Bicycle drafting experiment

[ATaylorRacing]

Way back in the day Ron Howard set a land speed record of OVER 130 mph on a
B I C Y C L E! He did it at Bonneville while drafting off of a land speed record semi if I remember correctly

[Bicycle Bob]

Hey, Indiana, that's John Howard, who made his name among the hoosiers. He went 152 behind a race car with a special tail, after a crash at near that speed. He was the first to use compound gearing for the record. On those runs, the pedals are used to mainly regulate the speed - considerable power comes from the difference in pressure created. I still love the early description of John's road race tactics. He'd usually be in the back half of the pack at half time, and then steadily move up to first at the finish. "Everybody knew about his plans, the problem was doing something about it."

[ATaylorRacing]

I stand corrected....Little Opie Taylor never did such a thing.

[eco_generator]

Originally Posted by Xringer

Some people think that aerodynamics aren't important at low speeds.
Let them go bike riding when it's windy out.

If something can be done to cut drag, it will help. Even at 10 MPH..

Well, if you can cut drag massively (like you can with stance on a bike), then you get really good gains. It's still proportional.

Originally Posted by bikin' Ed

I have friends with tandems which are wicked fast on a good down hill... Our top speed to date: 63.5 mph

Wow! I really really really hope you have full disc brakes on both of the bikes! I think those tandem drums would not last very long trying to haul down that much weight at that much speed on an incline...

[aerohead]

Originally Posted by ATaylorRacing

I stand corrected....Little Opie Taylor never did such a thing.

ESPN has done "Great American Adventures",which include the World of Speed at Bonneville.In 1990.I believe,"Fast Freddy" Markham and John teamed up in a tandem streamliner "Gold Rush" to set a LSR.In the show,they have a clip of John behind the Vesco family streamliner,with the windbrake built on to the back settingn the 152-mph LSR that Bob has mentioned.If you can track this video down,it's worth a look.