The University’s Velocipede Team (ULV Team) and rider Yazmin Tredell have scooped a new world record at the World Human Powered Speed Challenge with ARION5, the three wheeled bike they designed and built.
Yazmin broke the women’s multitrack human powered land speed record with a speed of 56.42mph, making her the fastest female on three wheels in the world.
This is the fifth year running that engineering students from the University have taken part in the World Human Powered Speed Challenge which takes place at Battle Mountain in Nevada.
This new record brings the tally for the ARION project teams to five world and two British human speed records achieved at the World Human Powered Speed Challenge competition.
Liverpool student and ULV team leader, Kiaya Pandya, said, “It’s been a brilliant project. It’s making me into a better engineer. It has everything that you’d expect an industry project to have, including all the engineering but also extending to dealing with businesses, trying to find sponsors, organizing the operation and general running of stuff; I think it’s made me hugely employable. It has been a lot of effort to get this far.
We were delayed by one of our manufacturers, so we ended up building the entire bike in 37 days. We all worked 19 weeks of work in five weeks and had an average of three hours of sleep per night. The whole team is absolutely incredible. To be here in a position that we can race a bike is in itself amazing. It’s been touch and go this whole week.”
Steven Bode, senior lecturer at the University’s School of Engineering, said: “This is the culmination of two years’ hard work by our engineering students and technical staff. Their combined passion for engineering and pushing the limits of human potential has resulted in the success of the ARION5.”
The University of Liverpool Velocipede Team was supported by engineering companies including MTC, Sigmatex, Tygavac and Ansys.
For further information, blogs, photos and videos go the ULV Team facebook page.
The World Human Powered Speed Challenge takes place on State Route 305, one of the straightest, smoothest and most ideal road surfaces in the world for HPV records. The 4,619ft (1,408m) altitude road provides riders a 5 mile acceleration zone, enabling riders to reach their maximum velocity before being timed over a 200 meter distance.
