Admittedly, a bicycle in its purest form. One gear, direct drive, no brakes, completely unadorned and uncluttered and made for only one reason. To go FAST !
My buddy Marc and I used to take the Greyhound bus, to Montreal, from Ottawa in the 1970's, to ride the velodrome (indoor cycling racing track) that had been constructed for the Olympics. It was steeply banked, so you didn't fly off the corners and the track surface was an exotic wood, ( 'Picea Abies', which is known under a variety of names including Siberian Larch/Pine, Northern Pine or Baltic Pine). known for the wood's stability, so it was super smooth. We would ride on 19mm, or sometimes even 16mm wide tires, inflated to 140psi. It was so much fun and exhilarating to ride !
HOWEVER, you know how exhausted you are immediately after a sprint. You stop pedalling the second you cross the line, as you can no long put out any more effort. Do that with a track bike and it will break both your legs !
As I mentioned earlier, they have no brakes, but importantly, are direct drive, so you can't 'coast'. If you pedal forwards, the bike moves forward, if you pedal backwards, the bike moves backwards...if you are moving at all, the crankset goes around, so finishing at 50kph+ your cranks are moving very rapidly, so even just relaxing your legs, the cranks keep moving and with a huge amount of kinetic energy, put huge forces on your legs to keep moving around. So as you finish a race, you still have to keep pedalling and gradually slow down. If you have ever watched a track race on TV, now you know why the riders ride at least a full 250 to 300 metres or more coming to a stop, while still pedalling, before someone catches them (and sometimes they just fall over as the exhaustion is just too much).
Oh how I miss those days !
Today's track bike, a rather modern De Rosa. This is a mid level aluminum framed bike, that actually uses clincher tires, instead of tubulars ... perfect for training. More come !
De Rosa Pistarda
Track bikes
Vélo de piste
Bici da pista
Admittedly, a bicycle in its purest form.
One gear, direct drive, no brakes, completely unadorned and uncluttered and made for only one reason. To go FAST !
My buddy Marc and I used to take the Greyhound bus, to Montreal, from Ottawa in the 1970's, to ride the velodrome (indoor cycling racing track) that had been constructed for the Olympics. It was steeply banked, so you didn't fly off the corners and the track surface was an exotic wood, ( 'Picea Abies', which is known under a variety of names including Siberian Larch/Pine, Northern Pine or Baltic Pine). known for the wood's stability, so it was super smooth. We would ride on 19mm, or sometimes even 16mm wide tires, inflated to 140psi. It was so much fun and exhilarating to ride !
HOWEVER, you know how exhausted you are immediately after a sprint. You stop pedalling the second you cross the line, as you can no long put out any more effort. Do that with a track bike and it will break both your legs !
As I mentioned earlier, they have no brakes, but importantly, are direct drive, so you can't 'coast'. If you pedal forwards, the bike moves forward, if you pedal backwards, the bike moves backwards...if you are moving at all, the crankset goes around, so finishing at 50kph+ your cranks are moving very rapidly, so even just relaxing your legs, the cranks keep moving and with a huge amount of kinetic energy, put huge forces on your legs to keep moving around. So as you finish a race, you still have to keep pedalling and gradually slow down. If you have ever watched a track race on TV, now you know why the riders ride at least a full 250 to 300 metres or more coming to a stop, while still pedalling, before someone catches them (and sometimes they just fall over as the exhaustion is just too much).
Oh how I miss those days !
Today's track bike, a rather modern De Rosa. This is a mid level aluminum framed bike, that actually uses clincher tires, instead of tubulars ... perfect for training. More come !