A picture of Gino Sciardis from 1949 Tour de France. It offers a glimpse of the toughness of the men who raced bike in the pre-doping era. Them calves powering the bike are stronger than a piece of rock. Incredible!
Good old times when real men and raw talent reigned TdF – Image Source: Imgur via Reddit
Comparing the speedsters
A pit stop at the Autrodomo Nazionale of Monza (Italy), during the 2004 Italian Grand Prix, September 12, 2004. The team’s pit crew is refuelling the car and changing tires.
So, how long does it take you/your mechanic at the tire shop to change the tires? Can you get it done in 2.31 secs? I hear you laughing but that’s exactly what it took for a Formula1 team to change all its tires. BBC offers a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes in preparation towards achieving such stellar times. For the record, McLaren is the team that recorded the world’s fastest Formula 1 pit stop during the German Grand Prix in July this year, with a stationary time of 2.31 seconds, while they changed Jenson Button‘s tyres. That’s as much as it takes for me to turn my head at times.
Earlier today, a Redditor (iamstandingbehindyou) first posted this picture shown below of MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner. The way this rider was captured made a lot of folks wonder if it is photoshopped or a real one. Looking at the banking angle, one would assume that either the rider & the bike are already in the process of biting the dust or have to conclude that it is no way a real one.
Image Courtesy: Sharonov.Tumblr.com via Reddit
Later in the day, another Redditor (unfknreal) posted the Red Bull Moments video below which confirmed that it is NOT a silly photoshop but a very real and legendary live performance caught on camera. Sheer poetry in motion caught on camera and the 1000fps slow motion reveals the beuaty of that split second action in all its glory! Just look at that sheer talent! I had goose bumps just watching it on video. I think this is what legends are made of – delivering such virtuoso performance as part of their everyday business. For a guy who has been riding bikes since he was 4 years old, it shows how much talent he has handling a screaming monster on the race track. Casey Stoner = LEGEND. Respect!
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4snkUUolJ0&hd=1′]
My heart skipped a beat watching this video. Let’s leave it at that. The details from MotoJournal about this video: EXTREME, 258 KM/H ON ICE: Porsche GT3RS, Mitsubishi Evo 9 face to Yamaha R1 and WRF 450 in Lapland by minus 20 degrees on the replica (scale one) of the legendary track of Le Castellet. Who will win? Don’t miss “Ice Age 5” on the 27th of March! Now, I can’t wait till March 27 to catch the whole craziness.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX_weIUwd_o&hd=1′]
(Source: Reuters via Guardian)
You thought cycling in the city streets was brutal? Wait till you see what these elite athletes on controlled racing environments like Tour de France face. Here are a couple of pictures showing what the athletes face on the road. Apparently, the incident was triggered by an errant media vehicle covering, knocking one of the riders and leading to this massive crash (See video at the end of the article). These images give you an idea of how dangerous a ride (apart from the energy sapping, grueling effort to finish each stage) it is for these guys to win the crown of cycling world and what they endure on the course flying at 60kmph. Despite the injuries, the brave biker shown here tangled in the fence, Johnny Hoogerland, managed to finish the stage before taken to hospital for further treatment. Click here to view the rest of the image gallery covering the horrific crashes from the race.
Driver of a French TV vehicle caused this incident during stage 9. Not only did his wild overtaking manoeuvre skittle rider Johnny Hoogerland, but it left Spain's Juan Antonio Flecha on the deck with his bike in pieces
Tour de France rider Johnny Hoogerland tries to free himself from a barb wire fence after he got thrown off his bicycle by a media vehicle during Stage 9
(Source: YouTube Via Jalopnik)
Jalopnik reports that this funny accident happened this weekend during the fourth stop on the 2011 French Road Racing Cup Promosport, a formula series for amateur riders at Magny-Cours. The good thing is that both riders escaped serious injury from the fall and even better did not get run over by the other speeding bikes still flying on the track.
(Source: cnet)
Looks like Toyota is at it again, upping the ante for other players in the automobile market to match the stellar reputation it has built over the years as an advanced engineering shop that leaves no stone unturned to enhance the safety of the riders in the Lexus vehicles. This above featured new, inflatable Takata “Airbelt,” or SRS Seat Belt Airbag, is built into the webbing of the seat belt of the Lexus LFA, the latest out of Toyota’s Lexus stable, expected to hit the market soon. It’s designed to protect drivers and front-seat passengers in front- or side-impact collisions. So, how does it work? Well, it works as shown nicely in the above graphic and here is some additional text from Cnet.com to aid in your understanding:
“The belt expands directly to spread the shock-load over a wider area of the occupant’s chest during front impact. And in a side impact, the belt inflates between the shoulder and head to reduce lateral head movement and provide protection from impact with the side window or colliding object, the company said in a press release.”
(Source: AutoBlogGreen, CNNMoney)
Dodge Circuit, a two-seat roadster, could be Chrysler’s first step into electric cars, provided the company survives.
A battery-powered 268-horsepower two-seat sports car is in line to become Chrysler LLC’s first electric car, provided the carmaker lives to see another day.
To survive, help is needed from Italy’s Fiat but, as negotiations with the Italian automaker bog down and the two week deadline to hammer out a partnership approaches, the company’s future – as well as its aspirations for an electric hot rod – are increasingly in doubt.
Chrysler’s first electric car, set to be introduced late next year around the same time as General Motors’ Chevrolet Volt, will be a sports car with a zero-to-60 time of under five seconds and a top speed of 120 miles hour.
It looks like the Dodge Circuit EV may have won the “who wants to be the first electric Chrysler concept to go into production” contest. Although they still haven’t officially made an announcement, Chrysler’s viability plan did list an “EV Roadster” as part of their 2010 product line. Based on the lightweight Lotus Europa and using drivetrain parts pilfered from UQM, the concept drew some fairly positive responses when it took on the newDodge Challenger in an impromptu drag race and later, when it got its crosshair makeover. Its 150 to 200 mile range is significantly higher than many other electric vehicles in the works and should add to its appeal.
“To be able to meet a 2010 timeline, you have to be pretty far along in development, and right now we are,” said Lou Rhodes, head of Chrysler’s electric car program, in a recent CNNMoney.com interview.
The Circuit is similar to the Tesla Roadster, a $109,000 sports car produced by a small California company. Pricing for the Circuit has not been announced but will likely undercut the Tesla.
(Source: Wired)
The dust kicked up by the 24 Hours of Electricross has barely settled and Zero Motorcycles is back with a street-legal electric motorcycle it will have in driveways later this month.
The Zero S builds upon the the technology underpinning the Zero X dirt bike by doubling the size of the battery to deliver 60 miles of electric commuting and corner-carving. The Santa Cruz startup promises a top speed of 60 mph and a zero-to-60 time of about 5 seconds from a highway-legal bike that weighs just 225 pounds.
The Zero X proved its mettle last weekend during an unprecedented 24-hour endurance race where 10 teams log as many as 507 miles flogging the bikes around a track in San Jose. But while the Zero X is strictly an off-road machine, the S is designed for city streets and the occasional back-road run.
The brushed permanent magnet motor produces 31 horsepower and the bike weighs 225 pounds, making the Zero S a little less powerful – but 96 pounds lighter – than a Suzuki DR-Z400SM. With 62.5 foot-pounds of torque on tap, the Zero S has significantly more grunt than, say, the KTM 690 SMC.
Juice comes from a 4 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery that weighs 80 pounds and charges in less than four hours when plugged into a 110 volt outlet. Zero predicts the battery will last five or six years with normal use. No word on the replacement cost, but an extra pack for the Zero X – which uses a 2 kilowatt-hour pack – costs $3,000.
Power flows directly to the back wheel – no transmission – and the bike offers 9 inches of suspension travel up front and 8 at the rear. Zero wouldn’t offer any details on who’s producing the suspension or brake components.
