Columnist Susan Snyder: A quick lesson in racing

Friday, Sept. 27, 2002 | 4:25 a.m.

Richard Craig acknowledges that most people probably wouldn't relish the idea of screaming down the road at 82 mph with their heinies half an inch off the ground.

"You can ask my wife," the 31-year-old bicycle racer said. "I'm competitive. And I have an obsessive-compulsive disorder."

Kind of hard to tell whether he was serious about the latter.

Today Craig heads to Battle Mountain, 200 miles northeast of Reno, with a lightweight, pedal-powered contraption in which he hopes to win the 2002 World Human Powered Speed Challenge. The five-day contest awards $25,000 to the person who can achieve at least 82 mph in a nonmotorized vehicle for 200 meters. That's 220 yards, or two football fields and change.

"It's really not that hard. Once you get it up to speed you can coast for 200 meters," Craig said.

Question is, can he sustain a scream for that long? Actually, he probably can. It takes about five seconds to cover the distance.

All racers drive specially designed, one-of-a-kind vehicles. But all designs revolve around some kind of recumbent, or reclining, two-wheeler with pedals covered by a lightweight, aerodynamic shell called a fairing.

This is Craig's second try, and he is confident he has a winner. He joined forces with Creative Industrial Fiberglass Design of Las Vegas, and first mapped out the fairing using a three-dimensional computer program.

They applied those diagrams to make a Styrofoam form, which was covered in concrete to create a mold. They coated the inside of that with Fiberglass and from that molded the fairing, which is made of carbon fiber cloth covered with Kevlar -- a tough-as-steel material designed to protect Craig if his vehicle skids at high speeds.

The shell is all of 1/16 of an inch thick. That and Lycra bicycle clothes are all that stand between Craig and pavement.

Eeesh.

"The sensation of speed is completely dependent on the (sensation of) wind in your face," Craig said. "In this case, I'll judge by the noise. It's roaring and roaring and you speed up. And it's really noisy when you wreck."

The fairing covers a bicycle Craig built in his shop, ProCyclery, on West Charleston Boulevard. His body hovers about half an inch off the ground, and his legs angle upward to the pedals.

"The simulator says we'll be able to do 87.5 mph," Craig said. "But I don't believe simulators. They just give me hope. I hope I'll hit 82."

He first attempted to break the record six years ago after a University of Nevada, Las Vegas team asked him to build the bicycle. They also needed a rider, and he was only too willing.

But someone stole the fairing three days before the contest. They made another but it was too heavy. No one could ride the thing. This year's vehicle weighs half as much -- about 50 pounds.

Craig is setting a speed record just getting it on the road. It was still in assembly Wednesday. He planned to ride it Friday, have it painted Saturday and head to Battle Mountain today.

"I've given myself seven days of Murphy's Law, and I've used every last one of them," Craig said. "I won't know what it's capable of until I'm actually in it.

"But this is my last hurrah," he added. "After this, we're having children."