Manon Lloyd: We're here in Berlin at the Track
Cycling World Championships, and there's some
pretty cool bikes, including the world's most
expensive track bike. Let's go check it out.
[music]
Manon: First up, we got our hands on six-times
Olympic gold medalist Jason Kenny's bike.
Now, I was actually lucky enough to ride one
of these bikes when I was on the GB track
team, and they really are lovely bikes to
ride. These T5s were built after the Rio Olympics
as a new improved version. The carbon frame
is a size large, and that's a 57-centimeter
top tube, with a custom paint job by Silverstone
Paint Technologies. Now, I'm a very big fan
of the paint details on this bike, especially
the flag detail on the top.
His running gear is 165 cranks, with a UB
chainring and a [unintelligible 00:00:54]
sprocket on the back, with a nice Renold's
chain. For the World Championships, the British
Cycling Team is running Campagnolo Ghibli
wheels with the Vittoria Pista Speed tires.
Now, these wheels are very popular here at
the Track Cycling World Championships, and
they are on nearly every bike I see. Then
we have the Cervélo seatpost with a Team
GB custom saddle cradle. Jason has also chosen
a Fizik Aliante saddle with the Shimano Zerus
pedals.
There are a few cool custom bits on this bike
as well, including custom-built Jason Kenny-sized
bars on a 3D printed stem. You won't be able
to buy these bars anywhere because these are
built just for Jason Kenny. There's a gold
titanium bolt on there too. At the end of
the day, he is six-times Olympic gold medalist
so he probably deserves that gold titanium
bolt.
Now, this bike comes in at a weight of 6.7
kilograms. Now, there's been a lot of talk
about this bike, mostly because it's probably
one of the world's most expensive bikes. The
frame alone cost £25,000. Once you've added
everything else you need, you can expect the
price of the bike to be around £60,000. The
bike has been built specifically for sprint
events on the track, and it has some pretty
awesome tech on it. Let's go take a closer
look.
This is the Malaysian Track Cycling team bike.
It's the WX-R Vorteq 1 edition, with the frame
only coming in two sizes; a small and a medium.
The small frame has a reach of 396 millimeters,
with the medium coming in at 474 millimeters.
If you'd usually ride a large frame, this
probably isn't the bike for you. As you can
see, this is a really slick-looking bike and
[unintelligible 00:02:44] come out slightly,
similar to on the Hope Lotus bike. This bike
also has a really special paint job and is
actually painted by the same people who paint
the Red Bull F1 cars.
The team is running BRUTE carbon chainrings
and the bike has the ability to take at 68
turf chainring. That's pretty big. It's also
linked up with an Izumi 1/8 inch track chain.
Wheels now. On the rear, they're running Campagnolo
Ghibli; and on the front, a Vorteq four-spoke.
It's super narrow to fit a narrow front thru-axle.
Both the wheels are fitted with Vittoria Speed
tires, again, another really popular choice
here at the Track Cycling World Championships.
Onto the bars now. These are really nice,
slick-looking bars, with a bar width of 30
centimeters. A really short grip length is
set to put the rider's hands in the ultimate
aerodynamic position. These bars come in at
a price of £10,000. This bike is finished
off with a specialized saddle, Shimano Zerus
pedals and an SRM power crank. All in, this
pure-breed race machine comes in at a weight
of 7.5 kilograms, all kitted up. Now, personally,
I think £60,000 is a lot for a track bike,
but let's go see what some of the spectators
here at the Track Cycling World Championships
think.
How much would you pay for a track bike?
Spectator 1: Probably about £15,000.
Manon: 15k? What about 60,000?
Spectator 1: My cycling is not good enough
for that.
Manon: [laughs] How much would you pay for
a track bike?
Spectator 2: Like 1,000 because I don't have
so much money. I'm with you.
[laughter]
Manon: Okay. Well, the Malaysian track bike
is £60,000.
Spectator 2: Wow, that's crazy.
Manon: Would you pay that much?
Spectator 2: No.
Manon: Would you pay that much?
Spectator: No.
Manon: Would you pay that much?
Spectator 3: No, never. [chuckles] That's
a lot.
Manon: £60,000 pounds.
Spectator 4: Oh, my God. That's quite a lot.
[laughs]
Manon: Would you pay that much?
Spectator 4: No. [laughs]
Manon: How much would you pay for a track
bike?
Spectator 5: Very little. Probably, 20,000.
Manon: It's still quite a lot. What about
60,000?
Spectator 5: Not with my standard of cycling,
no. [chuckles]
Manon: Definitely, one of the hottest and,
undoubtedly, the fastest bike here at the
Track Cycling World Championships is Filippo
Ganna's world-breaking track bike. Fresh from
breaking the Men's 4K Individual Pursuit,
here is the Pinarello Bolide; the same frame
that Wiggins broke his world hour record on.
The bars are custom made by Pinarello and
as you can see through these strange looking
things over the top of the handlebars, these
are 3D printed hand holes made for Ganna's
hands to get him in the most aerodynamic position
as possible. Wiggins also had similar custom
handles to these on his hour-record bike.
The chainring is a BRUTE carbon chainring
from the AeroCoach, and interestingly, he
has a road SRM power crank, with a waxed eighth-of-an-inch
chain. Like many on the track, he is using
the Campagnolo Ghibli wheels hand-made in
Italy. The front wheel has a narrow axle for
all those aero gains. The Italian team are
using the Vittoria Pista Speed tires is finished
off with a physique saddle and some nice custom
touches on the seatpost; Top Ganna. Nice.
I also know I shall speak to Sir Chris Hoy
himself about some of the bike tech here at
the World Championships. Okay, so there's
a lot of new tech here at the Track World
Championships. What do you make of it and
what do you think is the most interesting
thing here that you've seen so far?
Sir Chris Hoy: There is a lot of new techs
and what's hardest to know; whether this is
as good as it's going to get. A lot of teams
are holding back their equipment before the
Olympic games, they don't want to show the
hand too much. They have to ride their bikes
before the Olympics, they can't just turn
up on a new bike at the games. So each team
will sort of slip a little a new bit of clothing
or a new bit of tech in, [unintelligible 00:06:33]
will check it's okay and then they'll remove
it again. The GB team have used the Olympic
skin suits, they have used the new GB bike;
the Lotus Hope bike, I think in Glasgow at
the World Cup.
There's all sorts of exciting new things.
Often, it's not the most radical-looking ones
that are the most exciting or the most impressive.
So it's tough. Underneath the layers of paint
and underneath the layers of carbon, that's
what makes it special. Because it's about
how stiff, and how efficient and how aero
the bikes are.
Manon: It's interesting that GB aren't using
their best bikes here, they're not using the
Olympic bikes, why do you think that is?
Sir Chris: Traditionally, the GB team have
always kept everything to the last minute.
We used to race on skin suits that you could
buy for 60 or 70 quid in a local bike shop.
The regular skin suits have become better
since then, but it's to give you that psychological
boost as well as an actual boost. I mean,
the tech is important, the bikes are important
obviously, but it's not everything.
It's not Formula 1. At the heart of it is
a cyclist who produces the power and that's
what you want to see. You want to see the
athletes being the difference, not the wheels,
or the bike, or the helmet or the skin suit.
But at the same time, it's exciting. As a
tech fan, I do enjoy seeing what teams come
up with, the way they approach the same puzzle
from different angles. You have quite a few
constraints that you see and I put in place
about what you can and can't do with the bikes.
So, yes, it's not easy to come up with a new
idea, but some of the teams; the bikes seem
to be performing well. Obviously, each event
has different requirements too, so do you
go for one generic bike that works, hopefully,
for all events or do you have like Azizulhasni
Awang from Malaysia; one bike for him that
I believe has cost $60,000 or £60,000 to
produce. It's a lot of money for a bike but-
Manon: It is a lot of money, but would you
pay that much for a bike out of your own money?
Sir Chris: I think I would try and get sponsorship
for it. I think if you genuinely believe that
it's going to make the difference and whether
or not-- Certainly, he's going as well as
we've ever seen. He did a 9.5 in the 200-meter
time trial, which is a phenomenal time for
him. He qualified top 10, he got a bronze
medal on the [unintelligible 00:08:37]. So
whether or not it actually makes a difference,
psychologically if he goes to the start line
believing that he's on the same equipment
or better than anybody else out there, that's
got to give you a boost of confidence.
Manon: That was pretty cool getting to check
out some of the world's best track bikes.
I hope you enjoyed this video and please let
us know what you thought in the comments section
below.
[00:08:56] [END OF AUDIO]
