gtrob

Ive used velodromeshop about 4 times now and its free shipping and the only time they screwed my order was gave me CS EVO instead of CS Elite tires (I needed a spare set of both so wasn't the worst thing for me).

Shipping takes a while but everything does to Canada. No duty and free shipping is worth any wait here.

taras0000

This has everything to do with how they've set up their business. They're just a drop shipper that uses DMS drop shipping service. So when they say they're waiting on a shipment to come in, or that they are out of stock on that item because it hasn't shown up yet, they are full of it. There are whole threads of their crappy service and lies to customers when things don't ship out on time.

myth001

I also have used Velodromeshop twice now, and both times it was great communication, and fast (and FREE) shipping. Once i ordered crankset, cogs, chain and such. But the other time I only ordered a single chainring. All free shipping.

Compared the prices around, and actually their prices came out to be better than most. Plus they sent it by Royal Mail / Canada Post (and marked lower price), so no duties as well.

So far, so good...

nspace

This is good to know. I need to order some stuff shortly. I have 2 orders from Wiggle I am waiting on. First time I've ordered from them. Will be interesting to see if I get hit with duties. I split my order into 2 shipments to keep total value lower in hopes of increased chances that it flies under the radar. I have a 50-60% success rate of no extra $$ when ordering from UK.

myth001

My regular go-to online stores are Pro Bike Kit, Wiggle, Merlin, Evans and Chain reaction. Bike-discount.de has good prices generally, and has a set of wheels at the lowest price that I'm interested in. I may give them a shot.
And my first 2 orders from Velodromeshop also have been satisfying.

Other stores I usually keep in mind, or have shopped at once or twice are: Euro-Bike, Ribble, Planet Cyclery, Shiny Bikes and BikeBlingKit (under maintenance through the winter).

WhatsYoCadence

if there are other riders training, what's the etiquette for practicing track stands?

queerpunk

do it on the infield.

TrackMonkey7

WYC, I think your hometrack is Kissena from what I gathered in other posts? I practice wherever there's space. In the infield as queerpunk said, the paved area between the parking lot and the track, or even the parking lot itself, provided it's not busy and there's space.

queerpunk

My answer was too short.

On a small or narrow track, there's no room to practice a trackstand while people are training - unless there are VERY few people training, it's probably inconsiderate. You can practice on any incline, but people can only do track training on the track.

On a large or wide track, talk to the people who are training there. Practice near the rail on one of the straights. Do not suddenly start riding out of a trackstand downtrack. It's best done with there are few other people to disrupt.

Hida Yanra

Funny, my answer was going to be shorter - "Don't"

MAYBE - if there aren't many others out training, and you talk to all of them, and they are all quite okay with it - maybe then.
The delta in speed between riders is usually the cause of accidents, and this seems to maximize that issue (risk), so I'd think it pretty much isn't worth it. Were I the other person out on the track, maybe were I doing pursuit efforts at the bottom and you were staying completely above blue....

dunno, my run up to my A race (and season) was almost wrecked two years ago when on a 400m track, it was me and one other guy, and he was doing just about this.
I was doing 30" on, 30" off efforts along the black line - and even on a very shallow, very wide track he still came down on me just I was entering T3 - I couldn't do hardly anything about it - the rear wheel of my bike came all the way off the ground at high speed - and I saw my season/collarbones/teeth flash before my eyes -
Somehow, and I have literally no idea how, I got it down and didn't fall - but it simply isn't a good situation.

Anyhow, I had a bad experience - it didn't have to be bad, but the consequences can be pretty nasty if things go wrong.

WhatsYoCadence

This is great to hear. Thank you everyone for your words.

What I've gathered-

Only do it if there are very few other riders and you get all of their consent.

queerpunk

basically.
and know what you have to do in order to stay out of their way.

Quinn8it

Why would you even need- or need to practice a track stand?

nspace

So that in a match sprint you have the skills to not tip over or get forced into the lead when someone does it to you.

Quinn8it

people don't do that to me

Brian Ratliff

Why not do this in the parking lot? I would say don't do track stands on the track surface at all if there is anyone else on the track. You know people don't have brakes out there, right?

nspace

I never advocated to practice it on the track. The question was why do you even need to practice track stands.

Quinn8it

or maybe just stop trying to simulate sprinting videos from the '80s with essentially unnecessary tactics...

if you need to practice your Track Stand- i would guess that you have no clue what result you would actually be yielding from such a technique. Most beginner sprinters confuse riding slow, contact and track stands with "controlling a race" and typically have no idea what they are trying to accomplish or what tactics would give them an edge against their opponent..

but- learning to stand still and balance is way easier than getting fast on a bike... so go ahead and spend your track time doing that

carleton

I see that you are channeling your inner Steve Hill hahahaha

But, yeah, I think I've done a trackstand maybe once in comp in my few years of local/regional racing.

Playing Devil's Advocate: We have seen a lot of track stands from both men and women on the world level over the past couple of years.

But yeah, at the local level, it won't buy you much.

Quinn8it

This place could use a little HotBlack

Brian Ratliff

I assume this depends on the track. On a shorter track, like a 250 or Alpenrose, there is little or no advantage (and maybe even a disadvantage) of being in the trail position. On a 333 or 400m track, I can see how there might be a disadvantage in leading out the sprint and that track stands might have an application in those situations.

queerpunk

the way i see it, the higher a level you're at, the better it is to be at the front.

for low and mid-cat riders, there's quite an advantage to forcing your opponent to lead you out.

Jared.

I did a total of four match sprints last year as a CAT5 racer. There were so many other aspects of the match sprint I got wrong that my ability/desire to track stand wouldn't have made even the slightest difference.

Quinn8it

Track standing is not the only, or the best way to get yourself in to the trailing position...

Huffandstuff

Me too, I have no idea what I'm doing out there when doing a match sprint, I just try to be faster than the other guy.