The Olympics are over. The "Nirapi" crater has been extinguished and Tom Cruise has jumped from the Stade de France and even a plane two days ago. Although the games have ended successfully, the incident of Japanese cyclist Shinji Nakano hitting national rider Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom during the final race of the keirin event last Sunday is still being talked about.
There is still an incident of cyber bullying by netizens against Shinji Nakano even though he has apologized and the actual fault was committed by Muhammad Shah who entered his path. When reading the news of this incident, I was interested in the design of the bike that Nakano was riding. Did you know that the bikes used by the Japanese contingent are each more expensive than a Tesla Cybertruck?
The V-Izu TCM-2 bike is made by the Toray firm from carbon fiber parts with each worth £108,000 (RM614,018). This is more expensive than a Tesla Cybertruck Cyberbeast which sells for $119,990 (~RM 533,865).
The WX-R Vorteq bike used by Datuk Mohd Azizulhasni Awang in Paris is reported to be worth RM385,800 while the keirin event silver medalist from Australia, Matthew Richardson only uses a "cheap" bike worth £47,000 (~RM 267,210). I have not been able to find out what the price of the bike used by the Dutch contingent that bagged the highest number of gold medals in the 2024 Olympic track cycling event.
In addition to the entire structure and tire rim being made of carbon fiber, the cycling mechanism of the V-Izu TCM-2 bicycle is also unique because it is placed on the left side for the reason of improving aerodynamics when pedaling.
The main lesson from this article is that it is not the expensive bike that determines success but rather lies in the sweat and strength of the athlete who rides. It is hoped that Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom will learn from his experience in Paris 2024 to win a medal in Los Angeles 2028.