Sports class regulations

A similar problem arose with my old SpeedMachine. Dave (legs) Larrington successfully rode it to Sports class honours so a Sports bike - well it is if your 7'10" like Dave but for someone of less hurculean physique .... Too short.

Now bikes like the Huricane and the SpeedMachine are clearly marginal machines and whether they are strictly speeking in or out will depend on the rider and the seat positioning.

As I don't ride sports I don't really have a say but how about this: for the remainder of the year the Huricane riders ride with the seat in the most upright position (even playing field?) and then suggest definative rulings at the AGM.

Thoughts?
Neil F

Here’s my solution to the eye height troublem: let’s stipulate that the minimum eye height is a proportion (I propose 60%) of the standing height.

This means that for an average bloke who’s 175 cm tall, the minimum eye height is 0.6 X 175 = 105 cm.

For a lanky chap of 185 cm, eye height would have to be more than 111 cm, and if you’re a compact 165cm, a mere 99 cm would suffice.

To those who say “We don’t want the hassle of measuring everyone’s height” I say “When did you last use a tape measure at a race meeting?”; in other words, we aren’t enforcing the present rule anyway (thank goodness!).

Enforcement will only be necessary if there’s some dissent in the ranks – and because in terms of limb length we are all similarly proportioned, we could take the easier step of measuring the arm span from mid line (the intraclavicular notch) to the tip of the middle finger, which conveniently is about half the standing height, and multiplying by 1.2.

I know there are some who will say that this is too complicated (for people who can engineer bicycles?) or that it’s unfair to orang-utangs but I say that it is much fairer and better-defined than the admittedly simpler, but practically untidy, 105 cm “moveable feast”.

It will obviate any argument about seat height or angle and can simply be substituted for the present eye height rule.

It is fair to both smaller and larger riders, and I commend it to the house.

Yours in proportion, Neil