I had the chance to catch “The Flying Scotsman” at a special showing at the Boulder Theater. While the movie takes some liberties with the order of events and the details of how they unfolded, it tells the gist of Graeme Obree’s story ratherwell.

In many ways, it reminded me that – as far as the UCI is concerned – the more things change, the more they remain the same. The film’s characterization of the UCI, and its troglodyte attitude toward maverick innovators like Obree, is unfortunately quite accurate, especially when those inventive types beat established cycling stars using unconventional designs.

It is particularly interesting now, given the UCI's recent ruling that time trial bar extensions must be parallel to the ground (and not “Praying Landis” style). Even this year, Levi Leipheimer and others had to change their TT positions the night before the prologue of the Tour de France. So nothing much seems to have changed on that front since the days of Obree. In the movie, the UCI is called the WCF, the rainbow jersey of the world champion is altered so that the stripes angle across the chest, rather than being horizontal, and the names of UCI officials are changed, but the officials and the organization are easily recognizable.

The film is based on theautobiography by the same name and, like the book, offers some insightinto some of Obree’s thinking as he came up with his first unusual bikedesign, particularly when it comes to using the bearing housing and bearingsfrom a washing machine as the bottom bracket. He is lying on the flooron his back mimicking pedaling and invites his wife to do the same. Hedemonstrates to her how much closer her feet naturally pass by each otherthan the Q-factor of traditional bikes dictates.

The movie does not follow the technology story one step further and point out that the Mike Burrows-built bike on which he falls short on his first attempt on the hour record had a wider bottom bracket, and the original “Old Faithful” bike he built himself on which he succeeds in breaking the record the following morning, has the narrower pedaling stance. It also does not show the single-blade fork that Burrows made for him or describe why the elevated chainstays are there (to achieve chainstay crank clearance with the narrow stance).

I remember speaking with Obree’s manager in 1993 shortly after the Scot set his first hour record, describing lyrically how fast the Scot was riding, with his knees passing so close to each other that they actually crossed over each other, across the center plane of the bike. It was great to see the character development in the movie illustrating what deep admiration his manager (played by Bill Boyd, perhaps best known for his role as Pippin in “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy) had for him, since I had experienced it firsthand 14 years ago.

As something of a tech’ geek, the film rates as one of my favorite cycling movies ever made, and it is good to see that it is the result of work by a major studio (MGM) and with major stars. Jonny Lee Miller (“Trainspotting,” “Hackers,” ex- husband of Angelina Jolie) portrays Obree very well and even looks a lot like the flying Scot.

One hilarious scene based on actual events is him making fun of the UCI rulemakers by unveiling his bike at the 1994 World’s with training wheels on, cutting off the nose of his saddle in front of them, and when they disallowed that, buying a shorter saddle from a 12-year-old kid. Of course, the UCI still passed another unwritten rule just before he took to the track, banning touching the chest to the hands. He insisted on riding anyway until officials forced him off of the track during his qualifying heat (in the movie it shows him falling down when he gets the third red flag violation for touching hand to chest). The movie does not show that in April of that year, he had once again taken the hour record back, this time from Chris Boardman, further aggravating the powers that be at the UCI.

But more than a story about frame-builders and hour records, the film explores Obree’s battle with depression, failing, however, to examine the manic periods after this 1994 humiliation and the death of his brother. In his book, Obree clearly questions whether his brother, who died in a car crash and who had suffered the same constant after-school beatings at the hands of classmates as Graeme, had not intentionally taken his own life, as he himself would later attempt.

The film does show the results of Obree’s remarkably creative manic periods, namely Obree’s second world pursuit championship, in 1995, using the “Superman” position, which he devised in response to the banning of his “egg” position. In the final onscreen text, the movie also describes how the UCI (aka WCF) banned the Superman position as well, after seven gold medals were won with it in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

Instead of showing his 1994 manic periods, the movie puts his suicide attempt between the 1994 World’s and his 1995 success. It actually came years later, after his failure to procure a medal at the 1996 Olympics signaled the end of his world-class cycling achievements and after the failure of his business making handlebars for the Superman position, which was put in the tank by the UCI’s arbitrary ruling.

Obree was literally and figuratively brought to his knees in part by the work of the UCI in much the same way Cinelli was brought nearly to its knees with the UCI’s banning of its Spinaci handlebar, for which it had geared up mass production.

For those wondering how Miller could look like such a hack on the bike in the early road-racing sequences and could later look so fast and in control riding in the “Obree egg” position, it helps to understand that Obree himself worked as a double in some of the riding sequences. Obree also built some of the bikes used in the movie himself, just as he had in the first place over a decade before. It is a movie worth watching, and it shows how - improbable as it may be - that a rider can still come out of nowhere and accomplish amazing things, at least until the UCI figures out how to squash those ambitions using its technology rules.

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VeloNews technical writer Lennard Zinn is a frame builder (www.zinncycles.com),a former U.S. national team rider and author of numerous books on bikesand bike maintenance including the pair of successful maintenance guides"Zinnand the Art of Mountain Bike Maintenance" and "Zinnand the Art of Road Bike Maintenance" as well as "Zinn’sCycling Primer: Maintenance Tips and Skill Building for Cyclists."

Zinn's VeloNews.com column is devoted to addressing readers' technicalquestions about bikes, their care and feeding and how we as riders canuse them as comfortably and efficiently as possible. Readers can send brieftechnical questions directly to Zinn (veloqna@comcast.net)Zinn's column appears each Tuesday here on VeloNews.com.