Re:Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record
by jlebar on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @09:15PM
(#18020857)
The bike appears to have a device on it which allows it to collide with the bar of the car safely. It appears to me that she collides with it a bunch of times, both while accelerating and decelerating. This appears to be by design?
Definitely the risk of hitting the side of the fairing seems nontrivial though.
Re:Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record
by takk309 on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @11:01AM
(#18024627)
Here is a video that Wired released a few days ago that discusses the details of the tow hook and the little bar:
https://youtu.be/cZhrqKrljig
Re:Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record
by LanceH on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @10:34PM
(#18021214)
it's probably not just a bar, but a roller that spins.
Re:Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record
by jazzyjackson on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @02:08AM
(#18022085)
Looks to me like a lever hooked to the brake lines, so if she hits the bar the wheels brake. That's how I would hook it up anyway :)
Re:Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record
by ufmace on Wednesday September 19, 2018 @05:23PM
(#18027840)
Dunno what they did to the brakes vs standard bicycle brakes, but I'd be very worried about activating them automatically at ~170mph. With those speeds and the winds, it wouldn't take much to set you tumbling across the ground. I would expect they only brake very carefully and gently until they get the speeds back down some.
Re:Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record
by AstralStorm on Friday September 21, 2018 @02:45AM
(#18037630)
At those speeds, even maximum braking is gentle - the blocks near instantly heat up and lose material. There's a reason why car and motorcycle use heavily cooled and much stiffer as well as more abrasive materials for brakes.
You have to be really careful to engage both front and back brakes at the same time though.
Re:Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record
by bmj on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @10:05PM
(#18021094)
Yeah, that bar is similar to the bar on a derny (scooter used as a pace vehicle for keirin racing).
Re:Woman Rides Bicycle to 183.9 MPH, a New World Record
by TrainedMonkey on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @09:15PM
(#18020861)
The front of the bicycle has a special interface for colliding with the bar. She uses it several times during breaking.
At around 2:45 either she speeds up quickly, or the car slowed down for a moment, and she was apparently millimeters from colliding with that little bar. Five seconds later, she's nearly pitched out the left side of the car (right side of the video).
From the perspective of the video it looks like shockingly small margins for error. The raw courage is remarkable, I'd never do anything like this!