There is nothing in this picture that distinguishes from many other pictures that I have posted of the Eta speedbike, but it was taken this morning when Todd went 85.71 mph through the traps, beating the old record by a massive 2.58 mph.
(Update: note that Todd pushed this record to 86.5 mph on Friday night, and then to 86.65 mph on Saturday night.)
There were two other world records set this morning: Florian Kowalik reset his Junior Men’s Trike record from earlier in the week, and Liz McTernan set a new record for a 600 m starting start sprint, timed over 200m, women’s arm power category.
If you look closely, you will see that Todd scratched in the first heat. They had a bad launch, and the bike flopped over. The decision was made for Cam to drive back to town to retrieve the spare front fairing in time for Todd to start in the third heat, which he did in an extremely expeditious manner.
Other things that happened:
Ken Buckley goes 69.73 mph to set a new British record. Arion1’s fairing looks a bit worse for wear.
Andrea Gallo sets a new Italian record of 68.32 mph in PulsaR.
After three exciting 5 mile heats, start was moved to 2.5 for a mixture of speed and qualifying runs.
Here are our start officials for the week, Carole and George Leone, and Mike Sova.
Local hero Teagan Patterson getting ready for a qualifying run.
Mark Anderson and Eric Ware had spent many nights and weekends building her streamliner, but it didn’t arrive complete, and so Mark continued working on it with an assist from Steve Nash. It was completed at 2 am this morning, they practiced a few starts with Teagan inside the Civic Center, and then it was time to load the bike and to take it up to start. Here, Mark is doing a final check.
Teagan got it down 305, easily qualifying for the five mile with a speed of 56.5 despite some tire rub. She will run again tonight.
U of T was hoping to qualify Sherry, and to get both Thomas and Alan above 50 mph so that they would be eligible to run the 5 mile course.
Sherry warming up.
Unfortunately, she crashed Bluenose shortly after launch. However, Alan and Thomas qualified for the five mile.
Alan lining up.
Natasha lining up.
Genna Kowalik had a successful run.
Adam Kyte was a last minute addition to the first qualifying heat. He is one of the builders of the faired handcycle Beluga, and he wanted a chance to ride it himself.
Back in Battle Mountain:
Todd and Cam celebrating their record with the rest of the team.
Then it was back to work.
More bodywork on Vortex.
Eta’s fairing can never be too smooth.
Practicing with Sherry in Bluenose.
But first it is prudent to dig the grass out of the camera opening.
Looking forward to this evening.
Biking in a Big City 
Jun, thanks for your excellent and real time reports. They make BM very exciting to follow from a distance. Congrats to Todd for his outstanding run. BTW, you forgot to mention that you probably set a Canadian Masters Trike Record!
we both know someone with a Canadian passport who is much faster than I am.
Good luck to everyone on Friday!
Reblogged this on FeetForBrains and commented:
Todd Reichert rode 85.71 MPH in Eta
As I was looking at cool news tonight I saw the link below. Of course I smiled a little knowing I saw it here first.
http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2015/9/18/9351763/worlds-fastest-bike-human-powered
i have heard of a product that cools you down using a partial vaccum to open the pores of the body (eg hands or feet ). and circulating cold water around these open pores to lower core body temperature.
i do not know if this product is an urban myth or real thing.
but if it is true that this product exists i would like to think that one day i will be able to buy it to put on my bicycle handle bars and reduce or eliminate overheating of my body while riding in the summer heat.
But as i was looking at your article here in this venue and finding and watching videos of this event on other sites i noticed he had a helmet on in very cramped quarters.
what if you could develop a partial vaccum on a bald mans head opening the pores up and cooling down a person ? could this increase the speed of the rider?
i don’t know maybe this is just all wishful thinking but i had to say something if it is real maybe somebody could make this type of thing happen for the bicycle.
Matt Weaver used a liquid cooled suit and helmet in his enclosed streamliner as far back as a decade ago, which shows just how far ahead of his time he was.