Team Sky + HD Track bike

simpoman

Hi,
I have been trying to find details about the GB track bike and can't find anything anywhere. Anyone know what make it is or is it a special just for the team?
Cheers

Anonymous

Special just for the team.

Pokerface

Used to work at BC. All custom built rigs. Done in Stoke on Trent I think. Developed with help from Mr. Boardman.


Definitely not off the shelf stuff! Some people reckon they are about £10,000 each!

Eddy S

The bikes are designed by Dimitris Katsanis and made by Advanced Composites.

Dimitris Katsanis posted here a couple of times during the Olympics when people were asking about the bikes.

Here are a couple of articles from Advanced Composites for anybody interested:

Article 1

Article 2

LorneC

Talk is (mentioned in "The Comic" a few weeks back) that there will be a UCI rule coming into place that all track bikes need to be readily available on the market... thus rendering the current bikes illegal...

The deal signed with Pinarello for the SKY road team is rumoured to also contain clauses should this UCI ruling be passed, meaning that Pinarello would supply the Track squad also.

oldwelshman

I don't think pinarello will provide the track bikes, they are no where near as good as the uk track bikes and a lot of development has gone into them.
All they have to do is make them available, who says what cost that would be? £14k should out most people off but they would be "available"

Pross

Probably just badge them up as Pinarello and distribute them through Pinarello dealers?

desweller

oldwelshman wrote:

I don't think pinarello will provide the track bikes, they are no where near as good as the uk track bikes and a lot of development has gone into them.
All they have to do is make them available, who says what cost that would be? £14k should out most people off but they would be "available"

They would probably have a minimum production run requirement, e.g. 100 units built or sold in order to qualify. Probably along similar lines to past sportscar homologation rules.

LorneC

Daily Mail Article

Strategy is one of the three core elements of Britain's success on the track in the past three years. While it is difficult to imagine how the psychological edge, gained by thorough mental preparation of riders within a meritocratic regime, can be blunted, the third element, that of technological advance, can be.

Cycling's governing body, the UCI, wants to implement a new rule from January 1, 2010 that only bikes which are also on sale to the general public can be used in competition.

While that may appear to negate some of Britain's advantage in bike technology given to them primarily by their chief designer, former Olympic champion Chris Boardman, Brailsford and his team are adamant that their dominance of cycling is not all about the bike.

inominata

£35,000 for the pursuit bikes used at athens

Toonraid

I had seen Hoy on DF3 and heard that they were custom made for each rider's fit/geometry at a cost of 25 000 mainly due to individual molds - I know Dolan has them made in China so was this pre Olympics?