We gather here today to pay our respects to one of the most exciting developments the Cycling world has ever witnessed: the funny bike.
For seventy years, the evolution of the bicycle was marked by incremental change; improvements to brakes, more gears, and better shifting followed one another as the sport grudgingly continued its slow journey towards progress and modernization.
Then, in an instant, disruption. Change. In the years prior to 1984, time trial machines were little more than finely-tuned road machines. But suddenly, spurred on by Francesco Moser’s success in breaking the Hour Record aboard a radical machine with double disc wheels and cow-horn handlebars, we entered a decade of innovation.
In the blink of an eye, we had broken from the shackles of traditional thinking and were suddenly free to think about a bicycle without constraint. Riders appeared in the start house with fairings attached to their saddles and bars mounted below the top tube. Riders toed up to the start line with broom sticks mounted across the drops of their handlebars. Aero bars appeared and with them, the triangular frame design that had graced our machines for three-quarters of a century disappeared. In the span of ten short years, time trial positions went from the standard tuck to the Super Man.
Then, in a crafty maneuver which demonstrates that the UCI’s incompetence is not a recent development, new regulations were introduced which effectively killed innovation in bike design. The UCI regulated the position of the bars, the saddle, the size of the wheels, the design of the frame; even the shape of the tubes are currently highly scrutinized. The UCI even offers an exorbitantly expensive frame certification process.
Join me now, as we examine some examples of the most innovative machines our sport will ever see.
A-Merckx.
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View Comments
@Chris
+1!
"Obree has just Enlisted the help of his 18-year-old son, Jamie, to assist in building the bike."
This is father and son lunacy at its best: "What shall we do today Dad?"
"We'll build a bike to do 100mph and break the World HPV speed record. We'll make a spare and you can have a go too."
Just awesome!!!
@Fausto
Ah it makes sense now - I read "18 month old son". The sacred garments staring at me from the other side of the room must be affecting my eyes.
The Flying Scotsman -- it was no Breaking Away, but it ranks up there with top cycling movies of all time.
@mcsqueak
Whoops, heh. Sorry, @mcsqueak!
@frank
Don't worry - it's well-known secret that Australia has more sheep than NZ. The Aussies just don't like to admit it. I'm sure he'll find himself a nice ewe to play with. ;-) (Please don't kill me - I just can't resist taking a stab or two at the poor Aussie sods...)
A university in Scotland made a study of shepherd's night-time activities which I read years ago. In the borders the most popular way to spend time with a sheep involved putting the sheep's front legs in a pothole. Further north in the central belt the farmers would trap a sheep's front legs in a bush before commencing their business. The research went on to say that during interviews in the highlands the farmers there would move the sheep towards a cliff which they say encouraged the sheep to "push back", enhancing the experience.
The most surprising findings came from the Aberdeenshire area where one farmer said that he began by putting the sheep's rear legs around his waist and the front legs over his shoulders. Upon hearing this the researcher informed the Aberdeenshire man that all over Scotland the preferred method was to trap the sheep's front legs with the sheep facing away. Evidently he exclaimed, "What! Nae kissing?"
@snoov
Ewe!
@Marcus
Oh the shame, that cycling innovation for the next decade will be driven by triathlon. If the UCI won't let it happen, manufacturers will go where they can sell innovative bikes. Once the tech trickles down to the low end road bikes, the only ones buying new stuff will be triathletes. Won't be long before the UCI outlaws ceramic bearings and carbon cranks.
@snoov
Indeed, that would be awesome!
@snoov
Do it and email me with the info!