When track racing serves you a lemon

Is the Brooklyn Machine Works Gangsta V4 a worthy track bike?

Not long before my Cinelli Vigorelli Shark was officially banned from the velodrome, I had registered to a 2 day race at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Ontario (Canada).

So I had to quickly turn around and find something to race with. I was expecting Cinelli to send me the newest Vigorelli, which is UCI legal to replace the Vigorelli Shark. But things being what they are since the Covid-19 pandemic, that sponsorship never materialized and so I was stranded on the cote d’azur (so to speak) with no perspective of riding anything but my rollers.

Then I stumbled upon my Tracklocross bike and took a serious look at it. What if?

This odd thing has enough clearance for 700×40 tires and yet is built around a track geometry with a steep head angle, high bb drop and short seatstays.

Who the hell are Brooklyn Machine Works

I purchased my Brooklyn Machine Works Gangsta V4 from a bmx shop in New-York. That frame is uber rare and I was glad I could find one. (although I admit I was looking for a Mash Tracklocross frame set).
One could say I have a thing for single speed bikes and one would be right! Now, if you don’t know about Brooklyn Machine Works, no one could blame you. They are not really into the road bike, gravel bike and track bike scene.

It’s a small company that used to make downhill bikes and pretty special ones too! Their design and engineering was unique and their bikes were considered as ”exotic” although they were US based. They became a cult brand and I am pretty sure people are still wondering when, if ever, they will start producing frames again. Here is a short article about them and how still today people look upon them: Brooklyn Machine Works .

The build

So I went on and removed the v-brake bosses and installed all the parts from my Cinelli on the BMW Gangsta V4.
(If you wonder if there was a V1 and then V2 and eventually a V3 of the Gansta the answer is: Yes).

Riding the track

The ride feel was better than I expected. The geometry, even with 700×25 tires which I guess the bike was not designed for, handled great on the track. It was predictable and stable with no speed wobble at ”higher” speeds.

The main downside was the weight. Geeezus it’s heavy. Even with carbon wheels. Added to that was the total unresponsiveness of the bike. Even with top tier quality parts like Miche Primato cranks, a Izumi chain, carbon wheels and a dura-ace cog; power transfer felt like I was driving the rear wheel with a rubber band instead of a high quality 1/8 track chain.

Am I blaming the bike for my somewhat bad performance at that event? Absolutely not. When you can’t perform to your full potential because of inadequate equipment, you can still try to perform good enough by adapting your tactics and racing smart. Which I tried to do to the best of my abilities.

So if you are wondering if you Gangsta V4 is Track worthy, (you would be one of the very few to own such a frame) well I’ll say this: Yes it’s good for track. But it is not good enough for high level racing for many reasons:

• The frame and fork are heavy
• I doubt the fork is UCI legal
• It sure is not aerodynamic
• It is not the stiffest frame for track racing (although stiff enough for Tracklocross)

Never again

Although the whole ”riding a funky bike at a national event” experience was worth it, I retired definitively the Gangsta V4 as a track bike and went on to find something else (more on that later).
The track scene is rapidly growing in Canada and it is a good thing for our sport. It also means that people are investing more time, effort and money into track racing which creates some levels of inequities when it comes to the stuff people race with.

I was fortunate enough to find a unlikely replacement bike within my own collection of bikes but also realized that things got serious at the velodrome. Now the gear you use has an immediate impact on performance, provided that you have enough race sense to be able to race track events (which comes with training and experience).

I am not saying that everyone should go out there and buy an expensive carbon frame. But my advice would be to find a good quality alloy frame, like the new Cinelli (if you can find one) and kit it out with good parts. Finding good tubular wheels is a must. Don’t spend too much on things like the handlebars and other periphery components.
The real deal is in the wheels and the drivetrain. Once you got that figured out you’ll see what’s your next best move. Purchasing good rollers could also be a nice thing. I digress…

If you are curious about Tracklocross, I’ll have a few articles about that really cool discipline.

Steel’s for real, but sometimes it’s just just real enough to make a good post race recovery lemonade.

Side by side: The Track build and the Tracklocross build

Here is my youtube video about my weekend at the track riding the Gangsta V4 as a track bike.