Bicycle F1 was a marketing fad-- an attempt to revive the dying BMX racing fad-- that lasted about negative five minutes. The bikes sure were cool, though, and would be better kid bikes for many kids than the sorta-BMX and kinda-freestyle bikes they currently get.
In the early '90s, I worked at a bike shop where the go-get-lunch bike was an F1 bike that had never sold. It was fitted with tall BMX bars and front and rear milk crates for its new duty. We referred to it as "the fwun".
Fred Rompelberg's land speed record bike in the pictures above isn't a Formula 1 bike at all-- almost the opposite, in fact. F1 bikes were designed to be highly maneuverable for navigating go-kart type tracks, whereas Romperberg's motorpaced bike was designed to hold steady at speeds approaching 170mph. The chopper-slack head angle is clear evidence that his bike was not made to carve corners.
The previous motorpaced bike land speed record had been held by John Howard, whose bike was built by Skip Hujsak from the Austin area. That bike was highly effective, but not as sweet looking as Rompelberg's bike made by Dave Tesch.
There is a branch of the polo bike family tree that features adult sized bikes with 20" wheels. Since they are designed for tight turns and short sprints, they would be less than ideal for 30+ mph applications. Dig those steep angles.
Chalo
