In the 2010-2011 college year the first Human Power Team Delft designed and built VeloX. The result of this was a human powered speed of 130km/h. Some technical information about the first VeloX can be found on this page.
Roll-out from Human Power Team on Vimeo.
The outside fairing is designed to fit very tight around the rider, and to have excellent aerodynamic properties at the same time.
The development of the shape was an extensive procedure with help of Computational Fluid Dynamics and windtunnel testing.
On the inside of the bike there is a Carbon Fibre frame holding all the components together. A stiff frame is required to prevent stability issues at high speed. Also the frame has to be built in the space that is left between rider and fairing, because we do not want the bike to become bigger then necessary.
The wheels are 28" front and 24" rear to provide the optimal balance between aerodynamics and rolling resistance.
The front wheel is driven via a 2 stage transmission to achieve the necessary high gear ratio. Available space was a major driver in the design of the transmission and the result is a very compact system so the bike can be as small as possible.
A big disc brake on the rear wheel is needed to safely slow the bike down from world record speed to 0.
