700wheel

At both Colorado tracks a Cat 4 license is required to race. However once you are certified then switching from Cat 5 to Cat 4 is a formality.

carleton

You would think that with TTown being the home of Nothstien, Baranoski, and others there would be more local/regional Sprint events. I know they have the UCI stuff in the summer, but it sucks that the regulars can't get TT times and spar match sprinting some before Nationals (jr, elite, or masters).

I remember back in 2011 there was a Serinity TT series in the summer. But, it was like Friday afternoons or something like that. I had to take off of work to drive up. Weird.

carleton

Yeah, it's my understanding that Cat 5 is when you buy your license and Cat 4 is when you successfully complete a beginner course. So, in effect, they are simply requiring that one complete a beginner course to ride that track...which is reasonable.

carleton

Not to mention the ladies like Geist, Carlson, Hayduck...

I guess it's a matter of logistics. With a HUGE number of racers, it's difficult to run TTs in a timely manner.

Maybe offer limited spots and some sort of lottery, first-come first-served registration, or earn points to do TTs system?

Baby Puke

Though hasn't Ed Clancy been riding 33's in the omnium?

MarkWW

I've heard Geist has been running a few sprint days, more as a practice session. Riders are matched up with similar 200m times, rather than a traditional bracket format. I think it's just a matter of bang for the buck that sprints and TTs aren't more common. They take a long time to run through. I've seen a couple of independent promoters run those events each year, though. The problem is they're not always very well advertised.

dunderhi

Yeah, the Regional Championships at Ttown includes sprints & timed events and ECCC tries to run a Spring and Fall track tournament, but if IIRC they have either sprints or pursuits but not both. Unfortunately, the MABRA, NJ, PA championships have all combined with the Regional Championships, so that's a sprint/pursuit day that disappeared off the calendar for most riders. That's it for the rank and file racers. Carleton is right that there are sprint opportunities for the Friday night racers, but those events start earlier in the day and finish up during that night's program, so only the top 4 race before the crowd. Even those are only a couple times per year. Kissena also offers up a couple of sprint opportunities for those who are brave enough to exit turn 4 at full gas; Mark is, but I'm still getting used to kicking the rear wheel out.

queerpunk

My strategy was to be at the red line between turns 3 and 4, and then "corner" down to the black line, crossing that dip as close to perpindicular as you can.

Or, you know, just let that rear wheel drift.

dunderhi

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try next season.

Banchad

Anyone know where to find dimensions for chainring bolts? I've got a project going on involving them and how deep (lay the bolt flat on a surface and its the vertical height) they are is a critical factor. If the extra space produced was taken care of could I potentially use set of inner chainring bolts from a road double crankset to accomplish a bigger movement outwards away from the crank spider?

700wheel

I'm not sure exactly what your question is, but to move your chainring out from the crank spider can you use a washer?

Banchad

This is not what I intend to do. I apologise for the poor description. The chainring will remain in its original postion while a plate of the same thickness of a 3mm or larger washer will be bolted on inbetween the chainring and the crank arm. My question is, can I use a road double crankset set of bolts to secure everything together or are track chainring bolts a specific size and as such would I need to find another way of accomplishing this? I knocked together a 3d representation of this which should help.

700wheel

This site https://roadcyclinguk.com/how-to/main...ing-bolts.html indicates that all chainring bols use a 10 mm nut and a M8x0.75 mm bolt. What you could do is assemble with any chainring bolt you have available then measure the protruding bolt length or recessed bolt depth, then obtain the right length bolts from your lbs. If bolt is too long then does it matter providing the bolt end clears your chainstay. You could add the thickness of the spacer to the original chainring bolts to find the length you need.
This site provides some available bolt lengths https://problemsolversbike.com/products/chainring_bolts

Banchad

Thanks for that man. I wasn't sure of the dimensions thus me asking. Being UK we don't have Home Depot but I'm sure I can find an alternative. I'll be back in a few months to elaborate on what this project is(assuming it works).

Impreza_aL

some "sprinters" couldn't win in our weekly omnium so someone paid someone off to run sprint events for upgrade points. so they could race masters nationals.

carleton

?

You may not realize that omnium events can be hard on sprinters just like 1-lap drag races are hard on enduros. I know national-level elite enduros that won't ride anything under 4K (for fear of being embarrassed maybe?).

Don't judge. Track racing has enough breadth for all kinds of racers. This is why DLV created such a diverse weekly race program. From Gladiator Night (with chariot races and keirins) to Marathon night with a Madison and a +25KM/80 lap points race. Not to mention Monthly Sprints and Time Trial nights (including Team Sprints/Pursuit). Every track should be so lucky.

Weekly Racing | The Dick Lane Velodrome

Impreza_aL

our cat 3/4 races are winnable for sprinter. i watched mansker destroy an omnium at encino a couple years ago but they did have a flying 200 as one of the events lol.

what i am saying is if they want to race at the national/worlds level they should be able to compete in a 20 lap scratch race... then again they redeemed themselves and won masters* national and worlds events. so kudos to them...

Animal Mother

So what competitive 200m time should enduros be required to make before competing in national-level endurance racing (so they can "redeem themselves")?

carleton

+1

carleton

Understand that Mansker is an international level elite. Not just a national level sprinter.

An international level sprinter can slay a local Omnium just as easily as an international level ominum racer can slay a local sprint field.

BUT an international level sprinter cannot hang with international level enduros in omnium racing...and vice-versa. Period. And the same goes down the ladder to the regional level.

Regarding upgrade points:

Track racing is clearly divided into Sprint and Endurance events. Especially at higher levels. Unfortunately, the upgrade system does not recognize this. Sprinters usually get the short end of the stick when it comes to getting upgrade points and most "upgrade events" are omnium style. I can't say that I've ever seen an "Upgrade Sprint tournament" or "Upgrade Keirin tournament".

gtrob

Its funny it is that way since at a national/international level a lot of teams invest more in sprint because there are more events/medals to be won and better 'ROI'. Sending 4 enduros they get a TP in and maybe a single rider in the omnium and come home, while 3 sprinters sent get keirin, sprints and team sprint (and kilo sometimes).

carleton

What do you mean?

In World Cup and Olympics you'll see

Sprint:
- Keirin
- Match Sprint
- Team Sprint
- 500M/Kilo (World Cup only)

Endurance:
- Omnium
- Team Pursuit
- Individual Pursuit (World Cup only)
- Kilo (World Cup only) (Some "enduros" can ride a mean kilo)
- Scratch (World Cup only)
- Points (World Cup only)
- Madison (World Cup only)

The ROI is similar with a slight advantage to Track with one extra Olympic event.

Personally, I don't like the International Omnium as an Olympic event. I want to see the individual specialists, not the best all-arounders. I'd rather see an Olympic Points Race, 500m/Kilo, Madison, and/or Individual Pursuit than the Omnium. I know the Omnium is supposed to be "spectator friendly", but ditching benchmarking events like the 500m, Kilo, 3K, and 4K is just wrong. Those events are the staples of the sport and show how the athletes and equipment have advanced over the decades. I digress...

gtrob

Speaking of an olympic schedule (pan am, etc), you send min 5 enduro guys to compete for 2 possible medals (TP takes 5 guys and assuming one of them is riding the omnium). Where sprint you send 2 women or 3 men, and they are racing for 4 medals (TS, 2 in the sprint and keirin). For a country that has a super limited budget, these kinds of things influence where development is spent and a lot of countries will focus on sprint for the fact you have more medal opportunities per rider.

From a world cup perspective, you have to qualify a rider for all of those races, so even though there may be 6 races plus an omnium, how many riders will you have to field through the year to get enough points in all of those races, then send enough to race in all of those in the same week. In the sprint, the same rider could do all 3 or 4 of those events (pervis?). Especially if you only have the budget to develop 2 or 3 riders and TP is out of the question, I think sprint should take priority. Im talking about the non AUS/UK/NZ teams that seem to have endless riders and money


anyway, I agree with you on the omnium and wish it was broken up. Swimmers compete in specific distances and forms and there are medals for everything. Same with speed skating, track (run), etc. Id rather just see the events as individual too, let specialists standout.

luucanthony

So, I tried out rollers for the first time today. Inevitably i came off to the side and my fork hit the wall. The hit cracked some paint off the wall but there does not appear to be any damage to the fork itself. Should I be worried about an impact like that on a full carbon fork?

taras0000

You should be okay. It all depends on how hard you hit the wall, and if the fork actually contacted the wall. Usually it's just the wheel nuts/skewer that make contact in that instance, so your fork is probably fine. Paint is easy to chip, I'd only be worried of you took a chunk out of the wall, and even then it's probably still ok. Did you go down when this happened? If you did, then there's probably more damage done from the fall than the wall.