Obree to sell off Hour medals

Jerseys, medals and bikes set to go under the hammer this Friday

Former Hour record holder and world champion Graeme Obree is putting a vast range of personal memorabilia from his career up for auction. These items include his National Championship jersey and, notably, his ‘Beastie’ bike — built in his attempt to break the human-powered land speed record.

Alongside the Beastie, medals, cups and equipment from the Flying Scotsman’s career are set to be sold off on Friday September 22 at the Great Western Auctions in Glasgow.

Obree revealed to Cycling Weekly that the primary reason to sell on the selection of items was to fund future projects.

“With the Beastie project, it cost a lot of money to get to America without sponsorship,” he said.

“I didn’t make a loss, but you don’t get wealthy doing these type of things. Plus the bike does take up a hell of a lot of space, so unless you are using it as a coffee table what are you going to do with it?”

Although not entirely clear on the specifics of his next venture, it is set to coincide with the anniversary of his Hour record, “Next year is 25 years since I broke the Hour record, and I thought that it would be ridiculous just to let that pass. So the thought is to build ‘Bold Faithful’ but the where or what has not yet been decided.”

Obree admitted that the Hour record medal (pictured) was the one item that was particularly difficult to part ways with: “It is probably the only Hour record medal that will be available to a collector. As there are only a handful of them ever made, and the Hour record doesn’t change hands that often. Especially now that Bradley [Wiggins] has put it up to 54.5km, whereas there are thousands of Olympic and World Championships medals.”

Avoiding a future family feud looks to be another reason that convinced Obree to part with one of his most treasured possessions.

“I’ve got two children and one Hour record medal, so this will also save trouble 50 years from now,” he said.