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We had a similar tandem multiple leap off/ manoeuvre round/ leap on near the start of the Lincolnshire Poacher 400 on the weekend. Happily that won’t be needed at PBP.

Standard option is a short rear rack over the rear wheel and small panniers.

Have you considered a small transverse bag almost directly above your bars?

It is the stoker’s tandem and he is in charge of equipping the beast. I used to be a shop mechanic and my preference is to carry everything needed.

The tandem will be swapped from 3x9 to 2x11 tomorrow and the cranks and BBs are also getting replaced. I will see what kit is on the tandem on Friday evening before our 300 at 06:00 Saturday.

Frame sizing on tandems is less critical than on solos, provided you can get your saddles and handlebars in the right places. Unusual stem lengths, etc have an almost irrelevant effect on handling because of the effects of the increased weight and wheelbase.

Many folk prefer slightly shorter and/or more upright positions on tandems to help with maintaining control over a heavy bike with a jiggling live cargo (captain) or to get some separation between nose and captain’s back (stoker). Tandem aerodynamics mean that individual aero optimisation is less critical.

I would wait a couple of days before mentioning the Wessex SR weekend. She won’t have to worry about too much flat riding.

The Arrow was our shakedown ride, not a PBP qualifier. Steve’s 300 qualifier is next Saturday and the 400 a fortnight later. I did my 300 a few weeks ago in Qld (>35 degrees was a bit tough).

Your young lady having 8 and 10mm Allen keys to hand stopped my brain from exploding with worry, so a good move there on your part.

A few things. The levers are faster to spin than the stock levers. The SpedDial clamps compensate for more hinge wear than the stock clamps. The locknuts limit unwinding the levers at exactly the point to fold the hinges. The reassuringly expensive cost almost always results in a knowing nod between aficionados. The last point is obviously the most important.

Sorry, that wasn’t deliberate.

It was the first time this tandem team had even ridden together and we were worried about dragging up the hills and overly slowing the Arrow team through the first 100km.

It was good that we finished comfortably in time, even with a 35 minute delayed start and a noticeably over-distance route. I was impressed by every team member during the brevet.

Mr Brown was correct. I ran Biopace fixed for a few months (for a laugh) last century. The chain tension variation wasn’t different from that caused by the cheap chainrings and cogs I tended to use while a penniless student oaf.

I have had a set for a couple of years and haven’t regretted it. Not cheap though.

Fixed tandem with just a front brake? A touch braver than this little black duck.

You may want to realign the cranks to make out of the saddle riding a touch easier. The timing cranks look to be 1-2 teeth out of sync.

I will be on the front of another tandem for the Amble.

I remember seeing this once, spring loaded between the crank and spider to mimic the feel of Biopace chainrings, I think. Possibly somebody has replaced the springs with rigid sleeves to lock out the mechanism.

You may be out of luck. The Young Lady may have ditched them already.

It will be another week before I am back in the UK and can dig them out.

‘Chalking’ is the colloquial term for the UV degradation of polymers because the surface often changes colour and become less adhered to the substrate (powdery).

UV does not penetrate deeply into most polymers and it is a surface effect for EPS. Material at depth is shaded by the overlying material, even if the overlying material is degraded. Any degradation 0.2mm thick has basically no effect on the mechanical properties (crushing resistance) of a 30mm thick piece of EPS.

In any case, carbon black is a cheap and common UV stabilising agent added to EPS which inhibits chalking. Most helmets use dark EPS but the raw EPS colour is white. Most temporary EPS transport packaging within cardboard boxes is white but no UV stabilisation is required.

Start with https://springerplus.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/2193-1801-2-398 and see how you get on but I am becoming pretty bored with this.

https://helmets.org/up1505a.htm and https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/biomechanical/article-abstract/138/4/041005/371203/Age-Does-Not-Affect-the-Material-Properties-of might give you some reassurance that I am not bullshitting you but I am not holding my breath.

You are confused by a couple of aspects of EPS degradation vs. helmet degradation.

EPS that is unprotected from UV, whether by UV-stabilisation or by being covered by something else (e.g. opaque paint on a polycarbonate shell), is degraded by such exposure. This is known as chalking. Coloured EPS (as used in cycle helmets) usually indicates UV stabilisation.

UV does not penetrate deeply into a thick EPS layer = much less than a millimetre. Provided the chalked EPS is not removed/ abraded, the underlying material won’t be degraded by UV. A 30mm thick EPS layer that is unprotected from UV will be largely unaffected and the mechanical properties of the entire layer (= crushing under impact) will be virtually unchanged.

From your third link:
“Polystyrene degrades very slowly in nature and the expanded polystyrene is not easily recyclable because of its lightweight and low scrap value. It is generally not accepted in curbside programs. Expanded polystyrene foam takes 900 years to decompose in the environment and has been documented to cause starvation in birds and other marine wildlife.”

On the other hand, glue and other non-EPS helmet materials may degrade over time (rusty rivets!) and rough treatment may accumulate scratches and dents in the EPS layer. Precrushed EPS will fail a helmet impact test, so that is why cycle helmet manufacturers advise replacement at fairly frequent intervals. To prevent excessive accumulation of dents from rough treatment, glue disbonding and so on.

Aside from poor design decisions by helmet designers (glue only needs to last 3 years, rusty rivets, etc.), provided the helmet looks ok, it is fine to keep using it, though your sense of smell might influence your decision.

I don’t have a link to that study to hand but I read the report years ago. https://road.cc/content/feature/when-should-you-replace-your-cycling-helmet-241993 gives a summary.

EPS basically doesn’t degrade over time, except chalking of the surface exposed to UV, if it hasn’t been UV-stabilised. Surface chalking has minimal effect on the mechanical properties of a thick EPS layer. There was a study in 2015 with impact tests of in-use cycle helmets that ranged over two decades old and no performance degradation was found.

Rusty rivets is a stupid design choice.

Maybe. The shift cables cut through the body on both 505 levers (hence replaced) but they may still be lurking in the broken bits pile. I won’t be back in the UK for a fortnight though.

Free of course.

Yes

Diamond grade is the most reflective (>60% reflected) but it is quite stiff and doesn’t stretch, so don’t try to fit it around tight corners or compound curves. Pretty easy to buy diamond grade self-adhesive tape in various colours.

Given that any Mavic cranks have been in use for at least a couple of decades, don’t be surprised if the cranks ride further up the taper than when brand new.

The other option to end up with a narrow Italian BB shell (other than overfacing) is that the original English threads got munched and somebody recut the shell to Italian threads.

Use a 70mm Italian BB and put a 1mm spacer under the fixed cup’s lip. You may want to use a low strength loctite for the fixed cup at least.

I thought Mavic BBs were JIS.