I’ve been racing my aluminium track bike in a few crits as a single speed for a bit of a laugh with a front brake but a few whingers in the bunch are complaining that I should have two brakes under the racing rules. Now they’ve made a complaint to the commisaire. Does anyone know how I can mount a rear brake without drilling my frame or can anyone recommend anyone in Sydney who could retrofit a proper rear brake mount into my frame that won’t look shite??
all very valid points. so you mean you’re riding it as a freewheel single speed in these crits? then i say, get a goddamn rear brake. i bet you dont see too many ppl turning up on a new 11 speed campy equipped carbon thing with one brake… rules is rules.
All this talk of track bikes at crits makes me wanna see a guy on an 11 speed campag pinarello rock up to a ‘no brakes allowed’ alley cat.
And watch the chaos unfold.
Furthermore:
I’m with the ‘stay the hell away from me’ bunch.
If you look back into the annals of this forum, you’ll see posts (probably from me) raving about how we ‘chased down roadies on beach rd with our fixies’ or ‘beat this dude on a $10K road bike with just one gear’…
Needless to say you quickly tire of this…
Want to race road? Ride a ROAD bike.
Want to race track? Ride a TRACK bike.
Better still, ride your vintage road bike at a road race, if you’re into that kind of ‘authenticity’
…or (as an alternative point of view) if you are really really hanging out to ride a crit race on a fixie ask your local club to organise a fixed gear/ss specific crit race so that you are all in the same boat - they may even go for it if you sell it as a good way of marketing the club/racing scene to a whole new group of potential participants.
St Kilda Cycling Club did that successfully last March here in Melbourne, a few of us raced fixed gear bikes on the crit circuit in the fixed gear/ss race and sprints, had a laugh and a lot of (safe) fun.