Track Session 09 18/01/2016

[Paul Nicholas]

Another 6:30pm Improvers session, we did this as a mock Accreditation. Pretty smooth for the most part, only major issue was when we were riding as a group when someone misunderstood the instruction and moved onto the blue line instead of peeling off. I made a fair few mistakes, I came off the track too quickly causing everyone to have to slow down around me. I still come off the front in the stacking exercise which makes climbing to the top of the track in time really difficult. Not sure I will pass the accreditation but might put myself forward for the experience.

On the plus side my new bike is OK for the track so I'll take it with me on Wednesday to break the tyres in.

Ta
P

[Jason T]

Liking the sound of the track, I was saying to a few of the chaps before my accident that I fancied giving it a go between the new year and mallorca so enjoying your posts.

What bike did you go for Paul (I have two track bikes I use on the road but not 100% sure if they are track legal)?

[Paul Nicholas]

I went for a Cinelli Parallax in the end, went around the houses on this as there seems to be no consensus on what makes a good track bike and you could spend £1400 on one. I had a really good deal on a second hand one (which turned out to be as new) saving about £300 on the price.

From what I gather you can't have any unnecessary sticky-out bits on the bike, so no brakes, bull horn bars, have been told that you can't have any Garmin bits on the bike for Accreditation (most people have Garmins on the sessions I go to), no braze-ons although you can cover them up with foam if you have them. 165mm cranks max and BB height no larger than 11inch, reason being the cranks will gouge the track if they are any longer. I couldn't find the BB measurement on any websites but apparently all the main manufacturers track bikes are to this spec, Specialised langster being the only anomaly. No SPD's Look pedals are OK. Have never seen anyone riding a fixie so I guess converted bikes are frowned on! I have got a stack of spacers on my steerer at the moment and that was OK. Tyres need to be slicks conti supersonics recommended, or Vittoria Diamante Pro Pista. Michelin are banned, tyres need to be sanded and rubbed down with meths. Asked about tyre pressure 120psi depending on how fat you are! If you have new tyres you have to ride them in gradually. Phew!!

Sounds like a lot but if you have a built for purpose track bike most of that is covered, what I discovered with mine was that the gearing was too low for the track, and the tyres were for more suited for road use. Mine came with 48/17 but I changed the sprocket to a 15 which (I think) is the same as the hire bikes, which is still quite low but probably safer to try everything out on, less likely to slide the back wheel I guess!

I have seen some TT bikes going around the track on a private booking, testing out some (extremely) expensive looking wheels. So you can take a road bike on there although you are limited to how high up the bank you can go.

Be good to go to the track with you once you're better (no excuses with that many bikes!), been looking for some OVW company.

[Jason T]

Thanks for the info Paul, I like the Cinellis and the designs by the MASH SF Crew.

I'll have to measure mine up when I can to see about the BB Height.

[Paul Nicholas]

Sure they will be fine, don't mind popping up with you when you're up for it. I would take your own bike on your first visit, but still hire a bike there. That way you could ask the coach to take a look at it when the session is over.