Bike Check: Jaewon’s BT Superbike
In 1992, the legendary Lotus 108 was unveiled. With its striking Formula-One driven design and engineering, this alien spaceship drove Chris Boardman to Olympic gold at the Barcelona Summer Games. Leaving the cycling industry, if not the entire world, in shock, as this bike was the catalyst for the boom of "Funny Bikes" at the end of the century.
During this time, the Australian Institute of Sport, in conjunction with the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, established a bicycle manufacturer: Bike Technologies Australia ( a.k.a. BT). Founded in 1996, and led by Sal Sansonetti, BT had pretty much one mission: create a "Super Bike" to compete with the Lotus 108. And the result was a thick, asymmetric, aerodynamic piece of a bike, completed with, of course, the famously used at the time, 650 front wheel, to further “reduce” drag.
South Korea's national cycling team visited BT headquarters in 1997 to purchase these bikes, with an estimated six making their way across the ocean. In 1998, the South Korean team, riding the Superbike, won gold in the 4km team pursuit at the Bangkok Asian Games.
However, the Superbike's glory days were short-lived.
Fully enforced by the year 2000, the UCI's Lugano Charter officially rendered the BT Superbike, along with its other downtube-less brethren, unsuitable for competition:
The Lugano Charter states that cycling should be mostly about the athletes, not the machine, stating that bikes should retain the traditional dual-triangle (diamond) frame design, making these monocoque, downtube-less bikes illegal in official UCI events. This brought the story of the BT Superbike to a screeching halt... officially. However, this was barely the beginning of the story for this specific bike.
Detailed Parts List
Frameset
98' BT Superbike
Chainring
Campagnolo Pista 52t
Crank
Campagnolo Pista
Seatpost and Saddle
Campagnolo Aero Short Type, Selle Italia Ultra Pro
Stem and Handlebar
ITM Trial with 3TTT Bio Arms TT Extensions
Wheels
Front Mavic 3G Tri-spoke, Mavic Comete Disc, Fir Tri-Spoke. Rear Mavic Comete Disc
Jaewon started his professional cycling career in middle school. During one of his first practices, he got lost at a track he was training at. While wandering around the lower level of the velodrome, he found a door cracked open. Behind it was a messy storage room, with dusty bikes piled up in the back. Among them was one of the six original Superbikes brought into Korea.
Shot on Kodak Harman Phoenix 200
When he first found it, the bike was in very poor condition. Having been used as a parts-bin trainer for the velodrome before being stashed away in storage for decades. It had numerous paint chips, and the cranks and wheels were bent, and the original TT bars were nowhere to be found either, replaced with a random ahead-extension mast and cheap keirin drops.
Regardless, its striking shape and bright yellow paint job were more than enough to spark Jaewon's interest and obsession. This encounter kick-started a deep dive into a rabbit hole of archives and forums to learn more about the bike. Over time, he connected with many of the people who owned a piece of the bike's history and stayed in touch with them.
Last year, he got a call from his old coach, who owned the Superbike, saying that he was planning on selling it, a moment Jaewon had only dreamt of. Without a moment of hesitation, he bought the bike. A few eBay auctions, countless phone calls, and a lot of prayers later, Jaewon managed to gather all the original parts that had been on the bike, the exact same parts used during the Bangkok Asian Games.
"This exact bike was used by the South Korean National Cycling Team during the '98 Bangkok Asian Games and won a gold medal in the aforementioned 4km team pursuit. Being a large monocoque carbon-composite frame gives the Superbike a rather unique ride feel, with the bulk of its weight felt down low. I really cherish riding and reviving this piece of cycling history."
“This is how she sits now.”
🎞: Kodak Ultramax 400, Harman Phoenix II 200
📷: Nikon F3
📍: Seoul
