My good friend Graeme Pearson, has been building bikes for nearly 40 years, and for the most part, using carbon fibre. I have Graeme’s first carbon fibre bike, from 1986, in the collection.
I must say, before I go any further- this is NOT a commercial venture. The idea was always to create a display bike, to allow enthusiasts in New Zealand (and visitors from overseas), to view a history making bike. As the plans developed, and a mould was taken, we decided the bike should be rideable. At this stage, I contacted a number of people/businesses. I thought it to be the right thing to do- representatives of Lotus, Eddy Merckx Cycles, and Aerodyne. While there are no longer any patents on the frame, I wanted to ‘do the right thing’. Lotus- were rather offhand. ‘We have no interest in bikes, as long as you don’t use the Lotus name’. Being a replica of a bike that never had the Lotus branding on it, that was not a problem. Neither of the other two had a problem either.
And so it began. Graeme took a mould off one of my Lotus frames, and the process started. Over the next 5 or 6 months, Graeme worked on the frame, in between other jobs. The frame was relatively easy to build. With the advantage of more than 25 years passing since the 110 was first built, improvements in processes have helped make this frame stronger than the original.
The bike will have some outings at the local velodrome, and there are a couple of world champions wanting to take the bike for a spin………..
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