‘Warhorse’ crowned as the fastest monowheel motorcycle in the world:
We are familiar with high speed motorcycles often built to set land speed record. But, can you imagine a motorcycle with only one wheel doing so? Well, here is one such bike which has recently set a land-speed record. This wonderful and one of its kind monowheel motorcycle is named ‘Warhorse’. And a team of engineers from UK has designed it. In September 2015, it achieved a record breaking speed of 98.464 km/h and there by entered the genius book of world records as world’s fastest monowheel motorcycle.
Achieving high speed with a single wheel without losing balance, is a challenge in itself. This is so because such motorcycles are prone to accidents due to sudden loss of balance. Historically, they were built mainly for the entertainment purpose. Also, their speed used to be very low.
What is monowheel motorcycle?
To begin with, monowheel motorcycle is a type of motorcycle having only one wheel. Its rider sits either inside the wheel or very next to it. The bikes’ engine is attached to small wheels located inside the bigger outer wheel. From there, it powers the outer wheel. And thus the bike moves forward.
From handling point of view, this motorcycle is a real challenge! This is because the rider has to balance the entire structure himself. Even its handle-bar does not perform steering function. Thus, to take a turn, the rider has to lean at a desired angle. In addition, when the rider accelerates, the bike rises up. Likewise, it goes down when the rider applies brakes. Thus, the main challenge in riding warhorse is to avoid looping around and stay at the base of the motorcycle.
The team behind ‘warhorse’ :
A team of four engineers having ages from 49 to 60 years designed Warhorse. They have been building this innovative bike since 2010. This team loves to work on unusual projects like this and face new challenges there by. While tackling one such challenge, they invented Warhorse. Rider Kevin Scott with his team achieved the record breaking speed of 98.464 kmph at Elvington airfield in North Yorkshire, UK. Precise control over throttle and correct balance helped them in attaining this speed. Nevertheless, the team still keeps on fine-tuning this bike so as to refine it even further!