Sorry about neither finishing my earlier email on this subject and for not signing off properly..or at all...but it was getting on for lunchtime and instead of consigning the email to the "DRAFT" box for finishing later I clicked on the wrong button.
Anyway.. I was about to say that I have never met another UK frame-builder or cyclist who has referred to a fixed-wheel bike of any description as a *Path Racer.....Path bike * is a possibility....but *track bike *or very often *track iron or track machine *would be the terms used. As Kevin said, paths are usually narrow footways linking one place to another...often cycled along for taking short-cuts...but never raced on in any context.
Frames specifically built for track racing ie without mudguard clearances or brake spindle holes were called, in normal conversation, track bikes...In catalogues they might be fancifully called Path frames or even be named after a certain track such as the Vigorelli. They were stark machines with high bottom bracket heights, close clearances under the fork crown and rear bridge, and shorter than normal front and rear end clearances.Bracket heights would normally be around 11 inch, but could rise up to 11.5 depending on local tracks The frame angles would often be 75 head tube and 73 seat tube..quite steep. This combination of steep head angle, shallow front fork rake and shorter rear triangle would yield a shorter wheelbase of around 39 inches.
The dual purpose *road/track *frame would be a hybrid/compromise of the pure track frame and a club frame..so that the bike could be used with mudguard eyes for everyday riding generally, particularly in winter, on fixed gear. In summer for riding on indoor or outdoor tracks, be they wood, concrete, ash, shale or grass or for the popular sport of indoor roller-racing in winter, the mudguards would be removed.and more likely than not the front brake lever and stirrup. The same bike would be used for time-trialling during the racing season, as many T-Ts in the early days were restricted fixed gear events. In these events just a front brake would be used.
The geometry of these frames was generally "faster" than that of the club machines, but not as severe as that of the path/track frames. Typically the head angle would be in the order of 74 degrees and the seat angle 72, or occasionally 73 degrees, depending on the size of the frame. Bracket height would almost never exceed 11 inches, with some, occasionally, as low as 10.75". Front and rear clearances were longer in order to accommodate the ubiquitous Bluemels mudguards and to avoid toe-clip overlap.Wheelbase would stretch up to 40.5 inches or occasionally 41, depending on the size of the frame. The rake on the front fork would also be more pronounced than that of the severe path/track frame Apart from mudguard eyes, more generally built into the drop-outs, but occasionally using small brackets brazed someway up the seat stays and the frok blades, these frames had no braze-ons...and just one hole drilled through the fork crown.Tom Hayes' road-track *hacking*bike, as general purpose bikes were often called..has a pair of cantiliver bosses and brakes on the front fork. These would never have been fitted on a true road-path frame nor would a lamp-bracket on the R/H fork blade. This means that Tom's frame has either been altered since it was built or that it was built as a fixed-wheel road-specific model...not to be used for track racing of any sort.
The other feature that seemed to have been specific to track bikes and road-track ones is the full wrap-over seat stay treatment. This was assumed to confer additional rigidity to the rear triangle..but it gradually migrated into frame construction in general terms.
Until very recently I had never seen, certainly never ridden, nor heard discussed, the suggestion that fixed-wheel bikes could or should have a rear brake. It is obviously fine for a *single-speed* bike ie one with a freewheel, to have two brakes, but a *fixed-gear bike *never should have a rear brake. Application of the rear brake over zealously can easily and quickly lock up the rear wheel. If that stops turning then so too does the chainwheel and cranks to which your legs are attached via your feet...and everything stops turning at the same time..and you end up in the ditch having been thrown off. If you don't believe me..then try it..at reasonable speed.
Was that how you remembered it, Crumpy?
Norris Lockley
Settle UK