Recumbent Bicyclist Sets World Record
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 07.10.06
Thirty years after making the United States Olympic Cycling team, twenty years after winning the DuPont Prize for human-powered speed and ten years after retiring from professional cycling, "Fast" Freddy Markham won the Dempsey-MacCready Prize at the Nissan One Hour Challenge last week. He covered 53.43 miles in one hour, setting a world record, in his super-efficient Easy Racer recumbent bicycle. Markham, at age 49, wasn't considered a serious contender for a title or the record; he has won the One Hour Challenge three times previously, but not since 1989. As the owner of Easy Racers, Inc., the nation's largest recumbent bicycle manufacturer, he knows a thing or two about making bikes go fast; we tip our hat to him for proving that it's still tough to be a bicycle for getting yourself from here to there. Want to go 50 miles in an hour on a bike? He'll sell you an Easy Racer and you'll be halfway there. ::Easy Racers via ::Digg
Another record will be attempted here in a few days in a similar vehicle
Read up here
http://www.adventuresofgreg.com/HPVMain.html
And not forgetting that the Moulton AM bicycle holds the world speed record for bicycles of conventional riding position — at 51mph (fully faired). A bike you can any day, most anywhere. But I'm biased.
Tell us about the Moulton record. What distance, in what amount of time? I think the Moulton is a fantastic bike. Though I'm not sure how it's relevant to Markham's accomplishment unless we have some figures to compare.
I'm also curious to see a photo of the fully faired Moulton and how conventional it looks or how rideable it is when fully faired in daily conditions.
Rob, here is an online pic of the fairing on the record breaking Moulton. Admittedly the distance was only 200m on a race track, but according to the International Human Powered Vehicle Association it still holds the official record for an upright bicycle. And that was set 20 years ago.
The bike itself is very versatile, but yeh, agree that taking that fairing down to the shops would not be very practical. (Simpler commercial fairings can be had from Zipp.) The underlying engineering of the bike was more what I was referring to. Not to detract from Freddy's amazing feat, just to say that fully suspended, upright bikes can also set records too.
Nope that is not the fastest by a good shot it is currently held by Sam Wittingham of Varna cycles
http://www.recumbents.com/WISIL/whpsc2005/results.htm
The record is 130.36 km/h (81.00 mph) on 2002-10-05.
see here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Whittingham
Ben
Thanks for the link Warren. Every time I see a Moulton, I want one. My neighbor has one and I hope he gets tired of it so he'll sell it to me.
Ben - the 81mph record is for a recumbent, whereas the Moulton is a conventional upright bicycle.
Windcheetah trikes are pretty amazing too:
http://www.windcheetah.co.uk/
Ryan