Giant Bowery 72

ilovesherbet

I have a Giant Bowery 72 and I was wondering if it would be OK for a beginner to use on the track? It has 165mm cranks and I'm getting a new shiney set of track wheels off a friend so I'll be using them with tyres that had never been used on the road.

Eddy S

It all depends where you are planning to ride it.

It will be fine on any of the outdoor tracks but I’m pretty sure that the BB is too low on a Bowery for indoor use no matter what the crank length is - it's not a track geometry frame.

The BB height really needs to be at least 11" for indoor use – if not, you certainly won’t be allowed to use it at Manchester according to their General Track Safety “rules”:

Manchester Velodrome General Track Safety wrote:

Track bikes must have a fixed wheel, 165mm cranks, and 280mm (11”) bottom bracket height (measured from floor to centre of bottom bracket), no braze ons, and must have track ends. Coaches must advise riders to check their own bikes before taking to the track, including: tyres, chain tension, wheel nuts. If a “fixie” bike is used, that matches the measurements above, and has brazed ons or cast cable or gear stops, they must be padded with foam and taped over with insulating tape.

ilovesherbet

Thanks for the reply. Was in the lbs today, to get tires and a new chain, and ended up buying one of the Trek track bikes. Just got to sneak it past the missus now.