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Are you OK? That sort of failure can easily be fatal!

'Amalgam' in the context of Dayton means, I think, 'flash butt welded'. I believe the frame tubes were mitred, pressed together and then had an electric current passed through them which welded the whole thing together. This gave a fairly neat looking result; a lot of these bikes were bought by parents of boys who had passed the 11 plus in the 1950's.

But, a lot of these did not last out the boy's school career because the welds often broke. Perhaps it depended on how accurate the mitres were - they didn't all break. The one you're looking at has lasted about 70 years, so maybe it's a good one.

Steerer Failure

Most people, probably, would agree that steel forks (with steel steerer, naturally) are least likely to break. That's certainly my opinion.

But I have experienced a broken steel steering tube - luckily I was going uphill (rather slowly) when there was a 'click' and no more control of the front wheel!

I don't know how common failures of non steel steerers are, but I've no inclination to make any compromise on safety in this department.

Hounslow 100 Report

https://www.velouk.net/2023/05/30/tt-report-ron-brown-memorial-100/

May Lunch Report:

https://www.velouk.net/2023/05/24/news-pedal-club-lunch-may/

What an appalling story.

One thing that I find really striking is that you needed help from two public services which we assume will be available in an emergency - the police and the ambulance service.

Neither were there.

And that's in the capital city, not some deprived rust belt dump!

On a brighter note, broken collar bones usually heal up pretty well and fairly quickly. The last time (when I was already old, although possibly not sensible) I was back on my bike in about five weeks.

Grand Prix des Nations 1949

I thought that, perhaps, this picture might enliven the thread>

Rene Berton won the 1948 event and must have started as some sort of favourite in '49 - on the day he came a respectable 4th.

But what's interesting is that he rode fixed, and presumably the same in '48. Who would have thought that in the land of the derailleur (widespread use long before the war) there were still
those who had faith in fixed!

I guess a tout casser must mean something like 'shit or bust'

John Barclay & The Pedal Club

John died in his sleep last Friday night. He was ninety three years of age.

I hope you've all looked at the video Leggy Blonde posted above - it does give some idea of what a phenomenally important figure he has been in the development of British riders over the past fifty years.

It's worth mentioning that for many years the Pedal Club made a modest contribution each year to John's expenses. Since his retirement the club has looked out for promising young riders, who might have come under John's wing in the past, with a view to finding a home for the money which would previously have gone through John's hands. This is never a large sum, but we hope it may be some help to those wanting to try their luck on the continent.

The award is known as 'The John Barclay Scholarship'.

Hounslow 100

Sunday 28th May, Farnham - Alton course.

You've still just got time to enter!

Hammertone

This the generic name for the finish -'Hammerite' is just a brand name.

When I was in the trade I sprayed gallons of the stuff, and we liked using it because it covered faults in the metalwork (also the good points like nice lugwork!) and dodgy spraying (as long as we had achieved a decent pattern). Essentially it is an industrial finish and should never be used on good quality metalwork like a lightweight bike frame.

The pattern is achieved by adding silicon to metallic paint - the basic colour being silver, which is simply lacquer with aluminium powder. The silicon causes the pattern which might be described as 'pock marking' - if you examine the red sample above you can see that some of the depressions in the paint expose the base coat ( or possibly the metal substrate). Obviously this will soon start rusting.

In a nutshell: never use hammer finish on bike frames!

A Question

If our king is apolitical, how come he agreed to have his coronation on the day when it would bury the long expected bad news of the local election results?

A good point -very awkward on the Marlow Ski Slope 25, where it was difficult to find anywhere to pee once you began the long and arduous ride to the start. Possibly the writer was unaware of the H25/2.

1) Practice your starts.

If we're going to be fussy about spelling we will note that 'practice'with a 'c' is a noun, whereas 'practise' is a verb. Here it is definitely a verb. If this seems hard to remember think of 'advice' (noun) and 'advise' (verb).

'Tire' rather than 'tyre' is just the American version.

'Trialing' rather than than 'trialling' - in the sixties and probably earlier, the English cycling press generally spelt this with one 'l', but more recently the second 'l' has been added (in English anyway). Personally I think the double 'l' version looks better.

Other than the spelling there's quite a lot of good advice in this article. Point 12 on caffeine is something which has been known to racing cyclists for at least a century, but is often ignored.

It is always interesting to me that this sort of advice, usually given with great authority as if engraved on tablets of stone, varies greatly from time to time. For example, Henry Sturmey and his nine inch cranks and the sixties view that drinking anything during a race was bad.

So, at fifteen years old this advice has lasted pretty well. For me, the main fault is a complete silence on the subject of massage, but you can't have everything

Selling on behalf of my son.

Frame is Ali with carbon seat stays. 9 x 2 gearing. Not sure of size, but my son is about 6 ft and, as you can see, he has a fair amount of seat post showing. New in 2012 - we have a copy of the original sales receipt. I will check measurements and post when I have them.

Little used and in near perfect condition.

This would make an ideal entry level road race bike (with new saddle and pedals!)

Can be seen and collected from Whitechapel E1.

£400 ONO.

PM me first - I'll provide more info.

An elegant setting for an elegant bike.

Is there any particular reason you photographed your bike outside Eton College?

Just interested, like.

cycling doesn't seem as popular as it was 10 years ago

Does this need a thread of its own?

There was a time, long ago, when women were actively discouraged or actually forbidden from competing on bikes. In the 1930's my (late) clubmate Ethel Brambleby found herself banned from Border CA time trials as soon as she showed any promise - it's hard to believe that the committee dinosaurs responsible weren't worried that she would beat them!

Ethel, and many others, fought the good fight against this nonsense and eventually won. As far as I know the only all male club (I'm not sure if it can be called a cycling club) still existing is the Pickwick - and even they have the excuse that members have to adopt the name of a Pickwick character.

In spite of the success of the pro-women campaign there are still far fewer women than men in the world of cycling enthusiasts. I think this is just in the nature of things and that while I believe we should do what we can to encourage women, I don't think we should beat ourselves up because the numbers are still unequal.

Here we have an example of the weakness of expressing gears just by sprocket sizes rather than the actual gear they achieve ('development').

Because I'm old school English, I find the ancient system of expressing the gear in inches by far the easiest to understand - even though this number is, in a sense, arbitary.

I have a memory, from childhood, of sitting in a cafe and working out gears using pen, paper and long division. Now, with a calculator, it's easy - just divide the rear sprocket teeth into the front and multiply by the wheel size. So assuming a modest size 700 tyre to be about 26.5 inches:
44x16 gives 72.9 inches, but 47x18 gives 69.2.

Similar, but I know which I'd rather have to climb Highgate hill.

I'd say both are a bit on the high side for most - If we're talking single freewheel, I'd say it's probably desirable to be slightly lower than you would want for fixed: for every up there is a down!

It's really perfectly OK to have two brakes and fixed - I certainly wouldn't be happy with only a front brake.

Why?

1. Slowing down by pushing back on the pedals is extra and unnecessary effort
   
2. Any brake may fail - usually it's a broken cable, but just tonight I've come across a completely different failure.
   
3. The most difficult problem with fixed is descending - assuming your gear is low enough to climb, you will be spinning like mad going down. I don't think it's possible to slow down with your fixed at high revs, so that leaves you with one brake just when you may well need two!
   
   

I certainly don't think a single brake for a fixed wheel novice is a great idea.

Of course, if you only use the bike for flat TT courses or riding round the Heathrow perimeter road, one brake should be fine.

I've always found Weinmann 500's perfectly satisfactory. The earlier type with the domed nut at the front of the spindle would be less noticeably anachronistic than the later type with the plastic 'shroud'.

You'll be in good company - I'm pretty sure Alf's sub 50 minute bike used them.

I've just realised there are two links for this thread I should have posted some time ago.

Vin Denson - I think the excellence of Vin's pro career has not really been recognised. He wasn't a prolific winner of big races, but when you ride for Anquetil and Van Looy (who are going to do nearly all the winning themselves!) that's only to be expected. Let off the leash once in a while, he could score victories.

Even now, at the age of 87, he is still an entertaining companion.

https://www.velouk.net/2023/03/28/news-vin-denson-signs-the-golden-book/

https://www.velouk.net/2023/03/21/the-pedal-club-march-report/

Your Holdsworth looks promising!

Do you plan to use it? What sort of riding do you have in mind?

Why not just drill out the existing holes so that the standard metric bolt fits through, then use a nut to secure everything. Probably neatest to put the head of the bolt on the inside of the fork end. A star washer (or similar) will help to keep it tight.

Now done - thanks again for your input.

This was really annoying for me - in general I've spent quite a bit of time recently writing in French for one reason and another, and normally I'm careful to check the genders are correct - in this case I had it fixed in my mind that I knew the name.......and I didn't!