One Hour World Record - Francesco Russo & Eiviestretto - 91,556km (by Damjan Zabovnik)

[Wsauce]

ok, no no NOOOOOOOOO ¬¬ 8:34

[HumanRightsVideosT]

I think your bike should be used as a camera bike in UCI bike races.

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Because you are low to the ground interesting shots looking up at the riders should be possible.

The camera could be operated by remote control and race control could tell you where they want you.

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Because your bike is clean through the air there will be very little advantage from drafting your bike, so your bike could be close to the riders without affecting the race.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

part 2

A flag on a tube sticking up from your bike could help riders in the pack see where the camera bike is.

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This years Tour de France indicated that cars and bikes are best kept apart.

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For hilly stages maybe you could fit a battery, small electric motor, solar pannel and/or get professional riders who aren't riding the race to pilot it and take turns at riding.

Some strong riders don't get to start the Tour de France.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

Vehicles with quick change batteries, solar panels and pedals might offer a number of sustainable ways of going fast under all conditions, including uphills. Presumably to change a battery quickly you just need quick release clamps on battery cables and a box for the battery to sit in.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

A gas powered Olympic Flame shows me we are not serious about changing our unsustainable ways. Building new luge tracks for winter games does not seem a good idea when you can probably go faster on skis.

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An Eco Games might put pressure on the Olympic games to become environmentally friendly and include events that provide a solution to environmental problems.

Rather than building new facilities just use existing car test or race tracks.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

Maybe an Eco Games needs to be established to encourage non fossil fuelled vehicles of all types and held every year or 2.

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Some people don't see the value in wind turbines because their power may not match demand. A problem with battery powdered cars is that they take time to recharge. But if you charge batteries at wind turbines and you have batteries that can be swapped quickly you don't need to wait for the battery to recharge. So battery powdered vehicles could be 100% wind powered.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

Pure solar vehicles probably don't keep you fit. Maybe you could put solar panels on your bike to make it go faster and have a combination eco rocket. Then 100km per hour or more should be no problem.

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Are there records for solar powered vehicles or are solar panels allowed on IHPVA records ?

If the IHPVA doesn't allow solar panels I would do it anyway. You seem to have the shape and rider orientation well and truly on the right track.

Solar panels might keep the bike cooler but maybe not.

[joelcathey]

So easy to mix up commas and periods and think this video is claiming he went 92 thousand kilometers....

[DAMCI1]

@joelcathey Right, thank you, I change that right now.

[MrAshan01]

@DAMCI1 I have 2 idaes which might help you improve your results:

1. If you grease the bike's body fairing with some greasy, oily substance, this would definately decrease air friction on it. You could try different stuff and choose the most suitable substance.

[MrAshan01]

@DAMCI1

2. Another boost would be to use the muscle power of the arms too. This would make the vehicle heavier and maybe slightly higher, but the benefit (in terms of speed) would be bigger. For e.g.

youtube. com/ watch?v=han0D7cpdeQ

[DAMCI1]

@joelcathey Well you got me early in the morning. I was living in USA for a while, but I am still Slovenian, and here we use periods instead of commas for this purpose. So I will leave it as it is. Notice I use our units km/h instead of mph too. There is no space to write the convertion in the title. Damjan

[joelcathey]

@DAMCI1 Oh, I wasn't making a criticism. I was the one who was mixed up. Just making a humorous observation.... :) 

[HumanRightsVideosT]

I think there should be a Recumbent Speed Festival at a track where no one races for more than 40km, so there is time for a number of high speed record attempts.

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If you aren't going for an official record you can drive closer to the rider and get some good shots of the bikes at speed.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

At this point in time I struggle to see the point of battle mountain. Going fast on a downhill has never been hard, its the flat, uphills and headwinds that are hard. Although the slope at battle mountain is minimal it makes a major contribution to speed.

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Weight of a bike probably isn't important at battle mountain and I don't see the point of gearing bike for 130km so battle mountain seems to be a distraction to real progress in going faster on the flat.

[DAMCI1]

@HumanRightsVideosT

That's interesting point. Weight is important, as you need to accelerate more at the last minute of the run-up. I don't want to say the achievements in Battle Mountain have no point, as I tried it and I know I tried my best. But, lets say we have 3 % downhill. Then the speeds would be probably close to 200 km/h. The vehicle would have to be then more similar to motor-bikes, for safety and control reasons. Would that still be a human powered vehicle?

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

I can certainly see the point of Battle Mountain in the past. But your bikes are going so fast now I don't think you need any assistance from gravity. Perhaps its time to see how fast people can go uphill at Battle Mountain. The casual observer probably won't realise that battle mountain is more of a pursuit race than a 200m sprint, so it probably doesn't show off the full potential of HPVs.

I can remember an upright cyclist being clocked at 130k in Wellington NZ a long time ago.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

The high downhill speeds possible on fast recumbents probably make them unsuitable for mass start races over hilly courses.

But UCI bikes can have spectacular crashes on the track. So for track racing recumbents are probably a safer option (especially if they have a full flaring).

[DAMCI1]

@HumanRightsVideosT

The difference between HPVs for flat terrain versus those for downhill would become much bigger at like 3% downhill.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

It would be interesting to know the speed your pilot does on an upright bike, to see what the difference in speed is. Because its the increase in speed that counts I guess.

[DAMCI1]

You are right. Will figure something out.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

For a media event maybe a flying 40km would be best. If the weather isn't perfect it makes it easier to have more than one attempt in a day, expecially if you have 2 or more riders.

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The Olympic points race is 40km and certainly is a long distance event with a rolling start. So if people ask you why 40km say its an Olympic cycling distance, also used in Olympic triathlons. A flying forty or fifty km sounds better to me than a 1 hour standing start to me. If 40km is too easy do 50km.

[DAMCI1]

@HumanRightsVideosT

Another great point. Help me to establish that Olympic discipline and I would definitely race in it. 

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

Perhaps you need to contact your local or German Olympic Committee representative and give them a demonstration over 4 or 5 or 10 flying km.

You could tell them that shooting should be dropped from the Olympics as we can watch that on TV most nights :)))

or ask them whether boxing encourages Peace and international understanding.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

To establish recumbent racing as an Olympic event I think you need to move away from car test tracks and onto cycle tracks.

Doing over 90km/h on a nice day on a car test track is perhaps too easy now. But car test tracks are probably costly and time consuming for your to get to.

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If the IOC is going to see the point of high speed recumbents I think you need to have regular record attempts.

Do you have a good cycle track near you ?

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

I'm impressed by pursuit teams doing over 60km/h over 4km on UCI bikes.

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Can you do over 90km/h over 10, 20 or 40km on a cycle track ?

Flying around a small track should be impressive, media friendly and easy to video. An indoor track will mean you don't have to have a nice day so should be easier to organise record breaking. Do some indoor tracks have air conditioning ?

At 90km/hr a lap of a 250m track takes 10 seconds. Will the focus on a video camera be able to cope with that ?

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

Maybe you could try 5, 10, 20 or 40 km flying starts for media events and see how things go. Do longer the events if the weather is good. Its the speed that counts and having a number of records to go for makes things more fun.

5, 10, 20 and maybe 40 km are commuting distances. Green organisations and major sponsors should see the point in them.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

Ex professional cyclists or hour record holders might be interested in being the first person to break 50km in 30 minutes from a flying start. To me its much more important that the 4 minute mile as most people aren't fit enough to run to work.

I would pay to have a ride or watch a record attempt but I'm on the wrong side of the world.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

To me the next step is to break 50km in 30 minutes from a flying start.

There is no need to spend an hour grinding away when you are doing over 91km per hour (leave that to the UCI). You can recover from from 30 minute efforts much faster than 60 minutes.

You can't maintain maximum aerobic capacity for more than 40 minutes so there should be a significant increase in speed over 30 minutes.

I've never heard of anyone commuting for 91 km each way to work.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

Were the media interested in covering your record attempt ?

I think this should be an Olympic event

[DAMCI1]

@HumanRightsVideosT This is a good point. One television showed some interest, but at the real record event it would be too stressful, so we refused. The event is too dependent on good weather and actually it would be very difficult to arrange it all with media. Otherwise we like the media but they don't come often. Yes, it would variegate the Olympic games.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@ DAMCI1

When you are relaxed about or used to breaking records you could tell the media they are welcome to come but they may have to wait a long time for the weather to be right. Maybe you could text them when the record is about to start.

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For me the Olympic flame is sadly the symbol of human stupidity. Fish at the top of the food chain are already contaminated with Mercury.

Yet the world is preoccupied with just about everything other than saving the planet from Destruction.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@ DAMCI1

Horses get flown around the World for the Olympics. People must practice for years for shooting events using up materials. I don't think the world needs any more encouragement to get into shooting. I'm not sure that boxing encourages world peace or environmental awareness.

Formula 1 seems to be pretty much entertainment and big business now.

If major oil companies or the Olympics want any credibility they should be very keen to get involved with projects like yours.

[DAMCI1]

@HumanRightsVideosT Right. IHPVA and WHPVA disciplines don't include 30min, neither 2h or 3 hours. The next is 6 hours. So we do what we can officially do and set the new record.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

IHPVA and WHPVA should start recognising other distances if they become popular.

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But to me the point of what you are doing is to demonstrate the potential of human power (in a world that doesn't seem to have many answers to our energy addiction at this point in time).

I'm sure the media will be interested if you tell them you want to be the first to break 95km per hour over 30 minutes. You might enjoy having the media do a top quality video for you.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

I'm not bothered whether you are breaking records. And if you aren't breaking an existing record you may not feel under pressure.

Footage of cyclists going 90k or more on the flat is great viewing. A professional crew should be able to do some good close ups or show the vehicle flying past at speed. With more publicity you might attract another sponsor with lots of $.

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Human powered vehicles need as much publicity as possible in my opinion. You are doing pretty well on youtube so far.

[DAMCI1]

@HumanRightsVideosT Thanks.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@ DAMCI1

I should be thanking you. I've been fascinated with bicycles since I was fairly young. Its great being able to see what the world leader is doing and ask questions. Its pretty easy to see the excitement and enthusiasm the crew had about breaking the record.

I would classify bikes into 3 categories.

1. The standard bike limited by UCI regulations.

2. Bikes that can go faster than UCI bikes (or fast bikes), which would include things like racing tandems

[HumanRightsVideosT]

3. Rocket ships which are capable of well over 90 km per hour for extended periods. Your bike looks like a small rocket ship its just travelling horizontally rather than vertically.

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Guinness Book of Records should be interested in what you are doing. If the track is 5km doing records that are multiples of 5km might be worth thinking about. Doing 100km per hour over 10km or more would be very special. Where I live most people commute less than 10km. Maybe you would need a superman to do that.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@ DAMCI1

Horses get flown around the World for the Olympics. People must practice for years for shooting events using up materials. I don't think the world needs any more encouragement to get into shooting. I'm not sure that boxing encourages world peace or environmental awareness.

Formula 1 seems to be pretty much entertainment and big business now.

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If major oil companies or the Olympics want any credibility they should be very keen to get involved with projects like yours.

[DAMCI1]

We use much of carbon in body and transmission cage. Our start is very soft, don't worry.

[mitsui32]

ok. so plexiglass or what u use is not so stabil like fiberglass (carbon) what u use for body?

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maybe for rope for stop support trailer is possible to use elastic rope - more soft start?

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@ mitsui32

an elastic rope would absorb energy and slow the acceleration

[mitsui32]

why window is so small? if it more wide on sides and little more down on front of capsula maybe will better visibility?

[DAMCI1]

@mitsui32 Window is just big enough; smaller the window - faster the bike. Visibility is very good anyway, as we use a mirror very close to the windshield.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

Thanks very much for sharing this outstanding achievement. fantástico fantástico !

How long does it take to get up to speed ?

[DAMCI1]

@HumanRightsVideosT It takes around 4 minutes to get to 90 km/h from standing start.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

So excluding the first 4 minutes when you are accelerating you are doing around 94 or 95 km per hour. That's pretty impressive when you haven't spent $ on wind tunnel research and I didn't see any carbon fibre on your bike.

100k in an hour with a flying start may not be that far away.

Eddy Merckx was the greatest rider of all time. But he never got to sprint at 98km an hour at the end of a flat race !!!

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Can your pilot see a speedometer which shows how fast he is going ?

[DAMCI1]

@HumanRightsVideosT

Our bike is full of carbon. And yes, he can see the speed, plus computer programs today can be more accurate than wind tunels for laminar flow shapes, I believe.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

Can your programs deal with the turbulence around the wheels?

[jelmerth]

Now cycling becomes a real teamsport when You want to stop,

great record! is 100 the barrier? with two persons maby?

[DAMCI1]

@jelmerth Yes, I believe 100km is possible with two person. It is a little bit more difficult to find two good riders and make a shell just big enough for them, though.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

I think 100k might be possible with one person. Were you able to do much wind tunnel development ?

[DAMCI1]

@HumanRightsVideosT That would be much harder. I don't know what to say. Many statements from the past became untrue. We didn't use any wind-tunnel, but we used computer programs to evaluate different shapes.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

I guess in the old days Formula 1 didn't use wind tunnels. Now the aerodynamics of an F1 car is the most important part of it and vast sums get spent on aerodynamic development if I'm not mistaken. F1 cars have some beautiful curves now. They even have rolling roads.

f1technical. net/articles/47

says

"The airflow around the wheels is substantially different with rotating wheels compared to a measurement with static floor."

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

Maybe you could get an Engineering student with access to a wind tunnel to do a project for you, if you can't get big sponsors.

Has your pilot heard of Arthur Lydiard ? I'm pretty sure that correct training techniques are still based on his work. I think if you are going to do a hard ride you go flat out for 40 minutes. If you try to go hard for longer than 40 minutes the intensity drops off so is less effective (and probably do that every second day, plus low slow distance rides).

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

I guess as you get faster weight will become more important. In New Zealand we have a carbon fibre constructor who is into bicycles and lightened Sarah Ulmers bike. She still has the record for 3000m. The people who designed the YikeBike also seem to be pretty good with carbon fibre.

[recumbenttrikesnl]

He can proudly  look back to his front view mirror.

[15gary37]

what the heck is it; why can not the camera get closer; commercial for garmin

[DAMCI1]

@15gary37,

We record him during the real one-hour human powered vehicle attempt. The rules disallow us to come closer to the vehicle. We didn't have any professional camera, as the project is relatively low-budget driven. We apologize for any inconvenience. Watching on your own risk. Here you can find images which look like advertisement, although that was really not our intention, we sincerely apologize. Switch to mainstream media, where you can enjoy advertisement in professional manner 24/7.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

If you want a bigger budget I suggest that you go to a country that likes cycling, like Holland. Say that you want to break 100k and see if you can get sponsors with plenty of $.

The Dutch seem interested in building a mountain partly for cycling which you can read about here

planetski. eu/news/3058

They might like to go fast as well.

Or approach manufacturers like BMW who might be interested in a challenge.

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

Now that Germany has lost interest in nuclear power maybe you should approach their environment ministry or Green Party.

Germany seemed to have plenty of money for propping up the European Empire (EU) which seems destined to break apart. I'm sure they could spare a few million $ for you (I'm sure they wouldn't mind).

[HumanRightsVideosT]

@DAMCI1

If you want a crowd to add a bit more atmosphere you could ring Greenpeace (who have travelled on mass to a least one glacier to strip off to highlight global warming) or the Green Party. I'd be keen if I didn't live on the other side of the world.