Robert Egger’s lunch ride bike

Egger's Lunch Ride "Cheater" bike…a road version of the Shiv

I have mentioned Robert Egger, Specialized’s Creative Director, a few times in the past. He has worked at Specialized since 1987, and in that time has created some pretty interesting concept bikes (like the one at the bottom of this post from a 1992 issue of Bicycling Magazine).

In their Google + stream, Byron from Bike Hugger just posted a few pictures of Egger’s personal “lunch ride” bike, which looks a lot like a road version of the Shiv. I wonder if this is version of the Shiv road prototype that eventually became the Venge, or just a bike that Egger built to help him keep up with the young, fast guys on the famed Specialized lunch ride. Either way, it looks fast. As Byron commented though, it is not a bike you would “want to be next to in the peloton when the wind changes.” True, but with a bike like this, he should be riding off the front anyway.

Update: See more pictures on the Specialized Facebook page.

Update to the update: Neil Browne shared his thoughts about this bike in an interesting post yesterday.

Another Egger creation, as seen in a 1992 issue of Bicycling Magazine

Posted

January 25, 2012

Road Bike

James

Tags:

aero, road bike, Robert Egger, Shiv, Specialized

Comments

8 responses to “Robert Egger’s lunch ride bike”

enrico ercolani

January 25, 2012

wonderful !!! i hope it would be good even on the roadraces, right? when on the stores???

Reply
Speedy

January 25, 2012

That is totally UCI legal (not) haha. And I love it more for that!

Reply
1. Nick F
  
  January 26, 2012
  
  According to Cervelo, it might not be far off?
  
  Reply
2. James Thomas
  
  January 26, 2012
  
  I am with you on that. I would love to see a wave of production road bikes that completely ignore the UCI’s ridiculous equipment regulations. Maybe soon….
  
  At this point though, Egger is just lucky that UCI officials are not inspecting bikes before the lunch ride in Morgan Hill.
  
  Reply
kfg

February 2, 2012

“with a bike like this, he should be riding off the front anyway.”

Ahhhhhh, if only it worked that way then everyone would do it, and then it wouldn’t work that way anymore, again. The fact is that there is a simple, no cost way of enhancing the aerodynamics of a bicycle that is far more effective than any of those applied at great expense to this bike; follow the guy trying to rider off the front.

“I would love to see a wave of production road bikes that completely ignore the UCI’s ridiculous equipment regulations. ”

Wal-Mart.

Reply
1. James Thomas
  
  February 2, 2012
  
  That last statement about riding off the front was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. We all know that riders win races, not bikes. I used to race with a guy who rode a dirty, rusty old Torpado with friction shifters. He was a strong rider, and would often win cat 3 crits with an early solo break. He took pride in the fact that the bike he rode was a beater…and I think it worked to his advantage when it came to psyching people out before the race.
  
  That said, bikes do make a small difference, and at the pro/elite amateur level even a slight advantage is beneficial. Aero road bikes are here to stay because they are faster…even if it is only by a small amount. An aero bike won’t make a slow racer fast and it certainly won’t make up for poor race tactics….but you can’t argue that it makes no difference at all.
  
  Reply
kfg.

February 2, 2012

“That last statement about riding off the front was meant to be tongue-in-cheek.”
That’s why my reply was also meant to be tongue-in-cheek. Sometimes my humor can be positively dehydrated.

I once spent a hilly criterium (Vermont is like that), on an all Campy Teledyne Titan, desperately trying to hold the wheel of a guy on a Fuji S-10, with a rack, wearing sneakers, but in the last few laps he just slowly motored away from me. I had placed 4th in the district road champs that year (in NY).

“….but you can’t argue that it makes no difference at all.”

Which is why I didn’t do it, although I might well argue that it makes no difference in the peleton.

Reply
eastcastle g

November 20, 2018

It looks sooo advanced back 6 years ago, and still looks cool today. I wish I can get one!

Reply