British Cycling revealed their new track bike for Tokyo 2020. A collaboration between Hope and Lotus, along with some relaxing of rules led to a pretty radical design. The front end reminds me a little of the new Shiv Tri. But I’d be pretty interested in seeing more technical and design data around it.
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It’s great to see Lotus getting involved again.
It’s certainly going to polarise opinion but I like it just for the fact that it’s different!
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Ugh…why do companies insist on shooting carbon bikes on black backgrounds?
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This thing is awesome. Love seeing unconventional designs!
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(Gah, have supply some body text to help the forum out 
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@Power13 Yeah, I agree with the black background comment. It makes it super hard to actually see what’s going on. But I’m assuming that’s the point. It is still 10 months from the olympics so they are trying to be mysterious.
@Jonathan Definitely super cool! I’d love to see an analysis by someone with some knowledge as to why the wider fork and seat stays are better. But hopefully it’s successful and pushes other companies to come up with more creative solutions and to break out of the box. (As much as the UCI allows you to break out)
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That chain ring though…
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So it looks like my gravel bike with narrow road tyres will be aero after all.
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Yeah, I know that is part of it…but then why even release the close-up shots? Just shoot far away shots and use a camouflage paint job that obscures the details.
For us bike geeks, black on black photography is maddening!!! 
I added a link to another article, with better pics into the OP.
I wonder if the very wide fork and chainstays are to bring them into the same line as the cyclist’s legs, so that it’s all one aerodynamic shadow (if you will).
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Thanks for the link…definitely better pics!
Man…that is funky. But I kinda dig it!
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That was my thought. Or maybe to prevent squeezing air between the fork and the wheel. Or a little of both
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And with all that development I’m surprised we didn’t see another left side drive track bike like the Felt. Maybe that means it’s not as aero as Felt thinks it is or it really is that expensive to implement that many unique components
Yeah, I was surprised that the left-side drive bike didn’t return. Maybe it’s because the results weren’t as great as expected?
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Maybe, I don’t follow it that closely but Ashton Lambie did smash the 4K IP world record twice in one day on it.
That’s true. But it’s weird–I didn’t see anyone saying how much more awesome that bike was… maybe there were some significant issues associated with it? Normally you would expect to see lots of press and plugs from athletes about the bike, particularly something as weird as that one.
Ok, I’m calling it. This is a mis direction story by British cycling, I’m betting their Olympic bike won’t be like this.
If you had something so radical why would you show it 12 months before the Olympics and allow the competition to copy?
Previously British cycling has been very secretive about new designs, only racing them in low key UCI events before the World’s or Olympics.
You just mount the BB backwards, and the wheel backwards. Nothing really unique component-wise. Same BB, same crankset, same wheel. You just need to design the frame as a mirror image of a right-side crankset bike.
Ok, change the cog thread direction, change the BB thread direction, change the pedal thread direction. I stand corrected. But not a show-stopper.
You would potentially have to retool everything to be manufactured opposite. You can’t just flip everything around because now all the forces will be reversed.