Eric Barone broke the world record for the top bike speed on Saturday March 28th of this year. He did so while on a snowy mountaintop in Vars, France. This achievement was truly extraordinary and will most likely stay unbreakable for many years to come.
World’s Top Bike Speed in Years Past
There have been many who have attempted different stunts and feats in order to achieve the world’s top bike speed, as seen at Sunn Bikes. Here are some of the bikers from past years that have achieved various biking records: Fred Rompelburg (1995), Bruce Bursford (1996), Markus Stöckl (2011), and Sebastian Bowier (2013). However, this particular list does not necessarily mean that each competitor beat out another from the past year, simply that they each won top bike speed achievements under certain conditions. The top speed up until Eric’s amazing performance was 207.9 mph.
Eric Barone’s Track Record
Eric Barone has quite a past. He was originally born in Oyonnax, France, where he also grew up. He holds many different achievements and has experienced a great deal of successes in his past. He actually held the same record, the world’s top bike speed, on two other occasions before this latest accomplishment. He held the title in 2000 with a speed of 138 mph and then again in 2002 with a speed of 107 miles an hour. The reason that both of these records stood was because the one in 2000 was achieved on snow and the one in 2002 was achieved by going downhill on a volcano. The Union Cycliste Internationale takes into account not just the speed but the conditions under which that particular speed was achieved when granting this special top bike speed record.
Eric Barone has done more than just break records. He actually was a stunt man for many famous actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Adrian Paul, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. He then moved onto more competitive bicycling which led to his record-breaking stunts. However, he did not always have success. On one of his various attempts to break a record, he was on the Cerro Negro volcano slopes when he suffered from a horrific crash that left him with many injuries, including a broken femur and six broken ribs. This was the same year that he actually won that same speed record in 2002. However, as we can see, that record was not easily won.
Eric Barone’s New Record
Eric Barone can now rejoice for he holds the world’s top bike speed record, as seen at Eric Barone’s website, once again. However, this was a long and arduous process as he had to actually test his bike several times in a special wind tunnel to understand how efficient it would be when it came to aerodynamics. This was crucially important as the achievable speed would depend a great deal on this.
He was able to partner with Sunn bikes in order to get the best custom bike possible, and between the hard work of everyone involved, including Marc Amerigo, who is one of Eric’s close friends, he was able to reach this great success in his career. There are sure to be many more stories and successes for Eric in his future.
More on bikes? The thrill of riding is depicted in BLNTD Presents: Tammy McCarley
https://youtu.be/TNPxiPuXXNU
