The fastest a human can bicycle is now 89.59 mph
Just so long as they're riding AeroVelo's weird-looking, record-breaking Eta bike.
The land speed record for human-powered transportation is now a few mph faster. At the 2016 World Human-Powered Speed Challenge at Battle Mountain, Nevada, cyclists riding the Eta bike made by Canadian maker of human-powered vehicles AeroVelo managed to break the record not once, but twice.
The first was on September 14, when rider Todd Reichert hit a top speed of 88.26 mph (142.04 kph) on the bullet-shaped recumbent-style bicycle, beating the record of 86.65 mph set in 2015. The video above celebrates beating 88 mph -- the sweet speed for time travel, according to Doc Brown.
The big day, however, was September 16, when Reichert managed to hit a top speed of 89.59 mph (144.17 kph) -- 2.95 mph higher than the record set in 2015.
Reichert and the AeroVelo team have a history of smashing records. The 86.65 mph record was set by Reichert last year. In 2010, they built the world's first human-powered ornithopter, and in 2013, they won the Sikorsky Prize, previously unclaimed for decades, for building a functional, human-powered helicopter.