Never start too young....
 

I was skimming my old park district website to check on curfews for the basketball courts (thats where i practice tricks and such) when i realized that my small suburb has its very own velodrome!

Not only that but my highschool just started a track racing club, sponsored by the velo and 3 LBS's. A little miffed that they decided to do this 3 years after I graduate (would have been a sport i would have actual interest in participating), I looked through pics to see if I recognized anyone from highschool.

Lo and behold I stumbled across the junior race-event pics, and some pics made me jealous that other kids had father's/mothers who encouraged this "track racing" hobby.

Check out these kid's sick rides.

(check out the kid 2nd from the foreground's fixed gear brakeless ride. Im not saying that the dad is irresponsible for letting his 7 year old kid rely on skidding, but i doubt the kid is a prodigy if he's putting MTB tires on to race in a velo. Also notice the mother's helmet. Never can be too safe when there are kids with under-developed motorskills flying around at speeds excess of 7 miles per hour)


http://picasaweb.google.com/DeeDeeSc...69331963299858http://i19.tinypic.com/6t2o86u.jpg


ZOMG THE KID IS SO PRO HE HAS NO PEDALS! HE ONE-UPPED US NO-GEAR NO BRAKE FIXIES!!


http://picasaweb.google.com/DeeDeeSc...68442905069170http://i2.tinypic.com/82xwzl5.jpg


Apparantly this girl and her brother are prodigies or something. I dont know if its a rumor or anything but at her age she's pushing out times like 14-15.....idk if i believe it.

http://i8.tinypic.com/7x93al4.jpg
http://picasaweb.google.com/DeeDeeSc...72428634721810

Dang! That's awesome. I wish I did that kinda thing back then. This totally beats foursquare.

that kid with the track bike is brakeless with no clips. err....

at least he isnt wearing spandex with a sweatshirt over it. althought i bet i wouldnt put it past his dad to suggest it...

That track bike looks like someone just put drops on a kids bike with a coaster brake...

Oh wait...

kid that age is going to get to a decent speed where a coaster brake is not enough, especially if it fails with other kids rolling around on the track. as opposed to professional track racing, having a kid ride on a velo without a explicit front/back brake seems pretty stupid to me.

Why does doofo have no pedals on his bike?

Because Flintstoning is the new FG.

simpler to maintain
cheaper to build
gives him more tactile feedback from the road
cause noone else is doing it

ya know that totally could be a coaster brake set up, ya can't tell from the pic

given the one piece crank, thats probably the case

the kid in the center is trying to make a homemade disc wheel!

what im really diggin is the girl in the pink bike with basket in the 2nd pic. she is wayyyyy too cool for school, god bless her

Correct me if Im wrong but isnt that Ed Rudolph Velodrome in Northbrook?
You really didnt know there was a track there? Its only been around a few decades.
You might want to get out a little more, you've officially missed a whole ton of fun already.

Second picture, center kid is riding a $300 like a bike.

The best is the kids face on the gray bike with dropouts. It just reminds me of the villian bully in every child show. 'YA WANNA GO EH EH?'

That wood one? I remember seeing one of those in a toy store window and it was like 300 hundred or some such nonsense.

Stupid yuppie parents.

No way, everyone seems to be missing this girl:

http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6719/picture5jb2.png

^^^She sure is one little bad ass!^^^The future is her's!

do parents still fight eachother at kid's sporting events? or just soccer and hockey

And she still has training wheels, too :p .

East Hill

little league baseball ftw over both of those

Yeah lol, it literally is called "like a bike".

I wasnt into biking as much back then as I am now. But if they started a club back when i was in highschool i would have joined. i guess im just jealous there are kids out there who will get to ride a velo after school, as opposed to me, who just had chocolate milk drinking contests and bubbled fountains....

How did this gem get overlooked. A+, Blicky.