My BiL has his 50th comming up soon and he is a keen roadie. I wondered if its possible to book a session at a velodrome for a bunch of us. He is based in London. Can anyone recommend one where we can go and make fools of ourselves ? Cheers

Lee valley is pretty good, just remember it’ll be exhausting. A lap or two up near the top really burns your legs, great fun though

Yes, they all do taster sessions, bike hire included. No idea of the cost offhand but have a look on the Lee Valley Velodrome website.

You’ll probably need to book a month or so in advance, they do get booked up quickly but tracks are becoming quieter now that track season is coming to an end so more taster opportunities.

I’ve been to Derby Velodrome a few times. They do taster sessions, which is the most usual way of getting started but they will also hire the whole track, plus instructor for about £250 an hour. Up to 8 or 9 riders I think. Then you’ll need to hire bikes and shoes (unless you use Look Neo peggils).
I did the latter and it was fine. we had it for 2 hours and achieved our level 1 and 2 grades.

Great fun, worth doing. A few laps on flat smooth boards can’t be that hard surely? Don’t be fooled, trying to take a lap while the rest of your session circle the track is a real leg burner!

We did Newport but would love to do Lee Valley just because it would be like having a kickabout with your mates at Wembley.

Don’t stop pedalling…

Definitely recommended. It’s really good fun and bloody hard work, especially if you’re not used to that particular style of riding. From the times when I’ve done it, the recommended pace seems to be “go absolutely flat out and then a bit faster than that…and then pick the pace up a bit”.

Don’t panic too much as you’ll get at least as much time off the bike as on it…and you’ll need it to get your breath back and take on a few more coaching points before getting out again. It’s actually quite a good social event, TBH.

People from work occasionally go to Herne Hill

I’ve done the taster session at Manchester and Lee Valley and it’s awesome. I suspect they won’t let you just book a slot and role up, you need to be accredited so a taster session is the thing to do.
It is great fun though, I’d do more of it but our nearest track on Derby and I just can’t justify the time to get there.

A session at Manchester is fun if you can fathom out their useless online booking system.

Probably as much fun is the Cyclist Magazine track days, where you can get to spend a day riding all kinds of top race bikes: https://cyclisttrackdays.com/cyclisttrackdays2020/en/page/home

We tempted my BIL along last year, he’s a dyed-in-the-wool old school steel roadie but he ended up buying a new Roubaix, which he says has taken 2 mph off his average speed.

If you are anywhere near Calshot i’d recommend that one! It’s very small so pretty exciting. 9 seconds a lap or something!

Lee Valley, do it, we did in May for the first time and it was superb fun. One of the best cycling experiences I’ve had, amazingly.

Not expensive at all, like maybe 40 quid per person for a coach, hire of everything etc. You only need to take appropriate clothing.

Cheers for the responses, I will go and check out Lee Valley then.

A session at Manchester is fun if you can fathom out their useless online booking system.

Must be the same system they use for the BMX then.

I’ve done the velodrome at Manchester a good few years back now and echoing the above, it was a laugh.

I’ve done it a couple of times – great fun! It took me a few laps to learn that riding the bend is much easier with more speed, the session became more enjoyable after that.

At Newport they use clips and straps mounted on to clipless pedals with some kind of adapter – I had trouble with these undoing so it might be worth finding out what pedal system your local track uses and take the right kind of shoes if you have them or can borrow them.

Oh, and you’ll spend the next day coughing your lungs up.

I enjoyed lee valley a lot. I did it with a BMX taster (as a gift), I’d say the bmx bit wasn’t really worth it, but the velodrome was great

Manchester have the plastic clip adapters as well as the hire shoes – the hire shoes are a better bet
Take a full bidon for drinks in the breaks

Where in London? If South East then Herne Hill is a great option. Taster sessions on Saturdays. It was used in the 1948 London Olympics. Maybe less iconic now though and fair weather only.

WELCOME TO HERNE HILL VELODROME

I’ve done Manchester and Glasgow (and now accredited/race a bit at Glasgow).

It was about £10 for Accreditation 1, which you can use as a taster session. Online booking system is ****. You can also book the whole track but I’m not sure how they prioritise that (I’ve had that with the mountain bike club and people from work.).