Why are Great Britain using 12-year-old bikes at the Track World Championships?

Great Britain’s men’s sprint team are racing at this week's UCI Track World Championship on bike designs once used by Sir Jason Kenny and Sir Chris Hoy.

Three of the squad’s four riders are competing in Denmark on UK Sports Institute (UKSI) bikes, built by British Cycling’s in-house research and development team for the London 2012 Olympics.

The design itself dates back to 2002, when it was debuted at the Commonwealth Games. Since then, the bike has been upgraded, with those ridden today understood to be the second iteration, or MK2, used three Olympic cycles ago.

“They are from, I believe, London 2012,” said Harry Ledingham-Horn, who finished fourth in the keirin on Thursday. The 20-year-old is part of a trio of academy sprinters making their debut at the championships, alongside Hayden Norris and Marcus Hiley, who are both also using the 12-year-old framesets.

“It’s actually an upgrade for us. We were riding BTs before, which are even older bikes,” Ledingham-Horn said. “About six weeks ago, we got upgraded to UKSI. It’s been a pleasant upgrade. They’re good bikes, to be fair. They are old, but we make the most out of them.”

Ledingham-Horn, Norris and Hiley are all part of GB’s podium potential programme, a tier below the elite squad. Riders on GB’s podium programme, the elite squad, are typically given Hope-Lotus bikes, introduced for the Tokyo Olympics, and upgraded for the recent Paris Games.

The keirin was won on Thursday by Japan’s Kento Yamasaki, riding a Toray bike produced for the Paris Olympics with a price tag of £108,000.

Asked if Ledingham-Horn felt at a disadvantage on an older model to his opponents, the 20-year-old said: “There’s probably a difference, but it doesn’t really concern me. The coaches and the team made that decision. I don’t think anyone expected me to get as far as I did today. We get the bikes we’re given because we’re not as good as the podium guys. Once we do get as good, we’ll get given the better bikes, so there’s no hard feelings.”

The majority of Great Britain’s squad are using Hope-Lotus HBT bikes at this year’s Worlds, previously only ridden at the Paris Olympics. The women’s team sprint and team pursuit squads rode the new models to gold medals earlier this week.