Most road clinchers have some sort of waxy compound that makes them slippery after a while - Alf will tell you to go ride the outdoor track at Brunswick for a few hours.
Michelin Pro Race are notorous for being slippery at DISC. The Kenda tyres that come on the Hillbricks are good for grip - as are Vittoria Ultraspeed (although they are a tad fragile and expensive).
Check cycling forums or just come down and ask Chooka on a Tuesday or Thursday
Agreed re the Veloflex ‘record’, it is ‘the’ clincher for the boards. Hard to get in Australia (the Oz distributor has no stock) - but findable online and not expensive.
I use Vittoria EVO Open Evo Corsa CX 23c’s and they work fine. These contain ‘silica’ which makes trackies nervous, but I reckon they’re fine. The fine diamond tread probably helps.
Basically the softer the tyre, the grippier they are. Like ndf says, the Michelin Pro Race series are not appropriate for the track because they have a special rubber formulation (probably silicon based) to reduce rolling resistance. On the boards, this is not needed or desired.
The marketing blurb says its got about 20% more grip than the Race 3 which has about 20% more grip than the Race 2. I couldn’t see it on PBK, but probably just a matter of time.
PBK has Veloflex “Black” 180 gram tires on sale. These apparently are a lightweight tire with natural rubber tread for grip. Might be good (fast and grippy), but probably lowered puncture resistance, so probably Sunday best/ major comp tires.
Conti Black Chilli compounds might be worth a look too. Has anyone tried these at DISC?
We’ve had the argument about online parts vs. LBS before, but I think that one thing we more or less agreed was that tire prices are nuts in OZ because of the the numbers of hands the tires pass through before reaching the consumer.
Do you currently stock veloflex records? If so, how much?
BTW - Well done on the weekend at the BSSS - you were flying. Don’t know much about your sprint form before as I’m new to track, but maybe you did pick up some stuff from that book on the British track team.
Thanks George, that was the friendly advice on the day as well
The old steel frame is a bit noodly and as well as running the snot-slick proraces I was on a 73" gear and spinnin’ my freakin legs off. I’m a fat bastard too, which, if I remember my first-year vector physics means I have to go that bit faster to stay up.
I figured there must be a more comfortable way to get aquainted with it, and will address tyres and gearing before my next visit (or rent a hillbrick).
What we had wasn’t an argument…it was a grown-ups discussion :-).
I had a pair of Veloflex records in stock, had 'em about 10 months…but I put them on my bike to race at Blackburn last Sunday.
So now I don’t (unless you want to make me an offer on my barely used ones?)
I just checked with the wholesaler and yes he is out of stock until approx mid November. They’re RRP is $79.95, and although I’d be happy to give a discount they’d still be cheaper on the net.
Thank you for the kind words re: the racing last Sunday. I had a ball and it was very encouraging for me heading into next week. Carl told me that Blackburn was about a second slower in a F200 than DISC, and that rang exactly true for me, so if that’s any indication of form then I think I’m going ok.
Cheers Gary
Ha ha Spud, you know me too well. You can only polish a turd so much. I’ll only buy bike number 7 when I finish clearing my account with my current bike ‘dealer’. Seems to go up more than it goes down.