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Might be my project for this winter...
As in velodrome?.
Uh-huh.
Meadowbank (Edinburgh) Track League every Tuesday during the Summer.
Loads of fun, not quite as many thrills and spills as you might imagine, but still lots of adrenalin. Really good to race hard and head to head.
Good thing about track bikes is they're essentially very simple, and so easy + cheap to put something race-worthy together.
Cheers
Paul
Never raced, but used to train at the track (Manchester) regularly.
Er, see my bolt-cropper thread..!
Done it a few times but wish there was an indoor track within a decent driving time from here. The nearest track (Welwyn) is outdoors and almost 2 hours away, I have no idea where the nearest indoor one is.
Great fun and you have to work quite hard too.
Done it a few times but wish there was an indoor track within a decent driving time from here. The nearest track (Welwyn) is outdoors and almost 2 hours away, I have no idea where the nearest indoor one is.
In the uk there are only Manchester, Newport (Wales) and Calshot indoor.
However there are a few outdoor tracks which tend to be larger about 400m in length than the indoor tracks (250m but Calshot is shorter i think).
We'll be getting a new indoor one for the Olympics and also for the Commonwealth games in Scotland.
The outdoor ones of the top of my head are:
Halesowen
Necastle under Lyme
Herne Hill
Portsmouth
Wolverhampton
Brighton
S****horpe
Welwyn
Edinburgh
Go on i must have forgot one!
Most of these will run a track league during the summer, there's something for everyone's level.
You forgot the one I race at - Palmer Park in Reading!
Track racing = awesome fun. As exhilarating as you're favourite bit of singletrack at night, but in a completely diffrerent way.
Outdoor one in Cardiff.
So once you are accredited, you just pitch up, put your name down for what you want to do and wait for that race to come up?
I really really really want to do it. Been on a couple of club days but not real racing.
What goes on at the Reading one then?
Wasn't there a track in Southampton?
Manchester one for me although I've done bits and pieces at Herne Hill as well cos it's just round the corner from where I grew up.
Great fun, it's really easy to get into although the accreditation procedure for the indoor tracks is sometimes quite expensive and time consuming.
Best bet is just to phone the track you're interested in or Google it, there'll be a club associated with it and a list of events that the track hosts.
Here's my track bike:
[img] http://images.fotopic.net/?iid=124ymf&outx=800&quality=70 [/img]
🙂
Crazy legs what is that? Carbon Pista?
Wasn't there a track in Southampton?
calshot is southampton (unless you live there like me and realise it's a 40 minute drive out of town)
or do you mean historically - there used to be one in the sports centre around the running track, but the running track was restored and the cycletrack got forgotten - this was 30+ years ago.
Wasn't there a track in Southampton?
It's Calshot - that's the one near Soton.
Newport is about 7 miles from my house, but the winter league is on Tuesday nights and I'm away all week at work. Calshot might be doable from work, but their league is on Sundays, when I'm at home. D'oh!
That's going by the BC website mind.
Outdoor one in Cardiff.So once you are accredited, you just pitch up, put your name down for what you want to do and wait for that race to come up?
You need to get to the Newport Velodrome - they have public sessions each week. You can hire a bike + the track coach will show you the ropes.
Maindy track is fine on a road bike - pretty certain you don't need accreditation to 'road race' there - just a BC licence as it is on road bikes although I guess it may not be true if a proper track race on fixed etc.
Newport you certainly need acc. before they will let you race.
Get to Newport you will love it!
I've been to Newport a couple of times like I say. I went on a hired bike and the gearing was too low and the saddle nose too high, so my entire crotch went to sleep, never mind just my knob.
And I've ridden many many miles on Maindy but only as training. Still couldn't find out what actual races they held there apart from Maindy Flyers for kids.
[i]Crazy legs what is that? Carbon Pista? [/i]
No, it's a custom geometry one-off carbon Dolan. Not built for me, I got it S/H but it happens to fit me perfectly! Had endless trouble finding an off-the-peg track bike to fit then I found out that a mate was selling his custom built one and it fitted me spot on. 🙂
so you are mates with Rob Hayles?
Anyone know if anything is going on at Newport at the weekends then? Not convinced BC site has it all.
molgrips - if you want to know what happens at Reading Velodrome look here
http://www.readingvelodromeracing.co.uk/
public are allowed in to watch the league racing On the monday's so you could always go along and have a look first
Crazy-legs - that's not racing tho is it? Just fun sessions?
Toab - no racing in winter?
Yeah, sorry, meant to post 2 links there. 😳
http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/events/list
(go to Track then Track Calendar then search for events in Wales)
I'm sure there was some news posted on the BC site recently about the Newport Track League but I can't find it now...
It's only the indoor tracks that race in winter, you can't on outdoor ones usually cos of the weather.
I did, I found a league on Tuesday night.. but I was wondering if there was anything else, since BC could've missed stuff.
Really really keen on this!
The events are always registered with BC so what is on the site will be accurate - they may start a second league later in the winter, I know Manchester has 2 leagues running throughout winter (a fast one and a very fast one!), I think Newport might be the same.
Cool.
Grr.. wanna tear someone's legs off now.. rrrr! 🙂
I know Manchester has 2 leagues running throughout winter (a fast one and a very fast one!)
Three. Monday, Tuesday, Friday.
Monday = fast
Friday = faster
Tuesday = fastest
Yep, my mistake again! They've just moved the Tuesday SQT session forward by an hour to allow the Tuesday league to start...