Friday 9 June 2006 at 13.00 hours I, Dustin Schaap, a relatively new and young rider held a world record attempt at Sportpaleis Alkmaar. Planning to break Ken Looi’s distance of 25.600 meters in one hour I started at an easy pace, surprised at how fast I was riding according to my cyclometer I held back a little, wondering at how long it would last. 45 minutes in the race my average speed was still going 27km/h and I felt confident I would break the record. My father who was counting the laps then called I had just ridden my 100th lap, I was slightly surprised as that would mean I was traveling at a pace slightly below 25km/h, 46 minutes into the race I increased my speed to 28-29km/h thinking it was impossible to still break the record after such a big mistake in speed. Riding like a madman and draining the last of my reserves I rode a total of 25.900 meters, 300 meters more than Ken Looi, not completely satisfied with the results, but glad I broke the existing record I finished my final lap, 20 seconds before the end of the hour I lost my concentration and had a most spectaculair fall (pictures coming soon).
The record was ridden on a 36" unicycle with a slick 36x 2.25" TA tire, it was witnessed by 3 photographers, a journalist and a small crowd. The laps (counted by my father Frido Schaap, checked and clocked by the journalist Kasimir den Hertog) were written down on a based on IUF rules table and signed by two independent and impartial witnesses.
“In order to have a world record, a person needs to submit documentation to the IUF World Records Committee. The documentation can include newspaper articles, pictures, video, and/or witness statements. There needs to be at least one impartial judge to witness the record.”
A report of my world record was published in two newspapers, I will attach a copy of the articles in my post. The pictures arn’t the best quality but seeing as the articles are in dutch that doesn’t matter a lot (if anyone requires the articles to verify the attempt, post a reply, pm me or send me an e-mail at dustinmichels@gmail.com).
Let me be the first to act like I don’t realize that the US and Europe use commas and decimal points to denote the opposite things and claim that even I could ride 25.9 meters in an hour. Heck, I could ride it in a few seconds. However the European convention 25.900 translates to 25,900 in the US or 25.9km. Dustin would have written 25,9km. Congratulations. It takes a heck of a rider to outdo Ken Looi even in an unofficial capacity. Records are set to be broken.
My sincere apologies to you mister Harper for using a dot where I should obviously have used a comma, never again shall I forget this. As for outdoing Ken Looi, Ken maintained the speed of 25,6km/h for the length of two hours I during his 24h record I believe, I feel confident I couldve ridden a better time if I hadn’t put this much faith in my cyclometer and had more instructions from my support, deffinatly something to remember for my next attempt later this year. My next attempt will most likely be ridden on a 45" unicycle.
Not all of Europe uses commas and decimal points in the opposite way to the US. We in the UK don’t.
At first I thought the post about breaking a record of 25.6 metres in an hour had to be a piss-take, until I twigged that Dustin must be posting from mainland Europe.
For the record on this forum, can you give us more details?
What crank length were you using?
What was the circumference of you circuit?
What were the other specs of your Coker?
BTW, regarding cyclecomputers- I didn’t use one during my 24hr record attempt, simply because I did not trust it to be accurate. And it had to be inaccurate because when you are riding a circuit, the distance is measured from the inner circumference of the course, so you are always going to be doing a greater real distance than the official measured one.
Also, I don’t imagine you have much wheel wobble, but that can affect the cycle computer distance vs the real distance travelled as well.
I was running on 90mm cranks, I’ll just post the specs of my coker:
Starting from up,
KH Gel Saddle
22.0mm seat post
1 bolt clamp
Qu-Ax Big One Frame
UDC extra wide hub
90mm (united?) Cranks
Standard plastic pedals
375mm spokes
Airfoil rim
36" tube
36x 2 1/4" TA tire
Something that you might find interesting, I’ll just make a picture of that now… one second. Ok, these are the handles I’m using, they allow me to lean forwards more and ride more relaxed, effecting my speed in a positive way.
The circumference of the course was 240 meters. You had some interesting ideas in your e-mail, I’ll reply to that now.