Woman Attempts 12-hour World Record on New Front-Wheel-Drive Recumbent Bicycle

Cruzbike Silvio - form and function in a front wheel drive (Maria Parker)

Maria Parker training on her Cruzbike Silvio in preparation for a World Record attempt on October 11, 2009.​

For many, the words “recumbent bicycle” conjure the image of a strange-looking vehicle with the rider set low to the ground achieving less than remarkable speeds. That perception could well become a thing of the past with the Cruzbike Silvio, the world’s only recumbent racing bike that is not only fully compatible with road bike components, but aims to eliminate many health problems associated with standard cycling.

Standard bicycle design has been criticized in recent times for contributing to a host of health problems for men and women, ranging from erectile dysfunction to genital numbness. The ergonomically designed Cruzbike Sivlio has a fully integrated seat angled back at 45 degrees, and distributes the weight of a rider evenly over the vehicle to increase comfort and alleviate stress on the pelvis, hands and shoulders.

Designed by Australian John Tolhurst, the Cruzbike Silvio aims to even out road pressure by incorporating a dual suspension design, with the front suspension handled by an adjustable air shock in the head tube. The front of the unit features a moving Bottom Bracket that can be adjusted for leg length and handlebar height. As standard road bike parts can be incorporated, the bike is built to take full size wheels. This gives the unit added height, enabling the rider to see and be seen in traffic, which has been a major concern with previous recumbent bicycle design that places the rider in a low position close to the ground. While the designer concedes that the higher placement of the rider may marginally affect aerodynamics, he states that the bicycle will perform better overall, such as offering a faster ascent up hills.

As the unit is front wheel drive, this eliminates a long drive chain, while the design also does away with “heel strike”, where a rider’s foot bumps the wheel during turns. Incorporating lightweight aluminum and carbon fiber parts, the unit promises increased speeds - however, the actual weight of the bicycle would depend on what road bike parts are fitted.

Certainly, someone with faith in the design of the Cruzbike Silvio is Maria Parker, a cyclist who plans to attempt to set a World Record in North Carolina on October 10th by riding the Cruzbike Silvio over 220 miles for 12 hours on a 20 mile loop course.

Sold as a frameset, the Cruzbike Silvio is priced at around US$2200 and is available from the Cruzbike website.

source gizmag

 

Womens Recumbent World Record – 12 Hour

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I just “watched” (virtually) Maria Parker of Cruzbike set a new world record for a recumbent; I am actually a little confused on what exactly the record is was because claims abound and well…they tell me it is a new world record and I believe them. I know what it is now.

Jim, over at CyclingExperiences.com, live-blogged the whole thing keeping us Cruzbike enthusiasts on the edge of our seats all day with hourly updates (every time she crossed the start line).

According to his post Maria Parkers World Record she traveled an incredible 240.1 miles in 12 hours an amazing average of 20.08 mph.

As of this writing the record is not certified but it is certainly amazing!

Way to go Maria Parker!

And much thanks to Jim at CyclingExperiences for setting up shop in what sounds like a remote part of North Carolina to keep us all informed.

You can see his flickr photostream here

Oh yeah, and one of the interesting parts of this story, somewhere on lap #7 Maria suffered a minor crash because wind gusts and wheel covers don’t mix. They quickly changed to her back-up bike (her husband’s bike that was outfitted for her, which by the way is another really cool feature of the Cruzbike Silvio) and she only lost an estimated 3 minutes. She rode her husbands bike the rest of the way.

And the coolest thing, for me personally, is that she did all of this on a (specially outfitted but still) stock Silvio; just like mine.

For part of the time she had wheel covers True but for Lap 7-12 she had no wheel covers and questionable weather with wind gusts and all.

I am so impressed.


source blief.zwise.net

 

Maria Parker in action

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Maria Parker, recumbent cyclist, sets a world record riding Silvio Cruzbike Recumbent Cycles for a distance of just over 241 miles along a 20-mile loop at White Oak, in Bladen County, North Carolina on October 10, 2009. Congratulations to Maria and her team.

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A video of Maria in action can be seen at http://cyclingexperiences.com/2009/10/17/maria-parkers-record-ride-a-more-complete-video/

source Cycling Experiences

 

Parker Breaks 12-hour Bicycle Endurance Record

Maria Parker, a 46-year-old newcomer to long-distance cycling from Lumberton, NC, set a women's 12-hour world record on Saturday in White Oak, NC. Parker road a recumbent bicycle 241 miles through wind, rain, and even a crash, beating a 240-mile record set by Nancy Raposo in 1992.

White Oak, NC October 14, 2009 -- Maria Parker averaged over 20 mph on a 20-mile loop course of public roads near White Oak, NC.

Pending certification by the Ultramarathon Cycling Association (UMCA), her distance of 241 miles will be the farthest 12-hour ride ever by a woman on an unfaired recumbent bicycle, and also exceeds Nancy Raposo's existing women's Diamond Frame bicycle record. Raposo set a women's record in the 3000-mile Race Across America in 1990, and set the 12-hour and 24-hour UMCA world records in 1992 in Egg Harbor, NJ.

Parker suffered nausea after setting a blistering pace for the first 100 miles, which she finished in 4 hours 48 minutes. At approximately the 125th mile, during a "hand-off" of water from her support vehicle, she collided with the vehicle and wrecked. She blames the incident on herself, "I was a little light-headed from not getting the nutrition I needed due to the nausea, and I got too close to the car, bumped it, and went down."

Parker receives water from son, Will.
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Bleeding from her left arm and leg, she picked herself up from the pavement and demanded a bike from her support crew. "I wouldn't let her back on the bike she wrecked because I could see it had some damage," said chief mechanic Doug Burton of Richmond, VA. "We had a back-up Silvio. She seemed okay physically and mentally, so we rinsed out her abrasions and let her loose on the other bike." The Silvio is a front-wheel-drive recumbent bicycle made by Cruzbike, Inc.

Parker had to follow rigid UMCA requirements for her official record attempts. No other bicycles were allowed on the course to prevent any benefits of drafting, and at least one UMCA judge had to be observing her at all times. The course had to be a loop of 5 to 20 miles to prevent any advantage from prevailing winds, and the distance of the course had to be certified using the "shortest possible path" method, even if that path crosses into oncoming traffic.

source prweb

 

Parker bent on breaking recumbent bike records

Lumberton's Maria Parker, 46, cruises to a world-record 241-mile bicycle ride completed in 12 hours.
She set the record on a front-wheel drive recumbent Cruzbike.
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Maria Parker isn't accustomed to this kind of fame.

She tools around Lumberton on her funny- looking bicycle, tends the last of her four children still living at home and spends her "me time" working out.

But after setting a trifecta of road course world records, she's become a celebrity in the recumbent cycle world.

"I'm just a housewife," she says. "I've raised four kids. I live in Lumberton. But I have this following online."

Parker gained national attention by rolling over 241 miles on a White Oak course in 12 hours to set three women's road course world records.

Less than a month after footage of Parker's record-breaking ride was posted on YouTube, it had registered more than 5,000 hits.

She's gotten e-mails from Italian families. She's headlined German Web sites. She's received congratulations from French cyclists.

"I'm never going to be Oprah, but it has been fun," she says.

Speed racer
Parker has become an important figure in the recumbent cycling global community because her record-breaking ride is proof that these laid back, easy-on-the-knees bicycles are not your grandpa's recumbents.

When you think of extreme cycling, you might have visions of BMX backflips or back country mountain biking.

But when speed is the extreme, nothing on two man-powered wheels can catch recumbent bikes.

The human-powered speed record of 80.55 mph belongs to Sam Whittingham and his sleek recumbent pod.

But when Maria and her husband Jim began to research the cycling world record book, they realized that few records belonged to women.

Maria, already a veteran of marathons and triathlons, decided to take a shot, even though she'd only been using the recumbent just over six years.

"I thought I could probably put a decent number on this thing so that at least we could show that our bike is fast," she said.

Despite the human speed record, recumbents have a reputation for being slower than diamond-frame bikes. The word 'recumbent' is defined as lying down, so maybe that's why folks associated the odd looking two-wheeler with a slow pace.

It's a misconception that irks the Parkers.

Doing homework
Jim, a radiologist, began researching recumbents after he could no longer enjoy long rides on a regular bike due to skeletal pain.

He found Australian John Tolhurst's design, which implemented front-wheel drive and sat higher than most designs, ordered a kit to convert his mountain bike into a recumbent, and hit the trail.

"I wanted to share," Jim said. "This is incredible. This makes bicycling fun again."

He and his wife partnered with Tolhurst to have the bikes made in their entirety in Taiwan. The business is called Cruzbike, and that's what Maria rode to her world records.

"This is something special," Jim says. "How did this woman break this record when she's not a professional cyclist or even a champion cyclist?"

Maria has no doubts. "Obviously, the bike is why I set the record," she says.

Yet recumbents are a bit of an outcast in the cycling world. In 1934, on the heels of Francis Faure's world record of 45.055 kilometers covered in one hour in which he outpaced professionals on regular bikes, the Union Cycliste Internationale ruled that the recumbent was not a bicycle and could not be raced in UCI events.

International ruling associations, including the U.S. Cycling Federation, have not relented. Therefore, recumbents are not allowed for competition in diamond-framed fields of cyclists.

This has kept them out of the mainstream. But as word spreads about the comfort and easy speed of the bikes, they are inching up in sales.

Regular bikes can put stress on the back, wrists and pelvis. These are not problems for recumbent bikers, who may simply lay back and enjoy the ride.

Cruzbike conversion kits start at $395, and the company's high-end Silvio frame set tops the price list at $2,190. The Freerider is available for a little less than $1,000.

source FayObserver