I'm about midway in the dropouts, pretty far away from the seat tube cut out (FTP 08)
What is the advantage to slamming in the wheel/shortening wheelbase?
Is it worth taking out a link/getting a half link?
My chain has about an inch of play, don't want to go any looser

pic related: its about where i am in the dropouts



**p.s:
mods: another time when a question/answer sticky would be useful (for me anyways)

harder to change tires. keep it around the middle.

also gives you a wide range of ratios +/-.

Short wheelbase feels good on the streets. If you're into that sort of thing

So I'm assuming less twitchy handling?
I'm mostly riding this on the track

definition of "feel good" can vary person to person. a lwb will be stable while the one with a short wheelbase will be easier to maneuver. however, i really doubt you will notice a cm change in the dropout, really. it looks a bit better, but really, it doesnt matter too much and will only restrict tire changes and you may have to add links if you want a higher tooth cog.

Cut outs are for "aerodynamics", not for wheelbase.

Shorter wheelbase makes cornering a faster and swifter.

a shorter wheelbase of a few mm doesn't affect handling enough for it to be a consideration. get your gear ratio right and don't use a halflink... wherever the wheel ends up in the dropouts that's where it should be.

if you're middle that's good, if you are worried about how un aero your seat tube is, wear lycra.

street cred (aka kiddies who want to be track racers/messengers... as CC said find the gear for you.

I take it as pseudo science and aesthetics. Tires move air around, if you have the tire so close to the frame that air movement gets interrupted and creates some pressure/drag/whatever. All that aero stuff on bikes is to make air flow with less interruption. It just sounds like BS to me

Exactly. If the axle is all the way forward in the track end and the chain is tensioned, it's very difficult or impossible to get the chain off of the chainring to remove the wheel.

Aerodynamic purposes, which is pointless on the street unless you are wearing a kit (jersey and bibs).

So...Leader V2 725s suck because you can't slam the wheel all the way into the cut out, but if you do it on a bike that can...you're a d****bag wanna be? I love this place

Exactly, that's why I put aerodynamics in quotation marks.

What's really stupid is a track frame with a cutout seatube, but you still can't slide the wheel all the way forward in the dropout.

Larger tire?

More that, you are a douchbag if you get all ranty and pissy online over something that you likely would not actually notice while "actually" on the track and if you can your probably riding something custom at that point. It comes down to what all the douchy vocal people consider a "track" bike, which mind you used to be strictly steel ones...

Pretty much. and whats funny is that I am sure Leader was only trying to make the tricking crowd happy making room for larger tires and thus longer stays. Then all the kiddies wanted to be track racers and so went back to skinny tires and "oh ****" i cant slam my wheel, "lame this bike isn't track enough"

Thanks all,
I was unsure what the advantages/disadvantages were, I remember in some thread people were criticizing a guy's bike for having his wheel too far away from the cutout.

I don't think I'll make any pains to get it in there, don't really care that much about "aero", doubt it'll help much for me anyways (I do wear a kit. Only ride on the street when I'm riding to the track), as I'll probably be losing races by seconds, not milliseconds.

@bleedingapple: are you angry at someone in this thread or just people who overobsess about the cutout

Whatever the case with your cutout, post pictures and keep us posted about your track experience.

Yeah definitely! It wasn't as much as a "case" as it was a curiosity
I consider posting a lot of what I do here in Track, but its a little desolate compared to here (don't kill me Carleton)

there are many more squirrels here and that does make it fun

Haha, just post them here and there. You get the +1s here and you get the advices from track racers there.

Are the rental bikes in Marymoor or is it an open track and anyone could go?

see told you so

we need to synchronize and touch our monitors at the same time to do a uber epic cyber five

hahaha just tell me when