Fastest vehicle powered by multiple humans
Printed From: BHPC Forum
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Forum Name: Building
Forum Description: Anything to do with building HPVs
URL: https://forum.bhpc.org.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=7472
Printed Date: 27 March 2026 at 4:34am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.07 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Fastest vehicle powered by multiple humans
Posted By: WillHay3108
Subject: Fastest vehicle powered by multiple humans
Date Posted: 09 October 2022 at 9:04pm
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Hi, I've recently had some thoughts on a new design for a human powered vehicle and it made me wonder why the land speed record is below 100mph. Surely you can just increase the power indefinitely by adding more riders? Noting that the drag at top speed doesn't increase proportionally to mass. Has this been tried? Cheers, Will |
Replies:
Posted By: AlanGoodman
Date Posted: 09 October 2022 at 9:08pm
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Yep. It was tried at Battle Mountain a couple of years ago I believe… I’m sure Mr Larrington will be along with details shortly… ------------- |
Posted By: LWaB
Date Posted: 09 October 2022 at 11:06pm
| Multi-rider HPVs have often been problematic, since the beginning. It is hard to keep chains in place and flex becomes much more of a problem as dimensions and total power increases. |
Posted By: russellbridge
Date Posted: 10 October 2022 at 7:34am
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See sprocket rocket: https://youtu.be/W6K18bgxn78" rel="nofollow - https://youtu.be/W6K18bgxn78 5 ex US Postal Team riders with thighs like tree trunks couldn’t make this thing go over 63mph, no matter how they tried. They were putting out around 5000W combined. Most of the bikes aim for a small transition zone between laminar and turbulent air flows, because it’s the transition zone that creates most of the drag. The sprocket rocket shape is almost all transition zone or turbulent air (that’s my layman’s understanding anyway) Russ |
Posted By: russellbridge
Date Posted: 10 October 2022 at 7:36am
| Toronto university’s ‘Titan’ tandem uses a different approach. It uses a similar shape to the rest of the bikes but scaled up, so the transition zone is similar. |
Posted By: legs_larry
Date Posted: 10 October 2022 at 11:05am
Russ gets up earlier than me  Also the logistics of transporting (and launching, if it's a bike) multi-rider vehicles is enough to put most people off. Though not the Sprocket Rocket gang, whose trailer had more engineering in it than some of the competing machines. ------------- ==================== a bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds |