Track

After last week’s set of mechanical issues I was set for some redemption on the track at Hellyer. Low-key races were on the calendar at the track for this afternoon and I was determined to be there ready to roll. My main bicycle maintenance task for this week was to get my Fuji track bike ready and reliable for today.

The main problem I have had with the bike, breaking chains, I attribute to a slightly ovoid chainring. Unfortunately, the crankset that came with the bike uses 130mm BCD rings and getting a replacement chainring in time was not in the cards. 144 mm BCD track rings were in stock, but not 130’s. Then I had an ah-hah moment. I plan on making my commuter a fixed/SS bike, and for that the black 130BCD crank that was on the track bike will be ideal. Last night was part swapping time. The old crankset, and bottom bracket, were removed and set aside to go on the commuter bike.  A replacement crankset, using 144mm BCD rings, and a matching bottom bracket, were installed. Immediately I could tell the difference; no longer did the chain alternately go from too tight to too loose. Everything looked fine, acted fine, and sounded fine, ready to get out and do some racing.

The other problem from last week, a blowout on the rear tire, was remedied earlier in the week with some new rubber. For some additional leverage I replaced the road style bars that came on the bike with a set of SOMA track bars and added red bar tape to add a bit of color to an otherwise monochromatic bike.  Then I called it good.

Then it rained all night. When I got up this morning I was skeptical that the races would be held, but decided to wait a while before making a judgement. I ran out to do the weekly grocery shopping, and it rained the entire time.  So I knew when I got home what I would find in my e-mail INBOX; the message that the races had been cancelled.  Bummer. The bike was all dressed and had no place to go.   This afternoon the rain ceased and it is drying up somewhat.  I just came in from a few laps around our neighborhood on the bike, hitting it hard in some sprints, to see how it rides after the changes.  The weird groans that preceded each of the chain snapping incidents (and scared The Wife, Sabine, and Ryan three weeks ago) are gone.  It seems so pointless to have it so ready and not be able to get out and ride it.  Guess I will put the bike away until early next month since we will be out of town much on next week.

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

The Wife was scheduled to be hiking with friends on Saturday morning, but when it got moved to Sunday she agreed to ride with me from home to Hellyer to watch part of the State track championships. Eighteen miles of suburban/urban ugliness of riding it turns out; more intersections, strip malls, bus stops, and freeway crossings than I care to encounter in a week much less one way of riding. And we knew that we had to do the same going home, or much of the same plus some hills if we looped out far to the west. Oh well, we got to spend a little time socializing with the track set, met Fred who has mentored quad monster Beth, officially introduced ourselves to Twinkie, and chatted around while watching folks go do solo trips around the track. Yep, all we got to watch were the TT races as The Wife had to get home to play school girl for the afternoon and evening as she writes up here final thesis project. Bummer!  Looks like she will be stuck at the old keyboard for much of the weekends for a while.

Most of the ooh and ahhs were for Ben Jacques-Maynes as he ripped up the 4K at a minute and ten per km. Awesome. But there was lots to cheer about, and it was equal opportunity cheering. The efforts of all were acknowledged, each rider in turn was motivated by their competition as well as the general audience. Great show of sportsmanship.

I regret missing the Keirins, especially seeing Beth battle it out with the like of Shelley Olds and Julie Granshaw. But we will see that another day. I regret, also, not getting the 60+cm club together for a photo op; Mary M., Sabine, Beth, and Ms. Chatterbox were all there. We could have done a group measuring session. And last but not least I regret not eating some of Twinkies chocolate cake; I do hope that Beth consumed it for me to feed those quads for the Sunday battles.

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.

This evening we ended a ride with friends in the parking lot of the Sports Basement in SF. We stepped into the store to get some tubes to replace those I shredded on the ride, and walked out with a basic track bike. And I had to throw down less than 4 bills to make it happen. Guess this commits me to doing a few trips to Hellyer in the not too distant future.