Author Topic: Battle Mountain 2018  (Read 13418 times)

Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #50 on: 05 December, 2018, 02:55:32 pm »
Rather than start the 2019 thread ridiculously early, I merely note here that the dates for 2029 are September 8-14.  An extra day of racing, as if the volunteers weren't already sleep-deprived zombies by Thursday as it is.  Tech inspections and introductory briefing on Saturday 7th.

Not booking anything until this Brexit fustercluck is sorted, mind.

 :o  That's planning ahead indeed  ;D
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #51 on: 05 December, 2018, 03:20:14 pm »
Curse my stubby peasant fingers on this infernal contraption!
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Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #52 on: 05 December, 2018, 03:24:00 pm »
What's Battle Mountain?

Beardy

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Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #53 on: 05 December, 2018, 06:47:30 pm »
What's Battle Mountain?
It’s the venue of Mr Larrington OTP's annual holibobs finale. Apprntly there’s a long straight flat road there that he likes to charge along at 80mph+ twice a day in a variety of hired vehicles, in pursuit of a variety of penniless students and hired athletes in various human powered vehicles.
For every complex problem in the world, there is a simple and easily understood solution that’s wrong.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #54 on: 06 December, 2018, 09:59:02 am »
What's Battle Mountain?

Informal name for the World Human Powered Speed Challenge.  Battle Mountain itself is a small town in northern Nevada, on Interstate 80 about halfway between Reno and the Utah state line; fifteen-odd miles south of the town is a stretch of State Highway 305 across the shallow valley of the Reese River, which has a ruler-straight section about seven miles long.  The first five of which perfectly match Teh Roolz for permitted slope of a sprint course (which were written about twenty-five years before the venue was first used).

We get to close it for up to twenty minutes at a time morning and evening for a week in September; each closure is just about long enough to fire four or five human-powered streamliners down the road to be timed over a flying 200 metres at the other end.  Twentieth anniversary next year; before the event was started the world record was 68.73 mph and now it's 89.59.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #55 on: 10 January, 2019, 10:28:43 am »
Last year I jokingly suggested to the Liverpool team supervisor Steve Bode that ARION 6 should be a tandem.  He blanched visibly and started muttering about "transport".

This morning he posted on the WHPSC Farcebok group to the effect that ARION 6 will be...

...

... a tandem ;D
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #56 on: 30 July, 2019, 12:16:28 pm »
With but a handful of weeks to go before this year's event, my chum Professor Sir Timelord Admiralissimo Plenipotentiary Nogami draws your attention to this 'ere video by some Québécois TV bods:

Champions du Monde.

Concentrates mostly on the University of Toronto team in general and rider Calvin Moes in particular, with contributions from Paolo Baldissera from the Turin Polytechnic University team and the luckless Jennifer Breet from HPT Delft-Amsterdam.  No idea why they didn't interview the actual genuine Frenchies from IUT Annecy, unless France and Quebec are separated by a common language.

Caveats:
  • It's only available until the end of the week, and
  • It's in French
Worth watching for the scenery, IMO.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #57 on: 30 July, 2019, 06:38:41 pm »
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #58 on: 02 August, 2019, 10:58:44 am »
No idea why they didn't interview the actual genuine Frenchies from IUT Annecy, unless France and Quebec are separated by a common language.
Maybe because they had an uninteresting run, so nothing worthwhile to say about them (compared with the Italian winners, the 80mph Canukistani success story and the tearful Dutch)?

A good watch, thanks.  Is Mike going for 100mph this year or in 2020?
simplicity, truth, equality, peace

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
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Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #59 on: 02 August, 2019, 12:35:09 pm »
No idea why they didn't interview the actual genuine Frenchies from IUT Annecy, unless France and Quebec are separated by a common language.
Maybe because they had an uninteresting run, so nothing worthwhile to say about them (compared with the Italian winners, the 80mph Canukistani success story and the tearful Dutch)?

Fabien Canal did make an 80 mph run, albeit with a wind speed too high for it to be official.  And a story doing the rounds maintained that the first time he'd ridden a recumbent of any kind was when they went out to practice their start routine on Poo Road.  The TV crew were pretty low-key though; I only learned of their existence when someone put the link on Farcebok last week.  Marked contrast to the Japanese outfit from a few years back, who were a bloody nuisance.

A good watch, thanks.  Is Mike going for 100mph this year or in 2020?

If by "Mike" you mean Mr Burrows, then the LSBU team are returning this year with a new! IMPROVED!!1! and – crucially – much more sturdy body (though still from the same moulds).  They've been testing it at Elvington recently.  I don't think anyone's mentioned 100 mph - the official project name is AIM93, 93 mph being wot aerodynamicist Glen Thompson reckons to be the theoretical maximum speed.  I doubt Mike himself will be making the trip, as you need an e-mail address to get into USAnia these days ;D
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #60 on: 08 August, 2019, 09:53:05 pm »
This is good news. We established that cheese is no substitute for a chassis that shouldn't flex like barracuda full acceleration.

Has the pilot been given licence to open the taps yet? The video I saw of the last record-breaker looked like an adequate amount of power was deployed.
Cruzbike V2k, S40

Mr Larrington

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Re: Battle Mountain 2018
« Reply #61 on: 09 August, 2019, 10:58:28 am »
The only video I've seen has shewn young Russell doing fairly modest speeds but he hasn't been complaining so I imagine serious welly to be on the cards in a month's time.  Hopefully the team will package the thing a bit more securely this time around as we don't want a repeat of last year's dropped-on-its-head-as-a-child nonsense.

My Sinister Agents tell me they want to call this year's bike "Velociraptor".  This is:
  • a name already used by Steve Copeland's unsuccessful prone of a few years back, and
  • naff
In the not-too-distant future I'll start a new thread for the Super-Duper 20th Anniversary Event as I depart these shores three weeks today bound for Ye Wilde West.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime