TRACK SUITED?
WHEN BIKERADAR’S TECHNICAL EDITOR TOM MARVIN FANCIED A NEW CYCLING CHALLENGE HE HEADED INDOORS
Bike Radar’s Tom Marvin gives indoor track cycling a go on Dolan’s TC1 aluminium SE and Mekk’s Pista T1.
Track cycling has provided some of the titans of UK cycling. Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and Mark Cavendish all cut their teeth on the wooden oval boards, while the likes of Laura Kenny and her husband Jason are current household names, despite remaining on wood, rather than tarmac, for the bulk of their careers. Come the Olympics the television schedules barely seem to shift from the velodrome, such is the variety of events and the record-breaking medal prospects Team GB has every time.
So why is it still relatively niche for everyday drop-barred cyclists? It’s perhaps due to a lack of tracks, but the bikes are simpler and cheaper, and, on the surface, the only skill you need to master is turning left, right? Wrong.
Open invitation
My mate Nick has been riding on the track for the past couple of winters, coached with a local club by Jason Streather from PDQ Coaching ( pdqcyclecoaching.co.uk) at the Newport Velodrome in South Wales. He’d been nagging me constantly to join him, I suspect mostly to have a laugh at the pain I would inevitably be put through.
I predominantly ride on dirt, whether that be mountain or gravel bikes, and I’ll admit to rarely riding on tarmac these days. As such, I was pretty sure I could handle turning left competently, but I was nervous about the fitness aspect of things. The more road riding Nick had done over the years, the fitter and faster he’d got, and yet he still claimed he wasn’t at the front of the group. I was going to
I was pretty sure I could handle turning left, but I was nervous about the fitness aspect of things
get a rude introduction to just how unfit I probably was.
The other thing I was unsure of was riding fixed. I’d had two casual sessions on track before (one of which was with my personal hero, Sir Chris no less), but the thought of thundering around a velodrome inches away from people far more competent ahead, and behind, on a bike with no brakes and cranks intimately connected to the rotation of the rear wheel, terrified me.
In for a penny…
Shortly before Christmas last year I found myself, all Lycra’d up, at Newport Velodrome with a brace of box-fresh track bikes, Dolan’s TC1 aluminium SE and Mekk’s Pista T1, arguably the two best known brands of track bikes for an everyday rider like me.
While I was able to get a couple of bikes to test during my sessions on the track, it’s far more popular to hire bikes when you’re just starting out, and every velodrome I’ve been to has a fleet to hire from – usually Dolan Pre Cursa aluminium models – for not an excessive amount of money. Usually the velodromes want you to use the pedals they provide, along with hire shoes or toe clips, but you’ll get all this kind of information when you book your session.
Looking around the centre of the track at the assembled group of riders, my initial fears were confirmed. I’m pretty sure if you collected every ounce of fat in the entire building, the majority would have come from my midriff. Everyone looked fast, fit and raring to go.
I also noticed just how beautiful track bikes can be. With totally clean lines, they have a distinctive elegance. The variety on show was wide – from steel fixies that wouldn’t look out of place in Shoreditch, to monocoque carbon superbikes with disc and tri-spoke wheels, clearly built for one purpose only. To help dispel my concerns, before being allowed to play with the fast riders, everyone who gets trained by PDQ starts in the novice group – the three-hour session split between two groups – until they’re experienced enough to step up.
Newport is known as being an older track with a steep banking, and so it can prove a bit slippery. With my fresh tyres, I felt like Bambi on ice during the first few laps, the novicelevel speed not quite fast enough to give the inertia to get me around the banking without the tyres slipping down the track. I might be happy in a two-wheel drift on mud, but certainly not when riding a fixed gear bike on a track, in front of 20 onlookers.
Fortunately, over the course of a few laps the tyres got scrubbed and speeds increased. Soon I was swinging the bike up to the blue line, mid-way up the track and darting back down to the black to pick up speed.
I noticed just how beautiful track bikes can be. With totally clean lines, they have a distinctive elegance
With only four riders in the novice group, Jason tailored our time on the track – usually 10-15 minutes at a time – for the number and capability of the riders.
With relatively decent fitness I was left as the last rider for the team sprint we were instructed to do in one of our sessions. As each of the three initial laps passed, the speed increased until we were going at a fair lick. My heart was pounding, my lungs rasping at the dry air, and then I was left out there on my own with a lap to do as fast as I could. This is what I’d expected track cycling to be. Flat-out, gulping in litres of air at a time, lactic acid burning my thighs. This is why Nick keeps coming back, and why I’d be back for more a few weeks later.
Both bikes, you’ll be glad to hear, turn left without any issues
Return visit
Having survived the novice group, I was able to jump up in to the faster group in my next session, and, true to form, found myself far from the fastest. Fortunately, the structure of the training meant that when the legs gave up, it was generally fairly easy to step out of the pace line, rest up for a lap or two, then drop back in – constantly checking that I wasn’t about to cut up anyone coming from behind. I had also started to get used to riding fixed – I even managed to get through my third session without forgetting not to stop pedalling once, something which results in getting a bit buckwild for a pedal stroke or two. That said, if you looked at the pace line during, say, the 10-mile time trials, I would stand out like a sore thumb, still not confident with the finely balanced speed control needed to hang only a couple of inches off the rider in front’s back wheel – something everyone else seemed to manage. To be honest, I was quite happy giving away a few watts to save face, and skin, should I tag the wheel in front.
The bikes
During each session, we covered around 60km, and with only left turns and consistent surfaces it got easier to suss out the difference between the two bikes I was testing, when I jumped from one to the other at each break.
Both, you’ll be glad to hear, turn left without any issues. The biggest difference comes in the handling feel, there’s only a smooth surface, so compliance doesn’t really come in to things. I enjoyed the Selle Italia X1 Flow saddle on the Dolan a touch more than the San Marco on the Mekk, though this is largely down to personal
preference. With such a static position on the bike, the contact points and their position are vital for comfort.
What’s more noticeable was that the Dolan was a little more stable than the Mekk, thanks to a marginally slacker head angle, touch longer reach and slightly lower stack height. For someone lacking a bit of confidence, the TC1 feels that bit more surefooted, while the Mekk feels a little lighter or racier in its handling.
Save for the saddle, there’s little to split the bikes. The Mavic Ellipse wheels on the Dolan did feel a little more solid, not helped by a spoke loosening on the Mekk, resulting in the nipple disappearing into the rim, but perhaps this was just beginner’s bad luck. Both frames are alloy, with hydroformed tubes giving a nod to aerodynamics.
While nattering with other riders at the track, I asked about how best to upgrade the bikes and all the replies were that the wheels are the first place to gain speed – with no crosswinds, deepsection wheels seem popular.
It’s also apparent that despite being super simple, there’s still bike geekery that I’m not quite up to speed on, namely gear ratios. In mountain biking we never discuss gear inches, and yet when Jason and I discussed my form on the bike, he noted that I was bouncing thanks to a fast cadence. I have no idea what gear inches I’m running when he asks, so instead reeled off the 48:15 ratio the Dolan comes with as standard. Immediately he worked out that it’s roughly 84in, for the longer efforts I’ll need to up this to around 90in, in a bid to stop me spinning so fast.
Fortunately, another rider lent me a 50-tooth ring for the Dolan, while the Mekk has arrived with 48, 49 and 50-tooth ones.
There are a lot of thin, fast, fit people who go along, and you can guarantee you’ll be pushed hard
Riding on the track is scary at first, but you soon get used to the angles and speed required
Lessons learnt
When I started this experience, I wondered why not that many people take to the track. As I neared the end of my planned sessions, I was still wondering. Yes, the concept is a bit intimidating – there are a lot of thin, fast, fit people who go along, and you can guarantee you’ll be pushed hard should you join a proper training session. You will quickly start to see the benefits though, in both your waist line and aerobic fitness. Riding on the track is scary at first, but you soon get used to the angles and speed required, and the adrenaline that comes with it. Riding in a group on the track is also a touch unnerving, but if you have experience in group riding on the road you should be okay. If not, you’ll learn fast. The bikes are simple to ride, but this lets you get the most out of the training session – there are no excuses, nothing to hide the harsh reality of your fitness. It’s as raw as cycling gets. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun...