queerpunk

depends on the tire. i've used a variety of 21-23mm tires and i generally start at 120. i'll poke around a bit higher but for outdoor tracks, especially concrete with some bumps, i might go down to 115 or 110. i'm lighter than you.

higher =/ faster.

Huffandstuff

That's what I was thinking, I ran around 110 on 23c clinchers last year and it seemed fine but wasn't sure about tubulars. They are 21c tufos.

rndstr

Flipped stem, saddle about 1-2cm lower and 1cm to the back, fixed hand position and bent ellbow.



(It's about sprinting position, for longer efforts I have shallower road drops.)

Dalai

Not sure why you keep blacking out your face? I'd rather you black out those hairy legs!

taras0000

I forgot to edit that part out. I made something like 10 changes to my response. That was in response to your hands being on the flats and not the hooks, which if the rest of your position was ok, then the reach into the bars/stem length would need to change.

Your new position looks much better. Your knee is well in front of the pedal spindle. Looks to be inline with the front of the pedal body. I would put your saddle back another cm. Your hands could go forward another 1-2cm, but that might get taken care of if you decide to move your seat back.

taras0000

It's because one day he's going to be famous. And when that time comes, he doesn't want any of us to recognize him and say "Hey, he's only famous because of the advice I gave him on BF!"

rndstr

Haha that hair has not even grown fully back yet Will be cut again before next race, though.

You can just remove the ?1 from the image URL then you can see my face, print it out and hang it up over your desk

On a more serious note, I just don't like linking a photo of myself in a public forum unless it's about composition. It takes a few minutes to be indexed by Google and out of my control.

Velocirapture

Agree with @taras0000; your position definitely looks much better. Also agree with moving the saddle back a cm or so.

defspace

last night was the first weekday track night of the season. So much fun!

Occasionally, when I make an out of the saddle attack, my rear wheel skips off the track. This is obviously no good. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts about how to mitigate this.

I'm <140lbs, running a 92.6". I don't feel like I'm one of those dudes who is trying to force over a gear too large for him.
I wonder if my weight is too far forward when I'm out of the saddle. I'm running a 130mm stem, but some short (70mm) reach bars. A plum bob would show that when my hands are in the drops, they're directly above the fork dropouts.

Thoughts?

700wheel

A coach I know says this might happen if you do not keep your head up and arms straight

gtrob

Sounds like you just have too much weight forward. it happens to me sometimes and its pretty easy to correct, even if it means going a bit lower and putting my butt back a bit. Perhaps rocking the bike less/being smoother.

I actually get it the other way more often, getting my front skipping on a jump from slower speeds.

Baby Puke

Both are probably about weight transfer, and not necessarily due to how your bike is adjusted.

carleton

+1 to what was said above.

It could be to the top tube being too short. When I had that problem, that was the cause.

queerpunk

I've had rear-wheel skipping when I've had bad form. Basically, you jam your leg and pedal downward, and you keep driving down even after it hits 6 o'clock, so that lifts your body up, and then you pedal upward and you're undulating your weight and you wind up jerking the wheel up.

bitingduck

If you're bridging, go with someone else and take half-lap turns, setting them up for the windy side.

bitingduck

You're aware of Rory O'Reilly's 2-gear kilo setup?

carleton

I thought about this but I didn't have any proof to back it up. But I remember hearing about it.

dunderhi

+1

I heard about Jocelyn Lovell's two gear set-up last summer while at the track, so that's what gave me the idea, but shifting back and forth using my foot should have put the concept over the top.

2-gear kilo bike.

SBUndefeated201

Do dedicated track racers ever get annoyed at hipster fixie kids who ride/race on the track? Or do most seem to support them growing the sport? I assume that the last few years of growth in fixie popularity has caused many people to try their local track?

dunderhi

All newbies start in the cat 5 and work their way up just like everyone else. So, no issues - all are welcome in my book.

carleton

I only get annoyed when they beat me

The only thing I'd advise against is having race wheels in CAT-5/CAT-D races. You are just asking for someone to rib you a bit. Just use your normal training wheels till you move up to CAT-3/CAT-C at least.

And you are right, the fixie trend from the early 2000's definitely pumped new blood into the sport. There were LOTS of hipsters and bike messengers that turned out to be really, REALLY fast:

https://vimeo.com/76321875

carleton

This is why I think that Talent Identification is the most important thing when building a national team. As my HS tennis coach told us when asked, who is the greatest tennis player ever? He'd say, "The greatest tennis player ever has never and will never pick up a racket...because he doesn't know he's got it in him."

queerpunk

anybody who hates on newbies, in any capacity, is an *******. anybody who talks **** about cat 5 racers, anybody who thinks that somebody isn't "invested" enough - **** that person.

track racers - at least ones with a brain in their skull worth interacting with - want to see more people racing track and taking it seriously and learning and racing and being awesome. if that person has a ****ty bike that they just pulled riser bars and a front brake off of, and tattoos, fine! great! all the merrier.

i got into track racing through alleycats. now, though, the alleycat kids think i'm a bougie bike racer... but the bougie bike racers think i'm a hipster. or something.

the thing i have loved about bike racing is that in all my years doing it i have seen it bring together people who would not under other circumstances know or interact with each other. i've been to happy hours with drug-addled wasters, surgeons, grad students, machinists, the chronically underemployed, people with silver spoons - all together. that's ****ing rad.

carleton

[sigh] The first thread I ever started here on bike forums: https://www.bikeforums.net/singlespee...-gangbang.html

queerpunk

it's all good. riding bikes around and having a great time is a great way to get into bikes.

loving bikes is not a prerequisite of bike racing.

but it certainly helps.