Racing to Close the Gender Data Gap - Team Bath Human Powered (TBHP)

Introduction

Team Bath Human Powered (TBHP) are a new competition team at the University of Bath, made up of 10 dedicated mechanical and design engineering students. The goal of TBHP is to design and build recumbent bicycles which are capable of reaching higher speeds than traditional upright bicycles due to their aerodynamically efficient shapes. Since being founded in 2024, TBHP have competed in the Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) World Championships, racing a bike in a three-hour endurance race at Betteshanger Park, UK.

This year, the team has been focusing their efforts on developing a recumbent bicycle designed specifically with female riders in mind. The team has identified that, like many consumer products on the market today, there are no recumbent racing bicycles designed for the female rider. Using Caroline Perez’ book ‘Invisible Women’ as inspiration, the group has endeavoured to close the gender data gap in the female recumbent cycling community by conducting research and user testing to better understand their needs and design a bike that allows them to perform to the limits of their potential.

The team aim to build this bike and enter it, with a female rider, into the 2025 HPV World Championships, taking place in July at Lake Maggiore, Italy.

Activity Overview

In order to achieve our goal of racing in July, we have been conducting user tests using recumbents that are currently available on the market. As these are not female-specific designs, many of our users reported discomfort when using them, particularly in the neck and abdominal region. Another key issue was that the bikes were too long for the vast majority of our users, rendering them useless for the female population, who are generally shorter.

We have designed a new frame better suited to the female body, permitting them to perform better than with previous products. The seat angle and position has been optimised for female riders, with adjustable elements to cater to a larger range of users. The drivetrain has been selected from off-the-shelf components with the intent to choose gear ratios which allow a female rider to find an optimal balance of power and endurance. A rear fairing has also been designed, which will improve the aerodynamic properties of the bike, allowing for greater top speeds and reduced fatigue due to less drag.

Development Process & How the Funding Helped

For this project, the team placed a large emphasis on the user. User-centred design processes were implemented to ensure that the final product would afford the user high levels of comfort and ease of use. We assembled custom-built test rigs to collect data, and adapted existing bikes to allow our users to select their preferred elements from each. 

The funding we received from RS allowed us to purchase more lab equipment, which streamlined the process of assembling our test rigs and allowed us to create rigs with more degrees of freedom, which led to more meaningful results. The funding will also be used to purchase components for our final design – our increased budget means we will be able to make a more competitive bike for the race!

Timeline

• The project commenced in February 2025. We began by familiarising ourselves with recumbent bicycles and the gender data gap. This was key to our understanding of the problem at hand, and allowed us to formulate a project plan.
• TBHP carried out user testing in March to develop a requirements list and hone in on a design specification that would produce a desirable product.
• Following low-fidelity prototyping, concept development and 3D modelling took place in April, along with FEA and CFD analysis.
• To follow, TBHP will be focusing on component procurement and manufacturing of bespoke components in May–June.
• Final assembly of the bicycle will be completed in June, with the race right around the corner in July!

Challenges & Solutions

The first major challenge we faced was the lack of anthropometric data available for female cyclists. In order to design our bicycle, we needed to know the range of measurements that our possible users may encompass, in order to make a bike that both suited their needs but also could be used by a wide range of the female riding population. Unfortunately, due to the gender data gap detailed in ‘Invisible Women’, none of this data was available to us. To address this issue, we had to make approximations based on the general female population and hypothesise how the riding population amongst them may differ. We recruited volunteers to take part in our user testing to verify that we were designing our bike to the correct dimensions. This was useful in giving us data which we could then turn into values for key design parameters such as boom length and seat angle.

Another challenge we faced was integrating each member of the team’s subsystems together. We separated the workload into subsystems to allow each member to take ownership of one, in order to streamline our workflow and ensure that every member had a manageable work package. Each of these subsystems had a unique and challenging set of requirements, which made combining them at the later stages of the design process difficult. To overcome this, we held frequent meetings in which we discussed what each of us were working on, and any potential blockers we had faced. We then discussed as a group and suggested solutions of how to navigate these issues. This collaboration was vital in producing a bike that met all the requirements we laid out in the design specification. Simulation and testing before combining components also allowed any issues to be identified and dealt with early, to ensure the integration was as smooth as possible.

Conclusion

As Team Bath Human Powered eagerly await the World Championships in July, the team keep their goal in mind – promote more inclusive design in every discipline of engineering. As a newly-formed student team, TBHP are pushing the boundaries of student-led recumbent racing, and looks forward to building our brand and inspiring younger engineers to pursue their goals. 

If you would like to get in touch or hear more about the project, please email tbhp@bath.ac.uk. You can find us on Instagram @teambathhumanpowered and LinkedIn @TeamBath Human-Powered.

TBHP is being sponsored by the RS Student Fund.