Lot of Peanuts for Half a Defunct TT Bike

[m_sasso]

OK, some of these things never sell and then again some of them do, lots of bidders to, https://www.ebay.co.uk/bfl/viewbids/333576877377?item=333576877377&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2565&fbclid=IwAR3B87TeuPYYVpLWTHg-IoztwE1vPHAMUsxySB8yxwFELn0svFx-RvkmDOY

[gasman]

For 70 K plus dollars, you've got to be kidding.

[Veloo]

Doesn't even look like the matching fork.

[Velocipede]

On the LeMond fb fan page, this had been a topic for a few days. That frame is supposedly owned by someone on the page. The seller was not the owner. He tried to get Ebay to pull it but they wouldn't. It was a running joke as everyone on it was bidding and was just going to bail on the payment.

[cinema]

69 bids huh huh :banana:

[ultraman6970]

The address of the guy is there in the listing... wonder if the guy will go there just to piss off and leave w/o paying.

[jpritchet74]

Wow - you hear all the time about guys who had "race cars" that were worth nothing so they sold them cheap and now those cars are super expensive.

I guess that I should be kicking myself after seeing this.

I used to have one of Chris Boardman's Lotus TT framesets. The original Lotus fork had a cracked steerer tube but was so damn cool. I put it on eBay in 2008 and had a guy say "name your price" - I googled his name and found out that he worked at Cervelo. I told him I wanted a new P3C complete bike with Dura-Ace. He countered with a P3C frameset, I said no. Then he said yes to the complete bike.

The cool part was that I got a free TT fitting by Cervelo's guy that would do the TT wind tunnel fittings for Team CSC and the Cervelo Test Team. Great guy and we still talk occasionally today.

https://i.imgur.com/RSsWhROh.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/0bzKmECh.jpg

Cervelo wanted my bike to put it in the wind tunnel - they "fixed" the steerer tube to be at the right angle for wind tunnel purposes - it turns out that the fork was really what made that bike so fast. They also grafted a P4 down tube onto it just to see what it did to the aerodynamics - it was actually faster than the regular Lotus frame.

[m_sasso]

Wow - you hear all the time about guys who had "race cars" that were worth nothing so they sold them cheap and now those cars are super expensive.

I guess that I should be kicking myself after seeing this.

I used to have one of Chris Boardman's Lotus TT framesets.

Neat story so how did you get the frame originally?

I have heard lots of stories around various internet groups about this auction, many were float about even before it ended.

[echappist]

That’s a neat bit of story.

:beer: ( i wish there were tipping of espresso cup)

[zzy]

Great story. I really liked Cervelo back when they were an engineering-focused company.

[ultraman6970]

+1

great story. I really liked cervelo back when they were an engineering-focused company.

[redir]

Thats awesome pritchet74, wat to drive a bargain!

[John H.]

I know a wealthy guy who had one- It was way too much bike for him and way too aggressive. I think he thought the bike would ride itself fast.

He sold it to a young racer kid for like $1500.

[jpritchet74]

Neat story so how did you get the frame originally?


Got it back in ~2006 from a British guy I met on the old biketechreview forum. He had gotten it from Boardman's old cycling club. He had raced it for a few years.

The problem with that bike is that you had to drill out the seatmast to mount the saddle clamping system. The top hole was from Boardman, the lower one(s) from the guy I got it from. I couldn't get myself to drill it for my seat height. It just seemed wrong.

Also, regarding the Lotus fork - when I got the bike I called Craig Calfee to see if he could fix the broken steerer tube - he said absolutely not. Also, even if the steerer tube wasn't broke he would recommend to never ride the fork because the carbon fork tips had a tendency to shear off while riding.

[Velocipede]

Got it back in ~2006 from a British guy I met on the old biketechreview forum. He had gotten it from Boardman's old cycling club. He had raced it for a few years.

The problem with that bike is that you had to drill out the seatmast to mount the saddle clamping system. The top hole was from Boardman, the lower one(s) from the guy I got it from. I couldn't get myself to drill it for my seat height. It just seemed wrong.

Also, regarding the Lotus fork - when I got the bike I called Craig Calfee to see if he could fix the broken steerer tube - he said absolutely not. Also, even if the steerer tube wasn't broke he would recommend to never ride the fork because the carbon fork tips had a tendency to shear off while riding.

Too bad you don't have it now. There is a guy in the UK, Target Composites who does work on the Lotus framesets. Mike Burrows has gone over and they've worked on new parts including a new fork for it. The guy is insanely good.

[m_sasso]

Too bad you don't have it now. There is a guy in the UK, Target Composites who does work on the Lotus framesets. Mike Burrows has gone over and they've worked on new parts including a new fork for it. The guy is insanely good.

Yes here are a set of images of one of those recent 110 rebuilds, scroll down, very nice!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/75122731@N06/sets/72157713551701822/

[GonaSovereign]

Wow - you hear all the time about guys who had "race cars" that were worth nothing so they sold them cheap and now those cars are super expensive.

I guess that I should be kicking myself after seeing this.

I used to have one of Chris Boardman's Lotus TT framesets. The original Lotus fork had a cracked steerer tube but was so damn cool. I put it on eBay in 2008 and had a guy say "name your price" - I googled his name and found out that he worked at Cervelo. [snip]

Cervelo wanted my bike to put it in the wind tunnel - they "fixed" the steerer tube to be at the right angle for wind tunnel purposes - it turns out that the fork was really what made that bike so fast. They also grafted a P4 down tube onto it just to see what it did to the aerodynamics - it was actually faster than the regular Lotus frame.

Good story. The same Cervélo guys tried to buy my father-in-law's Hotta TT bike to test it, but he said no. He still has it and it's pretty amazing ...and faster than most bikes today.

[jpritchet74]

Yes here are a set of images of one of those recent 110 rebuilds, scroll down, very nice!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/75122731@N06/sets/72157713551701822/

That is completely awesome!