Lost world of Lugged Frames and Vintage components discovered in Papua New GuineaIn pictures: Lost land of the velodrome

Pickio Speciale; The Guardian, Monday 7 September 2009 Article history

The American Paramount had no fear of humans when it was discovered. Photograph: Stronglight BBC cycling club.

A lost world populated by lugged frames, tublar rims and tiny gear cluster has been discovered in a remote volcanic crater on the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea.


'A giant 78cm PX10 never before seen by the Peloton. A team of cycling aficionados from Britain, the United States and Papua New Guinea found more than 40 previously unidentified species of road bikes when they climbed into the kilometre-deep crater of Mount Bosavi and explored a pristine velodrome like a habitat teeming with life that has evolved in isolation since the velodrome was last ridden 200,000 years ago. In a remarkably rich haul from just five weeks of exploration, the biologists discovered 16 De Rosas which have never before been recorded by the factory, at least three new Molteni's, a new Confente and a giant PX10, which may turn out to be the biggest in the world.

The discoveries are being seen as fresh evidence of the richness of the world's cycling community and the explorers hope their finds will add weight to calls for international action to prevent the demise of similar lugged frames. They said Papua New Guinea's lugged bike population is currently being destroyed at the rate of 3.5% a year as the fixie hipsters Drew them at an unprecedented rate.

"It was mind-blowing to be there and it is clearly time we pulled our finger out and decided these bicycles are worth us saving," said Dr Jim R. aka MiamiJim who headed the expedition.

The team of cyclist aficonados included experts from www.CyclesPeugeot.com, www.jaysmarine.com aka 'The headbadge" and the bicycle forum and are believed to be the first cycling aficonados to enter the mountainous Bosavi crater. They were joined by members of the BBC Cycling History Unit and Hillary Stone whoilmed the expedition for a three-part documentary which starts tomorrow night.

They found the three-kilometre wide crater populated by spectacular leather seats and in the absence of single speeds and fixed gears, which are found in the remote alley ways of Seattle and Portland, the main bikes are giant lugged steelies while aluminum models havn't evolved. New models include a camouflaged military P15 Paramount, a fanged toothed chainring and a bulb horn called the Henamo grunter, named because it makes grunting noises from its twin bladder.

"These discoveries are really significant," said Kurt, an opinionated Paramount fan who became so friendly with the never-before seen gold ornate lugs, a design lost to the history books that it brought tears.

"The streets are getting congested with Drew'd frames and it is getting very hard to find one off unhacked lugged frames"