The UCI's latest whim

[gonzo]

According to a rumour on Slowtwitch, it would appear that the UCI are going to ban the latest generation of TT bikes.
Slowtwitch Forums: Triathlon Forum: new Giant, Shiv and P4 UCI illegal?

The P4, Specialized Shiv and Giant Trinity are up for the chop.

If true, someone in their finances dept will be crying in the near future!

[mattc]

Good for them. Steel is real.

[andygates]

"From a friend of mine..."

[citation needed]

[Lucky]

Sounds like some guy trying to drive down second hand prices on a bike he wants to buy, to me... 

Not that the Giant or the Specialized will be appearing on the second hand market for a while yet, but maybe he wants a P4.

[Rhys W]

How many people doing UCI-policed races have to buy their own bikes?

They should be more worried if CTT banned them!

[mrcharly-YHT]

I've heard stories of the UCI.

At the ToB York finish there were guys in sort of 'squaddie' uniform. complete with beret neatly pulled to one side.

I assumed the army cadets had provided some marshals.

Then I saw the back of the uniforms. UCI staff. For the anti-doping controls.

the UCI staff were dressed like paramilitary 

[Zoidburg]

I wouldn't be surprised if they were French police officers.

Doping being an offence in France, it could be a customs and border control issue so I could maybe see them being allowed to follow the continental teams around.

[clifftaylor]

<old git>
Well, I says "hurrah!!", on the basis that TT bikes have gone from being some of the most elegant engineering solutions known to man, to being butt-ugly lumps of plastic apparently designed by a 14 year old boy.

[Zoidburg]

Not so sure myself, I do actualy like some of the function over form TT bikes, it's about the only area in which I see the need for them.

Technology trickles down and TT bikes are the cutting edge test bed for all the stuff we come to take for granted later.

[andygates]

<old git>
Well, I says "hurrah!!", on the basis that TT bikes have gone from being some of the most elegant engineering solutions known to man, to being butt-ugly lumps of plastic apparently designed by a 14 year old boy.

Pff, you speak of retro aesthetics.  In terms of performance I'll take the lump of plastic -- and so will the riders who race on 'em.

[David Martin]

I happen to quite like the form of a modern monocoque TT bike.. Especially the way that form is designed purely for function. There is a beauty in that elegance.

..d

[clarion]

There is a beauty in that elegance.

..d

If you search very, very hard

Come on - surely a classic steel racing bike stirs you in a way a lump of sticker-laden plastic never could, even if the latter would carry you much faster?

[andygates]

It's a machine for racing.  The primary aesthetic is the results sheet; the secondary aesthetic is in all that computer-optimized monococque goodness that says "you can go faster on me".

Classic steel stirs other emotions.  Nostalgia for my paper round, mostly.

[clarion]

[peterc]

Are these frames monococques? Looks a bit space-framy to me.

<Puts head back in Mr Burrows' book.>

[gonzo]

I saw the shiv today. More specifically, I saw the Shiv used by Fab Cancellara to win the world champs.

The floor was wipe clean!

for those interested in the numbers, the designer posted on Slowtwitch that the drag at 15° is 380grams. That's about 30% less than the P3 which is incredible!

[andygates]

Schweet!

(What proportion of the whole package drag is the frame?)


And for Clarion: "Form follows function" 

[gonzo]

It's very difficult to tell as the drag of all the components tested alone would be far higher. This is because lots of components are in the slipstream of others eg. the wheel 'drafts' the seattube.