As mention on my recent post about Henry’s seventh birthday, one of his presents was a cycle speedway bike. Last year he had been riding a club bike – a converted BMX, and the gearing was not right for him. It was also really heavy. So I knew he needed his own bike. Up until a few weeks before his birthday I did not have a plan, then I saw that Daisy (@pint_size_cyclist on Instagram) was selling her Frog 58 track bike – with 20″ wheels, 1 gear and no brakes I figured that it would be a good base to start from. The only problem was that it was set up as a fixed gear velodrome bike…

Still, I collected the bike from Bristol, and ordered a pair of cycle speedway handlebars. Once I got the bike home the shopping list expanded – the velodrome tyres were too thin for the speedway track, and there was no freewheel fitted. When I took off the huge 42T chainring, to refit the original cranks and chainring I noticed that the bottom bracket was a bit crunchy, so I got Albany Cycles to replace that too. Once the bars arrived I also realised that the stem clamp on the Frog stem was too big for the cycle speedway handlebars, so I needed a BMX stem. I finished the bars of with some coordinating DMR Deathgrips.

What I had not been aware of when I bought the bike was that there are two different wheel sizes labelled as 20″, this was the bigger one, that is actually nearer to 22″, this meant that the fit was better for Henry, but that buying tyres was trickier. In the end I was able to get some Maxis DTH BMX race tyres, I would have preferred something knobblier, but I had to work with what was available. I have not even tried setting them up tubeless…

It is tricky to get gearing right for a speedway bike – you have to find the balance between being quick off the start line, but not having legs spinning too fast on the straights. Originally I was going to get Henry to do some testing on the cycleway outside our house on his other green Frog bike – a 55, which has 8 gears, but given the lack of freewheel and rapidly approaching birthday I went for refitting the standard 36T chainring and 114mm cranks, but an 18T freewheel, to make it slightly easier to start. My guess seems to have worked – Henry is happy with the gearing, and has been riding much faster than last year.

I missed the first training session of the year, due to work commitments, so the first time I saw Henry riding the bike on the shale oval was at the first race meeting of the year and it fitted him perfectly! The gearing also seemed right. Henry was pleased to not be the smallest rider there for once, but somehow Owen and Henry had been seeded together. When they lined up together for the first race, with a much smaller boy, I was just hoping that they did not take each other out. Henry rode brilliantly, finishing only a few bike lengths behind Owen! I would not have expected that at the end of last season (even if Owen said he was just riding fast enough to win). The gap to Owen was bigger in subsequent races as faster kids joined them and gave Owen more of a challenge (he was all five of his races!), until Henry lined up just him and the smaller racer in a heat. Henry has always been the smallest/slowest, so this was his chance, he seized it and took his first race win!

Now I just need to sort out a speedway bike for Owen, fortunately there are purpose built bikes available, so I just need to find one for sale…