john schmidt

I second that it was really great. Great interval training for short

cyclecross races too. That and madisons have a rich heritage and you

can brag that you have done madisons to all your friends and family.



I came on Wednesday for training and then raced on thursday too (i was

the only newbie ..) But very fun! Not that hard to learn, and doing the

exchanges up at speed isn't really any harder then doing them slow.



The difficult part I found is trying to keep track of everything else.

Well ok the first time around I just wanted to keep myself out of

trouble and do good exchanges.



The most important thing, especially when starting out, I found out (the

hard way), was that one has to constantly keep telling oneself to go

over the exchange. Well I knew this before the race and I was doing

really good and then just totally forgot halfway through the race and

halfway through a corner. I was just concentrating on that wheel in

front of me... that oops ! is now coming back at me ..( now for some

reason, conicidence or maybe a hard reflex jerk, or some combination, my

chain broke just milliseconds after I realized my predictiment...). The

"ah crap" and subsequent chain racket fortunately had craig not slowing

down as much as he could have and I was able to bang down on the apron

inside of him and head for the grass. halfway there the chain racket

stopped cause the chain had launched but it didn't even hit me or anyone

else! My chain was all busted up and twisted, the lockring

mash-machined to only 75% of what it was, and my hub axle got bent.

Very cool. Mike though finished half the race by himself.       



I now think the chain was maybe damaged from falling off a month ago

when doing single speed sprints... It was a cheap sachs pc-1.. I now

think that chain is more suited to 3-speeds bikes. no "riveting" or

"mushrooming" or no anything, which i had thought would be no problem.

Initially I thought the reason for failure was I had it too tight or

maybe had some taut spots that was slowly working the chain over

although I had done this procedure and had minimized them..

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/singlespeed.html#tension

don't worry a new "riveted" chain is installed... And I will be doubly

sure to keep reminding myself to go over the exchange.

I will be out on Wed and Thur again!



This is good reading, in practice it is much more simple !!

http://www.obra.org/track/track_racing/madison.html



Oh and here is a site I just found with google:

http://www.bcf.uk.com/features/2003/track/00_track_tips_madison.shtml











mike.m-@obra.org wrote:

 

We will be doing practice sessions on Wednesday. On Thursdays we will

be

having races. Last week the turn out for the practice session was great

with several people there that had never done hand slings. The turn out

for

Thursday was a bit disappointing. We need more people to show up.

There

are only a few weeks of racing left at the track and then long months

with

no racing that doesn't involve getting all muddy while jumping off a

perfectly good bicycle.   Hope to see you there.



Mike Murray