Fastest bike speed.



LIKESBIKES716

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Oct 12, 2005
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Does anyone know whats the fastest speed anyone has ever done on a bike. Be it competition training or otherwise. The fastest I ever heard of was 62. I dont require a technical answer just wondering what anyone has heard.
 
John Howard hit 152mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats. This is probably 20 years ago. His gearing was such that he had to be towed to 60mph before he could pedal and then he drafted a van up to his target speed. He said afterward that the hardest part of this was finding a van that could go that fast.
 
I just looked up his speed record and apparently someone has gone faster than 152, but I have no idea who. It just states that he held the record for 11 years.
 
John Budnik said:
John Howard hit 152mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats. This is probably 20 years ago. His gearing was such that he had to be towed to 60mph before he could pedal and then he drafted a van up to his target speed. He said afterward that the hardest part of this was finding a van that could go that fast.
The fastest unassisted was Sam Whittingham at 81mph in the Varna Diablo II. That was the 200 meter flying start sprint at the 2002 Battle Mountain Speed Challenge.
 
Another perspective on speed: Ruben Plaza covered the 38.9 km (~24 miles) stage 20 Vuelta time trial at an average speed of 56.22 km/hr (35 mph). I believe that is the fastest time trial time for a grand tour. And man, that is fast!

It should be noted that the course had a strong tailwind.
 
Offically, a bicycle is defined as your standred, upright, diamond framed bike. Then you have the outlawed Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) that is usually a recumbent bike, sometimes with full body farings.
 
azdroptop said:
That is sick. Was this on a flat???
Nevada Desert (Battle Mountain), so it would be very flat and maybe 6000ft. He used a fully enclosed recumbent bike.


tcklyde said:
Another perspective on speed: Ruben Plaza covered the 38.9 km (~24 miles) stage 20 Vuelta time trial at an average speed of 56.22 km/hr (35 mph). I believe that is the fastest time trial time for a grand tour. And man, that is fast!

It should be noted that the course had a strong tailwind.
That is very fast. Did he use a fully enclosed recumbent bike?:D

Seriously, that's haul'n ass, 56.2km over 24.2 miles is very impressive.

Lw
 
According to the guinness book of records
The highest speed ever achieved on a bicycle is 268.831 km/h (167.043 mph), by Fred Rompelberg (The Netherlands) at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, USA, on October 3, 1995.
there's a picture here but it's all in dutch.

I've always wondered why they don't use something like a rail bike to do this. With metal wheels on metal rails there'd be less rolling resistance and you wouldn't have to worry about road rash if you fell off.

Talking about rails, Mile-a-Minute-Murphy going 60MpH behind a train is one hell of a story, they certainly don't do it like that any more.
 
hit 88km/hr on a downhill up here at 61 north latitude this fall....and dammit, while it is certainly an adrenaline-pumper, it sucks that you cant just stay in the tuck and keep your head down. Because you have to watch every intersection like a hawk and ensure that some asshat driving a minivan doesnt just pull out right in front of you, because the asshat driving the minivan has NO situational awareness, and hardly clears the roadway for even cars before they pull out, much less bikes or motorcycles.

other than that, it was fine
 
I read in a Schwinn catalouge that a guy in the 50s drafted a car on a Schwinn race bike and got up to 108mph, without tow.

Oh, and my personal best is 42.0mph downhill and around 30 on flat ground.
 
I guess the only ones that have some kind of legitimate speed record are the guys on track bikes, or a muligeared bike on a velodrome.