("Battle Mountain" continued from page 2)

I went last, it was pretty dark already and the yellow lines in the middle of the road were a bit hard to see. The bike was a lot faster. After 2 miles I was at 57mph without pushing too much! It felt great, but suddenly I saw the lights of an ambulance in the distance and then it was pulling on the road facing me.

Hans must have crashed hard! They don’t call the ambulance for a simple crash. So I pulled immediately into the left lane, the signal for the chase vehicle that they have to pass me on the right and catch me. It seemed to take forever, but then Brendan’s Honda and then the camper passed me, stopped and caught me. Bummer, as the wind was low and the bike fast.

It turned out that Hans had a high speed wobble from which he did not recover and crashed at about 67mph. The windshield shattered and he went into the desert with the right leg hanging out. Not pretty!

Later investigation of the bike showed scratch marks on the right sidewall of the rear tire. Something could have become stuck inside the rear wheel fairing and thus slowed the rear wheel down. It was still not really clear what caused the crash.

It wasn’t too good a night for most. Ellen missed the second timing tape, as it was pretty dark when she went through the traps.

Thursday, Sept. 16
Another windy and hot day. We started working on the bike early to get all the scratches out of the body (from falling at the start). 180 grit, thin Bondo, 180, then 320 grit, then more Bondo, same sanding as before and finally the 1000 grit, wet sand and wax. Hours of work, Karl, Brendan and Steve really worked hard to get the bike back in shape.

I helped a bit, but tried to stay out of the sun. (It’s desert, after all.)

Early in the afternoon the bike was ready again and in better shape than the day before.

Out on highway 305 it was windy, but by now we knew that the wind would go down in time. Well, it did, but not completely. Between the 1 mile and 1 kilometer to go mark, just about everyone got hit by a strong gust from the left.

Anyway, the start went well. After 2 miles, I was at 56 mph; 3 miles, 61.5 mph; 4 miles at 66 mph, and then I got hit by that gust that pushed me to the side by several feet. I lost 4 mph and could only recover to 63.57 mph. Without wind and a better timed run, the 70s are possible with this bike. However, 82 mph (to break Sam Whittingham’s record -Ed.) is a different story.

Friday, Sept. 17
After I bugged Steve for a while to close the “channel” with Lexan to see if it makes a difference, he actually tried it. We borrowed a SRM from Sam and Steve did some test runs on the qualifying course. (The SRM is a special crank from Germany that can measure the power applied through the pedals. Rather expensive and very cool). The "channel" is basically the space between the knees used for visibility. All you see is through the channel. We closed it up with Plexiglass and that made the bike faster. Any increased aerodynamics from the closed channel would be seen as reduced power required to go the same speed.

During the run with the channel closed, the front wheel fairing came loose (the road was very bumpy) and got wedged under the front wheel and down he went. Lots of scratches, the wheel fairing was toast and so was its mounting brackets. Steve was fine.

The data showed an improvement of 5-10 percent at about 30 mph! That kind of increase in efficiency is huge on a speed bike! As the weather forecast wasn’t too good Steve wanted to get a run in himself. So we (as in “they”) fixed the bike (again), closed the front wheel opening with stretch fabric and got out to 305. Winds were howling; it didn’t look good. The first session riders skipped out, except for Hans riding the unfaired Whitehawk and a fully faired trike.

Then, with the delay of the start done by organizer Jonathan Woolrich (perfect timing!), the winds died down to almost nothing. That night Ellen set a new women’s record with legal winds, Freddie beat Sam for the first time in many years and Steve ran a 59.95. All runs in the second session were legal, the best night of the event.

Saturday, Sept. 18
When we got up, the wind was blowing, it was cold and raining. So as racing on a wet slick road didn’t make sense, the Rotator team decided to pack up and leave Battle Mountain to get home. Brendan took me to Reno, where he dropped me off at the airport after trying to find a motel that was somewhat acceptable and available. It was the same weekend the air races take place in Reno, so everything was booked solid. After spending the night at the airport I finally went home.

All in all the event was done very well, thanks to the organizers and the volunteers. Great job! The weather was not what we would have wanted and I got only two out of six possible fast runs in. Everyone who came for racing, crewing and watching there was great and had a good time.

However, the racing part was far below my expectations due to many reasons. Will I come back? Well, I’d like to, but only with my own, custom fitted bike and many hours of experience on the bike. Otherwise the time and money
involved in an event like this would not be justifiable. And we all know what it takes to get a bike. | So probably not in the next future.

Big thanks to Steve Delaire for taking care of me and for providing a fast and reliable bike. Also thanks to Brendan and Karl for crewing, awesome job! And now, off-season, chips and beer, woo hooo!

FOR MORE about the Battle Mountain Human Powered Speed Challenge and lots of photos, go to www.recumbents.com/whpsc2004.htm

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