Newbie track cyclist looking for a bike...

[girlcyclist]

Hi, I'm 16 years old and have been cycling on the road for 9 months now, after inspiration from the 2012 Olympics. I decided to have a go at track cycling about a month ago, and enjoyed it so much I joined a Junior Track Club in Manchester. I quickly progressed through the groups to my surprise and am now riding in the top group, but still using a rental bike...I've been told I need my own bike to race, and that this will be very soon, I would also like my own bike due to the added benefits of not setting up saddle height every time, having the wrong gearing etc....

Anyway, I've been saving and its my birthday soon so I'm able to get myself a Track Bike. I've had a look around and got advice from other riders, coaches and found that the 'Dolan Pre-Cursa' seems the most popular, and best value for money. (I'm wanting it to last a while and Dolan also seem like a fairly reliable company). This is the bike: http://www.dolan-bikes.com/track-bikes/alloy/Pre Cursa Track Bike?product_id=662

One thing I'm not sure about however, is the sizing/gearing...

I'm 5foot 7inches but have long legs...
There are a lot of different options for size on the Dolan site, but the 3 I'm unsure of are 'Stem Length'- how long should a stem actually be for track?, 'Crank length' and 'Handlebar size'- should the bars be narrower?

Also, the gearing...the rental bikes have '50x16' gearing, I'm guessing the 50 is the chainring size, and 16 the sprocket size? (unsure on the terminology!)
I've found the rental bikes to be slightly high geared, I have a tendency to spin my legs fast, in a smaller gear on the road, (hardly ever coming out of the small chainring) but I can still keep up with men pushing the hard gears and it just seems to work best for me, and I feel I could go faster, and not tire as quickly with a smaller gear on the track,
The options available on the PreCursa are '46T', '48T' and '50T' for chainring size...but nothing mentioned about sprocket size?
I'm unsure of which would be best for me.

Any help would be very much appreciated!

 

[biggs682]

hi are there any other members bike you could try before buying . will or do Dolan offer any test bikes ?

your 50 x 16 statements are true , the fr ring (50) should be easy to change could you not ask to try a rental bike with a different size fr ring ?

welcome aboard and keep going

 

[VamP]

Dolan bikes aren't that far from Manchester. By far the best thing would be to go and get fitted.

 

[Rob3rt]

Is there a classifieds board in the velodrome? Dolan entry level track bikes are so common that I would be surprised if there was not one in your size for sale where someone has either upgraded, quit riding track or grown out of the bike and needed a bigger one.