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I talked to Sam Whittingham briefly after his speed record fell last September. 133.78 km/h beat his old record by 0.6 km/h. I think his record stood for about
by FigBug 12y ago
I talked to Sam Whittingham briefly after his speed record fell last September. 133.78 km/h beat his old record by 0.6 km/h. I think his record stood for about 13 years. He says now it all comes down to the tires, they are the one component that takes major money to custom make. Nobody makes tires for 133km/h bicycles. As long as everybody is using the same tires, nobody is going to go significantly faster. Hopefully they've found a source for high speed tires.
- Shivetya 12y agoMy searching is apparently lackluster, what are materials used in tires for this application? Other than speed ratings, what other issue is most costly in creating these tires?
- CaveTech 12y agoI'd imagine it's finding a manufacturer who has the means to mold them who's also willing to create a super limited run.
- Theodores 12y agoTyres were actually pretty good in the days of Dunlop when they made them from natural rubber and cotton. They were state of the art for the time then they made the strategic decision to get out of cycle tyres and concentrate on other aspects of their business. Modern tyres come in 700c racing bike size with a few specials at 650c, to get something small wheeled is not off the shelf. A normal bike, e.g Tour de France, needs things like grip and puncture resilience rather than just low rolling resistance. This applies to the track too. The actual market for specialist, i.e. tubular, bike tyres is minuscule compared to regular bike tyres, to all intents and purposes it is cottage industry stuff.