News for January 7

Giula Occhini

     On January 6, 1993, Giulia Occhini, better known as la Dama
     Bianca, died in the hospital at Novi Ligure. Giulia was Fausto
     Coppi's companion during his lifetime.

     Giulia was 69 years old and had been the victim of a serious
     highway accident on 3 August 1991. She had been in an
     irreversible coma for 522 days.

     The love story of Fausto Coppi and Giulia Occhini was recently
     portrayed in a film "Grande Fausto." It was recently aired on RAI
     (Italian Tele) and Ornella Muti played Giulia and Sergio
     Castellitto played the role of Fausto Coppi.

Source: la Gazzetta dello Sport

Cuts in the 3 Major Tours Sought

  Verbruggen has stated that he wants to see the Giro, Tour and Vuelta
  reduced to 18 days maximum by the year 2000.


  Indurain: "The Giro must remain as it is."

  Merckx: "A reduction (in length) would not motivate me at all."

  Echavarri: "This is going to cause confusion."

  Stanga: "He should go back to the old calendar."

  Fiorenzo Magni: "E Una Verbruggenata/He's up to his tricks again."

        The old "Lion of Flanders" is obviously extremely upset.....

                 "If he reduces the Big Three to 18 days, what is he
                 going to do with the Tour of Switzerland and the
                 other National Tours? Reduce the down to the size of
                 The Four Days of Dunkerque?

  Gino Bartali: "Nothing he (Verbruggen) does surprises me any more."

Australian rider signs with Selle Italia Glacial

     DAMIAN FORSTER, a young Australian rider, number three in the
     Australian Championship won by ONCE rider Neil Stephens will be
     joining the Selle Italia-Glacial squad directed by Gianni Savio.

     Forster, 22 years old will ride the Summer Tour of Van Diemans
     Land (Tasmania) from January 23 to January 28. On 10 February he
     will join his new team for training in Tuscany.

Rominger Hopes To Further Hour Record

   Jan. 5 - World Hour record holder Tony Rominger announced that he
   plans to attack his current record later this year. The Swiss, who
   has also indicated that he intends to make 1996 his final
   professional season, is set to travel to Mexico in October for a
   record attempt at altitude. The existing record of 55.291 km was
   set in late 1994 at sea level in Bordeaux and has withstood an
   attempt at altitude from former record holder Miguel Indurain.

   "If I have the form I had in 1994," he said, "I hope to take the
   record beyond 56.6 kilometers." As in previous attempts, Rominger
   will ride a Colnago frame, which is already in production in Italy.
   The Swiss has not yet decided whether he will defend his Giro
   d'Italia title this year or make a concerted bid for victory in the
   Tour de France.

Danish Disease - the Mystery Continues

    Three months after contracting a mystery virus at the Worlds in
    Colombia, no diagnosis has been made yet of the illness which has
    prevented Alex Pedersen and Christian Andersen from resuming
    training.

    Apparently a virus somewhat like meningitis, the affliction leaves
    them with no power and they are completely exhausted after an hour
    of even moderate effort.

Bauer Heads Home

   Jan. 5 - European veteran Steve Bauer, one of the pioneering
   figures of North American cycling, is expected to race in America
   this year following his release by Motorola at the end of the 1995
   season.

   Bauer, who has already moved out of his house in Belgium, is said
   to have been talking to both the Saturn team and renowned coach
   Eddie Borysewicz, manager of the new U.S. Postal Team. So far, no
   official contract signing has been announced.

Olano and Indurain riding a Six Day

    World Champion Abraham Olano and five-time Tour de France winner
    Miguel Indurain are scheduled to meet on the track at the Six
    Hours of Euskadi in San Sebastian, Spain, on Feb. 3.

1999 Worlds Bid

    The Spanish town of Sabinanigo, which hosted a stage finish for
    the 1995 Tour of Spain, is expected to bid for the 1999 World Road
    Championships.

Custom framebuilder Greg Fuquay on TITANIUM

  Titanium has jumped up as a frame building material in recent years
  for some very good reasons, and some questionable ones.

  Ti has several very desirable traits, starting with density. Ti is a
  `light' metal, roughly half the density of steel, although it's
  roughly twice the weight of aluminium. Plus it has high strength
  with ultimate tensile strengths (hereafter referred to as UTS) of
  90,000 psi to 150,000 psi in the 3Al/2.5V variety most used in
  framebuilding . Yield strengths range between 75,000 psi to 130,000
  psi.

  Low density and high strength give Ti that vital strength to weight
  ratio. It outscores all other aerospace metals in this important
  scale. Add this to the high elongation and the best fatigue strength
  and you see the appeal. Ti also has the lowest coefficient of
  thermal expansion of the main framebuilding metals. Er... it's less
  prone to distortion when welded.

  What I like most about Ti is its fantastic corrosion resistance (it
  just won't rust), so it doesn't need painting.

  So, strengths: Ti is strong (almost but not quite as strong as
  steel) light (lighter than steel but heavier than aluminium)
  corrosion resistant and fatigue resistant.

  The weak points?

  Titanium has a low modulus of elasticity, half as stiff as steel. It
  can be argued that this is overcome by oversizing with just a little
  weight gain.

  Joining it together is a little problematic compared to other
  metals. Ti doesn't react with much of anything in day to day use,
  but at temperatures above 400 degrees C it absorbs oxygen and
  becomes brittle. Contamination of any kind will lead to brittle
  failures; even a finger print will lead to a failure. Those guys in
  the Ti builder ads aren't wearing those clean white gloves to brush
  up on Al Jolson impressions. Everything must be clean and the
  joining must be done in an inert atmosphere to exclude all
  contaminants.

  If performed correctly, there's usually less strength lost than in
  the welding of steel. Machining Ti is harder than normal; it has a
  tendency to gall and smear and the swarf will weld itself to the
  cutters if cutting temperatures are high. Cutting must be done with
  sharp cutters and at comparatively low speeds.

  The biggest downer is cost. The process necessary to arrive at Ti is
  very energy intensive. Lots of unique steps and lots of electricity.

  If you could get the tubing at the same price as steel, the final
  frame would still be more expensive. Every step of production
  becomes an accountant's nightmare. Machining is more time consuming,
  welding uses far more Argon (shielding gas) and Ti welding rods cost
  as much to produce as anything else Ti. At least you don't pay for
  paint...

  Types of Titanium

  The main types used in frame building are quite a small group, and
  are defined by their alloy.

  6Al/4V: the original aerospace alloy, 6% aluminium and 4% vanadium
  make this the strongest Ti. UTS of 160,000 psi and yields of 145,000
  psi. Used in frames mostly in dropouts. There is no commercially
  produced 6/4 tubing in bike sizes, but some companies are now
  producing frames from 6Al/4V doing the forming themselves or
  building in a monocoque way.

  The difficulty in forming 6Al/4V gave rise to 3Al/2.5V: in order to
  lighten aircraft hydraulic systems, a more workable, high strength
  Ti was needed, so a leaner alloy was developed. This is the alloy
  most bikes are made of. A variety of tube sizes are available as
  3Al/2.5V is used in a multitude of different hydraulic systems. It's
  available in a range of strengths from Annealed (UTS 99,000 psi) to
  CWSR (cold worked stress relieved) with 130,000 psi UTS. This is the
  proven titanium, used for longer on bikes with greater success than
  any other.

  CP titanium: commercially pure titanium has been used for bikes
  before (anyone remember the '70s?) but this didn't work out too well
  and as a result the stuff doesn't have such a good reputation.
  Generally, CP Ti is much below the strength of the alloys, with UTS
  of 80,000 psi and yield strength of 70,000 psi for CP Ti-70 and much
  lower for some other grades.

  There are some Russian and Chinese titaniums being used in bikes,
  but my knowledge of them is limited. US reports suggest that
  consistency of strength between lots is poor. Could be a vested
  interest thing, but most US businesses would buy from anyone if it
  was cheaper and as good a quality as they get now and I don't see
  many of them using it.

  Ti Myths

  Learn to look at frame materials from a more analytical view. Metal
  is just a collection of chemicals. They all have their own
  characteristics and none perform outside the laws of physics, it's
  just a matter of understanding characteristics and limitations.

  The biggest myth is Ti doesn't break. It can. When I was known as
  Sergeant Fuquay, I replaced several hundred pounds in weight of
  broken Ti parts, mostly 6Al/4V, in Uncle Sam's aircraft. Like any
  material, if designed to its limits, in any structure, it will
  break. It is designing well within its limits and having a good
  understanding of those limits that has so far given titanium such a
  good record of reliability in the bike industry.

  Will titanium bikes one day be owned by the masses? No. It's in its
  nature to be more expensive with its extravagant production
  processes.

  Apart from that, not everyone wants the ride it provides and the
  ride is what it is really about. Some like steel, some like
  aluminium, some like non-metallic things. That's what makes this
  stuff interesting.

Coming Up: Exotica - TIG welding

43 years later the world championship in Lugano

  Forty three years after Fausto Coppi's triumph the world championship
  will be held in Lugano, Switzerland. To remember the "Campionissimo"
  the circuit will be exactly the same as 43 years ago and will be 256
  Km long. We will see again the Crespera climb, where Fausto Coppi
  won the world championship in 1953