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How fast can a bicycle go? On a flat road, with no wind assistance? Since 2000, Battle Mountain, Nevada has been the
venue for the World Human Powered Speed Challenge, an annual event to push the limits of design, engineering and
athletic ability. Away from the restrictions of UCI sanctioned racing, these human powered vehicles have evolved into
highly refined, aerodynamic speedbikes. Designed purely to go very fast on a closed road, speeds previously thought
unobtainable are now being reached, as the quest to go ever faster continues. Starting in the spring of 2002, Miles Kingsbury and I designed and built the Kingcycle Mango, the latest in a long line of successful speedbikes from the innovative Kingsburys. The full story of how the bike was built can be found here. Although we built the bike with the idea of breaking the world hour record, since we had it finished in time, we decided to try our luck with the flying 200m event in Nevada. The race track is a section of road five miles long, which is closed each evening for two half hour sessions - this allows for five bikes to be launched in each session. At the end of the five mile run up is a 200m timed section, so the rider's effort has to be carefully gauged to hit maximum speed at the traps. Six days of racing hopefully gives enough time for everyone to get at least one decent attempt - although of course it is very weather dependent. Windspeed is measured at the traps to ensure it is within the allowable limits for each run. These pages are my live diary from the 2002 event; I hope to return at some point and try to go faster!
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