the simpsons visit battle mountain · dave & tina larrington 166 higham hill ... cayuga 2000...

Spring 2002 Issue 68

The Simpsons VisitBattle Mountain

Objectives: The British Human Power Club was formed to foster all aspects of human-powered vehicles - air,land & water - for competitive, recreational and utility activities, to stimulate innovation in design and development in allspheres of HPV's, and to promote and to advertise the use of HPV's in a wide range of activities. It’s enough to makea grown man think of penguins.

Issue 69 closes at Jubilee Time. Will the Pistols be #1 this time?

BHPC Newsletter - Issue 68http://www.bhpc.org.uk/

Front Cover: Photo by Jonathan Woolrich,Photoshoppery by The Editor

Back Cover: Tina Lichten Larrington

OFFICERSChairman & Press Officer

Richard Ballantine30 Oppidans RoadLondon NW3 3AG

! 020 7722 6918e-mail: [email protected]

Steve Donaldson15 Station RoadDyce, AberdeenAB21 7BA

! Home 01224 772164e-mail: [email protected] Secretary

gNick Green79, Front Street,Pity Me,Durham,DH1 5DE

! Home 0191 371 0537e-mail: [email protected]

Fiona Grove7 Salmon CloseBloxham, Banbury,Oxon, OX15 4PJ

! Home 01295 721860e-mail: [email protected]

Membership & DistributionDennis Turner7 West Bank,Abbot's ParkChester, CH1 4BD

! Home 01244 376665e-mail: [email protected]

Pete Cox11a Lorne StChester, CH1 4AE

! Home 01244 376776e-mail: [email protected] Manglers

Dave & Tina Larrington166 Higham Hill RoadLondon E17 6EJ

! Home 0208 531 4496(after 19:00 weekdaysplease...)

e-mail: [email protected]: [email protected]

ContentsEvent Calendar 2002 3European Championships 2002 7Editorial Mumblings Dave Larrington 9Postbag Peter Wookey, Tim Elsdale, Geoff Bird 13Laminar Flow Richard Brooks 15High Speed News Anonymous Donor, Jonathan Woolrich/Sean Costin 16Late News 44Suppliers and Wants 46

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Letters, articles, pictures, bullet-proof tyres, etc. are always welcome - please send to the Editor atthe address opposite. Technology being what it is these days, we can cope with most file formatsreadable by a PC (text in ASCII, Lotus WordPro/AmiPro or MS Word easiest to cope with), but ifyou haven't got one, items on paper are just as acceptable. To reduce cheesiness, electronically-transmitted photos should be at a resolution of 300 dpi (or greater if you can afford the bandwidth).

A Day At The RacesBHPC Race Events

Saturday April 6th

Milton Keynes Bowl

Saturday April 27th

Eastway

Sunday May 19th

Castle Combe2 hour race start-ing at 13:00Track availablefrom 12:00Due to car boot-ing we will beusing the en-trance oppositeWestway (seemap) rather thanthe pits. So anuphill start…

Sunday June 9th

Springfield Park, Hayes

Sunday July 14th

Darley Moor

Saturday August 3rd

Lancaster

Saturday August 31st

CurboroughAs last year, times and details to follow

Sunday September 15th

Kimbolton kart circuit, Cambridgeshire

Sunday October 13th

Eastway – AGM and Other Things

All events will be starting on the track at 11:00 so please get there with enough time to get going then.Special offer - two events will be of the cruel and heartless format of points based on overall position inboth morning and afternoon races. These will be....Eastway#1 and Darley Moor. Time to get training!

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Number boards are IMPORTANT, so fit them. You will need two of about A5 size, one facing forward notobscured by legs etc. you can tilt this back to a max of 45° if you wish, and one on the left hand side.

The actual race formats aren’t sorted as of yet apart from Castle Combe and Manchester but are likely tobe of the variety: 30-40min scratch races followed by a “fun” race in the afternoon.

Charges – a variation on previous years applies now. Payment for all season £50 - pay in advance bypost to our treasurer or at the events. Cheques payable to “BHPC”. Note this is not a pro-rata paymentso it does not go down if you don’t go to Manchester.

Payment on the day - BHPC members £7 per race, Non-members £10 per race.

Other Race Events

May 4th – 5th Roubaix, France

l’épreuve KIDAM 2002. Two days of racing and socialising at the Roubaix velodrome - 500 m concretetrack. You can download the registration form (in English) at http://www.pl.ecp.fr/kidam Please returnthe form to Pascal Morenton ([email protected]) by April 12th if you wish to book a room.

May 7th, 14th, 21st Herne Hill velodrome, London SE23

Stuart Dennison writes:

Oliver from London Recumbents and I are planning a mini race series at Herne Hill track in May. The ideais to encourage some of the people who have bought bikes from us to try racing in a convenient locationwithout any pressure. We are hoping this will encourage a few people to try out the BHPC races if theyget the bug. While the atmosphere will be casual and the races short, we hope that there will be a fewBHPC members there to add some credibility to the proceedings! The dates are three consecutiveTuesdays; 7th May, 14th May and 21st May. Details are on the web site at www.bikefix.co.uk/london_hpv_series.html

June 2nd Zolder, Belgium

Round 1 of the BeND Championships on the motor-racing circuit at Zolder.

August 3rd – 4th Schötz, Switzerland

24 Hour World Cycle Race – see http://www.24hbicyclerace.com/index.htm. Last year’s HPV winner wasSergei Dashevski, with 838.86 km…

August 5th – 10th Brantford, Ontario, Canada

General information about what is planned for the IHPVA Speed Championships in Brantford, OntarioCanada this summer. Information will be posted on the website concerning costs, specific classes, etc.as it becomes finalised.

Brantford is located in southern Ontario, about an hour south of Toronto, an hour north of Buffalo (NewYork) and 2 hours east of Detroit. Cayuga 2000 Speedway is located about 40 km south of Brantford,nearer to Buffalo.

We are working on getting transportation from Toronto airport to Brantford for those who want to fly withtheir bikes. Once in Brantford all other venues, and a campground, are accessible by bicycle. There willalso be transportation from Brantford to Cayuga Speedway for those who need it.

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The event hotel will be the Holiday Inn. The event campground is on a bicycle path and next to the river,a really beautiful place with lots of open space and vegetation. More information on how to reserve aspot will be posted soon.

Cost is unknown at this time. We want to make it as inexpensive as possible, but not go broke!

Tentative Schedule:

Monday, August 5th Arrivals, fun rides, local scooter, skateboard and BMX race events.(The HPVA is not sponsoring any of these local events).

Tuesday, August 6th Workshops and Seminars; Practical Urban Transport tournamentAfternoon: Parade, Welcome Commemoration Run (local event)Evening - IHPVA Board Meeting

Wednesday August 7th Cayuga 2000 Speedway; full day on 5/8 mile oval.Evening - Displays Demos - Mohawk College / Holiday Inn

Thursday August 8th HPV water speed events - Pinehurst ParkEvening: HPVA general meeting - Holiday Inn

Friday August 9th Demos, fun obstacle course, vendor boothsAfternoon/early Evening - Drag races

Saturday August 10th 200 Meter Sprints on newly paved one-mile roadAfternoon - Criteriums on 2 km courseEvening Banquets and Awards + Entertainment

We are also having “short bikes on a short-track” go-kart fun racing. Bike, rider and helmet (combined)have to be 4’10" or less to fit under the track bridge!. We don’t have a firm date on this one yet. Theyhave tentatively planned it for Monday afternoon but some prefer it to be later in the week, like Thursdayafternoon after the boats.

Further information on the web at: http://www.ihpva.org/hpva/ihpsc2002.html or the unofficial info page athttp://members.rogers.com/melonjoe/brantfordhpvweek.html, e-mail: [email protected]

August 3rd – September 1st Köln, Germany

Final round of the BeND Championship, based at the Albert Richter velodrome, Köln-Müngersdorf

September 30th - October 5th Battle Mountain, Nevada, USA

Mark your calendar, folks! September 30 - October 5 2002. Six days of the fastest HPVs in the world!.deciMach Speed Prize! Three days of HPRA racing! More !!!’s to follow!

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27th - 28th April:SPEZI 2002, Germersheim, Germany. See www.spezialradmesse.deThe big European recumbent and special bike show

14th – 16th June:

Berlin HPV Festival. Contact Joachim Murken, Aroser Allee 77, 13407 BerlinTel: +49-30-4552167, EMail: [email protected]

15th - 23rd June:UK Bike Week Tel +44 1243 543888 www.bikeweek.org.ukNationwide ‘celebration of all kinds of cycling’ with an anticipated 1500events throughout the UK. Incorporating the Bike2Work promotion www.bike2work.info

20th - 27th July:Bike Culture Week, Oakham School, Oakham, Rutland. Booking form available from TheCompany of Cyclists, 7, Coda Ave, York, YO23 2SE. [email protected]: 01904 778080. Places are strictly limited, so book soon!

20th - 29th July:SpokesFest, Leicester, UK. See www.spokesfest.freeserve.co.uk or Tel 0116 2781360Free this year, and a whole week long

1st - 5th August:CycleFest, Lancaster, UK. [email protected]

24th - 26th August:CTC Mildenhall Rally, UK. http://www.mildenhallrally.org.ukNice weekend event not far from Cambridge, UK.

29th August - 2nd September:Cycle Messenger World Champs, Copenhagen.

29th August - 1st September:Eurobike, Friedrichshafen, Germany. www.messe-fn.de/messen/eurobike/Some days trade-only

12th - 15th September:IFMA, Köln, Germany. Fax +49 221 821 2826 www.koelnmesse.deSome days trade only

20th - 23rd September:EICMA Bici, Milan, Italy. www.eicma.itSome days trade only

25th - 29th September:Cycle 2002, Business Design Centre, London. www.cycleshow.co.ukNew show, two days trade, two days public

A Day (or More) Somewhere Else!(Mostly Stolen From Velovision)

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The European HPV Championship (incorporating round 2 of the BeND Championships) andCycleVision 2002

Programme

Friday June 28th de Morinel, Dronten (Flevobike factory / Ligfietsshop Tempelman)

14.30-16.30 200m sprint standing start, followed by prizegiving19.00-21.00 Hour Record attempts for streamliners at the RDW track

Saturday June 29th RDW track, Lelystad

10.15-11.45 200m sprint flying start, followed by prizegiving12.15-14.30 Unfaired men’s criterium qualifying rounds (5 groups/15min,

fastest 8 qualify, 2 semi-finals 20 riders/20 min, best 10 go to final)14.45-17.45 3 hour time trial, followed by prizegiving18.00-22.00 Hour Record attempts for streamliners

Sunday June 30th RDW track Lelystad

10.15-11.15 1 Hour time trial - 1st group11.30-12.30 1 Hour time trial - 2nd group12.45 1 Hour time trial prizegiving13.00-13.30 Rowing bike race & prizegiving13.30-14.00 Challenge Hurricane race & prizegiving14.00-14.30 Multi-Track race & prizegiving14.45-15.15 Ladies’ criterium15.30-16.00 Faired criterium16.15-16.45 Unfaired men’s criterium final17.00 Criterium & Overall prizegiving

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Unfaired racers should note that some variety of chainguard is requiredAnd as your Editor will not be taking his BoB trailer this year, the option of pinching his mudguard forthat purpose will not arise…

Registration

Registration for the races will close 15th of May 2002. Online registration is now available at http://www.ligfiets.net/cyclevision/wedstrijdinschrijving.php3

More information

For general information about last year’s event, and information about the location, see: http://www.ligfiets.net/cyclevision/english/index.html

Our suggestion for a campsite is:

Camping site ‘t OppertjeUilenweg 11NL-8245 AB Lelystadhttp://www.oppertje.nlEmail: [email protected]: +31 320 253693Fax: +31 320 250873

Apropos the Hour attempts, Ben WichersSchreur ([email protected]) writes:

“The Dutch Human Powered Vehicle Associa-tion (NVHPV) invites you to participate inattempts at the IHPVA one hour record, that willbe staged during the European HumanPowered Speed Championships 2002, fromFriday 28th through to Sunday 30th of June.

The NVHPV is the largest human poweredvehicle association in the world with over 2000members, many of which are actively involved.This allows the NVHPV to organise a yearlyCycle Vision event. Cycle Vision has becomethe most prominent event on the European racecalendar with around 200 competitors, 2500spectators and the largest number of commer-cially available European recumbents ondisplay anywhere. This year the combination ofCycle Vision with the official European HumanPowered Speed Championships will again raisethe number of competitors and the level ofcompetition.

The EC/CV2002 will be held at the test track ofthe Dutch Road Vehicle Certification AuthorityRDW, a 2775 meters long banked oval with atarmac road surface. The track will be used forthe EC2002 events during the day, but will beavailable during the (long) evenings for record

attempts (sunset at 22:05 local time, endtwilight at 22:55).

The NVHPV proposes to take this opportunity toorganise a head-to-head competition for theIHPVA one hour record and, who knows, theDempsey-MacCready prize between thestrongest teams and fastest machines in theworld. We are currently extending this invitationto the ladies of the Swiss Veloplus team(Rosmarie Bühler), the Dutch Elan team(Corinne van Noordenne-Bos and Ellen van derHorst) and the Dutch M5 team (Therese Schuit)and to the men of the German SpeedbikeBGLteam (Whitehawk), the Dutch M5 team, theDutch Elan team (Whitehawk 2), the BritishKingcycle team, the British Blueyonder team,the Canadian Varna team, the American EasyRacers team (Virtual Edge), Matt Weaver (KyleEdge) and Sean Costin. Please advise us ofany strong competition that we have missedout.

The NVHPV will be honoured if you accept thisinvitation. For planning purposes we ask you foran early expression of interest.

Further details of the EC-2002 and the recordattempts are available on request and will bemade available through our websitewww.ligfiets.net/cyclevision. Do not hesitate tocontact us.”

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The Editor Walks Backwards For ChristmasRevenge Of The Newsie Bunny Part 666

No doubt you will be delighted to learn some orall of the following:

i. The building works at Larrington Towersare almost, though not quite, complete.That is to say the bed and NewsletterCentral have been relocated to their newpositions, and we merely await thecompletion of a few final Bits and Bobsto round the whole thing off. This willcome as a great relief to many, notablyMrs. Larrington and her hopelessestimate of “six weeks” for the durationof the works some time around lastEaster…

ii. Cosimo the Stealth Baron[1] has takenup residence at Larrington Towers, andvery nice he looks too. Though by thetime you read this, Windcheetah 002 willhave moved on to her new home.Having been ridden probably thirty milesmax. since taking up residence here,she obviously was doing little more thantake up valuable shed space, but I ampleased to report that she is going on towhat should be at least half her spiritualhome, with AVD. You’d better look afterher, Mr. Dixon…

iii. Sometime Grand Prix Correspondentand all-round bon œuf RichardMiddleton has suffered a nasty attack ofLeg Suck, having had his foot escapethe pedal of his trike and get run over ata speed approaching Naughty. This bitof news is not actually something at

which we should take delight; rather weall wish him a speedy recovery.

iv. I should like to make it clear thatRecumbent Dennis Turner’s potentialabsence from BHPC duties, referred toin the last issue, was not due to hisdoing anything frivolous like wintersports, as I had rather foolishly sur-mised, but rather because he wasotherwise engaged on a personal matter.My apologies to Dennis.

v. I am reliably informed that KatherineSidwell has taken out a contract on myworthless life, and therefore I am indeedvery afraid "

1. “Stealth” after one of the lads atFuturecycles commented that “that bike’sinvisible to radar”, and “Cosimo” for theleading character in Italo Calvino’s novella“Baron In The Trees”. Who said I ain’t gotno Kulchure?

New Model Army

By now anyone with the slightest interest inperformance recumbents must surely be awareof the ultra-lightweight Razz-Fazz low racers,built in Munich by Rolf Kislat, Thomas Schott,Martin Schröferl and Denis Mario Ahrens. It iswith mixed feelings that I report that the 2002version is even lighter - 7 kg as opposed to 7.4for last year’s version (15.4 lbs. vs. 16.3).Unfortunately, your only chance of getting holdof one is:

Razz-Fazz II. You’re slobberin’ all over the seat, kid...

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1. Wait until next year, and2. Persuade them to sell you a second-hand

example.

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Hard On The Heels…

… of the announcement of Cannondale’s EasyRider comes news of HP Velotechnik’s Spirit.It’s pitched straight into the already-pretty-near-saturated MWB comfort bike sector, though itdoes have something of a USP in that it shouldcome in at £1095. That’s with 24 speeds, fullsuspension and mechanical disc brakes ateither end. For more money you can havehydraulic discs and / or a Rohloff 14-speed hubgear.

With this and the BikeE RX at £1200, I ratherthink the £1900 (that’s not a typing error…)Cannondale’s UK sales will barely be visible tothe naked eye. Which is rather a pity, since:

a. It rides well, and is very nicely put together(according to VeloVision’s recent test andnumerous persons reporting on theInterweb

b. It’s altogether a better proposition that thatgormless Trek offering

c. It was designed by a former BHPCmember, who probably has no control overthe Marketroids and their pricing policy.

Trike-It 2002

Following the successful conclusion of theirTrans-Canada ride on a Greenspeed GTT,James Tobin reports that he and CarolynSharples are:

“… now heading off with the tandem trike toChina on the 1st March 2002 and will be cyclingback from there. We are trying to raiseawareness of climate change issues. We hopethe trip will take around 8 months. Furtherinformation can be found at http://

www.trikeit.co.uk”

LP Hovercraft

Blimey, I’ve been waiting years touse that as a headline… Anyway,Roger “The Hilldodger” Lovellinforms me that:

“Yesterday, Sunday 17th Feb 2002at 11.43 PM Aleksi Halkola, 23 yearold maths & astronomy student,became airborne in the Steam BoatWilly hovercraft. This was the firsthover for the club, the first for thecraft, and the first for Aleksi. All thepower came from Aleksi’s legspedalling to drive the craft’s fan. Thiswas achieved in the Edward LewisLecture Theatre, The Windeyer,Cleveland Street, London W1. Clubmembers Chris Roper, Simon Ward,and Sam Kuper were also presentand delighted with yesterday’sperformance. The craft has beenbuilt by members of the UniversityCollege London Union HumanPowered Flight Club.”

More details in BHPC NewsletterIssue 61, as well as at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uczxhpf/

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Our Friends In The North…

…otherwise known as AVD, wouldlike to make it known that theWindcheetah is once more availablein kit form, and moreover there arepictures to prove it! Well, onepicture, anyway. An informationpack is available, though rather toolong to reproduce here - should onebe interested, please contact theGentlemen of AVD (See “Suppliers& Wants” section). Cap’n Bob alsonotes that “There is now a fullinstruction manual [unlike the singlesheet of A4 bullet points that wassupplied with original kit from Mike!!]That will soon be published in PDFformat”

In an utterly tenuous linking exercise,Bob has also forwarded the photos ofa couple of his quads earning theirdaily crust. One is a butty vehicle, theother is a coffee dispenser for Kraftfoods; determining which is which hasbeen left as an Exercise for theReader.

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John Pinkerton: 1934 - 2002

Our Chairman, Mr. Ballantine, writes:

“‘Pinky’ was a mainstay in the founding anddevelopment of the Southern Veteran Cycle-Club (now the Veteran Cycle-Club). The VCC isthe best and most distinguished club of its typein the world. It provides an amazing mix.Veteran cycle enthusiasts personally work onrestoring old machines, scorning the inflatedprices and fancy la-de-la of old bikes sold asantiques in auction houses. Yet the clubpublications — books, newsletters, and journals— set the highest possible standards forhistorical scholarship and accuracy, as well asdesign.

Veteran cycle and HPV enthusiasts are linkedby grassroots involvement with technology anda passion for excellence. This was particularlyevident with Pinky. He was hugely knowledge-able about bikes, and almost every time I spoketo him about some recent new technicaldevelopment in cycling, it was to learn that ithad been tried and used before, usually prior to1895.

The thing I liked most of all about Pinky, though,was his sheer enthusiasm for cycling. I’ll alwaysremember one time when I saw him on TV. Theprogramme had shown some of the manydifferent kinds of cycles Pinky and Dot have,and had explored their house, crammed inevery nook and cranny with cycles and cyclinggear. At the finish, the presenter asked John,

what made cycling so good? John did not referto economics, the environment, or any form ofmoral imperative.

He just said: ‘It’s simple. We ride because welike to. It’s fun.”

Our ex-Chairman, Mr. Burrows, adds:

“Those of you in the BHPC who had heard of‘Pinky’ might be wondering why an obituary forhim should appear in our Newsletter; thepopular image of John being a hat, a beard anda high wheeler (and never call it a “pennyfarthing” within earshot!). But as I discoveredwhen I was invited to give a talk to the membersof the Veteran Cycle Club, our two clubs arepossibly unique in being for people who areinterested in cycles rather than just cycling.And I further discovered that many members ofthe VCC have a better understanding of themodern cycle than the people who race them…

John especially was very enthusiastic about anygenuine new improvements to his belovedbicycle, an interest that brought him and metogether on many occasions. John wasresponsible for me being part of the Rovercentenary ride, where I saw the Invincible cycleof 1889, with its monoblade front and rearwheel mountings!

John’s son Doug and wife Dot are bothenthusiasts who will carry on the Pinky tradition,but he still leaves a big hole in the world ofcycling.”

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It’s Your Letters, It’s Your Letters!The expected giganto-debate about what may or may not constitute a “National” record drew a recordpostbag of two whole letters. At least Tim and Peter cared enough to write (sniff)…

From: Peter E. WookeyTo: Dave LarringtonSent: 11 February 2002 14:13Subject: Records

Having read the script on records I have thesudden urge to add my two penn’orth andanswer your prayer.

I will never be setting any records myself,although I could be an entrant in the “who fallsoff the most category”, which is why I amlooking at multis for future builds. To return tothe point in question.

International - ok.

National - a No-no.

There is a need to stimulate youngsters (andoldsters as well) to battle for their corner in lifeand to have a national record created on theirpatch by some super man from elsewhere is noton. We need recognition of nationals held bynationals, so please modify your categories andgive the local a chance to succeed.

Suggestion:National Open - our place, anyone.National Closed - our place, our person.

For me, I think it would be encouraging to thosefit folk to have the National Closed broken downinto age groups so everyone has a chance tohave a target and beat it, e.g.Juniors 0-10Seniors10-17Adults 17-40Matures 40-60Vintage60+

This way anyone who is fit can have a go attheir group and not sit there saying “I would liketo have a go but the bloke with the record is 25and I am 45, I will never get that quick”.Physically they are right, they never will, so giveeveryone a chance, the more opportunity thegreater the numbers who can be involved andwe need to increase numbers.

This just means a record book with 7 linesinstead of one!

The comment that “Club” gets round theNational definition is total twaddle, to use an oldexpression. The national club can, and indeeddoes have, (I suspect) persons of a non-localnature as its members, therefore they fit theNational definition too.

I will return to sleep now until No. 68 hits themat.

Regards,

Peter E. Wookey

Cool Breeze UK Ltd, 194/5 Upper Street,Islington, London N1 1RQ

Re: British Records - When Is It British?

1. At the next Battle Mountain outing, SamWhittingham sets a new record in theVarna. Jason Queally prangs theBlueyonder and writes it off. For his nextrun he borrows the Varna and does 85mph. New World Record. But is it a newBritish record? [OK, I know he wouldn’tactually be able to get in it…]

2. Or he borrows the Varna and only does 75mph. New British record?

3. He buys a Varna mould, brings it to the UKand has a bodyshell made. Takes it toBattle Mountain and does 75 mph. NBR?

4. Or takes it somewhere in the UK, 75 mph.NBR?

5. In the Olympics, for example, cannotBritish records be set anywhere, irrespec-tive of where the Games are being held.

6. If the bike has to be “British”, what aboutcomponents - Shimano gears, Zipp orCorima wheels, Hexcel carbon-fibre(USA), Airex foam (Switzerland), tyresfrom continental Europe or Japan, etc.?

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The nicest scenario is that the rider is British,the bike is designed and built in Britain fromBritish parts and the record is set in Britain. Ithink in the modern world, this is now extremelyunlikely and if imposed would be unrealistic.

I (regretfully) think the rider has to be Britishand that’s all. Any bike and any place goes. Ifit’s designed and built here so much the better.

Best wishes

Tim Elsdale

And now for something completely different.

From: Geoffrey BirdTo: Dave Larrington

Whilst watching “The Fellowship ofthe Ring” I was struck by theremarkable resemblance BilboBaggins has to our own ex-Treasurer and holder of the Home-Builder Lifetime Achievment Award -Dennis Adcock. Are they one andthe same? I think we should betold…

Above: Dennis Adcock examines the Homebuilders’ Ring Trophy...Left: Bilbo Baggins (Sir Ian Holm) tries out the prototype Gnat...

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Not The Legendary Paul Davies Column!Laminar Flow and HPVs

Laminar flow is an accepted, thoroughlyunderstood concept in the field of aerodynam-ics. There are two flow regimes in the layers ofa fluid close to a surface (boundary layer),laminar and turbulent. In laminar flow, the fluidprogresses in smooth sheets (laminae) withoutmixing.

But enough aerodynamics, why should an HPVfairing builder be interested in it? The answer issimply that by increasing the proportion oflaminar flow can lead to significant reductions indrag, which is the very reason for having afairing in the first place.

Great, so why hasn’t it been investigated andapplied to HPVs much up to now?...Because itain’t easy! In order to achieve extended laminarflow, the fairing shape must be very pure andvery carefully designed and made. In fact,unless you are going for a record, it is not worthbeing concerned about. The exciting thingabout managing to achieve extended laminarflow on a fairing is the magnitude of difference itcan make to the drag, which in turn will lead tosignificant leaps in the maximum speedachievable. Currently, such bikes are soimpractical, that it is only worth using them forrecord attempts.

I am aware of only two people who havedesigned bikes with the specific aim of achiev-ing extended laminar flow, Matt Weaver andme. My bike appeared at the Manchester meetlast year. I now realise that the design is tooflawed to make it worth pursuing a record with.Matt Weaver’s bikes are, on the other hand atthe leading edge of record breaking technology,in my view.

So why didn’t he win at Battle Mountain? Well,put it this way. Solutions are improved byiterations. The Varna bike represents the 3rd,4th, 5th ??? mark along similar lines. They alsohad a Olympic athlete pedalling. The bike (theKyle Edge I think) that Matt (designer, builderand rider) used was his first attempt at achiev-ing extended laminar flow. He has subsequentlymade the Virtual Edge (with an alignmentproblem on the frame) and is currently workingon the Eta Edge (primarily trying to get sufficientmoney together to pursue it). Don’t get mewrong, I have great respect for the Varna team,but Matt got within 1 mph of their record.

I reckon that the future could see the 200mflying sprint get to 100 mph plus and a neces-sary ingredient for this is extended laminar flow.

If you want to know more about the subject,‘The Leading Edge’ by Goro Tamai ISBN 0-8376-0860-0 (reviewed in a previous newslet-ter) gives a great understanding (get it fromAmazon or borrow it from the British Library forfree), and see Matt’s website atwww.speed101.com

Richard Brooks - [email protected]

Stop Press: I am reliably informed that BramMoens maintains that his Fairing #8 (aka theM5 Laminair), is 75% laminar. He has alsotaken to referring to sites such as BattleMountain as “gravitational EPO”, but hasobtained the use of Ford’s test track at Lommel,Belgium, where he hopes to have Leo deNooier push the Hour record past 53 mph laterthis year…

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Apropos laminar flow, imagine the scenario.You have recently shown yourself capable ofdesigning, building and riding what is demon-strably the world’s second fastest HPV.Moreover, you have another vehicle sitting inthe garage which you believe to be significantlyfaster than the machine which is demonstrablythe world’s second fastest HPV, therebyrelegating that machine to third place, and verylikely pushing Mr. Whittingham’s steed back tosecond. This machine is specifically intendedto scoop the Dempsey-Macready Prize byaveraging 90 km/h for the standing-start hour.So your next move is???

Well, if your name happens to be Matt Weaver,you flog the above machine, the Virtual Edge, toEasy Racers, who rename it the “Virtual Rush”and give it to Fast Freddy Markham to playwith… No I don’t know why either. Anyway,there exists on Easy Racers’ web site someinteresting footage of Freddy getting to gripswith riding by television - riding the chassis ofthe ‘Rush around the buildings of a local airfieldwith a dark cloth over his head, and, frankly,making an impressive fist of it. That is to say,he didn’t fall off while the camera was on him(or if he did, they edited that bit out #). Check itout at http://www.easyracers.com/videos/Virtualrush.asf

On Saturday February 10th, they took the beastout to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, for a pop atthe record. I neglected to note from whom Istole the following wordage and photographs,so should anyone care to claim authorship,please let me know:

“Among the fairly large group assisting GardnerMartin and “Fast” Freddy Markham with MattWeaver’s bike were HPVA stalwarts ChrisBroome, Paul Gracey, Bill Gaines, and a dozenothers.

From the chase-truck driven by Bill Gaines, Itimed Freddy’s second lap of the 1.5-mile ovalat 1:53 for an average speed of 47.8 mph, andthe truck’s speedometer was indicating over 51mph just before he crashed near Turn 3 on thenext lap. After a hasty restart, he crashed againat the same place two laps later. The consen-sus was that the gusting winds were especiallysevere at that section of the track, making thebike unstable going into the turn at high speed.

Neither Freddy nor the bike seem to have beendamaged, and he is eager to undertake anotherattempt at the Ford Proving Grounds in Arizonasoon.”

Hurtling News

Above: left - The newly-renamed “Virtual Rush”. Right - detail of the ventilation fan.Opposite - clockwise from top left: How to watch television while cycling.

Freddy clearly shares my belief that one of these people is closely related to God.Freddy warming up.

Freddy insinuated into the Belly of the Beast .Getting underway.

Remaining underway.Crash damage.

Freddy, rather less cool than usual...

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Battle Mountain – No Battle, No MountainWords (and Pictures unless otherwise noted)

by Jonathan Woolrich, in this typefaceand Sean Costin, in this one

You know about the Sony Walkman. It isn’t aman and it doesn’t walk. Battle Mountain is abit like that. Founded by prospector GeorgeTannihill in 1866, the official version says MrTannihill and 23 settlers led by a CaptainPierson fought in the mountains to the south in1857. Nevada historians have since poked afew holes in this story: Thereappears never to have been a Capt.Pierson, or 23 settlers, or anyattacking Indians, or a battle, orpioneer heroism, or, for that matter,a mountain. There does, however,appear to have been a year 1857.The railroad came in 1870 and thetown started. The railroad’s mainpurpose was to move copper orefrom the rich deposits in the area.Copper mining is rather small scaleat present as the price of copper islow. Gold mining is the mainindustry.

Arrival

I landed in San Francisco on the 28th andhaggled a very cheap car deal from Avis.Double upgrade to a Pontiac Grand Am –Cavalier size with lots of go-faster plastic andgadgets. It took half the week to find out whateverything does. Straight into the rush hourtraffic and across the Bay Bridge – a vast multi-span double-deck structure to Oakland. Thefirst 10 miles took an hour and it stayed prettybad half the way to Sacramento in the CentralValley, where I ate. On into the foothills of theSierra Nevada. I stopped for the night atAuburn. It has a wood-built ‘historic’ touristtown, and a downtown area where I found acheap motel. In the morning I ate at theEdelweiss Restaurant – a local ‘diner’, full oflocals, all greeted by name. Very welcomingand generous, straight out of a Rockwellpainting.

On into the verdant mountains. Beautifulscenery and lots of it. Speed limit of 75 mph, socruise control at 80 and find some road music.The modern American car really is an effectivemile burner. By Reno the mountains had

become arid. It’s something of an oasis, like aflashy future town on the moon. I stopped forfuel at Ferndale. I didn’t see a town on the wayout, just 2 garages, a motel and a large casino.There was a hot rod show in the parking lot.Tons of chrome – bucket T to funny-cardragster. Some very aesthetic.

I had thought I would stop again, but the townsgot smaller and fewer. The landscape openedinto scrubby rangeland. There were wide flatvalleys between mountain ridges. My ears keptpopping every half-hour or so. It became clear Icould make it in the day.

I stopped for coffee in Winemucca. Anyonewho has read Tales of the City will know why. Iate a thoroughly wholesome cinnamon roll(don’t ask) and drank weak coffee. I leftthrough the town rather than on the freeway.The part I saw was small and suburban looking,with a church with an Hispanic wedding inprogress.

More flat valleys, more cruise control and Irolled into Battle Mountain. Not much troublefinding the motel, it’s on Front Street. FrontStreet and Broad Street, which I came in on arethe main streets. The railroad runs parallel toFront Street and heavy freights grind and howlthrough at all hours. The motel is next to thetruck stop, where the ‘big rigs’ park, do laundry

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First view of the course...

and eat. This could explain why most of themotel rooms are single (huge double bed) andsmoking. Arriving a day early I got one of them.

I went out to look at the course. Highway 305South of Battle Mountain sweeps out over asmaller ridge, hugs the side of the valley, thensweeps across the valley floor. That’s thecourse. The surface on the sides is course, butthe vital part is very smooth tarmac. I was thereat 17:15 and the wind dropped dead.

Back at the motel I met the Blueyonders.Instantly recognised Chris Field and was a bitslow picking up that Jason was there too. Alsohis manager Chris, Andrew the mechanic andQuentin Van Marle, who was involved in raisingmoney. They invited me to a barbecue at thehouse of Shar Peterson, chair of the Chamberof Commerce. I drove, Quentin navigated, wegot lost. I really liked the open house atmos-phere. It’s a fairly normal size bungalow with aseries of verandas. We ate antelope steaks.Jason learned to lasso and went rabbit hunting.We met up with Sean Costin back at the moteland had a quiet beer with Chris F., Andrew andQuentin.

Sunday September 30th

Sean and I breakfasted with Q, then went to thehardware store. It was closed. We needed tobuild a big frame to hold a banner with all thesponsors’ logos. At the motel the Varna teamarrived and I introduced Q to how small theVarna bikes are…

George Georgiev gave me a huge hug whenwe met. It’s great to see him looking really well.He still feels a somewhat debilitated after hisstroke, but that’s a little down from a hugepersonality and energy.

The huge DIY shop 70 miles away in Elko wasopen. We bought lots of plastic drainpipe. Ayoung woman offered to deliver the 10ft lengthsof pipe if it was in Elko, an example of howfriendly the locals are. In practice we had tofold the rear seats and put the pipes rightthrough the car from screen to boot. Food at aMexican restaurant then back to BattleMountain. The Gold Rush team had arrived,with Steve Delaire (Rotator) who came out tothe course and helped us assemble the frame,plastic welding it together. We skipped eatingthat night as breakfast and lunch was plenty. It

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Steve Delaire’s everyday transport

was Sean’s birthday. Maybe not his best. Hewas both excited and nervous about the comingdays.

Monday October 1st

The first race day. We did lots of work. I lacedup the banner and drove some stakes for thespectator area – in the wrong place it turnedout. At 13:00 there was a briefing for theteams. I borrowed a post driver instead of aclub hammer. Out to the road again and drovemore posts and took delivery of the ‘bleachers’and portaloos. They looked pretty surreal outthere in the desert. Then I found myself lacingorange plastic mesh – now when have I donethat before?

The course had been professionally surveyed.There were small yellow-topped spikes eachside of the road and pink streamers on stakesout on the verge. 1 mile, 1000m, 500m and200m had been marked. The first night we onlyran 200 and didn’t get the mile markings out.Spectators were bussed out from the civiccentre and parking area, which was at the catcharea.

The police closed the road at 17:30. Seandrove up when the road was clear and I tapeddown the timing tape, which we had alreadytested at the side of the road. The winddropped and Sam streaked through the traps.Only the slightest wobble from pedalling and astrange swish as he went by. The Gold Rushran next, obviously slower, but still fast. TheBearacuda looked pretty unstable, but theycoaxed it through. The final run was Steve

Delaire in ‘Frankenstein’, one of hisLWB bikes in a cut-about Gold Rushfairing.

Sean says:

Sam Whittingham just smashed the75 mph barrier in his Varna Diabloby going 76.61 mph over the 200mfrom a flying start. This is the firstrecord attempt at the event andSam commented that he willdefinitely go faster as the weekprogresses.

This World Record will need to bebacked up by another run within 5%in the 5 days to come. Weather

conditions were absolutely ideal - temperaturesin the 80’s and dry. Legal wind conditionsappeared right at 17:30 when Sam launched.Weather conditions are expected to persistthrough the week. I expect that 80 mph couldbe reached before the week is over.

The Double Gold Rush piloted by Fast FreddyMarkham and Chris Springer set a New WorldRecord for the 200m by going 66.87 mph.They too expect to go faster as the weekprogresses.

The Blueyonder team did not race. They havebeen plagued by mechanical difficulties andJason Queally has yet to ride the vehicle withthe top on. Wind conditions were not suitablethis afternoon for them to try out the bike, butit is expected that they were able to get somepractice in at the local airport while the eventwas taking place. I expect them to be readytomorrow.

Matt Weaver has not shown up yet. Howeverhe did call me to say that he is not expecting torace tonight.

Also racing was the Bearacuda from CalBerkeley. They finished with a very respectable60.54 mph. They had some handling problemsthat they can fix easily and I expect they will bechallenging the Double Gold Rush in the nextfew days.

Steve Delaire begged me all day to run sincethe Blueyonder team and Matt Weaver did notrun. I decided to let him and he went 50.93

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Sean Costin (L) and Gardner Martin with the Double Gold RushTwice as worthy of the nickname “Bus” as the Snapper...

mph in his rather practical racer namedFrankenstein. Not bad for a 50 year old guy.

Monday Results

All were in legal wind conditions. I think thewinds were from the North, so that would havebeen a head wind.

The event went quite smoothly for the first day.Unfortunately we could not lay the longerdistance timing tapes because Matt Weaver wasbringing them. If we had, I would be reportingthat 6 additional records were broken.

Here is some additional information from theattempts on Monday, October 1st. At Monday’sdinner, I learned more about what happenedwith some of the teams and what to expect inthe days to come.

Double Gold Rush:

These guys came very prepared, but everythingwent wrong at the start. The front tire blew

just 15 minutes before their start. FreddyMarkham managed to get it fixed in time andstarted to put in his contact lenses. To hishorror, the lens case had been polluted withshampoo from his kit [Owwwwww! – Contact-lens-wearing Editor].

With a burning eye, Freddy and stoker ChrisSpringer, with a combined age of 85 years flewdown the course to a new World Record of66.87 mph. According to Freddy, they totallyblew the timing and were just hanging on tofinish. Freddy joked at dinner that they canbreak the record every day by just a little bit toget more publicity.

For a team that just broke a World Record,these guys were quitedisappointed. I think thatthey were stunned by SamWhittingham’s first run of76.6 mph - ten mph fasterthan they went. Freddysaid, “That Double GoldRush looks bigger everytime I look at it. This will bethe last event for the DoubleGold Rush.” He is alsointerested in buildingsomething much better fornext year. Now that he isback working for EasyRacers it makes more sensefor him. He also said thatback when these bikes werebuilt, Gardner Martin felt itwas important to have avehicle similar to the bikes

Vehicle Rider(s)200m

time (s)200m

speed (mph)200mWind

Varna Diablo Sam Whittingham 5.84 76.61 legal

Double Gold Rush Freddy MarkhamChris Springer

6.39 66.87 legal

Bearacuda Andy Jaques-MaynesLance Doherty

7.39 60.54 legal

Frankenstein Steve Delaire 8.78 50.96 legal

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Second-string Blueyonder shell

they sold. Now that the Easy Racer name hasbeen established, they can build whatever theythink will be the fastest. I’ll get Gardner’sopinion later today when he arrives fromInterbike.

Varna:

I spent some time with Sam Whittingham onSunday night as we prepared the pressreleases. There were some problems with thebike that they will be working on Tuesday. Thefront wheel is out of balance and was bouncingup and down. Sam was also using landmarksto regulate his speed going into the traps thatwere no longer appropriate for the speed of theDiablo. He claims to have gone into the trapsat 75 mph and exited at 77, never reallypeaking. This is all very exciting informationbecause it means that 80 mph is within hisgrasp. I asked him quite directly if he thinks hecan break 80 and his response was a confident“Yes”.

Sam seems to be smashing through boundariesthat we all thought would hold us for years. Itwas also wonderful to see George Georgievthere to witness the greatness of his creation.George will be inducted into the HPVA Hall ofFame on Saturday night along with GardnerMartin and Freddy Markham.

Blueyonder:

I am getting some conflicting reports from theBlueyonder team. I’ve heard that they had afew attempts last night with the shell top onand they will be ready to race today. Anotherreport said that Jason still hasn’t ridden it withthe top on. The wind died down last evening,so I can’t imagine that this is still the problem.I sense some disappointment building with thepublicity people. I hope the team can get ittogether for Tuesday.

Matt Weaver:

Matt Weaver has not yet shown up, but Iexpect he will arrive in time to make anattempt Tuesday evening.

Steve Delaire:

One of the best quotes came from SteveDelaire in his Frankenstein bike who took oneof the vacant time slots left by Blueyonder and

Matt Weaver: “I ran out of gears, ran out oflegs and ran out of lungs.”

Media:

It is great fun to have all this BBC mediaaround to tape the event. There must be atleast 10 reporters of all different forms ofmedia. Sam was on BBC Radio 5 Live inEngland last night to talk about his record.They surrounded Sam like he was a superstaronce the time was announced. The truth is,Sam is a superstar. He and George Georgievare the stars of our sport and they represent uswith class, charm and professionalism. We aretruly lucky to have such wonderful people asour champions.

Technical notes:

We are experiencing fantastic weather. Hightoday in the upper 80’s, tomorrow lower 80s.Then upper 80’s (predicted) again on Thursday.The air is extremely dry. I checked it when Ireturned to the hotel room after the events -only 25% humidity. My sinuses are killing meand my lips are chapped. I wouldn’t want itany other way.

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This course is deceptively long. Even anexperienced 200m guy like Fred Markham haddifficulty timing his effort despite coaching,videos from last year and distance markersevery 1/2 mile. It seems you get going andyou are so excited that it is easy and fun to gopretty fast, so you can’t help yourself and youpedal harder. Then you start feeling tired andrealise that you have 2 more miles to go. Theshortening of the course by 500m has alsoimproved speed, according to Sam.

The road surface is superb. They put some taron the pavement we had last year, but againdid not put the chips and tar on even though itwas supposed to have been done this summer.I think someone at the Nevada Dept. ofTransportation is looking out for us.

My notes say:

Sam did over 76 mph – the first ever run under6 seconds. He had said he was going to treat itas a test run. On the way down he thought thespeedo was malfunctioning. He realised hewas going fast and hammered the last part.The Double Gold Rush with Fast Freddy andChris Springer beat the record set by Fred andSam, so Sam lost and gained a record. Veryhigh spirits over pizza and beer that night,except for the Blueyonder throng.

Tuesday October 2nd

I worked with Paul Gracey and Larry Lem to putout the wires for further traps. Larry set updistance markers. Same procedure and orderbut Steve Delaire had gone home and his placewas taken by 15 year old Tanya Markham,daughter of FF, in the Gold Rush le Tour.

It was a pretty poor night. All the signs wereblown down by the wake of passing trucks. Iwas on the 200m and thought the wind waslegal, but it wasn’t. Sam looked really good andwas weaving a little more, so I thought he wasfaster. He wasn’t. The Bearacuda looked a lotbetter, much smoother, with yells and whoopscoming out of it. Tanya was obviously tilted intothe wind as she went through.

Sean said:

Tuesday AM

Just spoke with Matt Weaver’s mother who wasat the event last night. Apparently Matt will notcompete tonight - he is still home working onthe vehicle. She mentioned that he is missingsome Teflon chain guides and has to improvise.The Blueyonder vehicle is now running with thetop on at the airport and Jason Queally isreportedly feeling more comfortable in the bike.I’m off to the shooting range.

Tuesday PM

Lots of disappointments today. SamWhittingham went only 73.75, good enough forthe backup run, but the winds were just toostrong to be legal. 3 minutes later, when theDouble Gold Rush came through, the windswere within the legal limit.

The roadside signage was blown down by truckwinds and there was no time to correct theproblem. This left all the teams feeling lost onthe course and unsure of how to pace them-selves.

Blueyonder did not show today. They did runwith the top at the airport this morning, but anunbalanced wheel made the bike unsafe. Thewheel was properly balanced, but the airportwas unable to accommodate them for anothertest run until 5 p.m. They decided not to risk itand they were supposedly testing at the airportwhile the other bikes raced.

Matt Weaver had to remake some missing chainidlers. He is expected to leave from the SanFrancisco Bay area tonight.

The Double Gold mistimed their run badly andwent only 61.31. The Bearacuda was the onlyteam to improve. They went 61.14 - about 0.5mph faster than yesterday. Tanya Markham,daughter of Freddy Markham, rode the GoldRush le Tour. She went 45.42 mph in the200m. The run was to familiarise herself withthe course for a more serious attempt later inthe week.

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Times were also taken for the mile today; thewind speed calculations for the 1 mile wereunfortunately taken using the wrong method,invalidating record performances. 200m windspeeds were accurate.

Tuesday’s Results

JW says – We went to the steak house thatnight – 1 of 4 eateries in town. I sat with theVarna team. Spirits were pretty good. 1 badnight did not feel like a problem.

Wednesday October 3rd

There was a presentation of themachine at the civic centre, mainlyfor local schoolchildren. Varna,Easy Racers and the Bearacudawere there, but only the top shell ofthe Blueyonder. The teams seemedto enjoy explaining to the kids, someof whom were bizarrely dressed. Itwas ‘homecoming’ week, which ispretty hard to explain. Sam was astar as usual. He has 2 children andseemed to know exactly how to pitchit. He’s so cool anyway; everyonewas hanging on his words. ChrisField looked a little less comfortable,especially when someone askedabout frontal area. Later groups hadCarol Barnes from Blueyonder PR.She didn’t seem to like the choreand hated having to polish fingermarks off the shell.

Larry Lem and I teamed up to sortout the distance markers so theywould not get blown down. Wefound some Velcro zip ties – new tome. We used them to fix some ofthe signs to adjacent reflector postsalong the road. For the others westole some railway fishplates andtied them to the underside of thesigns. They didn’t move much afterthat. The timing gear got set up justin time again. The wind started tolook good. The streamers on the

Vehicle Rider(s) 200mtime (s)

200mspeed (mph)

200mWind

1 Miletime (s)

1 milespeed (mph)

1 km / mile wind

Varna Diablo Sam Whittingham 6.03 74.24 non legal 48.81 73.79 non legal

Double Gold Rush Freddy MarkhamChris Springer 7.18 62.31 legal 58.81 61.25 non legal

BearacudaAndy Jaques-MaynesLance Doherty 7.32 61.14 non legal 60.31 59.72 non legal

Gold Rush Le Tour Tanya Markham 9.85 45.42 legal 96.87 37.18 non legal

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On the course:Above: Varna DiabloBelow: Bearacuda

Above right: Blueyonder

survey posts were not blowing more than 30degrees. Lots of suspense as we waited. Thatawesome swish as Sam went by, a level abovethe rest. A bit of power wobble showed he wastrying. Next came the Gold Rush – a goodsmooth run. The Bearacuda was evidentlyfaster than last night and very smooth, theriders yelling as they went. Two Chattingtons inone shell… Next, at last, was the Blueyonderwith the all black second fairing. I think it lookssexier than the painted one, rather StealthBomber, and nearly as big. Not quick. Last runwas Tanya. She looked similar in speed toJason.

We picked up the tapes, wound up the wire tothe 200m and put the signs out of the way, bywhich time the results had been presented.

Very disappointing. No legal winds and theDouble Gold Rush was missed because theprinter ran out of tape! The good bits were thatSam ran 76.24 and the Bearacuda did over 66mph. The Gold Rush boys saw the same ontheir speedo, so we have a race for the tandemrecord.

The wind is worrying everyone and there is talkof a riders’ strike if we can’t run later. It lookslike we may run at 18:00 tomorrow when we are

26

nearly sure of legal wind and that Sam canconfirm his record.

It looks like Jason has a shimmy problem. Ihaven’t seen the chassis, but I’m told it has alaid-back head angle with quite a lot of trail, plusa steering linkage of titanium tube, with rosejoints and a bend in it. That sounds like 3problems… The linkage may be soluble. Thehardware store is good, with steel rods andtubes. The joints can probably be tightened.The trail may not be. The Bearacuda has longforward-facing front dropouts. I note they havethe wheel in the full forward position – minimumtrail.

Matt Weaver finally turned up before the run.The bike wasn’t finished. It is about midnight asI write so I guess he is still working on it. Hehad a spare timing tape, which was fortunate asthe finish tape went intermittent.

Sean says:

Wind conditions were again just over the legallimit. A very frustrating problem for all theteams who put in record level runs today. Weare seeking a variance on our permit from theNDOT to run the bikes 1/2 hour later.

Wednesday Results

Varna:

Sam Whittingham absolutely scorched thecourse once again into a combination head/crosswind. Still no official backup run to the5% rule. A petition to the Rules Committee isbeing drafted to make Sam’s non-legal windruns count for backup. All racers and officialshave already given their support for the motion.

Bearacuda:

The Bearacuda team impressed everyone witha speed in excess of the current World Record,

but slightly less than the Double Gold Rush’swind legal run from Monday. These guys arean impressive team. It’s going to be neck andneck in this category.

Double Gold Rush:

The Double Gold Rush was a victim of anantiquated timing system that needs replace-ment. The paper tape that prints out the timeran out and the unit does not save the time. Alltheir runs went untimed. The best quote camefrom Freddy Markham who was referring to theVarna Team compared to the Double GoldRush. “These guys are racing around in cruisemissiles and I’m riding around in a blimp!”Freddy is going to take a test ride in the VarnaMephisto on Thursday morning at the airport…

Blueyonder:

The Blueyonder team finally got out on thecourse, but it sounds like they have a 40 mphshimmy problem. I suggested that it could besimilar to the problem I had last year, whichrequired a steering damper. (Sean suggestedtightening the headset! I believe Andy Wilkinsonemployed a steering damper near completinghis Speedy End to End. - JW)

Gold Rush Le Tour:

Tanya Markham is becoming the darling of theevent and the media. This beautiful 15-year-old is setting great times. She was actuallyfaster than Jason Queally today. Her Godfather,Gardner Martin is seeing about a junior record,though none currently exists to my knowledge.

Matt Weaver:

Matt Weaver finally arrived 1/2 hour before thestart. Fortunately he arrived just in time toprovide a replacement timing tape at the finish.


200mspeed (mph)

200mWind

1 kmtime (s)

1 kmspeed (mph)

1 Miletime (s)

1 milespeed (mph)

1 km / mile wind

Varna Diablo Sam Whittingham 5.87 76.24 non legal 29.97 74.65 49.60 72.63 legal



6.77 66.22 non legal 33.83 66.13 54.61 65.95 legal

Blueyonder Challenge

Jason Queally 10.10 44.29 non legal 50.94 43.92 82.69 43.56 non legal

Gold Rush Le Tour Tanya Markham 9.45 47.36 legal 47.73 46.87 77.49 46.48 legal

timing error - no t imes recorded

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A big hole...

Trying the Varna - Above: Freddy MarkhamBelow: Tanya Markham.

He is working on his bike tonight in a localgarage. He says it’s 99 percent certain that hewill run tomorrow.

JW says:

The atmosphere wasn’t as good at the steakhouse tonight. Tomorrow there is a trip to seethe gold mine. Early start required, so I don’tknow if I will make it.

Thursday October 4th

I made it to the gold mine. It’s a vast open cast,800ft deep. The rock is milled to powder, thenstacked in a huge step pyramid on an imperme-able liner. The gold is leached out with dilutecyanide solution.

Larry and I went out to the airport where theteams were testing. The Varna Mephisto (lastyear’s bike) was out there, with George andBrian, who builds the hand bikes. Brian wasgoing to have a try. If Sam gets his recordconfirmed and there is a spare day, he’d like todo a run. Tanya Markham rode it without thetop. She was really smooth right away, despite

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Miles Kingsbury

Further Varna tests - Above: The AuthorBelow: Gardner Martin

it having minimal steering left and almost noneright. Next was Fast Freddy, first open, thenwith the top, but not the screen. We could hearhim cackling with delight at some distance. Isat in it without the top and was sure I could fit,if I could deal with the steering.

The Blueyonder caravanserai was there testingon the main runway. When they finished themachine went into a hanger. The doors rapidlyslid shut as I approached with a camera.

Sean says:

We screwed around quite a bitThursday at the airport. Freddy wasracing around the apron in theMephisto like he was born in it. Itwas a lot of fun. It seems thatGardner has decided not to buildany more record bikes, but he wouldoffer help to Freddy and Tanya ifthey wanted to take it up.

An 18:10 start was agreed. Larryand I still went out early to set up.We still had a scramble to findenough officials to put out the timingtapes at 1000 m and the mile. I wason the 1 km tape this time. We hadsome trouble with some of the wires,so it was down to the line again.The wind stayed up until the sundipped behind the mountains (morelike plummeted in these parts). Samdid a wonderful smooth fast ride,then the Gold Rush, then theBearacuda. The Blueyonder didtheir first good run, with the guys inthe chase car whooping and yellingit on. Finally Tanya came through,barely visible through the gatheringgloom.

Sam did it! 77.03 with legal wind.The Gold Rush got legal wind andconfirmed their record. TheBearacuda went really well, but notlegal wind. Jason got over 60 mph,still in the black shell. Matt still didnot run. I wonder how his camerawill cope, as we will be running at18:00 from now, when the lightmakes photography difficult.

Sean says:

The incredible that seemed inevitable has beendone. Sam Whittingham racing the VarnaDiablo has set a new World Record at 77.03mph for the 200m flying start! Monday’s WorldRecord time of 76.61 mph is now a backup forthe record. Sam also set 2 more World Recordsin the Flying Start Mile and Kilometre at 72.63mph and 75.23 mph respectively. This bringsgreat relief to a concerned but determinedVarna team. The start time was pushed back40 minutes today in order to try to take

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Warm-up techniques:Above: Sam Whittingham.

Below: The Bearacuda Boys.Above Right: Matt Weaver

advantage of better wind conditions. Oddlywind conditions deteriorated almost immedi-ately after Sam’ s run.

The Double Gold Rush backed up their recordset on Monday with a legal 200m run of 65.56mph. However, Fast Freddy really screwed upby thinking that the 200m mark was the finish.He stopped pedalling and Chris Springeropened up the middle hatch over his headwhile still in the traps! Remarkably, they stillwent very fast.

The Double Gold Rush dodged a huge bulletnamed Bearacuda, which was timed at 67.96mph in the 200m and 67.89 in the 1 km;however they experienced illegal winds. If thisspeed were run during legal winds it wouldhave exceeded the Double Gold Rush’s recordfrom Monday. The progress of this team isremarkable. Incidentally, I think I rememberTai Stillwater (the team leader) telling me quiteearly in the week that the top speed of theirvehicle is 68 mph.

Blueyonder showed up to race at last with anice run of 61.67 mph. Their shimmy problemhas been solved and Jason Queally is feelingmore confident with every run. I think we willsee another sizeable jump in speed tomorrow.The winds for Jason’s runs were not legal.

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Matt Weaver was still not able to get his bikecompleted in time. This puts him in a next-to-impossible position for getting a legal windrecord run and legal wind backup run beforethe event is over. I saw him being interviewedafter the race, but did not get a chance to talkto him.

This left another opportunity open for FastTanya Markham to get a run in. Running innear darkness she bumped up her 200m time0.2 mph to 47.56 mph and hit 47.11 in the 1km, but her wind was not legal.

The 1 mile timing wire shorted out right beforethe event began, so no 1 mile runs wererecorded.

After calculating the wind speeds for theBearacuda I can confirm that they have set 2new World Records in the 1 km and the mile at66.13 mph and 65.95 mph. They do not havebackups for these runs yet.

Thursday Results

After the runs we all went to a wonderfultraditional dinner given to us by the localBasque club and paid for by many of the localbusinesses. Bill Gaines gave a great presenta-tion on all the old HPV events from the 70’s.There are some great photos that he is workingon putting on a CD. Chris Broome presentedsome certificates of really old records that werenever sent out to the Varna team and JonathanWoolrich. One record was for the Double GoldRush with Fast Freddy at the helm and SamWhittingham as stoker. It dated back to 1993!OOPS, Sam’s last name was misspelled on all ofthem.

While I have a little soap box, I’d just like tosay that the IHPVA’s timing system is an oldpiece of junk that is horribly outdated. If somekind soul with a few thousand bucks would like

to help our organisation, this would be a greatcontribution to our sport. Media from aroundthe world are videotaping truly embarrassingmoments where officials are trying to decipherthe information coming out of this thing.Contact me if you can help.

The Basque society don’t speak Spanish, letalone Euskera, but the food was very Spanish.Soup, salad, Micharones (broad beans andChorizo sausage) Huge, very tender steaks,plus more chorizo and pork fillets for those whocould eat them. Rioja too and rice pudding withcinnamon to finish. I got certificates for 2 of my3 records. They got my name right, whichsurprised me.

Bill Gaines did a slide presentation from theIHPVA archives. Lots of weird and wonderfuldevices. There were pictures from Brighton ’81,including the Trout and Dark Horse, pluspictures of the Bluebell and Floppy Pliers in theUS.

Friday October 5th

I had a lazy morning and wrote up my notes. Didsome laundry then rolled out to the course withLarry. We did the signs and laid out the wires thathad been fixed from last night.

This time I was up at the start, so I finally got to seeinside all the machines. Matt was out there too thistime. It was agreed the Bearacuda would run first,as they have to accelerate earlier in the run. TheGold Rush boys had offered to run last, so theBlueyonder was 3rd and Matt 4th. We were con-cerned about the light and about the time Mattneeds to get taped in. In the event all wentsmoothly. Matt got away in good light. His startingmechanism is unique – a thing like a golf trolleypushed by the launcher until he has speed. Neil


200mspeed (mph)

200mWind

1 kmtime (s)

1 kmspeed (mph)

1 Miletime (s)

1 milespeed (mph)

1 km / mile wind

Varna Diablo Sam Whittingham 5.81 77.03 legal 29.71 75.73 legal

Double Gold Rush Freddy MarkhamChris Springer 6.83 65.56 legal 33.61 66.56 non legal

Bearacuda Andy Jaques-MaynesLance Doherty 6.58 67.96 non legal 32.96 67.90 non legal


Jason Queally 7.25 61.67 non legal 36.97 43.92 non legal

Gold Rush Le Tour Tanya Markham 9.45 47.36 non legal 47.48 46.87 non legal

timing error

timing error

timing error

timing error

timing error

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The Kyle Edge. Note interesting chainline...

Preparing to break a record...Sam warms up on his Optima Lynx

and Brian launch Sam. He gets in and tapesvery quickly. Not so the Blueyonder. The top isheld on with about 20 small flush Dzusfasteners (quarter turn). The screen too hasquite a few, but at least they can leave that untillast. The launch team uses white cotton gloveswhen handling the bike. The Double Gold Rushdropped a chain, so Gardner was suspendedinverted within for some time, sorting out theentrails.

All the bikes had legal wind. Sam raised therecord again, but not by much. Matt was twotenths behind and beat the 1 km and mile

records. A slightly subdued Varna team will bepulling out all the stops tomorrow.

Sean says:

All 6 records set this week for single- and multi-rider vehicles were just broken once again asan incredible showdown is developing for thelast night.

• Sam Whittingham upped his 200m recordto 77.59 mph.

• Matt Weaver broke Sam’s kilometre andmile records with 76.44 and 75.51respectively. His 200m time was a hairslower than Sam at 77.40 mph. Matt saysthat he will go faster.

• The Double Gold Rush broke their 200m(68.36 mph) and Bearacuda’s records witha 1 km at 68.91 mph and mile at 68.51mph. This was after a 5 minute delay atthe start due to a chain derailment.

• The Blueyonder Challenge upped theirperformance with a 63.05 mph in the 200.

• Bearacuda suffered a chain derailmentafter the 2-mile mark and finished in thelow 50’s with just one rider pedalling.

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Blueyonder. Note large rear wheel, car-type seat, seat belts...

More to come after I get some supper. I mustcelebrate this incredible night with the teams.This has been the greatest night of the greatestevent in HPV racing history. Saturday night isgoing to be a real showdown in the high desertof Nevada. Sam Whittingham’s and Varna’sdominance is in serious jeopardy. Friday nighthe lost 2 World Records to Matt Weaver in theKyle Edge and almost lost the most importantone - the 200m.

Matt is on cloud nine right now. He has his firstWorld Records and is carrying momentum intoSaturday’s attempt. He said he followed theroutine where he hits particular speeds atcertain mile markers, only he found that the

speeds were starting to exceed his expecta-tions. He backed off a little at one point toconserve power, but it was poorly timed and hefeels that he could have finished faster. Iexpect that he will have his routine optimisedfor an 80 mph attempt Saturday night.

After Friday night’s events, the Varna guys leftthe course immediately, had supper and hadSam in bed by 9:30 p.m. I talked with NeilCarson, Sam’s close friend and launcher, aboutthe run Friday night. He says that Sam hasmore to give. He put on a smaller 12 tooth cogfor Friday night’s run to lower his cadence andit worked. Unfortunately he waited too long togive his final push and found himself near 79mph exiting the traps. Sam’s demeanour haschanged 180 degrees. He has a determinedand focused appearance quite different from hisusual jovial nature. Matt Weaver has lit a fireunder Sam, and Neil says they are adjustingtheir run-up routine to hit the traps at 80 mph.

Blueyonder feel that they have nearly toppedout, admitting that the bike is just too large.Still, it is the 6th fastest single rider HPV inhistory after last night’s attempt. TheBlueyonder team has had a rather nice changein attitude since arriving. At first they were

33

Bearacuda about to launch

Sealing the Kyle Edge

very suspicious of the other HPV teams, but itwas hard to resist the good-natured charm ofthe experienced HPV teams. Sam Whittinghamand Jason Queally have hit it off quite well andspend a lot of time talking about track racing.

It seems to me that the BBC may have changedthe focus of their documentary from the mighty

Blueyonder team withOlympic Medallist JasonQueally in the Reynardmachine to the 4 Canadiansin a borrowed pickup truck.This is a huge coup for theVarna guys. It seemsalmost inevitable that theblame game will soon beginfor the Blueyonder team.Sad, because they really diddo a great job of building astreamliner without anyexperience or seeking helpfrom more experiencedpeople. I really hope theycan convince their sponsorsthat they can come backwith a strong contender.The Blueyonder entry isgreat for the sport and

though they have been humbled by theircompetition, they have learned so much fromthis experience that I think they could comeback and win.

The Double Gold Rush guys are celebrating.Despite a chain derailment at the start theygave the effort of a lifetime to break World

34

Unloading Sam...

Records at all 3 distances. When they openedthe vehicle, Chris Springer gasped for breathlike he was about to die. Freddy slumped overon the handlebars and didn’t move for a longtime. I heard Freddy say that he is ready toretire, but a half-hour later he recanted.Saturday night they will let Tanya get theirstarting spot, so the event is over for them.

Friday Results

Saturday October 6th

Most days it has been windy in the afternoon.Not today. There is a light patchy cloud layer,as there was yesterday and on Monday.Conditions look good. The running order is

Sam, Matt, Jason and Tanya. The Bearacudateam had to go home, so the Double Gold Rushcan rest on their record.

I’m at the finish this time. I can’t see Sam untilhe is quite close - the chase car lights makesure of that. George Georgiev has gone to seethe run – something he has rarely done. Thecatchers are Neil and Brian from the Varnateam plus George Leone. The catch is made to

look pretty easy, Sam riding smoothly to a stop.The tape (just round the shell join) is quicklyremoved and the top lifted. Sam unclips andsplays his legs out. His shoes are changed forhim and he sits there, eyes closed, spent. Thenext bike approaches. Sam is helped up andthe Diablo carried away.

Matt’s landing is a little trickier. The 2 camerasare one above the other. They provide nodepth perception and little impression of speed.His strategy is to keep moving quite well and forthe catchers to run alongside and literally catchhim. Once stopped, untaping takes quite awhile. Some of the tape must be cut, takingcare to miss tyres and wheel seals. Eventuallythe nose slides away. There isn’t much time soMatt is wheeled forward to a point where thenext chase vehicle can turn off behind him.

Jason is caught by a bigger scrum. As I said,he is held in by lots of tiny quarter turn fasten-ers. The head bubble comes off first so he canbreath. All the fasteners on the sides arereleased and the top is lifted off. He is wheeledforward and the press pack round like ants.

Tanya rolls in with the chase car almostalongside. The screen is untaped and Neil fromthe Varna team helps her out.

It appears Matt’s speedo says 78 mph andSam’s a similar speed in km/h. It’s pretty tenseas dark falls and we wait for Sean to bring theresults. Bill Gaines and Chris Broome havebreathed on the spreadsheet somewhat and it’s


200mspeed (mph)

200mWind

1 kmtime (s)

1 kmspeed (mph)

1 Miletime (s)

1 milespeed (mph)

1 km / mile wind

Varna Diablo Sam Whittingham 5.76 77.59 legal 29.31 76.32 47.89 75.17 legal


6.54 68.36 legal 32.46 68.91 52.54 68.51 legal

Bearacuda Andy Jaques-MaynesLance Doherty 8.75 51.14 legal 42.89 52.14 68.07 52.89 legal

Blueyonder Challenge Jason Queally 7.09 63.05 legal 35.94 62.24 58.76 61.27 legal

Kyle Edge Matt Weaver 5.78 77.40 legal 29.26 76.40 47.68 75.51 legal

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Above: Matt Weaver suited and bootedBelow: Launching the Kyle Edge

Unloading Jason...

quite quick this time. I’m there tomeet Sean with a message from theBlueyonder team. They want to besure he credits Jason with the Britishrecord and his place in the order offastest runs.

Sam has done it again! Over thecourse of the week he has raisedthe record some 10% and now it’san unbelievable 80.5 mph. Matt hasimproved with 78 mph, Jason toowith 65 and Tanya with 52. Thewind has been dead still throughout.The press hit frenzy pitch. Samthanks Matt for pushing him.Gardner points out that Freddy wasthe first over 50 mph and now hisdaughter has exceeded that speed.

Sean says:

Pushed to the very limits ofhis power by the incredibleperformance of Matt Weaveron Friday night, SamWhittingham became thefirst man in history toexceed 80 miles per hour!

Sam completed the 200m in5.55 seconds for a newWorld Record of 80.55 mphunder perfect conditions: 80degrees, totally calm windsand a 9% humidity. Passingthrough the timing traps healso set New World Recordsin the kilometre at 79.79mph and the mile at 78.64mph.

Matt Weaver surpassed Sam’s recordset Friday but fell short by going anastonishing 78.02 mph in the 200m.Matt had planned to race his latestETA Edge streamliner in this event,but ran out of time. It’s hard tobelieve that this now 8 year oldfairing design still enabled him tobeat last year’s speed record by over5 mph! Matt sat in the bike for 30minutes after being taped in, andoverheated before he was launched.

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Unloading Tanya...Jason Queally managed to crank the oversizedBlueyonder machine up to a respectable 64.34mph, making him the 5th fastest single rider inthe history of the sport. The team seemscommitted to coming back. For the first time,Blueyonder designer Chris Field saw Sam raceby at 80 mph while standing in the spectatorarea. He told me he was deeply moved. Hesaid he couldn’t really even describe howimpressive it was.

Saturday Results

Sound Bites

• Tanya Markham in the GoldRush Le Tour set 2 New WorldRecords by going 51.27 in thekilometre and 50.58 in the mile.• Ultimately the event netted 8New World Records, but recordswere broken 21 times in the courseof the 6 day event.• Certainly the most astonishingthing is the 80 mph run by Sam.We are all so incredibly excitedabout it. It hardly seems real oreven possible. It even seems odd toSam, he can hardly believe that hedid it.• At the closing ceremonies, thefirst 3 inductees to the HPVA Hall ofFame were presented with plaques.They were George Georgiev,Gardner Martin, and FreddyMarkham.• The 200m winners of the eventwere awarded trophies with a realgold nugget mounted on them. Thewinning vehicle designers alsoreceived trophies for their engineer-ing accomplishments.

In Retrospect

The final day of the event wasunlike all the others. For the racersand teams, there were no moresecond chances. The racers’preparations were more mental than

on any other day. Sam Whittingham seemed tobe short on words and contemplative as hepaced about the hotel. Jason Queally seemedto spend more time in his room than on otherdays and Matt Weaver was off in the garagelent to him by the Chamber of CommerceDirector Shar Peterson. I called him to see ifhe needed a camera to record his run, but hisfather John Weaver said he was sleeping and itwas too late to do anything now. The Gold


200mspeed (mph)

200mWind

1 kmtime (s)

1 kmspeed (mph)

1 Miletime (s)

1 milespeed (mph)

1 km / mile wind

Varna Diablo Sam Whittingham 5.55 80.55 legal 28.04 79.79 45.78 78.64 legalKyle Edge Matt Weaver 5.73 78.02 legal 28.76 77.79 46.78 76.95 legalBlueyonder Challenge Jason Queally 6.95 64.34 legal 35.13 63.67 57.01 63.14 legal

Gold Rush Le Tour Tanya Markham 8.80 50.86 legal 43.63 51.27 50.58 legal

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Freddy gets very recumbent

Back row: Jason & MattFront row: Tanya & Sam

Rush duo of Markham and Springer haddecided to take the last night off, resting on thelaurels of their record runs the night before,and helping Tanya get ready.

Bearacuda was gone by now and the hotelparking lot seemed half-empty without theirhuge rental truck, littered with bike parts,composite building materials and pop cans. Itwas mid afternoon and the wind was alreadystill, as if to let us know that it understood thegravity of the event and it would co-operatefully.

I was tense about the battle between MattWeaver and Sam Whittingham. Typically theseevents are more about pushing the upper limitand less about head to head competition, butthis time it felt different. Both guys reallywanted it and they both knew that it wouldtake nothing less that a Herculean effort to win.

38

Chris (with Budweiser) and Freddy

I arrived at the timing area with 25 minutes togo before road closure. None of the traps weretriggering, even the 200m which had workedperfectly all week. The timer Paul Gracey hadhis ohmmeter out testing wires. I raced up tothe start area and yelled at some officials to getto their locations for testing. Soon after, Paulhad all the tapes running again and I couldstart to relax.

I arrived at the start area to assist in the launchsequence. Sam was first, followed by Matt,then Jason, then Tanya Markham. The startorder was based on 200m time from theprevious day. What I didn’t notice was thatMatt Weaver was ready when I had arrived;most likely to prevent a repeat of the frantictaping session from the night before that leftseams and holes unsealed. I later learned aftertalking with Matt and his father John, was thathe was sealed in the bike for approximately 30minutes before his launch and presumably afterhis stationary bike warm-up. By launch time,Matt says he was already overheated andwithout any airflow in the sealed bike to coolhim.

As you now know from the results, SamWhittingham became the first man to exceed80 mph under his own power and as Canadianjournalist Ross Crockford put it, “I got my fairytale ending.” If not for the challenge from MattWeaver, it is commonly believed by those inattendance that 80 mph would not have beenreached.

JW says – There is a barbecue at the golf club.The food is OK, the beer awful, but the

company is great. There are speeches. TheNevada tourist office assures us that the coursewill be maintained for the foreseeable future.There had been plans to ‘chipseal’ it with tarand coarse chippings, but alternatives will befound. Lots of thanks, particularly to and fromSean. Trophies are distributed, then taken backfor engraving. The last item is that George,Gardner and Freddy are ‘inducted’ in the HPVAHall of Fame.

Sean says:

George Georgiev, designer and builder of Sam’sVarna bike paid a special tribute to Matt Weaverin his acceptance speech to the HPVA Hall ofFame. If I remember correctly, he said, “MattWeaver, you lit a fire under the bummy of mywonderful son Sammy. Without you we wouldnot have broken 80 miles per hour.”

As for the Blueyonder team, they concluded theevent with respectability intact, but certainlydisappointed and eager to return with some-thing much smaller. Their entry and team wasvery welcomed by the more experienced teamsand as the week progressed, the interchange ofthoughts and ideas between the Blueyonderand the other teams was quite good. Eventu-ally they caught on to the idea of a freeexchange of design ideas and a number of theregular HPV guys reported having really gooddiscussions with Blueyonder team members.Sam Whittingham and Jason Queally spent afair amount of time talking about track racing.I have a feeling many of them will be back.

And so, another great event has concluded inthe little town of Battle Mountain,Nevada. Never before have HPVracers been so welcomed by acommunity. From the people on thestreet to the Public officials,Chamber of Commerce, Commissionof tourism, County Sheriff, and theDepartment of Transportation wewere assisted and entertained. Wewill definitely be back.

39

JW says:

A few more beers and we adjourn to the motelfor more beer. Larry sets off some fireworks,which are illegal in his state. Chris Springerthrows some kind of mortar bomb, which setsthe brush alight outside the motel fence. Soonwe are stamping it out and carrying beercoolers full of water. We retire somewhatsheepishly.

It’s over. My count is 19 records broken and 2riders have gone well over 75 mph. We used tothink this was impossible. I think Jason is a bitdisappointed and Chris Field has learnt just howhard these records are.

Sunday October 7th

I had breakfast with Matt, his dad and variousothers. I gave a chap called Rob Hitchcock alift out to Shar’s place. He’s a kinetic sculpturemaker from Eureka. There must be somethingabout the name. He gets misdirected e-mail…

Repeated goodbyes to everyone, especiallySean, Larry Lem and George and Carol Leone.She’s going to help Ernie Crawford with theBrantford, Ontario event. I passed on the baton

in the form of a stick of Brighton Rock.

On the road back to SF I felt too tired for thelong journey. I soon had to stop and pee anddrink water. I noticed plumes of steam at theHot Springs. There were lots of pipes andsome machinery, which looked like a powerplant. Further on I stopped near the alkalidesert. I realised Highway 80 is part of theCalifornia Trail. Thousands of emigrants diedthere. Eventually I got to SF and stumbled intoa grotty expensive ‘budget’ motel. I had atypical huge breakfast and an hour sightseeingbefore taking the car back and getting anotherbackward facing bed seat across the pond. Iwas so tired I slept and woke up wonderingwhere I was. A moot point since it wasprobably over the Atlantic somewhere. I metChris Field and a couple of the journalists at SFairport. Chris was pleasant. He said heexpected to see me again, and that next year’sbike would fit in his hand luggage.

The Machines

Varna

The readership is probably familiar with theVarna design. It is a tiny low bike with a head

Varna transmission detail. Yes, there are only four gears...

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Above: Bearacuda front transmissionBelow: Bearacuda rear transmission (!)

bubble. The new Diablo looks verysimilar to Mephisto. The head fairingis better integrated, it’s even narrowerand there are fairings round thewheels. It has the same FWD, withfour gears on the jackshaft near thebars. Final drive is same side from abigger cog on the block to a BMXfreewheel on the wheel. There isextreme pedal and chainring overlapon the 24x1 wheels. The wheels areHP at the front and tub at the back.One of the concerns with tyres isconcentricity, so they are consideringhaving special tubs made. Thewheels are Fibrelam disks, ma-chined running on the hub to slip arim over. The seat is a solidFibrelam structure with open cellplastic foam cushioning. The drivepart of the bike has steel tubes andcan be removed with three bolts andadjusted a little. The rear mountsare moulded into the bottom pan.The head bubble is a blown shapeusing a low temperature material.The pan is carbon-skinned with aputty between the layers made fromcellulose and epoxy. George usesthe same cellulose with polyester tocontour the foam plug. Low catalystand big mix keeps a consistenttexture.

George does not use any kind ofsoftware. He says he ‘imagines the wind’. Heuses long sanding sticks and bows to eliminateirregularities. Last year the Mephisto was indark grey primer(?). This year both machineswere painted, just using car primer and rathersubtle sexy metal flake car paint – Mephistogreen, Diablo red. No proof, but there is clearlyno harm in glossy surfaces.

Bearacuda

Bearacuda is named after the Cal Berkeleyfootball team – The Bears. I think the BHPCshould build one called the Beeracuda... It isvery different from the Double Gold Rush. Longand low with a 1/3 aerofoil and a nearly roundcross section. No attempt at laminar flow.Everything is built into the shell. Both endshave two chains. The rear has two large ringsthat pass the chain round the outside of thedrive chainring. One of the rings provides a

crossover shaft to the final drive gears. Thefront has a crossover too, but as far as I cansee, they only have three gears per drive! It isall very solid and simple. The seatbacks fit intomountings in the shell. There are two foampipe insulation tubes from the rear stagnationpoint to provide air to the riders. After theysorted the trail it was very good in side winds.They spent lots of time working with filler andsandpaper improving the surface. This is itsfirst time out. They predicted 68 mph and cameclose. I expect, with practice, they can beat theDouble Gold Rush record.

Double Gold Rush

The Double Gold Rush is a huge old bus. It’s aback-to-back, with a stretched version of thesolo shell. It uses rear drive only, so the ridershave to co-ordinate. They have stiffened it a lotthis time. I didn’t really get to see the inside, but

41

Loading the Double Gold Rush

we can imagine an aluminium Gold Rush styleframe. Of course the disadvantage of Kevlar isthat it roughs up if there is any damage, with noway to fix it. Fred and Chris had a great time. Ihope we see them again, but I doubt they willride the same machine.

Blueyonder. Big wheels, big seat, big, well, everything

Blueyonder

The Blueyonder is a simple ma-chine, beautifully constructed. Themain frame is a rectangular carbontube with two bends: one at the frontof the seat, the other to form theseatback. There is a substantialalloy head-lug that helps to supportthe shell. It has a Pace suspensionfork with normal rake and a reallylaid-back head angle. The steeringis connected to a narrow set of barsby a titanium tubular rod with rosejoints at each end. The rod has abend in it to clear the pedals. Itseems to me their shimmy problemwas caused by the shopping trolley

effect (too much trail), made uncontrollable byslack in the joints and the bend in the rod.

I think the front wheel is a full size HEDtrispoke. The rear is a HED trispoke with anextra ring to bring it up to the huge overalldiameter. The hub has a large piece ofmachined alloy around it. I’m not sure of the

42

Above: Kyle Edge transmissionBelow: Matt’s televisions

purpose but it may be to mount and heat sink asubstantial disk brake. The drive is simpleunderseat with a large chainring and normalgears on the rear wheel. I didn’t count howmany.

The chassis is separate from the pan. The shellis the smoothest I have ever seen, but it has abig box around the pedal area, which mustremove any chance of laminar flow. Somebodytold me this was a machining error by Reynard,but I have no idea if it is true. The flow over thetop should be really good. The bubble is veryshallow and beautifully clear. The change ofangle is slight enough to minimise horseshoevortex around it. The seat is pure Formula 1.The rider sits in a bag of polystyrene beads likea beanbag. Vacuum is applied within the bag,which makes the shape solid. I’m not quite surewhat is done to fix it – Geoff? It was huge,making the shell, wheelbase and weight morethan was needed. That could be what comesfrom working with F1 constructors.

The underside comes down very close to theground around the front wheel. It is so closethat it grounds if he wobbles at thestart. Not only will it fail to exploitthe potential laminar flow assistance,it is probably getting ground effectdrag. The trailing edge is about 10mm wide. It is arguable this is notimportant as the surface layer isprobably much thicker at this point.

The Kyle Edge

Of course this is the most sophisti-cated machine. Like the Varna, it istiny. It has rear drive with standardchain, which passes over Matt’shead. There is a jackshaft that isjust two beautifully machined chainrings near the steering head. Mattadded it so he could have reason-able jumps at the rear. The wheelsare 20 inch. The frame is steel. The back partof the shell has a substantial roll hoop of Nomexhoneycomb. There are two cameras and twodisplays. The big shark fin has gone. The shellis finished in very smooth grey primer, no doubtwith hours of sanding.

Matt sand-cast the seat shape. He formedbeach sand around him, took a plaster cast andmoulded from that. It has no padding. He saysit is comfortable. He breathes using afacemask that connects to the rear stagnationpoint. There are very close seals around bothwheels. The rear is fixed, the front hasaccordion seals. The wheels are spoked with

43

Gold Rush with Tanya aboard, Abe Lincoln Gardner steadying

thick Mylar disks. I’m sure that if Matt had beenthere on Monday, he would have gone over 80mph too.

Gold Rush le Tour

The Gold Rush le Tour is a simple long/mediumwheelbase alloy bike with the same tatty Kevlarshell it had when Pat raced Freddy inVilleurbanne. The Kevlar problem again. It ispretty small, based on aerofoils, but a bit

angular by modern standards. It is interestingto note there is considerable crank overlap onthe racers, which is absent from the ‘replicas’.There was some talk of George G. making abike for Tanya, but there is a potential conflict

as Sam’s partner Andrea Blaseckihas the current 200m record. Itwould be great to see them bothracing next year.

Other Battle Mountain Notes

• There is a building near thecentre of town, but on the wrongside of the tracks. It’s calledDonna’s Ranch. It has red lights allround the eves. It is devoted to theoldest profession, which is legal inNevada. Donna seems to be a localfigure. There is a ‘Donna’s Diner’where we ate lunch one day. Theother establishment is a member ofthe Chamber of Commerce and wasone of the sponsors of the cookiesprovided on Sunday and Wednes-day.• Halloween is a big thing here.The decorations were already goingup on the 3rd of October.• The legal age to play slot

machines in Nevada is 21. Youngstershave to show their driving licenses – whichthey get at 16.

• The speed limit in town is 25 (likeNutbush). I found it best to use cruisecontrol, as it is so easy to exceed on the

wide streets.• There is a row of rocksin front of a parking area inthe centre of town. They arebright green. It isn’t paint,it’s copper ore.• Cats and dogs. Thefirst few nights we werevisited by a long-hairedblack kitten with a brokentail. It was friendly andgentle except for momentswhen it glimpsed food, whenyou had to mind yourfingers. It visited the GoldRushes and me. Later inthe week there was a sort ofheavy collie boundingaround the motel, wanting toplay with everyone. TheSome rocks, yesterday

44


200mspeed (mph)

1 kmtime (s)

1 kmspeed (mph)

1 Miletime (s)

1 milespeed (mph)

Varna Diablo Sam Whittingham 5.55 80.55 28.04 79.79 45.78 78.64Ky le Edge Matt Weaver 5.73 78.02 28.76 77.79 46.78 76.95


6.54 68.36 32.46 68.91 52.54 68.51


Jason Queally 6.95 64.34 35.13 63.67 57.01 63.14


7.39 60.54 33.83 66.13 54.61 65.95

Frankenstein Steve Delaire 8.78 50.96Gold Rush Le Tour Tanya Markham 8.80 50.86 43.63 51.27 71.17 50.58

Best Results with lega l wind conditions

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Scale drawing by Knud Jahnke. Size matters...

This Just In...Membership!

For many, perhaps most, of you the member-ship year draws rapidly to a close. So pleasebang your renewals out to Dennis Turnerforthwith…

Trike-It 2 Update

“We are off again on our trikeit adventures. Weare taking the train to Beijing and have made itto Mongolia. It is amazing how a tandem trikecan be transported! Follow our exploits as wetry to cross Asia and get back to Europe. Ourwebsite will be updated every couple of weeksor so.

Keep in touch

Carolyn & James”

In Lieu Of A Legendary Paul DaviesColumn…

You may not have noticed, but I’ve made it ontothe cover of Cycling+, a magnifying glass wouldhelp! The other day I helped on their bike testphoto shoot. We had the new Cannondale, BikeE and Wavey to choose from. Rob Mather hadthe BikeE, Dan Cole (who built his first recum-bent when he was twelve!) had the Wavey (itwouldn’t adjust small enough for me and hadthe best riding position!), and I got theCannondale.

I’ve ridden and raced my Cannondale mountainbike for ten years and would hate to be partedfrom it, but I didn’t like the look of their newrecumbent when pictured in the autumnNewsletter.

manager chained it up, but she did it to callsomeone to come and wash it! I supposethe truckers may like some feline/canine

company, apart from that in the ‘cat house’across the tracks.

Final Results

45

My little blue van is actually quite big but neitherthe Cannondale or the BikeE would go in withtheir seats fitted! They are remarkably similar inlayout, incredibly upright and high. Not recum-bent at all.

Two hours of stop/start riding and grimacing atthe camera was uncomfortable and tiring. Itwouldn’t accelerate and was slow, soggy andunresponsive. BikeE seems much the same butcheaper. By coincidence, Bob Smith (the C+photographer) has his studio in the farm acrossthe road from me. We can often be found onone of the local ridges playing with toy gliders.

It’s a pity Cannondale can’t produce a racingrecumbent to complement their otherwiseexcellent range. As an arch-cynic I have toassume that high profile machines that don’tperform are produced knowingly and deliber-ately. Trek did a similarly badly thought out bikesome years ago (see Dave’s comment in thelast issue) Other notable low performers thatspring to mind, the Sinclair C5, BlueyonderHPV, Morris Marina[1], Millennium Dome etc.

But, the Cannondale did have a nice sidestandand tubes fat enough for four stickers, and it isa bike you’d happily lend your granny to godown to the post office on pension day. You’dtell her not to worry about locking it...

Paul Davies

1. Editor’s note: My mate Lee drove aMarina for 18 months be discovering it wasmade of two different Marinas weldedtogether. He thought they were *meant* tohandle like that... Moreover, my feelingabout the Cannondale is that theirMarketroids were ultimately responsible -“BikeE is the market leader, so let’s do oneof them!” My spies reliably inform me thatthe Cannondale is still garnering goodpress in the US, and should be followedby an altogether more sporting SWBmachine later this year.

A Rumour

We hear that former Bluebell mainstay, stuntpilot (ask Ian Sheen, or better yet, Jost Cronijn!)and the only man I’ve ever seen spin a Speedycornering on a wet track, Glen Thompson, isdesigning a new streamliner... The source for

this rumour being Glen himself - now working atsome arcane branch of Brunel University inEgham. Didn’t know they had anywhere roundthere - I thought it was all Bedford & Holloway…

Marek Utkin Says

You could see picture of Ian Sheen as... hm,how to call it... what is male version of“covergirl”? Look on the main page of http://epublika.pl/poziome

Click on “Wiecej” (it means “More”) and you’llsee the story I wrote after my visit in UK in ’90.Alas, in Polish, but click on pix and you’ll seethem enlarged.

And Finally…

I am reliably informed that:

“In the course of four days’ breakfasts for 100+cyclists, and a three-course evening meal for134, those gathered in Brighton got through:

Apple Juice 6 litresBaguettes 30

[That’s Big Iain’s fault - Ed.]Bananas 504Bread 6 loavesCapsicum 2 kgCheese 12 kg

[Munich revisited! - Ed.]Cherry Tomatoes 100Clementines 60Coffee 14kgCornflakes 5 kgCucumbers 13Galia Melons 15Ham 6 kgJam 3 kgKiwi fruit 36Margarine 2kgMarmalade 1 kgMilk 52 litresMuesli 14 kgMushrooms 6 kgNutella 2 kgOrange Juice 42 litresPassata 2 litresPasta 14 kgPasta Sauce 9 litresPlums 84Rolls (Brown) 696Rolls (White) 192

46

Salad Bags 19Strawberries 260Strawberry Tarts 20Sugar 2kg

Spotted by Mr. and Mrs. Editor in Avignon last summer...

Suppliers & Wants

Advertising rates for the body of this magazine: Full page: £30.00Half page: £15.00

Small ads for non-members: £5.00

Approximately 300 copies of each issue are printed. Entries in the “Suppliers and Wants” section arefree to BHPC members, and ought not to be anything like the President of Zimbabwe… Big andClever One? Please take out an advert at the above rates and send the money to our lovely Treasurer.If your address, phone number, prices or products change, please tell me...

Tomatoes 6kgWeetabix 192Wine (Red) 48 bottles [Jon? - Ed.]Wine (White) 24 bottles

47

John Lafford, Arrow Bicycle Company, ‘Leonidas’, Manor Lane, Baydon, Marlborough, Wilts, SN8 2JDTel/Fax: 01672 540384

e-mail: [email protected]

Custom CAD design and manufacture of all types of bicycles and tricycles, including recumbents, time trial, fasttourer, and power assisted vehicles. Cromoly tubing in round, aero and oval sections. Net-type seat fabric to suittubular seat frames. Narrow bottom bracket assemblies. Composite wheels in 650c and 20” sizes, with narrowhubs. Tyre rolling resistance testing. Aerodynamic drag testing.

Avon Valley Cyclery, Bath Spa Railway Station, Bath, BA1 1SXTel: 01225 461880/442442

Fax: 01225 446267e-mail: [email protected]

WWW: http://www.bikeshop.uk.comhttp://www/foldingbikes.co.uk

AVC-designed Road, Mountain and Bath bikes. The UK’s 1st TCR Road Bike Centre and the UK’s top Folding BikeSpecialist. Family bikes, mountain bikes, comprehensive hire fleet and full workshop facilities. [Plus their web siteeven mentions the word “recumbent” - Ed]

BikeFix, 48 Lambs Conduit Street, London WC1N 3LJTel: 0171 405 4639

Fax: 0171 242 6931e-mail: [email protected]

WWW: http://www.bikefix.co.uk/bikefix.html

Recumbent-friendly shop in central London. HP Velotechnik, Burrows Ratcatcher, Hase, BikeE, Trice, Leitra,Anthrotech, plus folders / transportables from Brompton, Birdy, Bike Friday & Airnimal. Alesa rims in 406, 507, 559and 622 sizes; Continental, Primo and Vredestein tyres in 305, 406, 451 and all the big sizes. Recumbent luggage,fairings and everything else you can fit on a recumbent. Test rides and social weekends. Get on the mailing list...Stop press!! New Schwalbe Stelvios available in 406 & 559 - “Better race tyre than the Conti GP - allegedly!”

Paul Davies, 2 Fowlswick Cottages, Allington, Chippenham, Wilts, SN14 6LU (2 miles from Castle Combe)Tel: 01249 782554

Recumbent bike frames: from £350No. 1, short wheelbase, will fit Mk. 5 shellNo. 2, designed to fit Mk. 5 shellBoth come as unpainted steel framesets with forks and handlebars, to accept standard bike parts and 406/559wheels. Both suitable for faired or unfaired use by experienced recumbent riders. Race wins in both classes! To saynothing of a real-life genuine Overall World Championship!! Buy one of his fairings now, before he grows tired ofrunning The Charity for Under-Funded HPV Racers - Geoff Bird

Composite products for HPV’s:Mk. 5 bike shell, in 6 separate mouldings, fits SWB bike from £350D6 World Championship-winning shell £350Mk. 4 trike shell, in 5 separate mouldings, fits trike approx. 60 cm track,100 cm wheelbase from £250Bike front fairing from £35Bike rear fairing from £35Seat from £35Mudguards (20”, MTB, 700c) from £10

Future Cycles, Friends Yard, London Road, Forest Row, East Sussex, RH18 5EETel: 01342 822847


WWW: http://www.futurecycles.co.uk

Windcheetah, Trice and Anthrotech trikes, recumbent bikes from Optima, M5, Pashley, BikeE and Easy Racers.

We also handle European subscriptions for “Recumbent Cyclist News” (RCN). RCN is 100% dedicated to promotingrecumbent bicycles and providing and encouraging communications between HPV enthusiasts, home-builders,dealers and commercial recumbent manufacturers. Annual subscription £25.95 (six issues).

48

Hockerton Housing Project Trading Ltd., The Watershed, Gables Drive, Hockerton, Notts, NG25 OQUTel: 01636 816902


Hire/Demos/Sales of Flevo Bike, Ross, Anthrotech, Brox plus any others we obtain in the meantime! Also, Site Tours(on foot) of the infamous Hockerton Housing Project- earth sheltered, zero heating, zero CO2 autonomous housing(as seen on or in every conceivable form of news media in the known Universe!). Full details from Nick Martin at theabove address.

HPV-HEAVEN.COMWWW: http://www.hpv-heaven.com

Tel: 01295 721 860

Parts for recumbent and HPV home-builders. From the people who bought you Velodynamics Bicycles. Noseconemoulding: £130.50, including edging strip, graphics (no mounting frame) and delivery to UK mainland. Seat foam,frame-building components, and miscellaneous parts. Free small ads section. Coming Soon: Seats and Tail-Boxes,Forks and Stems, Chain Pulleys, On-line advice files and much more. Also, 3D CAD based Design and PrototypeService.

Inspired Cycle Engineering Ltd, Unit 9B Spencer Carter Works, Tregoniggie Industrial Estate, Falmouth,Cornwall, TR11 4SN

Phone / Fax: 01326 378848e-mail: [email protected]

WWW: http://www.ice.hpv.co.uk/

ICE manufacture and supply the new much improved range of TRICE recumbent tricycles including the MICRO,EXPLORER, XL and CLASSIC. X2 and EXPEDITION TANDEM versions of the Trice also now being produced. Acomprehensive range of options and accessories is also available direct from ICE.

Ex show and demo Trice for sale at reduced prices. Please see our website news section or contact us for fulldetails.

Kinetics, 15 Rannoch Drive, Bearsden, Glasgow, G61 2JSPhone / Fax: 0141 942 2552

e-mail: [email protected]: http://www.kinetics-online.com

Recumbents from HP Velotechnik, Optima and Hase. Plus S&S couplings, Birdy, Brompton, Custom Framebuilding,anything you like really...

Tina Larrington, 166 Higham Hill Road, London E17 6EJTel: 020 8531 4496 (eves / weekends)

e-mail: [email protected]

Arty stuff - cartoons, business cards, logos, badges, T-shirts, etc., etc., for builders, dealers and end-users ofrecumbent cycles. Customers include “Recumbent UK”, Animal Bikes, Westcountry Recumbents, Ian Hague and theBHPC! Architectural commissions also accepted #

Tiptree Designs (incorporating Els Tees), Ian Hague, 24 Cedar Avenue, Tiptree, Colchester, Essex, CO5 0NRTel: 01621 0815476

“Hand Painted T-shirts to the Nobility and Richard in Blackpool”

Small Adz

Christine Murphy, 22 Aynsley Terrace, Consett, Co Durham, DH8 5NFTel: 01207 585458

e-mail: [email protected] original trailer, never raced or rallied, seats 2 children. £100

49

Dave Larrington, 166 Higham Hill Road, London E17 6EJTel: 020 8531 4496 (h)

e-mail: [email protected] Kingcycle SWB recumbent bicycle. Large frame, 17/24" (ISO 369/540) wheels. Cosmetically scruffy butruns nicely enough; has just had a ground-up rebuild. Never raced or rallied by anyone under 21; ideal for competingin BHPC’s Sports Class. Includes numerous spare tyres and other bits and pieces. Located in London E17. E-mail,phone, write, visit http //www.crosswinds.net/~legslarry/misc/Kongcykel.htm or send Owl for full specification. £600 orexchange clean 911 Turbo. Would someone at least enquire about it!

Paul Davies, 2 Fowlswick Cottages, Allington, Chippenham, Wilts, SN14 6LUTel: 01249 782554

Trike shell mould, fits a trike with 60 cm track, 100 cm wheelbase £50. Mk5 bike shell mould, Open class winner ’00£100

Steve Sparrow, LancasterTel: 01524 33002

e-mail: [email protected] GT. Less than three months old. Rear and underframe carriers, sidestand, seat cushion, SON hubdynamo with standlights, Magura hydraulic brakes, perfect condition as hardly used. Cost £1769; will take £1250.Also, Bevobike. Front wheel drive, 7-speed hub geared recumbent. As stable as they come and really good andcomfortable to ride. Again, less than three months old. Has mudguards, underframe rack and cover, dynamo withstandlights, cost £1049, will accept £700

Nigel Bradder, 15 Murley Moss, Heron Hill, Kendal, Cumbria, LA9 7RWTel: 01539 724913 or 07876 500815

e-mail: [email protected] Peer Gynt LWB recumbent bike. Large frame, Deep Red, 21 speed, halogen lights, rear rack, rear suspen-sion, mudguards, SPD pedals, Magura hydraulic brakes, speedo. Excellent condition. Price includes special carrack built by Pendle. Photos on http://www.onwebnow.co.uk/hpvfun May be able to deliver. £850 ono.

51

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the simpsons visit battle mountain · dave & tina larrington 166 higham hill ... cayuga 2000...

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