The Birth of "Bike Technologies Australia" (BT Bicycles)

"Once the bike had been designed the project leader, Lachlan Thompson, was determined to put it into production in Australia. The problem was that bicycles had not been made in Australia since 1990.

The problem was overcome when Thompson was introduced to Sal Sansonetti by a friend from Aerospace Technologies. Sansonetti had cycled for Australia at the Montreal Olympics in 1976, was Italian Champion in 1970, and had won two stages of the 1971 Tour of Italy and the Milan Six Day. Not only did Sansonetti understand bikes and metal, he was keen to manufacture bicycles and owned a company, Nezkot, which made injection moulding dies for such clients as Holden and Ford. He therefore had the necessary tooling to make the frame of the bike.

A company (Bike Technologies) was formed in 1996, not only to provide bikes for the AIS, but to manufacture the Superbike in track, touring and mountain bike types for world distribution.

Records broken with Superbike
Designed and manufactured in Australia, the Superbike has re-written the records in cycle racing, achieving 23 world championships and three world records in four years.

The Australian-designed Superbike helped cyclists win:
3 gold medals 1994 Commonwealth Games (Victoria BC, Canada)
3 gold medals 1995 World Junior Track Championships (Italy)
3 gold medals 1995 World Track Championships (Bogota, Colombia)
2 bronze medals 1996 Olympic Games (Atlanta)
2 gold medals 1996 World Track Championships (Manchester, England).

Made in Australia
The development of the Superbike through the collaboration of athletes and researchers at high-tech research facilities is an example of the emergence of sports technology as an industry in Australia. Unlike most equipment used by elite athletes, the Superbike was also designed for low-cost, high-volume manufacture, for the road as well as the track." "Copyright © Power House Museum"

Charlie Walsh OAM; Dip T (Tech) worked at developing the comprehensive Bike Technologies –Advanced Training System (BT-ATS) in his last two years as head coach of Australian Cycling and continued the scientific development following his retirement after the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

The reason for the development of the BT-ATS package was that Charlie was seeking ways to further improve the physical aspects of the Australian cyclists to make them more competitive in international cycling.

Australian cyclists had for many years used an ergo-meter as part of their training programs, but the units and the use of them had to be modified and further refined if we were to produce the required specific improvements in the cyclists. A package was needed that was going to allow the coach to be able to specifically target the improvements they required in their cyclists on an individual basis.

In looking for ways to further improve the delivery of power of the cyclists, the Australian National Team coaches had done a lot of work researching and developing the oxygen fuel system.

In the more than 10 years of both field and laboratory tests, it was shown that cyclists participating solely in road racing had not developed the power required for track cycling compared to those who were doing specialist track training activities.

The Australian National team cycling coaches wanted to be able to access the very high quality cyclists they were putting into European road trade teams and use them for major international track cycling events.

A training system had to be devised enabling them to transfer easily across to track racing with a minimal amount of time, but at the same time having increased power that would also benefit their road cycling.

1. In particular, power could be improved benefiting both road and track cycling.

2. It was suited to prepare the specific energy system demands involved in all of the variety of events of cycling. That is the energy systems and the way in which we required them to operate.

3. Whilst participating in road cycling our cyclists training on the BT-ATS were able to transfer from road cycling to track cycling easily as their top end power and energy system delivery was better than previously experienced

• Many of Australia’s National Team cyclists used and continue to use the BT-ATS principle to achieve outstanding results at Olympic games, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

• One group of track cyclists spent four (4) weeks preparing, mainly on the BT-ATS and specifically for a series of track events.

This in total meant six (6) weeks of largely shorter distance track cycling preparations. The team rode very successfully in the track events.

They then traveled straight to Europe to compete in road events. Surprisingly to us, their power along the road was very apparent and they competed far better in the road events than had ever previously been the case.

• A number of cyclists using the BT-ATS were competing very successfully in major European road cycling events and then transferring across to be highly competitive in track cycling events.

• In a 15-second power test, one cyclist improved by 18% over a 2-year span when using the BT-ATS.   This is a quite a considerable improvement.

This Australian cyclist has since become a leading international cyclist in both road and track cycling competitions.

• Charlie spent three (3) weeks introducing a group of trained cyclists to specificity of training using the BT-ATS.

Most of these cyclists had been doing longer rides from distances ranging from 120 kilometers to 200 kilometers in various terrains.

Before the training commenced the cyclists were asked to do a number of physiological tests using the BT-ATS to ascertain their current power levels and to set individual training intensities.

After completing three (3) weeks of various training activities on the BT-ATS, the cyclists were re-tested with the following outstanding results:

• An average group improvement of power in a 15-second test of 17.7%

• An average group improvement in an aerobic 5-minute power test of 4.4%

(Due to various circumstances a few in this group did very little work in some of the specific areas. This may have impacted the overall results, providing a reduced group average of improvement.)

• The BT-ATS is a training medium where the problem of weight bearing impact is not an issue. The uniqueness of the BT-ATS requires the hamstring and gluteus maximums muscle groups to be quite active.

Consequently, the BT-ATS unit has been effective in the successful rehabilitation of some injured AFL players where the coaches were able exercise control under varying load activities.

In addition to rehabilitation of their athletes some AFL clubs are looking at ways of using the BT-ATS as an additional means of specifically developing their players who require special attention in terms of energy system and dynamic power development.

It is our belief that the BT-ATS will become the most advanced rehabilitative training medium and specific developmental medium in many of today's sports.

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