THE BICYCLE   A Bit to History Today Tomorow Measurements Boardman's Hour Record Bike, 1996. THE BIKE OF THE FUTURE We live in a consumerist world and the bicycle is just one more product, which thanks to its popularity, is continuously changing, although those changes are more often of an aesthetic nature than a practical one. These innovations, when it comes to racing bikes, are severely limited by the regulations of cycling's main governing body, the ICU [International Cycling Union]. Their list of rules always provoke a number of different reactions when bike manufacturers, as well as those companies that make bike components, present their latest models. The ICU has to decide whether to accept them as vaiid for road-racing or not, but it always tries to maintain the classic bike design. Some inventions are more daring than others, which causes a great deal of controversy about what kind of bike we want to create in the future. Recumbent bikes deserve a particular mention in this context, given that they not only aim for greater comfort for the user, but also have better aerodynamics. Bicycle designed by Wim Van Wijnen - the 2000 Ecocar model. So we discover that the most radical pioneers in bike design create bikes with a futuristic form, placing special emphasis on improved aerodynamics and more comfortable models. They have virtually nothing in common with the structure of the earliest bicycles. Kingcycle Bean without covering Kingcycle Bean with covering. In September 1990, Pat KInch rode 75.6 kilometres in one hour using this bicycle. Moser's bike for his attack on the 1985 Hour Record. Moser during the unsuccessful assault on the Hour Record, 1985. Secondly in traditional bike designs the improvements generally come about in the field of mechanics and the materials used, but they maintain a more conventional structure. Some observers take a harder line in this area, arguing that technical developments should be limited, whilst others wish to keep bikes in their classic form, but at the same time argue that some improvements are necessary - even if it means parts of that Œclassic design actually change ( ¹ ICU -International Cycling Union- Rules and Regulations.). It is as easy to find people who are in favour of a more or less revolutionary kind of bicycle as it is to find those who do not wish to lose the traditional kind of model. Regardless of how much of a futuristic feel there is to a bike design, the preferences of the major stars in cycling is probably more important when it comes to new developments. This factor became critical during the 1990s during a succession of attacks on the Hour Record. These days racing bike designs are strictly controlled by the UCI. Future developments will, on first impression, barely be noticeable, thanks to the aim of the UCI to recover the classic design of bicycles, particularly road bikes. The UCI's objective became evident at the end of 1999 when it was decided to reclassify the Hour Records acheived on bikes of the type used by Francesco Moser, Miguel Indurain, Graham Obree, Tony Rominger or Chris Boardman - the Englishman being the rider who had acheived the greatest distance, 56.375km on September 6th, 1996 in Great Britain. This decision effectively created a time warp and the official record was now held to be that of Eddy Merckx, who set a time of 49.431 km on October 25th, 1972 in Mexico. This distance was beaten by Chris Boardman once more, albeit by just ten metres on October 27 2000, again in Manchester, and the Briton now holds the Hour Record with a distance of 49.441 km. Indurain's Hour Record, 1994. Graeme Obree based his professional career as an athlete around the Hour Record, beating it in 1993 and 1994. Chris Boardman¹s Hour Record, 1996. The most notable innovations are generally first developed in mountain bikes. These bikes have less restrictive regulations for new designs, possibly because the impact of those changes is not as widespread as any alterations in the designs used in mountain biking¹s elder sister, the road bike. I would argue that the most important features of a bike which will be standardized by regulations in the mid-term future are: Disc brakes, where the quality of the braking is much better in the normal brake pads, the problems are the maintenance they require and their weight. Eventually gear changes will disappear, there will just one chainwheel and sprocket and the different ratios will be in a rear hub. Current problems with this system are its weight and the low numbers of gears (four or five compared to the 18 or 20 a road bike currently has, and the 24-27 a mountain bike has) which makes this an innovation which - at the moment - is unattractive to the consumer. To end this section, I would point out that a cyclist spends a great deal of time on the bike, and before we get too tired, we should ask ourselves how to improve our performance from a purely physical point of view, with the head, the heart and the legs as the only engines. The mechanical system of Rotor, which avoids the dead points in pedalling, has been given the green light by the UCI. Another example of the enthusiasm in some quarters concerning improvements in the mechanical performance of bikes.