Low Profile Timeline?

[FINNEY1973]

Just wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction....

I'm trying to get a chronological timeline for the low profile / pursuit frame. The points i'm trying to establish...

1] Principally at what point in time did they become into being?
2] Did the first frames all have the 24" front wheel?
3] When did the 650c front become the norm?
4] Did competition rules dictate points 2 & 3 above?
5] Why did they go from a sloping top-tube to a horizontal top-tube and was the intervening period when we saw curved tubes?
6] What year did they cease being allowed in competition?

Any insider knowledge or links would be greatly appreciated

Cheers All.

 

[Midlife]

I time trialled into the late 70's and all the usual suspects (engers,Adkins, queen, pyne.......) all had normal bikes. However I did come across a couple of lo-pro's destined for track use, mainly by welding the bars somewhere down the head tube or in top of the fork crown.

Shaun

 

[PANZR]

Great questions and I would like to know the answers to them also...being the funny-bike fan that I am

I think you'll have a hard time finding facts though as I've searched the web myself for the truth many times
There are so many conflicting ideas and opinions on the matter

Some reports claim the aero revolution began with Mosers 1984 Mexico hour record feat then the LA Olympics with the US track team but, I thinks it's more likely the Moscow Olympics and the eastern block countries that kicked things off

The semi-low-pro steel Colnago Tony Rominger used to set his first hour record in '94 was rumoured to have been one of the frames used by the Soviet track team in the Moscow Olympics...while it's a 700/700 frame I would still call it a low-pro with it's aero tubing, tall seat tube, low top-tube and short head-tube

I don't think there was any 'one' major step but, more a series of small improvements and ideas built on something else
I would even call disc wheels and aero bars small steps

 

[FINNEY1973]

Re:

Interesting, so if Shaun is saying that early incarnations (home made i'm assuming) started to appear in the late 70's would there have been rules / stipulations saying what or was not allowed? Or did the racing bodies react to the bikes people where taking to events and started to allow certain aspects i.e. bars mounted via the headtube.

At some point, rim makers must have been allowed to produce & sell 24" rims so what prompted that? Did the governing body give the thumbs up to it? I've got a Mavic CX18 24" which according to velobase was a 1970's rim?

Given today's pro race bikes are so prescribed, I'm trying to keep an open mind as to a time when people where allowed to experiment with what they felt would give an advantage, thus leading to the pursuit type frame.

The internet has plenty of information, but none if it is really defined by dates which is infuriating! Interesting that you make a nod towards the Eastern Block Panzr - many images on the web are from that part of the world and I have a Juna Disc wheel that has a Continental LA Olympic tubular - no idea if it's as old as the wheel but if it is that would make it 1984. And herein lies my next line of enquiry, track lo-pro frames and where they started to merge into road events.

 

[monty dog]

AFAIK is was Moser's hour bike that started the lo-pro trend and it was the tri-bar that effectively put the end to the low pro by the mid 1990s - you did see a few low pros with tri-bars, but the small front wheel did nothing for the handling.
650c wheels were popular with the triathlon crowd in the 1990s
Juna wheels were distributed by Mike Dyason in the 1990s too

 

[Ian Raleigh]

Do you want me to put these questions on a facebook page I go ?

 

[Ian Raleigh]

Do you want me to put these questions on a facebook page I go ?

Went ahead anyway!

One response....

Take all of this with a grain of salt, but I'd say the very first 'funny bikes' could be attributed to the East Germans in the late 70's. They would often attach the upturned 'cow horn' bars to the fork crown. Moser's hour record in 84 turned it up a notch, and by 1985 pretty much all top level time trials were contested on funny bikes. Sometime in the late 90's the UCI mandated equal size wheels, and some years later USA cycling followed suit. As far as curved tubes go, Moser's bikes took it about as far as you could go.

http://lopro.blogspot.co.uk/

 

[FINNEY1973]

Re:

That would add more arrows to the bow so yes please Ian...cheers - edit, just seen you've had a response. Please keep adding anything else that comes back

I found this on the Argos Cycles website:
1979 - Low Profile Time Trial frames were developed.
1980 - Small front wheel Low Profile designed.

There is also some decent images of riders on lo-pros on the Langdale website - i'm trying to tie dates to images and riders names - not had much success though :roll:

 

[Midlife]

I'll post a scan from a 1979 cycling mag of a typical home made lo-pro later

Shaun

 

[Ian Raleigh]

Lo Pro's are pretty old school you know! Remembered about this picture I have, so you may want to reconsider the time line