The British Secret In The Velodrome – Round Wheels
The French are getting a bit uppity about the British bikes in the velodrome.
The British have joked that they use round wheels and the French have swallowed the story, hook, line and sinker. Read about it here in the Standard.
But I doubt, that the story is very far from the truth. Even your car from humble run-arounds upwards, has its wheels properly balanced, at manufacture and when new tyres are fitted. We’ve all been in cars, where there has been vibration because of out-of-balance wheels.
So I suspect that British cycling has borrowed from Formula One and other industries that spin things fast, and developed extremely accurate roundness and balance sensing for bicycle wheels. So they run straighter and truer than the best the French can do!
I didn’t do the work myself, but forty years ago, I worked in a department at Plastics Division of ICI, that did a lot of calculations in this area, to try to stop vibrations in chemical vessels. So the theory is nothing new.
It is the application of technology to bicycles, helmets and other things, that have given the British the edge. I doubt that cycling is the only sport to have benefited either!
The Anonymous Widower 
Team GB . . . performances, results, winning margins, PBs & Medals . . . is much more just the Dynamic Round Wheel Technology . . . During the past 4 years, Oz had many Team GB Coaches & Teams working / visiting our best Sporting Facilities.
You can be assured, that Team GB did the same investigations World Wide . . . bringing Team GB . . . up to the World’s Best Practice as the Baseline Starting POINT . . . Now ADD GB Creative Thinking & Technology . . . the get the funding to support the Coaches & Teams in Team GB.
This will explain not only the attention to detail of Dynamic Design of Wheels . . . but also the Physiology of getting Better Starts, etc. This was called in OZ, how Team GB focused on the 1%’s . . . making sure that every minor / minute improvement was resolved . . . working very hard on these small issues.
Look at how many OZ Silver Medals were lost to USA . . . lost on the Tumble Turns. USA spent a lot of hard work optimising the Tumble Turn Standards for the whole team . . . whereas in OZ, the tumble turn was left to the swimmer & the personal coach.
Team GB focused on the 1%’s . . . those “X” Factor Items . . . this will be a part of GB Psyche, and the dawn of New Attitude for all GB for a long time . . . have tasting the sweet success . . . all GB, want more of the same.
Comment by Steam Lover | August 8, 2012 |
Mate you sound like a secret agent with paranoia coming up with all these theorys i cannot belive you actually think this is true. Us british take this as a compliment an we laugh at you.
Comment by Katy | August 14, 2012 |
Paraoid Moi! Lonely maybe!
Comment by AnonW | August 14, 2012 |