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Students at Delft Technical University have developed a recumbent bicycle with which they hope to break the current bike speed record. The bicycle has an oval, aerodynamic chassis to reduce air resistance. The record attempt will take place in the desert in the US state of Nevada in September.

The current world record is held by Canadian Sam Whittingham, who reached speeds of 133 km per hour in 2009 in his Varna Tempest.

The students hope the aerodynamic chassis will help them break the record. The chassis has been remoulded 30 times to reduce air resistance by 20 to 30 percent. The actual bike is larger than the record holder’s bicycle so that it can accomodate a larger and stronger cyclist.

The bike is being tested on a disused runway in Soesterberg today. It will be raced in Germany at the end of July.

source: www.rnw.nl

Kápolnás Gergely is a young hungarian designer who introduced this project not long time ago. It is pretty futuristic and it looks like it has a monocoque carbon frame and the pedaling is directly combined with driving the front wheel. All at all it looks pretty nice. We look forward to more designs like that which make the recumbent world much nicer.

Hello All!

This year I am organising a 5th recumbent meeting in Slovenia that will be held in Moravske Toplice. It will be different than all the meetings before as we will be stationary on one location for three days. And the location is Terme 3000 in Moravske Toplice – http://www.sava-hotels-resorts.com/si/destinacije/moravske/

Meeting date: 15.9.-18.9.2011

Whole families are invited as there are lots of swimming pools and slides to play around all day – for those who will not cycle, that is

Accomodation possibilities:

tent in a camp: 14,40€/person per day, all day swimming included, without sauna (+6€ for breakfast and +7,50€ for dinner)

bungalows / cottages 3*: 30€/person in a double bed bungalow including selfs ervice breakfast and dinner, includes all day swimming

hotel Termal 4*: 44€/person in a double bed room, includes breakfast and supper with unlimited swimming pools usage and sauna world!

Kids up to 6years stay free of charge, up to 12 years 50% discount, and up to 15 years 30% discount.

I will prepair three long daily tours for three geographical areas: Goričko, Prlekija, Prekmurje and one night cycling tour for fun I am counting on better weather than last year, but just in case we have swimming pools inside and outside to get really wet in case of bad weather More information follows, this is just to inform you that something interesting is beeing planned for September 2011 in Slovenia! So reserve the third weekend of September for family vacation in Slovenia!

Hope to see you here!

Best regards,
Peter Osterversnik
http://www.udobnoposvetu.si

This post is little bit out to date, but I still think it is pretty interesting. First Ukrainean Recumbent Meeting was organised at the end of September 2010. In the video you can see a pretty wide range of different recumbents and cargo bikes and also some velomobiles. All seems to be homebuilds.

There has appeared a new very interesting and comprehensive book about HPAs (Human Powered Aircraft) and all the different attempts to build some. Unfonatenully it is only in czech language written by very good czech cycling writter Ivo Hrubíšek. The name of the book is “Nebeští cyklisté” what means “Sky cyclists” and it is full of pictures and scatches. It is available here, if you would be interested.

There are quite some informations on internet about flying just by using human power. You should not miss the Wikipedia page but very interesting is also a project of canadian students with flapping-wing aircraft (ornithroper). You can find their great web page here and a video from the first flight hereunder. Also Greg Kolodziejzyk wanted to build HPA, but the project has been most probably canceled.

We have found pretty interesting picture of a recumbent tandem with two front wheels. It is offered by Turner recumbents from Tuscon, Arizona, USA. Here is the explanation from their web site:

“With two riders providing twice the power as an ordinary bike, much higher speeds on a tandem are possible. Safety becomes paramount, especially when a front-tire blowout, or slipping on a sharp turn, can turn a good day into a disaster.  But with the T-4-2, the extra front, in-line wheel provides a critical safety backup.  A flat will just slow you, not throw you.

The second front wheel provides this safety without compromising speed or agility.  That is because both front wheels are connected by the steering bar, so that even the tightest turns at speed are “locked-in the track” for maximum traction and control, similar to a rollerblade skate.  Both front wheels have their own brakes, controlled by a single caliper, thereby increasing front braking power by 100%.  All told, there are four sets of brakes, with the driver controlling all three wheels, and the stoker rider also controlling the rear for the ultimate in braking safety.

The frame design follows the Turner philosophy of “strength through triangulation,” not the flimsy, flexy designs often found in the other tandem bikes on the market.  Whether used for romantic rides in the sunset or power-pedalling across the flats, this bike is built for dependability, durability, and efficiency.  As with all other Turner bikes, the tandem follows the tradition of providing maximum comfort to the riders.  The T-4-2 has firm padding on an ergonomically designed composite seat to provide maximum logitudinal power to the pedals along with a luxurious ride.  The T-4-2 is sold by custom order only.”