“HPV Fun Day” At Hellyer Velodrome

May 2, 20223 views0

Today I attended “HPV fun day”, a special once-a-year event at Hellyer Velodrome. A local couple organizes this, renting the velodrome and then inviting participants to come just try out the velodrome or enter races. I did a little of each. I rode my electric-assist recumbent down the Coyote Creek trail from Morgan Hill to the velodrome. I then rode on the velodrome for multiple laps during the open practice period. This is fun as I did not feel confident on the banking at first but it came back to me after a couple of laps. I was soon enjoying going up to the top, working up a head of steam, then swooping down to the bottom line, simulating the flying start of a 200-meter time trial.

The first event was the time trial. I wasn’t blazingly fast but it felt great and was a fun experience. There was a break after the time trial so I rode some more laps as a cooldown. All the other events were group rides, which I promised my wife I would avoid because I’ve crashed at this velodrome in the past. So I headed back. I used electric assist on the rides there and back, but rode unassisted at the velodrome. It was a great day, I enjoyed the riding, seeing a variety of exotic bikes and trikes, and chatting with fellow participants.

My friend Russell is on his Lightning P-38 with partial fairing. Just above the wide blue stripe at the bottom of the banking is a black line. It’s ideal to stay at that line for a time trial. For a flying start, you get up to the speed at the top of the banking, then swoop down to the black line as you cross the start, for an exhilarating boost from gravity.

A couple of unusual recumbents, both front-wheel drive. On the left is a production Cruzbike, which “pedal steers”, meaning the pedals move with the front wheel as you turn. I used to have a lower-end one of those, it takes some getting used to but is fun to ride. On the right, that homemade bike has a fixed boom out to the pedals so they don’t move when you turn. Instead, the near-vertical part of the chains gets twisted when turning. These (along with their riders) were both very fast.

Two fully-faired trikes, incredibly fast. I got to chat with the owner of the yellow one which has raced at Battle Mountain, Nevada, where world records have been set.

A side view of the yellow “velocar”

One of the front-wheel-drive bikes with a conventional rear-wheel-drive bike behind it

An array of trikes