LODI CYCLE BOWL START LIGHT SYSTEM

Welcome to the Cycle Bowl! If you’ve never raced using a red-yellow-green light system that also uses fault beams, PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE RACING. Understanding how our system works will save you much frustration at the start line.

The Bowl system involves a light tree with a red light at top, then a yellow, then a green light at the bottom. It also has fault or “cheater” beams (the beams themselves are invisible but you can see the beam projectors and their reflectors at each of the 3 start lines) that will detect if a rider crosses the line early.

The system operates as follows: While a race is actually running, the green light will be on. When that race is over, the Starter presses a reset button and the green light goes out and the red comes on. The lineup worker will then line up the riders on 1, 2 or all 3 lines depending on how many riders are in that event. During this lineup process, when a rider crosses any of the 3 lines, the red light will stay on, the yellow light will flicker on and off but the green will not show. During lineup, if you look at the start lights you will see the yellow flicker as bikes pass through the cheater beams. Once all riders are lined up and ready to race, the lineup worker will move off the track and the Starter will step onto the top level of the start platform. When the Starter has confirmed that all riders are ready to start, the Starter will then press the start button and the red light will go out and the yellow light will come on. If no rider has crossed the line yet, the system will then turn the yellow off and the green light on. If a rider crosses the line way too early, before the start button is pushed, the red light will stay on, the yellow will flicker but the green light will not come on. If the Starter feels that the rider who triggered this yellow has actually tried to start early, the Starter can send that rider back to the cheater line.

During this whole process, you must pay attention to the lineup worker and to the Starter. If you are looking down or up at the spectators, you may not see the lineup worker move off the track and the Starter may not be able to see inside your helmet. If the Starter starts the race and you aren’t paying attention, you will look up to see bikes disappearing up the track!

Once the riders get lined up properly and the start button has been pushed, the red goes out and the yellow comes on. Inside 1 second, if no rider breaks the cheater beam, the yellow will go out and the green will come on. Once the green has come on, the race has started.

The system itself uses a series of 3 electric relays that turn the lights off and on and sense the cheater beams. There are no electronics, only electric relays, so if a rider crosses the line while the red or yellow is still on, the beams will sense that and will not let the green come on. It is electrically impossible for the green light to come on while a bike is in a cheater beam. If a beam projector gets bumped out of position, the system stops working and will not let the green light come on. The system is not perfect but essentially, if the green light comes on, no rider can have cheated and you’d better be racing. If the yellow light has come on but the green light is not yet on and your bike has crossed the line, the next thing you will see is the red, you have cheated and you will be sent to the cheater line.

One last point- just outside Turn 3 is a red-green light box. That box shows exactly what the red and green lights show on the start line. If you ride into Turn 3 and see the red light, that means that either the start was jumped or there’s been a crash and the race has been red-flagged. This Turn 3 light is for safety purposes only but if you see the red there, the race has been stopped and you have to slow down.

The system is more complex to learn than a flag start or a red-green system, but the fault line lights make it much fairer and more objective. Not everybody likes our system but we find it cuts way down on cheaters. If you race at Lodi, you’d better get familiar with it!