- There's that bit in every cyclist
that just loves speed.
I certainly do.
And there's a few bikes over the years of history
that have allowed us to go to dizzying heights
with our speed.
So I'm going to go through five
of the top fastest bikes of all time.
Yep, of all time.
(relaxed hip hop music)
Alright, let's start off in 1991
where the change of the UCI rules
allowed the bike designers to go absolutely wild,
including Mike Burrows,
who designed that incredible monocoque bike
with the chainstay and seatstay on the right-hand side
and only one fork blade.
A test driver for the British car manufacturer Lotus
found out about Burrows' design
and took it to Lotus' attention.
Lotus then looked at it and said
they could use their knowledge of car manufacturing
and put it into bike design
and help to refine and improve it
for a young British talent we all know as Chris Boardman.
Chris Boardman then raced that bike
in the pursuit in the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
And just like that, the Lotus 108 was born.
But Boardman and his Lotus were not done there
and he then went on to race the finals
against the reigning world pursuit champion, Jens Lehmann.
And Boardman was so fast on his bike,
he actually nearly caught Jens Lehmann
in the closing stages of the race
and won the gold medal for Great Britain,
the first gold medal in 72 years.
The Lotus 108 was, I guess, victim of its own success
and shortly after the event was banned by the UCI,
as it was deemed to give an unfair advantage.
(relaxed hip hop music)
I guess we should probably head over
to Boardman's biggest rival
in the battle of the fastest bikes.
And, of course, I'm talking about
Graeme Obree's iconic bike, the Old Faithful.
Unlike Chris Boardman's bike, which was built with
the cutting edge aerodynamic technology
available to human kind,
Graeme Obree's bike was built by himself
using bits of his old washing machine, like the bearings.
Obree did have some radical ideas on aerodynamics,
most obvious being that position he used on the bike.
And when he first rode the bike dubbed the Old Faithful,
he did so using this crazy position
where he put his hands under his body
and his shoulders leaning on the bars.
And, yes, it did look that crazy
but it was very, very fast.
Thinking about it, Endura actually did a test not long ago
with Obree and his bike dubbed the Old Faithful
of him in that tucked position in the wind tunnel
and they found out that his position
was actually faster than nowadays TT bike setups.
Now that's quite something.
Obree proved that him and Old Faithful
were not just fast in the wind tunnel
but also fast on the bike
and he won the world Hour record not once but twice.
(exhaling loudly) That is cool, winning a world Hour record
with a bike made out of washing machine bearings.
(trance music)
Okay, so think back over the last big time trials.
I'm talking individual and team time trials
in the World Tour.
And then think of the thing that ties the winners
of those events together.
I'm talking about the bike they are riding.
The BMC Timemachine is by far
the most successful TT bike of the last couple of years.
Since its launch in 2016, the BMC Timemachine
has taken a staggering 28 wins.
No other bike has even come close to this level of success.
The BMC Timemachine is the result
of a three-year long old collaboration with BMC and Sauber,
Sauber being the motorsport engineering company
that has built and raced Formula One cars since 1993.
BMC and Sauber worked really hard
to create the absolute fastest bike
that would help all riders in all different positions.
The only big question is will the BMC time trial machine
continue its great success
under the likes of Dimension Data?
Actually, thinking about it, Boasson Hagen just won
the Volta a Valenciana TT, so I guess it will.
(relaxed EDM music)
This is a bike that you'd probably recognize if you see it
but you probably won't know its name
and that's because it's been through
quite a few over the years,
from Team GB's bike, the Secret Squirrel bike,
but its actual name is the United Kingdom
Sports Institute bike.
These are those really strange looking
low toptubes and skinny headtubes
with big, bulky handlebars and stem.
The United Kingdom Sports Institute Bikes,
or the UKSI bikes, were first launched in Athens
at the 2004 Olympics and a version of those bikes
have been ridden for the next eight years
on the road and the track, most noticeably though
on the time trials at the London Olympics.
Now I did do some research on this
and the UKSI bike has won a staggering
18 Olympic gold medals, from Athens to London in 2012.
And seeing as the bike could have only won 34,
that is one incredible hit rate.
It has also been ridden to numerous world records,
most noticeably though in the team pursuit.
(energetic rock music)
Now the reason this strange-looking bike has made our list
is because Denise Mueller-Korenek
has ridden it to the land speed world record,
yet the fastest a bike has gone on land ever.
It's quite literally staggering how fast this bike has gone.
Denise rode her bike
183.934 miles per hour.
That's close to 300 kilometers per hour.
I mean, the speed that she rode that bike
is quite literally mind blowing!
I don't think I can get my head around that.
Two-wheel bike, 183 miles per hour!
Could I do it?
Nah.
I mean, that is just too fast.
That very special KHS bike
was actually designed to fit 17" width
yet wheels used for a drag racing scooter.
They also had to lengthen it
to increase stability for Denise
because she would be riding some incredibly fast speeds
and they did that using two Cannondale forks
and replacing the chainstays and the seatstays.
And then they used a really clever
double-reduction gear system to get to a gear
that is equivalent to 204 by 11.
That
is a crazy big gear.
That is, yeah.
That's a crazy big gear.
There you have it, the top five fastest bikes of all time.
If you think we've missed out one,
then why don't you chuck that in the comment section below?
But if you did like this video,
then give it a big thumbs up.