It was a fun day at the track, a very Bella day in fact. VB brought a contingent (Ippoc, lil’ Ninja, Natasha, XBunny), with Pab and OV for support. Merkeley and Alicat came down for some fun, too. We did some socializing, some riding, some quad measurements, did a little lunch afterwards, with Marscat joining post-MTB ride. Lots of fun.
My day at the track was shortened by a bit. I did the warmup, 40 laps this time. Then a team pursuit. Next up was whistle jumps. I lined up with VB, lil’ Ninja, and The Wife for this exercise. We started with three standing sprints. Each time we stood my bike creaked, unnerving the ladies a bit. Then onto three sitting sprints. All was fine. Then another set of three standing sprints. I told the ladies I thought the creak was the chain and I would check it as soon as we were done. But on the second standing sprint, about 150m into the sprint, the bike did one big groan then I was spinning free. The chain had broken (see pic) and flown off. Fortunately it landed on the apron, but I was left to coast around for a couple of laps while losing speed so I could stop. Not enough chain left to make it work, so I parked the bike and cheered on the ladies as they raced through the Australian pursuit, with Bella Natasha wreaking havoc on the field.
In the quad measurements I drew a puny 55.5 cm, same as lil’ Ninja who is a few inches shorter. I think I need to eat more cake. No cake at the group lunch, but I did snag a brownie which is almost as good I think. In my defense, I may be a puny quad boy, but who snapped the chain?
I’ll be adding all the photos to my gallery sometime tonight or tomorrow. Lots of shots of folks going round and round.
Update: The photos from this session are now online. Just click here.
-
lunch was good…
-
what a track stud…I have yet to break a chain but my quads are only 48cm
-
Ippoc – nice to do the formal meet today. Your quads may be only 48cm, but you were putting out some nice speed.
Marscat – lunch was good .. esp the company!
-
you should hang that chain on your trophey rack. with all this track riding, I wouldn’t be surprised to see you surpass 55.5cm. thanks for the mini golf today. had a great time with you and “the wife.”
-
i hope sports basement will cover that chain for you!
mike and i made a stop at montano velo on the way home to oggle some track bikes. a purchase is impending. great job today pre-chainage and we’ll hopefully see you monday. -
Kim – Hey, it was great hanging out Saturday. I think you would have fun at the track. <a href=”http://plus.calendars.net/hellyer” rel=”nofollow”>Here</a> is the calendar; looks like any Sat. this month except the next one. Let us know when you want to go and we can do another trip. And, good luck on Monday at the Giro; we plan on being there to cheer you on!
Ali – Oooh, a new track bike. Fun! It was great spending some time with all of you today. Great job out there. We plan on being there for some of Monday morning; see you there. We will be there long enough to cheer you through the 3’s race. Good luck!
-
You may need to go with a motorcycle chain for that torque you are producing.
-
i suggest getting a BMX chain. they are the same width as track chains, are really strong and sturdy…plus they are half the price as a track chain!
-
fun pics! looks like it was quite hot.
-
Chris – hmm, motorcycle chain. Heavy, right? Sturdy vs slow? Of course, if it was heavy enough perhaps I could get that pain face Olaf was looking for on Sat.
Beth – the chain that broke was a KMC ‘Z’ chain, which is used a lot by BMX folks. I’ll look to see what else is available. Thanks for the suggestion.
Lauren – it was a bit toasty out, not as toasty as Livermore. Congrats on the podium placing! We had the advantage that the Bella contingent set up a popup so we spent all the off-time under that.
-
all those precious digits…showing up on different blogs and comment sections…
i have puny quads, and never snapped a chain (like you) and never clipped out of my pedals (like gunnar). i will bring tons of chocolate cakes at the states trace on sat. see you then? please find my big head.
-
and KMC makes colored chains — like pink!
think about where you bought that bike. there’s the answer to the broken chain. you had better take it back and read them the riot act. danger, danger!
-
twinkiepatissier – Sat. is still an unknown, but if there is chocolate cake that tends to give me incentive. Too bad they are not committing to any sort of schedule for the races; easier ti schedule if I knew when the races of interest were taking place.
lorri – I think I understand what you are saying. I will take the chain back to them and have a discussion. But if I read you correctly you are inferring that it was a poor installation job. Everyone who has looked at it generally thinks the problem was material failure, probably a bad forging, since the link broke in the middle and was not a separation at the pin. Terry S. had a few choice words about KMC when he saw it, none of them kind.
Comments are now closed.
13 comments