The Nonlinear Library EA - I doubled the world record cycling without hands for AMF by Vincent van der Holst
Jun 11, 2024
07:20
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: I doubled the world record cycling without hands for AMF, published by Vincent van der Holst on June 11, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.
A couple weeks ago I announced I was going to try and break the world record cycling without hands for AMF. That post also explains why I wanted to break that record. Last Friday we broke that record and raised nearly €10.000 for AMF. Here's what happened on friday. You can still donate here.
What was the old record?
Canadian Robert John Murray rode the old record of 130.29 kilometers in 5:37 hours in Calgary on June 12, 2023. His average speed was 23.2 kilometers per hour. See
here the Guinness World Records page.
I managed to double the record and these were my stats.
How did the record attempt itself go?
On Friday, June 7, I started the record attempt on the closed cycling course of WV Amsterdam just after 6 am. I got up at half past four and immediately drank a large cup of coffee so that I could leave number 2 in the toilet. After all, that is not possible on a bicycle without using your hands, or at least that was not the record I was trying to break.
At 6 o'clock we did the last checks. Are the tires pumped? Is the bicycle in the right gear? After all, you can no longer switch gears during the attempt. Is the GoPro on my chest turned on? Stopwatches on? Guinness World Records forms ready and completed?
There was virtually no wind early in the morning, which was also the reason I started so early. Later in the day it would be windier and I knew from the training that with too much wind the balance becomes very difficult.
These are laps of 2.5 kilometers, and after 52 laps the current record of 130 kilometers would have been broken. The course is flat, but has one bridge, where you have to climb quite a bit. Because you can't shift gears, you have to go at a good speed to keep enough balance when you get to the top. The advantage is that when descending from the bridge I was able to stand on the pedals without hands, so that my butt could get off the saddle for a while during each lap.
And it gave me the chance to pee off the bike. The question is of course: how do you pee on a bicycle without hands? So when I wanted to pee, I picked up speed, stood on the pedals with my right arm resting on the saddle, and then peed straight over my bike with my left hand. Not super hygienic, but better than peeing in my pants, and I could always clean my frame with the water from my water bottles.
My first goal was 100 kilometers, anything below that would have been a complete disappointment. But at almost 90 kilometers I almost touched my handlebars out of habit. At that moment I would never have started again because it would never be possible to cycle another 130 kilometers without hands after those 90 kilometers.
At least, that's what I thought, because eventually I would double the old record and cycle another 170 kilometers after those 90 kilometers. But at that point the record attempt was almost over.
In the end, apart from rabbits and angry goose mothers getting close to my wheels, I managed to get through the 100 kilometers smoothly. My next goal was the record: 130 kilometers. I started to get quite a bit of cramping, but I had a group of great volunteers who passed me food and water, and they gave me water bottles with lots of salt and minerals in them. I also drove relatively fast at 27.5 kilometers per hour, and then I decided to drive one kilometer per hour slower.
That helped, and I broke the record without any problems, and then the question was how far I could go.
A question that I expected my ass to answer. During training I often quickly developed serious saddle pain. However, I had found a sustainable clothing sponsor and the bib shorts from
Velor which I had only had for a week, made my butt really hurt much less t...
A couple weeks ago I announced I was going to try and break the world record cycling without hands for AMF. That post also explains why I wanted to break that record. Last Friday we broke that record and raised nearly €10.000 for AMF. Here's what happened on friday. You can still donate here.
What was the old record?
Canadian Robert John Murray rode the old record of 130.29 kilometers in 5:37 hours in Calgary on June 12, 2023. His average speed was 23.2 kilometers per hour. See
here the Guinness World Records page.
I managed to double the record and these were my stats.
How did the record attempt itself go?
On Friday, June 7, I started the record attempt on the closed cycling course of WV Amsterdam just after 6 am. I got up at half past four and immediately drank a large cup of coffee so that I could leave number 2 in the toilet. After all, that is not possible on a bicycle without using your hands, or at least that was not the record I was trying to break.
At 6 o'clock we did the last checks. Are the tires pumped? Is the bicycle in the right gear? After all, you can no longer switch gears during the attempt. Is the GoPro on my chest turned on? Stopwatches on? Guinness World Records forms ready and completed?
There was virtually no wind early in the morning, which was also the reason I started so early. Later in the day it would be windier and I knew from the training that with too much wind the balance becomes very difficult.
These are laps of 2.5 kilometers, and after 52 laps the current record of 130 kilometers would have been broken. The course is flat, but has one bridge, where you have to climb quite a bit. Because you can't shift gears, you have to go at a good speed to keep enough balance when you get to the top. The advantage is that when descending from the bridge I was able to stand on the pedals without hands, so that my butt could get off the saddle for a while during each lap.
And it gave me the chance to pee off the bike. The question is of course: how do you pee on a bicycle without hands? So when I wanted to pee, I picked up speed, stood on the pedals with my right arm resting on the saddle, and then peed straight over my bike with my left hand. Not super hygienic, but better than peeing in my pants, and I could always clean my frame with the water from my water bottles.
My first goal was 100 kilometers, anything below that would have been a complete disappointment. But at almost 90 kilometers I almost touched my handlebars out of habit. At that moment I would never have started again because it would never be possible to cycle another 130 kilometers without hands after those 90 kilometers.
At least, that's what I thought, because eventually I would double the old record and cycle another 170 kilometers after those 90 kilometers. But at that point the record attempt was almost over.
In the end, apart from rabbits and angry goose mothers getting close to my wheels, I managed to get through the 100 kilometers smoothly. My next goal was the record: 130 kilometers. I started to get quite a bit of cramping, but I had a group of great volunteers who passed me food and water, and they gave me water bottles with lots of salt and minerals in them. I also drove relatively fast at 27.5 kilometers per hour, and then I decided to drive one kilometer per hour slower.
That helped, and I broke the record without any problems, and then the question was how far I could go.
A question that I expected my ass to answer. During training I often quickly developed serious saddle pain. However, I had found a sustainable clothing sponsor and the bib shorts from
Velor which I had only had for a week, made my butt really hurt much less t...