Last year Kevin Scott set the world record for speed on a motorcycle. Well, a motorcycle with one wheel. This month Guinness caught up with him for a quick interview to find out what makes such an innovative lunatic tick.
Guinness says the vehicle has a 1.5 meter diameter and weighs about 190 pounds without a pilot, adding it took the UK Monowheel Team “seven months to build and a further 12 to make sure the specifications were in line with the Guinness World Records requirements.”
WarHorse, as the unicycle is named, is made of bespoke carbon fiber with a 200cc kart racing engine along with a“custom transmission and air suspension.”
The “UK Monowheel Team” is not so much a competitive force as it is four guys in England who wanted amuse themselves with a cool engineering project. The roster on their website is simply listed as “Kev, Peter K, Peter O & Tim.”
In their words:
“We wanted a Design / Make project that was unusual & wacky, yet wouldn’t cost the earth. It had to challenge our skills, it had to entertain us, it had to be a social event. Most of all it had to be FUN. We thought Making it was good - but Riding it is a hundred times better !” [sic]
Bunch of dudes dedicating their playtime to building an absurd vehicular contraption? Sounds like our kind of social event. I need to find some more friends like this.
Now apparently there’s an entire association of Englishmen driving and building these things. Maybe one day we’ll get a road-register-able version? (No.)
In the video Scott explains that driving the thing is “probably closer to flying than driving anything.” He adds: “You pull away and the front rises up, and that’s like a motorbike doing a wheelie, that’s fairly normal. And then steering. It’s really hard to steer and actually we’re still learning how to steer.” Apparently making it stop is another gymnastic challenge altogether.
Anyway, the U.K. crew found out that the speed record for one of these contraptions exists and set to beat it.
An American named Kerry McClean apparently held the original record at 57 MPH. Scott and company cruised ahead with a new record of 61.18 MPH on a closed track. It will be published in the 2017 edition of the Guinness book.
The vehicle looks a little like South Park’s It Bike, but uh, slightly less uncomfortable to operate.
With the record in the bag, I’d wonder what the Team has planned for the rolling ring next but it sounds like they already have a rival trying to build a faster one!