New Australian HPV distance record

cfsmtb

Last week many people absolutely stoked to hear of Ben & Jeff's Australian record making effort at DISC for a new 12-hour distance record for recumbent cycling.

New Australian 12-hour record
http://www.trisled.com.au/news.html

But absolutely incredulous at the remarks made by the BV CEO tacked on the end of this local Leader newspapers article on the record efforts. Bizarre, totally unnecessary and somewhat nasty to say the least.


***

Realising a riding ambition
http://www.prestonleader.com.au/art...4_nlv_news.html

Jeff Nielsen after breaking the recumbent bike record. Picture: JOSIE HAYDEN

AFTER 12 hours cycling on his back, all Jeff Nielsen wanted was a burger.

Nielsen, 25, rode 491.25km at Darebin International Sports Centre's (DISC) velodrome between 8pm on Sunday, May 25, and 8am on Monday, setting the Australian 12-hour distance record for recumbent cycling.

The Gembrook nursery worker was zonked after the ride, but managed to string a few sentences together before hoeing into a McDonald's breakfast.

"Towards the end it was a relief. Counting down the last couple of minutes to go the last five minutes were the longest five minutes of my life."

Riding at an average speed of 45km/h he completed a lap roughly every 20 seconds in his spacepod-like three-wheeled fibreglass bike, named Overzealous.

His heart raced at an average 165bpm, and he drank about 10 litres of water during the ride, making pit-stops every two to three hours.

Nielsen is the first to attempt the 12-hour recumbent record in Australia. His goal is to break the 24-hour distance record of 1041km, set in Canada in 2006.

"Eventually I want to go for about 1200km."

Nielsen and his supporters say breaking the record is a step towards bringing recumbent bikes into mainstream commuter use.

"For a long time they've been boxed as the bike of choice for university professors, but that's changing," said Tri-Sled recumbent bike designer Ben Goodall, who builds Nielsen's bikes.

Thanks to superior aerodynamics, the top recumbent speed on a flat road is 136km/h, roughly twice the speed of an upright bike.

Goodall said recumbents were safer, more comfortable, and faster than upright bikes, and sales were growing.

But Bicycle Victoria chief executive Harry Barber said recumbents were too wide and too hard to pedal uphill for the typical commuter.

"I think that the 1880s safety bicycle, which we're still riding today, 125 years later, is a pretty tried and tested design," he said.

But recumbents were great for quiet country roads, and for people with back or balance problems, he said.

For Nielsen and Goodall the challenge has only just begun.

They expect to return to DISC velodrome next year, probably with a new bike design, to break the world 12-hour record of 607km on their way to the 24-hour mark.

"There's still a window of improvement needed to break the world mark," Goodall said.

"Jeff's definitely a contender. We're not wasting our time."

BT Humble

cfsmtb wrote:
> ...
> But absolutely incredulous at the remarks made by the BV CEO tacked on
> the end of this local Leader newspapers article on the record efforts.
> Bizarre, totally unnecessary and somewhat nasty to say the least.

I dunno, I think it was a suitably restrained contrast to the bit of
pro-recumbent propaganda in the paragraph before it! ;-)

> ***
> Goodall said recumbents were safer, more comfortable, and faster than
> upright bikes, and sales were growing.
>
> But Bicycle Victoria chief executive Harry Barber said recumbents were
> too wide and too hard to pedal uphill for the typical commuter.
>
> "I think that the 1880s safety bicycle, which we're still riding today,
> 125 years later, is a pretty tried and tested design," he said.
>
> But recumbents were great for quiet country roads, and for people with
> back or balance problems, he said.


BTH

Zebee Johnstone

In aus.bicycle on Mon, 2 Jun 2008 04:23:52 -0700 (PDT)
BT Humble <bt_humble@bigpond.com> wrote:
> cfsmtb wrote:
>> ...
>> But absolutely incredulous at the remarks made by the BV CEO tacked on
>> the end of this local Leader newspapers article on the record efforts.
>> Bizarre, totally unnecessary and somewhat nasty to say the least.
>
> I dunno, I think it was a suitably restrained contrast to the bit of
> pro-recumbent propaganda in the paragraph before it! ;-)
>
>> ***
>> Goodall said recumbents were safer, more comfortable, and faster than
>> upright bikes, and sales were growing.
>>
>> But Bicycle Victoria chief executive Harry Barber said recumbents were
>> too wide and too hard to pedal uphill for the typical commuter.

Dunno what "too wide" is. And hills is hills, I am riding up Melville
St where some upright riders pass me and some are walking...

I presume he's like many and thinks "recumbent" is another word for
"trike".

Zebee
- who notes that trikes are good to get up hills: no balance
problems!

cfsmtb

Suitably restrained contrast? The article is about a national record achievement for HPVs. Can we look forward to special comments during the cycling events at Beijing in a few months?

Actually it's rather inept journalism, a similar analogy would be akin to the NRMA's Alan Evans talking about the grid positions for the next Clipsal 500.

TimC

On 2008-06-02, cfsmtb (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
> New Australian 12-hour record
> http://www.trisled.com.au/news.html
>
> But absolutely incredulous at the remarks made by the BV CEO tacked on
> the end of this local Leader newspapers article on the record efforts.
> Bizarre, totally unnecessary and somewhat nasty to say the least.

Huh?

> "Jeff's definitely a contender. We're not wasting our time."

This one?

Isn't he just saying that Jeff is a contender to the distance record,
but upriders aren't, and hence won't bother competing once Jeff has
it? He doesn't appear, to me, to be saying that Jeff is wasting his
time.

--
TimC
-o)
/\\ The penguins are coming...
_\_v the penguins are coming...

cfsmtb

Nope, although your reading skills seem to be a bit off today.

BT Humble

cfsmtb wrote:
> TimC Wrote:
>
> > > "Jeff's definitely a contender. We're not wasting our time."
>
> > This one?
>
> Nope, although your reading skills seem to be a bit off today.[/color]

May I be so bold as to suggest that perhaps you're being a trifle over-
sensitve?


BTH

cfsmtb

Nah, just pointing out the obvious, simply the wrong quote was citied. Although your spellchecker seems to be a bit off too.

TimC

On 2008-06-04, cfsmtb (aka Bruce)
was almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea:
>
> BT Humble Wrote:
>> cfsmtb wrote:
>> > TimC Wrote:
>> >
>> > > > "Jeff's definitely a contender. We're not wasting our time."
>> >
>> > > This one?
>> >
>> > Nope, although your reading skills seem to be a bit off
>> today.
>>
>> May I be so bold as to suggest that perhaps you're being a trifle
>> over-
>> sensitve?
>
> Nah, just pointing out the obvious, simply the wrong quote was citied.
> Although your spellchecker seems to be a bit off too.[/color]

Well, you did say "tacked on the end of this local Leader newspapers
article". And at the end of this local Leader newspapers article, was
the quote I listed. Sorry for being too literal.

I'm still having trouble finding a "bizarre, totally unnecessary and
somewhat nasty" quote of Harry's towards the end of said article, as
much as I don't like the man.

--
TimC
You must realize that the computer has it in for you. The irrefutable
proof of this is that the computer always does what you tell it to do.

BT Humble

cfsmtb wrote:
> BTHumble Wrote:
> > May I be so bold as to suggest that perhaps you're being a trifle
> > over-
> > sensitve?
>
> Nah, just pointing out the obvious, simply the wrong quote was citied.
> Although your spellchecker seems to be a bit off too.

Nope, nothing wrong with my spell chequer!


BTH

cfsmtb

We're just going to prepare to agree to disagree on that point, as there's been mucho commentary elsewhere who perceived the comments as out of whack. Further idle chatter from both sandal-wearing and non-sandal wearing 'bent supporters on the Audax, CM-Melb & Oz-HPV lists and various blogs & forums including these ones:

http://treadly.net/2008/06/03/why-harry-why/
http://www.bv.com.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9460

cfsmtb

bring back the speling cow!

BT Humble

cfsmtb wrote:
> BT Humble Wrote:
> > Nope, nothing wrong with my spell chequer!
>
> bring back the speling cow!

That's better! It's a USENET tradition to make at least one mistake
when you're delivering a spelling falme.


BTH

cfsmtb

Or a deliberate typo for added affect.