TORONTO, July 31 — A University of Toronto team is dedicating both mind and body to completing their latest challenge and build what could potentially be the world's fastest bike, Xinhua news agency reported.

A team of 11 students and graduates from the university, who are part of an aeronautics design team called AeroVelo, has been labouring the summer months away in their downtown workshop for one common goal: to build the fastest human-powered bicycle for the World Human-Powered Speed Challenge at Battle Mountain, Nevada this fall.

It is not the first time the team has pushed the envelope. Just last year, AeroVelo was awarded Canadian $250,000 (RM732,000) for building the first practical human-powered helicopter. They are also responsible for creating the first wing-flapping plane in 2010.

But this latest challenge is all about speed. To win, their bike will have to beat the 133.78km/h world record set by a Dutch team at the Delft University of Technology last year.

One of AeroVelo's team leader Cameron Robertson said he hopes the sleek, bullet-shaped bicycle they are working on, named Eta after a Greek letter which symbolises efficiency, will help them set a new record with ease.

“We hope to break that by a healthy margin,” he said, projecting that Eta will reach up to 145kph at the eight kilometre track in Nevada.

Besides being a meaningful win for his team, it will also mean a whole lot to the previous Canadian team who held the record for nearly 14 years.

“The record was previously held by a team called Varna from British Columbia,” said Roberston.

“That had stood for a number of years at about 130-133 km/hr, and just last year a team from the Netherlands at Delft University of Technology beat the record by a small margin, about half a kilometre an hour, and we hope to take it back for Canada this year.”

Robertson said they are creating an “advanced aerodynamic design, very efficient drive train, low rolling resistance tires, really pursuing perfection and efficiency in all areas of the design.”

It does not come cheap though. The entire project is estimated to cost about Canadian $130,000, most of which is paid for through donations and sponsorship. Aside from the hefty price tag, Robertson said there are many other challenges to the project.

“Timeline is a big challenge, trying to crunch it all into four months is always a big concern,” he explained.

“With the design itself we're trying to reduce all of the risks we can, so doing the aerodynamic design that maximises the chance of going as fast as we expect, we're doing some novel approaches with the drive train, with the new tires for rolling resistance.”

But the perfect design is not the only thing they will need. Besides creating the fastest, most efficient vehicle, Robertson said a lot of the bike's performance — roughly 30 per cent of it — will depend on the rider's pedalling power.

“One per cent of rider performance increase is half a kilometre an hour of speed, so we typically think that aerodynamics are the top contributor to the vehicle performance, the pilot performance is equal,” he said.

Three AeroVelo team members have been undergoing rigorous training in order to get the best outcome possible.

“There's a lot of training going on on the part of our three pilots, trying to get them to produce the most power possible in the configuration that they'll be sitting in the bike and really get their bodies into top shape,” explained Robertson.

As of now, no one knows who will get to ride Eta during the US competition.

But Trefor Evans, one of the three potential riders, said it will only make him work that much harder. Evans has been training at least two hours a day to ensure he is both physically and mentally prepared if he is chosen to compete.

He said riding the Eta, with its recumbent seat, is a lot tougher than riding the average bicycle.

“Riding on these types of vehicles when you're laid back is considerably different than riding a regular bicycle, and it takes a while to learn that and get that down,” he said.

“But it's also having a fairing around you with things really close to your body can be unnerving for new cyclists.”

But the hard work is all worth it when Evans gets to push himself and the team's creation to the limit.

“Just being able to go so fast in a bicycle under your own power is really unique, the fact that you can go faster than a car is fairly amazing,” he said.

The team is expecting to complete Eta within the next few weeks, and will be test driving the vehicle on a nearby runway before the big competition comes.

But in addition to showcasing their creation and talents, Robertson said ultimately he is hoping their work will inspire others.

“This is a great opportunity for us to share innovative and creative design, to work with students every year and really teach them how to be better engineers so that they can carry these kinds of ideas in this design approach forward into the real world,” he said. — Bernama