Comments on Hipster Nascar: Problems at Northbrook Velodrome?

re: Digital Ad. What a sad comment. I don't t...

2010-12-18T11:48:53.939-06:00

re: Digital Ad.

What a sad comment. I don't think posting on a blog, rubbishing the only velodrome in the Chicago area, is a good way to get people on board with the VeloCampus plan. Frankly, I think it's a pathetic thing to do. I hope for the VeloCampus organisation's sake that this isn't an official opinion or sanctioned comment, because it would reflect very poorly on the organisation if that was so.

Every track in the world has problems, but Northbrook has come on a lot since this post was written in 2008, and had a really great season last year, thanks to all the hard work of the volunteers and race directors.

I'm a supporter of the ChicagoVeloCampus plan, and in fact Hipster Nascar was the first bike blog to post about it, but honestly, Northbrook is a fine track, and if the VeloCampus plan never happens, well, I'm just fine with racing there for the rest of my time in Chicago.

I've heard this facility isn't great. Are...

2010-12-17T20:47:15.231-06:00

I've heard this facility isn't great. Are you showing your support for ChicagoVeloCampus.com?

I've been hearing this from a few riders. Sounds l...

2008-08-05T16:00:00.000-05:00

I've been hearing this from a few riders. Sounds like they've either read this post (probably) or have actually had the same problems. There's a lot more new riders now, not all of them are destined for 'serious' racing. If someone can keep up for 1-2 races, but loses their legs on the third, they're probably not fit enough to ride in that category.
Northbrook volunteers probably aren't interested in helping hipsters get into racing. Maybe they'd rather focus on high school and youth racing, rather than 30-ish hipsters with bad attitudes. Northbrookers aren't exactly looking for a bunch of dirty city folks to come and hang out in their clean little suburb.
Chicago needs more velodromes. A lot more. There's a lot of people on track bikes who want to ride in circles.

Chris, I'm sorry, I misread your original comment....

2008-06-25T16:30:00.000-05:00

Chris, I'm sorry, I misread your original comment. I totally agree with you, just because you aren't trying to go pro on the track doesn't mean you should be excluded from the main racing nights/events.

Kevin, that's a real shame, and it's the kind of thing that should be brought to the attention of the velodrome committee. If people are feeling so strongly about the atmosphere/attitude at Northbrook that they're selling their track bikes, then the folks who run the track need to take a very hard look at themselves.

ERV issues are one of the main reasons i just sold...

2008-06-25T15:55:00.000-05:00

ERV issues are one of the main reasons i just sold my track bike... in case you were intrested

i may have worded that poorly. what i really mean...

2008-06-25T14:52:00.000-05:00

i may have worded that poorly. what i really meant, is that although there are probably many people who are starting racing that are already serious about racing (as evidenced by the amount of my ass that gets kicked out there), there are also people like me who like to race, but can't make the time commitment to get 10 signatures.

i'd love to race cat4 due to the whole hoopla of being out there on the Pro/1/2/3/4 night and i think i have the handling skills to be safe. am i a "serious" racer? probably not. does that seem to exclude me? certainly seems so.

perhaps this belongs on the pile of complaints to be brought up at the rider-official meeting! (which i probably won't have time to attend. hope that maybe it gets brought up?)

Chris, what do you mean by serious? Certainly ever...

2008-06-25T11:45:00.000-05:00

Chris, what do you mean by serious? Certainly everyone I know who races Cat4 or Cat5 takes it seriously, so in that way these are serious races to the people involved.

But, from the perspective of the velodrome management, it's clear that they don't take the Cat5 races seriously at all. They're run on a different night to all the other races, they're run right after the kids races (not juniors, I'm talking about the local 5 year olds riding with training wheels), and there are usually no prizes except for a few primes.

Don't get me wrong, I had a blast racing 5s last year, and the people who actually come out and volunteer to run the races on Friday are great people, but its hard to shake the feeling that the actual management, and some of the officials, just do not care about the 5s.

in regards to "serious racers", are Cat4 racers ne...

2008-06-24T15:12:00.000-05:00

in regards to "serious racers", are Cat4 racers necessarily serious? it seems to me that it's only after you go for your 3 -> 4 upgrade that you are really getting serious. otherwise it's just a matter of attendance.

Thank you for addressing these problems in your bl...

2008-06-24T14:35:00.000-05:00

Thank you for addressing these problems in your blog Simon. I know that in the past a Northbrook official claimed that the guidelines were made so stringent to ensure that only serious riders could upgrade. But with only 9 Friday's scheduled for this year, and 1 of the first 2 rained out (despite no actual rain), Cat 5 racers must ensure that all of their summer Friday nights are left open to ensure that they will get enough Friday's in to upgrade. If a racer missed the first Friday of racing, the situation is even more impossible. I would really like to know why Kenosha races are unsuitable for upgrade purposes at the Cat 5 to 4 level, this, above all things, is completely baffling to me.

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, everyone....

2008-06-24T12:44:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the comments and suggestions, everyone. I sent a couple of the Northbrook committee members a link to this post, and they emailed back and told me that they're going to look into the situation. Apparently they've had a good few complaints about the signature policy and about the bad attitude. I don't know if anything will change right away, but it's a start. Thanks again.

Additionally:
Kissena has seen a boom in attend...

2008-06-23T19:34:00.000-05:00

Additionally:
Kissena has seen a boom in attendance, too... in people becoming serious racers. it's great. there were sixty people registered for a sprint comp a month or so ago.

They had to split racing up in to two nights - juniors, masters, and women on Mondays, and open A, B, and C fields on Wednesdays.

Many people weren't thrilled that the women would be racing on a different night - they thought it split it too much, that it would keep women away, deny us all the social element.

However, as far as managing the field sizes... it's worked.

Wow. That's really ridiculous, and unfortunate.
2008-06-23T19:29:00.000-05:00
Wow. That's really ridiculous, and unfortunate.

I can see why the officials at that 'drome might think that they need a clearer process to encourage thoughtful upgrading from 5 to 4, but you can't just deny people upgrades - you have to get people to the point of upgrading by your more stringent standards. And you have to be clear and fair and sensible and not a dick about them - which it sounds like the officials failed at.

At Kissena the official tends to get to know the repeat racers who show up and do decently; I just upgraded and got an email from him, telling me to bring my license, that he'd put a sticker on it and have a new number for me.

By the way, my blog is pretty much only musings about track racing right now, with a smattering of road and alleycat shit thrown in.

thanks for bringing light to an important issue co...

2008-06-23T17:18:00.000-05:00

thanks for bringing light to an important issue concerning racing in the midwest...i hope things turn a new leaf...peace.

I've not heard many good things about racing at No...

2008-06-23T17:17:00.000-05:00

I've not heard many good things about racing at Northbrook this year. I hope things can be resolved and its reputation brought back up. I race at Kenosha and will most likely race there exclusively until I hear some good news. It's a shame that these rules also seem to discourage racing elsewhere (because you can't get signatures from other tracks).

Thanks for bringing this up Simon. I know this is ...

2008-06-23T17:15:00.000-05:00

Thanks for bringing this up Simon. I know this is a really important issue to a lot of people (myself included), but I worry Northbrook won't notice/care until there is no one in 4 field in a year or two from now and they miss out on all of the entry fees. It's really sad that we are turning people off to the sport right now at it's highest popularity peak in years...