Track In The USSR

Not only did Don Walker found the North American Handmade Bicycle Show, he also shows some pretty mean bicycles himself

- James Spender

Don Walker points to the Russian writing on the drive side seat stay of his bike and smiles: ‘The Cyrillic says, “Handmade in Louisville, Kentucky, by American Capitalist Pig”.’

Even by the esoteric standards of hand built bicycles, this bright red machine is a masterpiece. It has been built by Walker, a 27-year veteran of the handmade bicycle scene, and is part serious collector’s item, part detailed homage to a bygone era of track racing and part comment on world politics.

‘The inspiration was the Masi track bike ridden in the Seoul 1988 Olympics team pursuit by Viatcheslav Ekimov,’ says Walker. ‘Ekimov was Russian, and it was the Reagan-Gorbachev era – the tail end of the Cold War. The world was a very heated place and there were lots of countries threatening to boycott Seoul. In fact, it ended up being the last time the Soviet Union competed in an Olympics. The USSR dissolved in 1991.’ The Soviet Union wasn’t the only thing that was dissolved in the ’90s. At one time bikes such as Walker’s creation were commonplace on the boards. Known affectionately as ‘lo-pros’, they were built around a 650c front wheel paired to a 700c rear wheel. That meant the frames had outrageously sloping top tubes, as the long rear stays had to join up to the stumpy front fork.

The idea was twofold. Not only was the lead rider much lower down than with a 700c front wheel, but the smaller front wheels meant those following were able to tuck even tighter behind for a more aerodynamic pursuit train.