When the Great Britain Cycling Team was looking for a new bike for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, it turned to a team headed by Lotus Engineering. Now, ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the team is back with a revised version of the bicycle.
With the help of Hope Technology and Renishaw, Lotus Engineering has developed a new competition bike that is more aerodynamic, adaptable, and should be even faster. Using technology from the Evija hypercar and jet fighters, the bicycle is at the forefront of speed.
“Lotus is proud to have again played its part in helping British Cycling push the boundaries of sporting performance in the quest for Olympic medals,” said Mark Stringer, the commercial director at Lotus Engineering. “Through the deployment of our expertise, innovation, tools, techniques and processes developed to engineer high-performance Lotus cars, we’ve been able to deliver efficiencies to give British track riders the best possible opportunity for success.”
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Building on the 2020 bike, Lotus Engineering worked to make the “cockpit” even better. It features a unique (and patented) wide-angle front fork design to reduce drag and break the airflow in front of the rider. For 2024, the fork now has a serrated edge that was inspired by jet fighter design, and helps further smooth the airflow.
Meanwhile, customizable handlebars will help each rider achieve a more aerodynamic pose for longer races, and they will be better integrated into the front fork to reduce drag. The element is crafted out of the same high-grade carbon-fiber, using the same single-cure process as seen on the Lotus Evija hypercar.
The result of over 150 hours of wind tunnel testing and computational fluid dynamics simulations, Lotus says it has been capable of eking out significant aerodynamic gains for the new 2024 Hope-Lotus Olympic track bike, which is set to make its competition debut next month at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
“This is the most advanced bike that has ever been ridden by British athletes,” said Stephen Park, the performance director for the Great Britain Cycling Team. “Our relationship with Lotus Engineering, Hope Technology and Renishaw is going from strength to strength. Their combined high quality manufacturing standards, renowned lightweight design, aerodynamic efficiency and their keen eye for finer details help us to unlock valuable marginal gains, which make all the difference come race day.”
