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UCI 'approved' stickers to adorn racing bikes
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
The International Cycling Union (UCI) has published on its website further details of the protocol that will eventually see all bikes used in the professional ranks adorned with 'UCI approved' stickers.
The system, first proposed last year, is designed to ensure all bikes used in professional races adhere to the governing body's technical regulations. The stickers will have to be displayed on bikes used in road, track and cycle cross races.
The stickers will be provided for frames (and forks) only when they have gone through the UCI's new Approval Protocol that came in to action from January 1 this year. It will not be applied to frames that are already on sale or in production.
Frames made in moulds will have to go through the full Approval Protocol with initial drawings submitted for approval by the UCI before a prototype is again submitted. More traditional 'tubular' frames made by welding or glueing tubes together will go through a shorter protocol whereby they are approved by the UCI via the technical drawings alone.
The full Approval Protocol could add several months to a manufacturers production schedule, and threatens to limit the amount of new products seen at bike races through the season.
A manufacturer will have to get each of its models approved (the approval is limited to eight frame sizes) before they can be raced on, and a frame that undergoes design changes will have to go through the procedure each time.
The rules don't stop there either:
The positioning of the sticker on the frame also has to be approved by the UCI. It will have its own identification code (paired with the certificate the manufacturer receives) and must be visible, indelible and inseparable from the frame.
Not only that but the manufacturers will have to pay for the privilege. The UCI claim the costs involved merely cover the expense of the procedure. The full Approval Protocol will cost £7,800 + VAT while the simplified procedure (for tubular frames) will cost just £500 + VAT.
A list of approved models will be available on the UCI's website and they will be entitled to carry out random checks at the start of bikes races.
The approval system is set to be eventually rolled out to all parts of a bike, and restrictions on clothing have already been announced. A team must register a specimen of clothing with the UCI at the start of the year, and 'riders clothing shall always be identical to the specimen lodged.' Team Sky had several different jerseys last year, each one designed for different weather conditions.
The UCI claim, with no hint of irony, that 'the approval for frames and forks is a service that the UCI has set up for manufacturers... and the sport in general.'
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UCI will bankrupt bike makers, says Masiguy
by Carlton Reid
IN NEWS
Industry heaps scorn on 'Approved by UCI' labels. Only the top three bike makers could hope to benefit from the "extortion".
While some in the bike trade believe the UCI's new labelling scheme is a "storm in a teacup" and once spread out over a number of frames the cost will be "peanuts", others see the UCI's move into labelling of products as a deeply worrying development.
The UCI's new labelling scheme is initially aimed mostly at time trial frames but the UCI has indicated it will seek to certify components and clothing, too.
BikeBiz spoke to industry figures in the UK and US. The big bike brands refused to comment, a possible indication that the UCI labelling process will be most costly (in time and money) for smaller bike companies.
