While those look a lot like Speedbars, the cat is kind of out of the bag. Taking a thermoplastic mold of somebody's arm and then laying down a couple of layers of carbon on top of it is not terribly complex in the composite world... and since speedbar sells them for roughly $4k... plenty of room for others to get in the game :D I'd bet those are made in house.

I could be wrong though... he's on a different new "De Rosa" for Berlin Worlds.

Registration was too late and did not get into the track center....

but got some info on the Argon 18 for Australia:
the narrow fork was never meant to be ridden by the sprinters, but they tested it and liked it. So seems the narrow hub/fork doesn’t effect handling too bad.
There is actually a tab in front of the fork tips to carry the timing Chip, it holds onto the tab with heat shrink wrap. It’s orientated forward to be across the line faster (of course it’s less aero).
Not everyone is on the new bike yet and it’ll be exclusive to Australia for now. Available on the market late summer.

santini developed a new skinsuit which they will be presenting at Tokyo.

Also saw:

new bike from wiawis with bayonet fork

new stuff from Fes (wide fork with narrow hub, a bit like GB who were on cervelo and uksi)

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...33647d2ccb.png
That’s the wide fes fork I mentioned.
probably made specifically to work with spoke wheels.
there is some info on the web from a hed engineer how a hed3 would work best with a ultra wide fork as the blades create soundwaves.

Photo essay on the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/ga...ps-in-pictures

Here is an update on the changes to UCI track cycling
https://www.uci.org/track/news/2020/...g-world-league

It is interesting to see GCN's involvement because I've noticed they increased mention of track cycling in recent months.

I had been wondering why they had increased their track content recently.

Nice... now you can show up with only four riders to a event.

I can’t get my head around how they are not doing a full omnium. This at least would be in line with the olympics and would help to develop the discipline.
also no madison?! What’s more spectacular for tv viewers?

lets see what events the other new format will hold. But I guess we won’t see as much progress in the next Olympic cyclus as we saw in this one.

Molds cost more, the sprint frame is very different on the inside and much stiffer than the pursuit bike.

That look pursuit bike at the time was a slightly modified road TT bike.

I could see the cost of a second mold being an excuse for entry level bikes, but not these elite bikes. These companies poop out a stable of new road and TT frames literally every year. Not just one, multiple frames to meet various price points in their product offerings. They use the same track molds for 4 or more years.


As were the first LOOK 496 (the road TT frame was also called 496) and Felt TK1 (modeled after the Felt DA).


On a related note, when Hoy started his bike company, I really wished that he would have created a top tier sprint frame (and line of components) that a person on his level would want to use. I do appreciate him making quality, inexpensive bikes for beginner and intermediate racers, but I just really thought he was gonna make a Dolan/UKSI/FES/LOOK challenger.

Oh well.

Speaking of FES, that's what it looks like when your engineers make a dedicated sprint bike.

4 or more years of one track bike may sell less than one year of an entry level roady though, even cervelo stopped producing track bikes because they just don't sell. The 'elite' track frame market is minuscule and companies just won't bother unless it makes financial sense.

3T discontinued the Scatto bars because they didn't make sense financially, even if they are one of the most popular track bars around.

Yeah, I think one of the issues particular to the Scatto was - if you wanted one, you probably have one by now.

Still... you would think that at what they msrp at, you'd just keep the mold ready and make a couple when you get an order.

When they came out they were a bit of a revolution and everyone jumped on them. Perhaps their problem is that they're so robust that they last forever and there's so many out there on the market that there's no need to buy new any more. That, and there's so many other options out there now to compete with that I could see that it easily wouldn't make sense to continue production.

I was talking to our shop 3T rep and he hinted that the whole 3T bar lineup is being revamped and the first bar they stopped making is the scatto because of its lower sales. The rep hinted at a Q2 release date.

Interesting track news portal - lots of links
 

The Aerocoach „Vorzug“ Track pursuit bar didn’t get a mention yet... but the only other track specific pursuit bar I know of is the use Tula track.
even the handlebars on most super bikes are just road versions.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...055c91a36.jpeg
Ordered one just to support that they are investing in track (with probably low reward financially).

I missed this at the time but at the UCI mountain bike eliminator world champs last year Büchli and Hoogland took part with the latter finishing 8th! Impressive technical skills, although i suppose that is to be expected from someone that started out in BMX

You can watch Korea Pro Keirin races here
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYV...Q5VwfCeuVDABbg

Fun video I saw on FB. Nothing like a 1' Max effort to remind you how slow time really moves.

I've been stuck trying to break 700 for a while now... that last 8-12 seconds I always fall to pieces.

New Vittoria pista tyres for the ultra high end.

only in 23mm, the pista is still available in 19mm.
think the Australians are still on 19?

Praying 19mm stays in production...

Might want to go ahead and stock up now.

23mm would look like a monster truck tire on my early 2000's (??) era IO. Please track cycling gods, have pity!