Velodromes
 

VRJAKE posted the gorgeous track bike he is selling, and we went off topic. We can use this thread discuss the velodromes we've. been to and the ones we might like to visit some day.

Andy ascherer mentioned how close he used to live to Kissena Velodrome in Queens, New York City. I raced there in 2014, and it was fun. It's unfortunate, though, that it's not really conveniently located for me. Travel to and from it typically takes an hour and 20 minutes whether going by mass transit or bicycle over the streets. Taking a car usually takes less time but you would need a car. And it also carries a lot of risk of unexpected travel time and headache. I hate driving in NYC.

I visited the National Velodrome in eastern Pennsylvania. It's all spiffy and professional like. There is a food vendor and a PA system for a commentator. It's a night out for the family there. Too bad there aren't more places like it.

Mods, please don't move this to the track racing section. I am inviting the C&V crowd here.

Given its age, I guess Kissens is a C&V Velodrome! How about the one that used to be in Coney Island?

I visited the Alpenrose velodrome (RIP) in Portland a couple times to watch races, but never rode there. I raced for several years at the Marymoor/Jerry Baker Memorial velodrome in Redmond, WA. Enjoyed it a lot, had the skills to get a class b (cat 2) license, but only had the legs for cat 4, where I ended up placing top 5 pretty regularly, but saw one too many life-threatening crashes, so I sold my track bike and bought a better SLR camera.

On a related topic, it appears that the US has 21 velodromes, and NZ (where we went on vacation this spring) has 19, much better per capita ratio.

I raced in the Kissena Park velodrome in 1964, in the National Championships, which I qualified for solely because I was apparently the only 13-year-old boy with a track bike in Connecticut. I don't know why Jean, a 12-year-old girl with a track bike in our local club in New Haven, didn't get a similar opportunity.

My Helyett track bike had 10-oz. Dunlop road tubulars. All the other kids had Schwinn Paramounts with orange Criterium Setas.

They laughed at my tires! Sweet revenge: a year later, I won an Intermediate-class criterium race in Hartford, beating the national Intermedate champion. (He clipped a pedal going into the final turn, but still.)

Velodromes were all over the country. Bicycles were at the forefront of technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Bicycles WERE technology, and everyone wanted a bicycle whether they could afford one or not. Bike racing -- mostly track racing -- was the biggest sport, and a lot of money rode on the betting.

Velodromes where everywhere, and many were made as temporary facilities.

So yes, Kissena is old but it's also young in that context. At some point, a standard emerged that the round trip should be 333 meters (1/3 kilometer). I understand Kissena is about 400 meters. But that's far from the worst of it. It's built on swamp land and doesn't have a concrete foundation. As soon as the asphalt is replaced, which doesn't happen often enough, it gets rippled and rough. It is property of NYC Parks department, and they don't have the money to keep it up properly, nor is the demand there. It's kind of a chicken and egg problem because it would be a popular spectacle if there were investment in it, but that's not going to happen because it's not a popular spectacle. And the surrounding area does not have much commercial potential. And so it goes. But it's *our* scrappy velodrome.

I made long-lasting friends with a woman that summer of 2014. She used to drive from Cambridge on Fridays just to race. Man, that's dedication. I'm friends with her whole family, and both families see each other often. I call them our adopted nieces.

I wish I would have had more of a chance to ride the Superdrome in Frisco. I went through their certification class and rode a few times to train, but never got to race. I worked nights then, and races were wednesday and friday nights if I remember correctly. The guy who was running it bought it, took it apart, and put it in storage when they lost the lease in 2018. He had grand dreams to rebuild somewhere more accessible with air conditioning, but both of those in the DFW metroplex are going to be very expensive.

the velodrome in San Jose is still active and going

I used to bike here with a buddy to watch races (we also went to watch the cats hill criterium )


https://hellyervelodrome.com/

I've been to the Kissena velodrome to ride but not to race. https://www.nycgovparks.org/facility...sena-velodrome

This one is near me but I have never been there. https://www.dignityhealthsportspark.com/velo

I've been to the Encino Velodrome, too, but never ridden there. https://www.encinovelodrome.org/

Apparently the largest one in the country is right near me - https://www.dignityhealthsportspark.com/velo in Carson, CA
Don't own a track bike, but I had looked into it previously and was dissuaded by the $270 required training/certification, reasonable but not if you are not planning on going all the time. Looking again now there is a "I just want to try it once" price of $25. I might have to make my way over and go for a spin.

Whaddya mean "our", Manhattan boy? Kissena Cycle Club forever, go back to doing Central Park laps! Oooh, Harlem Hill, so steep!! :lol:
I think you were doing that track racing when we first met IRL.

Don’t wonder what it’s like. Spend the 25 bucks and try it. Mrs Spadoni took a track class at what was then Marymoor and enjoyed it a great deal. She never went on to race but she to this day grumbles in traffic that the other drivers don’t know how to hold their line. And I’m sure I’ve seen her box people in.

I'm envious of folks who have good access to velodromes. My great-uncle was a competitive six day racer in the Bay Area for several years before WWII and I've always been intrigued.

I also just love admiring and riding track bikes! After moving up to Sacramento last year, I got more than one hour closer to the velodrome in San Jose than I used to be. It's still a two hour drive in decent traffic though so I don't know if I'll get around to checking it out but I'm pretty sure if it were convenient it would quickly become my preferred place to cycle. I don't have a lot of time for riding lately as a young parent with a career, so I prefer to get out and really push myself for an hour or two at a time. Track cycling is amazing for that!

Great thread, Tx Tom. :thumb:

kid in trailer, kid on tag along bike, kid on own bike, kid leaving you in the dust......happens fast :D

In the '70s I raced a couple of times on the San Diego 333 1/3 meter track. It was pretty new at the time, and nice and smooth. Also at the 250 meter track at Encino, which was a lot steeper, and bumpier. My "track bike" was my road Paramount, stripped down appropriately, with 2 single cogs instead of a freewheel, one serving as a locknut. IIRC, my quick releases caused some debate, but since I positioned them pointing forward on the rear, and up and back on the front, they let me slide since they couldn't catch anyone else's wheel. No brakes, of course.

I found riding on the track to be an absolute blast! And even though I wasn't into mind-altering substances, riding at night under the lights at Encino was pretty trippy, especially having my shadow catch up to me and shoot out in front of me as I passed under a light, along with everyone else's. I won my points race heat, but got boxed in at the final.

I also rode around the 400 meter Marymoor track in Redmond in the '80s but never raced on it, as my sprint was gone by then due to a knee injury Just tootling around it was not the same.

For those in or near Pennsylvania, the track formerly called the Lehigh Valley Velodrome, founded by Bob Rodale, publisher of the Prevention health and wellness magazine, is still in operation, now under the name Valley Preferred Cycling Center. They have many programs for aspiring track riders, young and old, and, I would guess, pro and amateur racing nights as well.

I used to do the 2.5-hour drive from Baltimore with my girlfriend in the 1980's to watch the Friday night racing, which included national and international stars whose names I'd recognize from Velonews articles.

Random memory: I vividly recall standing behind the wall at the top of the track with my girlfriend, waiting for the women's miss-and-out race to start, with the racers lined up against their side of the wall, when the woman racer nearest us began giving me an ostentatiously lascivious up-and-down look. My girlfriend thought it was funny. Or so she said later.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...21e68c82b.jpeg

Marymoor isn't considered a great track, but it's the only one I've ridden on. Not far from my home, but I only raced there a little while. I liked the racing a lot but hated driving there in rush hour traffic. Never rose above Cat.3, never won anything in the 3's, but was in contention in a lot of sprints (in Points races or Miss-and-Out mostly) which is the most exciting thing I can think of. My heart rate is rising just from remembering it.

Have also been there a lot (though not lately) as a spectator, especially when we hosted Nationals, Goodwill Games, and various meets called a Grand Prix or some such. Watched Vails and Berryman break the chain on their sprint tandem, just from hard pedaling, right in front of where we were sitting. Also got to see the tandem piloted by Swift (forget his first name) crumple to the track at full speed when the fork crown sort of exploded. I forget who made the bike, but a known good USA framebuilder. The crown had been fabricated from thin sheet steel in a way that looked massive from the outside, but once it was apart it seemed obvious that it wasn't near strong enough! I wouldn't have put that crown on a single bike let alone a tandem. :injured:

I took no pleasure in Swift crashing, but he was on my naughty list because I'd made him a sprint frame (single) that he was supposed to "pay for" by racing it with our (Davidson) decals on it. But then he got a better offer from Cannondale, who gave him cash as well as a free frame, so he never raced our frame, and wouldn't give it back either, he thought it was his to sell. (Jerk!) The frame I made him was better than any stinky old Cannondale. He came to us because I'd built the frame that multi Natz champ and 2x Olympic team member Ken Carpenter was using to beat him on the regular, and he'd got it into his head that if he just had the right frame, he could beat Ken — but he never did. He had us paint it a fade, from silver to gold — get it? Needless to say if he hadn't burned his bridges by stiffing us, I could have made him a way better sprint tandem. Demonstrably better since my tandem forks never break!! Only made a couple track tandems, and never for anyone with a chance of winning Natz, but they are super exciting even with amateur talent aboard.

Also got to see other medals won on several other frames I built, always gratifying. Had a run of success with track bikes for a while there, maybe '86 - '94 before plastic totally took over. Ken got 5th in the '92 Olympics, and was on the '88 Oly team as well. His girlfriend (later wife) Renée Duprel got Silver at World Championships in '90, missing Gold by millimeters. Unfortunately I wasn't there for either of those, Barcelona and Utsonomiya respectively. Oh right, I just remembered Ken came to us because he was impressed with Renée's frame. His frame got Specialized decals since that's who was paying the bills. Later his team switched sponsors and he was supposed to ride a Merlin, so they painted it titanium color and put Merlin decals on it. :roflmao:

The Alpenrose Velodrome will always be one of the magical places in my memory. I've never ridden on the track, though I've ridden around the infield more times than you'd believe in cyclocross races. I never had the courage to try the steep banks of the track. I will never forgive Smith Brothers Farms for taking it away from us.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...b711c23f23.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/1919/4...87f816bf_h.jpg

https://live.staticflickr.com/4600/3...3292ca53_h.jpg

Tuesday night is open training at the Northbrook velodrome. I have used that opportunity on this bike.

https://www.nbparks.org/facilities_p...lph-velodrome/

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5b8001d082.jpg

I use to live less than a mile from Alpenrose on 53rd St. One day I decide to ride over and give it a try. Epic fail! I was surprised at how much energy was required to get up on the track. At slow speeds, turning right to go around the corners was an experience. This was before I rode regularly. I would now like to have a true track bike. The closest in the stable is a 2010 Langster.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...5db1d98cd3.jpg
Hardly a track bike, more of a wannabe for the road.

We would take my oldest to the easter egg hunts in the fields in front of the velodrome. The first year had very wet grass and all we had for her was a paper bag. She worked hard at collecting but lost everything due to the hole from dragging it around on the wet grass. Sometimes I wonder if it scared her for life!

St Louis has a velodrome at Penrose Park. I am embarrassed to say I have never ridden it, even though I have a Lejeune piste in my collection. There is a race program, teaching events, and rental bikes available. Track was resurfaced in 2019. Prior to that, it had earned the moniker "Mr. Bumpy Face". Obligatory vintage bike photo below.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...69d094e0ae.jpg

And my Lejeune piste. Wheels by Earle Wheels.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7d0ef6c40c.jpg

But it is better than it once was. This chunk of concrete, with track surface still visible, came from the north end of the track during a 1980s rebuild. It sat on my desk in the years that I had one and let me think of a time when I had the confidence and certainly of a younger person

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...e94669ff1.jpeg

My "home" track was the Encino Velodrome. at one time I rode my track bike to and from to train on it, 250m, a bit unusual as turn 1&2 are of a tighter radius than 3&4.
later it got a hitch between 3&4, I think finally repaired.

I raced at the Northbrook track at the Nationals a few times. Big and flat, good for pursuiters, not for sprints or mass start races.

the Detroit 250m track, very accessible and in a sketchy part of town in the mid 1970's, no real inside apron, grass.

the 7Eleven Olympic velodrome was supposed to be like Trexlertown. that track ended up a washboard. not friendly.

I need to try the Carson ADT wood track, early on I was given an invite but young wood tracks are slippery. I watched many slide off the banking.

San Jose was unremarkable.

before my time but I was told Golden Gate park had a loop that functioned as a velodrome, a very high bottom bracket required.

I was lucky enough to ride the Roubaix velodrome back in 2019, at the end of the Paris-Roubaix sportive. Got a good way up the banking on my 1987 Peugeot ANC-Halfords Team replica.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...320c15793b.jpg

I've ridden the Geraint Thomas Velodrome in Newport a few times with my club as well - not C&V unfortunately but still good fun!