We went to Hellyer for another Saturday morning session, a chance to learn a bit, practice a bit, chat with a few folks. It was great weather, a bit breezy occasionally, but we were loving the 70F temps, much better than some of the days in the 90’s. We ran into a Panda at the front gate, where no one was there to take our money for parking and the machine that is supposed to take in in the absence of human attention was not in the mood to relieve us of our crisp $1 bills, either. A couple swipes of the old ATM card and in we go to the ‘drome.
A contingent of blogworld participants was soon on hand to join us and the Panda; Velo Bella, Olaf, XBunny, Merkeley (with his sweet looking newly built Felt), and Pab. Pab opted for some road ride time since he cannot play on the track, yet, and was off south to Morgan Hill while the rest of us chased our tails in circles. Lots of first timers at the track this week and Mark was doing things in measured fashion, which was good. The Wife got a good rental, for a change, and was enjoying being pain free. All was going well until the second lap of the warmup when my bike made a strange sound so I pulled off track and went and looked things over. Nothing seemed amiss, so I did a chain adjustment and went for a couple of test laps on the apron. All seemed fine, no more strange noises, so I integrated back into the paceline. On the second lap after integration the chain broke just as we came out of turn two. Shyte! I coasted around, picked up the chain, and went back to the infield. A quick check showed all appropriate sized rentals were out, so I quickly fitted a new chain onto my bike. As I was tensioning the new chain it became a bit more clear what was happenning. I would tension the chain, turn the crank and the chain would then be either too loose or too tight. The darned chainring is not round! Current theory is that when it hits the part of the oval with the smaller diameter, the chain become loose enough to partially roll off the ring, gets caught as the chain tightens, and snaps. Workaround for the rest of the day was to overtighten the chain slightly so even at its loose point it is still tight enough.
Back onto the track for a rubber band drill. All went well. Then into two and then three person pursuits off the front. All went fine, again. Final workouts were 5 lap scratch races. I went in the third group and decided I was going to stay with the main pack but not attack until the last lap. As the group started fragmenting on the second lap I worked to stay tucked in at back of the field and not get caught by someone popping. Coming into turn 4 it happened, a loud pop, and I knew this pop was the end of the day for me. A blowout on the rear. I was able to keep it under control, pull onto the apron and stop, but the bead of the tire is shot. In a few minutes I will head out in search of a new chainring and new tires. They will now call me Mr. Mechanical at Hellyer.
More pics to the Gallery later today. I promise. Or tomorrow at the latest.
Update: Pictures are on-line here
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Great to see you guys out there today and enjoy a little lunch post ride.
Sorry about the rash of equipment problems. Hopefully they will all get worked out soon.
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wait… didn’t you snap a chain with your quads a couple of weekends ago? And the chain snapped again?!
and here i thought, ‘pop’ meant ‘pop.’ but you seem to refer it to a flat…
am i being a complete esl?
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Dude, you gots to tell Sports Basement of your mechanicals. Doesn’t seem fair for a brand new rig.
Mike makes fun of me when I say, “dude”, so I guess you can too.
Sorry I missed you guys today. I was working on a surprise gift for my dad’s 65th birthday (and god forbid if he finds this comment out here in cyberland). I put my money down on a Merckx track bike this week, so we’ll get some good riding time together in the coming months.
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Merkeley – great to see you out there. Love the new Felt. Sweet.
Twinkie – yes, in this case ‘pop’ referred to the sound made as the rear tire blew. I know, it is an overloaded term, too many meanings.
Alicat – as luck would have it, Sports Basement now knows of the mechanicals. Mark, who was supervising today, runs the bike dept. at SB on Bryant. He and I started a dialog on the issues. And of course your dad’s birthday is an important reason to miss a track session. Will look forward to seeing the Merckx soon out there at Hellyer. Enjoy the trip to Colorado!
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Wow, great photos! You managed to catch some of the oddest expressions I think I’ve ever made…
Thanks for coming to my rescue with the parking stuff; it was great to see and spend some time with you and Ms. C — what a fun day! I might just have to drag Mr. Man out of bed next week…
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In spite of not riding at all lately, I was inspired by Beth “Git-’er-Done” to go ride anyway, and I wanted to see the rejuvination of Saturday programs in person and to meet some of the new faces (working grave has de-volved me away from seeing most mornings).
Mark A, and Mike H ran a very patient and safe program that would terminate any intimidaiton a first time rider might have for the track. New riders should try to target the 3rd Saturday for this good hands on orientation.
Fun pics and nice to meet a new generation of Hellyerites!
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Panda – good to see you out there. By all means, get Mr Man down for the fun. Glad to help out with the parking machine. You did miss out on the snarky ranger who was being all sarcastic when my $1’s weren’t working.
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You haven’t had much luck at that track with the chains and tire. Weird that your chainring is hosed. Isn’t that a new rig?
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Chris, yes it is new. Since it was a lower end bike not the best quality or QC on components like chainrings. On a derailleured bike no big deal; Biopace rings work fine, right? But on a fixie, round is necessary.
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Glenn – good to see you out there on Sat. Two Sat mornings in a row! Beth is an inspiration; first met her at the Early Bird crits, which were not good for her in one sense but she just kept plugging along. I’ve been to a few Sat morning sessions, and I can say that Mark and Mike did a great job of working well with all the fresh faces, and keeping those who have been around a few times motivated and working.
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I still can’t believe you broke another chain! Have you measured your quads lately?
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