Dalai

Any time you are off the drops it is far easier to hook bars... Quick search couldn't find the official ruling, but they have banned holding any part of the bars except the drops in Australia for all but Madisons on the track since this race requires riders to move off the drops.

Velocirapture

Carleton, are they uncomfortable due to compressing your chest with the narrow hand placement, or due to being more twitchy?
my current bars are 37cm... and scattos are twice the price.

zizou

Regards the Air Attack Shield - i've increasingly noticed commissaires telling riders to remove the visor before racing (in a mass start). I think it is due to it being held on by magnets rather than fixed on. This isnt a total ban though as on other nights ive still seen riders wearing them, i guess it just depends what official is in charge on the night!

sbs z31

Ambrosio Crono F20 rims good for road TT and track use?

Pantani98

I've done a ton of searching but maybe I can get more of a clear cut answer here. Currently using 44cm bars on the road. My wife bought me some Pro Vibe 7s track bars for my birthday but they're 42cm outside-to-outside. My understanding is I should be looking at 38-40cm bars. This will be my first season on racing so I'll be doing every discipline at the track. What should I shoot for as far as sizing goes?

Kayce

Since you have a nice set of bars, ride them. Your first season there is a lot bigger areas to focus on.

slindell

+1 on sticking with what you have. 42cm o-o == 40cm c-c so you are already in the 38-40 cm range and there is a lot more to worry about than a couple of cm either way for bar width.

slindell

USAC cycling rule:
2B13.
Riders may carry no object on them or on their bicycles that could fall onto the track. Any electronic device with a display (speedometer, power meter, etc) must be hidden such that the riders cannot read it while riding.

The visor likely is getting caught in the first clause, but then sunglasses, chain ring bolts and riders are all known to fall on the track too.

Dalai

Given they are extremely low profile and require high spoke counts to build a solid wheel they will be the worst aerodynamically for TT's... I have a set for the hills. 28h front and 32h rear.

sbs z31

I'm planning to run in the stock class for my first year of road TT so aerodynamic isnt a concern at this point. The Crono I have are 32holes and would like to build them up but if they're not good for both track and road TT then I won't waste my time with them.

bigfred 

How are you going to fit the same rear wheel in a 120mm fixed single speed and a 130mm geared freewheel bike? I know a few of the discs are convertible. But, I'm not familiar with many(any?) spoked rear hubs that have been designed for such a swap.

sbs z31

I was given a free pair of Ambrosio Crono F20 rims that I'm thinking about building up, not talking about road wheelset.

Quinn8it

He does road TT on a single speed/track bike

ETN612

This questions is geared towards people who have ridden or raced at the NSC velodrome since that's where i'm going to be riding, but I guess anyone who has ridden on a Schuermann-designed 250m steep (NSC is 43 degrees I believe?) velodrome can probably weigh in too: What's a good gear range for track newbs on a track with the aforementioned dimensions? I know it's personal preference for the most part but what is a good starting point?

And I guess another quick question that is NSC-specific (queerpunk, maybe you can hep me out with is one) is: What's it like to wipe out there? I've heard a few gnarly tales about people picking splinters out of their skin for a couple months afterwards after eating it at NSC... i'd imagine the surface takes a lot of abuse from the Minnesota winters considering it's an outdoor track which might make it the wood bit more prone to splitting and stuff like that

queerpunk

I don't know what it's like to wipe out there and I hope I don't find out! That said, come find me in the spring and I'll show you a gnarly picture on my phone of Casper's ass with a big-ass splinter through it. Generally, yeah - lots of small splinters. Actually, the surface doesn't take too much abuse - it's afzalia, a super hard wood, very weather-resistant. It's the skeleton that takes the abuse.

Good gear range for newbs. I'd say start with an 88" gear - 49-15. As you advance, you're going to want more options, but I think that's a good all-around gear for Cat 4/5 - and beyond. I used only a 90" gear (50-15) until I got up to Cat 2, and then I needed more options. Now, I'm on 92" for most enduro races, 90" for some long madisons, and 93" and up for short warm-up races and sprint-oriented races.

Quinn8it

Ill extend that recommendation to any track-
throw a 17t on the other side of your flip/flop for warm-up and you wont need to change a ring or pull a cog for your first year...

sbs z31

Dan Casper is super fast at the Farm Dog TT annihilating everyone on his track bike. In fact, he was the one telling me to give track racing a try.

queerpunk

Yeah, he's disgusting all right.

Hida Yanra

What are you riding that is 37cm? That's a tough dimension to find.

wens

Aren't one of the 3t sprint bars listed at that?

ETN612

Damn, that sounds intense, i'm simultaneously excited and not excited to see that picture, haha. And yeah, i'd suppose that at the speeds one would most likely crash at that splinters would be near unavoidable. Oh, that's interesting, i'd assume it'd be the other way around! I assume then that some patchwork is done every year in the spring to repair the winter damages to the structuring before it opens for the season? And thanks for the gear advice! My current street gear is 46/15 (which i'd probably use to warm up) so I suppose I just need a 49 or 50 tooth chainring and a separate chain to accommodate the larger ring and i'd be good to go for a little while.

ETN612

I don't have a fixed/fixed hub that's something I might to change... but initially i'll probably just have use my street gear (46/15, 80.7") for warm up and switch the ring to a larger one after warm-up and carry around a separate chain to accommodate the bigger ring. Plus it may seem backwards but I absolutely hate the process of pulling cogs for some reason and would actually much rather pop the chain open with the masterlink, change a ring and put on the other chain than change a cog. Call me crazy but i'm weird like that. Maybe it was because my first fixed gear bike had a misaligned ****ty frame that made messing with the rear wheel in any way (which would obviously need to be done to change a cog) an absolutely JOYFUL experience... (sarcasm) and I haven't been able to shake that feeling of annoyance whenever I have to mess with my back wheel (other than just adjusting chain tension).

Velocirapture

They are an old pair of Cinelli Pista bars, that came on my first (second hand, steel) bike.

Brian Ratliff

You should be able to find a chain length that will accomodate both a 46/15 and a 49/15. Set it up so that with the 46/15, the axle is close to the back of the dropout. You should then be able to get the 49/15 combo to fit without changing chains. You can usually find half links to more finely tune the chain length. Even with my short track ends, I can cover a four tooth change in chainring/cog combo.

ETN612

Thanks for the advice! I figured that might work but I may just get a separate chain anyway, because i'll still be riding my track bike on the road when i'm not at the track, and while I generally take care of my chains, still, they get some road grime on them and I think i'd prefer to just use a separate chain and chainring(s) that I only use at the track when i'm not warming up; just to keep my track stuff shiny clean and lasting as long as possible.

Also, on that note, anyone have any experience with reusing masterlinks on track chains and the safety of doing so? I know that some people who utilize deep rear cutouts on their seattube have to take their chains off to remove the rear wheel so i'd imagine it's not a huge deal... or maybe the people i've seen/heard about doing that are anomolies and this usually isn't an issue anyway. I don't have a rear cutout on my frame; mostly just curious about this