Cycling helmet coup

Press, 2 March 1982, Page 34

Cycling helmet coup

NZPA Brisbane A clandestine meeting ; with a ... Communist black-J marketeer in Zurich, Swit-i zerland, has given Australia: a chance to break East Ger-i many’s grip bn world' cycling. I At the meeting a Queens-; land rider, Russell Tucker, I handed over 85 Swiss francs i for a battered and holed but' aerodynamically designed ! cycling helmet that has been j a closely guarded secret by! the East Germans. ! The Germans lead the! world in advanced technology to assist their cham-' pions who dominated the j sport at the Moscow Olym-l pics. ; “There was no way you ; could buy one of the helmets i from the East German i riders. They wouldn’t even; let you have a close look at: them,” said the 18-year-old; Tucker yesterday. ; But armed with the black! market, helmet Tucker, an j apprentice motor mechanic,| was able to use his skills in i glass fibre to make'one for! himself exactly to the speci-j fications of the East German ' model. ’ The helmet looks like a i space warrior’s headgear in ' a “B” class science fiction j movie and features a swept; back rear which sits low I over the rider’s neck and• creates a wind flow that' reduces wind friction. ! “ft might not seem much I but if it cuts a hundredth of: a second off your time over ■ a 1000 metre race it could mean the difference between winning and losing,” said the, youngest of the well known; Queensland cycling family. i'