The Argus Race … and the mean machine that won it

by Mark Stansfield
Weekend Argus Reporter
1988

It’s a super dream-machine in disguise!

The weird-looking recumbent bicycle which earned Lloyd Wright the laurels in this year’s Argus/M Net Cycle Tour is in fact Lightning 2 in disguise.

Lightning 2 is the bicycle that has broken the world speed record three times. It was imported by John Stegmann recently minus its own distinctive fairings, which were left in America.

No wonder Mr. Wright flashed past the winning post and knocked more that seven minutes off last year’s winning time.

Lightning 2 is purely a speed bike and has been clocked at 104km over a low-altitude 200m sprint, Mr. Wright said today.

It’s so light it cannot be ridden in winds over 12 knots because it would just be blown about.

Today’s weather conditions were absolutely perfect, he said.

“I have ridden John Stegmann’s bikes in the last cople of Argus Cycle Tours.

This year I had decided I wasn’t going to ride a recumbent — and then he phoned and said he had managed to bring Lightning 2 over. The opportunity was too good to be missed.

The super-cycle was bought for R6,000 by Mr. Stegmann. With its original fairing it would have cost R20,000, Mr. Wright said.