
Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record - coryfklein
https://www.npr.org/2018/09/18/649221471/woman-rides-bicycle-to-183-9-mph-a-new-world-record
======
toomanybeersies
The fastest I've ever gone on a pushbike was around 80 km/h (50 mph), down a
hill.

It's pretty fun and a great adrenaline rush, but holy shit it's dangerous.
It's not like I was wearing protective gear, my polystyrene helmet and lycra
wasn't going to protect me at that speed. All it would've taken for me to fuck
myself up was a large stone or a nail in my tyre or even just speed wobbles.

I stopped hill bombing pretty quick. It's not really worth the risk.

The fastest I've managed on a flat is around 60-70 km/h, drafting behind a
random car. That's also not safe, if the driver tapped their brakes, I'd go
straight into them.

There's something so cool about going at car speeds, but without a motor.

~~~
komali2
As I get older, every time I find myself cruising at 50mph in traffic on the
freeway on my motorcycle, I ask myself how the fuck younger me thought this
was an acceptable speed at which to start lanesplitting. Was I insane?
Nowadays I'll start around 40, more like 30, and never more than 10 over.

It's a shame so many motorcyclists die young, before they get a chance to
"grow into" some safety sense. I distinctly remember talking with my friends
age 12 about how (apologies) "gay" helmets were on our bicycles. We'd
speedbomb hills too, it was fun. I remember feeling no fear back then. I
remember my parents telling me "you're an idiot for thinking you're
invulnerable."

Why do we think that way when we're young, that we're immune to damage? What
changes? We experience more death firsthand? If I hadn't had to clean up car
accidents and watch a friend lose her intelligence to a helmetless bicycle
accident, would I still feel invulnerable?

I wonder about this woman - did she do this because she lacked the fear? Or
did she feel it, and all the positives of doing it overruled her fear? Maybe
she was just confident enough in her safety measures to do it anyway?

~~~
gnulinux
I was maybe 10 or younger and I was speedbombing downhill with my younger
sister. We were fearless and very, _very_ fast. Of course we weren't wearing
any helmet or whatever. One time as we were racing, she was winning, she
shifted her bike toward my direction and slowed down. I ran into her bike and
flew out of my bike. Next thing I know I'm in the air, falling down towards
the hill. When I finally hit the ground, I uncontrollably rolled downhill
another maybe 10 meters. All my face and body was covered in blood and soil.
My mom, seeing this incident from far away, ran for help. She told me, when I
grew up, that when she was close enough to see me she was sure I was dead
because of all the blood on the asphalt and what not. But thanks to the gods
of probability, I didn't even break a bone. I don't understand how can human
body can be so resilient that a 10 year old kid can survive such an accident
without any damage other than his skin (and it wasn't permenant, I forgot
about this event until now). I was stupid and I probably did that again and
again, possibly even the next day. Now 15 years later, I bike everyday, but I
bike very cautiously. I was lucky once, I don't wanna try my luck again.

~~~
fian
Cyclists tend to break bones at slower speeds. Pro-cyclists racing down
mountains will lose a lot of skin in a fall but unless they hit something hard
(rock, pole, wall) they don't tend to break bones. At walking speeds, a
sideways fall often results in broken collar bones and wrists.

It is all about the angular momentum of the cyclist wrt to the road.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
Interesting. I've moved to a warmer country and it's normal here for moped
riders and motor cyclists to wear a helmet with shorts and a t-shirt.

I'm used to motor cyclists wearing leathers. Bare skin in an accident looks
terrifyingly abrasive.

~~~
pmontra
A friend told me "there are two types of motorcyclists, the ones with a
t-shirt and the ones that already crashed." This is a warm country.

------
apo
Didn't see a video on that page, but it's here:

[https://www.bicycling.com/news/a23281242/denise-mueller-
kore...](https://www.bicycling.com/news/a23281242/denise-mueller-korenek-
breaks-bicycle-speed-record/)

That must have taken a lot of training. One wrong move and it's game over.

~~~
07d046
Crazy.

But I'm not so sure about this claim that the coach makes:

 _My theory is that women are able to push that aging envelop a little further
than men and are more capable of long-distance peak performance_

At the top end, the strongest men are always stronger than the strongest
women, and age impacts women more quickly than men, judging by rowing results:
[https://www.concept2.com/indoor-
rowers/racing/records/world/...](https://www.concept2.com/indoor-
rowers/racing/records/world/2000)

~~~
pmiller2
Women do as well or better than men in ultra distance swimming. See
[https://www.thecut.com/2016/09/the-obscure-endurance-
sport-w...](https://www.thecut.com/2016/09/the-obscure-endurance-sport-women-
are-quietly-dominating.html)

~~~
07d046
Yep, I've heard the same about thru-hiking. Women might be faster at running
2000+ miles than men. It's for efforts measured in minutes or hours that the
fastest men are faster than the fastest women.

Edit: I wasn't expecting my comments here to be so controversial

~~~
bloomer
Do you have any source for this? It seems with such a small participation rate
for thru-hiking, getting any sort of meaningful data about relative abilities
would be unlikely.

~~~
07d046
That's very true, extraordinarily few people are going for fastest times on
these, so it's quite speculative. Here's an article about it:
[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/sports/on-the-longest-
hik...](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/04/sports/on-the-longest-hiking-
trails-a-woman-finds-equal-footing.html)

------
schoen
There's an interesting variety of record categories for bicycle speed; this is
the very fastest one¹.

motor-paced/unpaced: do you have a motor vehicle providing aerodynamic
assistance in order to reduce air resistance?

downhill/level ground: do you ride your bicycle on a flat surface or down a
mountain?

faired/unfaired: do you have a canopy attached to your bicycle to reduce air
resistance?

recumbent/upright: do you ride your bicycle lying down or sitting up?

indoor/outdoor: do you ride your bicycle outdoors or on a velodrome track?

¹ Wikipedia also describes a treadmill record in which the cyclist encounters
no air resistance at all, only friction between the bicycle and the ground and
mechanical friction within the bicycle. That record is 207.9 MPH (!).

~~~
takk309
Don't forget about one of my favorite cycling records, the penny farthing 1
hour record. It is a record that has been standing for 132 years![1]

[1] [https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/mark-
beaumont...](https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/mark-beaumont-
take-132-year-old-penny-farthing-hour-record-379826)

~~~
schoen
Evidently Beaumont set a new British record on his attempt, but didn't break
the world record:

[https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-44503724/mark-beaumont-
beats-...](https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-44503724/mark-beaumont-
beats-127-year-old-penny-farthing-record)

------
ourmandave
_Once they finished that phase of the run, the danger of a calamitous fall
wasn 't over: Holbrook and Mueller-Korenek had to work in tandem to slow down
some 70 mph over a final mile, to reach an exit speed of 110 mph._

Yeah, once your only going 110 mph _on a bicycle_ , the danger is pretty much
over. /s

~~~
jiveturkey
I like how she was wearing a helmet. You know, for protection.

~~~
LanceH
One of the big functions of a bicycle/motorcycle helmet is to make the head
slide, instead of sticking and snapping.

------
S_A_P
I am not taking away from this feat because that is an amazing speed. Someone
having the courage to stay on a bike going nearly 200 mph is incredible. I
don’t want to get into the gender aspect of this either. My question is that
it seems peculiar to even attempt a speed record under circumstances that are
so completely artificial. Trailing a vehicle that blocks the wind? Having to
be towed more than half way to the final velocity?

Sure it’s a record, but it isn’t one that reflects any real world scenario. I
would be very interested in what the speed record is when someone gets on a
very expensive well engineered bike from a stop and under ideal yet still
realistic conditions is able to reach x mile/km per hour under human power
only. I don’t mean this as snark either it just seems like there are infinite
stilted scenarios where we can imagine some “world record” such as “world hang
gliding speed record holder exceeds Mach 1 while tethered to supersonic
plane”. Maybe I’m answering my own question here when I say maybe it’s about
the engineering required to do this safely.

~~~
mannykannot
I also feel the same way about using reaction motors (jets and rockets) to set
land and water speed records - they seem to fall into the rather arbitrary
category of "let's do everything we can to go as fast as possible except put
wings on on it."

Ultimately, though, it is even more about the courage to try it than the
technology.

~~~
NullPrefix
>except put wings

One could argue that spoilers fall into the category of wings. Only difference
is the lift direction.

~~~
mannykannot
One could be technically correct, while missing the point, by so arguing.

------
close04
Having a world record for something that requires so much skill and
determination that it takes decades to beat it quite the achievement.
Impressive by any measure. Congratulations to her!

> Moments later, Holbrook yelled out into the open air of the Salt Flats,
> "Beat that, Fred!"

Fred I assume is 72 year old Fred Rompelberg, who set the previous record 23
years ago. This challenge might be more appropriate 23 years from now :).

Makes me think of the contrast with Felix Baumgartner who in his 2012 historic
jump intentionally missed the free fall time record by a few seconds to not
take every single record away from the previous holder, Joseph Kittinger, who
held them for 52 years.

~~~
restalis
_" Felix Baumgartner intentionally missed the free fall time record by a few
seconds to not take every single record away from the previous holder, Joseph
Kittinger, who held them for 52 years."_

Although this shows respect and admiration for Felix Baumgartner on one hand,
overall it lowers the value of the game and of the players. The contests'
value relies in its genuineness and it catches a cheap feel when some strong
contender does not run in it wholeheartedly. Joseph Kittinger holding a world
record for 52 years is a spectacular feat that won't loose any value if it was
indeed unrivaled by contenders despite their best efforts all those years.
That title won't, however, hold the same value from 52nd year further, knowing
it lasts just because Felix Baumgartner decided to let it. Winning prizes are
not charity.

~~~
close04
This is not what I'm suggesting. Winning is not charity but you may feel you
have reached your goal with the records you already won. Winning is also not
about "winning everything". For example a football (soccer) match where you
stop scoring after you have a reasonable goal lead is perfectly expected under
"fair play". Nobody will consider it charity.

I just contrasted the behavior of one world record holder who sacrificed part
of his performance out of respect for the previous holder as opposed to the
world record holder who screams "beat that" at the 72 year old previous holder
just moments after beating him. I find the second type of behavior distinctly
more belittling for both. Especially when the other guy was 5 years older and
using far less advanced technology, and also some very impressive lifetime
achievements.

~~~
macintux
I think you're interpreting that very uncharitably.

An exhilarated rider, just learning she surpassed her own goal by a
significant margin and who, I would wager, knows the previous record-holder,
can say something like that without it being remotely cruel.

Maybe she is a sports jerk. I'd wager good money it was meant, and taken, in
good humor.

~~~
close04
You may be correct. But you're asking me to make an assumption based on data I
don't have rather than the one made on the data I do have.

~~~
macintux
I'm really asking you not to publicly accuse someone of being a jerk when you
don't actually have many facts.

Elsewhere it was posted that the previous record-holder was in attendance and
they are, apparently, at least acquaintances.

------
jl2718
This is insanely dangerous. One whiff of the slipstream and you are dead.

As for physical difficulty, the bike setup she uses takes about 1.5 watts per
mph of rolling/gearing resistance, although the back end of the slipstream
gives some forward pressure. The drag vehicle is likely the limiting factor.

~~~
jannyfer
Is it that dangerous? I thought motorcyclists wearing protective gear were
safe if they fell slid to a stop. The danger would be from crashing into other
things, but most of this place looks flat?

~~~
berbec
If she fell out of the slip stream, she wouldn't have fallen over. She would
have been thrown off the bike by hitting the 175+mph wind. It would be like
walking out of your house into a Category 5 hurricane. She could have been
tossed and likely died.

~~~
kweks
Many people jump out of planes in 200+ km/hr of wind without getting snapped
into pieces. Perhaps it's comparable to that.

~~~
macintux
Is that wind directly in the opposite direction? If so I'd expect them to be
blown immediately back into the plane.

Apples and oranges.

~~~
jl2718
Actually I've done this. You have to push your body out past the boundary
layer before you jump outward. A lot of people do get blown back in, but I've
also seen the diagonal running dive work at fairly high speeds.

------
anonytrary
I applaud this, but at some point "riding a bike" becomes a somewhat
inaccurate and/or incomplete description of what's happening here. There's so
much auxiliary stuff required to make this possible that it seems like a bit
of a stretch to call this "riding a bike". The footnotes kind of matter.

~~~
croo
My thoughs exactly. They are behind a car and bike specially crafted for this
and they pulling the bike up to speed - probably because the bike is non-
fuctioning under 100 kmph or so. Great technical feat but it's not "cycling as
we know it".

------
huhtenberg
Technically, she managed to _maintain_ a speed of 184 MPH by pedaling her
bicycle, in a slipstream, for less than a minute.

It's very brave of her to attempt this, but it's as detached from the actual
cycling as it gets.

~~~
bla2
From TFA: "Mueller-Korenek sat on a bike with gearing so steep that she needed
to be towed to around 100 mph before taking over under her own power." So no,
she didn't just maintain 184 MPH.

~~~
whamlastxmas
The semantics of it are silly and pointless to discuss, since she's not
accelerating those extra 84MPH using only her own power. There's a lot of
aerodynamic influences happening here and this is more of an engineering feat
than an athletic one.

~~~
bla2
The GP is factually wrong, this isn't "semantics". Your comment moves the
goalpost to "well the aerodynamics help". This is true: The slipstream moves
at the speed of the car ahead, so it's like she has no headwind slowing her
down. She still needs to accelerate 84 MPH (on top of maintaining 100 MPH).
Think of doing this on a gym bike where you don't have headwind either. This
is very much an athletic feat.

It's also an engineering feat, but again TFA: "As they targeted the overall
record, their team revamped the same dragster that was used to set the men's
record" \-- they're reusing last time's engineering.

~~~
whamlastxmas
This record is like having a record for bench pressing with the aid of
hydraulic lifts. How much do the hydraulic lifts help? How much is the person
contributing? The whole premise just seems really stupid, and it's even dumber
if they were to make the headlines "Woman smashes world record bench press at
23 tons". Just throw someone in Elon's hyperloop vacuum tubes on a bicycle
fixed to the rails, make them wear a pressurized diving suit, and let them go
to town. I'm sure they'd break 184MPH and it would be an equally pointless
dick measuring contest.

------
24gttghh
Meanwhile, the fastest un-paced record for a bicycle is:

Todd Reichert 2016, 144.17 km/h (89.58 mph), Faired Recumbent, -0.6% grade,
unpaced[0]

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cycling_records#Speed_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cycling_records#Speed_record_on_a_bicycle)

------
jiveturkey
The previous effort failed to set a record because the lead vehicle (range
rover) wasn't fast enough!!!

~~~
dsfyu404ed
Yeah, getting a relatively normal vehicle to drag an enclosure with the
aerodynamics of a brick (it has to punch a big hole in the air otherwise it
wouldn't shield the rider from wind resistance) at a little less than 200mph
is somewhat of an achievement in itself.

------
maurits
Courtesy of the dutch traffic police, here is a torpedo shaped 'Quest' bike
doing 62 on the bike path. No electric assist. [1]

[1] [https://youtu.be/7ubFk5uve9g?t=31s](https://youtu.be/7ubFk5uve9g?t=31s)

------
frgewut
How much energy is actually transferred from car to cyclist?

Records with too strong assisting wind often are not recognized. [1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_assistance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_assistance)

~~~
tomglynch
This record is fastest speed on a bicycle while drafting. I don't think wind
assistance matters.

------
gnufx
It might be interesting to know about the technicalities of such things, like
computational ones. The Liverpool group¹ that recently got hand-powered
records did a fair amount of CFD modelling a few years ago, and presumably
more recently (and somewhat restored faith in mechanical engineering students
doing research computing).

1\. [https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2018/09/13/record-breakers-
ulv-...](https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2018/09/13/record-breakers-ulv-team-
break-hand-cycling-records-with-arion4/)

------
basicplus2
I remember doing some calculations years ago and calculated that if one was
capable of riding in a vacuum one could reach a speed of over 2000km/h based
just on friction of moving parts and road

------
maym86
Would it be possible to build a bike like this but with multiple gears to get
to speed from a standing start and not be towed? Is 100mph tow detatchmemt a
required limit for the record?

~~~
acomjean
I think you could, but you'd need a long way to get up to speed. The power
needed to accelerate (Force=Mass*Acceleration) would be huge. I would imagine
it would be a lot greater than steady state, where the only thing slowing you
down is wind resistance. The windblock was clearly designed to minimize that
force.

I don't feel comfortable going much of 80mph sitting in my car.. I can't
imagine doing it on two wheels. I don't think my car actually can go that
fast...

~~~
BeeOnRope
Well the power needed to get from 100 mph to 183 is a lot more than from 0 to
100, at least in kinetic energy terms which is proportional to velocity
squared.

I think the main problem is that you'd be tired out getting to 100 mph, but
that with the gearing so high it would be very difficult to start from a
standstill without tipping over.

------
hirundo
Woman Proves that Men Don't Have a Monopoly on Performing Insanely Dangerous
Stunts for Dubious Status Symbols

~~~
reversecs
Its weird that once a woman does something for the first time people highlight
that the person doing it is a woman. Its a little patronizing imo.

~~~
fein
Everyone is equal, but hey heres a WOMAN that did a thing!

I'm happy she achieved this, but the cognitive dissonance from HN is
depressing.

That being said, I never knew these records were done with a draft vehicle. It
kind of takes the human out of the equations to the point that I don't care if
a man or woman set this record.

It seems like the pure record would be whoever has the land speed record in a
bike unassisted by a tow and slipstream. I have more respect for whoever did
that over some person that needed a mechanical advantage via a draft and a
tow.

~~~
qbrass
That would be Todd Reichert going 89.59mph.

[http://www.ihpva.org/hpvarecl.htm#nom01](http://www.ihpva.org/hpvarecl.htm#nom01)

------
skookumchuck
"to protect the cyclist from the wind"

No, it's to eliminate aerodynamic drag, since nobody is strong enough to pedal
against that anywhere near 180. It's awful hard to get a car to push against
that. Nevertheless, going 180 mph on a bike is extremely dangerous. If you had
any failure of the bike/tires, brushed against the slipstream, the towing
vehicle suddenly speed up or slow down, you'd be dead.

I also expect the drag racer would need modification. They're heavily
optimized for a few seconds at full power, not a controlled cruise at moderate
power. You'd likely need an automatic cruise control setting for precise
speeds, a much more effective cooling system, and a clutch that doesn't engage
with a huge jerk.

~~~
TylerH
"protecting the cyclist from the wind" is simply the layman's way of saying
"eliminating aerodynamic drag"

------
radoslawc
Bike technical details:
[https://www.facebook.com/FireCycle/videos/533738473717627/](https://www.facebook.com/FireCycle/videos/533738473717627/)

~~~
minitoar
This guy is rad, I met him on the trail and we bike toured down highway 1 for
~3 days together. Amazing to see him in this video like 10 years later!

------
daef
There's a video describing the attempt from 5 days ago:
[https://youtu.be/cZhrqKrljig](https://youtu.be/cZhrqKrljig) (WIRED)

------
ajaygeorge91
Spoiler alert :P
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFTqHbgsKs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CFTqHbgsKs)

------
hackerbabz
Does anyone know why they used a dragster? Maybe cheaper to modify it to run
for 5 miles than buying a sports car that can hit 180mph?

~~~
rdlecler1
Probably need a clean slipstream.

------
jwilk
Text-only version:

[https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=649221471](https://text.npr.org/s.php?sId=649221471)

------
bch
I think I never see her coasting. Fixed gear?

~~~
schoen
That doesn't seem likely to me, because she doesn't pedal when she's being
towed at the beginning. She only begins to pedal at around 0:30 in the video.
So I conclude that there's a freewheel.

Someone might suggest that the extraordinarily high gear ratio means that the
initial acceleration involves just a tiny foot movement, but I think it would
be severely disproportionate to what we see -- one of the interviews referred
to the bike moving 128 feet per pedal revolution (quoted elsewhere in the
comment thread). Clearly the bike has been towed much more than 128 feet
before a pedal revolution has taken place, right?

I would think a fixed gear under the circumstances would be very dangerous for
various reasons, including the extremely long deceleration time at this speed
and the extreme hazard of applying friction brakes. A fixed gear would mean
that giving up the attempt (or even just ending it normally) requires a long
period of continued effort to avoid injury and a very likely loss of balance.

I wanted to contrast this with velodrome speeds by pointing out that this is
over 3× the unpaced velodrome speed record and that the unpaced velodrome
record allows the cyclist much more overall control of the situation. On the
other hand, I don't know for sure whether the motor-paced velodrome record
(which is about 2/3 of Mueller-Korenek's new outdoor record) used a fixed
gear.

~~~
tomglynch
It's fixed gear. It doesn't seem like she's pedalling at the start because the
gear ratio is soo large, so large in fact the bike can't even be pedalled at
speeds less than 15mph.

~~~
schoen
But if so, shouldn't there have been several pedal revolutions at the start?
Surely she was towed much more than several hundred feet?

~~~
schoen
I found a new piece of evidence that it's a fixed gear:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhrqKrljig&t=265](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhrqKrljig&t=265)

The pedals continue to be pushed forward when the rear wheel is rotating
freely. With a freewheel, this shouldn't happen (the pedals can drive the rear
wheel when they're moving forward but not backward, while the wheel can drive
the pedals backward but not forward).

But I'm still confused about the lack of visible pedal movement during the
initial towing part of the record video. It seems like she was towed more than
far enough that the pedals should have needed to move visibly with a fixed
gear.

------
sulam
I like how the brakes are connected to the tow apparatus— because, you know,
who needs brakes at those speeds?

------
tankerdude
Instead of “Skate or Die!”, this is totally “Draft or Die!”

Timing craziness and so many things that could go wrong....

------
gesman
Would be interesting to know what's her peak speed was?

Did she break 200 barrier?

~~~
hannasanarion
I imagine it would be hard to measure, since the car blocks radar and could
have a different peak speed

~~~
taeric
That said, couldn't you just do a differential speed? Measure radar to the
car, and from the car to the bike? With some extra math, I'd think you could
easily establish her speed.

Though...I also don't think the radar is necessary. Just rpm of the tires
would suffice. No?

------
jdlyga
And I feel like I'm going fast when I hit 15 mph

------
oh_sigh
Wow - the gearing on that bike must be insane!

~~~
obmelvin
_The KHS bike she rode was a dragster in its own right. The low-slung,
chopper-style bicycle is more than seven feet long and outfitted with 17-inch
motorbike wheels for stability at insane speeds. It also demands a two-wheel
drivetrain to propel the absurdly tall gear._

 _“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.”_

It's pretty crazy. 128 ft per revolution!!!!

~~~
r_c_a_d
The wheels must have been a little bigger than 17 inches, since (62/12) *
(62/12) * 17 = 453.8

Massive gear. I wonder if anyone could get that moving from a standing start.
A huge 1km TT rider maybe?

~~~
mqlkib
Don't forget about π, with it you get 18.3 wheels. No problem with really fat
tires, I think.

~~~
r_c_a_d
When I read this I thought, what is n? You mean pi, right?

Yes, 18.3 inch wheel is what I got. Here in the UK, the "wheel" size includes
the tire as well, I think.

I guess if the rim is 17 inch diameter then 18.3 is only a tire width of 0.65,
which isn't very fat.

------
juskrey
The thing to tell your children: never do anything that will cost you a life
on any single smallest error.

------
dsfyu404ed
So someone breaks a world record by a really big amount and the top two
comment threads are virtue signaling about how unsafe it is to ride various
two wheeled vehicles fast and to borrow the words of another commenter, people
talking past each other about 'highest performing males outperform highest
performing females at almost everything' vs. 'average women are better at some
things than average men.' Way to go. This is supposed to be a tech message
board. /rant over.

Now can someone tell me what the construction differences are about this bike
that makes that speed possible. For starters a normal bike tire won't like
that speed let alone for that duration. Is she using tubed tires? I can't
think of any application where tubed tires go that fast at all let alone for
that long.

~~~
adam-a
There's a good video about this which shows some details on the bike:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhrqKrljig](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZhrqKrljig)

Apparently it uses motorbike wheels, and it has a double reduction gear
system. There is a cool section where the journalist tries to ride it without
a tow-start, very difficult to peddle under normal circumstances.

------
nostromo
Seems like the whole being towed by a race car bit is cheating.

~~~
fishtoaster
Might want to reread the article. It's only towed by the car until it hits
about 100mph since below that speed, it's not really possible to turn the
pedals due to the insane gearing. Above that speed, the race car detaches and
the bicyclist pedals up to 183.9mph.

~~~
userbinator
There's also a "non motor-paced" category of records which does involve
pedaling from a standstill to the maximum speed. Presumably involving many
shifts. They are not surprisingly slower, because just as in driving a car,
accelerating requires the most power, and maintaining speed much less. A
multispeed bike would have more frictional losses in the gearing too. If she
tried to get to 183.9mph from 0, on a bike with an appropriately large number
of gears, she would probably be tired out long before she got to that speed.

~~~
nostromo
Another massive advantage is being in the slip stream of a vehicle.

------
DoofusOfDeath
I'm trying to understand the magnitude of her accomplishment.

Based on the help she got from the car and the bike's unusual gearing, it
sounds like her main _athletic_ accomplishment was to accelerate a bike by
83.9 MPH.

Am I missing something?

~~~
King-Aaron
Accelerating a pedal-powered bike by 135kph / 83mph is a stunning
accomplishment. I am flabbergasted that you don't see that as something
notable.

~~~
DoofusOfDeath
> Accelerating a pedal-powered bike by 135kph / 83mph is a stunning
> accomplishment. I am flabbergasted that you don't see that as something
> notable.

I just don't know either way. I would imagine it comes down to how much time
or distance she had to accomplish that acceleration.

Because without significant wind resistance, and with appropriate gearing
ratios on the bike, honestly I just don't know what else would be physically
demanding.

~~~
rainforest
> As Holbrook accelerates, the cyclist will push 700 watts for more than a
> minute to stay inside the draft pocket behind the dragster’s fairing. That’s
> about what a Tour de France sprinter produces in the final minute of a
> stage.

From [https://www.wired.com/story/denise-mueller-korenek-bike-
spee...](https://www.wired.com/story/denise-mueller-korenek-bike-speed-
record-168-mph) \- 700W over a minute is very physically demanding.

------
Markoff
title is misleading, it's MOTOR PACED BICYCLE, not just bicycle

------
GrumpyNl
Its done in a slipstream, place her in a vacuum and she will go much, much
faster.

------
tardo99
I mean, couldn't someone just skydive while holding a bike and make a similar
claim?

~~~
anonytrary
In other news, the world's first Cheetah flies on a concord jet, further
bolstering the Cheetah as the fastest feline in the world.

------
ratsimihah
A woman and a suspension fork, not what one would expect for a speed record,
is it? Not to be sexist or anything, I love it!

------
NietTim
These 'cycling' speed records are so lame. Go peddle into the wind if you want
a record, I don't consider this normal cycling. This is just cheating.

~~~
jrockway
Is there any cycling record category that doesn't try to reduce wind? Time
trialists use special bikes and gear to reduce the effect of the wind. Road
racers try to be behind someone that can block the wind for them. This is yet
another category with the same theme.

~~~
NietTim
You're talking about reducing drag. There's a difference between trying to
reduce drag and piggybagging behind something that almost complete eliminates
wind, and perhaps even helps because of the way the air flows around the chute
and creates a push effect behind it. Just the same as what's happening here:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwwuCK-3iQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWwwuCK-3iQ)
I disagree that this is even close to the same as other categories.

------
_wmd
I'm not one to pay attention to such things normally, but the repeat gender
and stupidity references in this thread seem to jump out, encouraging a vague
sense of disappointment, and leave me wondering how the comments would look if
it had been a man setting the record.

Is a 105 year old man riding a bicycle (
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327936](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13327936)
) or jumping from the stratosphere (
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4652150](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4652150)
) less "stupid" or "dangerous", and inherently more "inspiring" or
"incredible"? Is wearing a pressure suit somehow less "cheating"?

~~~
saagarjha
I'm not seeing it. Would you mind pointing it out to me?

------
edoo
Motorcycle dragsters know not raise their torso off the bike around 120+ mph.
Your body acts like a sail and you go flying off the bike. The high speed
accidental dismounts in this sport will be interesting to watch.

~~~
newnewpdro
You just serve as an air brake. As long as you're holding on it's not that big
a deal on a sport bike. It sure helps with braking distance though since you
can counter the lift of the rear should you need to emergency brake from such
speeds.

Source: individual who has ridden liter bikes > 180MPH many times.

