Next weekend I’ll be a member of the Greenspeed team, racing for top honours at the 2005 Wonthaggi Human Powered Grand Prix. The event is a 24 hour HPV endurance race around Wonthaggi Secondary College. Our team consists of 8 riders powering a full carbon-fibre faired, recumbent, trike.

Today we had our first (and probably last!) test ride around Blackburn velodrome.

The machine looks mean, currently all-black in raw carbon weave, it will be painted gold before the race (my protests went unnoticed! :)). I think it ran on three 20″ wheels with slick tyres.

The cranks were very short, at least compared to a road bike, but the chainring was massive to make up for it – something up around 65T?

Unfortunately I didn’t even think to take photos of it! Doh! That’ll teach me to run late!

It was warm in the full fairing. It felt quite fast given its ~33kg weight – I was usually doing 45kph up to 50kph on the Blackburn ‘drome.

The steering was cool – it was very sensitive but as soon as you relaxed and got used to it it was pretty awesome.

The large chainring dragged the chain over a 9-speed rear cassette which was shifted with a barcon lever on the right steering-lever.

Braking was front discs operated by a brake lever, also on the right steering-lever. A backup brake will be fitted to the left lever.

Lights will also be fitted – I heard HID mentioned and Luxeon for backup and rear flashers.

I’m not sure if bottle mounts will be fitted but a Camelbak bladder will do nicely.

There’s definately some different muscle use going on – I noticed some muscle soreness in my quads, just above my knees, which I don’t tend to find on an upright bike. I think I’m just going to have to keep my cadence high and make sure I warm up properly before each session at the race.

Greenspeed’s Wonthaggi 24hr HPV Grand Prix machine

Click here for a frontal shot

While waiting for some of the others to ride the black beast (I wonder if it has a name?) I tried to ride John’s (I think that’s ya name?) funky two-wheeler ‘bent. I don’t know what it was but it had a round tube over the rider’s right shoulder and very small handlebars up and in front. The pedals were out the front and it was quite low to the ground.

I was UNCO!!

It was like learning to ride all over again! Actually, it wasn’t that bad because I did manage to get it moving and stay upright.. mostly 🙂

I want to get hold of one for some more practise.. fun fun fun!

John’s XEVON