It was no short ride, but Professor Joe Harralson helped create the world’s fastest bike.

Harralson, who has worked in Sacramento State’s-Mechanical Engineering Department for 27 years, talked about his feat on Friday. The bike reached 350.884 miles per hour.

He became involved in the bike project 18 years ago, and this project was a hobby that just went out of control.-

“The speed of the bike is a record,” Harralson said. “The previous record was 340, but then two days after that record was set, our group beat that record.”-

In order to get an official speed, the team had to go a certain speed in one direction, and then do it again going in the opposite direction. The speed is then based on the average of the two runs.-

Senior Jonathan Heddrick, a mechanical engineering technology major, said he is very impressed with Harralson’s passion for the project.-

Harralson said he teamed up with Dennis Manning, an engineer from San Jose who was going after the world record for a bike.-“Once I made some drawings of the vehicle, Dennis and I met and agreed to work together,” Harralson said. “We had no sponsors, but we had lots of people who volunteered to help.”-Harralson said a pattern company that makes bike frames wanted $20,000 to make the model of the bike, but-Harralson’s group had no money. Harralson’s wife bought him some tools for Christmas and he made the model himself.-

Brandon Dickinson, a senior mechanical engineering technology major, said Harralson uses the information about the bike in class.-

“It is nice to know that I can take the information he gives me and apply it to the project I am working on,” Dickinson said. “I mean breaking a world speed record is just plain cool.”-

Harralson said every aspect of the bike – from aerodynamics to stress analysis – is a part of what he teaches to his students every week.-

Harralson said he’s not done. “Four hundred miles per hour is our next goal, and we will begin testing for that goal in June,” he said.

Philip Malan can be reached at [email protected]