The 2024 Paris Olympics is just around the corner and we’ve got our hands on the UCI’s Final Equipment List – a spreadsheet that records all of the bikes, wheels, handlebars, helmets and skinsuits approved for use at the Games.
Listing nearly 800 items of equipment, it also includes the prices and manufacturer contact details for all items still 'commercialised' (still manufactured and listed for sale).
From Team GB’s €64,350 UKSI-BC1 frameset and €29,188 Hope HB.T Paris, through to Australia’s €55,091 Factor Track Bike and Italy’s €28,750 Pinarello Bolide F HR C-3D, the spreadsheet reveals the astonishing prices of equipment used by the sport’s leading nations.
By far the most expensive item on the list, however, is Japan’s V-IZU TCM2 frameset, priced at a staggering €126,555.
If you thought bike prices at your local bike shop were out of control, think again.
Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from the list and analyse why prices for Olympic equipment appear to be spiralling out of control.
Oh, and before we forget – all of the prices quoted are exclusive of VAT (Value Added Tax), so if you live in the UK and are thinking about an N+1 purchase, don’t forget to add another 20 per cent to the listed prices.
The most expensive track bikes at the 2024 Paris Olympics
V-IZU TCM2 and TC-M1, as used by the Japanese cycling team
- V-IZU TCM2 (complete bike): €126,555
- V-IZU TC-M1 (complete bike): €112,320
UK Sports Institute UKSI-BC1, as used by the Great Britain cycling team
- UKSI-BC1 (frame, seatpost and Lotus A1000M fork): €64,350
Factor Pursuit Bike, as used by the Australian cycling team
- Factor Pursuit Bike (frame, fork, base bar, seatpost, front and rear wheels, and small parts): €55,091
Pardus Time10 and CT2020, as used by the Chinese cycling team
- Pardus Time10 (frame, fork and seatpost): €45,010
- Pardus CT2020 (frame, fork and seatpost): €36,500
Hope HB.T Paris, as used by the Great Britain cycling team
- Hope HB.T Paris (frame, fork, seatpost, stem and handlebar): €29,188
Pinarello Bolide F HR C-3D, as used by the Italian cycling team
- Pinarello Bolide F HR C-3D (frame, fork, seatpost, wheelset and handlebars): €28,750
Needless to say, the list of wildly expensive track bikes doesn’t stop there.
When we covered a previous version of this spreadsheet ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the most expensive bike on the list was the Worx WX-R Vorteq Track, at €28,000.
Now, that bike doesn’t even make the top five (and looks a relative bargain compared to some of this year’s machines).
If it’s any consolation, splashing out for the most expensive bike on the list – the €126,555 (remember, that’s exclusive of VAT) V-IZU TCM2 – does at least net you a complete bike, with a four-spoke front wheel and full-carbon rear disc.
Like the Hope HB.T, the V-IZU TCM2 uses a radically wide fork and seatstays, with the rest of the frameset made up of blade-like aerofoil tubes.
The cheaper (but still extraordinarily expensive) TC-M1 track bike follows a more conventional design, with a narrow fork and dropped seatstays that hug the front and rear wheels more closely.
Like the Felt TA FRD, both the TCM2 and TC-M1 use flipped drivetrains, with the chainring, chain and rear sprocket all placed on the left-hand side of the bike.
The theory is this can be more aerodynamic due to the fact riders always race anticlockwise in track events.
The only thing you’ll need to supply to ride off on one, then, is a set of pedals, but the same can’t be said for the UKSI-BC1.
From the limited information available, the UKSI-BC1 appears to be a 3D-printed version of the Hope HB.T Paris (which is constructed using carbon fibre) made in collaboration with Metron Advanced Equipment – the same company that markets a £500 3D-printed stem.
Seeing as you only get a frame, seatpost and Lotus fork for your €64,350, you’d also need to factor in cash for a drivetrain, wheels, cockpit and so on.
Of course, that shouldn’t be too difficult because the UCI’s Final Equipment List is flush with all manner of expensive wheels and parts too (more on these later).
Forebodingly, though, the UK Sports website notes: “Any consumer purchases would be excepted from the right to cancel by the consumer once an order for the UKSI-BC1 is placed”. You’d best be sure that’s the bike you really want for Christmas before clicking that buy button.
If you can make do with a version handmade in Yorkshire from good-old-fashioned carbon fibre, the ‘standard’ Hope HB.T Paris costs a mere €29,188 and Hope is even generous enough to throw in an integrated stem and handlebar.
Many will also recognise the Pinarello Bolide F HR C-3D from Filippo Ganna’s successful Hour Record attempt in 2022.
3D-printed from Scalmalloy (an alloy of scandium, aluminium and magnesium), the Bolide F HR C-3D frame is produced in five parts, which are then bonded together using epoxy resin.
It also has a bumpy seat tube and seatpost inspired by the tubercles found on the fins of humpback whales. These are aerodynamic features designed to reduce drag.
For €28,750, Pinarello includes a set of Campagnolo Ghibli 0.9 full-carbon disc wheels and a carbon fibre pursuit-style cockpit.
As with Great Britain’s bikes, if you can make do with a bog-standard carbon fibre frameset, the Pinarello Bolide F HR C is also available for ‘only’ €12,500.
The most expensive components at the 2024 Paris Olympics
Pinarello, as used by the Italian cycling team
- MOST custom 3D-printed bar extensions: €22,500
Black Inc, as used by the Australian cycling team
- Zero tubular disc wheelset: €18,420
Southern Spars, as used by the New Zealand cycling team
- Front / rear disc wheel: €11,184
Vorteq, as used by the Malaysian cycling team
- Tokyo Track Edition handlebars: €11,773
FES, as used by the German cycling team
- SLR16 front / SLR18 rear wheel: €11,634.55
Cockpits and wheels dominate the upper echelons of the components price list.
As at the previous Olympics, Pinarello’s MOST custom 3D-printed aero extensions (€22,500) take the top spot by a decent margin.
It’s sobering to consider the extensions alone are by far the most expensive component on Filippo Ganna’s Bolide F time trial bike.
Beyond that, we come to a selection of outrageously expensive track disc wheels.
Constructed from carbon fibre, these typically offer low weight, high stiffness and world-class aerodynamic performance.
For €18,420, Factor includes both a front and rear wheel – and says there are a range of “options for various hub bodies”, meaning you’ll likely be able to match the wheelset to whatever frameset you choose.
At €11,773 per wheel, the discs created for the New Zealand cycling team by composites specialist Southern Spars are even more expensive if you plan on getting a complete set.
Details on the exact specs of these wheels are scant, but we suspect they’re designed specifically for the Avanti track bikes the team uses.
Vorteq’s Tokyo Track Edition handlebar (€11,184) is one of the most expensive drop handlebars being used at this year’s Olympics.
It features a design focused entirely on aerodynamics and stiffness – intended to deal with the enormous torsional forces and high speeds experienced in track sprint events.
The least expensive track frames, components and kit at the 2024 Paris Olympics
Textiles (clothing)
- Boodun sprint gloves: €5.11
- Bioracer Classic Team Sock Knitted: €13
- Velotoze short shoe covers – Road 2.0: €16.50
Components
- Deda Elementi Piega handlebar: €34
- Nitto B136 Touring handlebar: €40
- Fouriers HB-RA011-A6-M handlebar: €40.17
Frames
- Jorbi Omnium Carbon: €1,381
- Dolan DF4: €1,683
- Argon 18 Electron Pro: €2,500
Wheels
- Corima 58mm WS1 track front / rear wheel: €777
- DT Swiss TRC1100 80mm clincher front wheel: €827
- Walker Brothers HI-5 tubular front wheel: €1,000
While it’s possible to spend outrageous sums of money piecing together a cutting-edge track setup, it’s certainly not mandatory.
The UCI’s spreadsheet also includes a number of comparatively cheap and ordinary frames, components, wheels and cycling kit.
Previously, even basic items such as saddles and pedals needed to be approved and added to the spreadsheet.
For Paris, though, only frames, forks, seatposts, wheels, handlebars (including drop bars, base bars and aero extensions), clothing (skinsuits, baselayers, gloves, socks and shoe covers) and helmets (plus accessories) needed to be explicitly approved.
Everything else used in competition still needs to adhere to the UCI’s equipment regulations, of course, but it no longer needs to be officially registered and approved unless it’s one of those items.
With an ever-expanding selection of frames, wheels, components and items of technical clothing being created, perhaps the UCI wished to simplify its approvals process for the 2024 Games.
Why does the UCI Final Equipment List exist?
The UCI keeps a list of registered and approved equipment in an attempt to create something of a level playing field.
Ensuring everything is commercially available means each nation/rider can theoretically access the same pool of equipment.
The UCI’s registration document states: “For track races, any equipment used at the Olympic Games must have been commercially available – in accordance with article 1.3.006 – at the latest on January 1st of the year of the Olympic Games and may therefore not be in development phase (prototype).”
Article 1.3.006 of the UCI’s technical regulations states “the retail price of the equipment shall be publicly advertised, shall not render the equipment de facto unavailable to the general public and shall not unreasonably exceed the market value for equipment of a similar standard.”
It also notes that use of equipment that is not commercially available can result in disqualification and/or fines ranging from CHF5,000 to 100,000.
This is all laudable in theory of course, but considering how much it would cost a nation to kit out a single rider – let alone a whole team – with top-of-the-range equipment, we might reasonably question whether it works in practice.
Of course, the manufacturers of such equipment would doubtless argue the extensive research and development, ultra-high quality materials used and tiny production runs necessitate such high prices.
To an extent, that’s a fair argument.
To wheel out a well-worn comparison, Olympic track bikes are like the Formula 1 cars of cycling – the prices are always going to be orders of magnitude higher than the mass-produced bikes seen at races such as the Tour de France.
But it’s also clear the UCI rules provide manufacturers plenty of wiggle room to spend as much as they wish on R&D and production, and then price things accordingly.
If the UCI really wants to “assert the primacy of man over machine” – the first principle of its technical regulations – then perhaps it needs to look at things such as cost caps to keep things in check.
Otherwise, what might bike prices look like ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics?
