Curved wall rides on fixed gears

Sandy Carson and I went up to Superdrome Velodrome in Frisco, Texas this weekend and got ourselves officially track certified. It ended up being so much fun. If you’ve never been in a velodrome you’d be really surprised how steep the corners are. The Superdrome is one of the steeper tracks in the country too and when you’re way up at the top looking down it can be a lot scarier then you would guess. 

Oddly enough, Sandy and I had the most trouble out of anyone in the beginner class on our first few laps. We both kept compensating for the steepness by leaning our bikes into the curve and then we would spike our pedals and get kicked down the wall. 

However, once we got to go a bit faster we had no more problems. When the really fast guys are ripping around the track they get so leaned over its amazing. It looks (and feels) just like a curved wall ride… except of course for having a bike that won’t stop pedaling underneath you. 

I finally understand what all these fixed gear bikes are for and why they are so much fun now. I’ve had a couple that I’ve ridden around town on and I always just end up wondering why it doesn’t coast or have brakes. On the track though it makes perfect sense. You don’t need or want brakes because you are drafting off the rider in front of you and riding in such close quarters. Its better to keep everyone going about the same speed then having the situation where someone might hit their brakes when you are riding 6 inches away from them. Same thing with not allowing the bikes to coast… keeps the speeds consistent. 

It was really fun though and challenging to apply bike riding in a new way. I’ve never gone so fast under pedal power in my life. When you get squashed from the g-force going around the corners its amazing. The track record is like 44 MPH something.

I wish I could show you how good I looked in my full spandex gear, but it was way too cold this day. My bike was awesome for the track too. This is one of Giant’s stock Bowery models and I’m pretty stoked on it. Right out of the box its got everything for the track. Bigger gears next time though. I rode a 46×14 but I think something like a 50x 14 would be better. Too bad the tracks closed till march. 

Sandy did represent BMX and impress the guys with some freestyle shredation too.

Batman kept the bikes safe for us all day. 

This video is of a match sprint. The strategy of it all is bizarre, but if you make to the end you’ve never seen anyone cranking so f-in’ fast… its insane!