Stromm Cycles is hoping to become chairman of the “Boards” with the launch of its new track bike, focussing around 8:1 tube profiles now that the UCI has relaxed its equipment rules.
“We are confident that we have the fastest track bike design and by July will have the fastest track bike available,” said one of Stromm’s engineers, Dave Koesel. “Once the rule changes were announced, I knew we could make a considerably faster bike.”
Over the last few years, cycling’s governing body, the Union Cycliste Nationale (UCI), has steadily revised its bike design rules, wherein the previse regulation that limited frames to having a 3:1 ratio with respect to tube cross-sections, can now be designed up to a maximum ratio of 8:1 by minimum and maximum overall dimensions of 10mm and 80mm, respectively.
Additionally, recent changes to rider position have doubled the amount of reach one can have in multiple-rider races, bringing it from 50mm to 100mm, which was previously only allowed in track sprint races.
Koesel himself is no stranger to track cycling, having raced both the 2022 UCI Master’s World Championship and the USA Cycling Elite National Championships, while Stromm enlisted the help of professional aerodynamicist Ben Rothaker, pro cyclist Daniel Holloway and long-time bike manufacturer Stephen Doll, to also headline the project. Curiously, all four ride the same size bike, allowing them to focus on a single mold for starters.
“The reality is that you can’t seem to actually buy an FES and the $25,000 price tag for a Hope or a Felt TA meant the three of us would have to invest $75,000 collectively to have the latest bikes on the market today,” Koesel added. “But those that were designed before the new UCI rules. We can make a faster bike for less than $75,000 out of pocket. So we did.”
Relying exclusively on Toray carbon fiber, the initial frame focuses on a drop handlebar variant, with the ability to convert to a pursuit bike in the future.
Elsewhere, the bike features a proprietary seatpost, a 1-1/8in steerer tube, a 68mm threaded bottom bracket, dropouts that take common 100/120mm track axles and an adjustable rear drop-out that uses a barrel, rather than a hex key.
In order for the bike to qualify for use in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the UCI requires that the bike be ridden in competition during 2023, such as the Track Nations Cup events, all of which have passed, or the upcoming Track World Championships in August.
For that reason, Stromm has undertaken a crowd-funding campaign on Kickstarter, with the goal of getting enough early-backers to be able to produce frames across all sizes.
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