Help Human Powered Vehicle Club Break a Record! (November 2018)

This campaign has ended, but you can still make a gift to the Human Powered Vehicle Club by going here.

The Cal Poly Human Powered Vehicle Club has been building high speed bicycles for 40 years. We’ve built bikes that have gone over 55 mph! Pushing the limits of human performance has been the club’s passion for longer than most of us have been alive. While building last year’s “all-around” bike, we decided that we wanted to go back to the club’s roots. We wanted to build a bike that was fast and that would challenge the club for the next decade. We decided to sign up for the IHPVA World Speed Challenge, where the only goal is to go fast.

Our team is growing. We are currently a team of 25 engineers who design, build, test and race a fully faired, recumbent-style bicycle. Our team teaches students design skills such as structural analysis, aerodynamic optimization, system integration, mechanical design and more. Members also learn various useful manufacturing skills from composites manufacturing to precision metal fabrication. Our student engineers are highly desired by many companies because of all the skills they have learn as a part of our team.

After years of rebuilding the club, we finally have a team capable of building a bike for this new competition. We believe that this year’s bike will be capable of breaking the U.S. collegiate speed record, 61.3 mph! Unfortunately, we are currently very limited on funds to make this project a reality. Building this high-precision bike and then taking it to competition will cost upwards of $12,000. Currently, we only have $5,500. This change in competition happened very quickly, and our funding has yet to catch up.

With your donation, we can build this bike. We'll be able to buy the quality materials required to build our aerodynamic fairing, structural frame, high-efficiency drivetrain, advanced vision system, and more. Having the funds to buy the best materials will allow us to make our bike as fast and safe as possible. Help us make Cal Poly the fastest collegiate team in the U.S. Help us on our new path towards a world record. Help us make history.