Cycling UK Forum

I did athe Etape Caledonia last year and was disappointed by the amount of gel wrappers that were dropped by the side of the road.

Depending on where you live in the country, Decathlon do a very nice racing bike that I bought for my daughter for her 8th birthday.

I used to live in Soliull, just north of Warwickshire till last year then moved to Edinburgh.

Compared to Edinburgh, Warwickshire is not hilly!

25m in a mile is not a lot. One mile is about 1600m so a 1.5% gradient. If you want less try Norfolk or Holland.

-I fly for a living and have asked a number of secuirty people recently about pedals in hand baggage. Two British airports and one German.

All said they should be ok - they are not a banned list as such.

One did say that they would look for sharp edges - a possibilty.

I could conceive some - quill type - being used as knuckle dusters - so you could fall foul there.

If you are going to europe then you should get a European Healt Insurance Card. They are the replacement of the E111 that you got from the Post Office.

It will pay some/all of the cost of helath treatment.

However, I would recommend insurance as well. Then your costs are covered, and not just health costs - if things are stolen, flights delayed etc.

You can get annual european cover for less than £50.

An aircraft tyre will aquaplane at a speed related to it tyre pressure.

The formula is aquaplanning speed (knots) = 9*sqrt(tyre pressure in psi)

Bike tyres pumped up to about 100psi = aquaplaning speed of 90kts or in excess of 100mph.

Grip should be just as good in the wet on a bike tyre.

I am always amazed at the amount of litter on the roadside which, despite what Mr Parris thinks, has been dropped by motorists.

Fast food wrappers e.g McDonalds, miles from where it must have been bought. It doesn't taste that good frersh. What it must be like luke warm doesn't bear thinking about.

I don't drop wrappers from my food bars - I carry them home or drop them in the nearest bin. Why you can't keep them in the car till you get home

I did St Malo Santander after my A-levesl in 1985 with two friends so things may have moved a bit since then.

I can't remember any particular wind factors but, the north coastline of Spain was/is very hilly.

Having 500 or so miles in our legs before crossing into Spain was a definate advantage.

I've got one of the yellow jerseys with the winged wheel.

It is great and I'm even more pleased with now I know it is a limited edition!

Here it is in action after the Norwich 100 at the weekend.

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I would like to be able to buy a replacement for it though when it gets worn out.

I think that there is a large market for retro products.

The short answer I would say is no.

The expanded answer - I don't know the compositions of the two grades of steel, but what you would need to do first is a chemical analysis.

Usually you need to have a sample of the frame (i.e. cut it up), but there are some hand held machines available - just sand off the paint work.

If the two grades are chemically different then no further tests required.

However, they may have similar composition, but different heat treatment.

You would need to look at a polished and etched sample of the steel under a microscope (i.e. cut the frame up).

18/23 steel refers to the Carbon content of the steel.

I used to work for British Steel and we supplied 18/23 steel to Tube Products in the Midlands.

I spent quite a few days at their factory watching them make it into tubes.

It is good strong steel - at the time they were making prop shafts for Bedford trucks and Jaguar cars.

For interest, the chemical specification of the steel was:

Carbon 0.18-0.23%
Silicon 0.035% max
Manganese 0.4-0.6%
Phosporus 0.025%max
Sulphur 0.01%max
Nitrogen 0.008%max
Aluminium 0.025-0.06%max

We supplied it as hot rolled pickled strip which they then cold rolled and roll formed into tube.