Track Cycling - how fast

how fast does the average track racer ride at, and what about the best rider? like what is the fastest on a normally geared bike.

thanks

XVX

U mean speed?.. well guys are doing 1.02 or some at 1 KM TT race. Stop starting... thats fast enough 4 u? to do that u have to go in some places at least at 70km/h (do the conversion to miles ok?) thats freaking fast!....

4x4000 meters persuit. They ride at an average of 55 km/h thats darn fast too.

Usuallly in championships the regular race pace is about 40/43 maybe more Km/h and not even thing when u r atacking because eeasily u can get at 60 km/h just like nothing. So as u can see the top track racers can get freaking high speeds. I used to do that im old now hehehe

The gear of multiplication they use normally is like 50x15 or the equivalent like 47x14, but all depends of the racer and the type of race too. Some sprinters use 47x13 or so sometimes. But all depends.

Hope that answer your questions... always u can see the results of the championships or the WC and do the math u know...

UM

thanks a ton, that **** is fast.

XVX

I was doing a training session at Newport Velodrome (Wales), and at one point was lapping at 32mph on 48x16 (81"), then had to drop out of the paceline as I couldn't get my legs to go around quick enough.

As has been mentioned above race pace can be even faster.

48x16??????????????

dude in big velodromes people use 50x15 .. persuit and strong people usually takes 51x15 or so.... with 48x16 u can do 40kms/h but not the whole time... big difference U know... 48x16 is the gear multiplication that a 15 y/o kid uses in a 250/333 meters velodrome. Juniors and adults uses a lot more gear (50x15... have u ver wonder why a 50T wheelchain is hard to find at ebay and in the market???) . And that means obviously going faster.

If u r an adult, i mean over 18 y/o using 48x16, u have to be the six million dollar man to keep up 40 km/h in a track heheh really :) so no wonder U coulndt keep up :) The track u guys have there is big or is an small track?

Im asking because in small tracks u cant use big gears at all... i mean u can but u can literally kill yourself... The only small track I know is lovated in london canada, and top gear multiplication there is like 48x16. because the track it is too small and the curves are too small too (i tihnk the lenght is like 150 meters or so). I been in those in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and italy. And all of them are 250 meters or 333 meters long.

Hope that answer your question :)

UM

Forest City Velodrome in London, ON is 138 m with 50 degree banking. If you're in too big a gear and go into the corner to slow you can't accelerate fast enough to avoid slipping off.

Ghent is a 166 m track, but I don't know what the banking is-- it looks like 45-50 degrees. They still run professional 6 day races there. No idea what size gears they use.

The 40 km madison at world cup this weekend in LA had an average speed of about 52-53 kph. I don't think they put the speed of the points race (30 km) on the results communique, but I could probably find out.

48x16??????????????

dude in big velodromes people use 50x15 .. persuit and strong people usually takes 51x15 or so.... with 48x16 u can do 40kms/h but not the whole time... big difference U know... 48x16 is the gear multiplication that a 15 y/o kid uses in a 250/333 meters velodrome. Juniors and adults uses a lot more gear (50x15... have u ver wonder why a 50T wheelchain is hard to find at ebay and in the market???) . And that means obviously going faster.

If u r an adult, i mean over 18 y/o using 48x16, u have to be the six million dollar man to keep up 40 km/h in a track heheh really :) so no wonder U coulndt keep up :) The track u guys have there is big or is an small track?

<snip>

UM

The track Iffacus is referring to is a 250m track built to a similar spec to the one in Manchester used for the recent round of the World Cup.

Ultraman - Why do you think 40km/h (25mph) is so hard to keep up in a 48x16 gear? This is only a cadence of 103 rpm which is kind of a baseline minimum cadence in most track races I've ever been in. Iffacus said he'd had trouble staying at 32mph for long on that gear - this is more understandable as its a cadence of 135rpm, but none of this is insanely low for most forms of track racing. Its common to practice spinning in high cadences on a lower gear than used for racing - you should try it sometime! Most trackies get fast by spinning their pedals faster, not by pushing a huge gear.

Have you raced track as well as ridden fg on the road - if only the latter then that's maybe why you find this gearing so low. Loads of posters on this board seem to ride hugely overgeared on their road fgs IMO...



mickster

I remember reading somewhere where the AIS had their track riders do 20 min cadence intervals at 140-160rpms in an *easy* gear to get their leg speed up. What that easy gear was, I forget, but it probably was <80in.

My boss, a former track racer, was telling me they would do intervals at 200 rpm (!) to get their leg speed up...

Im not saying its hard to do... but what he is saying is that he coulndt keep up that way.. and that was a point i didnt want to discuss and ... well maybe i just miss the point as i ussually do MIckster... U r right in all r u saying thou :)...

I wish i were in the UK btw... i have not tracks here at all.. once tracker... always a tracker :)

UM :)

where are you located UltraMan?

VA, its winter and for using the track in PA i think i need to have a license??? plus who knows what else... bring my dad and my frame builder to to acreditate that I really know how to ride in there althoug im like 50 pounds overweight? hehehe :)

4 me Its better go to canada or miami, less paperwork.

:)

I wonder if I can bring my dad and have him tell them I'm Cat 2.

Do you think a note will work?

hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Funny stuff :) well u have a licence, im not :p

I wish i were in the UK btw... i have not tracks here at all.. once tracker... always a tracker :)

UM :)

UltraMan - If ever you get over to the Uk then PM me and I'd be glad to hook up and show you round some of the tracks we're lucky enough to have over here - we'll get yr cadence up to 160rpm easy spinning in no time ;)

mickster

48x16??????????????

dude in big velodromes people use 50x15 .. persuit and strong people usually takes 51x15 or so.... with 48x16 u can do 40kms/h but not the whole time... big difference U know... 48x16 is the gear multiplication that a 15 y/o kid uses in a 250/333 meters velodrome. Juniors and adults uses a lot more gear (50x15... have u ver wonder why a 50T wheelchain is hard to find at ebay and in the market???) . And that means obviously going faster.

If u r an adult, i mean over 18 y/o using 48x16, u have to be the six million dollar man to keep up 40 km/h in a track heheh really :) so no wonder U coulndt keep up :) The track u guys have there is big or is an small track?

Im asking because in small tracks u cant use big gears at all... i mean u can but u can literally kill yourself... The only small track I know is lovated in london canada, and top gear multiplication there is like 48x16. because the track it is too small and the curves are too small too (i tihnk the lenght is like 150 meters or so). I been in those in Colombia, Argentina, Chile, and italy. And all of them are 250 meters or 333 meters long.

Hope that answer your question :)

UM

As Mickster said previously this was on a 250m indoor wooden track, I had only just taken delivery of the bike and this was the gearing it came with. A friend at the same session was using 49x14 and had to drop out of the paceline much earlier. The biggest problem I had was that after I had done my turn on the front I left too bigger gap to get on the back (I thought there were a few more riders still in the line).

For my local track at Halesowen (outdoor 400m tarmac) I use 48x14 yet still get beaten by 15yr olds on 48x16 so it isn't the gear thats the issue. (I'm just unfit)

"For my local track at Halesowen (outdoor 400m tarmac) I use 48x14 yet still get beaten by 15yr olds on 48x16 so it isn't the gear thats the issue. (I'm just unfit)"

yes thats the issue... :)

VA, its winter and for using the track in PA i think i need to have a license???You don't need a license to ride at the Lehigh Valley Velodrome during open hours. You do need a license of some sort if you're going to ride in the motor-pacing sessions on Tuesday and Thursday nights (I don't know if that schedule will change for this year). Some time this Spring/Summer I think we'll need to organize a LVVelo meet up.

I think we'll need to organize a LVVelo meet up <-- it will work 4 me...

What about organize a trip to london, canada and take over htat trakc for a few hours?????

:)

Forest City Velodrome in London, ON is 138 m with 50 degree banking. If you're in too big a gear and go into the corner to slow you can't accelerate fast enough to avoid slipping off.

Please explain that one to me some more! I can't wait to hear it.

OK... here is the explaiation...

"If you're in too big a gear and go into the corner to slow you can't accelerate fast enough to avoid slipping off. " hehehe... U can use a big gear there because the track its too short... u can kill your self if u use a big gear dude... I mean what the guy says its true... but if u r riding ultra fast... u can have problems when "entering" into the curves... the force in the curves its too high too... the radious of the curves is super short too.... so basically u can get expulsed out of the curve going ultra fast with a big gear... that track is basically built to race liike 6 days racing in teams... well u r in canada.. go there dude... really.

UM

OK... here is the explaiation...

"If you're in too big a gear and go into the corner to slow you can't accelerate fast enough to avoid slipping off. " hehehe... U can use a big gear there because the track its too short... u can kill your self if u use a big gear dude... I mean what the guy says its true... but if u r riding ultra fast... u can have problems when "entering" into the curves... the force in the curves its too high too... the radious of the curves is super short too.... so basically u can get expulsed out of the curve going ultra fast with a big gear... that track is basically built to race liike 6 days racing in teams... well u r in canada.. go there dude... really.

UM

He does go there. He rides it. That's why he knows that having "too big of a gear" going into corners is bull****. I've raced small tracks, and your explanation has nothing to do with why racers on smaller tracks typically use SLIGHTLY lower gears.

Actually I'm in southern California, but I rode FCV over the holidays. It's a blast. I ride a steep (~45 degree) 250 m track all the time though, and the issue with big gears mostly comes in when people with a lot of power and no spin put on too big of a gear in a mass start race, and it slows down in the corner, or goes into a corner slow, and they freak out. In a madison it could get sketchy if you're in too big a gear and do an exchange up high, and suddenly slow way down and can't get back to speed to stay on.

If you're just ripping around the track alone you could probably use just about any gear. When FCV first opened they didn't have a gear limit, and then they apparently had one a bit higher for a while before settling at 81"

I did my first race on a drome this weekend. At Forest City Velodrom in London, ONT. It was a flying lap event. Spite the fact I was completly spun out and wanted a bigger gear than what I had (48/15), riding the black line in the 50 degree banking at whatever speed I was at sure compresses ya and leaves ya with a sore neck!

I LOVE IT!

(it also left me with a cracked sugino crank!)

cranked crank??? did you hit a pedal? to strong for your crank(even though you were spun out?)
Tell us MORE!!!! :D

EDIT: What was your time? With the time, and distance of the track, we can find out your average speed...adding in your gear, we should be able to find your cadence...i think...

Our first sprint tourney is March 19, so we will have some speeds then.

yea the spider cracked against the arm. Typical for an old crank. Its older than I am. I suspect it was stress hairlined before since I ride that bike all summer in the city and hills.

48x15 is ~86, and once you get a little time on the track you should be able to get that up to wicked high speeds without feeling spun out. It's just keeping it fast that gets hard. I usually do our interval sessions in an 86 and then go up to a 92 for the "motor game" (a motorpaced points race where you get points for taking laps against the motor).

You should get used to the squish, too, and anticipate it enough that you'll stop noticing.

That track is really cool though. I wish there were more around like it-- it's like a super carnival ride.

Great fun!! Sounds like the track at Calshot on the South coast of the UK - that's 143m and 45 degree banking: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/features/2003/track/00_track_uk_tracks_calshot.shtml

I'm with you re the compression when flying round the banking :) . For comparison, we do flying laps there on an 81-84 inch gear (I use an 82, the track max is 84) and my fastest is 9.92s; the all time track record is something like 9.30s which is insane... Haven't worked out that cadence yet but it's fast!

mickster

Tracks that have a gear limit...That is just for the amateurs, right? Do they let specific cat's(such as 1/2,Pro) ride higher gears?

They don't distinguish between different Cats when giving a track limit. Although they talk of a limit, in practice I've never seen any official actually checking a rider's gearing. I tend to look on the limit as a recommendation rather than a strict rule.

Tracks are usually designed with a specific gear range / speed in mind, and this is where the Calshot limit came from. In practice, these things tend to be self-enforcing anyhow - if a rider turned up to race with a 90 inch gear at Calshot, they'd be spotted pretty quickly while in the bunch, and if they looked any good, would be opening themselves up to being attacked repeatedly until they're tired. It takes much more energy responding to repeated short attacks if you're overgeared.

This is kind of assuming bunch races / sprints - being a steady solo effort pursuiting is a different kettle of fish...

mickster

I did my first race on a drome this weekend. At Forest City Velodrom in London, ONT. It was a flying lap event. Spite the fact I was completly spun out and wanted a bigger gear than what I had (48/15), riding the black line in the 50 degree banking at whatever speed I was at sure compresses ya and leaves ya with a sore neck!

I LOVE IT!

(it also left me with a cracked sugino crank!)

DO u realize why u cant use big gears there then??? 48x15 its kind'a the limit there un london.Ont.

UM

Great fun!! Sounds like the track at Calshot on the South coast of the UK - that's 143m and 45 degree banking: http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/features/2003/track/00_track_uk_tracks_calshot.shtml

I'm with you re the compression when flying round the banking :) . For comparison, we do flying laps there on an 81-84 inch gear (I use an 82, the track max is 84) and my fastest is 9.92s; the all time track record is something like 9.30s which is insane... Haven't worked out that cadence yet but it's fast!

mickster

Yes sir just like that one but 50 degress banking hehehe :)

Bitingduck: Im not new to track, i just never had the money to race it :)

Ultraman:
From what I was told the limit is 81" in London. But for events that are solo you can run whatever. Personly I think anything over an 86" would be stupid there unless your legs are the size of Jamie Staff's.

And Jamie has some enormous legs.

Track racing is cheaper than road racing. At least that's what I tell myself...

The track time sure adds up though, but I think FCV has an annual thing that saves a bunch of money. Around here it's all by the session (though there are bulk discounts and stuff).

The annual membership at FCV is a really sweet deal. Trouble is at the end of a seaon of living life on the road racing National Level Downhill Im pretty much broke, add to that gas price argg.... But its so worth it!