Lotus on two wheels?!

greedyboythomson · Post by **greedyboythomson** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:30 pm

Was at the transport museum in Glasgow last week (its free, it was raining etc. etc.) and whilst upstairs I noticed a Lotus racing bike, made of what looked like carbon fibre. Won a championship of some sort. Said it was built in Norfolk, I know Lotus have an engineering arm, but I didn't know they built bikes at Hethel?!

RDH · Post by **RDH** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:32 pm

Was that not the one Chris Boardman won the 92 Olympics on?

jj · Post by jj » Mon May 28, 2007 4:34 pm

The crank bearing came from a washing machine or something I recall!

mac · Post by **mac** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:37 pm

RDH wrote:Was that not the one Chris Boardman won the 92 Olympics on?

They bombed me granny?

Mac

woody · Post by **woody** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:37 pm

Lotus Type 108 &110 bikes

Did you not see kelvingrove over the road then?

woody · Post by **woody** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:38 pm

jj wrote:The crank bearing came from a washing machine or something I recall!

That was greame Obree IIRC, from Prestwick.

jason · Post by **jason** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:43 pm

woody wrote:
jj wrote:The crank bearing came from a washing machine or something I recall!
That was greame Obree IIRC, from Prestwick.

Yep, it was Obree.

I think Mike Burrows (all things cycling design guru) designed the Lotus bike (that Boardman road in '92) - but there's a story of disagreement and fall-out somewhere along the line IIRC...

RDH · Post by **RDH** » Mon May 28, 2007 4:47 pm

mac wrote:
RDH wrote:Was that not the one Chris Boardman won the 92 Olympics on?

They bombed me granny?

Mac

EH?

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Mon May 28, 2007 6:53 pm

Yah obree on the washing machine, missed the showing of the flying scotsman at the Edin int film fest, I thnk mgm have bought it.

Saw the lotus carbon bike at hethal, sweeet. Olympic bike.

Think it ended up banned as was the superman riding position.

Found this other one on google

greedyboythomson · Post by **greedyboythomson** » Mon May 28, 2007 11:16 pm

The top one is the same as the one in the transport museum. It has some big bold word on a sticker on the back wheel ('HED' I think), but otherwise identical. Wonder when they'll build a bike rack to carry it on the back of an elise?!! That would be an impresive piece of engineering!

johncam · Post by **johncam** » Tue May 29, 2007 8:42 pm

The top picture is the Track (Pursuit) Bike Boardman won the Olympics on. It was built by Lotus at Hethel and each one cost about £15,000 at the time. It was a monocoque design (built from one section of Carbon Fibre) and the wheels were only attached on one side i.e. a monoblade configuration. Its Lotus Type 108.

The bike in the bottom picture is the one in the Transport Museum - it is the Time Trial (Sport) bike. It was based loosely on the Track Bike and was built for Lotus by a South African company called Aerodyne. The fundamental difference being that the wheels were attached to the frame in the same way as you find on a normal bike - twin stays, it also has bosses for brakes / gears etc. It was Lotus Type 110 and cost around £1650 for the frameset. Boardman also one the 1994 Tour De France Prologue riding this bike.

A few years later, Boardman was presented with an S1 Elise complete with a purpose built bike rack to thank him for all the publicity he generated for Lotus.

Cheers,

John C.

jason · Post by **jason** » Tue May 29, 2007 9:36 pm

Lotus had to design and develop a bicycle that minimised aerodynamic drag. Lotus' brief was to improve the
efficiency and performance of the sport cycle.

That statement's not quite true... a shame they don't seem to credit Mike Burrows anywhere

He was the guy who actually designed the bike (non-Lotus dude) years earlier - monocoque and carbon construction... but I remember a story about him and Lotus falling out during the period Lotus developed the concept... wish I could find reference to that on the web to jog my memory... or tell me I've crossed wires