Bike Design Restrictions for the Pro Tour

Submitted by David on

Good article today in the New York Times about bicycle design. From the article:

Professional cycling is in a heated struggle among its governing body, its teams and the companies that manufacture expensive equipment over what is a legal racing bike.

The International Cycling Union abruptly alerted teams at the start of this season that it intends to clarify and reinterpret its often oblique rules governing bicycle design through increased equipment inspections.

The announcement was an unwelcome surprise. Bicycles and accessories may be banned within weeks. That could leave teams scrambling to find new bikes for top riders, and the manufacturers could find it harder to sell their merchandise.

Go here for the rest of the article.

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2 Comments

needs less restrictions.

Submitted by veganboyjosh (not verified) on

I think the overall world of cycling would be served better by less restrictions in this regard.

Where would cycling and bike designs be if the powers that be had never banned recumbent bikes from racing back in the day? What improvements in pedal to power efficiency would have been tried and tested by this point if manufacturers had been allowed and encouraged to innovate instead of limiting their designs to a set of tight restrictions, which just push them all to create similar designs?