Friday, May 11, 2012

Velodrome Visit!

Back in March I talked about the weird concrete banked oval velodrome-like course out on the west side of town.  Some of the fixie kids, all hopped up on PBR and JB Weld fumes have been rumored to be running renegade races out there in the dark of night.  It is a nifty looking sight to see from the images on Google Earth, so I decided to sign out a truck and head out and see if the facility looks suitable to promote as a viable bike community option.


So, out off the main drag on the west of town, is this unassuming metal gate.


Past the gate is a strangely manicured 36' wide grass path, complete with drainage.


Turn your head and you'll miss it, turn the other way and there it is peeking through the trees...



A few hundred yards long, banked maybe 15 degrees or so, and resting nearly undisturbed in the shade of the slash pines and milkweed...


Concrete never looked so smooth.  There are little faint lines in the mildew of the concrete where the evidence of recent fixie action is obvious.


Makes even me think about owning a track bike again.  No skinny jeans though, thanks.

So that earlier question about whether or not I'd find something out there worth promoting to the brass as a viable option for investment for the bike community?...

...sure!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Awesome! I love track racing.
Paul

Steve Reed said...

Cool! Seems like that's a pretty unusual feature -- something a lot of other cities wouldn't have.