Hope's secret Olympic time trial bike (and why it didn't go to Tokyo)

Simon Smythe gets the inside story behind the delayed TT version of Team GB’s track machine

- Simon Smythe

This is the bike that Team GB might have been riding in the Olympic road time trial had things happened differently.

British brands Lotus Engineering and Hope Technology collaborated to develop and produce the already iconic HB.T bike that is being ridden in the Izu Velodrome this week. But after the track bikes were finished and delivered to British Cycling, Hope decided to continue working on a road time trial version that would retain both the looks and the aerodynamics of the velodrome version with its radical arching 8cm-wide stays.

“We were focused on the track but very quickly we thought, why not make a time trial bike and use the same advantages?” says Ian Weatherill, Hope Tech’s managing director.

“We started working on it a year or so ago now. It would have been nice if we could have had it finished in time for Tokyo but we were concentrating so much on getting the track bike to British Cycling. Originally we were plan B and then we became plan A, then they had no wheels either so we had to make the disc wheel and the tri-spoke. So we had a lot more work than we thought.”

Additionally, making a road version of the HB.T bike wasn’t quite as simple as just bolting some brakes and gears on it. The earlier UKSI track bike of the early 00s was adapted for the road, but its relatively conventional configuration didn’t present the same issues that Hope faced with the road version of the HB.T, which will be called HB.TT.