Goldsprint.com Roller Racing and Goldsprints

Some great research, images and quotes from Carlton Reid of  “roads were not built for cars”. “Indoor roller racing – called Goldsprints to some – became immensely popular in the 1930s and could pack out dance-halls and ballrooms right through until the late 1950s” Full Article here.

“roller racing that sometimes took place on the stage of the Empire, usually just prior to the main film of the evening” Bernice Maynard tells the story of roller-racing in the Cinema on Walesonline.co.uk

Seem to remember a Dutch mate telling me that his exact same set was regularly used on Dutch TV Spotted by: www.ridetheblackline.com Prints available: Social History Shop

On the wall of Suicycles, Hamburg. Photo copyright Goldsprint.com with thanks to Suicycles

In 1987  British track cyclist Dave le Grys  (aka “Legro”) smashed the previous world roller race record with a time of 126.6mph on the BBC “Record Breakers” show. The previous record of 102 mph had been set in 1982. Dave chose a gear of 232 inches for his attempt with a custom made TA / [...]

Cliff Nicholson and Rod Scott, members of the record breaking team share their memories of the attempt. Harlow Cycling Club was lucky, in having amongst its members an engineer. During 1961, Ken Wall beavered away (completely unknown to the majority of the Club Members until he formally presented them to the Club at its Annual [...]

Manfred has held seven Guinness world records for roller racing related cycling. He has won over 80 roller races most of these between 1983 and 1990, in June1984 he won six events (and six bikes) in one month! The records Manfred has set are pretty mind-blowing, will he come out of retirement to take on [...]

In the early days of “Goldsprints”, a London female Cycle courier dominated them all, winning the women’s event in the first three, the now famous Zurich 1999 (CMWC) Goldsprints, New York Metroploco 2000 and London Goldsprints 2000. Crissi went on to win multiple  Goldsprints and Rollapaluzas remaining unbeaten until 2004. However Crissi wasn’t just a [...]

This classic image taken in 1901 shows American cycling pioneer Charles “Mile a Minute” Murphy competing in a roller race aginst Tom Butler.  Though more famous for his one mile in one minute speed record behind a train (see links below) this image and a near identical one of him with Frank Albert show that [...]

The Story of the first ever London Goldsprint With thanks to Greg and the Muppet League. Why I wanted to put on the first London Goldsprint at the Horseshoe Inn in Clerkenwell Close Firstly I wanna point out that at that time messengers started becoming much more of a community than had ever been before, [...]

Goldsprints and / or “roller-racing” are social, usually indoor, static cycling events. Equipment varies but is based on genuine track bikes on rollers, with riders going head to head over a set distance. Goldsprint.com is about videos, stories, images and history of roller-racing and goldsprints.