New World Record

[Mr Larrington]

Well it is about the bike and him. 

The bike bit I remember well because they said that they didn't use any fluid mechanics or modelling to design it; which, in my experience, is rather counter intuitive as fluid mechanics is not an art, at least not in the classical sense of the term, but a rather diffciult mathematical problem to solve. So good guess work, but is it optimal?

We've had SCIENCE versus Art in the past, with the likes of Matt Weaver and the Blueyonder team, and so far the bike designed by the sculptor has always come out ahead

I will try and do a better summary (of the rest) latter on tonight.

Ta muchly.

Too windy for a record run this morning chiz, but Yannick Lutz in the Altair II got over 70 mph at his first attempt; Tanya Markham and Barclay Henry went over 60.  More stuff later, stuff fans.

[Mr Larrington]

New record!  Sam Whittingham did 82.43 tonight and reckons there's more to come, particularly if the weather improves.  Which it's supposed to.

Barbara Buatois exceeded the existing women's record by almost 3 mph, but was prevented from claiming it due to too high a wind speed chiz; she was first down the course this evening and the only person to have an illegal wind.  Steps are being taken to allow her to run later from tomorrow.

Freddy Markham did a > 75 mph run, Yannick Lutz was > 70, Jason Erickson a new PB with a 67 and Eric Ware likewise with a 65.

[Mr Larrington]

New arm-powered record!  Greg Westlake in the Avos Arrow; 37.8 mph.

Machine currently having its gearing raised...

[Mr Larrington]

New women's record: 72.5 mph for Barbara Buatois in the Varna Diablo 3.  Nearly 6 mph improvement over the previous mark.  Hurrah!

Greg Westlake punctured when running at over 48 mph with more than a mile to go before the timed section.  Bah!

[Tim]

New women's record: 72.5 mph for Barbara Buatois in the Varna Diablo 3.  Nearly 6 mph improvement over the previous mark.  Hurrah!

Greg Westlake punctured when running at over 48 mph with more than a mile to go before the timed section.  Bah!

That's an absolute shattering of the record.

And Greg is going to have to get quicker before a blowout than that if he wants Sam's record of fastest crash. Actually having said that did he crash or manage to control it? Top bike skills if he managed to slow it down whilst upright.

[Tim]

And Greg is going to have to get quicker before a blowout than that if he wants Sam's record of fastest crash. Actually having said that did he crash or manage to control it? Top bike skills if he managed to slow it down whilst upright.

I now see that Greg rides a trike, so that would have reduced the chances of him scuffing the new surface.

[Mr Larrington]

And Greg is going to have to get quicker before a blowout than that if he wants Sam's record of fastest crash. Actually having said that did he crash or manage to control it? Top bike skills if he managed to slow it down whilst upright.

I now see that Greg rides a trike, so that would have reduced the chances of him scuffing the new surface.

He came close to running off the road, but kept it rubber-side down and on the black stuff.  Just back from this morning's runs and late breakfast; IIRC he did 42.5 at the second attempt, after his earlier 41 and some change was thwarted by the wind.

18 year old Jay Henry got over 60 for the first time in spite of crashing this time yesterday.  More updates (hopefully) after tonight's session.

[Tim]

Sam's reporting on his blog that Greg clocked 41.48mph through the trap for the world record.

[Mr Larrington]

Soz, finger trouble on my part.  Or something. Anyway, Greg had another two goes in the evening and bumped it up to 42.3 on the second.  Of them.  He sat things out this morning, but will be out again tonight.  If I get my act together sufficiently I may be able to get a photo of the machine in toto.  Last night I tried to get action photos of the fast boys about 750m from the timers, netting five pictures of empty road and sagebrush.  Bugger!

World+dog currently doing 1/8 mile drag races or fettling.

[Mr Larrington]

Fuck me, that was a Bit Special

Only the Cal Poly bike Atlas let the side down - transmission problems stopped them in both attempts.  In chronological order:

Rob Hitchcock / Kyle Edge: 60.66 mph.  He's gone faster, but he's a bit out of practice at the moment.

Ron Layman / Primal 2: 66.60 mph.  First time over 65 for Ron.

Greg Westlake / Avos Arrow: 43.49 mph.  Yet another world record!

Sam Whittingham / Varna Tempest: 82.82 mph.  Yet another world record!

Yannick Lutz / Altair II: 73.07 mph.  Personal best.

Eric Ware / Wedge: 71.07 mph.  First time over 70 for Eric.

Barbara Buatois / Varna Diablo 3: 75.46 mph.  Yet another world record, outright European record, first woman over 75 mph, fourth fastest rider evvah after Sam, Matt Weaver and Fast Freddy Markham.  $DEITY alone knows how she does it coz there's not much of her

Photos on the flickr site in due course.

[Mr Larrington]

Bit anti-climactic tonight - the wind was stronger than earlier in the week and an error converting times to speeds produced results that had everyone going "no, that's not right" instead of dancing in the street.  Once the speeds were recomputed, Sam turned in yet another 80+ run, with a moth as an unwelcome passenger in the Diablo, and Barbara did a 73.2.

And Greg did the full course, resulting in yet another edging up of the record, to 43.67 mph.  It's over for another year and I'm going to bed.

[gordon taylor]

Thanks for the updates and photos.
I'm agog at the speeds and the machines involved.