Graeme Obree

Graeme Obree (born 11 September 1965 ), nicknamed The Flying Scotsman, is a Scottish racing cyclist who twice broke the world hour record, in July 1993 and April 1994, and was the individual pursuit world champion in 1993 and 1995.

He was known for his unusual riding positions and for the Old Faithful bicycle he built which included parts from a washing machine.

He joined a professional team in France but was fired before his first race.

Obree attacked Moser's record, on 16 July 1993, at the Vikingskipet velodrome in Norway.

He failed by nearly a kilometre.

He had booked the track for 24 hours and decided to come back the next day.

The writer Nicholas Roe said:

Obree said:

On 17 July 1993, Obree set a new record of 51.596 kilometres, beating Moser's record of 51.151 kilometres by 445 metres.

Obree's triumph lasted less than a week.

On 23 July 1993, the British Olympic champion, Chris Boardman broke Obree's record by 674 metres, riding 52.270 km at Bordeaux.

His bike had a carbon monocoque frame, carbon wheels, and a triathlon handlebar.

He also competed in the men's individual pursuit at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Obree has created some radical innovations in bicycle design and cycling position but has had problems with the cycling authorities banning the riding positions his designs required.

Obree has been very open about living with bipolar disorder and depression, and the fact that he has attempted suicide three times, using his experiences as a means of encouraging other sportspeople to talk about their own mental health.

His life and exploits have been dramatised in the 2006 film The Flying Scotsman and more recently in the documentary film Battle Mountain: Graeme Obree's Story, which follows his journey to Battle Mountain, Nevada to compete in the 2013 World Human Powered Speed Championships.

In March 2010, he was inducted into the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame.

Obree was born in Nuneaton, a large town in northern Warwickshire, England, but has lived almost all his life in Scotland and considers himself Scottish.

He attempted suicide in his teens by gassing himself.

He was saved by his father, who had returned early from work.

An individual time triallist, his first race was a 10-mile time trial to which he turned up wearing shorts, anorak and Doc Marten boots.

He thought the start and finish were at the same place and stopped where he had started, 100 metres short of the end.

He had started to change his clothes when officials told him to continue.

He still finished in "about 30 minutes."

The bike shop that he ran failed and he decided the way out of his problems was to attack the world hour velodrome record.

It had been held for nine years by Francesco Moser, at 51.151 kilometres.

Obree said:

Obree had built frames for his bike shop and made another for his record attempt.

Instead of traditional dropped handlebars it had straight bars like those of a mountain bike.

He placed them closer to the saddle than usual and rode with the bars under his chest, his elbows bent and tucked into his sides like those of a skier.

Watching a washing machine spin at 1,200rpm led him to take the bearings, which he assumed must be of superior quality, and fit them to his bike.

Obree later regretted admitting to the bearings experiment, because journalists referred to that before his achievements and other innovations.

Obree called his bike "Old Faithful".

It has a narrow bottom bracket, around which the cranks revolve, to bring his legs closer together (giving a smaller Q factor), as he thought this is the "natural" position.

As shown in the film, he thought a tread of "one banana" would be ideal.

The bike has no top tube, so that his knees did not hit the frame.

The chainstays are not parallel to the ground.

Thus the cranks can pass with a narrow bottom bracket.

The fork had only one blade, carefully shaped to be as narrow as possible.

A French writer who tried it said the narrow handlebars made it hard to accelerate the machine in a straight line but, once it was at speed, he could hold the bars and get into Obree's tucked style.