Olympic Velodrome - Shoes and pedals

Tjgoodhew

Has anyone had one of the taster sessions at the Olympic velodrome yet ?

Im going tomorrow and cant wait.

Does anybody know what the deal is about shoes and pedals. As i will beriding one of their track bikes am i going to have to ride in trainers or will they have bikes set with SPD-SL pedals to ride clipless

Iv tried calling but nobody ever seems to answer and by email i was told to "just wear flat trainers"

It sounds weird but i dont feel stable or comfortable when riding with trainers so i would prefer to ride clipless

slap_my_bass_up

I'd also like to know the answer to this. I had a quick ride up the road on someone else's bike recently, that had basic platform pedals with the straps and it was so surreal, how uneasy it made me feel that I might slip off the pedals. I wouldn't like that feeling approaching those banked bends!

I would imagine you can take your own pedals?

P.S. Just had a look at your Strava, where in Essex are you?

Simon_Rhino

we're going in a few weeks and have been told to either have (IIRC) Look Keo cleats on our shoes or to wear trainers. They were very clear that we couldn't take our own pedals

mzm70

They have Look Keos and toe straps that click into the Look Keos

Tjgoodhew

Ok so that rules out taking my own shoes and pedals.

Any idea if you can hire shoes ?

slap_my_bass_up wrote:

I'd also like to know the answer to this. I had a quick ride up the road on someone else's bike recently, that had basic platform pedals with the straps and it was so surreal, how uneasy it made me feel that I might slip off the pedals. I wouldn't like that feeling approaching those banked bends!

I would imagine you can take your own pedals?

P.S. Just had a look at your Strava, where in Essex are you?

Im based in Leigh on Sea so as you can see do most of my riding around there. Not great for hills unfortunately

Simon_Rhino

think you can hire compatibly-cleated shoes for £5

Tjgoodhew

I finally got through to them on the phone after 14 minutes on hold.

As others have said the bikes have Look Keo pedals for clipless and toe straps to ride with trainers.

You can hire shoes with Look cleats for £6. A bit pricey but id rather that than ride with trainers.

Bring on tomorrow !!!!!

slowbike

Have fun with it - Newport was great - I did take my own pedals, but then I borrowed my brothers bike too ...

slap_my_bass_up

Tjgoodhew wrote:

I finally got through to them on the phone after 14 minutes on hold.

As others have said the bikes have Look Keo pedals for clipless and toe straps to ride with trainers.

You can hire shoes with Look cleats for £6. A bit pricey but id rather that than ride with trainers.

Bring on tomorrow !!!!!

Let us know how you get on with it, i'm waiting for an available time slot!

bigmat

I'd just buy some Keo cleats - you can get some of the non-Look ones for not much more than £6 and you'd then be able to use your own shoes and have the cleats for if you ever go back (or could just sell them on afterwards and get most of your money back).

Bar Shaker

Let me know how it goes as we have vouchers for this and are looking forward to it.

top_bhoy

I went to a similar activity a couple of months ago here at the velodrome in Melbourne. The first time in my life using toe straps, on a fixed gear and no brakes - all new. Toe straps seem scary (and are for the first time) but reality is that they are not a problem. I think good assistance at the outset to give you the confidence is a big help. Once out on the track you forget about it because there are so many other things to focus on. I now go weekly and hire the track bike, using toe straps with my flat MTB shoes is not an issue.

Enjoy the experience.

Bucksspeedyboy

I did the track taster session at London Olympic velodrome last Friday. As earlier posts have said, you need either Look cleats or wear flat trainers. Luckily I have Look cleats and so wore my normal shoes, but they had plenty of cleated shoes for hire. Most of the other riders (there were 14 on the session I was in) had trainers/ straps but I was glad I had my cleats. There was even an old guy there who wore ordinary shoes and trousers!

I really enjoyed the session and recommend it as a good introduction if you haven't been on a track before. There were all ages and abilities in the group I was in and by the end most were going round at a fair lick!

ednino

Simon_Rhino wrote:

we're going in a few weeks and have been told to either have (IIRC) Look Keo cleats on our shoes or to wear trainers. They were very clear that we couldn't take our own pedals

^ this

same at all the velodromes as far as i know

top_bhoy

ednino wrote:

Simon_Rhino wrote:

we're going in a few weeks and have been told to either have (IIRC) Look Keo cleats on our shoes or to wear trainers. They were very clear that we couldn't take our own pedals

^ this

same at all the velodromes as far as i know

Seems like a good rule to me....imagine if the majority of the new trackies were all wanting to change bike pedals before the session had even started - and then the same at the end to change back? A recipe for chaos and time consuming for the coaches.