That's all nice and everything but can she do a brake job on a car?

*ftw *happy

Adding video to channels (Ftw, Happy) - requested by ant.

I'm incredibly disappointed that they tow her up to over 150 before she starts peddling herself. At that speed, the draft pulls you along with minimal effort, making the speed she achieved far less impressive. I've hit over 60 behind a semi truck with no tow in on a regular road bike as a teenager, and could have doubled that with the right gears. The hard part was getting up to speed and into the draft, once in it, I barely had to pedal to keep up, but had to pump my legs like hummingbird wings to add any speed because I ran out of gears.

I feel like any cycling pro could do much better, she doesn't even know her top speed unassisted to within ten mph, which indicates she's not an avid rider. A pro will be able to tell you exactly how fast they can go on flat ground with no wind.

So good for her, but it's far less impressive to me than the title implies.

She was on a friggin' bicycle drafting behind a dragster at 184 MPH and SHE'S NOT EVEN AN AVID RIDER!

Also, it's not easy being behind someone that's breaking wind.

Suck it up dude!

If you want to talk about being "less impressive", bobsledding does it for me.
nooffensebob

Which i would guess could be achieved by a ridiculous amount of riders (with equal equipment), if so inclined. I doubt the rider has as much to do with it as the bike itself, and dragster slip stream. I also believe her balls are quite large to do such a thing.

I'm sure the tow, to get her up to speed, has to do with reducing wind and weight. The addition of the gearing needed to get her to up to those speeds without assistance would be ridiculous.

The point is, she broke a previous record using the same rules as the first person. If a pro wants to break the record he (or she) can follow the same rules. I have a feeling not many pros would take the risk and would be happy being on the lower shelf or different category. She accepted the challenge. AND SHE'S NOT EVEN A PRO!

If the record is 99.9% due to the equipment, give it to the engineer, not the ballast. ;-)
Eric Barone hit 141 on his own with some downhill, but no tow, no draft. That's more impressive to me, but still largely a function of his equipment.
I've never topped 40 without a draft or hill, and I used to ride 25-30 miles a day.

The fastest unassisted human powered bicycle speed is 89.5 mph. That record I can accept without an asterisk.

Edit: using that full faring recumbent bike and the dragster tow in/draft the dragster would always be the limiting factor, not the bike rider. The tow has to do with making it possible, wind resistance is the limiting factor on bicycles, but even without any getting up to that speed using human power is not possible. She needed fresh legs to keep up for under one minute under optimal conditions.
I think pro riders don't go for this record because they don't see it as a legitimate riding record, just a dangerous equipment test.

Again, SHE'S NOT A PRO! She doesn't take anything away from the pros but also gives them a chance to break her record. (If they got the guts)

Unrelated, this is me back in 2011 making a 2,500 mile bike trip which I did in 3 months. It was something I did to see if I actually wanted to bike across country. From Cape Canaveral beach to Vandenberg Air Force Base. I would carry a sample of sand from the east and then dump it on the beach in the west.

Due to circumstances beyond my control I still haven't been able to make that trip. But I loved every minute of the trip I did.

https://imgur.com/4LjMuiP

Perhaps you misunderstand me. I don't accuse her of taking anything from professionals, as I don't think they're competing. I only think, when making a claim of record bicycle speeds, if those speeds are not achieved without assistance it should be clearly noted. They didn't hide it, but the title slightly mislead me and left me disappointed it wasn't a human powered speed, because that speed would have more than doubled the previous record and that would be amazing.

This is a feat of skill and bravery. It simply is not a feat of purely human powered speed. Nothing wrong with that, as long as it's clear, imo.


Nice trip. 2500 miles is a good chunk of the distance coast to coast (depending on the route). Where did you ride to/from?
I've never done a long distance ride like that, I just rode to school and back daily...over 35 miles round trip...and around town. Up here in Humboldt, the roads are terrible so I don't ride much anymore, skinny racing tires don't do well in potholes. I'm getting too old and broken for serious mountain bike trail riding, which is sad considering the trails I have available.

I'm intrigued by the sand swap idea, but also concerned about the introduction of invasive species that may be living in that sand. Just a thought if you make the trip.

I think we both know that doubling the previous record would be impossible under the conditions the pros compete in. Plus the pros make their record on indoor tracks if I'm not mistaken.

I made my trip on the east coast as I wanted stay closer to home if something unexpected happened.

This map shows my round trip route from Cape Canaveral to High Point NC and back. The blue was created with my GPS tracker which caused some lost data due to battery drain and poor signal. I flipped the image so the text was easier to read.

https://imgur.com/a/GhrmEkA

I met a lot of nice people. If you like to travel you might like this sight.

https://www.couchsurfing.com/

I was able to stay with people who invited me into their homes on 5 different occasions and never actually had to sleep on a couch.



EDIT: Someone else brought up the possible invasive species point so I'm on the fence with that. I don't want to be blamed for the next BIG earthquake that gives birth to the new Godzilla. Although, it's California. He could probably get a SAG card.

Probably, but if some new type of bike was designed, who knows? That's what intrigued me.
Full fairings and recumbent bikes were both huge leaps, if someone made a bike that also used arm and core strength or some other advantage I can't imagine, who knows what an extraordinary person could achieve?

I mean...If I strap on a bike and jump from a plane and reach faster speeds, does that count? ;-)

You win.

Moving this video to bobknight33's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 2 days.

Human terminal velocity is around 120mph when falling in breathable altitudes in a belly-down (flat) position. Pulling in your limbs will get you closer to 200mph, which is roughly what a peregrine falcon hits in its dive and in the ballpark of what a .30-06 round in freefall (ie, after being fired straight up) would reach. Professional speed skydivers fly head-down and reach 330mph. The higher you start, the lower air density and thus higher terminal velocity you get. Felix Baumgartner jumped from 128,000 feet and reached 840mph.

Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_velocity