The Bike That Changed Everything | The Lotus 110 Superbike: So Fast They Banned It
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- Опубліковано 2 гру 2024
- The Lotus 110, a bike so fast that the UCI banned it. Ahead of it's time the super bike became an icon after it was ridden to Olympic Gold and Tour de France stage victories by Chris Boardman in the 90's. Jon explains all...
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What do you think of the Lotus sport bike? Is it hot or not? 🔥
Special thanks to Paul Greasley, Simon Freebrey, Mark Boyles, Golden Age Cycles, Lotus Silverstone, Bicester Heritage and the Lotus 110 Owners Club
Photographer credits:
Graham Watson
Bettini
Mavic
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Imagine if not for regulations we would all be riding bikes like this design now......... that does make me a bit sad to be honest, love those bikes!
Yeah these regulations is just limiting engineering progress...
Cost might be an issue
I can remember test riding, back in the mid 90's, a Specialized road bike with a "Y" shape carbon fibre frame. I believe it's name came from the frame shape. The bikes are still out there if you can find one.
I honestly think that if it weren't for regulations, recumbent bikes would have taken over the road racing scene.
Someone develop a well engineered machine eventually people discuss about it and put new rules. In the first why we develop newer machine if we're just going to banned it
Can you imagine showing up to your Saturday group ride on one of these. That'd be so sick.
imagine flexing with your bicycle XDDDD
Did that with my Ridley Dean 2009 model. ;)
Can you imagine showing up on Sunday with this video on your recommended
and then getting laughed at for not even knowing how to mount your brake pads...
Lotus engineers missed the clear opportunity to introduce the Esprit 007 road bike, which could also go underwater. That’s what people in the 90s were really waiting for.
oxygen tank in the thick tubing, rocket lounger in the time-trial bars....... I think it's already there ;)
They could call it the AmphibiLotus
I'm still waiting!
Imagine the Triathlon potential of riding the swim stage and emerging all ready on your bike!! Missed opportunity indeed
I don't know what you're talking about, I see them every day, amphi-shopping carts too, what else are they doing at the bottom of London's canals?
Great presentation of an iconic bike, thanks for all the details and the enthusiasm. Proud to own one of these and you've really done it justice. Amazing that they're 25 years old.
Jon is hands down the best presenter for a bike like this. His excitement really comes through. I can’t believe he got to ride it too!
I have one of those Mavic 3G front wheels. I bought it from a guy in Australia a long time ago (late 90's/early 2000's), he shipped it to me in North Carolina and it is currently in my bedroom. I love looking at it, I've never had the appropriate bike to put it on. I just wanted that wheel. I polish it once in a while just to make it shiny and look at the carbon.
Do you know if it would be possible to machine a hub with disc brake mounts for the 3g wheels
@@olimast9893 Probably but the engineering involved would be trial & error. I'm not aware of anyone who does this or has done this. You might be the first!
Best video ever!!!!!! I touched the lotus at the start of de timetrial between Huy and Seraing in the tour de France of 1995.Pure Magic!!! I started cycling and only 6 years later I was a pro cyclist myself! Great memories!
Thank you, Jon, for shining your light on this bike and I so admire all that Lotus did in motor car racing under the genius of Mr. Colin Chapman. I've been watching Lotus history vids here on UA-cam, and in the comments under one of them, an insider shared that back in the day, they called Mr. Chapman "Chunky" because, as they were designing and fabricating parts, he was always imploring them to take another chunk off. And it certainly worked. And Mr. Chapman invented the monocoque race car chassis, even hanging rear suspension parts off the engine block in back. And one of his famous quotes is: "Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere." And another: "Simplify, then add lightness."
Cheers
I still use those Mavic pedals. Utterly superb. 25years old, replaced bearings about 10 years ago, smooth as butter, the float for someone like me with long standing knackered knees is absolutely brilliant.
It really is a beautiful bike.
Great to see Cannings with all the excitement and wonder of a wee boy on a school trip. JC is made for these films.
Cheers mate. It's something that means a lot to me right now.
More Jon and Olly on the tech show please! Love your banter together.
Always loved Lotus 110... Cool Kirk Precision @4:19 orange fade bike with structural frame.
Would love to see a GCN/GMBN Special Jon vs Doddy. Both have build up a bike on the same budget and afterwards the net votes who came up with the best build.
Great video John, I love these historical pieces about iconic bikes, do please make more of them?
I just love the old school track bikes.. with the fork
handle bars and everything.
Back in the day the bike shop I worked at had one of these frame and fork sets in stock! IIrc the forks alone cost about £500! The shop was a Lotus dealer and we had all the mountain bikes in stock too. The alloy framed Lotus bikes were actually made by Merida.
In my opinion the Flite was one of the most uncomfortable saddles of the time. I found the Flite Carbon to be much better as the un-padded shell was much more flexible.
Is it just me, or did anyone else notice that the bars were slightly off centre?
One question though: why did it take "hours" to route the cables? Just go down to your local toy shop and buy a magnet. Then you can use that to pull the inner wire through the frame, as it's a carbon frame, and non-magnetic. Either that or you could buy the Park Tools internal cable routing kit, if you want something that'll do any internal routing (it even does Di2). No, I'm not sponsored by Park, we just use these in the bike shop I work in and they've saved hours of hassle in the months that we've had them.
Vacuuming was a pretty good idea.
jon such a lovely history lesson, great effort. thanks
I've been waiting for this for years. Such a wonderful treat! Thank you so much for sharing this.
Great video Jon, you’ve done the Lotus 110 proud. Lovely to have met you. Simon
Cheers mate
I especially like Jon's fun and excitement when riding the bike.
Beautiful! And Jon, I love your enthusiasm for the technical! I'm a total fan!
thanks mate. Jon
This is not a bike, it's a piece of history! Awesome video
I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen Jon even ride a bike.
Me too!
@@anonayhann and me!
I'm sure I remember him from doing Prems back in the day.
I tought he only ride tricycle
Can we get a video of Jon's bike collection pls
You keep hinting at your garage being a right old treasure trove
First Poland, now Lotus.. really interesting historical content and a nod to Boardman The Great! Wicked JC
cheers, Jon
It was and still is the most identifiable bike ever created since the big wheel of the 1800's . I share that amazed childlike enthusiasm over this bike with You Sir ! Thanks for the great video ! Bon travail !!!!
Jon absolutely killing it again! Cracking bike and great video mate!
Thanks
The GCN greatest bike check ever
thanks! Jon
I seem to recall that the Zap system is powered by a small dynamo in the upper jockey wheel... That's why you have to pedal to make it work
Was it IR signal back then? Radio signal? How did the button communicate with the derailure
@@ting280 the original Zap system was wired. The later Mekatronic was wireless and was more temperamental, picking up interference from other sources like police radar guns
@@TMGE1967 thank you
Wouldn’t a dynamo take away a fraction of power otherwise used to go faster
It doesn’t have a dynamo. The changer switch controls a battery-powered solenoid which engages the jockey wheel, then the rider’s pedalling action changes the gear. The battery is tiny and goes inside the bar end.
I don’t say it often, but this one was a great video, great side details and I haven’t spotted any factual error.
I've always been the one to say that bikes are made to be ridden, but I'd keep this one in a glass case and just stare at it all day. Simply beautiful and what an incredible level of technology on it...
That Lotus bike is so super duper hyper ultra nice!
I love it!
i am still in love with this bike. It is good to see such a bike nerd describe parts i have never noticed myself. best GCN video ever
What a beautiful piece of design and engineering! Changeable wheel hubs. Brilliant! I was drooling through most of the video.
I can remember the days when a 42x21 was the smallest we had. We just ground our way up hills. Suntour brought out a 23 in around 1986 or 87 & we thought we were in heaven 12-23 7 speed. Those were the days.
Awesome story. This bike is the kind of things James Bond would use in a movie
Great video Jon and that bike is out of this world.
When I first started doing club TTs these monocoque style bikes were all the rage. The Corima carbon TT frame was popular and I still have my Giant MCR!
Raced my first triathlon in 95 and a new Zealand athlete had one, ( a pro) . What a bike
So amazing. I’m so glad that these bikes have been preserved. So few were ever made in the first place. Cycling history.
Jon please do a video on Graeme Obree's Old Faithful
I second that!
More pioneering then people throwing millions into massively cpu engineered aerodynamics (for the time). Compared to someone who actually pioneered new positions and aerodynamic riders as well as the bike.
Yes please!
Exactly what I came to comment! Graeme is such a fascinating person and I’m sure he’d be up for helping with a video.
Endura clothing did a video with him, top prove what a genius he was. It's on UA-cam
I had Mavic brakehandles on my first bike. They where great. Better to hold on to than any modern ones !
Jon: "I've never noticed that on these Mavic bars before."
Ollie: "Imagine racing your mates to the coffee shop on this aero bike."
Still one of the most beautiful bikes ever conceived in my opinion, I'd love the own one just to look at it in my living room
Old specialized tri spokes were also front and rear compatible. Love the bike! Also those mavic bars were always one piece and mavic/ Boardman cut his into 2 separate extensions.
Another Lotus in the background “a S2”. The Lotus S1 (shown) was such a good car, it is still sort after as a track car today, as it is super light, and fitted with a Type R Honda supercharged engine is incredible quick putting out 400BHP in a 700kg car!
Would love one of this Lotus bikes to match my Lotus Exige. I also have a Australian AIS RMIT made “Superbike” which has a similar frame. It also was banned by the UCI as was the Lotus bike in the mid to late 90s
I went to a talk about the bike by the designer years ago. The thing that I found funny was the helmet design, racing rules stated that you had to were a helmet but not that it had to be safe. So they made a highly aerodynamic helmet that offered little saftey benefit but helped improve performance.
Beautiful Bike. Great video, more like this!
I remember Boardman catching Luc Leblanc for 1 min on a 6 k course!
so do i
In a 7.8km course.....unheard of and indicative of just what an advantage the Lotus bike was.....ironically, Luc had publicly said any member of the peloton could break the 1 hour record on a Lotus bike earlier 😂
@@TheFreebrey 7.8k I stand corrected... Legay leaning out the car window mocking LeBlanc's DS in his following car was pretty funny too. That said few could match Boardman's position to take advantage of the bike never mind put out the Watts
That would have happened anyway.
Great presentation by JC of an incredible bike
JC is absolutely going to explode, on camera, during one of these videos....a bit excited...
Outstanding, fallen off time bike, the lotus sport.
Would you make a video about the zipp beam-bikes, too? Or the cheetah?^^ Or the softride? I ride the roadwing team version, and its comfort is incomparable. Thank you GCN for making videos about retro bikes and tech. I got a heart for you ❤
Love the lotus but Jon did you notice that those rear brake blocks were in backwards, one good stop and they’ll be ripped right out of there. OMG I hope they notice actually
huh, good catch! At least it's the bolt-on block variety.
Rod Diaz it’s a bolt on yes but cartridge style, didn’t you notice the set screw and open back cartridge block
John be like, "I'd probably get killed by the owner, as well as the fact that I could never afford to replace it....."
Ride it at the end of the video anyway
Yeah that was about two different things, taking the RD apart and riding the bike.
Inorite? ...and wobbling around on tiny clipless pedals in regular sneakers to boot.
Gears were grinding like crazy
Great video Jon!
This project and the records broken on it got me hooked into bikes and engineering.
Has the cycling tech world even caught up with some of the features on this bike?
didnt you see Si's hyper bike vid?
The Lotus is about 5w slower than a modern top of the range tt bike
I used to ride 13-18 and 42/52 back in the day lol
6:09 the brake pad shoes are the wrong way around 😱
more clearly at 13:43
love the presenters geniune enthusiasm here. nice vid!
UCI banned this unique design. The FIA acts the same way, getting into the way of any innovation: Brabham BT46 . It got phased out in 1976 due to the feelings of the competitors got hurt .
Had a couple of the lotus bikes at Derby velodrome earlier this year. Great to see them and race around the track with them at the same time .
Amazing bike. I didn’t know mavic used to do groupsets, looks like they were very much advanced, what a shame they stopped
Greg LeMond used a Mavic gruopset in 1989.
I still use a Mavic MTB rear mech which frankly was and is excellent and is totally serviceable, Mavic gear levers and the same Flite titanium saddle.
My motto always was 'buy well, buy once'.
I remember this bike when it came out. It was so radical it was shocking to people watching the TDF. Also remember Big Mig riding a super-aero Pinarello just smashing people in the TT stages. They banned them later on, which is a shame. The bikes were so cool and drew a lot of attention to cycling. I think maybe UCI should have allowed some of the radical aero stuff for TT stages just to keep that level of interest and excitement of the time.
Also, great vid, BTW!
Rules hampering innovation in cycling? Never! - this bike is so ahead of its time and genius designers like Mike Burrows, Moulton etc are still thwarted by the UCI dinosaurs.
Pls continue the fixie project i really want to See more of the fixie 😐👍🏻
I agree... I'd love to see more fixed/SS videos from the channel!!!
just think that bike is an " old " bike and yet still in the 2019/20 era of cutting edge tech it still looks futuristic and out of this world!!
The 108, and this bike, and Chris Boardman himself were my contemporaries, and are pretty much the reason I am a cyclist. God I love those bikes.
What a time to be a cyclist
Thanks for the 14 minutes of pure bike porn. I love it.I just wish they made a few more of them as they are so iconic.
Trivia: Mike Burrows is also responsible for the original (and slightly controversial) sloping top tube, compact geometry Giant TCR.
Mike is a friend of mine.....the compact frame is a TT frame turned upside down. Seriously, his brain works in a completely different realm 😎👍
Mike Burrows is a fantastic engineer and innovater. He still designs bikes, mostly recumbents these days. What is even more special is that he also still races them. Last year I got to race him and was actually exstatic that I overtook a 75 year old man (I'm 47). There was also a celebration with a parade of Mike Burrows designs and an interview : ua-cam.com/video/OgQ-e2lBIug/v-deo.html
Mike Burrows also attended a reunion of Sport 110s at the Lotus factory last September and got chatting to the new Lotus CEO, who is a keen cyclist. We crossed our fingers for the re-kindling of a collaboration!
He is currently focusing on helping out Team GB with their Paralympic wheelchairs. I wonder how long it is until his designs get banned 😉
Great job on this one! This bike really opened my eyes to cycling beyond the BMX racing I was doing here in the states. I now live on Boulder Colorado and there is a Lotus at Pro's Closet I will go stare at! Thanks for the great content! BTW cant wait for my GCN water bottle I won with the Coppi!
Thanks!
John, Please, please, please do a tech review of Lemond's 89 tour time trial bike. He had a lot of that same Mavic gear including those TT bars. Most importantly, can you look into the exact technical specs on the shims that Otto Jacome built that kept the aero extensions from slipping?
You should do a follow on about how this bike was the inspiration for the Giant MCR. I worked on the inspiration for the MCR with Mike Burrows.
I still have a Giant MCR. The only thing I changed is swapping out the original drop bars for HED aero bars.
Those brakes are identical to Dia-Compe BRS 500. I had a set when I was a kid. Did Mavic create them or Dia Compe? (I think the brake levers were the same, too.) Thanks
I have to be honest, I prefer the Lotus 108 to the 110. It’s more pure because it’s a track bike. Brings out the crazy monocoque style a bit better.
Last September I went to a lotus event with my uncle. I saw this bike at like a museum type thing. Now I realise it’s a famous bike.
The 80s and 90s was the time for bike innovation. All these came from thus era. Aero wheels and rims, SIS gearing, Carbon fibre, titanium frames, clipless pedals, triathalon bars, trathalon bikes, aero spokes, hidden brake and gear cables from Campagnolo. Aero seat poles, aero water bottles. The list goes on.
it goes back to 1930s and before it. when recumbent and fairings were allowed
Your absolutely right. It was this combination of carbonfibers, electronics, triathlon getting big and a naive hope that UCI would get their head out of the 1920's, that catapulted inovation. I think French conservatism is to prevalent in UCI as a whole !
@@iberiksoderblom Nope. French were innovative as the recumbent and fairing proved.
@@taufikabidin412 technologically yes, but I still find UCI (just look at the name) to be a stronghold for conservative French cycling-culture. More Americans on the board could be good, maybe. And getting the French/Marocans/Belgians/Spanish/Italians out.
#gcntech I watched this 3 times! This was really ahead of it's time for sure!
Superb bike presented superbly by the ever superb JC
I love the Lotus car brand in general, and this bike is pretty damn slick. The fact that the bike won competitions is just another mark of success for the company :]
Remember these frames were made down the road at Aerodyne.
In fact my LBS occasionally built the bikes up. Remember one afternoon with the first one (think it was a show bike) and discussing at length the benefits etc. of the bike.
Finally a video on this awesome bike ! 😀
I'm lucky enough to have a Mavic 3g with a cassette hub and the opportunity to swap between my old 8sp Peugeot and my 10sp specialized is really just bonkers
Antoine Molinatti use and Edco cassette and you are also able to use it for 11s with your 9-10 speed free hub body
I remember the Mavic Zapp had reliability issues when riding in wet conditions.
A true work of art! Beautiful!
Wow talk about aero back in the day!
I remember when that bike was introduced, the price was insane. Nowadays that bike is priceless!...or at least unaffordable even by millionaire standards.
Loved the beam bike wars of the early 90's. I still have 2 Zipp2001's that I ride on a regular basis.
The bike that got me into cycling. What a machine.
That's the first time I've seen Jon on a bike.
I would LOVE to see you review a Dursley Pederson. I only found out about them a couple years ago.
good idea. I saw a guy riding one not to long ago! Cheers, Jon
They need to get a batch freshly made up in China. Limited Edition replicas as a Kickstarter. They could sell a thousand even if 999 of them ended up as bike-wall-art there would be plenty of people wanting their own version of the icon. If that sold then they could follow up with an electric version and make Lotus Bikes a cool brand. Geely - who now own Lotus - are bringing out a Lotus EV hypercar, a Lotus EV hyperbike would be a more affordable 'hyper-vehicle'. Aside from that, I thought the front derailleur was mounted a bit high. Excellent as ever Jon enthusiasm.
I would love it to be made again. Jon
Why did UA-cam recommend this to me? I can't even ride a bike
And why am I so fascinated?
Better get those stabilisers on
Then learn. It's fun.
the single sided rear & front fork and integrated aerobar on the track version is much more beautiful.
Totally in love with the bike♥️
While I'll likely never own such an incredible machine, I do consider myself lucky to own another Mike Burrows design - a Giant MCR. It's offers a unique riding experience.
Mike Burrows was an absolute genius!
I came across this bike once at a garage sale, good price too but I wasn't interested, wished I'd have picked it up now.
Surely the basic frame shape is more aero than any contemporary road bike. Amazing 👍🏻
Modern UCI-compliant designs have only just bettered the aerodynamics of the Lotus: ua-cam.com/video/kvf61r2ZxTA/v-deo.html
The rear shifter works with the power of the rider. It was not allowed the shift only with electric energy. So there is only an impulse from the rider and the top wheel of the shifter was blocked and use the energy to change the gears. I have the complete Mavic group in my collection, the Lotus frame sadly not.
Great video but Jon you didn’t do a free hub sound test and I was also curious of its weight.
awesome bike in an awesome place!! I love to visit Bicester Heritage anytime.. meke some more videos there please.. they have quite a collection of bikes there
it was great to go, it was the first time I'd been. Being a lover of vintage cars too, I will be returning! Jon
@@gcntech Drop me a line if you do, I have 'back stage' privileges...!
For such a detailed replica; shouldn't you swap out the left and right rear brake pads and holders? If you ride it like this the brake pads might fall out. Or was Boardman never really going to use the breaks anyway? ;)
Where can I buy one
Nice bike I always wanted one as a kid. Are the rear brake blocks on the wrong sides? Right at the end of the video.
Good spot, the rear ones are on backwards to my eyes.