The Olympic velodrome opens soon and my club will be going up there for some sessions. I did a taster session in Manchester a few years ago and it really appealed…

So I may or may not end up doing it regularly and may try racing.

Question is, is it worth buying a track bike if you want to ride and/or race occasionally or are the hire bikes as good as you need? Not talking about something full-on – maybe just the Condor one which you can spec for around £1k

Hire bike will be fine for a few sessions and you can decide from there. Personally, racing on the track has reinvigorated my love for cycling – can’t wait until London opens, will save a 4.5 hour round trip to Newport….

Buy if you can. Much better as you can have the same set up every time and not have to alter the seat height and the stem length will be what you want etc and you can alter the gearing as/when you need to.

No it’s not worth it. However, not all bikes are created equal. The London bikes will probably be Dolan Pre Cursa’s with solid components and heavy wheels. Good neutral handling. Head angle is a road friendly 73 degrees. I rode one at Newport, along with my own 74 degree vintage Poyner and they were VERY different. Mine is light, swift and silent (all you can hear is the tyres on the boards).

Unless your budget is >£500, I’d rent what they have for a while. When you come to race, then think about buying.

If it’s anything like Hernehill velodrome, the hire bikes will be great but getting one in the right size is almost impossible (54’s are very popular). I eventually got bored with it and bought a Dolan track champion. A £400 Precursa would probably have been perfectly fine for learning, training and a spot of racing.

Genesis do one for £600-700?

Is the Specialized Langster a proper track bike, or still just one that looks like a track bike?

£1k sounds like a fairly serious amount of money for something with no gears 😉

the condor lavoro looks very much like the pre cursa but the dolan is a lot cheaper. Is it worth it – I’ve got a planet x track bike i was using it at herne hill but didn’t end up racing last year. It’s nice to be able to use my own choice of wheels, gearing and tyres so for me it has but it’s marginal they are quite use specific bits of kit. Will there be any bike storage at London?

The London bikes will probably be Dolan Pre Cursa

Condor are providing all the hire bikes.

The quality of the bike isn’t much of an issue, but the gearing is. If you are a half decent cyclist then their gears will be too short and your top speed will be limited, which is very frustrating. It means you can’t really race to your full potential, which kind of defeats the object 🙂 Also, some of the ones in Newport at least have the saddle nose pointing up which can result in severe numb crotch and you aren’t allowed to adjust that.

Bout £350-£400 to put a bike together depending on what kit you have lying around.

Its worth trying the hire bikes for a bit to see how you like it – you’ll know after a couple of sessions if its for you or not.

In Glasgow the rental bikes were only allowed to be used for racing for the first few months after opening. In any case the gearing on them isn’t really suitable for it – although that being said the juniors can be bloody fast with their restricted gearing, but most adults tend to do better with a bigger gear than is available on the hire bikes.

I rode a rental precursa at Glasgow for 6 months then bought one with better lighter kit and bigger gear. Suits me perfectly and was still only about £600. I don’t race but do a few drop ins a week this time of year, as beats the gym hands down. However my last session, last sat, ended in an ambulance trip and whiplash, so not too excited about getting back in there….

I find mine a good bit lighter and tighter than the hire ones, plus gearing better and of course its set up right without messing around with seat post and bars

Compared with the (battered) Fuji selection (plus others) at Herne Hill, the Dolans at Newport and Manchester, and Condors at London, will feel fantastic. Depending on the sessions you ride, gear selection for the hire bikes will be a reasonable 48×15. Anything higher and you’ll end up dropping people – don’t ask me how I know this 😳 . I would expect a very wide selection of sizes, with plenty of 54s and 56s. The Newport set up is very slick indeed. London will be more so.

I have a Precursa frame in the garage waiting for some wheels and cranks.

I’d stick with a hire one for a couple of months until you’ve worked out how much you’ll be using the place and what sort of stuff you’re doing (proper track racing or just training etc).

Once you’ve worked out the right size you need you can go looking for your own. 🙂 Just make sure you read the bike specs for the track – Manchester has very specific requirements about crank length, BB height etc so make sure you’re getting a proper track bike rather than a glorified hipster fixie.

Langsters aren’t suitable for 250 m tracks, they are road bikes

Look on the Dolan website. I researched it to bits and similar specced bikes are a good 15% less than the bike shop version.

Also have a look at http://www.velodromeshop.net

And Evans Cycles is well worth a look too, they do a surprisingly good range of proper track bikes:
Hoy, Fuji, BMC, Moda, Felt.

Specialized do a track specific Langster frame-only but it’s often quite hard to find. A couple of years ago they were selling off the old Langster track frame (a gorgeous red one) half price. Was really tempted, even though I’ve got a perfectly good track bike already!

Yes, a lot of Moda bikes at Glasgow, look smart and good value. The new Hoy one looks a not bad deal either. Benefit of Dolan is that its a pick and mix so you can get exactly what you want, gearing, bar width etc from the outset. They are very well priced, although there is a lead time of a couple of weeks.