The Obree Position (mk1)

In 1993 the hour record was broken by Graeme Obree, an relatively unknown rider, at least outside Great Britain. In the past years the hour record had been attacked by well known road racing stars. Even more surprising was his "home made" bicycle and his position on this bike. His unique, compact riding position allowed him him to rest his torso on his tucked forearms. In this way, folding his arms under his chest, he eliminated them from the aerodynamic equation.

The Early Years

Obree invented the crouched (or tucked) position in 1987, using a standard bike, just flipping the handlebar upside down. He won national championships in the following years and broke the British hour record. Look at his bike with flipped handlebar on the left picture (from www.chrisboardman.com). In the winter of 1992/1993 he decided to attack Francesco Moser's hour record and designed a special bike for this purpose.

		He wanted to have a narrow bottom bracket, and since normal bike parts did not allow that, he used the bearings from a washing machine.  Because of the narrow bottom bracket (68 mm), he rode almost knock-kneed which reduced the drag also, but a normal frame with standard top tube would not allow that - so he invented an X-frame design. Since he was on a low budget, he built the bike by himself, using cheap or used parts wherever possible. The cranks contained a piece of metal found roadside, the handlebar was from a BMX bike, but the overall design was just brilliant and perfect for his needs.

Though this position was not very comfortable, wind tunnel measurements showed that it reduced the aerodynamic drag about 15 %, giving a theoretical speed gain of more than 2 km/h at 50 km/h!

At the world championships Obree showed up again with his famous bike. For the qualifying round he had to change his saddle to match this "5 cm behind bottom bracket" rule. His time qualified him easily for the next round, but after the ride he was disqualified by the UCI officials. As far as I know the reasons for this were not clear: " Between arms and body the daylight must be seen" was to read in german magazines. Because this rule was not in the UCI rule book before, it was quite clear that the UCI officials invented it quickly to ban Obree. Obree planned to file a lawsuit against the UCI (which he would have certainly won, if my information is correct so far), but nothing has happened to this time. (After winning the world championships in 1995 with his new "superman" position, it was to read that an english lawyer would do it for free) This was the official end of the Obree position in cycling, the most innovative invention since the aero-bar. As for many sports, when stupid officials have the power, a genius athlete like Graeme Obree has no chance.

PS: My Obree-handlebar was banned in the 1995 Ironman Jümme, because the german triathlon union DTU had added a new rule: "Extraordinary equipment is illegal" One could ask how any of the innovations of the past years (disc wheel, aero-bar, etc.) could have made with this rule, but as said above: Stupid officials have the power...