- This bike is a really important bike.
It is arguably the first ever carbon fibre frame bike.
It's the first ever aero bike frame.
And, strangely perhaps, this is also the star
of the legendary clothing brand Assos.
Let me explain.
So, the founder of Assos, Toni Maier,
was the importer of Shimano in Switzerland back in the '70s,
and very well connected in Swiss cycling.
He had a conversation with some other cycling friends,
they began to talk about aerodynamics,
it was already really big news in skiing and motor sport,
but not really in cycling.
So, with the seeds of inspiration sown,
Maier set to work.
(mid-tempo electronic music)
Now there are, of course, two parts to this framing.
Firstly, the carbon fibre.
Now, Maier knew this was a wonder material.
It could be manipulated in all sorts of complex shapes.
But actually sourcing it,
thinking during the Cold War, was tough.
He ended up having to sign a form, apparently,
from the U.S. Department of Defence,
promising that he wouldn't either make weapons,
or sell anything to the Russians.
Then, not just sourcing the material, but also
finding someone who knew how to work with it was tough.
And he ended up having to settle for someone
that was a fibreglass expert, and then going from there.
Now, I must admit, when I looked at this first,
I was really confused as to actually
how it was put together,
because normally carbon frames
are generally made in two ways.
So either they have individual layers of carbon fibre,
they're laid up in a mould and then baked under pressure,
so that gives you the organic flowing lines
that we're really familiar with now.
But you can also get a lug technique,
so that's when you get a carbon tube
that is then bonded, so glued, into a lug.
And then sometimes you might get a couple of layers
of carbon fibre wrapped over the top
and then that'll be stuck in a vacuum-packed bag,
and then baked in an oven.
Now, absolutely oversimplification perhaps
of the processes, but hopefully you get the idea.
Here though, if I was, there's a second piece,
there's not much sign of anything.
But it turns out, when talking to Maier,
that actually, it is lugged, but the lugs are internal,
so all the tube junctions have a steel socket,
and then the tube goes over the top
and is bonded into place.
And actually, when I looked closely, you can see
quite clearly how it is constructed
at the seat clamp area there.
He had, he said, no idea how strong this bike would be.
But, here it is, what, 41 years later,
with numerous track titles under its belt,
and is an absolute monster rider,
and it is still standing.
So, probably pretty strong then, I'd guess.
Not light, that was never the priority,
and unfortunately I don't have any scales for you,
but my internal calibration system detects
that it might be about seven kilos.
Let's talk about the second aspect of this framing,
the aerodynamics.
So, Maier contacted a professor of aerodynamics
based in Zurich.
And with his help, they made all the relevant
tube sections into teardrop profiles.
That's the most aerodynamic shape that you can get.
You notice that all the tube profiles
are pretty modestly sized compared to today's bikes,
but no doubt, this would have been quite jarring to anyone
used to their skinny steel tubes of the '70s.
Crucially though, it did perform
significantly better in the winter.
But the frame isn't actually the only
aerodynamic part on this bike,
have a look closely at these wheels.
So these are actually Assos rims,
and they're the first ever
aerodynamic profile rims.
So, apparently, Maier said that they had real problems
with the durability of aluminium rims back in the '70s,
and so he set out to create his own,
and whilst he did so, he also wanted
to make them aerodynamic.
And so what he did was he contacted an aluminium company
in Switzerland to get the right alloy,
then also he reinforced the area around the spoke nipples.
And that was the main problem with the rims at the time.
They are super narrow, just about 16 millimetres wide,
but that of course is in keeping with the tyres at the time.
Now I'd love to tell you what they were,
but I can't inflate them, unfortunately.
But nevertheless, for a track bike,
skinny was definitely the way to go.
Right, lastly then, let's turn our attention
to these handlebars, shall we?
Neatly attached to the fork crown,
and beautifully made out of carbon fibre.
Now, the reason it's there is because
the first time that this bike went into the wind tunnel,
and it performed really, really well,
but unfortunately everything went wrong
when a rider was added into the mix.
Now we know now that a rider is the cause
of most of the aerodynamic drag,
but at the time, it was kind of a little bit disappointing.
But undeterred, or rather,
deterred for a small amount of time
until they had a stiff drink,
at which point, they went back
and started tweaking the ride positions.
So, tucked an elbow here, or dropped head there,
until eventually, the brain wave hit that they would
drop the bars to give the rider a great position.
And actually, given that aero bars hadn't been invented yet,
the position that you get on this bike is pretty mint.
Now, it was at this point here that Maier then also
turned his attention to clothing.
So, wool was the material of choice at the time,
and that was not very aerodynamic.
And so, he went with Lycra.
Now technically though, that wasn't actually
his first ever item of clothing that he dreamt up.
First was a winter riding skinsuit,
which in his words, said that you could ride
with Switzerland on the outside, but
feel like you had the Cote d'Azur on the inside.
Which, I think is kind of cool, I'd sign up.
Unfortunately though, for Maier's bike,
it was just too expensive.
So apparently, it cost 50,000 Swiss francs
to develop each one.
So it wasn't really much of a business case
for making that into an ongoing concern.
However, skinsuits and the Lycra shorts
were selling like hotcakes.
Therefore, that was the direction that Assos went in.
Kind of a cool story, I think.
Right, do make sure you give this bike a big thumbs up,
not only does it look so cool,
but also 'cause it was something of a trailblazer.
Now after you've done that, please make sure
you subscribe to GCN.
To do that, just click on the globe,
it's completely free, and then
if you want some more content,
well, why not check out a modern day aero bike
from Team BMC as he's sponsored by Assos, as we said.
That one is just down there.
Or, to see how you can get more aero
with some tips from the wind tunnel,
click just down there.