Two words: Chet Kyle. When EDS started what eventually became Project 96 we were going in the direction of the Zipp 2001. We were in conversation with Andy Ording at Zipp about having custom versions made. Also, had various prototypes made in steel by Dan Wynn. There was a guy from the San Diego area who was making extremely stiff custom carbon bean bikes (made one for Arron Hartwell) and these ideas were all on the table. When Chet got involved in the project all he wanted to do was build this bike, which was essentially a slightly updated version of a prototype for 1986 or so. You can find pics of the original moc-up in one of the old Cycling Science articles. No amount of wind tunnel data would convince him that there were better designs.
Chet also would not entertain ideas regarding changes in rider position. No steep seat tubes even though it was legal then. Also, we knew about the superman position but Chet and Ed Burke would not give it a chance. Superman position was a well kept cycling secret but one of the engineers at GM, a guy named Bill Surber found a picture of superman position being tested in an Italian language aerodynamics journal. I still have the xeroxed picture he gave me in a box somewhere. Could we try it with the US cyclists? No way.
Cheers,
Jim
Funny to me that this bike looks so crazy-cool-custom, and then generic Profile extensions that dont match the red/white/blue paint. Check out the aero cranks.
These were the USA Team Olympic track bikes ('92 I think). I never could understand the design; if you were going to save drag by omitting one tube, why remove the top tube?
Totally agree. Maybe Bio_McGeek or Andy can shed some light…