New cycling speed record of more than 174mph

[bambam1729]

Read the article Conor Dary referenced for a good description of the bikes - https://www.bicycling.com/bikes-gear...breaking-bike/

[bambam1729]

The 1995 record by the Dutch guy (Fred Rompelberg) broke the record of John Howard. Howard is a cycling legend for numerous feats. He was a three-time US Olympian in road racings. He was a gold medalist in the road race at the 1971 Pan American Games. He set the land speed record on a bicycle in 1985. He won the 1981 Ironman Triathlon. And he competed in the first RAAM in 1982 (Race Across America), and finished second. He also later became a coach and trained the woman who broke the Rompelberg's record, and trained numerous triathletes, including Paula Newby-Fraser, the greatest female Ironman competitor of all-time.

[gh]

I remember first reading about these insane bicycle speeds in the '60s, and the article said the biggest problem they had was in finding a car that could reliably travel as fast as was required!

I found a reference to the article I read: was in the June '62 edition of TRUE Magazine.

It's referenced here.

https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/...culated-risk/#

[wamego relays champ]

I guess we've come a long way since "Mile-a-Miinute" Murphy, whose feats I recall reading about when I was about 10 years old.

[lonewolf]

Thanks, bam...coaster brakes?

[bambam1729]

I guess we've come a long way since "Mile-a-Miinute" Murphy, whose feats I recall reading about when I was about 10 years old.

For those wondering about Mile-a-Minute Murphy he was the first cyclist to better 60 mph on a bike. He did it in 1899 riding behind a train on a special course with planks laid between the railroad tracks for a 2-mile course on Long Island.

[bambam1729]

Thanks, bam...coaster brakes?

No, I'm sure they now use disc brakes. Disc brakes came onto racing bicycles about 10-12 years ago and are much better at stopping. I recently bought a new bike but opted not to get disc brakes for a couple reasons. 1) they're more expensive and at my level, not really reasonable, and 2) I remove the wheels a lot to put it in my car, and removing the wheel with a disc brake is a lot more complicated, and finally 3) at my age and my speed level, stopping is not usually that big a problem for me.

[18.99s]

But the land speed bikes are something like (50x12)x(50x12) or effectively, something like 215x12. The gearing is so big that the rider can't actually get it started by himself, hence he must be towed by the car to get the wheels turning up to a certain speed.

When I saw a video of one of those records and found out that the car did most of the work of getting the bike up to speed by towing the cyclist to above 100 mph, I was not impressed. Drafting is one thing, but getting towed? Meh.

Yeah, I know I can't do it. I also couldn't run a sub-2hr marathon if a car towed me for 25.5 miles, but somebody doing that wouldn't impress me either.

[bambam1729]

But the whole point is maximum speed for the 1-mile course. You can't start on that bike with the gearing it has, from a standing start. Hell I probably can't turnover a 54x11, much less a 200x11

[Conor Dary]

But it would be more interesting in the fastest from a standing start...and not getting dragged...I had the same reaction...

Hard to tell from the video how hard it actually is...certainly dangerous...