Racing at Darley Moor

With many of our Rangers away in foreign climes, it was a small group (of two, Peter Ford and I), that "assembled" at Mickleover Station for the ride to Darley Moor Racetrack, near Ashbourne, (a mere 16 miles away), for the Rangers Ride to see the Human Powered Vehicle Racing.
A great variety of bikes were competing, mostly recumbents of various designs, and in fact, our interest was as much in the technology as the actual racing.
The rules of mainstream cycle racing would prohibit most of these designs and therein lies the fascination. Many, such as the full streamliners with poor visibilty and limited steering movement, were not by any means practical road vehicles being designed purely for flat out speed. These machines were doing close on 40mph down the finishing straight.
The upper photograph shows the layout of such a machine with the cowling removed. Note the almost perfect aerodynamic profile, the cramped cockpit and the unusual layout of the controls. The pedals are ahead of the front wheel and the riders legs are above the handlebars. The shell is made of honeycomb plastic sandwich material and it has outrigger "landing" wheels like an aircraft, these folding into the fuselage once balancing speed is attained. All this to achieve minimum drag, minimum frontal area, and minimum weight. That, together with a very fit cyclist inside it, equates to maximum speed.
The HPV Club is a National Organisation and have meetings in various parts of the country throughout the summer months.
Lucky for us, they have another meeting on 22nd August at the Curborough Circuit which lies close by NCN Route 54 near Alrewas.
We will be there. See Rangers Ride Listing if you would like to come along.