Originally Posted by
Racer Ex
If you want to work on tactics while cross-eyed due to oxygen deprivation, there's really nothing better than track.
If you want to work on training, there's really nothing better than a power meter.
Both need to be utilized with some thought to get the most out of them.
Fixed for me.
There's nothing to compare to a track bike. If you want to race better, work on speed, think about gearing and cadence, work on confidence, on executing tactics when cross-eyed due to oxygen debt, there is nothing like the track.
On the road I never suffer like I did on the track. In fact I forgot what it was like to suffer so much. I tried to suffer on the road after that but it was mainly in service of other riders, never for myself. On the track, with such short race, such short "intervals" (between laps or turns or whatever), you work hard all the time. You're spinning all the time. You have to respond quickly and decisively.
I spent a summer (2009) driving 3 hours each way to a track, midweek. I'd leave at 4-4:30, get home at 1-2 AM and be looking at work at 8 AM. After 25 years of racing on the road the track taught me, in a few short months, all about suffering, about not coasting 3 times in a summer of racing on the track, about the unimportance of equipment (except wheels). I rode a 7 lbs straight gauge tubed frame/fork/headset (headset was 100g) which I had to bend to get the rear triangle to get to 120 mm (it was 100 mm when I got it - a bit smushed as a front wheel fit perfectly in the dropouts). The whole bike was 17 lbs, give or take, and it didn't matter. As long as the frame has proper track geometry you'll be fine.
I put a speedometer on the thing only because I wanted to see my max speed. I had no other anything, no cadence or whatever.
I'd try the track (good point, whoever made it) then if it seems doable then I'd get a whatever track bike.
I wish there was a track 20 minutes away. I'd be at it whenever I could get to it.