Tokyo Hope

The sci-fi like bike that the British team is riding on the Tokyo Olympic velodrome is like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Here’s a very brief insight into how this curing edge carbon beast emerged from the old cutting room floors of a Lancashire mill belonging to Hope Technologies.

ST; How and when did the idea of the track bike/GB team collaboration come about?

AW; We have been working with British Cycling for a number of years on MTB projects, and also a few modifications to track bike axles and handlebar/stem connections. During this time Tony Purnell (The man responsible for BC technical development) visited and saw our facilities. He then suggested that we would be a good partner to work with on a new bike concept that BC and the English Institute of Sport were considering. Then was when the hard work began.

ST; What is the Lotus involvement in the process?

AW; Lotus were tasked with producing the forks and handlebars and also the integration of these two components.

ST; How long has the process taken to come to fruition?

AW; Much of the initial prototyping and testing was done with 3D printed models, but it has taken many years to reach this point.

ST; The bike is nothing like anything we've seen before - how did you arrive at such a radical design?

AW; The original concept was presented to us, and we then had to workout a way of manufacturing this in the timescale required.

ST; What's the theory behind the forks and rear stays?

AW; Usually the aero work is performed on the bike and then on the rider. This was the first time that someone had really considered the full interaction of the rider and bike as a whole. 

The idea is that the wide forks break the airflow over the riders’ legs, and then the “swat” stays bring the resulting turbulent air back under control. That’s the basics of the concept.

ST; Who was behind the design of the bike?

AW; There were many parties involved, including many UK Universities.