[Silly Victorian Children's Toys] Woman Smashes Cycling Land Speed Record

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Edofnor

Veteran XX
Cycling land speed: Denise Mueller-Korenek breaks world record - BBC News

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Mueller-Korenek cycled at the take-off speed of a large jet

For most people, the idea of travelling along the ground at more than 180mph in anything other than a plane preparing for take-off is nausea-inducing.

Denise Mueller-Korenek, it is fair to say, is not most people.

The US woman reached an eye-watering average speed 183.932 mph (296.010 km/h) - on a bicycle.

The remarkable speed means the 45-year-old not only smashed her own world record, but the long-standing men's one as well.

Her reaction? Somewhat understated.

"It was a crazy wild ride to 183.9 mph, but so worth the sacrifice and years of focus on becoming the fastest human on a bicycle in the world," Mueller-Korenek said.

"We weren't supposed to go more than 175."

Mueller-Korenek's record-breaking feat saw her ride her custom-made bike across the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah on 16 September.

She had set the women's record - 147 mph - in 2016, and apparently had her eye on the 167mph record set by Dutchman Fred Rompelberg back in 1995.

And, as she followed a racing car driver in a dragster across the flats, Mueller-Korenek made toppling the record look easy.

She released a video of the feat on her YouTube channel.



In order to reach her record-breaking speed, the former US national track, road and mountain bike champion was pulled along by tow rope at 100 mph, before being released to pedal herself.

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This dragster pulled Mueller-Korenek to her record

From that point she was riding in the slipstream of the dragster for 3.5 miles, achieving the record average of 183.9 mph over the last mile.

To put that in context, that's about the same speed a Boeing 747 is travelling just before it leaves the runway during take-off.

As a result of her feat, there are calls for Guinness World Records to stop listing separate men's and women's records for the event.

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Mueller-Korenek's custom-made bike -- not as cool as a Klein hanging from the ceiling
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:cool:
 
:rofl: This is a for-real world record? It's quite possibly the dumbest thing ever done. It's shocking men wasted time on this before her.

I mean, you get towed to 100, then you ride the slipstream while barely pedaling. It's a game of weight. The less weight, the more the slipstream pulls/pushes you along.

I'm far more impressed with the wheels to be honest.
 
What kind of sprockets does she have for her to actually peddle at and push her at that speed? There can't be any resistance between her foot/legs and the peddles/cranks on the bike to push her at that speed so, why was she peddling at all?
 
samUwell said:
What kind of sprockets does she have for her to actually peddle at and push her at that speed? There can't be any resistance between her foot/legs and the peddles/cranks on the bike to push her at that speed so, why was she peddling at all?
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Validuz said:
:rofl: This is a for-real world record? It's quite possibly the dumbest thing ever done. It's shocking men wasted time on this before her.

I mean, you get towed to 100, then you ride the slipstream while barely pedaling. It's a game of weight. The less weight, the more the slipstream pulls/pushes you along.

I'm far more impressed with the wheels to be honest.
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The engineering behind it is what impresses me. Motorcycle wheels.
Bicycle Speed Record Broken - Denise Mueller-Korenek Bikes at 183.93 MPH
“The drive ratio is 62:12, twice,” said John Howard, Mueller-Korenek’s coach, who once held the motor-paced record himself at 152 mph back in 1985. “That’s roughly 488 inches, or approximately 128 feet per revolution. She’s traveling nearly 130 feet every time she turns those cranks. It’s pretty mind-boggling.”

Tires are for a drag bike.


It Started With a Tire
Mueller’s KHS bike was built by two San Diego engineers: Len Lochmiller and Chris Garcia. But the bike didn’t start with the frame, as it would with most traditional builds. Given the stresses and challenges that come with rolling at 183.93 mph, the engineers started their project with another critical component: the tire.

They started from scratch designing a bike around a tire that they thought could handle her incredible speed. Garcia told us that the tire, which is an IRC model designed for dragster scooters in Thailand, was shaved down to make sure it was perfectly round to prevent speed wobble. Garcia picked this model as it was simply the strongest and most trustworthy tire they could use. Mueller used an inner tube rather than tubeless technology as that was what the tires were designed around.

Surprisingly Small Wheels
Chris Garcia told us the wheels were designed around the tires and the bike around the wheels. In order to accommodate the tires, he used 17-inch 1970s Akront motorcycle rims laced with 12-gauge Phil Wood spokes to Profile Design hubs modified by Garcia to take the larger spokes. The bike ran a 15mm front thru-axle and a 135mm rear fixed hub, and the rims were perfectly balanced to avoid any extra instability at speed.
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Drafting inside a giant box..
Mueller’s Secret Weapon
Mueller drafted a top-fuel dragster with a custom fairing and used a tow in to get up to 90 mph as there would be no way to turn her bike’s huge gear from a standstill. Once up to speed, she pedaled at more than 700w for a minute in the draft of the specially designed vehicle to set the record. Mueller used a camera to communicate with her driver, which is vital because coming out of that tiny pocket of draft, just under four feet wide, would be fatal at these increasing speeds. She also used motorcycle safety gear, appropriate given that she was moving at speeds far beyond those most of us would ever achieve in a car!
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Bicycle Speed Record Broken - Denise Mueller-Korenek Bikes at 183.93 MPH
“The drive ratio is 62:12, twice,” said John Howard, Mueller-Korenek’s coach, who once held the motor-paced record himself at 152 mph back in 1985. “That’s roughly 488 inches, or approximately 128 feet per revolution. She’s traveling nearly 130 feet every time she turns those cranks. It’s pretty mind-boggling.”

As far as her fitness, most of us that ride could probably train to this level in a few months. She put out maybe 700w for 3 minutes. Lemon and vanster may need an additional cocaine boost.
Just how good are male pro road cyclists? | CyclingTips
Two of the riders who made the breakaway in the 2017 Tour of Flanders were Oliviero Troia (UAE Team Emirates) and Julien Duval (Ag2r-La Mondiale). Here are the stats from Troia as he got himself in the breakaway, starting from just 700m into the race:

Distance: 11.5km
Time: 14:30
Average power: 401W (5.17 W/kg)
Max power: 1,370W (19.02 W/kg)

Troia averaged 302W (4.19 W/kg) for the first hour of racing, which really highlights how hard the breakaway riders need to push to get an advantage over the peloton. Looking at the Training Peaks chart above, this power actually falls under the B-grade/C-grade category for threshold power. The difference is that this is the highest possible power such amateur riders could hold for an hour, whereas Troia went on to average 304W (4.22 W/kg) for the entirety of his race (he pulled out after 216km).
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samUwell said:
What kind of sprockets does she have for her to actually peddle at and push her at that speed? There can't be any resistance between her foot/legs and the peddles/cranks on the bike to push her at that speed so, why was she peddling at all?
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That's the thing, she barely had to do anything. The draft from the pace car in front of her was pretty much pushing/pulling her all by itself.

As for why she was pedaling... well, I'm guessing you have to for the record? and probably also to help the inconsistent draft. The draft however was doing 99.5% of the work. She just regulated the last 0.5% to not drift too far away or hit the car.
 
Hell, I saw her hit the car a few times. There was a little vertical bumper attached to the head tube and a corresponding crossbar in the fairing.
 
Plasmatic said:
As far as her fitness, most of us that ride could probably train to this level in a few months. She put out maybe 700w for 3 minutes. Lemon and vanster may need an additional cocaine boost.
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That article is full of shit.

Are they completely discounting the draft's "assistance"?

700W for three minutes? Almost no one can do that.

Case in point:
 
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