This guy had a great lighted sign. You might guess who it is referring to at the moment.
Two of the many usual suspects it was great to see.
David goes over some safety instructions.
And we’re off for one lap of High Park.
I’m corking at the Grenadier. It took a looong time for everyone to go by.
Back towards Bloor.
Now west on Bloor.
photo: Geoffrey Bercarich
At Runnymede.
This gentleman ran the whole way with us.
Now across the Humber.
Bikes as far as the eye can see.
Turning into Tom Riley Park.
David tells everyone that this is where the first phase of bike lane removal is scheduled to happen, perhaps as soon as in the next couple of weeks. He asks that people show up to make it difficult for the bike lanes to be removed, to show that it will be even more hard to remove all the bike lanes.
Jess reminds us that the removal of bike lanes means that people will be killed or seriously injured.
A month makes a big difference in terms of how fast it gets dark.
photo: Geoffrey Bercarich
At South Kingsway
A nice guy stood on his e-scooter to get this shot.
Corking at Jane.
Now back through Bloor West Village.
I peeled off at Runnymede.
Thanks to everyone who came out tonight. I’ll let others guess at the numbers. I saw Brian Tao, and perhaps he will do a video analysis.
Update from Brian: “I counted 783 bikes, 16 of which had an extra person, another 2 had doggos. We also had a couple of longboards, 1 recumbent (Christopher Hoyle), 1 runner (Alex Bonenfant), and 1 alto sax player (Richard Underhill), who gifted us with an unexpected collab between the bikeSauce beats bike and the Shuffle Demons front man.”
We’ll keep an eye out for bike lane removals. The province needs to know that people are opposed to the removal.
And so ends another week of racing down Route 305 in Battle Mountain, the fastest road in the world for human powered vehicles. It was a year with relatively few entries, and a mix of experienced and rookie teams. As per usual, what follows is a few notes on each team, in the order presented in my preview post.
University of Toronto Human Powered Vehicle Design Team (HPVDT)
photo: Danny Guthrie
This team came with two vehicles, and three riders for each. Typhoon suffered drivetrain gremlins, and the hatch blew off and then had to be pieced together, but in the end two of the three riders earned their first hats: Ethan Todd (55) and Justin Tangpongprush (50). Frank Fang had evil luck with only one complete run on the 4km course.
Eta Prime was more problematic, with the main thing holding them back being the time it took for them to stage the bike. There was one single bike heat with only Eta Prime, and it still went over the 20 minute limit on road closure. After that point, control and start were more strict about the time limit for staging, and this lead to a lot of scratches for the team. Also Erin was blown off the course by a strong crosswind and it took some time and effort to repair the bike. In the end, only Erin got a hat, and both Christopher and Harrison were unable to upgrade hats that they had earned last year in what was theoretically a slower bike.
In the end, the team learned a lot about the logistics to run multiple riders in a vehicle in consecutive heats. We’ll see how they do next time.
Team HPT North
This was a hybrid team of HPVDT alumni with the addition of the dynamic duo Hans and Ellen. They set a new world record for a mixed gender multi rider team at 65.06 mph which figured prominently in Lander County Tourism publicity during the event. You can see from the photo that the crash shell was still on the bike. I will note that the tandem record was also set some years ago with the shell not being finished.
Unfortunately, they didn’t achieve their other goal of resetting the multi rider record. They also fell just shy of getting a 70 mph hat for stoker Ethan. Part of what set them back was the fact that Calvin had not ridden a streamliner since the last time that TITAN was a Battle Mountain (back in 2022), let alone a streamliner that was very sensitive to cross winds. I should also note that Calvin was very gracious to let me ride in the tandem, something that I will remember for a good long time.
Human Power Team Falcon
Adam Hari had Niklas and Wiebke crewing for him, with additional help from Battle Mountain Mike and Nik Runner. His new bike was really a work of art. Take a look at the elegant ventilation setup.
He was not able to improve his personal best from two years ago, but he did much better than last year. Hopefully with more time in the new bike, and more opportunities to run under good conditions, he’ll be able to reach his goal of 80 mph.
Cal Poly (San LuisObispo) Human Powered Vehicles
This team had two riders, and Justin fell just short of getting a 55 mph hat. They made good progress during the week, going from weaving down the course to being able to keep the bike straight even under windy conditions. I hope that they learned a bit about the shortcomings of their current design and will be able to do better in future years.
Most of the team had departed by the time for the awards dinner, so I’m stealing a photo from their instagram feed. Their rider Alexis had not practiced with the bike with the shell on before the competition, and so he used the whole road during his first successful run through timing. They made some revisions to the bike during the week, including removing the heavy steel cylinder behind the seat and changing the vision system. They also made use of a carbon crash shell that they made with the assistance of Luke from HPT North. We hope to see them back.
Notes:
Although we didn’t see any sessions rained out, the wind conditions were not ideal. In total there were only 16 wind legal runs, and seven of these were on Wednesday morning.
We restricted heats to a limit of three vehicles per heat because people were taking a long time to both stage their bikes and to run down the course.
There were five hats earned this week, but only one of those runs was wind legal. I’m glad we changed the rules so that wind was ignored for hats.
I’d like to thank all of the people that made the event run smoothly. In particular:
Hans at Control
Joyce as chief chase organizer, as well as handling all of the paperwork and sale during the event.
Danny for his help at timing
Larry at start
Bill on sweep, and occasionally Dave
All of our flaggers
I’d also like to thank all the members of this year’s organizing committee who did a great job in putting things together.
Joyce as project manager, and also for handling all of the financials, as well as checking the road maps and the insurance language. Also she chased sponsors
Arnold on the website, as well as almost realtime support on the timing app during the week
Adam for course setup, and all of the associated items.
Joyce for handling all of the financials, as well as checking the road maps and the insurance language. Also she chased sponsors
Larry for also checking out language on documents, as well as managing the equipment
Joyce for handling all of the purchasing of T shirts, posters, trophies, etc, with an assist from Marieke
Also Joyce for communicating with locals such as Holly, Maite, and the flaggers.
I worked with both NDOT and the county to get the road permit. I was also the initial contact for insurance
Calvin did outreach to the media and prepared PR materials
You’ll note that Joyce’s name appears many times in the above list. There were weeks when she was spending about 20 hours on organizing the event.
Finally, all the people that helped with both set up and tear down and clean up.
Also thanks to all of our sponsors:
Nevada Gold Mines
SSR Marigold Mining
Battle Mountain Chamber of Commerce
Battle Mountain Civic Center
Lander County Tourism
Blue Moon Portables
specialbikeparts.com
So what comes next? It is the almost the same amount of work to run the event for six entries as it is for sixteen, and it is clear that the event is not sustainable with such low attendance. There is a long list of teams that chose to stay away but would come again if the road is repaved. It looks like there is a strong possibility that the road will be resurfaced, but it is not clear whether it would be done in time for Sept 2027. One possible scenario is to have the event run in 2028.
In the meantime, we will be organizing a letter writing campaign to ensure that the road will be repaved, and if you are on one of the current or past teams, you will be hearing from us.
Here are all the racers that earned new hats this week. Three 50 mph, and two 55 mph.
A bad selfie with all of the volunteers. We really ran the event on a skeleton crew this year.
The flaggers kept us safe, and Mason did a great job as head flagger.
Special recognition to the representatives of the local community who provided an unprecedented level of support for the event. Some of them were seen during the week on the grandstands, even at 7 AM! Left to right: Maite (Civic Center), Holly (Chamber of Commerce), Jolene (Librarian), Becky (Lander County Tourism), Angel (Becky’s assistant).
Then Officer Arthur Aten arrived to lay down the law.
Adam cited for speeding. Officer Aten noted that there was only the one speeding ticket this year.
A very large number of riders were cited for failure to maintain lane.
Calvin. Officer Aten said that this was not the violation that he expected from Calvin.
Erin.
Ethan (although it wasn’t his fault).
Alexis, representing the other Alexis who had already fled the jurisdiction.
Justin S.
Jadon.
Finally, Frank was cited for impeding traffic.
Now the trophies.
1st place Women’s: Erin Price.
Men’s. L to R: Ethan (2nd), Adam (1st) and Justin (3rd)
Men’s multi rider: 2nd place (Calvin and Jun), 1st place (Calvin and Ethan)
1st place, Mixed Gender Multitrack: The world record holders Calvin and Ellen. I didn’t get a photo and will recycle this one.
Collegiate Award: 1st place: Toronto, 2nd place Cal poly SLO, 3rd place Sherbrooke
Special recognition to Holly, Maite and Becky.
Finally Calvin made some special awards. The first for innovation to Cal Poly for reintroducing the use of landing gear.
Adam for Sportsmanship. He not only arrived very early to supervise course set up, but he served as launcher for other teams.
Finally, a special award for Leadership to Joyce Lem who was the lead organizer this year, and spent many many hours in preparation for this year.
Nik got a certificate of appreciate from Lander County for his many years of supporting the event,
I was surprised to get a trophy for 2nd place multi-rider. The backstory: there was a trophy made for 2nd place Women’s but it was relabelled as my award.
Six heats from the 8 km and one 4 km run this morning. Winds were forecast to decrease slowly as we approached noon,
In the first heat, Alexis went 52.49 mph, earning a 50 mph hat. There were some very interesting decorations added to the shell.
In the second heat, Justin Strahm went 51.04 in WooHoo!2, earning a 50 mph hat.
In heat 3, Adam went 73.94, a bit slower than his best run this week. At this point in time he is the only person to potentially be cited for speeding.
In heat 4, Ethan went a bit slower than his best at 54.59 mph. Typhoon now has purple stripes on it.
Typhoon continued to have drivetrain problems for any one other than Ethan Todd. Justin was not able to start properly in his first attempt in heat 5, but he managed to get down the course in the next heat.
Heat 6 was tacked on to allow more riders to have a chance at low wind. Calvin and Ethan went just shy of 70 mph, which is a shame since Ethan has a 65 mph hat. The wind was dead at timing, but it was a crosswind during their run. Justin S improved his best to 54.32 mph. Justin T went 44.17, and I think that he had chain problems.
The final heat was from 4km to give Frank and Jadon a final shot. Jadon did not run, and Frank was not able to start.
Additionally, I was given a chance to ride in the back of TITAN. Unfortunately the primary camera screen went dark partway down the track, and Calvin and I used the brakes to get down to a safe speed with Calvin using the secondary screen which was at an awkward viewing angle. Thanks to Calvin for getting us down the course safely, and I set the slowest speed of the week at 30.57 mph. Here’s me getting into the bike (photo: Dave Larrington)
Results – Saturday AM (AM) – 2026-09-19
Heat 1 · 5 Race · 07:00
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Alexis Imbeault
Beluga One
Men
07:12
8.524
52.49
84.47
525
2.67
✗
✗
50 hat
Heat 2 · 5 Race · 07:30
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Calvin and Ellen
TITAN
Mixed Gender, Multirider
07:39
6.976
64.13
103.21
698
3.55
✗
✗
Justin Strahm
Woohoo! 2
Men
07:43
8.766
51.04
82.14
529
2.69
✗
✗
50 hat
Heat 3 · 5 Race · 08:00
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Adam Hari
Dark Star
Men
08:12
6.051
73.94
118.99
429
2.18
✗
✗
Heat 4 · 5 Race · 08:30
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Ethan Todd
Typhoon
Men
08:40
8.195
54.59
87.86
341
1.73
✗
✗
Heat 5 · 5 Race · 09:00
No results recorded for this heat.
Heat 6 · 5 Race · 09:30
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Calvin and Ethan
TITAN
Men, Multirider
09:32
6.460
69.26
111.46
225
1.14
✓
✗
Justin Strahm
Woohoo! 2
Men
09:42
8.236
54.32
87.42
463
2.35
✗
✗
Justin Tangpongprush
Typhoon
Men
09:21
10.129
44.17
71.08
394
2.00
✗
✗
Heat 7 · 2.5 Race · 10:10
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Calvin and Jun
TITAN
Men, Multirider
11:13
14.637
30.57
49.19
327
1.66
✓
✗
Now time for the group photos.
All the teams.
Riders only (photo Dave Larrington)
HPT North with TITAN
Cal Poly.
The Typhoon riders.
The Eta Prime riders.
Toronto has the rest of the afternoon to chase out the drivetrain gremlins in Typhoon, and to fix the camera system in Eta Prime.
It was assumed that the winds would be bad for this entire evening session, and sure enough, the wind meter looked like this, indicating a strong headwind.
Despite all that, Justin ran Typhoon in the first heat from the 4 km start and logged a 51.1 mph run, earning him a 50 mph hat.
In this picture, you can see the repaired hatch, the front wheel fairing, and the Michelin Blue tires. I will also note that when Typhoon was being brought up to start in the pickup, they had the fairing hatch in the cab.
Jadon tired to run Woohoo 2! but ended up in the ditch. Wishing him better luck tomorrow. At this point, he is the only rider not to have had a successful run.
All the rides in the second heat scratched.
Unfortunately, the wind gods were fickle, and the wind actually picked up towards sunset. The only person to ride in the final heat was Ethan Todd in Typhoon who went 55.62 into a 22 kph headwind. His 55 mph hat is only the third one to be earned so far this week.
Winds look good for tomorrow AM, but it will be cold.
The first heat started out with a bang, with Adam Hari going 73.41 mph in Dark Star. He was followed by Justin Strahm in Woohoo! 2 with his fastest time of the week at 44.84 mph.
Finally, Alexi in Beluga went through for the first time without the crash shield, going 48.05 mph.
In heat 2, Calvin and Ethan pushed their speed up to 68.80 mph. Calvin said that they didn’t really push it due to crosswinds.
Everyone in the next two heats scratched due to higher winds.
Finally, in the last heat from 4 km, Jadon made a first attempt in Woohoo 2! but tipped over after a short run.
Results – Friday AM (AM) – 2026-09-18
8 km Heat 1 · 5 Race · 07:00
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Adam Hari
Dark Star
Men
07:07
6.094
73.41
118.15
216
1.10
✓
✗
Justin Strahm
Woohoo! 2
Men
07:09
9.977
44.84
72.17
418
2.13
✗
✗
Alexis Imbeault
Beluga One
Men
07:11
9.311
48.05
77.33
208
1.06
✓
✗
8 km Heat 2 · 5 Race · 07:30
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Calvin and Ethan
TITAN
Men, Multirider
07:41
6.503
68.80
110.72
416
2.12
✗
✗
The winds are not forecast to be good tonight. Nevertheless, it was decided to have two 8 km runs and to squeeze in one more 4 km run to give Jadon another chance to run the bike down the course.
For tomorrow AM, as per usual, there will be four heats of 8 km, but we will squeeze in a 4 km heat at the end.
Given the high winds forecast for tonight, we cancelled the 8 km runs, but we ran two heats of 4km to give Cal Poly the chance to qualify.
It was great to see Cal Poly’s bike come through timing twice. Both runs were by Justin, and his second run of 44.18 mph qualifies him to run the 8 km tomorrow morning.
Alexis also did a 35.22 mph run. Not his fastest, but both riders had to contend with very stiff crosswinds.
All the Typhoon riders were not able to run since the team had to repair the hatch which had blown off the pickup truck and was found later in pieces.
There was also damage to Eta Prime, so it is not clear if either UofT bike will be running tomorrow morning.
Looking forward to better wind conditions tomorrow morning.
Winds were pretty high so the fast people elected not to run. This left three heats from 8 km with Eta Prime. Christopher dropped a chain. Harrison scratched on the next heat. Erin elected to run, but she got blown off of the course. The wind reading we got just after she crashed was 1129 fpm, over 3 times legal wind.
This was followed by two heats from 4 km to give Cal Poly and Sherbrooke chances to run. Beluga was the only bike to get down the course, much straighter than the last time, and this in gusty crosswind conditions.
Results – Thursday AM (AM) – 2026-09-17
4 km Heat 2 · 2.5 Qualifying · 09:10
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Alexis Imbeault
Beluga One
Men
09:28
10.674
41.91
67.45
1023
5.20
✗
✗
Additional, Typhoon had to scratch since they lost the hatch to the bike on the way to start. It was found in pieces by the road. They are busily repairing the hatch so that bike can run, perhaps tomorrow. Apparently this was the second time this week that the hatch blew off the bike.
The winds are forecast to be strong tonight so the fast people elected not to run. As a result, we will only be doing two heats from 4 km tonight to give Cal Poly a chance to qualify.
Wednesday marks the midpoint of the competition where all of the racers start feeling a bit of additional pressure to get good runs. Tonight there were three 8 km heats scheduled, with Eta Prime slated to run three times, and one run for TITAN.
This is what zero wind looks like.
In the first heat, Harrison had a dropped chain and was not able to run. In the second heat Erin went overtime on staging and was not allowed to run.
With the wind at an absolute dead calm, Calvin and Ellen cruised through the traps at 65.06 mph, setting a new world record for mixed gender multi rider, beating the old record by more than 10 mph.
Regrettably, my camera chose that moment to have a failure of the SD card, but my friend Bruce Watson took this video.
It was nice to see this icon show up in Arnold’s timing app.
Results – Wednesday PM (PM) – 2026-09-16
8 km Heat 1 · 5 Race · 17:20
No results recorded for this heat.
8 km Heat 2 · 5 Race · 17:50
No results recorded for this heat.
8 km Heat 3 · 5 Race · 18:20
Rider
Bike
Category
Launch
200m (s)
Speed mph
Speed kph
Wind fpm
Wind m/s
Legal
New WR
Note
Calvin and Ellen
TITAN
Mixed Gender, Multirider
18:22
6.877
65.06
104.70
223
1.13
✓
🏆 NEW WR
Back at the Civic Center, much attention focused on the wrecked front disc brake of TITAN. Apparently just before the bike stopped, the front wheel seized up and the bike toppled over.
Pulling the wheel out of the wheel fairing.
A close up of the disc.
I’ve been told that the bike will be repaired in time to run tomorrow evening.
My evening ended by dining with all the Toronto folks.
Congratulations to Calvin and Ellen.
Let’s hope that TITAN and riders will be able to reach for more records this week.
