Favorit, track special bike, Rokycany, Czech Republic 1982

A Favorit racing bike made in 1982 in Rokycany in the Czech Republic. Robert Štěrba said:"I was a racing cyclist at that time and personally helped develop this machine. We rode these bicycles in the World Championship in Leicester, England in 1982. The Favorit was the first make of bicycle that used this revolutionary system. At the same time, similar experiments were being carried out in East Germany. After races, we were absolutely satisfied with these new bikes, because these have very hard frame especially front part where a stem was joint directly to crown fork. After the World Championship where we were the only ones with this frame shape, the officials in Czechoslovakia decided that this bicycle design is unsuitable and would no longer be used. A year later, in 1983, we entered the World Championship in Switzerland on bicycles with normal designs. We were the only ones. The rest of the world had adopted the new bicycle design. Our team was very successful even though we rode classical racing bikes and we ended up third in the 4-kilometre race. Immediately after the World Championship, our team signed a contract with Ernesto Colnago and the whole Czech team, including myself, began to ride Colnago bikes. Unfortunately, this was the turning point when the potential of the new frame design was underestimated and this was exacerbated by the fact that racing bikes were gradually phased out in Rokycany, so that the Favorit brand gradually fell into decline and now no longer exists. The only remaining specimens of these sports bikes, called "goats", can be found in bicycle collections." - Private collection Mr. Svoboda, Prague, Czech Republic