Cycling UK Forum

Hi yes I did but my grandchildren had never heard of logarithms and why would they noiw?

just noticed the tea shop for non cycle issues has gone, so this is a did anyone know. Just been discussing bananas as toring energy. I remember this
Snack Time
Reaching for a banana in the supermarket produce aisle will give you more than just a healthy dose of potassium.

That’s right, bananas contain naturally occurring radionuclides — radioactive potassium-40, to be exact — which, according to the EPA, means they can emit .01 millirem (0.1 microsieverts).

So, eating a banana actually presents more radiation exposure than if you were standing next to a spent nuclear fuel dry cask or nuclear power plant!

But don’t go bananas! While the fruit is indeed radioactive, the dose of radioactivity they deliver is miniscule and does not pose a health risk.

By the way, if you’re attending post-work happy hour, there’s a teeny bit (about 390 Picocurie per kilogram) of the same isotope potassium-40 in your beer too.

https://www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk/sc ... m-bananas/

Just been listening to Melvyn Bragg In Our Time. Paul Dirac was struggling with nonsensical results from his quantum equations. He proposed positrons as the solution to the conundrum, and they were only subsequently discovered. Beyond genius

I've thought of bananas but if a climb is 3 or more hours, and fuelling every 1/2 hour , that means carrying 6 bananas. there are dried banans but they are high in potassium and probably laxative too

For riding at home and not on tour I take a banana +malt bread/ flapjack
=

Thank you and I've done some research which as expected gives no definitive answers..

So I will be in the Alps and a a simple recreational rider and mid 60s I take a long time to do the climbs and the longer it takes the more energy needed.. So i need to carry food but have to go with what is in the french shops. I've always bought bars, maybe there are better things but I've not seen them.

A dentist I know has said that I'm not doing the honey often and if I swig a drink after there shoulndn't be problems; Kids were being given sweet drinks daily so that was a sustained teeth assault. Recommends a drink after fruit too.

Sugar on the tooth is one issue but gum health another and the health bars are chewy and it is what is stuck between the teeth which attrract bacteria over a longer period which is a concern too. Apparently crisps are particularly bad with the startch slowly breaking down and lots of time for baceteria to get going. Some researchers think that honey is actually beneficial for gum health

I noticed some bars have red for saturates too Harvest Morn for example.

Not too keen on artificial sweeteners as come in the bars and from a lab refining plant products or chemically created from scratch. Some are researching also whether they affect adversely the gut bacteria,

oh yes it is 300 odd calories in honey but eyes at 70 years aren't up to reading the tiny figures, it is 1300 KJ not calories.

I also came across these Buzz sachets
https://buzz-power.co.uk/products/buzz-power-eco-pack.

So for help, does anyone know what i can find in France to do the job for me?

I've just done a search for honey as an alternative to gels and energy bars but haven't had any results. It would be easy and convenient to take a squeezy bottle, stick it in a back pocket and fuel up on the way.

Very tasty and natural (maybe organic is better). I'm not so keen now on cereal bars with the long list of ingredients.

340 gm has about 4,000 cals bags of energy there.

Thank you for the replies; I've looked in the boooklet fand searched online for ped index but nothing useful comes up
it is a sigma rox 11.0.

the power is displayed but the number can't be accurate coming in at a ludicrous 50 (?watts) as my ftp is 2.9 At the price of power metres I can't see something inexpensive doing the job.
Unless it can work it out from speed , weight and lots of other things

This has a ped index % and I've no idea what it means. It also has a power display but can it really do this?
thanks

https://dahon.com/bikes/gb-2-2/

this bike would fulfil three desirables as a third bike for me but there doesn't seem to be any availability and apparently the Dahon importer has gone bust.

I had a Dahon espresso in the past which did the jobs for me then , but now I've moved to a village from a big city I wish I still had it.

Actually one is a threshold test the other is an ftp; I did the threshold but what is the difference?

Has anyone tried doing this?
There are two ftp tests, one in the training plan section and the other in the tests option. they are different. It says on the test one to have a 20 min warm up , 20 min test and cool down. But the test i did clicked onto the 20 minute section at 13 mins on the time counter so I did 20 mins to 33 mins, but something wasn't right as i barely dipped below 180 watts but the result is 134 Watts whereas I was 195 last year.
It is confusing, anyone had experience of this?

I think I'll try the other test I supposer but how many days should I leave it? I'm 70 next birthday by the way

For Goodness Shakes used to come in single one drink sachets but it doesn't look like they are available. I used them when on holiday or touring in the mountains as they are small to carry
High Five seem to be similar, does anyone have feedback on this or other recovery sachet drinks?

After 2 years of lockdown i planned this year to return to the Alps; I've got 2 years to go to 70 so don't want to miss out. I gradually lost a stone in weight since lockdown: so was 11 stone , now 10 stone.
I began to follow a Tacx training course on the turbo in March planning for July, but family illnesses and moving house after 40 years took away the time.
I plan to go out in 5 weeks, but next week is family holiday so little time to get fit and snow in the Alps can start before end of of September.

So question 1 fitness is undercooked, but as weight is the enemy in the mountains I am wondering if the 9% weight reduction will go some way to make up for the lack of training?
question 2 is are the passes are likely to close in september or what is the latest to leave it?

I am renovating my first adult bike, a simple mountain bike cost me £200 in 1993. It had fallen into a sad, unused state in my son's garage. I might turn it into the winter and touring bike as it has all the braze-ons. Very satisfying to see it returning to health. It doesn't need much work, only new front brake arms as the plastic ring screw adjustment was broken and new stem and bars which are rusted. Otherwise everything else working smoothly, A humbrol enamel is a good colour match for the touching -up . The other components have cleaned up well. Glad it hasn't ended up in a skip, because I couldn't see anyone buying it

I'm looking at a quill stem such as this but I don't know what the figure of 80 and 100mm mean. They can't be length , too small, but can't be diameter as they are too big.
Thanks

I didn't realise a bike trainer was a bit of a hornets' nest, just that I don't have time for long rides, as i am a grandparent doing a 3/4 job as parent, so back to school runs, getting tea, taking him to friends etc.

I still use the bike for going to shops and short local runs and I also take a bike on holidays, mostly Northumberland and Scotland. Northumberland is usually fine but overrun this year so even the twisty B roads were busy with a fair share of close passing and the twisty roads caught a couple of drivers out, coming round left hand bends and coming over the white lines. Still I managed to change route to roads with not much more than tractors. Now driving, I can see drivers taking bends far too fast and going into corners as though there is never going to be anything there.

No problem on long journeys on the A roads and motorways or B roads in the car and have had some lessons with the IAM who weeren't troubled with my driving, reactions,anticipation etc. also read the Highway Code which plenty of drivers don't seem to know.

Also been out with my son's brother-in -law a former armed response police driver. So I'm comfortable with driving, it's seeing as a driver the way some other people drive, not something I took much notice of when my wife was doing the driving. I now see how much driving is a skill, anticipation,observation etc and i wouldn't expect everybody to have those skills. And I admit that I drove pretty fast everywhere when
I drove before, so I'm not sure I would like to meet my younger self at 19 on the bike. Really Incredible the things the police driver anticipated, pointing out a cyclist way,way ahead on a twisty hilly road when there was only one fleeting moment to see him ahead

I have started driving again in my 60s having not driven for 20 years.
I've always been confident on the road but seeing things from a driver's perspective and also seeing some of the sort of driving nowadays I'm uneasy.
I've always hated and avoided busy A roads so use B or unclassified roads. these often have tight, blind bends and although I am aware of cyclists it is clear that some cars are barrelling round as if nothing could be there. ok I've not really had any issues but this different prespective nevertheless leaves me uneasy.

I stay wide to enter left hand bends to give drivers behind a moment's extra time to see me and then resume normal road position. R hand bends don't have a manoeuvre to prolong the time of being in view.

I use the smart trainer mostly anyway, as Alpe d'huez in 1 1/2 hours at home for example is easier to fit in than 3 hours plus when I am a 3/4 parent to a grandson.

How do other cycling drivers feel ?