AZIZULHASNI Awang and Shah Firdaus Sahrom will not have their bikes to blame if things do not go their way at the Tokyo Olympics.
The National Sports Institute (NSI) yesterday unveiled the final version of the duo’s Olympic machines, developed at a staggering cost of almost RM13 million with UK computational fluid dynamics specialist, Totalsim Ltd.
The Brackley-based company is known for maximising aerodynamic efficiency with a proven track record in cycling, motorsports and sailing.
The result is a bike which is claimed to be the lightest and most aerodynamic in the world in its class.
As reported earlier this year, it is priced at RM300,000 a piece and is available for sale to the public and national federations.
To date, Lithuania (two bikes) and Greece (one) have already placed orders.
Riders Azizulhasni, Shah Firdaus and Fadhil Zonis, national coach John Beasley, as well as NSI research and development team members Izham Mohamad and Chee Lee Meng, had worked together with Totalsim on the project.
Beasley is pleased with the finished product and believes Malaysian riders will enter the Olympics on a level playing field with their rivals as far as technology is concerned.
“The bike is made of titanium and carbon fibre. It is made to be as light as possible while retaining great strength and stiffness,” said Beasley.
“We could go to China and have it built for a tenth of the price, but it wouldn't perform the same.
“It is a pretty special bike. As you can see, our three athletes (Azizulhasni, Fadhil, Shah) who competed in Berlin World Championships all clocked personal best times, though of course that was also due to the athletes being in good condition.
“The support from NSI has instilled confidence (in the team) going to Tokyo. It certainly puts us up there with Britain, Germany and Australia when it comes to chasing marginal gains.
“We will go to Tokyo without any disadvantages in terms of technology.”
NSI chief executive officer Ahmad Faedzal Ramli said NSI will look to ramp up commercialisation (to generate revenue) of the bike, currently marketed as a Vorteq WX-R, after the Tokyo Games
“We have placed a price tag (RM300,000) on it because that is a requirement by the UCI (world body) but it actually cost more to develop. The allocation for the project was roughly RM13 million over three years (2018-2020).
“To date, we have been focusing on R&D but we will look into commercialising the bike for the mass market after the Olympic as well as other intellectual property registered under NSI.
“We could make some changes to the bike to make it more affordable for the mass market such as using different (cheaper) material while retaining the same design.”