The $97,979 Olympic Games super-bike Australia hopes no-one buys - and how you can get it for nearly $90,000 cheaper

For $97,979 you can buy a nice Mercedes, 30 ounces of gold … or the new super-bike Australia hopes will deliver medals of the same colour in Paris.

For $97,979 you can buy a nice Mercedes, 30 ounces of gold … or the new super-bike Australia hopes will deliver medals of the same colour in Paris.

The newly minted Hanso track bike made by Taiwanese-based firm Factor is touted as the fastest bike in the world and Australia’s high-tech weapon for July’s Paris Games.

If you want to buy one it’s all yours for $97,979 but we suggest you wait until the Paris Games finish because the price is expected to drop all the way to $10,000 - a discount of almost $90,000!

Sound weird? Correct.

But it’s not as if the manufacturers expect its tyres to burst or handlebars to buckle at the Games. There’s another story at play here. It’s the game within the Games. The Olympic arms race.

There’s a certain Olympic art-form to playing within the rules but protecting your own interests and Australian cycling is doing that with its new toy.

Australia's new Olympic track bike designed by Factor. Picture: Supplied

Olympic cycling teams are allowed to develop a super-bike so long as they unveil it a year before the Games (which Australia did at the August World Championships in Glasgow) and offer it for sale to the general public.

The bike had to go on the open market – it’s for sale on the Factor website – but the last thing Australia needs is for rival nations to buy it and steal their secrets.

Hence the prohibitive price tag.

The huge price is designed to scare off rivals before, as Factor bosses have confirmed, the price dips back to around $10,000 after the Games.

The bike has been designed for Australia’s team pursuit and team member Conor Leahy, who has trialled it over the past year, is most impressed.

Australia track cycling team member Conor Leahy has given the bike his tick of approval. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Roy VanDerVegt

“It was awesome,’’ Leahy said.

“You grow up looking at the Olympics and before them you see the new bikes come out. It is so cool.’’

Of the hefty price tag?

“You can get a lot for that ($97,979) … can you get a house for that? I’m sure that price will come down once they make a few more of them. They told us they can only make one a day. It is quite a process.’’

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“For sure this bike can help Australia. It is a more aerodynamic package than the bikes we have been using.

“The bike is important but there are so many factors which are important. Skin suits are a massive factor. The helmet is a massive factor. There is so much to it.’’

“Olympics are different because you have been able to see what everyone has now. I remember in Toyko going around the pits and you try and not be distracted and concentrate on what you have got but you see what everyone else has and it feels like an arms race.’’

Originally published as The $97,979 Olympic Games super-bike Australia hopes no-one buys - and how you can get it for nearly $90,000 cheaper