tombeej Posted June 13, 2016 Share During the recent Critérium du Dauphiné in France, we started hearing news that French TV were about to announce a big scoop in the latest saga about motorised doping in cycling. For those who haven't been following this story, start here: France Television programme Stade 2 has alleged that the UCI worked to disrupt a police investigation into mechanical doping during last year’s Tour de France. According to the programme, which was broadcast on Sunday, police spoke with the UCI last July to discuss reports that a ‘Hungarian’ had been trying to sell motors during the 2015 Tour. Read the full article here. intern 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tombeej Posted June 13, 2016 Share Now the company at the centre of this story is Typhoon Bicycles. I went onto their website and I have to say it's my personal belief that this is the scariest threat to cycling in the history of this sport. Do yourself a favour and have a look at their website. Typhoon Bicycles Ltd is a new company, inspired by cyclists, developed by F1 engineers and borrowing from traditional frame building skills. We're based in Monte Carlo. Each bike features the newly patented Typhoon E-Assist Technology which is built into each frame and offers up to 250 watts of power. We will soon be offering a range of production city bikes and MTB’s along with our lightweight road bikes. But if you want to be unique why not get your own custom built Typhoon? Edited June 13, 2016 by tombeej Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tombeej Posted June 13, 2016 Share So this is where things are headed in our sport. The natural progression here is that we'll be lining up in our racing batches for our favourite local race, and among us will be a whole bunch of riders with these Typhoon bikes (and similar brands) . I've heard there are new technologies coming out that will catch these motors very easily, and from a relative distance. But that's for the pros. How are we going to expect your local race organiser to have the budget and capacity to police thousands of amateur bikes in a race? Seriously, if we get to this point I will probably give up competing for good. What's the point? BigDL, Milkman and VolkAdik 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shaper Posted June 13, 2016 Share Seems easy to spot one of these even if rebranded as the water bottle is much higher up the seat tube, I guess as they cannot have it where it should be because of the motor. Scary indeed if filters down to local races Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tombeej Posted June 13, 2016 Share Coming to a local bike race near you, buy it straight off the shelf (if you've got the money). Motorised road bike with 250 watts of onboard power. Go from zero to Cavendish at the touch of a button. Your mates will be so jealous of you! Wow. gummibear 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iwan Kemp Posted June 13, 2016 Share FYI Gary Anderson, the F1 connection, is HIGHLY rated in F1. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tombeej Posted June 13, 2016 Share Seems easy to spot one of these even if rebranded as the water bottle is much higher up the seat tube, I guess as they cannot have it where it should be because of the motor. Scary indeed if filters down to local races If that is the case (and I'm not sure why) then they'll fix that in no time. Next level is when we have a whole industry of Chinese-made motorised racing bike frames. Dogmas, Treks, Scotts... all re-branded frames ready to race in the CTCT or 94.7..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veebee Posted June 13, 2016 Share oh cr@p. Definitely going to kill the competitiveness if they become easily available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmptyB Posted June 13, 2016 Share Would any of the teams at the TDF be so stupid or brazen as to actually deal with the Hungarian and start buying these motorised bikes from the guy?? .....or am I being doff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gummibear Posted June 13, 2016 Share Coming to a local bike race near you, buy it straight off the shelf (if you've got the money). Motorised road bike with 250 watts of onboard power. Go from zero to Cavendish at the touch of a button. Your mates will be so jealous of you! Wow.Just wondering how SARTO feel about there frames getting used or if they knew what they were intended for. http://www.sartoantonio.com/en/bicycles/category/bicycles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bonus Posted June 13, 2016 Share Waiting for the first Grand Tour rider to be busted with a motor in his bike. That's a bust that no one could possibly slip out of. I guess the answer would be to swap bikes due to say, a puncture, towards the end of a stage . . . ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mntboy Posted June 13, 2016 Share Would any of the teams at the TDF be so stupid or brazen as to actually deal with the Hungarian and start buying these motorised bikes from the guy?? .....or am I being doff?Not a huge leap to suggest that some would definitely consider it. Certainly wouldn't put it past Astana's Vinokourov. He is as dodgy as all hell. Wouldn't trust him to make the right ethical and moral choice. What might, and I hope will, in fact discourage teams from doing so is the higher than usual placing of the water bottle cage on the downtube of the bike. That said we are relying on the morals of people and not all will necessarily make the right choice to not cheat but we can hope that they will. Sent from my GT-S6790 using Tapatalk EmptyB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mntboy Posted June 13, 2016 Share If that is the case (and I'm not sure why) then they'll fix that in no time. Next level is when we have a whole industry of Chinese-made motorised racing bike frames. Dogmas, Treks, Scotts... all re-branded frames ready to race in the CTCT or 94.7.....Not an engineer but the placing of the battery I think has much to do with the size of the motor within the downtube. So for them to adequately lower the placing they would need to miniaturise the motor while keeping it as efficient as before. Doable but it will take time and investment from smart minds like Gary Anderson. Sent from my GT-S6790 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pe3nguin Posted June 13, 2016 Share Smaller motors are hardly gonna be a deal breaker. 250 watts seems excessive. Give me 50 extra watts for 20 minutes and I'm in a whole new league of bike riders. gummibear, Ryno., Morwa and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malpiet Posted June 13, 2016 Share At that price I dont think we will see many if any visiting our shores anytime soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gummibear Posted June 13, 2016 Share At that price I dont think we will see many if any visiting our shores anytime soonActually think you would see quite a few in the 40-50 age group and not the Pros. tombeej, Andrew Steer, VolkAdik and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now