpg
obmelvin 8y ago
The KHS bike she rode was a dragster in its own right. The low-slung, chopper-style bicycle is more than seven feet long and outfitted with 17-inch motorbike wheels for stability at insane speeds. It also demands a two-wheel drivetrain to propel the absurdly tall gear. “The drive ratio is 62:12, twice,” said John Howard, Mueller-Korenek’s coach, who once held the motor-paced record himself at 152 mph back in 1985. “That’s roughly 488 inches, or approximately 128 feet per revolution. She’s traveling nearly 130 feet every time she turns those cranks. It’s pretty mind-boggling.” It's pretty crazy. 128 ft per revolution!!!!
- caf 8y ago
  Since I've had to convert several numbers to metric now to make sense of them, I though I'd put the conversions here for anyone else that's in the same boat: 183.9 MPH = 296.0 KPH (record speed, average over 1 mile) 100 MPH = 160 KPH (approximate speed at which tow rope detached and she began accelerating under her own power) 128 ft = 39 m (linear distance travelled per crank revolution)
- r_c_a_d 8y ago
  The wheels must have been a little bigger than 17 inches, since (62/12) * (62/12) * 17 = 453.8 Massive gear. I wonder if anyone could get that moving from a standing start. A huge 1km TT rider maybe?
  - mqlkib 8y ago
    Don't forget about π, with it you get 18.3 wheels. No problem with really fat tires, I think.
    - r_c_a_d 8y ago
      When I read this I thought, what is n? You mean pi, right? Yes, 18.3 inch wheel is what I got. Here in the UK, the "wheel" size includes the tire as well, I think. I guess if the rim is 17 inch diameter then 18.3 is only a tire width of 0.65, which isn't very fat.
antongribok 8y ago
If the gears are 62:12 twice, would it be correct to say the final ratio is equivalent to 31:3?
- schoen 8y ago
  No, when you put gear ratios in series, they'll multiply rather than adding, so it's rather equivalent to 3844:144, or in least terms 961:36.
  - userbinator 8y ago
    More simply, it's a ratio of ~26.7:1 --- the wheel turns approximately 26.7 times for each turn of the crank. Using some of the other numbers mentioned here, we can calculate that at her top speed of 296km/h she was pedaling at ~126RPM, and the wheels of the bike spinning at ~3377RPM. If we knew the torque, or alternately the "stroke" of the crank and the average force she was exerting, we would also be able to find out her power output in W or HP. Edit: some searching around reveals that 120-130RPM is usually where peak power is for cyclists, which corresponds with roughly where she was at top speed: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17562069 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17562069 ...and it makes me wonder if she had another gear, would she be able to keep accelerating beyond that. She would've probably been producing 1-2HP at that speed.

apo 8y ago

Didn't see a video on that page, but it's here: https://www.bicycling.com/news/a23281242/denise-mueller-korenek-breaks-bicycle-speed-record/ https://www.bicycling.com/news/a23281242/denise-mueller-kore... That must have taken a lot of training. One wrong move and it's game over.

07d046 8y ago
Crazy. But I'm not so sure about this claim that the coach makes: My theory is that women are able to push that aging envelop a little further than men and are more capable of long-distance peak performance At the top end, the strongest men are always stronger than the strongest women, and age impacts women more quickly than men, judging by rowing results: https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/racing/records/world/2000 https://www.concept2.com/indoor-rowers/racing/records/world/...
- jchrisa 8y ago
  In my day to day life in the biking world, the women who don't train can keep up with the men who do.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    Might be because men are more likely than women to be overweight, or at least out of shape?
    - craftyguy 8y ago
      [citation needed]
      - saagarjha 8y ago
        Here’s one: https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/adult-overweightobesity-rate-by-gender/ https://www.kff.org/other/state-indicator/adult-overweightob... The numbers were a bit higher than I expected: 70% of men in the US are overweight and 60% of the women? Wow.

ourmandave 8y ago

Once they finished that phase of the run, the danger of a calamitous fall wasn't over: Holbrook and Mueller-Korenek had to work in tandem to slow down some 70 mph over a final mile, to reach an exit speed of 110 mph. Yeah, once your only going 110 mph on a bicycle, the danger is pretty much over. /s

jiveturkey 8y ago
I like how she was wearing a helmet. You know, for protection.
- tachyonbeam 8y ago
  I would think that some protection is better than none, but besides that, the wind is probably very uncomfortable at that speed.
  - mertd 8y ago
    The truck in front is blocking the wind though, which is the point. Assuming she was going all out to fight the leftover wind, it probably felt like 40mph.
    - derefr 8y ago
      I wonder what sort of ridiculous speeds could be attained by a cyclist in a [long] vacuum chamber. I suppose the athlete would need to wear an EVA suit (or a diving suit? the requirements are sort of between the two), so that'd be a bit of a damper on their peak performance, but still.
      - userbinator 8y ago
        There's a comment here that references a record set on a treadmill: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18020912 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18020912 ...over 200MPH. Of course, that sounds more like a skill involving reduction of friction and outputting as much power through the legs as possible than the more difficult act of also controlling a bike at those speeds.

jl2718 8y ago

This is insanely dangerous. One whiff of the slipstream and you are dead. As for physical difficulty, the bike setup she uses takes about 1.5 watts per mph of rolling/gearing resistance, although the back end of the slipstream gives some forward pressure. The drag vehicle is likely the limiting factor.

jannyfer 8y ago
Is it that dangerous? I thought motorcyclists wearing protective gear were safe if they fell slid to a stop. The danger would be from crashing into other things, but most of this place looks flat?
- berbec 8y ago
  If she fell out of the slip stream, she wouldn't have fallen over. She would have been thrown off the bike by hitting the 175+mph wind. It would be like walking out of your house into a Category 5 hurricane. She could have been tossed and likely died.
  - olivermarks 8y ago
    plenty of motorcycles doing 300 mph at Bonneville (there's even a Triumph mc named after the place). Her posture isn't ideal I agree compared to drag and speed trials bikes https://youtu.be/3Cq-DfTTPFw https://youtu.be/3Cq-DfTTPFw
    - DasIch 8y ago
      These motorcycle drivers are continuously exposed to wind pressure though, in her case she would be suddenly exposed to it which probably would be not unlike hitting a wall.
      - mileycyrusXOXO 8y ago
        In addition, her bicycle is not aerodynamic and likely weighs between 20-30 lbs, whereas a race a race motorcycle is very aerodynamic and might weigh between 400-500 lbs. I'm sure the rolling weight of the wheels would dramatically impact stability as well.

liquid153 8y ago

So she gets pulled by a dragster, how is this different from sitting on a side car, or being pulled by a trailer. This seems dumb.

throwaway2048 8y ago
She got pulled up to 100mph then accelerated under her own power to the final speed, due to gearing being too insane to start from 0.
jiveturkey 8y ago
She is only being pulled to start (the gearing is too tall) and to be in an aero envelope.
zandl 8y ago
I guess in a way it just saves time, she could have some set of gears to manually work up to that speed. Assuming you could fit that many gears on a bike, but yeah it’s not precisely what’s I’d expect either.
- anonytrary 8y ago
  I think I understand where the comment is coming from. It's like saying the fastest car in the universe is the Tesla roadster in space. At what point does this become about semantics? Does getting hurled into space count as a car being fast? Does getting dragged by a car and letting something else roll along after decoupling count as being fast? The headline is misleading in that regard.
giobox 8y ago
It would be a heck of a lot dumber for the purposes of setting this particular record fitting the weight of the not insignificant number (and range!) of gears it would take to let human legs accelerate the bike to that speed... Remember, she is doing over 180mph at probably somewhere in the region of 80-120RPM at the cranks, that’s an _enormous_ gear to push. It’s the same reason you don’t start your typical car in 6th gear from a standing start. For what it’s worth, people do try standing start records using a car for a slipstream and a very large fixed gear, it typically limits most riders to ~100MPH. Given the huge jumps in cog size needed it’s hard to do multiple gears on a push bike for something like this without building pretty complex (and likely heavy) transmissions. You’re certainly not going to manage it on Shimano derailleurs...

nostromo 8y ago

Seems like the whole being towed by a race car bit is cheating.

fishtoaster 8y ago
Might want to reread the article. It's only towed by the car until it hits about 100mph since below that speed, it's not really possible to turn the pedals due to the insane gearing. Above that speed, the race car detaches and the bicyclist pedals up to 183.9mph.
- grendelt 8y ago
  Yep. Getting towed to get enough speed still seems... something.
  - usrusr 8y ago
    It's hardly a rounding error compared to all the drafting. Nobody who has ever ridden a bike fast in and out of a slipstream would waste much thought about that little towing assist at the beginning, it's almost comparable to the little push the official gives to send a time trialist down the ramp.
- noonespecial 8y ago
  I guess the real question is, how much of the propulsion (after the rope connection is detached) is actually from pedaling and how much is just a pneumatically coupled "tow line" from the car. Still quite a feat to control a bike at that speed with near certain death so few inches away.
  - s0rce 8y ago
    Does the higher air pressure from behind actually provide net thrust. If you neglect that you still have some air resistance, rolling resistance from the tires on the ground and various frictional losses in the bike. Overall, since the record on rollers indoors is higher (200 mph iirc) it seems being pulled being a vehicle isn't a huge benefit.

jiveturkey 8y ago

The previous effort failed to set a record because the lead vehicle (range rover) wasn't fast enough!!!

dsfyu404ed 8y ago
Yeah, getting a relatively normal vehicle to drag an enclosure with the aerodynamics of a brick (it has to punch a big hole in the air otherwise it wouldn't shield the rider from wind resistance) at a little less than 200mph is somewhat of an achievement in itself.

hirundo 8y ago

Woman Proves that Men Don't Have a Monopoly on Performing Insanely Dangerous Stunts for Dubious Status Symbols

reversecs 8y ago
Its weird that once a woman does something for the first time people highlight that the person doing it is a woman. Its a little patronizing imo.
- fein 8y ago
  Everyone is equal, but hey heres a WOMAN that did a thing! I'm happy she achieved this, but the cognitive dissonance from HN is depressing. That being said, I never knew these records were done with a draft vehicle. It kind of takes the human out of the equations to the point that I don't care if a man or woman set this record. It seems like the pure record would be whoever has the land speed record in a bike unassisted by a tow and slipstream. I have more respect for whoever did that over some person that needed a mechanical advantage via a draft and a tow.
  - qbrass 8y ago
    That would be Todd Reichert going 89.59mph. http://www.ihpva.org/hpvarecl.htm#nom01 http://www.ihpva.org/hpvarecl.htm#nom01

sulam 8y ago

I like how the brakes are connected to the tow apparatus— because, you know, who needs brakes at those speeds?

edoo 8y ago

Motorcycle dragsters know not raise their torso off the bike around 120+ mph. Your body acts like a sail and you go flying off the bike. The high speed accidental dismounts in this sport will be interesting to watch.

newnewpdro 8y ago
You just serve as an air brake. As long as you're holding on it's not that big a deal on a sport bike. It sure helps with braking distance though since you can counter the lift of the rear should you need to emergency brake from such speeds. Source: individual who has ridden liter bikes > 180MPH many times.

toomanybeersies 8y ago

The fastest I've ever gone on a pushbike was around 80 km/h (50 mph), down a hill. It's pretty fun and a great adrenaline rush, but holy shit it's dangerous. It's not like I was wearing protective gear, my polystyrene helmet and lycra wasn't going to protect me at that speed. All it would've taken for me to fuck myself up was a large stone or a nail in my tyre or even just speed wobbles. I stopped hill bombing pretty quick. It's not really worth the risk. The fastest I've managed on a flat is around 60-70 km/h, drafting behind a random car. That's also not safe, if the driver tapped their brakes, I'd go straight into them. There's something so cool about going at car speeds, but without a motor.

komali2 8y ago
As I get older, every time I find myself cruising at 50mph in traffic on the freeway on my motorcycle, I ask myself how the fuck younger me thought this was an acceptable speed at which to start lanesplitting. Was I insane? Nowadays I'll start around 40, more like 30, and never more than 10 over. It's a shame so many motorcyclists die young, before they get a chance to "grow into" some safety sense. I distinctly remember talking with my friends age 12 about how (apologies) "gay" helmets were on our bicycles. We'd speedbomb hills too, it was fun. I remember feeling no fear back then. I remember my parents telling me "you're an idiot for thinking you're invulnerable." Why do we think that way when we're young, that we're immune to damage? What changes? We experience more death firsthand? If I hadn't had to clean up car accidents and watch a friend lose her intelligence to a helmetless bicycle accident, would I still feel invulnerable? I wonder about this woman - did she do this because she lacked the fear? Or did she feel it, and all the positives of doing it overruled her fear? Maybe she was just confident enough in her safety measures to do it anyway?
- sbr464 8y ago
  You aren’t alone. Younger me is a scary person.
- blihp 8y ago
  When you're young and lucky you lack both the experience of bad things happening to you and others and, if you're healthy, you think 'well I've always felt pretty much the way I feel now and when I get hurt I heal pretty fast' so you don't think too much about it. Also, most of the people around you tend to be in the same state, though there were probably at least a few exceptions but they were so few that they're easy to overlook. Then you get older and experience aches and pains where there were none before, when you get hurt instead of shaking it off you either take longer to heal and/or need a trip to the doctor, maybe you deal with a nasty illness/injury or two, see people you know dealing with and/or taken out by nastier things. Throughout all this you start becoming your parents saying things like 'stop running around with that... you could put an eye out' (hell, by this time you probably met someone who did just that) I figure in a few more years I'll be driving 20mph in the fast lane with my blinkers on... after all, what's the rush? Hey kids, get off my lawn! ;-)

Kapauldo3 8y ago

She's broken the glass ceiling of stupidity.

_wmd 8y ago

I'm not one to pay attention to such things normally, but the repeat gender and stupidity references in this thread seem to jump out, encouraging a vague sense of disappointment, and leave me wondering how the comments would look if it had been a man setting the record. Is a 105 year old man riding a bicycle ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327936 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327936 ) or jumping from the stratosphere ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4652150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4652150 ) less "stupid" or "dangerous", and inherently more "inspiring" or "incredible"? Is wearing a pressure suit somehow less "cheating"?

Timmah 8y ago
Maybe you should stop projecting your sexism into others?
saagarjha 8y ago
I'm not seeing it. Would you mind pointing it out to me?
cheez 8y ago
I don't see it...

tankerdude 8y ago

Instead of “Skate or Die!”, this is totally “Draft or Die!” Timing craziness and so many things that could go wrong....

schoen 8y ago

There's an interesting variety of record categories for bicycle speed; this is the very fastest one¹. motor-paced/unpaced: do you have a motor vehicle providing aerodynamic assistance in order to reduce air resistance? downhill/level ground: do you ride your bicycle on a flat surface or down a mountain? faired/unfaired: do you have a canopy attached to your bicycle to reduce air resistance? recumbent/upright: do you ride your bicycle lying down or sitting up? indoor/outdoor: do you ride your bicycle outdoors or on a velodrome track? ¹ Wikipedia also describes a treadmill record in which the cyclist encounters no air resistance at all, only friction between the bicycle and the ground and mechanical friction within the bicycle. That record is 207.9 MPH (!).

takk309 8y ago
Don't forget about one of my favorite cycling records, the penny farthing 1 hour record. It is a record that has been standing for 132 years![1] [1] https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/mark-beaumont-take-132-year-old-penny-farthing-hour-record-379826 https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/mark-beaumont...
- schoen 8y ago
  Evidently Beaumont set a new British record on his attempt, but didn't break the world record: https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-44503724/mark-beaumont-beats-127-year-old-penny-farthing-record https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-44503724/mark-beaumont-beats-...

maym86 8y ago

Would it be possible to build a bike like this but with multiple gears to get to speed from a standing start and not be towed? Is 100mph tow detatchmemt a required limit for the record?

acomjean 8y ago
I think you could, but you'd need a long way to get up to speed. The power needed to accelerate (Force=Mass*Acceleration) would be huge. I would imagine it would be a lot greater than steady state, where the only thing slowing you down is wind resistance. The windblock was clearly designed to minimize that force. I don't feel comfortable going much of 80mph sitting in my car.. I can't imagine doing it on two wheels. I don't think my car actually can go that fast...
- BeeOnRope 8y ago
  Well the power needed to get from 100 mph to 183 is a lot more than from 0 to 100, at least in kinetic energy terms which is proportional to velocity squared. I think the main problem is that you'd be tired out getting to 100 mph, but that with the gearing so high it would be very difficult to start from a standstill without tipping over.
s0rce 8y ago
I thought about that too. I'm not sure how big spacing you'd need between gears so the jumps aren't too abrupt. You probably want something like a motorcycle transmission to handle the high speeds. Maybe something like the pinion gearbox but with much higher gears and larger spacing to get you to 200mph at a reasonable cadence.
- wtallis 8y ago
  The front chain isn't moving any faster or enduring any more intense forces than a normal bicycle drivetrain, so it can be replaced by an off the shelf road bike gear set. With a 30-speed drivetrain this could provide a low gear that's about the same as the high gear on a road bike, so it would probably be possible to get moving from a standstill. In the highest gear, you'd be able to go at least 160mph pedaling at the same cadence that was used to set this record. And that's just with the off the shelf components. A custom set of gears could probably stretch out the ratios enough to provide a high gear that's equivalent to the record-setting configuration.

gesman 8y ago

Would be interesting to know what's her peak speed was? Did she break 200 barrier?

hannasanarion 8y ago
I imagine it would be hard to measure, since the car blocks radar and could have a different peak speed
- taeric 8y ago
  That said, couldn't you just do a differential speed? Measure radar to the car, and from the car to the bike? With some extra math, I'd think you could easily establish her speed. Though...I also don't think the radar is necessary. Just rpm of the tires would suffice. No?
- NietTim 8y ago
  Just measure the car, not like there's much of a difference anyway.

basicplus2 8y ago

I remember doing some calculations years ago and calculated that if one was capable of riding in a vacuum one could reach a speed of over 2000km/h based just on friction of moving parts and road

jdlyga 8y ago

And I feel like I'm going fast when I hit 15 mph

bch 8y ago

I think I never see her coasting. Fixed gear?

schoen 8y ago
That doesn't seem likely to me, because she doesn't pedal when she's being towed at the beginning. She only begins to pedal at around 0:30 in the video. So I conclude that there's a freewheel. Someone might suggest that the extraordinarily high gear ratio means that the initial acceleration involves just a tiny foot movement, but I think it would be severely disproportionate to what we see -- one of the interviews referred to the bike moving 128 feet per pedal revolution (quoted elsewhere in the comment thread). Clearly the bike has been towed much more than 128 feet before a pedal revolution has taken place, right? I would think a fixed gear under the circumstances would be very dangerous for various reasons, including the extremely long deceleration time at this speed and the extreme hazard of applying friction brakes. A fixed gear would mean that giving up the attempt (or even just ending it normally) requires a long period of continued effort to avoid injury and a very likely loss of balance. I wanted to contrast this with velodrome speeds by pointing out that this is over 3× the unpaced velodrome speed record and that the unpaced velodrome record allows the cyclist much more overall control of the situation. On the other hand, I don't know for sure whether the motor-paced velodrome record (which is about 2/3 of Mueller-Korenek's new outdoor record) used a fixed gear.
- tomglynch 8y ago
  It's fixed gear. It doesn't seem like she's pedalling at the start because the gear ratio is soo large, so large in fact the bike can't even be pedalled at speeds less than 15mph.
  - schoen 8y ago
    But if so, shouldn't there have been several pedal revolutions at the start? Surely she was towed much more than several hundred feet?
    - 8y ago

tardo99 8y ago

I mean, couldn't someone just skydive while holding a bike and make a similar claim?

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anonytrary 8y ago
In other news, the world's first Cheetah flies on a concord jet, further bolstering the Cheetah as the fastest feline in the world.

skookumchuck 8y ago

"to protect the cyclist from the wind" No, it's to eliminate aerodynamic drag, since nobody is strong enough to pedal against that anywhere near 180. It's awful hard to get a car to push against that. Nevertheless, going 180 mph on a bike is extremely dangerous. If you had any failure of the bike/tires, brushed against the slipstream, the towing vehicle suddenly speed up or slow down, you'd be dead. I also expect the drag racer would need modification. They're heavily optimized for a few seconds at full power, not a controlled cruise at moderate power. You'd likely need an automatic cruise control setting for precise speeds, a much more effective cooling system, and a clutch that doesn't engage with a huge jerk.

TylerH 8y ago
"protecting the cyclist from the wind" is simply the layman's way of saying "eliminating aerodynamic drag"

DoofusOfDeath 8y ago

I'm trying to understand the magnitude of her accomplishment. Based on the help she got from the car and the bike's unusual gearing, it sounds like her main athletic accomplishment was to accelerate a bike by 83.9 MPH. Am I missing something?

ronaldj 8y ago
Post a video when you do it. :P
- kranner 8y ago
  This is a really unproductive class of response to criticism. It's unreasonable and pointlessly limiting to restrict criticism to people who can potentially replicate the results. Also the ad hominem aspect really sours the mood.
  - DoofusOfDeath 8y ago
    FWIW I wasn't even criticizing. I was just trying to get my mind around the physics of it all.
  - anyfoo 8y ago
    It depends on what it is a response to. If someone says that a particular feat is no accomplishment and easily replicable for essentially anybody (not e.g. in comparison to other participants), it doesn’t strike me as too unreasonable to call the person claiming it out on that. Sports are different from, say, someone criticizing art that way, where an appropriate response to “I could have done that” is often “but you didn’t”.
    - kranner 8y ago
      But in this case that commenter did not say "anyone could have done it". My interpretation of that comment was that the actual accomplishment is different (and lesser in terms of athleticism) from what the headline suggests. Does that deserve a "but you didn't" rejoinder?

hackerbabz 8y ago

Does anyone know why they used a dragster? Maybe cheaper to modify it to run for 5 miles than buying a sports car that can hit 180mph?

rdlecler1 8y ago
Probably need a clean slipstream.

anonytrary 8y ago

I applaud this, but at some point "riding a bike" becomes a somewhat inaccurate and/or incomplete description of what's happening here. There's so much auxiliary stuff required to make this possible that it seems like a bit of a stretch to call this "riding a bike". The footnotes kind of matter.

croo 8y ago
My thoughs exactly. They are behind a car and bike specially crafted for this and they pulling the bike up to speed - probably because the bike is non-fuctioning under 100 kmph or so. Great technical feat but it's not "cycling as we know it".

juskrey 8y ago

The thing to tell your children: never do anything that will cost you a life on any single smallest error.

NietTim 8y ago

These 'cycling' speed records are so lame. Go peddle into the wind if you want a record, I don't consider this normal cycling. This is just cheating.

rcxdude 8y ago
This is why there are different records for this kind of thing.
- NietTim 8y ago
  Hence why I said these
jrockway 8y ago
Is there any cycling record category that doesn't try to reduce wind? Time trialists use special bikes and gear to reduce the effect of the wind. Road racers try to be behind someone that can block the wind for them. This is yet another category with the same theme.
- NietTim 8y ago
  You're talking about reducing drag. There's a difference between trying to reduce drag and piggybagging behind something that almost complete eliminates wind, and perhaps even helps because of the way the air flows around the chute and creates a push effect behind it. Just the same as what's happening here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwwuCK-3iQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwwuCK-3iQ I disagree that this is even close to the same as other categories.

radoslawc 8y ago

Bike technical details: https://www.facebook.com/FireCycle/videos/533738473717627/ https://www.facebook.com/FireCycle/videos/533738473717627/

minitoar 8y ago
This guy is rad, I met him on the trail and we bike toured down highway 1 for ~3 days together. Amazing to see him in this video like 10 years later!

Markoff 8y ago

title is misleading, it's MOTOR PACED BICYCLE, not just bicycle

frgewut 8y ago

How much energy is actually transferred from car to cyclist? Records with too strong assisting wind often are not recognized. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_assistance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_assistance

tomglynch 8y ago
This record is fastest speed on a bicycle while drafting. I don't think wind assistance matters.
- deleted 8y ago
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daef 8y ago

There's a video describing the attempt from 5 days ago: https://youtu.be/cZhrqKrljig https://youtu.be/cZhrqKrljig (WIRED)

close04 8y ago

Having a world record for something that requires so much skill and determination that it takes decades to beat it quite the achievement. Impressive by any measure. Congratulations to her! > Moments later, Holbrook yelled out into the open air of the Salt Flats, "Beat that, Fred!" Fred I assume is 72 year old Fred Rompelberg, who set the previous record 23 years ago. This challenge might be more appropriate 23 years from now :). Makes me think of the contrast with Felix Baumgartner who in his 2012 historic jump intentionally missed the free fall time record by a few seconds to not take every single record away from the previous holder, Joseph Kittinger, who held them for 52 years.

saiya-jin 8y ago
> Makes me think of the contrast with Felix Baumgartner who in his 2012 historic jump intentionally missed the free fall time record by a few seconds to not take every single record away from the previous holder, Joseph Kittinger, who held them for 52 years. That's what I call having a class and deserving my respect. Yelling some stuff about beating 23 year old record, well, has not. Materials improved tremendously, and out understanding of achieving high speeds too. It's like topping some old Everest record speed ascent when materials got much lighter, critical gear more reliable etc. And then yelling at Messner to beat it. Not cool at all...
- fileeditview 8y ago
  Generally I would agree with you but maybe they just know Fred in person and maybe he appreciates the joke?! Maybe they were just loaded with adrenaline and couldn't help themselves. However most probably they value the person holding the previous record and you just understood it in a too personal way. What I want to say is we shouldn't be too fast with judgements (in this case and in general).
- tom_ 8y ago
  Did you really just spend 1 minute of your life writing that.
ubermonkey 8y ago
ISTR, reading other coverage, that Rompelberg was at Bonneville for this attempt, and that he and Holbrook are friendly. I suspect we're losing something here, and that the comment is more goodnatured than taunting.

maurits 8y ago

Courtesy of the dutch traffic police, here is a torpedo shaped 'Quest' bike doing 62 on the bike path. No electric assist. [1] [1] https://youtu.be/7ubFk5uve9g?t=31s https://youtu.be/7ubFk5uve9g?t=31s

ratsimihah 8y ago

A woman and a suspension fork, not what one would expect for a speed record, is it? Not to be sexist or anything, I love it!

dsfyu404ed 8y ago

So someone breaks a world record by a really big amount and the top two comment threads are virtue signaling about how unsafe it is to ride various two wheeled vehicles fast and to borrow the words of another commenter, people talking past each other about 'highest performing males outperform highest performing females at almost everything' vs. 'average women are better at some things than average men.' Way to go. This is supposed to be a tech message board. /rant over. Now can someone tell me what the construction differences are about this bike that makes that speed possible. For starters a normal bike tire won't like that speed let alone for that duration. Is she using tubed tires? I can't think of any application where tubed tires go that fast at all let alone for that long.

adam-a 8y ago
There's a good video about this which shows some details on the bike: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhrqKrljig https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhrqKrljig Apparently it uses motorbike wheels, and it has a double reduction gear system. There is a cool section where the journalist tries to ride it without a tow-start, very difficult to peddle under normal circumstances.
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svmentality 8y ago
This website is a pile of shit nowadays
blauditore 8y ago
I don't see many such comments. And frankly, meta-complaining doesn't make things much better either.

GrumpyNl 8y ago

Its done in a slipstream, place her in a vacuum and she will go much, much faster.

S_A_P 8y ago

I am not taking away from this feat because that is an amazing speed. Someone having the courage to stay on a bike going nearly 200 mph is incredible. I don’t want to get into the gender aspect of this either. My question is that it seems peculiar to even attempt a speed record under circumstances that are so completely artificial. Trailing a vehicle that blocks the wind? Having to be towed more than half way to the final velocity? Sure it’s a record, but it isn’t one that reflects any real world scenario. I would be very interested in what the speed record is when someone gets on a very expensive well engineered bike from a stop and under ideal yet still realistic conditions is able to reach x mile/km per hour under human power only. I don’t mean this as snark either it just seems like there are infinite stilted scenarios where we can imagine some “world record” such as “world hang gliding speed record holder exceeds Mach 1 while tethered to supersonic plane”. Maybe I’m answering my own question here when I say maybe it’s about the engineering required to do this safely.

contravariant 8y ago
You'll want to look into the hour record then, currently held by Bradley Wiggins at 54.526 km.
mannykannot 8y ago
I also feel the same way about using reaction motors (jets and rockets) to set land and water speed records - they seem to fall into the rather arbitrary category of "let's do everything we can to go as fast as possible except put wings on on it." Ultimately, though, it is even more about the courage to try it than the technology.
- S_A_P 8y ago
  indeed- the idea that you can strap a rocket to anything to increase its velocity really only serves to advance things like braking and tire technology. That is, however, a valid pursuit.
- NullPrefix 8y ago
  >except put wings One could argue that spoilers fall into the category of wings. Only difference is the lift direction.

ajaygeorge91 8y ago

Spoiler alert :P https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFTqHbgsKs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFTqHbgsKs

huhtenberg 8y ago

Technically, she managed to maintain a speed of 184 MPH by pedaling her bicycle, in a slipstream, for less than a minute. It's very brave of her to attempt this, but it's as detached from the actual cycling as it gets.

bla2 8y ago
From TFA: "Mueller-Korenek sat on a bike with gearing so steep that she needed to be towed to around 100 mph before taking over under her own power." So no, she didn't just maintain 184 MPH.
- whamlastxmas 8y ago
  The semantics of it are silly and pointless to discuss, since she's not accelerating those extra 84MPH using only her own power. There's a lot of aerodynamic influences happening here and this is more of an engineering feat than an athletic one.
  - bla2 8y ago
    The GP is factually wrong, this isn't "semantics". Your comment moves the goalpost to "well the aerodynamics help". This is true: The slipstream moves at the speed of the car ahead, so it's like she has no headwind slowing her down. She still needs to accelerate 84 MPH (on top of maintaining 100 MPH). Think of doing this on a gym bike where you don't have headwind either. This is very much an athletic feat. It's also an engineering feat, but again TFA: "As they targeted the overall record, their team revamped the same dragster that was used to set the men's record" -- they're reusing last time's engineering.
    - whamlastxmas 8y ago
      This record is like having a record for bench pressing with the aid of hydraulic lifts. How much do the hydraulic lifts help? How much is the person contributing? The whole premise just seems really stupid, and it's even dumber if they were to make the headlines "Woman smashes world record bench press at 23 tons". Just throw someone in Elon's hyperloop vacuum tubes on a bicycle fixed to the rails, make them wear a pressurized diving suit, and let them go to town. I'm sure they'd break 184MPH and it would be an equally pointless dick measuring contest.

gnufx 8y ago

It might be interesting to know about the technicalities of such things, like computational ones. The Liverpool group¹ that recently got hand-powered records did a fair amount of CFD modelling a few years ago, and presumably more recently (and somewhat restored faith in mechanical engineering students doing research computing). 1. https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2018/09/13/record-breakers-ulv-team-break-hand-cycling-records-with-arion4/ https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2018/09/13/record-breakers-ulv-...

24gttghh 8y ago

Meanwhile, the fastest un-paced record for a bicycle is: Todd Reichert 2016, 144.17 km/h (89.58 mph), Faired Recumbent, -0.6% grade, unpaced[0] [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cycling_records#Speed_record_on_a_bicycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cycling_records#Speed_...

jwilk 8y ago

Text-only version: https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=649221471 https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=649221471