Francesco Moser Personal Indoor Hour Record Time Trial Bicycle 1988

Francesco Moser, a name that is synonymous with cycling. A cyclist that will always be remembered as one of the greats. Moser was dominant from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, with a total of 273 road victories, which include; three editions of Paris-Roubaix, two victories in the Giro di Lombardia and the Giro d’Italia in 1984. But what has really cemented his name in history are his hour-record attempts. Those were still the years when records were divided into three categories: records at high altitude, records below 600 metres and indoor records.
When attempting these records it was clear that Moser thought differently, and developed his bicycles to be as aerodynamically as possible. This involved special clothing and of course very special bicycles. They were not lightweight, however, the frames forced the rider's body into aerodynamic positions.
At the Olympic Velodrome in Mexico City, the man from Trentino had set the hour record twice in 1984, ousting the great Eddy Merckx from the throne. On 19 January, Francesco had covered 50.808km, and then, on 23 January, 51.151km.
Regarding records at sea level, on 26th September 1986, in Vigorelli, Moser had managed to raise the record (tearing it away from Hans Henrik Oersted) to 48.543km and then, on 3rd October, he improved it further: 49.802km.
The 60-minute indoor record was the only one that Francesco needed to become the all-time record holder or, as some put it 'Lord of the Time'.
In 1987 Moser flew to Moscow in his attempt to claim his final title. The indoor record belonged to Russian Viatcheslav Ekimov, with a distance of 49.672km. But in Moscow and later in Vienna, Francesco failed to improve on the record. But the desire to become 'Lord of all hours' did not pass him by, quite the contrary. Moser now had a sole focus and did not compete in a single road event in 1988 but instead flew to Colombia to train at the Bogota Velodrome.
In his long pursuit, Moser flew to Stuttgart and on the 21st May 1988, he was met by 7,500 supporters at the Schleyer Halle. Moser got everything right that afternoon and the Ambrosio carbon-fibre lenticular rear wheel proved to be as effective as a flywheel. Already after two kilometres, he was ahead of Ekimov, albeit by a small margin, and in the last few minutes, he was triumphant, pushing the record to 50.644km. Moser's hour records have always gone hand in hand with technology, and the champion from Trentino did not disappoint, becoming the indoor hour record holder on a bike with a 101cm diameter drive wheel.
There were only ever two of these bicycles made. And one of these famous ‘big wheel bikes’ is what we are offering here, no doubt that Francesco Moser was training on this bike for that prestigious record.

[@iblamesummers]

thank you for the indoor history lesson.