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5 Easy Steps To The Site
1
In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
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Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
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Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
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My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
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The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2023 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
“As an interesting side note – while looking at Wikipedia, I found out that the world speed record on a two-wheeled ‘bicycle’ (unpaced) is 363MPH. Holy crap.”
It must be a fake data that you found at link to en.wikipedia.org.
The fastest speed on an unpaced bicycle on flat must be still around 130-135 km/h, maybe a bit more, and not four times of it. Check the next section at link to en.wikipedia.org
Just think a bit of 363mph and do not rely on Wikipedia, which was modified on 4th of December 2012 by a presumably jolly guy
Actually the speed values were edited on 01:43, 31 December 2012 by some jolly guy. I went ahead and reverted it to the last edit that matched up with the linked articles. That being said 83 mph is still damn fast on a bike :)
Hey Ray – They are called a velomobile and they are on my wish list :-) I have three friends in Brisbane with them (link to sinnerbikes.com) and because of the low air drag they can reach and sustain higher speeds than normal drop bar bikes. The downside in the weight (25kg) so they are typically slower up hills but they make up for it on the downhills/flats. I know people who have reach 100km/h (62mph) on one.
One of my friends has lots of great videos on youtube showing his – have a look at his channel link to youtube.com
A great intro video showing it outside and out is at link to youtube.com and a good video showing it in a 100km ride to the Gold Coast at link to youtube.com
Thanks for the correction, Nebby, I am not familiar with Wikipedia, I just had a fast glance on the history and spotted some change on 4th.
Ray,
No offence meant, but check some good book about bicycle science like link to books.google.hu
You will see that it is almost impossible to create a vehicle of so low Cda that 363mph would be possible by one human being while keeping the rule of two wheels.
Hey Ray!
I was just checking your site after ringing in 2013 stateside, and got a chuckle out of seeing what appears to my untrained eye to be a model of a Bluevelo, or something equivalent to one (http://www.bluevelo.com).
On my rides to the office I actually pass by (or rather, get passed by) someone here in Indianapolis who religiously rides theirs in rain, sleet, or at night – as it seems to be equipped with lights that would compete with those on a car.
While I can’t speak to the identity of the mystery man in Paris, I too have often wondered about the individual who impressively rides his here and thought that my little bit of research into such a machine might aid in your quest to learn more about the bullet bike. I spied the logo on his yellow bike as he blew past me one day. They look pretty wild.
Thanks for a great 2012 and what will no doubt be a tremendous 2013!
You may be interested to know that the British cyclist Graeme Obree is currently trying to break the record on a self built bike. Aiming for 100 mph i understand.
363 mph is very possible, even on level ground: you just need to pick your location.
Ray, what you saw was a WAW velomobile. Reasonably light, decent turning radius, fast enough, compromised by an unsuspended rear wheel. For more information than you’ll ever want to know, head on over to the Bent Rider Online message boards and look for the velomobile section. Great goofy fun!
I see quite a few of these every week. We dubbed one “the banana” (guess why) and the other one is painted like Nemo.
Not a huge fan of people riding these in high traffic areas, but they’re cool nevertheless.
There’s an almost identical “silver bullet” here in Wellington, New Zealand. It races along keeping up with traffic such that the local authorities have required the owner to fit a complete set of lights: headlights, indicators, and stop lights.
I’ve tried to keep up with it on the open road when on my road bike, but it is fast!
> I’d love to see the inside of this recumbent bicycle some day.
While it isn’t exactly the same, the Danish Recumbent Bicycle do have a few images of the insides of a similar bike at their website:
link to liggecykelforeningen.dk
Check out the bike that set both the men’s and women’s flat world record – the Varna Tempest was used by Barbara Buatois and Sam Whittingham. The photographer has many other pictures of human powered vehicles from the 2012 World Human Powered Speed Challenge in Battle Mountain, NV.
link to flickr.com
These sort of Velomobiles are normally built around a recumbent trike, a bit like my one here link to gkam84.tk
I got it for different reason’s than just speed as you can read in my blogs :) Now happily back cycling around the roads of Scotland.
Ray, I wanted to apologize for the awkward meeting we had today while you were running in Paris and I was on my bike.
I guess you’re not yet entirely used to being so popular that you can’t even go for a run without being harassed in Paris.
Anyway, it was cool meeting you and again, great job on your blog.
If ever you’re looking for some nice bike rides just outside Paris, in the Chevreuse valley, from 50 to 90k, my friends and I who are training for our first triathlon would be happy to show you the way.
Haha…no worries at all! Sorry for being short of breath, I was in the last 15 minutes of a 90 minute tempo run, so no stopping permitted.
I’m always on the lookout for others in the area to ride with (just did it this last weekend actually). So definitely adding you to my list!
Thanks for saying hi!
Hey,
This is a WAW and is made in Ghent (Belgium). You can find more info and pictures on . We had a lot of fun this year cruising through Finland in a WAW and a Sinner Mango+ ().
This year we bought a Quest velomobile for my girlfriend. A great machine to commute on longer distances, all year round!
Oops, sorry URLs got messed up…
Info on WAW: http://www.fietser.be
link to sites.google.com
Velomobiles originate from The Netherlands. The most famous one is the Quest. The lightest one is the Go One Evo K (about 19kg) from Germany. Another also very fast and lightweight is the Milan SL also from Germany. The WAW is from Belgium (made by link to fietser.be).
The biggest velomobile community in France can be found on this forum: link to velorizontal.bbfr.net
Other fast bikes are recumbent, the fastest guy on recumbent is Aurélien Bonneteau look here link to aurelienbonneteau.free.fr
The Milan SL a fully street worthy velomobile currently holds the 12 and 24 hour world records – at incredible average speeds of over 31mph! link to whpva.org
Pretty sure this would come under the term of a velomobile. They are a recumbent but enclosed in a shell. They are also VERY fast on flats and down hills but become slower than a regular bike on the up hill ( they can weigh in at 20 – 30 kg)