The record is for the world's fastest monowheel motorcycle and well it's a one recognised by the Guinness Book of World Records. Now you must be wondering what a monowheel is; well, it's the same contraption that you see in the picture above. It's essentially a motorcycle with one wheel; a large one at that. The large wheel revolves around a track, inside where the engine and rider are housed. The driver has to control the vehicle using careful control of throttle and perfect balance. As you may have already thought about, the brakes form the most important part here because, at the end of the day, it has to stop that one wheel which carries the weight of the engine and the person.
The UK Monowheel Team and Kevin Scott recorded a staggering speed of 98.464 km/h their monowheel which they've called WarHorse. The record was achieved at Elvington Airfield in North Yorkshire, UK. The team that worked on this monowheel consists of four engineers who have been building innovative motorcycles since 2010.
To achieve the record, the monowheel had to be run solely on power produced by its engine and the speed had to be timed from a flying start over a distance of no less than a quarter mile. One major challenge for monowheel riders is avoiding a "gerbil incident" - that is, accidentally looping around with the outer wheel instead of remaining seated at the base of the vehicle and that can be catastrophic.
The Monowheel Speed Record Was 98.464 km/h
Well, the WarHorse monowheel motorcycle is still under development but the team is quite happy they lodged a record. The previous record of the fastest monowheel was 91.7 km/h and was achieved by Kerry McLean, who is considered a pioneer in this vehicle category.
