capsicum

I think Redmond is a floppy donkey schlang of a commute just to ride on the velodrome . Who else would like to see a 'drome in the south sound area? It could start as a packed dirt track with painted or chalk stripes and slowly improve from there.


There are other dirt/clay velodromes I do beleive, it is perfectly acceptable, I've seen motor flat tracks that were so hard and smooth that they were shiny and streaked with black tire marks . On even slightly banked tracks the only mud issue comes up when useing it during or within 1/2-1 hour after active rainfall, generally they need to be hosed down during the summer before races, for dust and traction.

Just need a piece of land and a non profit group to manage it. The rest is volunteers and donations/useage fees/bike rental fees etc.

What do YOU think?

Shifty

What exactly is that green and magenta stuff you are smoking??? What ever it is I'll pass!

capsicum

It's flavorful and delicious, that's what it is.

And your a bit farther south than I was thinking.

capsicum

Can I get a moderator to move this to the track forum? It should get more of a response there, thank you much.

urbanknight

I disagree. Velodrome racing isn't very popular and having too many velodromes in any area start to kill the sport. Example, southern California has 3 velodromes and only one prospers (the 1984 Olympic velodrome because it was the newest, then the ADT velodrome for the same reason). Encino is a mercy project for boyscout wannabe groups, and San Diego isn't all that popular as well. Redmond doesn't need the competition... unless you want to replace that sorry excuse of a parking lot with a real velodrome with real banking and reasonable length.

I will say that the Redmond velodrome has one thing going for it by allowing the public to use it when not in session (do they still do that), which drums up interest. Encino looks like a boarded up relic when not in session, and during sessions most riders stay on the infield and fail to acknowledge passers by. No wonder they only get 30 people to compete at any given event.

capsicum

I was thinking about it mostly for public use and maybe getting some highschool level competitions. It would be foolish to let any kind of facility just sit unused for months.

Baking a new pie, rather than taking a slice of Redmond's, if ya will.
There are quite a few ball fields around but that doesn't kill the big stadiums, it just makes little league possible which actually fuels the big leagues.

And yes it would be much shorter and banked better than Redmond.

mattm

i'm all for it! i really wish it could be indoor tho, as a dirt track outdoors in the puget sound doesn't sound like a keen idea, unless you're on a motorized vehicle with studded tires...

knight: yes, they still let you ride on the track when they aren't using it for classes or racing. every time i've been out there during the winter it's super-empty... kinda nice to have it all to yourself.

billypilgrim

yeah kind of nice to have all that soft, freshly laid goose sh1t all to youself. mmmm so squishy!

bitingduck

Having more velodromes has actually been helping in Socal-- Encino was pretty dead before ADT opened up, and track has been gradually increasing since then. There are a lot of people who only ride one track or the other, even when it comes to racing. All three tracks actually work together in scheduling racing and major events, and since last year have been holding collaborative events.

The most important thing for success of a track seems to be having predictable programs-- When you go to ADT for a given session (open training, Roger's sessions, sprint training, pursuit training, elite session) you have a pretty good idea what's going to happen and how it's going to work. Many of the encino sessions are haphazard-- you can't really predict what you're going to get. ADT doesn't get the turnout it does because it's new, it gets it because it's consistent. Last night I looked down during the warmup and there were probably more people in Peloton Roger (the noobs) than everywhere else (blue line, balustrade) put together. Many of the people who show up and ride there never have and never will race, but they get a good fun reliable workout. Even with the larger turnouts, ADT needs lots of other users (basketball, volleyball, film shoots) to pay for the building because it's so expensive to maintain.

A lot of people are still afraid of the banking at ADT and try encino first anyway-- SBW did a set of intro classes last year with huge turnout, and I can't tell you the number of people I talk to who are intimidated by the banking at ADT, even though in many ways its an easier track to ride than Encino.

If you live in LA, the San Diego track might as well be T-Town, given how bad traffic has become-- there's little crossover from SD to the LA tracks, and people tend to only make the trip for special events. I think we see more people from Santa Barbara at ADT than from San Diego.

As far as a clay or grass track, I'd love to see more of them. I've always wanted to race on a grass track.

VelodromePhoeni

I feel blessed beyond measure to have so many tracks within reasonable distance. ADT, of course, will always be my first love. It's where I first fell head over heels in love with track racing, and where I had my first lessons, and my first race. Of course the banking is terrifying to LOOK at, but a lot of that is illusion. If you make the mistake of looking over the embankment from the top of the corners, you're gonna feel like you're about to lose your lunch. But if you stand on the apron and look up, it doesn't look anywhere near as intimidating. And when you're actually ON the track, you tend to instinctively lean into the turns, to from your own frame of reference, no matter where you are on the banking, you tend to FEEL like you're always perpendicular (upright) in relation to the riding surface.

Encino, I love too, and I can't understand why people knock it. It's a great little track. It's fun, it's homey, it's relaxed. The people there are great. It's not nearly as ratty as a lot of people will make it out to be. Compared to city streets and a lot of local bike trails, Encino is smooth as silk.

I've never been to San Diego, but one of my goals this year is to go down there and race. And I am in awe of the people who train there regularly, and who come up and race with us here in LA. San Diego produces some terrific racers.

Like Biting Duck said, the three tracks are really trying to coordinate things so that they don't conflict with each other, and are even holding some tournament events where you have to go to all three tracks to complete the tournament. I think it's great. Last year, there was track racing SOMEWHERE almost every weekend for ten solid months. does life get better than that?

And then, looking at the long term, for people who are ready to upgrade to Cat 1, one of the requirements for a Cat 1 license is experience riding on at least three different tracks. Well -- what could be easier?

The Velodrome Phoenix

bitingduck

It actually just says your upgrade points have to be earned "at more than one velodrome", not three, but yeah, it can save some travel if you need to upgrade to Cat 1 for some reason (doesn't matter a lot, since you just have to be a 2 for mass starts at nats, and 3s usually get thrown in with the 1s and 2s anyway.)