Pedal Prix (recumbent trikes) 6hr race

bounding star · **on:** May 09, 2015, 12:26:52 PM

Now not many of you would probably have heard of this, but here in South Aussie, we have an annual series of recumbent trike racing, the biggest in the world and growing, this year is set for the big 24hr race to include possibly over 250 teams.

I am part of one of the teams, and have over six years experience in the race. This post will be about the 6hr race at Loxton, SA from last weekend, and hopefully give you an idea of what it's all about. Ill start of here with a video from last year's 24hr race.

I would like to keep you updated with posts throughout the year after each race and so I don't have to explain it all each time, I'll give you the basics here too. First off the trike: the vehicles used in this race are completely pedal powered, and come in all shapes and sizes.
The low budget cars, like what I first raced in, are often homemade, mostly consisting of coreflute and ductape, but over the years the cars have evolved into sophisticated fibreglass or even carbon-fibre structural shells. The core of the trike is a small frame, with a seat, pedals far out at the front, two steerable wheels midway down its length, and a single drive wheel at the rear. This is the car that im racing now:

From the front facing back:

And from the inside facing forward:

These trikes are extremely capable and efficient, having set world land speed records for human powered vehicles at a top speed of 133.78km/h, and the most distance travelled in 24 hours by human power with 1,041 km.
In these races, we're not going quite that fast, but we face other challenges too, such as tight turns, other cars on the track, and keeping the cars in working after numerous crashes and breakdowns.

Also, according to wikipedia, the distance record for our annual Murray Bridge 24hr race is 1098.5km, which is actually better than the world record despite these other obstacles.

Now I'm sorry to disappoint you all, but we did not win this race

due to some major mechanical failures. We will be looking at much better results next time, I hope.

We had some major mechanical problems, and the trike was sidelined for about a quarter of the race getting fixed, although after this we still managed to gain 30 positions on the leaderboard.
On the second lap of the day, we had the chain snap, although this only took 10 min or so to fix, but valuable time.

About 20 min later the part of the frame with the derailer attached to it snapped off. For anyone who knows the slightest about bikes, you would know this is bad. It took almost an hour, and several miracles to get it back on the track. There happened to be a bike parts stall set up near us, who happened to be selling a near identical looking chunk of metal to that part of the frame, but it didn't quite fit. Some people from another team offered to help us by lending us their bike shop down the road to trim it to shape, and then we zip tied it on.

Then on top of all this, nearing the end of the race, the back wheel was bent sideways in a crash. Luckily this didn't take too long to fix.

Now here's a little video of me cornering at the hairpin bend at the bottom of the hill.

Im doing about 40km/h here, which is completely rolling because unfortunately the zip-ties holding on our derailer didnt want us to have a top gear, although i reckon it was decent speed.

Hopefully I'll do another one of these posts next race, so if your interested in more, make sure you sub this thread and you wont miss it.

And ill leave you with a video from last weekend, not my team, but hopefully it'll give you a bit of an idea what its like.

Skip to 5:30 for the race proper

Edit: Pedal Prix 6hr recumbent trike race (round 3)

Edit: Pedal Prix 24hr recumbent trikes race Final Round

bounding star · **Reply #1 on:** May 09, 2015, 12:48:57 PM

The videos don't seem to be working, it looks like something to do with the forums, but if I missed something can you let me know

Mike, Lord of the Spammers! · **Reply #2 on:** May 09, 2015, 01:36:41 PM

Yeah the videos don't work mate. That does sound like my kind of race though. I doubt I'd manage 6g though

zoidberg · **Reply #3 on:** May 09, 2015, 01:42:21 PM

Quote from: bounding star on May 09, 2015, 12:48:57 PM

The videos don't seem to be working, it looks like something to do with the forums, but if I missed something can you let me know

Send me the links and I'll try and sort it out.

Gareth · **Reply #4 on:** May 09, 2015, 01:52:09 PM

Very cool mate. I look forward to seeing how your year plays out.

bounding star · **Reply #5 on:** May 09, 2015, 01:53:43 PM

Hopefully ill get a gopro in the car with me for one of the races

zoidberg · **Reply #6 on:** May 09, 2015, 01:59:54 PM

Is that better?

bounding star · **Reply #7 on:** May 09, 2015, 02:08:55 PM

Yep, what did you do?

zoidberg · **Reply #8 on:** May 09, 2015, 02:16:05 PM

Quote from: bounding star on May 09, 2015, 02:08:55 PM

Yep, what did you do?

Just copied the links over.

Aloha · **Reply #9 on:** May 09, 2015, 03:09:13 PM

This looks like quite the event. Pretty nimble around the corner I'd say. Looking forward to more of this and to see how your team does.

Gareth · **Reply #10 on:** May 09, 2015, 03:40:22 PM

You certainly seem to be carrying a lot more speed into that hairpin corner than the others!

bounding star · **Reply #11 on:** May 10, 2015, 03:46:04 AM

Our team has had some pretty good results in other years so we have a bit of a reputation to uphold. We managed to finish with a respectable result of something like 50 after dropping back to nearly 80th after the repairs, so every bit of speed counts

Syncop8r · **Reply #12 on:** May 11, 2015, 12:08:32 PM

Cool. So you steer with the handles sticking up behind each front wheel?

bounding star · **Reply #13 on:** May 12, 2015, 01:56:58 AM

Quote from: Syncop8r on May 11, 2015, 12:08:32 PM

Cool. So you steer with the handles sticking up behind each front wheel?

Yeah, pull the right and it turns right, pull the left and it turns left. It makes steering really easy and precise but also quick.

bounding star · **Reply #14 on:** May 25, 2015, 01:30:47 PM

Official video from the last race:

Zed · **Reply #15 on:** May 25, 2015, 01:40:54 PM

Thats cool

thanks for sharing

Mike, Lord of the Spammers! · **Reply #16 on:** May 25, 2015, 02:41:11 PM

That does look a right laugh

bounding star · **Reply #17 on:** June 11, 2015, 11:33:46 AM

Next race on Sunday, trikes are looking slick, keep an eye out for the new thread I'll make

Mike, Lord of the Spammers! · **Reply #18 on:** June 11, 2015, 12:24:53 PM

Looking forward to it mate

Sent from my K013 using Tapatalk

zoidberg · **Reply #19 on:** June 11, 2015, 01:18:30 PM

Quote from: Mike, Lord of the Spammers! on June 11, 2015, 12:24:53 PM

Looking forward to it mate

Sent from my K013 using Tapatalk

+1

bounding star · **Reply #20 on:** July 25, 2015, 02:36:41 PM

Another race tomorrow, I didn't make a post on the last one because we literally had the brakes stuck on, so it was not particularly eventful. Hopefully this one will be better, although the weather will be nasty.

Anyway, there will be live coverage on the internet for anyone interested, watch out for me (pics of our trike in op) and wish our team luck!

Livestream:

TazzieRob · **Reply #21 on:** July 26, 2015, 12:38:20 AM

All the best, mate. Hope your mechanical problems are done and dusted and you have a good race. Looks like a great engineering challenge as well as endurance. Our university is involved with the Formula SAE though I wasn't on the team.
Are the trikes rigid with no suspension? I've looked at Julian from Autospeed builds of touring trikes and the amount of work he put into the things is amazing. Though I reckon his setup is a fair bit heavier than your racers. What's the rough weight? I heard a siren going off too, which I assume is an overtake warning to the slower guys?

bounding star · **Reply #22 on:** July 26, 2015, 10:54:30 AM

Great race! I'll do a full post in a few days with some pics and stuff, but overall we went pretty smooth, and finished a close 5th for our category out of 34, and overall 34th out of 187. The engineering is a big part of it, with many unique trike designs, and lots of things to go wrong, and its a good part of the fun. The only suspension is the tires, and also the seat is made out of mesh, so even on gravel its not to rough. The trikes vary a lot, but the current trike I'm in is somewhere around 35kg with the shell. The trike on its own is probably about 15 kilos, not much heavier than a bike. The sirens are mostly just for giving other riders awareness of where you are, otherwise it is hard to tell, with trike going different speeds and lines.

TazzieRob · **Reply #23 on:** July 27, 2015, 09:17:42 AM

Nice job. Thanks for the extra info too!

ToolJoe · **Reply #24 on:** July 27, 2015, 09:47:11 PM

Nice job/congratulations

bounding star · **Reply #25 on:** July 29, 2015, 10:41:49 AM

Okay, I've got a post up for the latest race here: http://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,61035.msg1130181.html#msg1130181

Also, if a mod could put this link at the end of the OP that would be appreciated