Northern California - Thinking about hitting the track, but i've got some questions

I've been riding the road for about 5 years, but 2009 is my first year racing. I've raced 5 crits so far with pretty mixed results. Some races i'll be on the front or in the break, while in others i'll get dropped half way through.

I've heard a lot of people at the races talk about how great the track is, so i've been thinking about going to Hellyer to check out their saturday morning sessions. I figure at the very least it will help my pack riding skills and get me some experience reading races and doing sprints. I'm a bigger guy (by bike racing standards) at 165lbs and am much more sprinter than climber, so i think i could be pretty decent. But my main reason for riding the track would be to improve my road cycling.

So has anyone gone out to their saturday clinics and has it improved your overall cycling skills? It seems like at just $5 to get in and get a few hours of instruction that it's a tremendous value.

Also, should i rent one of their track bikes? Right now i have an old 1980's Bianchi that was my first road bike that i refused to get rid of and converted to a fixed gear for riding around town (don't worry, i'm not THAT guy). I've got it geared at 42X16, which is surely too low for track riding, right? Will they even let me on the track with my bike? Or should i just cough up the $5 to rent one of their bikes?

Not that it's going to keep me from going, but what is the format of the saturday clinic?

Are there usually riders of different ability levels? I can ride a fixed gear, and i've been road riding for a while, but i've never ridden the banks of a velodrome.

I'm really looking forward to getting in on this. It sounds like fun. Thanks in advance for your responses.

Beat the Clock lets you ride your road bike on the track... but that's not until July 5th.

We did it last year, it was fun.

http://www.scaledup.com/beattheclock/schedule.html

The saturday sessions are great! definitely caters to riders of all levels. It's very informative and fun. 42x16 will definitely be too low for the track though. You'll spin out trying to keep up. They let your bike on as long as there are no brakes and you have drop bars. The sessions usually starts with an orientation on the track, how to ride safely and such. After that, there's a warm-up with everyone riding in a single paceline taking 1 lap pulls. You pull off up the bank and come down to accelerate you back up to the line's speed. After the warm-up, they do exercises in various different track events such as team pursuits, flying 200s, madisons, pretty much getting you comfortable riding track. The session usually ends with an austrailian pursuit which is an elimination based race or a scratch race (crit like).

I'd highly suggest going as it's a lot of fun. With the racing experience you have, you shouldn't have any problems other than adjusting to riding on a track. Renting a bike would be good unless you're willing to change the gears on your bike. I think 48x16 is standard. I have a 46x16 on my fixie and think it's too low for the track. I'm thinking of getting 46x15-14 if I take the bike there. The couple of times I went, I rented. Bring your own pedals and pedal wrench. I'd also bring your own pump as theirs can sometimes be unreliable.

The Colonel I ride with occasionally used to race a lot of track in Texas and Belgium. He said it's really frenetic and once you get used to racing on the track, crits will seem like slow-motion. Also, 90-92 gear inches is pretty typical (48x16 I believe).

Sweet, that definitely sounds like fun. I think renting a bike is probably the way to go. Can't go this saturday, maybe next saturday. Thanks for you guys' input, i really appreciate it.

Also, 90-92 gear inches is pretty typical (48x16 I believe).One of my bikes is 47x16, and I think it's a rather pedestrian 76gi. That'd be more like 48x14 or 48x13. Ouch.

I train at Hellyer once per week. It is a lot of fun and definitely helps road racing.

The Saturday sessions are fun but you must participate in the clinic and do what the supervisor says. It is not an open session. The rental track bikes are okay but get there a little early to assure the correct size and bring pedals.

The parking fee is $6, bike rental fee is $5 and the session is $5 which is a great value.

Hellyer is a cement track measures 335 meters with 22.5 degree banking. Contrast that to the LA Velodrome at 250 meters, wooden track and 45 degree banking. Hellyer is an easy track to learn and ride on.

If you bring your own bike it should be a track bike (more ground clearance) have 32 spoke wheels that are bolted on. No quick release levers or brakes. For the Saturday session, you must have drop handlebars. No TT bars or other style bars are allowed. The back wheel gear must have a lock ring. Depending on the supervisor, these rules may or may not be fully followed but the key is that the emphasis is on safety. Going around turns at high speed create significantly more forces on the bike and components than riding on the road. Your current fixed gear bike may or may not be allowed.

The rental bikes are geared 48/16. At this time of year, I use a 48/15 for my workouts which is fine for the Saturday session. I plan to start using bigger gears (I generally go to open sessions). If you show up with smaller gears than 48/16, you may find yourself spinning really fast to keep up, gapping the pace line or / and relegated to a slower group for the team pursuits and you will get passed in the Australian Pursuit.:D

The Saturday session as others have pointed out is to learn about the track and safe riding technique. Speed is not required and supervisors prefer conservative mellower speeds and behavior for the warmup and drills. However, once they set up races and sprints, you can go all out.

The Saturday sessions get a wide range of level of riders. I would not worry about who is going to show up. It varies but I have found that there is always some good competition for the racing.

Since I have starting training at the track, my road speed and sprint have improved. My spin is much smoother and cadence faster. My paceline skills have improved significantly and I am much more aware of riders around me and my position - no brakes no coasting fixed gear effect.

With respect to the Beat the Clock track event, it is a fabulous event and worth doing. However, if you want to ride a TRACK bike at the event, you MUST attend 3 Saturday sessions and have a track bike. If not, you will have to ride your road bike.

Good luck and see you at Hellyer.:)

I remember lots of people @ the track Sat AM, swapping out cogs, bars, taking off brakes, etc...which I always thought was more than $5 worth of trouble.

At a Sat session this time of year there should be some people there with good fitness to chase around as well as newbie types just figuring stuff out. You can go as easy or as hard as you want. Hellyer is a mellow supportive fun environment, kinda like a CX race without the beer and cross-dressing.

Racing the track (non-TT), is a lot like the last couple of laps of a crit over & over. I mean why go for 50 minutes just to get to the fun part????

I'm biased, but I think you'll love it. It's all about power, legspeed and lightning quick reactions not BMI.

Now, that i think about it, it might be time to dust of the trackie.....