Rose-Hulman Human Powered Vehicle Team 2009

[Borzinl]

At 2:00 there is a guy, number 30 that's riding without a roll bar? Was that not a requirement or are you excused if you have an upright style bike?

[jccaclimber]

You're not looking closely. Most of the well placing teams (RHIT, CalPoly, Rolla, Olin) have similar shapes, they have the same goal. Most of the changes are elsewhere, steering, etc. Here's a summary of RHIT:

Y1, Steel frame, al/shrink wrap fairing. Very bulbous at the front

Y2, Steel frame/roll bar, composite fairing. Bullet shaped

Y3, Steel subframe, composite shell and roll bar, head bubble used

[msbradle]

Yea, I'm from the PSU team Oregon.

This year is different though, speed isn't everything...

[iamtheoriginalcody]

I'm really pumped to see what bikes come out this year. Our team had a trike and it was really unstable above 20 mph. This year we chose to try a two wheel for better speed. If we had a bigger budget we would have tried to build one of each.

[msbradle]

Great video. The only problem with RH's design is; it's exactly the same as the 2years before (getting old). Let's see if they can come up with something different in 2010. Maybe a trike....

[iamtheoriginalcody]

I got what you mean but it works so well. trikes just seem to have a really hard time competing with the speed of the 2 wheelers. It might be a steep backward. I am interested to see what new ideas they come with though. Are you from a competing school? I'm on the Northern Illinois team.

[primordialblob]

@msbradle We did do a trike this year, and we did something completely new with the subframe. The outside looks very similar, admittedly, but it's twice as aerodynamically efficient in a cross-wind.

See you at East!

[jccaclimber]

@jccaclimber

Y4, Very refined composite shell/frame. New steering linkage (not direct), rear wheel bolted directly to the shell. The top also fit, and rider changes took 25% as long.

Y5, Composite subframe, first tricycle (leaning too), also useable with 2 wheels, different vehicle class.

Y6, Return to a steel frame, multipart fairing, different leaning mechanism.