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  • Club Records

    It's been suggested that my club should recognise a 'Medium Gear 10' record.
    The proposal is that the record should be restricted to an 'Athlete's' bike - that is to say a non aero machine. There's no need to go into exactly what that is, I'm sure you get the general idea.

    I'm not sure yet whether this will be accepted, but an idea has come into my mind:

    1. An 'aero' medium gear 10 would demonstrate the potential to be achieved by fast pedalling.

    but,

    1. An 'Athlete's' 25 (no gear restriction) would give present day riders some idea of how their times compare with Alf's 49 minute ride and those of the other heroes of the past.

    I'm not suggesting there would be anything scientific about this, just that it might be interesting (and possibly fun too).

    I'd be interested to read any comments you have, especially if anyone thinks it might work for their club.

  • The proposal is that the record should be restricted to an 'Athlete's' bike - that is to say a non aero machine

    You'll end up arguing for weeks over what exactly an athlete's or old-school bike actually is. Probably best to leave equipment choice open within the current CTT regulations, because somebody will always argue that whatever somebody does on a full 1970 bike build is not a valid comparison with the olden days because their clothing is 20W better than 70s clothing. Also, restricting equipment is fine for those of us who still have our 1980s and 1990s TT bikes (and I can fit on my dad's 1940s bike if we want to go back that far), but it's not really fair to somebody who wasn't even born until 2000 to make them acquire a special bike just to have a crack at the record.

  • Drop-bar road bike, no frame sections more aero than 2:1, alloy rims no deeper than Shamal?

  • I don't think there's any question of 'making' teenagers acquire special bikes; I don't imagine for a moment that very young people are likely to be interested in this proposal.

    The question is - would anyone be interested? And it seems that one or two have at least some enthusiasm for this project.

    We're only talking about club records, We don't need to be too scientific about things - there's no standard engraved on stone tablets. To make this work it's just necessary to understand the spirit of what's intended. In our case, if there's a dispute, it would be up to our committee to adjudicate on the machine in question.

    Just to cover some small details: while it might be interesting to specify that riders should wear alpaca jackets* since, to my knowledge, none exist in wearable condition this is a non starter. Similarly, we do not intend to insist on toeclips and straps, because of the difficulty of finding suitable shoes to go with them. The main thing is practicality.

    • Alpaca fabric is currently available - if there's anyone determined/mad enough to go the whole hog and try to equal Frank Southall it's just necessary to find a tailor!
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