Your right and lets not forget that a lot of the rules were designed to fight the great Mr Obree…
A man who set records on a home made bicycle!!!
Ya can’t get much cheaper than that…you can tell Mr Obree is Scottish can’t ya.
As for Boardmans 56km hr record, all the stuff he used from memory was avaliable off the shelf and and would of given change from $10K
“For UCI the main reasons for adopting the new rules were safety, and economics.”
This is pathetically laughable. And I’m not saying that as a slam agaist you at all, rather at the UCI. Economics? Come on. Look at the prices of the Softride bikes. They’re actually MUCH lower than any of the bikes you see in the Tour.
Economics? You’ll have to do better than that.
My guess? They didn’t invent it in France…
Your looking the rules much too narrowly. The UCI didn’t outlaw softride or titanflex by name, but any non double diamond frame. Look at the US cycling teams bikes that they bragged cost well over $50 K a piece and the Lotus bike that probably cost multiples of that. Again I don’t necessarily like how they chose to fix the problem, but their was a hugh problem at the time with the rich teams trying to buy wins. I would have prefered that they require that any equipment have sold to the public, say 500 copies prior to use in any race.
Styrrell
Your right and lets not forget that a lot of the rules were designed to fight the great Mr Obree…
A man who set records on a home made bicycle!!!
Ya can’t get much cheaper than that…you can tell Mr Obree is Scottish can’t ya.
As for Boardmans 56km hr record, all the stuff he used from memory was avaliable off the shelf and and would of given change from $10K
Thats one of the UCI biggest problems, when Moser started the superbike craze everything he did was allowed. It wasn’t until Obree started setting records that they got all upset. Boardmans bike wouldn’t have given much change from $10K. The Mavic disk and IO front were probably $3 K at the time the lotus frame was quite expensive and he had a custom front fork with aero bars built in, as well as a second set of custom aerbars for the superman position. The crank was custom and the tires were about $200 a piece. Now put in all the wind tunnel time and you get a rather large figure in the 80’s for a one time use bike.
Styrrell
Gary:
Why are CH Aero Wheel covers illegal? A regular disc wheel is legal so what is the difference. I know about $1,000 difference in price but besides the money why make something that is reasonable in price illegal to use?
Thanks
Andy
They are illegal for UCI racing due to the trule that no aerodynamic fairings can be used. A true disk is structural.
Styrrell
Thanks. I guess I hadn’t thought of the CH Aero disc cover as a fairing before. That’s stretching it but it does make sense.
I have a Softride, but if they want to make everything lower cost, make 'em all be steel or aluminum with round tubes and round fork–steel of course. No carbon or exotic alloys anywhere, including the saddle rails.
What I think is funny is that if it were a cost issue, the Softride frames are actually some of the LOWEST priced ones out there. Certainly a lot less that anything you’d see on the TdF start line…
I can see some limits, but, you’re right, they’re haven’t changed the rising cost of equipment with the current rules.