Geometry

markwb79

Hi,

I am after some help please?

I am looking to buy a track bike very soon. Are there any differences in set up between a road bike? Mainly around stem length? I currently run a 130mm stem on my road bike, most track bikes I have seen so far, have a far shorter stem?

Thanks
Mark

tremayne

Main thing to understand is whether you are buying a track bike as a track bike or a track bike to use on the road. More are finding their way onto the road due to huge popularity in 'fixies' etc etc.

But to answer your question;

Steering angle will be more acute.
Bottom bracket will be higher from the ground.
Cranks shorter - likely 160 or 165

Overall, jumping off a road bike and onto a genuine track bike will leave you with the impression of massive 'twitchiness'.

What bikes had you in mind?

markwb79

I am definitely going to use it on the track. I have so far been using the hire ones there.

My road bike is a 54cm (I know not all 54cm's are the same), but I have a 130mm stem to give me a flatter back.

This works on my road bike, but I was thinking I would move to a 52cm frame with a slightly shorter stem. This would give me a lower frontal position.

What I dont know is what this would do to the bike, I think it would put a lot more weight over the front of the bike, does that work on the track? Or should the weight be central, or further back?

Thanks
Mark

markwb79

Sorry.....I am probably going to get a second hand bike, I have seen one of these so far....

http://www.stevensbikes.de/2012/index.p ... lang=en_US

PhilPub

If it's any help, I can tell you how I decided on my track bike size. I went with the same (effective) top tube length as my road bike (54cm) and the same stem (110mm).

Because of the different geometry of the track bike - higher bottom bracket, shorter head tube length, slightly steeper angle seat tube - this basically gave me a slightly more aggressive position with a larger seat-to-bars drop (about 4 inches compared to 2 inches on the road bike) and marginally longer "reach" (but very marginal - purely down to the extra drop). Having tried this out on the track a couple of times I made one minor adjustment, by way of angling the seat very slightly down at the front, to relieve minor pins and needles in the crown jewels. Other than that I'm very happy with it.

As it is, I could have achieved exactly the same position by getting the next frame size up and using a shorter stem (90mm) and fewer spacers, but I'm glad I went with the current set up because it gives me more options for more aggressive positions, e.g. if I ever get so bold as to use aero bars for pursuit, etc.