One of the bikes that Graeme Obree “the Flying Scotsman” used in his world hour record bid in 1993 in Hamar, Norway has been sold on eBay for £10,000 by his former manager, Vic Haines.
Obree attacked Francesco Moser’s record, on 16 July 1993, at the Vikingskipet velodrome in Norway, using the bike Haines had built for him, a replica of Old Faithful built by London bike shop Shorter Rochford with aerodynamic carbon fairings added by famous engineer and frame designer Mike Burrows. He failed by nearly a kilometer.
Obree had booked the track for 24 hours and decided to come back the next day. This time, he’d switched to his own built bike, the famous “Old Faithful“. He set a new record of 51.596 kilometers, beating Moser’s record of 51.151 kilometers by 445 meters.
Haines, Obree’s manager of that time, still believes Obree didn’t want to break the Hour record on the bike he had made for him. He said: “I just wanted to get rid of the bloody thing. Every time I look at it it reminds me of that prat Obree, and he owes me 45 grand.”
“I had modifications done at [Mike] Burrows, but he did not make it.”
“I own the bike because I paid for it and a lot of other stuff to get Graeme Obree accepted as more than a circus act.”
“He lived with me for nearly three years and I paid off his mortgage, put double glazing in his house – which had no glass in the windows – to remove all his mental stress so he could get the world [hour] record.”
“I don’t want to come across as bitter and twisted but I want to get Graeme out of my life because I’ve got a lot of baggage and people still don’t know the truth of it all and I’m fed up with it. This is the first bit of clearing him out. Not in a nasty way.”
Haines put the bike on sale with the explanation below:
“One of the 2 bikes used in the historic hour record ride, used in Hamar Oslo beating the legendary Francesco Moser’s record of 51-15. Back in 1993 as the photos show the bike is in very good order having only been ridden in training and once for 1 hour, it has been on my boardroom wall for 10 yrs and then in a secure storage facility.”
The winning bid came with five seconds to go. It was £10,000.
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