Having a Crack at the Track

Gags said:

Many of the people at work are calling me crazy but I am planning on heading
to the Darebin Indoor Sports Centre (DISC) tomorrow night to have a go at
riding on the track. Apparently on Tuesday nights all you have to do is
rock up with your shoes and pedals and you can have a try on one of the club
bikes (I have been assured that they have one big frame that should be big
enough for me). I have been told that racing starts at 7pm and so I will
probably get there about 6pm for a turn before the racing starts (might even
pack the lights and stay to watch the racing for a while too).

I am going to ride there on the way home (not too much of a detour) from
work and I am thinking of riding the fixie to work just to get myself in the
swing of things.

Will have to post a report here tomorrow night........can't wait.

Ride On,

Gags

welcome to the fray......not sure about Tuesday nights, but if so...cool, better to borrow a club bike before an investment....

they arnt too dear anyway, I sold my old track frame this week for $150 for a fixie project...it was made in '79 (not sure if that was 1879) but it was battered, bruised and still rode sweetly...just too small for me at 57cm square....

DISC also has a scheme for casual through the week rides too, for $5 for CA licence holders, understand you can get a day lic too, but better check with them at the CSV office in DISC.

The track is great, but filthy dirty, never cleaned , dusty and the inside boards (grey section against the cement infield) is breaking up and splintering so you have to be careful getting on and off the expensive timber...in spite of its use, CSV make no effort to clean the boards , remove loose wood splinters or even clean the walkways and the tunnel...the dirt is bult up in prairie balls....its a fine example of another well kept public sporting venue..

my other peeve about DISC is where its located, from last check most of the riders on Wed and Thursday night except for the Blackburn and Northcote members all found it a pain to get to in afternoon and peak hour traffic and there is no effective public transport to it either...last week it took me an hour and half to get to Disc from Southland...arrrgh.....reckon it should have been in Albert Park, next to the swim centre, central, on Pub Transport and could have been widely used, with all parking, landscaping and communications infrastructure in place, not the dust bowl that has been DISC this past Year.....oh well when you put a velodrome in a Bunnings built in a politically motivated location and way, it can only really please the few who got their names on the plaque at the front door.

again off soapbox....enjoy your riding...I just think well, at least it is there for us.....and Melb is the only city in the world with two indoor velodromes ( even if Vodafone is only used two to three times a year now....try getting on that to train....damn commercial interests and beaurocrats !...oh yeah I got off the soapbox.....ciao

Yeh tuesdays are training then racing, good luck. Sooooo much fun😄

"rooman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Gags said:

Many of the people at work are calling me crazy but I am planning on
heading
to the Darebin Indoor Sports Centre (DISC) tomorrow night to have a go
at
riding on the track. Apparently on Tuesday nights all you have to do is
rock up with your shoes and pedals and you can have a try on one of the
club
bikes (I have been assured that they have one big frame that should be
big
enough for me). I have been told that racing starts at 7pm and so I
will
probably get there about 6pm for a turn before the racing starts (might
even
pack the lights and stay to watch the racing for a while too).

I am going to ride there on the way home (not too much of a detour)
from
work and I am thinking of riding the fixie to work just to get myself
in the
swing of things.

Will have to post a report here tomorrow night........can't wait.

Ride On,

Gags

welcome to the fray......not sure about Tuesday nights, but if
so...cool, better to borrow a club bike before an investment....

they arnt too dear anyway, I sold my old track frame this week for $150
for a fixie project...it was made in '79 (not sure if that was 1879)
but it was battered, bruised and still rode sweetly...just too small
for me at 57cm square....

DISC also has a scheme for casual through the week rides too, for $5
for CA licence holders, understand you can get a day lic too, but
better check with them at the CSV office in DISC.

The track is great, but filthy dirty, never cleaned , dusty and the
inside boards (grey section against the cement infield) is breaking up
and splintering so you have to be careful getting on and off the
expensive timber...in spite of its use, CSV make no effort to clean the
boards , remove loose wood splinters or even clean the walkways and the
tunnel...the dirt is bult up in prairie balls....its a fine example of
another well kept public sporting venue..

I have to agree with you there with regard to the cleanliness of the venue
itself but the actual track is pretty good when you compare it with the
dusty Vodaphone track (Dusty due to lack of use). As for the disintegration
of the edge of the plywood part of the duckboard between the track and the
apron some of the worst parts have been repaired and no longer shed 5cm+
splinters however you do still see a few small bits around.

Quoted message said:

my other peeve about DISC is where its located, from last check most of
the riders on Wed and Thursday night except for the Blackburn and
Northcote members all found it a pain to get to in afternoon and peak
hour traffic and there is no effective public transport to it
either...last week it took me an hour and half to get to Disc from
Southland...arrrgh.....reckon it should have been in Albert Park, next
to the swim centre, central, on Pub Transport and could have been
widely used, with all parking, landscaping and communications
infrastructure in place, not the dust bowl that has been DISC this past
Year.....oh well when you put a velodrome in a Bunnings built in a
politically motivated location and way, it can only really please the
few who got their names on the plaque at the front door.

As far as the building Dunk Gray or Adelaide Superdrome it isn't but this
track is arguably one of the best in the world when you consider the speed
of the surface and the smoothness of the transitions.

Unfortunately there is alway going to be some who are not happy with the
location but consider those who travel in from Geelong, Melton, Werribee,
Sheparton, Ararat, Mornington, Bendigo etc who regularly make the trip to
race and train on DISC throughout the week. I have never heard any of them
complain about difficulty getting to the venue. Actually DISC is closer to
Melbourne than Dunk Gray is to Sydney or the Superdrome is to Adelaide. It
take me 20 minutes (25 on a bad day) in peak time to get from the MCG
precinct to DISC but I can understand your pain with respect to the
Southlands to the MCG leg of the trip. Maybe heading further east before
heading north would cut your trip time in peak traffic.

Quoted message said:

again off soapbox....enjoy your riding...I just think well, at least it
is there for us.....and Melb is the only city in the world with two
indoor velodromes ( even if Vodafone is only used two to three times a
year now....try getting on that to train....damn commercial interests
and beaurocrats !...oh yeah I got off the soapbox.....ciao

The question is will Track cycling regain it's popularity as a spectator
sport and make high capacity venues such as Vodaphone attractive to Track
Cycling promoters? For the sake of the sport I hope so. The Bendigo
Madison can draw a much bigger crowd than the Australian Madison Champs so
what's the story here. ...I'll get of my soapbox too before I get too
carried away.

Geoff

aren't most of Melbourne's 'grassroots' track clubs (I'm thinkin Brunswick, Northcote, Coburg) on that side of town?
Besides, they need the pokies 🙄

rooman said:

The track is great, but filthy dirty, never cleaned , dusty and the inside boards (grey section against the cement infield) is breaking up and splintering so you have to be careful getting on and off the expensive timber...in spite of its use, CSV make no effort to clean the boards , remove loose wood splinters or even clean the walkways and the tunnel...the dirt is bult up in prairie balls....its a fine example of another well kept public sporting venue..

How about getting the Clubs together that use it and have a Working Bee to clean it up?

Jay "knows nothing about the venue nor been there" Woo

flyingdutch said:

aren't most of Melbourne's 'grassroots' track clubs (I'm thinkin Brunswick, Northcote, Coburg) on that side of town?
Besides, they need the pokies 🙄

yep, and I'm sure they have lots of practice getting across the yarra and know the shortcuts and less painfull under one hour plus routes...

BUT correct , yeah they need the pokies...ACTUALLY..as DISC is where it is and we will have it for a few decades at least..I forsee a conflict between the bowlo club in DISC and Cycling events, SO....I suggest we all join the bowlo club , and make sure we have access to both venues when gigs overlap.....'cos the bowlo has BEER, probably will get POKIES, but better still the loos at the bowlo, though small are way closer to the track than the change room loos for riders.....( you almost need a cut lunch and a map to get to them way back under the grandstands along an endless corridor of junk, detritus and some old and not so old track velos in the cages...)

AhThunk a social membership is $25 pa. ...worth it even if only once you need a beer, a munch at the bistro and a quick trip to the little room 🙂

JayWoo said:

rooman said:

The track is great, but filthy dirty, never cleaned , dusty and the
inside boards (grey section against the cement infield) is breaking up
and splintering so you have to be careful getting on and off the
expensive timber...in spite of its use, CSV make no effort to clean the
boards , remove loose wood splinters or even clean the walkways and the
tunnel...the dirt is bult up in prairie balls....its a fine example of
another well kept public sporting venue..

How about getting the Clubs together that use it and have a Working Bee
to clean it up?

The clubs are paying a fortune for this white elephant already. Not
every club rider rides track (or wants to). DISC .. blah ..

rooman said:

y
SO....I suggest we all join the bowlo club , and make sure we have access to both venues when gigs overlap.....'cos the bowlo has BEER

but do they have GOAT? 😄

I'm getting images of people bowling on the velo 😄😄

imaging trying to do a 'boomerang' with your bowl,
orientating the 'borrow' on the bowl so that it keeps leaning up the track and goes all the way around the lap 😄😄😄

F"I'd buy THAT fer a dollerrr*"Dutch

* RoboCop homage

flyingdutch said:

but do they have GOAT? 😄

I'm getting images of people bowling on the velo 😄😄

imaging trying to do a 'boomerang' with your bowl,
orientating the 'borrow' on the bowl so that it keeps leaning up the track and goes all the way around the lap 😄😄😄

F"I'd buy THAT fer a dollerrr*"Dutch

* RoboCop homage

not YET!!

it's weird riding the track and having the rotund rollies at play in the middle on the "blue"pet....havnt seen one of them try a "curveball" on the banking yet.

as for GOAT, if enough join the bowlo and put pressure on them to add GOAT, it may become a sanctuary for lost souls in a prairie ball v'drome...we could have chip butties and Goat between spins and rolls.......

maybe this is what heaven is all about...and we dont have to wait!

"Gags" <gags_44nospamatnospamtpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Will have to post a report here tomorrow night........can't wait.

Ride On,

Gags

Well......I can now say that I have ridden on a velodrome.........wooot!!!

Stopped in at DISC at about 5:30pm and spoke to Warren (the guy I had
previously been in touch with via email). Turns out he is ex-army!!!! Next
person I ran into was Geoff (another ex-army guy) who I met on the very
first BR that I did. Geoff basically showed me the ropes and let me use his
track pump and tools.....thanks mate!!!

Got one of the club's track bikes but unfortunately the biggest one they had
was only 58cm (my road bike is 63.5cm). The original seatpost was way too
short so I took the post off my roadie and put it on the club bike. It
still wasn't quite tall enough for me to get my legs in the right position
and my overall position was precariously "head down, bum up" due to the
small frame but it was manageable.

I did a couple of slow laps with Geoff (who's BT track bike is very nice and
has about the chunkiest looking chain that I have ever seen!!!). My first
reaction to the bends was "holy [censored]........how fsckin steep is that???".
We got a little bit quicker and I got in about 3 or 4 bike lengths behind
Geoff and he basically led me up onto the boards. The first couple of bends
were an interesting experience as although I was trying to follow the black
line, I seemed to be dropping down below it all the time. After 3 or 4 laps
I started getting the hang of following the line and then Geoff picked up
the pace a bit. By about lap 8 or so I realised that I was gripping the
bars like a mad man and my whole upper body was tense. I forced myself to
relax a bit and things got a bit easier.

We eventually jumped onto the back of a group of 3 or 4 other riders and
joined in their paceline. Every lap the guy on the front would check over
his right shoulder as he entered the bend and then go up the embankment to l
et the group past. We did a few laps and then all of a sudden, I am on the
front and realise that I have to actually ride up near the blue line (did I
mention how frickin steep the corners were???). I decided that it couldn't
be that hard and so I swung up the track and, to my surprise, it was a
non-event!!! Soon after this, one of the guys pulled his rear tyre out of
the dropouts and there was a bit of a weird smell down one end of the
track.....I love the smell of rubber in the evening....it smells
like.....victory!!!

Stopped for a drink / rest and chatted with Geoff who tried to con me into
hanging around for the racing. I had to decline as I am already pushing the
friendship with the missus seeing as I am racing the Kew crits tomorrow
night as well!!!! Did a final few laps with Geoff and at one stage followed
him right up the top on one of the bends.....looking down to the inside of
the track from up here is pretty daunting as it is a long way down!!!!!!

Biggest thing I noticed was how hot is was with no breeze and no
ventilation. Would have to hydrate pretty aggresively before a race I
thinks!!!!

All up, it was a buzz.......pretty keen on building up my track frame now
and then doing a couple of races!!

Ride home was strange....despite being on my road bike (fixie had a flat
this morning), I found that I wasn't coasting at all.....not even when
coming up to stop at lights!!!

Ride On,

Gags

"Gags" <gags_44nospamatnospamtpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Many of the people at work are calling me crazy but I am planning on
heading
to the Darebin Indoor Sports Centre (DISC) tomorrow night to have a go at
riding on the track. Apparently on Tuesday nights all you have to do is
rock up with your shoes and pedals and you can have a try on one of the
club
bikes (I have been assured that they have one big frame that should be big
enough for me). I have been told that racing starts at 7pm and so I will
probably get there about 6pm for a turn before the racing starts (might
even
pack the lights and stay to watch the racing for a while too).

I am going to ride there on the way home (not too much of a detour) from
work and I am thinking of riding the fixie to work just to get myself in
the
swing of things.

Will have to post a report here tomorrow night........can't wait.

Ride On,

Gags

Is there a requirement of any kind of membership or licensing? I could be
most tempted once my left foot starts to behave itself again.

You need to have a CA licence.

GAGS......whats all this track business, I thought you and I were going solo at the next 24-hour MTB event🙄 (which could be this weekend.....but thats another story).

Congrats....love reading you ride reports. I will come and play of the track with you soon, just have to wait for MTB season to finish.

"Jono L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You need to have a CA licence.

--
Jono L

Where can I find requirements/cost, please?

Resound said:

"Jono L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You need to have a CA licence.

--
Jono L

Where can I find requirements/cost, please?

The cyclesport victoria website, or the cycling australia website (too lazy now, use google). You need to be a member of a club first. It's not worth joining a club and cycling australia just to ride at disc, but then you may get into some serious racing!! And I can't rememeber the prices but it is very good value, i [censored] you not.

Jono

"Jono L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Resound said:

"Jono L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

You need to have a CA licence.

--
Jono L

Where can I find requirements/cost, please?

The cyclesport victoria website, or the cycling australia website (too
lazy now, use google). You need to be a member of a club first. It's
not worth joining a club and cycling australia just to ride at disc,
but then you may get into some serious racing!! And I can't rememeber
the prices but it is very good value, i [censored] you not.

Jono

A pity really. I'd love to have a blast on some boards but I don't know that
I want to commit myself that heavily.

Resound said:

"Jono L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Resound said:

"Jono L" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
>
> You need to have a CA licence.
>
>
> --
> Jono L
>

Where can I find requirements/cost, please?

The cyclesport victoria website, or the cycling australia website (too
lazy now, use google). You need to be a member of a club first. It's
not worth joining a club and cycling australia just to ride at disc,
but then you may get into some serious racing!! And I can't rememeber
the prices but it is very good value, i [censored] you not.

Jono

A pity really. I'd love to have a blast on some boards but I don't know that
I want to commit myself that heavily.

Go to an outdoor velodrone and fang round that instead. Won't cost you
a cent.

There's loads of outdoor velodrones around, look in the melways.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

A pity really. I'd love to have a blast on some boards but I don't know
that
I want to commit myself that heavily.

Go to an outdoor velodrone and fang round that instead. Won't cost you
a cent.

There's loads of outdoor velodrones around, look in the melways.

I'll do that. There's a difference between concrete or asphault and boards
though. I'm trying to imagine spinning up on a surface that smooth and
failing, but I bet it's a damn nice thing.

Resound said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

A pity really. I'd love to have a blast on some boards but I don't know
that
I want to commit myself that heavily.

Go to an outdoor velodrone and fang round that instead. Won't cost you
a cent.

There's loads of outdoor velodrones around, look in the melways.

I'll do that. There's a difference between concrete or asphault and boards
though. I'm trying to imagine spinning up on a surface that smooth and
failing, but I bet it's a damn nice thing.

Went past the Burwood velodrone (concrete) this morning and noticed a rider chasing a motor bike around the track, boy they were flying and the rider was about 500mm from the tail of the bike the whole way around. I have seen the bike in the clubhouse and not realy know what it was used for but now I do.