As part of my L2 coaching development I’m getting into track riding with the view to taking the track award. Where do you ride and how long have been at it and what do use? I’m getting involved with SCRL at Preston Park in Brighton.

Also any suggestions for a 1st bike? I’m looking at the Felt TK2, the club has bikes but I can’t train if I depend on them to have a bike to ride.

Had a couple of hours at Newport earlier in the year and loved it.

If I lived a little nearer to an indoor track then I’d definitely invest in a track bike for winter riding.

Ridden newport a fair few times on club trips so decided to have a bash at Herne Hill which is our local track for a change from tt’ing this year. Did an induction and doing the race training before trying the track league in the next few weeks. Realy good fun strangely addictive even just drifting around on the blue line is relaxing.
As for bike i did the first session on a stripped down langster, you can do this at HH as it is much shallower than say Newport. Herne Hill hire bikes out and use Fuji’s. Being a bike collector I picked up a second hand dolan frame, cheap chainset from planet x and moved the wheels from the langster, the rest of the bits were in the shed (gratuitous photo attached).

The felt tk2 seems quite a bling bit of kit and those bars are odd, you might be able to build up a planet x carbon for the same cash, dolan also seem to be used quite a lot. This lot have a good selection;
http://www.velodromeshop.net/index.php?p=product&id=767 you may also be able to pick up bits at lfgss

Yup, Calshot Velodrome. Not the nicest of places but it’s the only one for blinkin miles and miles.
Only used it for a couple of months, not really my kinda thing, it’s nicely kitted out and gets a good crowd.
I used a Condor Trackie which I borrowed of whippetmate, nice bike, strong as and light, good on the road too as it happens.

Probably not going to do it again, I like the big outside me.

Done a little bit, I built my bike from scratch. You’d be able to build up something very nice for the price of the Felt from a Dolan track champion frame. Worth making a start on your chainring and sprocket collection as well it’s nice to have a range of gears to choose from for different events. Oddly enough you need accreditation on most tracks to ride their track leagues but not for bigger events.

Iain

Yeah, I do a fair bit at Manchester. Done a few track league races but they’re not really my thing – too short. Mostly just use it for training, I like the Derny paced sessions.

The Felt bikes are nice, I was looking at them for a while but at the time they didn’t import anything in my size. Ended up with a custom Dolan.

Oh and somehow, despite the lack of brakes and gears, track bikes can cost more than you’d believe possible…

I used to go quite a bit to Manchester, twice a week plus I’d take my son on Saturdays. It’s really good training and does teach you a lot of discipline. Some of the guys are just plain weird though. Some of the chaps at the busier track sessions are very territorial and can get quite aggressive if you don’t follow what they think the rules are. Conversally, there are some real mavericks who think the rules don’t apply to them and are very dangerous characters indeed.

I used the hire Dolan’s for a bit and then bought a very nice Van Tuyl. Nowt like having your own bike though and if you can store it there that’s an added bonus.

Van tuyl by Jon Wyatt, on Flickr

There’s one chap at Manchester….gold bike, really odd legs. Well, I’m saying no more.

I just got back from judging for the 125th anniversary event at Preston Park. There was a youth G-Ride thing going on and then cats A&B racing. Last night I got 55ish seconds as my first ever timed sprint, earlier on 2 chaps against each other came in at 58ish! I was really surprised to see how I compared, I feel encouraged to see how I progress with a little training.

I got my bikes confused when I said Felt TK2 😳

Evans have a Track 2 for £549.99 down from £699.99 alledgedly, the Dolan Precursa at £449 looks like a bargain too. I find it a bit odd how external BB seem uncommon in my budget, it’s not as if the shifters, brakes, derailleurs and cassette are expensive parts of the build!

Maybe building isn’t such a bad idea. I could go new frame and second hand components, I have a setapost, bar and stem knocking about that would suffice.

This frame and fork at £275 looks alright (from velodromeshop):

Wish I still had my Langster, I could have just swapped the frame over!

You might have been able to ride at Derby Velodrome in a couple of years but it may be cancelled

Derby Cycling Group