Cycling land speed record smashed on Bonneville Salt Flats

Last edited Tue Sep 18, 2018, 01:40 PM - Edit history (3)

Source: bikeradar

Cycling land speed record smashed on Bonneville Salt Flats

Denise Mueller-Korenek breaks cycling speed record at 183mph/295km/h

Former US national track, road and mountain bike champion Denise Mueller-Korenek has smashed the land speed record on a bicycle, covering one mile at 183.932mph/296.009km/h on a custom-built carbon KHS.

The attempt on Sunday at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah beat the previous record of 167mph/268.76km/h, held by Dutchman Fred Rompleberg and smashed the women's record of 147.7mph/237.7km/h.

Mueller-Koronek drafted a modified 1,000-horsepower converted dragster with farings, which was also used by the previous men's record holder.

KHS Bicycles created a custom carbon frameset for Mueller-Koronek's record. The elongated design and 17-inch motorbike wheels encourage stability at high speeds, while a suspension fork reduces the vibrations over the salt flats.

Read more: https://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/cycling-land-speed-record-52942/

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I wasn't sure this would be LBN, but wait -- what? 184 mph????

I would {do something embarrassing} if I went anywhere near that fast on a bicycle.

The Washington Post treated as analysis, not news. Otherwise, I'd use them as the source.

Wonkblog Analysis

American woman pedals 184 mph, smashing record held by men for more than 100 years

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/09/18/american-woman-pedals-mph-smashing-record-held-by-men-more-than-years/



Denise Mueller-Korenek sets a paced cycling speed world record behind a specially designed racecar driven by Shea Holbrook at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. (Matt Ben Stone)

By Christopher Ingraham
September 18 at 9:34 AM

A 45-year-old American woman shattered a two-decade-old cycling speed record Sunday, pedaling 183.9 mph across Utah's Bonneville Salt Flats in the slipstream of a specially designed racecar. ... The record for paced cycling speed was previously held by Dutch rider Fred Rompelberg, who hit a top speed of 167 mph in 1995.

For Sunday's record-breaking attempt, Denise Mueller-Korenek rode a custom-designed machine featuring a unique double drivetrain capable of propelling the bike forward 128 feet with each revolution of the pedals, a necessity for hitting speeds surpassing the takeoff velocity of the typical commercial jetliner. By contrast, a typically geared bike might travel about 17 feet with each pedal revolution, and racing bikes used in competitions like the Tour de France hit around 30 feet per turn of the pedals in their highest gear. ... Because of the extreme gearing of the bike, Mueller-Korenek was towed for the first two miles of the five-mile course behind a dragster driven by Shea Holbrook, a professional racecar driver. At a speed of over 100 mph, Mueller-Korenek released the cable attaching her bike to the rear of Holbrook's car and pedaled the remaining three miles on her own. She benefited from the aerodynamic boost provided by the dragster, speeding along just inches ahead of her front wheel.

Vehicle-assisted speed records are nearly as old as the modern bicycle itself. As early as 1899, an American named Charles "Mile-a-Minute" Murphy hit a speed of 60 mph in the wake of a Long Island Rail Road train. Subsequent speed records were set with the assistance of motorbikes, cars and eventually racecars designed specifically for the purpose.
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Pursuing the motor paced record is a dangerous pastime given the high speeds involved, as well as the proximity to a souped-up vehicle. Rompelberg, the previous record holder, broke 24 bones in one of his first attempts to break the record after his pace car began fishtailing at 140 mph, flinging him out of the slipstream and into the air. ... Mueller-Korenek set a women’s speed record of 147 mph in 2016. It took her two years to return to the salt flats to attempt to best the men’s record, in part because of a string of setbacks in 2017: a crash that broke a shoulder blade and a rib, as well as an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound to the leg.
....

Christopher Ingraham writes about all things data. He previously worked at the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center. Follow https://twitter.com/_cingraham

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I pulled the picture from http://www.cyclist.co.uk/news/5326/gallery-rider-hits-world-record-speed-of-183mph

That's where the WaPo got theirs.