Fixed bike recommendations for track racing

ttcycle, the only "track" bike suitable for you in your price range, is the Fuji Track, but its smallest size is 49cm, whereas you may be closer to a 47cm.

There is a really good alterantive, already mentioned above, and that is the Giant Omnium. Built up from Stonehenge Cycles, at £600, its £100 above your £500 limit. I'm hoping its possible that you can somehow stretch to that, as the smallest size is a 44cm! The sizes for Giants are unusual, and a 44cm is probably closer to a 47-49cm, but I'm sure it would fit.

The Giants have compact geometry, sloping top tubes which means the seat tube measurement is smaller for a given "size"

You and lots of other people on this forum still do not understand that the important measurement for a bike is the effective top tube length. The seat tube has a bearing on standover, yes, but fuck up the TT and you'll be stuck with looking at stems at one end of the available size range and very probably issues with your saddle fore and aft postition.

get a fuji track.....08 or 09

get a fuji track.....08 or 09

how do you find it on the track (whichever year you have?)

If you are serious about the track, a good option would be to buysomething completely different and suitable to commuting and road training and to hire a bike from herne hill for the season.

They have a whole load of really good codition fuji tracks in what I'm sure will be a suitable size. And you can hire them and have exclusive use of the same bike every week for the whole season.

I'm not sure how much it is but it is very cheap (£35 last season) for the whole season.

If you get to the end of the season and are still keen then hopefully you will be able to afford an upgrade!

and if they had a frame small enough for spaghettihoops they must have one suitable for you.

Sainsbury Ed speaks truth, best idea yet.

Was £35 for this season. I had one and loved it! Great bit of kit and the guys at HH will fix it for you if there are any issues.

The season hire bikes are a great option. You will need to get in early though, or you may miss out. Numbers are limited and they all went pretty early in the season.

In fact, if you want one you can't wait til next season. Get in there now (look on the HH website) and ask about it soon. Loads of people will wait and be disappointed.

+1 to trying to get it sorted now.

Thanks for the feedback re HH track hire- looked into that - I already have four other bikes so this purchase will not be for road training or commuting but purely track racing as the OP suggests- am waiting for the stolen carbon fibre road bike for road racing and long training rides to come through from Ribble and have an alu commuter road bike already that I've replaced components on as a result of the cf one being stolen (ie will not be commuting on a cf bike again-2nd theft in 6months-despite 2 very high end dlocks and chains) so this really was a specific purchase entirely for track use and not for commuting day to day and no I do not need a Trek hybrid thanks-really useful suggestion that one- though pretty certain the Dolan pre cursa is the one I'm going for - have looked at my bike fit calculations and the 50cm not the 49cm is just right toptube wise and stem wise. RPM you are correct that TT measurement is essential especially in compact frames - compact frames, the CT -bb measurements will seem well short of the usual frame sizes, the reason they're being churned out often are that they are good for sellers and manufacturers as technically a smaller range of sizes can be 'made to fit' a wider range of people - cheaper for comps to mass produce; so this means that traditional fitting is different

You won't regret getting the Dolan, I think.

Hope you can get on the track before we shut this year!

Hi RPM

Sounds like I won't regret getting the Dolan - looks like the components are good for the cost.
Thanks also for the useful advice and actually reading my post!

When does HH shut this year? Have spent a lot of time training for a Tri TT but unfortunately couldn't compete as had the swine flu and a chest infection the week of the Tri- trying to build up again but perhaps specifically for track next season- spoke to Peter C last Nov about VC L as well but just haven't got down to the track yet!!

Have decided to go with the Dolan Precursa - the 49cm is right in terms of stemlength, BB to CT and TT length - anything smaller would not be the right fit - doesn't matter if it's over budget if it's a good set up. Thanks

You're very welcome.