Uci
 

It appears to me that the UCI are a bunch of hypocrites. They ban recumbents, but they allow all the new plastic CF bikes with their streamlining. If they really wanted to remain pure they would decree that all frame tubes would be round, just like in the past.

The UCI was on the take from big bike mfg back in 1934 when they banned bents, and now appear to be on the take from all the big bike mfg now, so they can sell their extremely high priced plastic CF bikes.

The UCI is probably the greatest impediment to bicycle design and advancement these days.

Alternative designs, aero, drivetrain. All have been hindered by UCI in one form or another.

In automobile racing there are classes and formulas (formulae?). Open wheel, closed body, aero-aids, non-aero aids, weight restrictions, weight minimums, the old can-am-racing series of the 1960s/'70s had no limit to engine displacement, yet required a passenger seat but didn't require a passenger. And then there's NASCAR's exacting requirements, cloaked in faux sedan bodies...essentially funny cars that turn and bake.

The UCI is free to set whatever rules they want. If I were a recumbent race promoter, I would tout the higher average speeds. I've seen videos of recumbent races.

Anyways, the UCI is all about money...so what?

As I'd bet less than 1% of bikes that are purchased ever see UCI competition, manufacturers could build any sort of bike or components they wanted, if people would buy it. Fact is, most won't. Most don't want some ridiculously shaped bike. Heck, take bents as a perfect example, while not complying with UCI rules, they are made in relatively large numbers, and few ride them.

What a racing series deemed allowable really has no bearing on the public. Thinking that a racing series shouldn't have rules on what is allowable in competition is silly. I want to see the best riders win, not the best technology. I dont' want to debate whether it is Team Sky riders or some weird oddball bikes that enables them to win, I am perfectly happy arguing whether they are the best or the best at doping :thumb:

Hey, why not recumbent racing? But then why not go for full aero? Velomobile racing! Then we just need to figure out how to make 'em faster. Put motors in 'em! Woops, just made auto racing again.

Guys over 60 can't climb the mountains and guys under 60 won't be caught dead riding a bent.

You want Bonneville speed weeks on the salt flats, SCTA. (electric motor bikes)
IHPVA for human powered bikes..


but, Note , Chris Froome won enough money to move to Monaco,

UCI Controls the races where the Millions of dollars are Made, and Spent..

Just not much of it is in US.. so kids move to compete..

The UCI is a private organization and free to do whatever they want regardless of whether anyone agrees with them.

If they are on the take then they have been led there by a long list of sports organizations who's mission is to generate as much money as possible without regard to morality or legality.

As a purely practical matter, few want to watch recumbent racing.


-Tim-

Now by contrast, the paracycling event at the local race is one of my favorites to watch, especially handcycles. Thanks in equal parts to aero, and arms the size of legs, the handcycle guys are as fast as the Women's Pro division.

Those hypocrites don't allow recumbent TRICYCLES EITHER. The NERVE of them!

What? Are you telling us that you don't want 30 feet of chain?

Racing has no bearing on the public? C'mon you're in the automotive industry. Of course it does. Granted it may take time and granted still, a very small population of bikes ever make it into UCI competition, but that does not discount the fact that bike manufacturers do design around UCI regs and this technology does eventually trickle down to the masses. When you look at all the "halo" bikes from the major manufacturers they are all designed to be able to enter UCI competitions.

This trickle down effect filters down to the amateur racers --> road bikes etc. Take for example, the (over)emphasis on weight. It's pretty well accepted that weight is not as important a factor as aerodynamics but cyclists are infatuated with the weight because this is what the UCI emphasizes (and yes, I know there are production bikes that weigh less than the UCI weight minimum). There have been lots of bike designs that incorporated fairings and aerodynamics, that IMO looked REALLY cool. Except it will never make it out of the concept stage because the ROI would make it impractical without race dollars, and they can't do that while trying to comply with UCI rules.

Probably one of my favorite examples is from Specialized's designer. A concept called the fUCI
https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.gear...3-1024x683.jpg

Now imagine something like that in a race. Fairings would get adopted almost overnight, trickling down the racing ranks and eventually onto a commuter.

Electric motors are STILL viewed as taboo by many cyclists. A small, "burst" type assist motor powered by an ultracapacitor would keep things relatively low weight and would add another dimension to a race would get cyclists. I mean it's not like they're not using this in competition already, lol.

With recumbents, I think the challenge there is that they don't resemble what most people think of as a bike and also presents some challenges that make it unsuitable for the masses, namely packaging (space) and low visibility.

I get it with the wanting to see the athlete perform not the tech but with the UCI that doesn't hold true either does it? I mean when a smarter racer (Graeme Obree) figured out that a nice compact tuck position was more aero and thus faster broke the speed record, they banned the position. The bike he did it on looked waaaaaay different from what was accepted as "racing" bike.

That monstrosity isn't street legal. It just isn't.

There are minimums for tire clearance--and there's no way that rig meets it. BMC, just lst month had a CPSC recall over the issue.

Fairings, like that, look futuristic...until you see traction sand/gravel. AKA real crappy actual roads in real actual life.

If you don't like what the UCI does, you could always start your own recumbent racing league or join one that already exists.

Zzipper has been selling Fairings for bicycles for decades,
I used one in the early 90's on a 12 mile commute .

I've seen plenty of females on the bike path here riding bents. Though not racing, not a one had a beard.

There are always outliers.

The bottom line.

The human-powered-only land speed records are set by people pedalling bicycles like this (around 83mph on flat ground with no wind):
https://qph.fs.quoracdn.net/main-qim...ca8b2acaf.webp
https://www.popsci.com/sites/popsci....9daxo&fc=50,50

Probably the people running the bike races looked at this and went "well no one is going to want to watch eggs on wheels racing, so we need to put more fine grained restrictions on what you can race" (more fine grained than "human powered only").

While I'd personally like to see some level of fairings that might work with bikes for average people, I can understand the UCI just not wanting to get into a debate over how to define different fairings and instead go with "no fairings at all".

& now use cameras and tablet screens, instead of windows,
to see where they are going..

Competition has become one between University Engineering departments, lately..





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Recumbent riders--don't take this slight lying down!

And that thing looks more like a sex toy than an egg.

No, they are a non profit private organization, founded out of love for the sport and made big by unpaid enthousiasts. They have moral and legal obligations to act in the interest of the sport, just like Fifa, the IOC and the Welsh Netball Association.

If they allow bike technology to be important for the outcome, they are changing the nature of the sport. Bike industry interests shouldn't be any consideration.

Ironically, those watching DF bike racing are often recumbent or reclining, at least when watching on TV.

Good one!

To be even more practical, relatively few people in North America want to watch any kind of bicycle racing, live or on TV. Probably even fewer give a darn about anything related to UCI rules or the existence of recumbents.