Speed Rolls On With the Rolling Chassis

On November 22, 1988, the B2 Spirit (Stealth) Bomber was rolled out of the cloak & dagger world of black ops, and onto the tarmac at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California. People had their hands over their mouths, awed by the advances in design and technology that the Stealth represented (and how unbelievably cool it looked).

A BMX-equivalent rollout (without members of congress in attendance) occurred recently at the Orange Y track in Southern California. There, VSI products’ new Speed Rolling Chassis showed up, in complete bike form, under factory Test Pilot, Nick Koehler.

Like the Stealth, The Rolling Chassis employs some technology that has not been seen ’round these parts before, namely a pair of 20mm axles and supporting hardware that make the Rolling Chassis stiffer and able to apply more power to the ground.

And that is not just a bunch of hocus-pocus marketing talk. Rennen Design Group president George Costa spent three days with some of the nation’s top riders at a recent USAC Junior Development Camp, using his G-Cog Powermeter and a headful of MIT smarts to measure dozens of data points on a variety of riders. Two bikes (a regular Speed frame and fork, and a Speed Rolling Chassis) were set up identically, down to the tension on the spokes in the wheels and even accounted for variations in the riders’ weight from one day to the next (which, surprisingly, varied more than you might think).

The testing yielded a spreadsheet that, if you saw it, would have you wondering if it contained calculations for the next lunar landing. Net result: The New 20mm design required less power from the riders to go just as fast, therefore they transferred power more efficiently to the ground.

Above, you see the first post-prototype, pre-production build, fitted with the latest Sinz components (including the new Elite four-bolt Cranks).

In a recent release, Nick said of the Rolling Chassis rig: “I can feel a big difference between the two bikes. My regular Speed is super-stiff, responsive and better than other bikes I’ve ridden, but the 20-millimeter bike is even better. It’s really noticeable, especially on the gate. I really like it…After the Disney Cup, I’m going to train on it, and race it at Grands.”

We’re looking forward to seeing Nick at Disney on his convention Speed ride, then at the Grands for the Speed Rolling Chassis’ first flight in competition.