After years of office-park criteriums and fast-paced twilight races, where the streets are lined with barricades and partying spectators, I finally accomplished my long-term goal of reaching Cat 1 status as a road racer. And yet I found myself further from cycling glory than at any point in my nearly decade of competing.
All the structured training I was doing felt stressful, and the pressure to perform was immense. When the season ended, I felt ground down like coffee beans in a burr grinder. I had gained so much. But I had lost something vital: I was no longer riding for pleasure.
Bikes have always been in my life. When I was a kid, I spent summer days with my parents watching racers roll through sunflower fields in France on television. On bikes, I escaped from my suburban neighborhood to the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. And in high school, films like Mash and Macaframa exposed me to the track bike—the brakeless, single-gear machine that required constant pedaling. After graduation, I got a summer job building decks with the sole intention of saving for a track bike. I ended up with an IRO mkV: a budget-priced, direct-order bike with a black frame, bullhorn bar (initially), and surprisingly bomb-proof wheels. That formative summer was a catalyst for a life as a carpenter and as a full-time bike nut.
Skidding that bike on the street opened doors to barbecues and beers with bike-polo folks when I went away to college. Eventually, I found myself at the opposite end of the cycling spectrum when I joined my college road-racing team. I got set up on a bike with gears, scored used race wheels off Craigslist, and hopped into crammed-packed vans headed to bike races all over the Pacific Northwest. My track bike became relegated to beer runs, commuting, occasional fixie crits, and as a canvas for stickers.
When I needed to rejuvenate my love for cycling, I turned back to that bike. I decided to refashion it into a track-racing bike. Road pedals, proper racing gears, tubular wheels, and a drop bar replaced the ATAC mountain bike pedals, worn-out drivetrain, out-of-true wheels, and riser bar. Doing left turns at speed under the lights on summer nights at the Hellyer Velodrome restored the rush that I’d lost in crit racing. In fact, I got so much into track racing that a friend lent me a proper track frame and, once again, the IRO sat unused.
But that rush proved all too temporary. I went back to the IRO, installed street gearing and a riser bar, threw on some cut-off Carhartt shorts, and blasted down to my local bike shop. Six-pack in my bag, I assembled the service-department crew to roll to a rocky point overlooking the bay and SFO Airport. On clunkers and track bikes, we skidded asphalt and cutty dirt trails. I was laughing on the bike again—and it was not self-deprecating humor about a poor race result.
There is abundant joy provided by the “skirt-skirt” of your rear wheel sliding out underneath you. I realized on those nights that this entry-level tool, the thing which opened my Pandora’s box of bike racing, was still the bike that brought me the purest unadulterated pleasure. Track bikes lack the sort of complexity that makes riding a bicycle arduous. A carpenter’s most useful and simple tool is a hammer. Similarly, that track bike I sunk many a nail to save up for remains the best tool to escape the trials and tribulations of racing and training, the most effective for putting a grin on my face.—@GasStationFoodCyclist
Track Bikes
Whether riding city streets or racing under the lights at a velodrome, fixed-gear bikes are time-tested and low-maintenance. These are some of our picks for all sorts of riders.
State Bicycle Co.
6061 Black Label v2 Wu-Tang Clan Edition
State offers several well-priced, good-looking, and highly functional fixie and singlespeed models. The Black Label combines a classic aesthetic with a butted aluminum frame and carbon fork. Available in five colors and a Wu-Tang Clan Edition.
All-City
Thunderdome
With geometry optimized for fixed-gear criteriums, All-City’s Thunderdome is a solid option for both racers and city commuters. Plus, the frame and fork fit brake calipers for those who prefer riding with a freewheel.
Fuji
Track Elite
Carbon fiber and maximized for aerodynamic efficiency, the Track Elite is designed for going as fast as possible at the velodrome. This frameset-only Fuji provides a base to build a championship-caliber race bike.
Is a zany, pedantic, yet positive cycling oriented meme page that started out as critique of the endurance athlete nutrition industry. Astronaut food only gets you so far and all cyclist eventually find themselves in the predicament where they browse a gas station, county store, bodega, etc… looking for the right fuel to meet the moment and get them back on the road after a bonk. This page exists to highlight this phenomena and the choices we all make while on our two wheeled trips. Eat Trash, Ride Fast!
