2011-01-15 Sat - Redbull Minidrome

He was on a white bike and tried to pull a wheely off when he saw he was going off, but fell sideways. Will have been around rider number 28 or something.

That was Toby Sherwood. He is a rider up in Scotland for edinburgh cc i think.

I leant him my wheel because he didnt have the right sprocket, that wasnt damaged, but his frame was badly damaged!!

The Red Bull Mini Drome has been dismantled now. The next event will be held in Manchester in a couple of months time... I think.

I hope they will bring it back to London before the year is out!

Just out of curiosity Andy, is there a reason why there wasnt padding around the whole track?
Not trying to criticise, it was an awesome event and I had a great time despite my epic stack. Just wondered if there was a reason for it or if it was simply lack of available mats.

i dont think they forsaw someone coming off in the bend, and the majority of people who did come off did hit the padding

I realise not many people came off at the bend, but it was more the bikes coming off the track and hitting the floor I was thinking about.

I realise not many people came off at the bend, but it was more the crabon wheels coming off the track and hitting the floor I was thinking about.

ftfy

Henry is there a video of your crash?

I liked that slow motion footage of Xander...

I hope not, it wasn't exactly spectacular.

Henry is there a video of your crash?

I liked that slow motion footage of Xander...

I was wondering why my laps had been slowed down....

Henry is there a video of your crash?

I liked that slow motion footage of Xander...

ouch!!!

Xanders lap looked a lot faster than some of the others out there

I'm only teasing =)

I think he was worried about cracking that borrowed HED, probably slowed him down.

I hart xander really.

Ahh thanks! You're right, i didnt fancy breaking the borrowed hed 3 and didnt want to have to fork out whatever the going price of a new one is these days!

Unfortunately contrary to popular belief, slow and steady does not win the race....

But it means you don't fall off!

My hatred of falling off is why I wouldn't have done this in the first place, even if I hadn't have had man flu.

I did say you should ride it like you stole it. They really are pretty bomb-proof. Apologies if it hindered your performance :(

Unfortunately contrary to popular belief, slow and steady does not win the race....

you tell me this now

did anyone get the final standings of how many people DNF?
so see how many out of 105 came off

They should have had a dnf death match!

They didn't put padding around the whole track because most people who fall off on a track fall into it...

If you watch the video the directions say for you to stay on the red line. If you stay on the red line and trust the track... you can lean into the corners and go as fast as you like.

When you watch Chris Akrig in the race that he ran over the other rider, he was going super fast and staying close to the red line whilst the other rider was going fast but battling to stay in.

I could have ran a 49 x 13 gearing and it would have been fine.

The key to it all is how long can you concentrate for?!

Again not criticising, I fell off and it was entirely my fault not blaming anyone, just curious is all.

If you watch the video the directions say for you to stay on the red line. If you stay on the red line and trust the track... you can lean into the corners and go as fast as you like.

I didnt ride in this but it seems like its a lot easier said than done.

They didn't put padding around the whole track because most people who fall off on a track fall into it...

If you watch the video the directions say for you to stay on the red line. If you stay on the red line and trust the track... you can lean into the corners and go as fast as you like.

When you watch Chris Akrig in the race that he ran over the other rider, he was going super fast and staying close to the red line whilst the other rider was going fast but battling to stay in.

I could have ran a 49 x 13 gearing and it would have been fine.

The key to it all is how long can you concentrate for?!

Andy, as a skilled rider, with many hours practice on the minidrome, I'm sure you could have run 49 x 13 and it would have been fine (although you would have been overgeared even on a regulation 250m track).

You say that the likelihood was that most people would fall into the track rather than out of it, but there was always a chance that people would go up too high on the banking, for a variety of reasons. While this was much less likely (did 2 out of 105 people do it?), the consequences of someone doing this are potentially much worse than the alternative.

Just because an instructional video says to stay on the red line doesn't mean that A) people will have watched the video, B) that people will be able to physically follow the red line, and C) feel confident enough to follow the red line.

My point is, don't forget that other riders aren't as good as you, and if there is slim possibility for something to go wrong, it could well happen. Padding round the banking would be good (or just a track fence), and also the booth with the laptops should have been further away. And maybe the lapboard could have been suspended from the ceiling, rather that on a stand in the centre.

/killjoyhealthandsafetynazi

I thought it was a fun event by the way

snowy, tika, shoosh and hoops could rock this - short wheelbase ftw.

i think health and safety will prevent this growing.

if the edge of the track curved a little on the flat bits then it would encourage people to fall inside rather than ride off the edge.

Andy, as a skilled rider, with many hours practice on the minidrome, I'm sure you could have run 49 x 13 and it would have been fine (although you would have been overgeared even on a regulation 250m track).

You say that the likelihood was that most people would fall into the track rather than out of it, but there was always a chance that people would go up too high on the banking, for a variety of reasons. While this was much less likely (did 2 out of 105 people do it?), the consequences of someone doing this are potentially much worse than the alternative.

Just because an instructional video says to stay on the red line doesn't mean that A) people will have watched the video, B) that people will be able to physically follow the red line, and C) feel confident enough to follow the red line.

My point is, don't forget that other riders aren't as good as you, and if there is slim possibility for something to go wrong, it could well happen. Padding round the banking would be good (or just a track fence), and also the booth with the laptops should have been further away. And maybe the lapboard could have been suspended from the ceiling, rather that on a stand in the centre.

/killjoyhealthandsafetynazi

I thought it was a fun event by the way

Whilst testing we had a bigger fear of falling out of the track than in. We did not have the option of landing on mats instead we had circular saws, metal beams and spare pieces of wood to fall on. Which probably made us learn all the more quicker.

I suppose they should have made the choice of not having mats around the edge at all. It might have scared people enough to know not to fall out.

All competitors had to sign a disclaimer and rode at their own risk.

I would of assumed that if you had taken enough interest in signing up to race on the mini drome, that you also would have taken enough interest to see what it was like before hand. Either via a video or having a look before you were physically sitting on the track with your bike.
Just assessing the situation and where if any where you did not want to fall off... (where there are no pads)

In a perfect world yes all of those suggestions would have helped... but there would still be the same percentage of people crashing. maybe even more, because they would have felt safe enough to go as fast as they possibly could.

I think it was a perfect balance and was just right!

If it was a health and safety risk at all, it would not have happened.