One Tough Velomobile? No! Two Whole Teams.

In typical Ozzy style Trisled performed the following good humoured stunt to effectively demonstrate the durability of their robust and practical Rotovelo velomobile.  Perhaps the beginnings of a new sport – Velomobile Ice Hockey.

The video clip was produced and edited by Lochlan Gay, a Year 11 student from Mt Eliza Secondary College. Working with six cameramen across 26 cameras, Lochie was then charged with poring over 20 hours of footage to produce the final five minute cut.

The players are evidently enjoying themselves immensely, and the resilience of the roto-moulded shell to the repeated impacts is clear.  As one commentator has remarked, “don’t try this in your Quest.”  Perhaps not so obvious is the clear stability of the trike compared to a bike in icy conditions.  Another feather in the velomobiles all-weather cap.

The opposite extreme to Trisled’s practical velomobile are the high end racing machines that they produce for Australia’s flourishing sport of HPV racing (See the Australian HPV Super Series Pedal Prix and RACV Energy Breakthrough pages).  Trisled took these machines a step further in 2012, when they entered one bike and one trike, in the World Human Powered Speed Challenge at Battle Mountain.  The Trisled machines performed well with the trike, with Gareth Hanks in Completely Overzealous, setting a new world record in the three wheel category and stimulating interest in further trike development.

The following video gives a mostly cockpit eye view of the record setting run.

Trisled are expected back at Battle Mountain this year with an all new trike, All Overzealous, no doubt with expectation to push the trike record further still.  The results should be available by the end of next week.

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Battle Mountain – Final Day

World Human Powered Speed Championships 2012 PosterThe 2012 World Human Powered Speed Challenge at Battle Mountain comes to a close today.   Official results are tabulated here with breaking news from the blog of one of the offical timers.  There have been no records broken as yet, but a new record has been set.

As well as the high profile withdrawal, for this year at least, of Graeme Obree, Sam Whittingham has also decided to give this year a miss.  After defending and advancing his record for 12 years, he has decided that 13 would be 1 year too many.  None-the-less there has been a full field with teams from all over, but have been beset with technical and weather problems, with a number of crashes and “illegal” winds.

The team from Trisled in Australia, brought two machines, a bike (Nitro Glycerine) and a trike (Completely Overzealous).  Though Trisled are competing at Battle Mountain for the first time their have already honed their skills to a high level in the well developed Australian human powered racing scene.  Conventional wisdom has gone the route of dropping the third wheel to save rolling resistance anf hopefully also reduce cross-section.  It has no doubt come as a supprise therefore to many that Trisled’s trike powered by Gareth Hanks has bested 70 mph to set a record for three wheels of 71.79 mph.  This achievement has been recognised by the IHPVA who have upgraded the rules to recognise fully faired three wheels, as a separate class.  Well-done to the Trisled team for showing that there is still life in the conventional velomobile format!Photo of Completely Overzealous

The Dutch team from Delft with VeloX2 have not yet broken the record but are edging closer.  Jan Bos is now the third fastest human.

More next week once the dust has settled.

Photo of Completely Overzealousphoto of Nitro GlycerineWith thanks to Jun Nog for the photo’s from her blog.  The secret to Trisled’s succuess (beside their musceles)? – Wax!