AeroVelo bicycle (Photo : Facebook)
A Canadian company smashed the world record for the fastest human-powered vehicle when its lightning-fast bike reached a speed of 85.71 miles per hour (138 kilometers per hour). Todd Reichart, the company founder and enclosed bicycle's rider, pedaled his two-wheeler to the world record on September 17, Thursday.
AeroVelo is a Canadian company that manufactures human-powered vehicles. A team of 14 engineers built the speedy bicycle.
The cycle shattered the previous record by 2.5 mph. That was set at the 2015 World Human Powered Speed Challenge contest.
Dutch bike enthusiast Sebastiaan Bowier earned the previous record of 83.13 mph (133.8 kph). It was in 2013.
The Canadian engineering company has envisioned breaking the record for quite a while. It announced its goal of beating the human-powered speed record last June, according to GizMag.
The vehicle was named Eta, the Greek letter that symbolizes efficiency, and is the new version of a 2012 model. Eta features a camera mounted on its roof, and a video monitor to view the road ahead.
AeroVelo has developed other innovative vehicles in the past. Its Vortex bike set a new land speed record of 72.6 mph (116.9 kph), for college-built and piloted vehicles.
In 2010 its Snowbird Ornithopter (Greek "bird" + "wing") also made history. It took the first flight of a human-powered flapping winged aircraft, according to CNET.
Then in 2013 the company won the $250,000 Sikorsky Prize. That was for the world's first human-powered helicopter flight lasting one minute.
The Speed Challenge contest competition will last until Saturday. However, for now AeroVelo's record is safe.
This video explains the design of AeroVelo's Eta bike
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