http://cyclingnews.com/...ro_liquigas_helmet09
There’s been a lot of argument of the marketability of non-uci legal tri bikes from big manufacturers. Maybe this new UCI ruling will force companies to screw UCI standards and make non-UCI standard tri bikes in addtion to UCI legal bikes. mixed blessing?
If not, the black market for pre-2010 bikes is going to be HUGE for a long time.
relax, chill out, wait and see. i remember a time when the UCI wanted to ban disc brakes for downhill racing bikes 
I remember the old Damon Rinard website (it may still be out there) with pictures of a lot of cool aero bikes (lots of mid-90s monocoques, mostly). The final picture of the bunch was of the “UCI,” which was the photoshopped picture of a guy sticking his head up his a**. That picture gets more and more applicable.
Ok, makes sense about the aerobars, but not getting anything about discs, etc. Take a minute ot break it down for me?
I apologiz if it’s obvious…
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"A possible disaster on the horizon
By James Huang in Santa Cruz, California
If UCI commissaires elect to strictly enforce the new rule
Photo ©: James Huang
Of course it can. At least someone thinks so.
"When you think about it, very few people buy time trial bikes for this type of racing,” Montgomery said. “They buy them for triathlon. That’s where the market is.”
http://www.velonews.com/article/87983/atoc-tech-gallery-a-chat-with-scott-usa-marketing-and-pr
No doubt that if this goes into effect, it will be interesting to see how the teams and riders respond and adjust for Solvang…
Lance won’t have to worry, though, his disc is already gone…
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Well, it seems like Bontrager’s bars, and I’d assume the Hed 3, would still be legal, as is the TTX seatpost, so this could possibly have almost no effect on the Astana team.
The super thin basebars, seat posts and deep dish wheels could pose a problem for Cervelo, Felt, Zipp, 3T, etc.
This is just a plot for him to even up the field now that his TT bike is gone! (Yes, yes, I know he has a spare).
The mass market for aero goodies is in triathlon/multisport. Just go to an NASport transition zone to see the 2200x$5000 aero rigs in transition. That’s like $10M of aero goodies in there. That is probably more than all the UCI TT guys in the US combined.
The only reason to make aero stuff that is UCI compliant is to get it under the asses of pro riders, so it can then be used for the mass triathlon market. If it was just a matter of selling TT bikes to UCI riders, there is likely no business case for developing those bikes…I am sure that Gerard, Superdave, Sharad, Patrice Lemieux and others won’t come out and admit it in black and white, but in every business, you want to make sure that your stuff is used by some marquis high profile accounts so that mass market adoption ensues…there is no UCI TT mass market from my guestimation. Look at Dave Greenfield and Elite. Doing just fine targetting the triathlon market.
The only reason Softride tanked is they blew their marketing. They did not need UCI compliance to survive (just like Elite). Their PR department was unable to overcome some perceived objection by trigeeks that they would not be able to use their bikes in an UCI race…ask yourself how many of the 2200 in an NASport transition enter UCI race with their tri rigs…my guess is less than 50.
Dev
this might sound like a stupid question, but can someone tell me why the UCI is coming up with the 3:1 rule?
ITU rules mimic UCI regulations. If all multisport events strictly follow ITU rules, bikes must conform to UCI time-trial event standards. See ITU rule book “E.3 b”. States that for bicycles in ITU events, UCI rules apply - UCI team time trial rules for draft illegal triathlon and duathnlon races.
I’m not sure, but I would think that the 3:1 rule is intended to eliminate the temptation of making parts that are so thin that they are structurally unsound.
Even if the UCI rules applied to triathlon, what’s the big deal? A level playing field, as long as it’s really level, doesn’t matter. Just ride your bike
Dev, back at the time the UCI rules regarding bike designs were introduced I was riding a Softride Power V. It would amaze me the number of people who would come up to me in the transition area and ask me why if I was worried about my bike being “banned”. I would explain that the rules only applied to cycling events, and then only internation events for pro racers, but I could see they werent convinced.
Perhaps as the next step the UCI will ban any frame and component that isnt cylindrical in cross section and more than 1" in diameter and demand that rims be box section, shifters be returned to their rightfull place on the downtube and brake cables emerge from the top of the brake levers!
Kevin
Kind alike NASCAR, eh? Theoretically all the cars there are the same, but that’s obviously not the cae.
Bob
this might sound like a stupid question, but can someone tell me why the UCI is coming up with the 3:1 rule?
They aren’t. It’s been around for a while, but the wording has been cleared up.
More to the point, how are they going to enforce this rule mid way through a stage race where there has already been a prologue raced on the TT rigs. Especially in litigation-happy America.
Having said that, the UCI do have a track record of this, with banning the Obree tuck during the World champs he was riding.
Oh yeah - the USE Tula bars are legal by the way.
Wow…gotta say the UCI has outdone themselves with stupidity this time. They obviously either don’t know or don’t care how much money has been put into tooling, testing, design, etc for all of the bike frames, aerobars, forks, etc. What a bunch of arrogant fing idiots. Can anyone lead a revolt against the UCI or do they own rights to the big races?
Dev, back at the time the UCI rules regarding bike designs were introduced I was riding a Softride Power V. It would amaze me the number of people who would come up to me in the transition area and ask me why if I was worried about my bike being “banned”. I would explain that the rules only applied to cycling events, and then only international events for pro racers, but I could see they werent convinced.
Exactly. So I don’t know why the OP has started off the thread in such an alarmist fashion!
It’s the same thing with Time Trials. Many triathletes say, they can’t go to local time trials cause they don’t have a “legal” bike. They never measure the bikes at these events. My wife road races, and does a number of TT’s each year. The only time they have ever measured her bike was at the National Championships before the ITT. That was it. And she was allowed the morphological exemption, so it was all much ado about nothing!!