Over the years we have been lucky enough to get our hands on many retro bikes. There was the Lotus 110the Battaglin of Stephen Roche, the LeMond Billato and a Giant MCR. Every time we got our hands on a retro bike, we put it up against a modern model, and every time the modern bike came out on top.
Now it’s time to see if a new bike can break the retro duck, in the form of Hotta, a bike that time has forgotten.
We are in charge Ollie Bridgewood and If Richardson with putting the bike to the test against a Canyon Aeroad, one of the most successful bikes in the professional peloton, to see what the difference in performance would be.
History of the Hood
The Hotta is from the same era as the Lotus 108 and, although it was less well known, it was no less revolutionary.
The bike was created in 1992 and its carbon monocoque design was cutting edge at the time, but its inspiration came from an unlikely place. It was the brainchild of Simon Aske who was working for a carbon composites company that made casing for cameras at the time. As a passionate cyclist, Aske decided to create a bike with the material and from that idea the Hotta was born.
He quickly built a reputation on the domestic scene before tasting action at a higher level at the hands of Chris Boardman. Initially, it wasn’t the overall bike that proved to be popular, but its aerocarbon fork that was used by a host of teams, including Lance Armstrong’s Motorola outfit.
The bike frame probably reached the pinnacle of its glory days in 1997 and 1998. Tours of France when Boardman was able to win in both prologues, although you did not notice that it was patched up in a different way.
From that point, the bike’s days were numbered and it soon fell victim, along with many other bikes of the time, to the wrath of the UCI and was banned from competition.
The test
An impressive range of riders used the Hotta back then, so it was only natural that we put the bike to the test in the hands of two of the greatest cyclists of the modern day. Okay, we struggled to convince all the really great cyclists to take part, so we settled for Si Richardson and Ollie Bridgewood instead.
They replicated an 8km effort with a scant 50m of climbing to see how the Hotta stacks up to a modern bike. The bike in question was Ollie’s Canyon Aeroad CFR, which has gone on an impressive streak in 2024, winning three of the men’s Monuments so far.
To add an extra dimension and make things a little more fair, then complete the race on a Hotta spiced with modern components.
Which bike will come out on top? Watch the full video at the top of this page to find out.
