snipped: "I've heard that there were a few grass-tracks in the East, New Jersey in specific, but don't know anyone that's ever ridden them."
grass track racing was something clubs did in the offseason
to bridge th autumn with the spring. it was as much a social
thing as any picnic or soccer game between 2 cycling clubs.
in england it was a real discipline, just as speedway is/was;
i know of no real leagues or tracks that existed here.
e-RICHIE
having a difficult time believing that campagnolo engineers
ever even heard of grasstrack, much less designed a pedal
for it...
chester, ct
It's always nice to know you haven't been forgotten and can always live on in cyberspace. Since some of the information that has arose is from a post a made a long time ago I'll see if I can make some clarification. There seems to be a little confusion on the pedals and grass-track racing in general. Having been born after the general demise of the grass and cinder tracks everything that follows has been told to me by people who did actually race on them--mostly Robert Zumwalt.
When folks say the pedals were "toothy" or "spikey" they mean that these things could give modern BMX pedals a run for their money, and people that raced with these have the scars to prove it. Not only were they little shin saws awaiting a little misstep by the rider, but many of the riders would sharpen the teeth too. The reason being is that most of the shoes riders wore were rubber soled, not leather. The bikes weren't fixed-gears, but were one-speeds. In the junior and amateur races you could use a coster brake too,if memory serves correctly. Similar to the bikes used to this day in Indiana Univ. Bloomington's Little 5 as shown in the film "Breaking Away."
Grass-track was mostly a European thing and I think there maybe a couple grass-tracks left in the U.K. Cinder-track racing in the U.S. was only really popular in So. Cal. from what I understand, though there were a few other scattered about in other states. I've heard that there were a few grass-tracks in the East, New Jersey in specific, but don't know anyone that's ever ridden them. Any East coasters want to comment? I hope I've clarified a few things about the application of the discussed pedals, if you have any more questions please ask. Anyway, cinder and grass-track is really, really cool and oh so classic and I'd love to see more info if others have it. enjoy, Brandon"mnonkeyman"Ives Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
PS: For those that care I just started receiving CR again this morning after my hiatus and will be doing a new introduction post soon.