Conditioning was probably my main factor. I still have a lot of strength to gain in pushing the gears I believe, but I did a lot of conditioning last season. My 11.8 F200, my top speed was just 61.8kph. I held it well. I'm also 6'5" and push a LOT of wind, like a piano with a parachute as one mate put it!

My foray into bigger gears started about 4 years ago. An old rugby mate got into riding as I had and he came to track. Brand new to track racing he started with 102". My brainwashed position said "too high mate", but he was strong like me and handled it easily. Why not he said, "I use bigger on the road sprints". Boom! So I started riding 102" myself that season and graduated up to a "massive" 105" by the end of the season. It only took about a month for me to be conditioned enough to cope with all the surging in the local scratch races, and all of a sudden instead of spinning out and dropping off, I was up there for the sprint every week. I can't spin! So I knew bigger was for me too, but the really hard part was finding out the HOW.

The truly disappointing fact is that there's so much information out there that is just repetitive regurgitation of crap from days gone by for no reason other than that's just how it was done, so that's how we do it. Just like tying and soldering spokes.... After a lot of sifting and searching, I've found my path and assistance. It's out there, but you really have to sift through some crap to find it, and there's a whole lot of nay sayers putting those people down. Sorry, but if you open your eyes, those people are getting faster and faster and breaking records, while those nay sayers with all the outdated info just seem to be getting left behind.

There will always be those genetic outliers that can spin 90" to ridiculous speeds and times. They are not examples of how it's done for everyone, but so many riders and coaches see them as what to aspire to