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4 times as many people came to the 2008 Polo Picnic this year than went to the Velodrome for the 2008 Velocity tour stop in LA. I dont know if that's cuz Polo is funner or the vast Majority of fixie riders in LA are only using their bikes as fashion accessories or what. Hipster NASCAR haha...
most people who are at the velodrome when i go on monday nights are over the age of 40. tallcans, you can think what you want to think, but hipster nascar it is not.
take a few beginners classes to learn the etiquette of the track. then show up on monday or wednesday night with five bucks and have fun for a few hours with some lyrcra'd out old farts.
RBI, I don't understand how a brake lever could do more damage than those bars you're running. I've had a handlebar to the throat and I would not wanna fuck with those things
bullhorns are ok for training, but are only allowed in certain events if youre actually racing.
i had a brake lever go inside me and almost rupture my spleen when i was trying to do flatland tricks a decade ago.
brakeless fixed gears are the only things allowed on the track so you wont coast into the person in front of you. if you have a brake and youre in a paceline on the velodrome and someone goes down in front of you, whats your first instinct? slam on the brake, right? well, since track racers run their chains slack (because a slack chain means less resistance and more speed) and youre not allowed to skid, you have to swerve to avoid it. freewheels arent allowed because youll coast into the person in front of you.
some people show up on conversions. they dont look down on it, but they also have some bikes for rent. they are fuji tracks, and im not aware of the sizes they have available. but they say to bring your own pedals. and a helmet! but they have those for rent too. but i wouldnt want to share helmets with a bunch of other people.
i have short cranks and clipless pedals so i dontthink ill clip it on the bank. but then again, idk what would happen if i made a sharp angle shot towards the rail, maybe then. idk.
fuck it, ill just go on one of the beginners classes, get schooled by all the little kids with their skatepark, er, i mean velodrome moms yelling from the sidelines.
The beginner class is a good intro and pretty non intimidating. I think I was the second youngest person there when I went, so I doubt you'll be getting schooled by little kids.
Also if you're interested in trying the Encino Velodrome for the first time, I did a write up with photos about my recent first time for the Saturday morning beginning class. Was a lot of fun I just wish it were easier to get to.
both tracks (ADT and Encino) have lots of rental bikes that go from 52 to 60 or so. The Felts at ADT run smallish, so a 52 will likely fit someone who normally rides a 50 or 48 road. I think some of the Fujis at encino run smaller-- like 48 or 50. I think both also have kids bikes in much smaller sizes.
And yeah, you can train on just about any bars, but racing mass starts is drop bars only. Brakes are bad enough in a pack, even when everyone has them, but on a banked wood track like ADT they''ll make you slide down. At encino it's possible to do a trackstand anywhere on the track, but fixed gear is still required for safety-- if everyone is on a fixed gear then it's way better than if there's a mix.
You can ride a conversion, but likely won't want to for very long-- I did my first races on a rented conversion on a track like ADT, and it gets a little interesting if the race slows down... People also tend to use a lot bigger gears on the track, even for training, than most people use on their road fixed gears. 81" is pretty small, 86" is a common warmup gear. 88"-92" are common race gears.
There are good intro classes at both tracks, and encino tends to be a bit more laid back.
because my iro wont allow a chainring bigger than 46, my track ratio is 46x14, which is 88 something. anything over 90, and youll get yelled at. anything under 80 and youll go nowhere fast.
i think it has to do with the size of the track. ive never been to adt, so maybe gary can sort this one out, but isnt the encino track a lot smaller? distance wise anyway.
someone call Morey at the bike factory, 781 -7522 he told me a bad ass easy to do formula for 700c gear inches once a while ago, he knows... plus hes an OG at Encino
Track Length at Encino and ADT Center are the same 250 meter international standard, although apparently Encino is a tincy tiny bit off the exact measurement. The big difference besides ADT being wood and Encino concrete is the considerably steeper banking at ADT. Encino is 28 degrees at the turns, and ADT is 45.
See that thick pale blue line, that is where the ground is flat.
I went to one of the protests! It was pretty freakin intense! The two parties were feet from each other blasting their PA systems at each other and the police in the middle. It was pretty scary actually
49x15 is an 88" gear. it changes by about 2" per tooth in chainring size (bigger-> bigger) and about 6"/tooth in cog size (smaller->bigger) so a 50x15 is a 90, and a 50x14 is about a 96.
to calculate it out for real, it's just the number of teeth in the chainring divided by the number of teeth in the cog and multply that ratio by 27".
btw-- that thick blue line in the pic isn't where it's flat-- that's still at about 10 degrees. ADT only gets flat on the apron. But when you're on it it's flat where you are.
I guess I just thought it was flat looking at it compared to how crazy steep the rest is, I haven't actually ridden there yet. I love the sound of the low vibration going through the wood when a rider passes.
When: Sat, January 31, 12:00pm – 2:30pm
Description Cost: $40 Bring water , your own shoes and pedals if you like and be ready to ride. For more info, contact: Ken Avchen at TRCKRCR@aol.com
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