WHPSC 2026: T minus 48 hours

Thursday before WHPSC is the usual time that the Toronto team hits the road. It is a little over 3500 km from downtown Toronto to Battle Mountain NV, and according to Google at the moment, it is about a 32 hour drive. The teams need to get there during the day on Saturday to get the bikes through tech inspection in time for the first qualifying runs on Sunday morning.

Sadly I was not able to be present when the teams drove off like last year, but the undergrad team sent me a picture from the van that will be towing a trailer this year.

Here is the HPT North pickup almost ready to go with TITAN in the back.

Wishing both teams safe travels.

The long range forecast for Battle Mountain looks pretty good. Very windy on Saturday, but it appears to calm down as the week goes on.

The crucial thing is to have low wind and high temperatures. The wind has to be below 6 kph for a legal run. The wind looks lower than that most mornings, but the temperatures are also low, making the air denser. The hope is that the wind dies in the evenings while it is still quite warm.

You can compare with the forecast for last year; this year looks a bit warmer with lower wind?

Fingers crossed. Safe travels to all the teams and the volunteers still en route. Danny and I will be arriving Saturday in time for the racers’ meeting.

You can get a bit of a preview of the course set up from Adam Hari’s videos.

Another 10,000 km goes by

A lazy Sunday running errands around town. Just as I pull up to work, my Rock Lobster clocks 30,000 km.

It’s been a little over four years since I had 20,000 km on this bike.

A few other random shots.

On Runnymede Rd, the southbound bike lane in the underpass at the train tracks still needs cleaning up after the big storm. The northbound direction has been cleared.

On a visit back to the Jim Tovey conservation area, I am happy to see that signage had been modified so that cyclists are now allowed to ride up to the scenic lookout at Songbird Summit.

This is what that signage looked like back in July.

Looks like more good weather tomorrow. One last day before classes start.

Update: when I got home, I hit 30,010 km on the nose.

Screenshot

Final preparations for WHPSC

WHPSC is less than a week away, and both Toronto teams are busy with their final preparations.

Here Evan is demonstrating that a newly installed rear view camera is working on TITAN, although he is showing the image on the front screen at this point.

The other team is showing me that they printed out five video camera masts for Eta Prime. Hopefully they will only need one.

Now some practice up near Finch TTC station.

Running to get in position for a catch.

Another launch of Topher by Frank.

A successful catch.

Erin loaded in the bike. The team still have to finish a set of shorter cranks so that she can reach the pedals more comfortably.

The team is going to have to practice closing the shell more quickly.

Right now the undergrads are planning to run three riders in each of Typhoon and Eta Prime. I’m not sure that they will manage to do so with Eta Prime in three consecutive heats.

The three riders for Typhoon: Frank, Justin and Thanusan are all new to Battle Mountain, although Thanusan was crew last year.

The three riders for Eta Prime are Harrison (55 mph hat), Christopher (60 hat) and Erin (she never got a wind legal run where she went over 50 mph). All three are looking to better their performance from last year when they were riding Cyclone, a Vortex clone similar to Typhoon.

For TITAN, Calvin has a 80 mph hat from riding Eta Prime, and he has the current multi rider record at 74.73 mph. Ethan has a 65 mph hat from riding Cyclone.

Last year, WHPSC ran from Sept 8-13 which is basically this up coming week. Here is the forecast for this week, with a first peek at what we might expect for next weekend. The shift of a week is due to Labour Day being much later this year.

Winds look pretty good in the mornings. Let’s hope for good weather next week as well.

WHPSC 2026 Preview

September has rolled around again, and that means that it’s time to preview this year’s World Human Powered Speed Challenge (WHPSC). Up to date information on this year’s event is available on the WHPSC website.

This year’s poster features Russell Bridge’s streamliner “77” that raced most recently last year. Note also that the “mile” markers will be indicating the distance to the finish lines in kilometres.

There is a fairly small roster of teams and vehicles coming this year; at the time of this writing, there are five entries and a total of six vehicles and about 14 riders.

Here is a rundown of the five teams coming:

University of Toronto Human Powered Vehicle Design Team (HPVDT)

This team is back with two vehicles and three riders for each. Typhoon is the latest version of the various Vortex clones that the team has been bring back to Battle Mountain. Here’s a picture of it in black primer from a couple of weeks back. They tell me it will be painted white and ready to run in time. It will be piloted by three team members who are coming to Battle Mountain for the first time.

They will also be bringing back Eta Prime, a camera bike that alum Calvin Moes pushed to 80.83 mph back in 2018. Three WHPSC veterans will be trying to improve personal bests that were set in past years using one of our Vortex variants. Here’s a picture of the chassis.

Team HPT North

This team is made up of HPVDT alumni, and they are bringing back TITAN, the world’s fastest tandem bike. They hope to better their previous world record of 74.73 mph set back in 2019 by Calvin Moes and Evan Bennewies. Calvin has a 80 mph hat and this year’s stoker Evan has a 65 mph hat.

Human Power Team Falcon

Adam Hari is back again with a brand new streamliner called Dark Star. It is a considerable evolution from his previous streamliner. Adam has a 75 mph hat, but he had evil luck last year. No doubt this was at least partially due to the fact that he spent much effort setting up the course ahead of last year’s event. We wish him better luck this time. The only images of the new bike that I could find were a video that he posted.

Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo) Human Powered Vehicles

Cal Poly’s bringing back an improved version of last year’s bike. Last year they had several small windows cut into the fairing. Perhaps this year they will be running with a video camera? They will have three riders for Woohoo! 2.

Team HERMUS

Team HERMUS is a brand new team from Sherbrooke University (Quebec), making their WHPSC debut. They posted some very nice pictures of their outer shell back in December of last year. They say they are coming to run and to learn from other teams. Very interested to see how they do. Fellow Canadians will appreciate the Labatts 50 inspired merch that they have up on their instagram.

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A number of other teams have elected to sit this year out given the deteriorating condition of the road surface. Last year, IUT Annecy with François Pervis went 88.07 mph, just 0.52 mph shy of the world record. If the road had been in better shape, they would have probably set a new world record.

Local officials have moved heaven and earth to try to get the road repaved. There is the possibility that it will be repaved in 2027, but it is not clear at this time whether this will happen in time for September. The hope is that if and when we get better pavement that more teams will show up once again.

In the meantime, we wish all of this year’s entrants the best of luck and safe running.

Also note that our perennial sweep driver Dave Larrington is already wending his winding way to Battle Mountain, and I highly recommend reading his travelogue here.

Ghost bike for a cyclist killed in Hamilton

A cyclist was killed Saturday August 22 around 11 pm in Hamilton He was cycling northbound on Upper Centennial Parkway (AKA Hwy 20) in the vicinity of Green Mountain Rd. A ghost bike in his memory was placed this morning.

Picking the ghost bike up from Geoffrey.

Proof that at least part of the ghost bike’s journey to Hamilton was by bike.

It was decided that given the location, it was too dangerous to organize a ride to where the crash occurred. The ghost bike was placed north of the intersection since the road closure after the crash was between Green Mountain and Ridge Rd. As you can see, the road has no shoulder and is basically a highway with two lanes in each direction.

With high speed traffic whizzing by, it did not feel safe even with my car nearby, pulled over on the shoulder with the 4 way flashers on.

Thanks also to Frank Lepre for the more durable signs that ARC has started to use.

A minute of silence in memory of the deceased.

Just a reminder to everyone to ride safe.

Mark Anderson of Cycle Hamilton makes an excellent point that the western end of the Dofasco 2000 trail comes off of Ridge Rd, and so one can imagine cycling along HWY 20 to get to that point. Obviously not a safe route to the trail.

Deepest condolences to family and friends of the cyclist.

August 2026 Critical Mass

Tonight was a special edition of Critical Mass to push back against the fact that the sections of Bill 212 having to do with stripping out bike lanes in Toronto are once again the law of the land.

A very big crowd, variously estimated at between 700-1000 cyclists.

So nice to see so many familiar faces.

Tom Flood and Lanrick Bennett Jr.

David Keogh

Mike Layton talking to Angela.

Dave Shelnutt, primary organizer of the ride.

These fellows had two different Brompton clones.

A rolled up rear fender on the Neo.

A kickstand as well.

Michael Longfield acknowledges the community groups that put the ride together before introducing the mayor.

Mayor Chow talked about having been doored twice before the bike lanes on Bloor were installed. She also acknowledged the many groups that fought for those bike lanes, including Bells on Bloor, Cycle Toronto, etc. She also pointed out that Mike Layton was present, someone who played a key role in getting the Bloor bike lanes installed.

She said that Doug Ford should not be focusing on messing with Toronto on issues like bike lanes or the island airport. Instead, it was crucial for all levels of government (municipal, provincial and federal) to work together to fight back against the aggression coming from south of the border, and to help people during the tough times to come.

Next, Dave revealed the route for tonight’s ride, going east to Brad Bradford’s office. He also reminded people about safety during the ride.

Here we go across the viaduct.

Angela out front with a banner was reminiscent of the Bells on Bloor days.

Now at Brad Bradford’s office. His portrait had already been augmented.

We stopped the line of cyclists at Woodbine, and it snaked down the block and around the corner, so it was not possible to have a large gathering in front of the office.

Dave was handing out mini lights for those who didn’t have any lighting.

Rob documenting our ride back west. Hi Mozzie!

At Broadview, Angela is explaining the ride to a passerby.

Left on Bay

The ride ended at Queen’s Park.

Thanks to everyone who came out and rode with us. The fight continues!

Brian Tao has posted the definitive video of the ride.

Cycle Toronto Election Town Hall

Tonight was an election town hall in Swansea sponsored by Cycle Toronto. This meeting attracted seven candidates who are vying to be the next Councillor for Ward 4: Parkdale High Park.

The meeting started with an intro about city wide cycling issues introduced by Caitlin.

Next, Michael talks about Bills 212 and 60, and how the portion of 212 focused on removing bike lanes from Bloor, Yonge and University was overturned, but then recently reinstated on appeal.

He assures us that the fight continues, and reminds us that Doug Ford will not be premier forever.

Next up were the candidates for City Council. There were many common themes in their presentations including general concerns about affordability and pushing back against provincial overreach. Most of them did their best to talk about bike lanes, but it was also important to check what they had stated on their respective websites.

Nadia Guerrera gave some generalities about bike lanes, but there was nothing on her website about cycling.

Adam Pham focused on affordability, and community safety. He did not talk about cycling, and it was obvious from his website why.

Under the heading of “Bike Lanes done Right” he will push for:

• Separated bike lanes on suitable routes
• Keep two lanes each way on Bloor
• Develop alternative routes instead of removing car lanes
• Maintain full car access to High Park

Bridget Ogundipe doesn’t specifically talk about cycling on her website but she said that it is important for communities to be sustainable.

Debbie King is currently the TDSB School Trustee for Ward 4. She pointed out that 37% of Ward households do not own a car. She also has a petition to promote the idea of a Toronto City Charter.

Diana Chan McNally said that as a renter and someone who does not own a car, she represents a demographic that is significant in the city but is not represented at City Hall. She is active on the housing issue, but she is engaged on cycling issues.

Holly Weber talks about Safety, Affordability and Congestion on her website. She does say that “A safer TTC, bike lanes and pedestrian infrastructure will shift people from cars to ease traffic congestion.”

Finally, Vanessa Raponi talks about how she transitioned from a career focused on Engineering to someone dedicated to public service.

Next, we were told about five areas of priority for Cycle Toronto, and we were split up into five tables to discuss each of them.

A pretty good crowd. Hamish being ever present at events such as this.

I parked at the table discussing High Park. Most people there didn’t seem to be very informed on the details of what has already been proposed by the city. I also had a nice conversation with Debbie King at this table about some of the prior controversy about this issue.

Thanks to Cycle Toronto for organizing the event. It was clear that many candidates thought it was important to have the opportunity to talk to the cycling community.

HPVDT prepares for Battle Mountain

With less than three weeks to go for this year’s edition of the World Human Powered Speed Challenge, the UofT team is very busy putting final touches on their speedbikes. There will two teams coming from Toronto: the usual undergraduate based team (HPVDT), and HPT North, a second team made up of exclusively HPVDT alumni. HPVDT is planning to bring two vehicles: Typhoon (a Vortex clone) and Eta Prime.

Here is Typhoon in black primer.

Eta Prime.

Since Eta Prime is a camera bike, the team is working hard to provide seat time for the two or three riders that want to ride it. The camera system is still being finalized, so the team did a clever workaround by buying a cheap endoscope from Amazon and using a phone as the screen.

Good enough for practice as you can see from this video they just posted. Good job keeping the bike upright given that the latency with the endoscope is about 100 milliseconds.

HPT North is bringing TITAN back to the WHPSC. This vehicle currently has the multi-rider record at 120.26 kph, set back in 2019.

Apparently they are practicing using these rollers.

Vision system and many other things have been refined.

Stoker Ethan shows off his side of the backrest.

Here is the front of the backrest installed in place.

As usual, it will be a very busy couple of weeks leading up to the event.

There will also be a third team from Canada from the University of Sherbrooke. They will join the team from Cal Poly SLO, as well as Adam Hari from Australia.

The organizing committee has also been very busy with all the arrangements for the event. Everything will come down to the wire. We also know that the community is very much looking forward to all of us coming back this year.

Perhaps we’ll see some additional last minute entries?

Finally a ramp for bikes on Kings College Circle

I’m been concerned about the lack of a proper ramp for bicycles on the southern border of Kings College Circle for several years now, ever since the installation of the granite paving around the circle. Today I see that they have finally put in an asphalt ramp.

It is wide enough to accommodate a full size motor vehicle (which I think was one of the issues that was raised by the fire department). It remains to be seen if some sort of of bollard will be installed, or if signage is sufficient to keep cars away.

At any rate, cyclists no longer have to detour to one of the perimeter ramps that were really intended for wheelchair access.

Update from the University: “there will be a gate installed here will be connected to fire alarms to automatically open for fire trucks. I also understand there will be a way for bicycles to get by on the ramp. This ultimately was the resolution we worked out with the chief of fire…..”

Dismount Social Ride

Just an image dump from tonight’s very pleasant social ride. Thanks, Matt, for leading.