Adventures In Track Racing

So winter is approaching (unfortunately) and even this summer hasn't been that great with all the rain. Pretty soon it will be dark, cold, and wet outside all the time. Luckily this doesn't mean the end of dry, warm, riding though. We're fortunate enough to have the only indoor bicycle track, the Burnaby Velodrome, in Canada (and one of only three in North America). Located in Burnaby, the velodrome is a wooden track with banked corners like a NASCAR race track. The banked corners let you keep some serious speed in the turns and make for a hell of a fun ride.

One particularly interesting aspect of track racing is that it requires a very special kind of bicycle. Track bicycles, aside from tending to have a more aggressive geometry, have no brakes and only one gear that's "fixed" - meaning if the wheel is turning so are the pedals; so no coasting at all. There aren't any brakes for a couple reasons, first you need to always be going above a minimum speed or you'll slide off the track because of how steep the banking is. Second using a brake on the track would be very dangerous since suddenly slowing down would likely lead to you sliding off the track, but not necessarily before the riders behind you smashed into you. The elimination of coasting with the fixed gear forces your speed changes to be fairly gradual. So how do you stop a bike with no brakes that can't coast? You pedal backwards, or try to. Applying force on the pedals in the opposite direction will slow the bike down but this requires a lot of strength and some getting used to.

There are three courses you need to take before you can ride on the track. These courses are called "Learn To Ride" and get you familiar with a track bike as well track etiquette and getting used to maintaining the minimum speed to not fall off the track. Each course is about an hour or so and they typically run once a week, so it takes about 3 weeks to complete the program. After completion you become certified to ride the track any time it's open.

After having completed the three main "Learn To Ride" courses, as well as the optional "Learn To Race" session which covers the basics of track racing, I decided to get myself a track bike. I decided to choose all my components and build the bike myself rather than buy a stock, pre-made bike. The result is the picture above, my track bike ready to ride and as soon as the regular Wednesday night track races start.

So this winter if you get sick of the trainer and sick of riding in the cold then maybe you should come check out the track. See the Burnaby Velodrome for schedules and membership information.