I remember seeing one with her signature on it on e-bay. The picture from front and back…Unbelieavable thin. Nothing to hit the wind. Anyone have pics or the maker of? Thanks
I thought she road a Hooker (no joke).
Didn’t she have a Corima?
Dave in VA
You are right. I just could not remember. Soon as you said that, the light went on. With all the aero stuff now, why no try at that design? Not stiff enough?
Was it a GT Superbike?
the p3/p4/transition/DA etc pretty much dissapear head on too =)
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I was also thinking GT… At least they ponied up to the sponsor $$ to put their logos on it, whoever else might have done the groundwork.
there was no real insight on the part of the hooker people regarding tri geometry. that was early 90s era. but why, you’re asking, is nobody making a bike like that today?
yes, it was quite whippy. but it was still very aerodynamic. the problem with the hooker process was that it was very time consuming – it was difficult to make the bike. hooker himself threw up his hands at the idea of making a bike that was straight and aligned, and actually machined the dropouts into the frame after it was completely welded and heat treated.
gary hooker eventually sold his company to holley of carburetor fame, as i recall. he offered the tooling, etc., around the industry when that happened, but none of us wanted to go thru the effort of trying to make a bike that hooker himself had a hard time manufacturing.
fast forward to today, it’s too easy to make a hooker look-alike out of carbon. i think it’s a fair question to ask whether today’s bikes are slipperier than the hooker. i think an even more interesting question is whether the hooker fork – which had an axle spacing of 60mm as i recall – is ever going to be reproduced. it’s fair to ask whether that was the thing that set the bike apart, aerodynamically.
Thank you for the educating me while responding. Just a novice with curioustity. Is it slippier? Was it the fork that set it apart? As far as it is to easy to make in carbon, with all the knock off frames made, why no copy? Thanks Again Kenney…As far as my other thread, push for “slow” races and bike ball:)
there was no real insight on the part of the hooker people regarding tri geometry. that was early 90s era. but why, you’re asking, is nobody making a bike like that today?
yes, it was quite whippy. but it was still very aerodynamic. the problem with the hooker process was that it was very time consuming – it was difficult to make the bike. hooker himself threw up his hands at the idea of making a bike that was straight and aligned, and actually machined the dropouts into the frame after it was completely welded and heat treated.
gary hooker eventually sold his company to holley of carburetor fame, as i recall. he offered the tooling, etc., around the industry when that happened, but none of us wanted to go thru the effort of trying to make a bike that hooker himself had a hard time manufacturing.
fast forward to today, it’s too easy to make a hooker look-alike out of carbon. i think it’s a fair question to ask whether today’s bikes are slipperier than the hooker. i think an even more interesting question is whether the hooker fork – which had an axle spacing of 60mm as i recall – is ever going to be reproduced. it’s fair to ask whether that was the thing that set the bike apart, aerodynamically.
As good as the hooker was, for the time, and it is still better than “eyeballed” aero frames today, the shapes possible in carbon along with the stiffness have that frame quite a bit behind considering the UCI rules that are followed today.
-SD
Twigg raced a Hooker to many pursuit victories, then a GT SB-2 in the qualifying round at the Atlanta Olympics, then her Hooker in the semi-final. Later, she rode a Corima while she was part of Team EDS. It was the Hooker that was auctioned off on eBay a few years ago.
As for aerodynamics, the tests I’ve done/had done at Texas A&M suggest that the entire Hooker package (i.e., frame, narrow fork, “aero-or-die” handlebars) was almost as aero as a P3C with VT cowhorns and clip-ons. Without the special handlebars, though, the difference would be larger…making the Hooker about the same as a P2C.