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news
Obree bikeObree bike sells for £10,000
One of the bikes that Graeme Obree used in his world hour record bid in 1993 sold on eBay yesterday for £10,000.
The bike is a copy of Obree’s self-built Old Faithful. He attempted to beat the record on this bike in Hamer, Norway, but missed the mark. With the track booked for 24 hours, he returned the following morning to claim the record on Old Faithful, racking up 51.596km, beating the existing record of Francesco Moser by 445 metres.
The bike was sold by Vic Haines, Obree’s manager from that time.
"I had modifications done at [Mike] Burrows, but he did not make it," Vic Haines told us last week. "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."
The original Old Faithful is displayed at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Obree rode both his world hour records in his ski-tuck position, with his chest horizontal and positioned very close to the bars and his upper arms against his sides.
Bids in the last two minutes of the online auction took the price from £5,202 up to £10,000.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.
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6 comments
Just wondering if anyone knows where this bike is now? The buyer left feedback for Haines (ebay member hainesace) but Haines didn't bother to reply.
The original Old Faithful is NOT displayed at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. The replica bikes, one for each position built (I believe by Obree himself) for the Flying Scotsman film are on display. There are a couple of difference to the original bike - standard forks and bottom bracket.
I'm 90% certain Obree destroyed Old Faithful - sure I read this in his book.
No, that's the real one in the Museum of Scotland. It has the shoes bonded to the pedals among other things that only the original has. Obree wanted it for an event and the museum refused to let him have it. The replica bikes from the film were on display in the transport museum, not sure if they are now that it's moved.
Ah - I'm getting museums confused!
Pub bike
I would have bid on it if it had Cafe Roubaix wheels rather than Spacialized