Hope Technology and Lotus Engineering have unveiled their exciting cycling collaboration – an innovative new track bike designed to help the Great Britain Cycling Team (GBCT) achieve their best possible performances in the hunt for medals at next summer’s Olympic Games.
The bike will be on display this week at London’s Rouleur Classic event and makes its competitive debut with the GBCT in Minsk this weekend. Riders have been testing the bike in secret over recent weeks, and will continue their evaluation with a view to racing on it at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Hope has been designing, creating, manufacturing and testing innovative components for bikes at its Lancashire HQ for 30 years. Countless British bikes and riders have benefitted from Hope products and today the business exports around half of its output. After years of success in racing, it has recently moved into making complete, ready-to-ride bikes.
To create the frame and wheels, Hope developed a revolutionary manufacturing process that enables them to reduce the weight of the wheels, therefore resetting the stiffness-versus-weight balance usually found in disc wheels.
This move into carbon fibre design and manufacture came at a perfect time for Hope with the opportunity to develop the frame, named HB.T and the revolutionary wheels. It allowed them to take the initial aero concepts worked on by the English Institute of Sport and progress them further alongside Lotus into a potential race-winning bike, available for anyone to purchase.
The collaboration between Hope and Lotus to produce the bike has been supported by Renishaw, the global engineering technologies company, which has contributed its 3D printing expertise throughout the development process.
Ian Weatherill, Managing Director, Hope Technology, said: “We have created the frame using high modulus composites with fabric woven in UK, the in-house team has unrivalled engineering expertise with 30 years of composite experience and two Olympics behind them. Together we have refined the manufacturing method to make a superior product.”
Lotus Engineering is an internationally recognised automotive consultancy division of Group Lotus, best known globally for its iconic British performance cars. Its innovation and expertise has been seen in many sectors of industrial design, from aerospace and medical research to furniture and boat-building.
Lotus Engineering has designed the front forks and handlebars for the new bike, working with Hope to integrate these components into the overall package. This has included a full programme of wind tunnel evaluation on both bike and rider, plus testing to minimise the weight while maximising the strength. Lotus has also worked on improving stiffness and front end feel to boost rider confidence.
To qualify to be ridden at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the bike’s design must be approved by the UCI and it must be ridden during the 2019/2020 Tissot UCI Track Cycling World Cup series by the GBCT before the end of 2019. It means the bike will be ridden by British Cycling athletes at the Minsk-Arena velodrome, Belarus this weekend (1-3 November). UK cycling fans will be able to see it in action on home ground for the first time at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Glasgow, the following weekend (8-10 November).
The HB.T frame and wheels will be available to order via Hope from 1 January 2020. For enquiries, email info@hopetech.com
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