Dulwich Hill Bicycle Club

New Lynn Velodrome is about 5k from my mothers place in Auckland. I've never ridden on it, but I have competed on the running track on the inside, which is 300mtrs, so I'm guessing that its around 400mtrs in length.

The track is narrow and very bumpy.

Doesn't look very safe. But the lawn looked like a soft landing patch.

It's so narrow! And banked all the way along the straight (which looks really long!) And looks lumpy like a paua fritter!

Nice photos Mike.

Guess it's a case of if you can ride well there, then you can ride well anywhere.

I'd say based on the lack of track markings that this old bitumin track is just used for a bit of training these days. The track looks as if the sports field in the centre has been enlarged/raised and effectively covered the former inner/lower portion of the track.

Auckland's main velodrome is at Manukau, that is a 40 degree banked concrete 285.7m (3.5 laps to 1 km) velodrome that was used for the 1990 Commonwealth Games.

The cycle track is the same size as it was when I competed on the athletics track in the middle in the 70's.

Back in the 70's it was a concrete track with the markings and it wasn't as bumpy as that tarmac that is on it today. The corners are wider than the straights.

My Father and I went and watched cycle racing there once back in the 70's, but I'm guessing that it may of been the only velodrome in Auckland in those days.

That would have brought back memories.

During the 1960's and early 1970's at least, the main Auckland Velodrome was Western Springs (the speedway venue.)

The New Lynn track must have been very interesting to ride if it was that narrow, it even looks narrower than Lidcombe.

Perhaps I'm wrong about the track being that narrow in the past, I'll do some research on it. Either way the surface has been stuffed with that poor quality tar seal.

Never new that the Western Springs speedway use to be a velodrome. In 1971 it was definitely a speedway because I use to go to speedway with my Dad.

The Western Springs velodrome was the venue for the New Zealand Nationals in 1953, 1956, 1960 and 1963 (and perhaps later?).

The info that it was at what is now the Speedway and that lasted into the early 1970's was gained from an old NZ rider at the World Masters last month.

This page http://www.speedwayclub.co.nz/history.php shows a photo of a speedway race in 1947 and it is clear from the photo that it is the same circuit that I attended in the 70's.

Possibilities;
- perhaps the velodrome was next to the speedway. There is some room. There are some football fields next to the speedway.
- they cleaned the dirt off the bowl for cycle racing, you can see the bowl clearly in one of the photos.

Yes, you can definitely see the concrete velodrome acting as a wall around the speedway circut.

By the way I also discovered in my 'digging' there was a temporary velodrome in 1954 at Carlaw Park (Rugby League) built for a 6 Day Race.

From I can gather from the pictures, it was a speedway in the middle of a velodrome, they probably did a lot of cleaning of dirt off it. By the time I arrived in Auckland, they had filled in the middle so only the top of the bowl still showed.

My Dad use to talk about the 6 day races back in the UK, I don't think they lasted until 1954 in the UK, but I could be wrong. Now how would 250 Tim survive 6 days, thats 24*6

lol man i tried riding a kilo tonight, thats three laps of tempe, and was just about throwing up after it :S

lol man i tried riding a kilo tonight, thats three laps of tempe, and was just about throwing up after it :S

Time?

it was crap as :S 1:26 :S
im blaming wind?
i was gone for the third lap, theres a massive head wind at the start of the strait today, and there was on monday :S
I think the last time i tried a kilo i was about 1:24 or so, so im actually getting slower with it, though im getting faster in every thing else.