Interesting Serotta on eBay . . .

[BumbleBeeDave]

An oldie but, uh, "Weirdie?" . . .

BBD

http://cgi.ebay.com/Serotta-1980s-Olympic-Track-Racing-Bicycle-LOOK_W0QQitemZ160312760032QQihZ006QQcategoryZ15908 9QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[dannyg1]

Check out that seatpost!

[woolly]

Brakes & gears on a track bike???

[bagochips3]

The frame maker does everything to make the position as aero as possible, and the rider does everything possible to undo it. :confused: The arm rests are level with the saddle!

[steelrider]

Isn't that called a pursuit bike?

[shiftyfixedgear]

This looks like one of the genuine bikes made for the 1983 Pan Am Games / US Nat'l team. A rare and very interesting bike indeed ! At the time the 100K Team Time Trial was a hugely important sort of measure of how strong your National team was. The Eastern Bloc countries usually rode away from everyone, except the Italians when they were on a good day.

The small 24" wheels were used to try and get a better drafting effect by putting the riders closer together.

There was a whole stupid ugly controversy (typical USCF B.S.) over whose bikes the Oly team would use in the 84 Olympics. I think it ended up that some of team rode the Serottas (Harvey Nitz, I think), and some rode the Raleighs.
I think the Nitz's Serotta got Raleigh decals for the Oly TTT, but I could be wrong on that.

The seller also has one of the frames with the special small-diameter fork steerer. Those had a tiny roller bearings on the top and bottom and I remember them as being @ 16mm in diameter. At the time this was cutting-edge stuff in all ways !

Columbus "Air" tubing was heavy and flexible in all the
wrong ways <G>. At the time that and Tange aero was all you had to play with.

These frames/bikes were the kinds of things that took a huge amount of time and energy and $ for a small company to make. A great example of how Ben was working with top riders and coaches so very long ago.
It continues with the Sierra Nevada sponsorship and no doubt will happen again down the road.

Wonder who the seller is . . . ? Former Nat'l. team member or mechanic ?