Issue 58 BHPC Newsletter - Issue 58
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The British Human B H P C Power Club Exclusive!!! First Racing Bike To Conform To New UCI Regulations Revealed! Autumn 1999 Issue 58 BHPC Newsletter - Issue 58 Front Cover: Bike rack outside Barclays Bank, Romsey, Hampshire. Back Cover: I Predict The Future... Contents Events 3 News, Views, and Membership Matters Various 4 Secretarial Stuff Steve ‘n’ Sherri Donaldson 10 Ron’s House Party Ron Beams 12 Advices For Faired Bike Builders Paul Davies 14 2 Plus 1 Harry Fullagar 18 Tyre Rolling Resistance Data John Lafford 21 Tales Of The City Tina Larrington 24 Racing News Dave Larrington, Nigel Sleigh, Clan Donaldson 26 Stop Press!!! Peter Bainbridge, Dave Holladay, John Keen... 39 European Championships 2000 HPV-Belgium 41 Suppliers & Wants 43 Back page Tina Larrington 48 Objectives: The British Human Power Club was formed to foster all aspects of human-powered vehicles - air, land & water - for competitive, recreational and utility activities, to stimulate innovation in design and development in all spheres of HPV's, and to promote and to advertise the use of HPV's in a wide range of activities. Never buy a second- hand boat from a hippie... OFFICERS Chairman & Press Officer Dave Cormie ( Home 0131 552 3148 143 East Trinity Road Edinburgh, EH5 3PP Competition Secretary gNick Green ...is in the middle of moving... E-mail: [email protected] Secretary Steve Donaldson ( Home 01224 772164 Touring Secretary Sherri Donaldson 15 Station Road Dyce, Aberdeen AB21 7BA Treasurer & Membership ...volunteer(s) required - see within Newsletter Editorial Team Dave & Tina Larrington ( Home 0181 531 4496 166 Higham Hill Road (after 19:00 weekdays...) London E17 6EJ E-mail: [email protected] or: [email protected] Librarian Pete Cox ( Home 01244 376776 11a Lorne St Chester CH1 4AE Issue 59 closes: 1st December 1999 (in time for the Millennium Bug!) Letters, articles, pictures, vintage port, etc. are always welcome - please send to the Editor at the address opposite. Technology being what it is these days, we can cope with most file formats readable by a PC (text in ASCII, WordPro/AmiPro or Word easiest to cope with), but if you haven't got one, items on paper are just as acceptable. A Day At The Races BHPC 1999 Season By the time you read this, I imagine the balance of the season will be much like this: October 17th AGM meeting, Eastway 2000 Events May (tba) French Championships, Roubaix - Villeneuve d’Ascq, France Next year’s French Championships will be organised by l’Ecole Centrale Lille. No further details yet; contact person is: Noël Aurélien ([email protected]). 9 – 16 July European Championships, Belgium. Courtesy of Mats Nilsson, I have just received a copy of HPV Belgium’s hand-out about next year’s Eurochamps. Thanks, Mats! Because putting it here would cause me to have to rearrange the entire publication, it can instead be found towards the other end of the issue, just before the “Suppliers & Wants section. A Night At The Opera WHEELS IN MOTION FOR SPOKESFEST An international event celebrating cycling and pedal power is planned to take place in Leicester next summer, right in the heart of the U.K. Spokesfest 2000 will take place from July 28th - 31st 2000 and will pro- mote the alternatives in cycling, regardless of people’s abilities or cir- cumstances and will include innovations in cycling such as recumbents, concept bikes, work bikes, human-powered boats and even aeroplanes! 3 Throughout the Spokesfest weekend there will be organised rides, social events, displays, films, talks and past and present cycling innovations. For all those planning to make a weekend of it, Leicester racecourse has been booked to provide secure camping facilities. Co-ordinated by Leicester Spokes, a local group campaigning for better cycling facilities, the event is the first of its kind in Leicester and has the support of the local city and county councils. Plans are being made to develop Spokesfest into an annual event celebrating Pedal Power. Spokesfest co-ordinators would like to hear from manufacturers, designers, and inventors who would like to take part in next year’s event and sponsors are invited to contact the organisers with ideas on how they can get involved and make Spokesfest the best cycling celebration ever. For further details contact the event director, Roger Lovell, 23 Michael Ramsey Court, Glen Parva, Leicester LE2 9QS. Telephone (0116) 2781360. E-mail address [email protected] or visit the Spokesfest web site at: www.spokesfest.freeserve.co.uk The Editor Paints His Toenails Red New Records Firstly the good news that Kevin Doran’s three arm-powered records set back in June have now been ratified by the IHPVA, and are as follows: 4 km standing start: 7:32.967 19.75 mph (31.79 km/h) 10 km standing start 18:22.8 20.28 mph (32.64 km/h) 1 Hour standing start 20.58 miles (33.11 km) Next, news just in from Jürg Hölzle, about the Rail HPV Championships, held at the end of August in Laupen, Switzerland: “There were only two vehicles but these championships were as tight as never before! The long-time champion team of Romeo Gridelli and the newcomer Snapper Team of Robert Stolz, Bruno Guhl and Charles Henry have invested in new vehicles. The Snapper rail vehicle is the same as raced in the HPV World Championships in Interlaken - only modified with an outrigger and guidance wheels. We had some (head) wind but it never exceeded 1.5 m/s during the heats. Charles Henry reached 70.04 km/h and is so far the first to break the 70 km/h barrier. The former cham- pion Hansueli Russenberger was, with 69.03 km/h, also faster than 1998 where he broke the 60 km/h barrier with 63.55 km/h. Rosmarie Bühler, multiple world champion, broke the old record of Katrin Ranger (1994 57.62 km/h) with 61.22 km/h and is now the fastest women on rails. "Oldie" Peter Bretscher (57 years) did a very good 64.17 km/h and "youngster" Lukas Frei (16 years) reached 61.12 km/h.” And finally, news of the 1Hour record, specifically that any team hoping to be the first to break 80 km and 50 miles for the standing-start hour has left it too late. The new record has yet to be ratified by the IHPVA, but on August 7th, former holder Lars Teutenberg, of Germany, covered 81.158 km, which my calculator reckons is 50.429 miles. The machine was the “Whitehawk”, designed by Andy Gronen and built with the assistance of Aachen Technical University. The run took place on Opel’s 4.8 km test track, located at Dudenhofen, near Frankfurt am Main. An attempt was also made on Paul Buttemer’s 100 km record, but this had to be abandoned due to rain. 29 year old Teutenberg held the record from 1996 to 1998 in the “Tomahawk”, and is more often to be found competing in Six-Day races in Germany. Further details are 4 scarce at present, but hopefully my man Gunnar will supply something before too long. Incidentally, the report on http://radsport-news.com/news/ teutehpv.htm credits Teutenberg with the 12 Hour, 24 Hour and 1000 km records, but these are still safe in the hands of Axel Fehlau. Anyway, congratulations to all those involved (though I think we can allow ourselves a certain amount of teeth-gnashing over Lars Teutenberg’s success, coz I heard that a Certain British outfit is preparing for an assault on the record Real Soon Now). Did You See... The Whitehawk - 81.148 km in 1 Hour! ...a report in the Daily Mirror on August 26th? It seems that Ferrari F1 megastar Eddie Irvine has been spotted riding what sounds suspiciously like a faired recumbent! Here’s what the Mirror had to say on the subject: “"EDDIE Irvine's third place setback in Hungary last week obviously affected him more than he admitted at the time. For in the wake of his Budapest Grand Prix blunder, the race ace has taken to a new mode of transport. The 34-year-old Formula One star ditched his Ferrari for a futuristic bicycle in an advert for he made for an Italian bank. And while all the top racing teams are chasing the Irish driver, it was the makers of this bubbled-headed contraption who seem to have captured the heart of our sporting hero. But, race fans fear not, it's only a temporary change of gear. Irvine was snapped on this weird push-bike filming an advertisement for the Banca di Roma in Italy and, rumour has it, he netted a small fortune for his part.” Well, OK, the less said about Ferrari’s performances in Budapest and Spa the better, but it seems that the article was accompanied by a photo. But the news items collated and indexed by my employer are text- only, so I was rather hoping that someone out there might have seen and saved it. Anyone? It Was That Time Of Year... ...when people do daft things, like End-to-End rides. Tim Hayes completed his in June, and has prom- ised a “How Not To Do It” guide. Andrew Harrington supplied various cuttings relating to the attempt by Steve Pryor and his Windcheetah to complete the distance in 72 hours, reproduced overleaf. However, his effort is, in terms of sheer bonkers-in-the-nut-ness, left standing by that of Steve Holard - see also overleaf... I hope it comes out OK - scanning newspaper articles is notoriously hit-and-miss.