Manon: I've always been interested in speed. I love going fast on my bike. It's fun, it's
exhilarating, and it fills me with adrenaline, and as the best sprinter here at GCN [clears
throat] I've been set a challenge. A very simple challenge, how fast can I go on this?
[music] Before we filmed recumbent versus road bike,
before there was Si in recumbent versus TT bike, before I mastered the art of riding
a recumbent, I had to learn some key skills from an expert in the field, a true master.
Okay, so I want to go fast, seriously fast, but this bike, well, it looks a little bit
alien to me. I have never set foot in a recumbent before and well, I have a few questions. How
do you steer a recumbent? How do you even pedal a recumbent? How do you change gear?
How do you put serious watts out in a recumbent? I'm going to need these questions answering,
so I'm going to need an expert. The expert should be here at any minute now.
Hank: Oh, there we go. Look at that. Manon: Hank, what are you doing here?
Hank: Well, I'm the expert. Manon: Really?
Hank: Crossing. Crossing. Yes. I'm a member of the British Human Power Club.
Manon: I've seen you ride a recumbent. It's not promising.
Hank: Okay, it's quite difficult. It's a lot more difficult than it looks. Well, I'm better
than all the other presenters. No one else has ridden a recumbent.
Manon: Yes, actually, no one else has ridden a recumbent. Hit me. Let's start off with
the steering. How do you steer this? Hank: This, I'd say, is the Milan SL, one
of the fastest production recumbents in the world, so you've got no pressure and you're
going to hit some good speed in this. When it comes to the steering, you haven't got
a normal handlebars like a traditional road bike. You are going to be steering with a
tiller system. This is the tiller steering system. You've got your handbrake up top and
then at the bottom, you've got your gear. That's how you change your gears too, and
all your steering's done from this. Manon: For some reason, I thought it was going
to be like a proper steering wheel. Hank: It's not a rally car.
Manon: No. Hank: It's not a rally car.
Manon: No, it's not. It looks like one, but-- Hank: Clip-in pedals, [unintelligible 00:02:27]
the button. Manon: How do I slide down?
Hank: You're not riding on top of the bike, you're riding in the bike, so you'll put your
feet down at the bottom, you'll clip in, and you're good to go. To be honest, that's basically
it. Is there anything else you're worried about?
Manon: Wait, you've ridden a recumbent before, what's it like putting the power out, basically
lying down? Hank: It's slightly different to put your
power out on a traditional road bike. You're not using the bike to leverage it side to
side, so this is very much all leg power. It will take you a while to get used to, but
I have no doubt as our resident sprinter, that you are going to hit some serious speeds.
The thing you have to slightly worry about is the corners. It is a three-wheeler after
all, so you could tip it, so I suggest for this experiment--
Manon: Let's not go around in any corners. Hank: Let's just go full gas on the flat.
All right, I want to see your speed, you want to see what you can do. I reckon it's time
to get you to the start line. Manon: Yes. I'm a bit nervous. For this speed
challenge, we have come to Castle Combe Race Circuit. It's a motor racing circuit and it
is perfect to hit some max speeds. Now, I'm not going to be using the whole circuit, I'm
just going to be using this stretch. Now, it's slightly downhill and there is a slight
headwind, but I don't think that's going to make too much of a difference in this speed
machine. In order to find out my max speed, I'm going to do three runs of this 300 meter
straight, and then I'll find out what my max speed is. Simple as that, really. Right, let's
go. [music]
Manon: All right. I'm going to give myself a bit of a rolling start to give myself the
best chance of hitting a massive top speed bike. Once I hit the straight now, I'm going
to put the pedal to the metal and go for it. Let's go, hitting the straight now. Putting
down the gears. Start putting the power down. Oh, 600 watts. Whoa, bloody hell. Oh, wow.
All right. That's first run done, a bit wobbly. That's my first run over and done with, and
I've hit a max speed of 54 kilometers per hour. Now, that's okay for my first run, I
guess, but it is so different. I find I can't put the power down as long as I can on a road
bike. For example, in that run, I only hit a max watts of 600 whereas on the road bike,
it'd be quite a bit more than that. I find that because it's such a different pedaling
style, I'm quite unstable. I'm wobbling about trying to put the power up, so it is very
different, but I think I can do a little bit better than 54 kilometers per hour, so time
for the second run. [music]
Manon: Getting a little bit [unintelligible 00:05:42]
Hank: All right, so we're on coach cam. Here she comes. She's doing well actually. First
time out, she didn't have much fear. She's got to be hitting some speed now.
[music] Hank: I mean, look at her go. Come on, Manon.
Come on, there she goes. Woo-hoo. She is flying. Come on.
Manon: Oh, God. Oh dear, Oh, wow. This recumbent stuff's hard work. All right, went a little
bit faster that time, 56 kilometers per hour. A little bit quicker, but I really want to
hit 60 kilometers per hour, so let's see if I can do it this time. I guess it's back to
the start and do it all over again. This is my third and my final run and I am determined
to hit 60 kilometers per hour. This is the big one. Come on Manon. You've got this right.
Let's go. Get the power out. Come on. Hank: Hi, [unintelligible 00:07:09] It's getting
pretty cold. Probably not optimal speed, but that's not what it's about. Look at this.
Manon: Come on. Come on. I can do this. That's my third and final run done, and I hit a whopping
606 watts in that final run, and trust me, I could not put any more power down if I tried.
It is actually really hard to put power down lying down, if you know what I mean, but the
moment you've all been waiting for, what hot top speed did I hit? I hit 59.54, so close
to that 60 kilometers per hour, but I was getting faster with every run I'd done, so
you never know. A few more practices in the recumbent and I'll be hitting 100 kilometers
per hour one day, maybe with a bit more of a downhill.
What a fun day. If you did enjoy this video, please let me know by giving it a big thumbs
up in the video, and if you have any recumbent questions, please leave them in the comment
section below. [00:08:29] [END OF AUDIO]