The world's fastest human-powered vehicle just topped 85 mph
Source: Engadget
by James Trew | @itstrew | 5 hours ago
It might look like a kayak on its side, but that vehicle above has just broken the human-powered land speed record. The pilot, Todd Reichert, managed 85.71mph in his "Eta" speedbike on Thursday morning, comfortably besting the previous record of 83.13. Reichert is the pilot for team AeroVelo, and is competing in the World Human Powered Speed Challenge, taking place in Battle Mountain, NV this week. The WHPSC is basically where cyclists put their knees where their mouth is, and attempt to beat the record for pedal-powered speed. The 16th event of its kind, cyclists have a 5-mile run-up to gain speed, before hitting a 200 meter speed trap on a stretch of road hand-picked for its flatness. The magic 200 meter stretch was even specially repaved with the annual event in mind.
If you were to describe what the team at AeroVelo does, "human-powered world firsts" would be a fair answer. The team's Snowbird ornithopter (flapping wing craft) managed a world-first 19-second self sustained flight in 2010. In 2013, the crew would bag the coveted Sikorsky prize, which required a controlled human-powered helicopter to fly for one minute. The land speed record, therefore, was the next logical prize. The record may have been broken, but with the event running for two more days, Reichert and the other competitors aren't done yet -- there's still chance it might be broken again before the weekend is out. In the meantime, you can see the team's efforts from last year below.
SOURCE: IHPVA
Read more: http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/18/aerovelo-fastest-human-powered-vehicle/
Hat tip, Jalopnik. I mean, Gizmodo: The Fastest Human-Powered Vehicle In the World Is a Ridiculous Bike That Just Broke 85 MPH
Filed to: world records
9/18/15 12:00pm
A group of humans put one of its humans in a crazy, covered bike. That human broke a world speed record for a human-powered vehicle. Aaaand now I feel even more like a motionless fat-accumulating sloth.
It all went down Thursday morning in Battle Mountain, Nevada, at the 16th annual World Human Powered Speed Challenge. AeroVelo, a three-year-old Toronto-based design firm whose partners include Google and the University of Toronto, broke the 200-meter men’s record with a speed of 85.71 miles per hour. The previous record was 83.13 miles per hour.
The victorious vehicle is the Eta speedbike, a 55-pound, aerodynamic, bullet-like bike enclosed with a carbon-honeycomb shell and whose frame is made with carbon fiber. Inside, the driver nearly lies down, almost parallel with the ground, a bit like a recumbent bike. To navigate, the pilot consults an on-screen display powered by dual SD cameras, while pedaling his or her way into fame.
The contest is still underway, so amazingly, it’s possible that another vehicle could even best the Eta’s blistering 85 mile per hour clip. Whew! It’ll take more than a Huffy to beat that one.
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First time getting off a lift at the top of a bunny run (the main one that led to the lodge), and it was a long run, but not too steep. Still, I had only barely learned how to toe in to stop myself and I lost it and swept down that hill so fast I was terrified. I kept building speed and there was nothing I could do but try to stay upright (it was a bumpy ride) and hope nobody got in my way (I got lucky there) because I didn't know how to turn either. I got to the bottom slowed to a stop and couldn't stop shaking for awhile, but I also knew I was hooked on skiing from that point on. 
Since then I've done some pretty fast downhills on blacks that were open enough to really let loose, and I still loved that thrill.
I'm too old to ski now but I have my memories. 
what I was doing probably couldn't be described as skiing either. 
And there were a few pretty scary blacks I took when I shouldn't have...but what the hell, we only live once.
