We have seen Paul Cheetham around on facebook for some time, with some pretty cool photos and we know that he is an avid track cyclist, who just never seems to get tired of being in the saddle and on the track. It's a great attitude that we all aspire to and we thought we'd share a bit of info about this rider who knows a thing or two about putting the power down.
 

Paul: My day job is for Manchester City Football Club and I ride mostly track at Masters level nationally and internationally. I ride on the road in the summer doing regional circuit and road races and the odd time trial.

I just enjoy riding my bike, i don't see training as a chore or task to be completed, i ride and race because to be honest, i love it ! it's great that my kids ride (luke rides a pro-lite road bike too) and hopefully they'll get the enjoyment out of cycling throughout the rest of their lives whether they choose to take competing seriously or not.

PL: What type of racing do you do?

Paul: Track, Road and the odd TT. I raced in the mid-eighties as a junior with a good degree of success and returned to serious racing a couple of years ago although i've always ridden bikes for fun. 

PL: What got you interested in racing?

Paul: I raced BMX as a kid then got a road bike and joined Manchester Wheelers as a schoolboy and progressed from there with coaching from Harrold Nelson BEM. If it's got two wheels, I'll ride it! On the track I ride a Moda Arcon from Eurobike.uk.com with Pro-Lite Padova Disc and Pro-Lite Rome 5 spoke front wheel and a BMC ProMachine on the road, again with Pro-Lite wheels. My TT bike is a Giant with Pro-Lite TT bars.

The beauty of the Pro-Lite Padova disc is that it comes with a hub conversion kit which means I can use both that and the Rome 5 spoke on my TT bike on the road too. They are a truely exceptional pair of wheels which meet my needs perfectly. Pro-Lite products offer great, top end quality and look the part too !

PL: Anyone who has seen your fb page has seen the great shots of you riding with your team.

Paul: the team is relatively new and was set up by howard pedder who has been around the racing scene in the north west for ever ! we have a squad of twelve riders covering everything from road, track, time trials, xc mtb and downhill. the team was set up via tameside cyclesports and has had a fair chunk of success this year. jody warrington has had a win and a few top five placings, sam pedder has and a number of top five placings, i have had wins on the road and track plus a number of top five five placings. 

PL: Where can we read more about you and your team? 

Paul: www.base2racecycles.co.uk is registered with British Cycling as a trade team and you can find out more about the team and riders on facebook and we have a feeder team Tameside Cyclesports.

we work as a team, supporting the rider with specific objectives in any given race or sometimes the rider who is strongest on the day. it really is all about the team and we have a good support network via the team's website and facebook to share results and encourage each other. Paul's pics were taken by Lee Watson.

So we get asked this one a lot.

Can I use <BrandX> brake pads on PL wheels? or Can I use PL brake pads on <BrandX> wheels?

No.
Braking performance affects two elements equally. One is the brake pad. One is the braking surface.

During braking, the kinetic energy of your momentum is changed by means of friction into heat energy.

On an aluminum rim, much of this heat is conducted away through the natural properties of the metal.

On a carbon rim, there is no conductivity. The heat will just sit there on the braking surface.

Under heavy braking, the heat will build up very high. This can damage the rim materials. Additionally, it can melt the brake pad. If the pad actually melts, it can coat the braking surface and cause surface damage. Although the cause of damage is different, both can make the rim unsuitable for use and both can void warranties.

There are only two ways to deal with this: 1 - conduct heat away or 2 - use materials with higher heat tolerances.

Since metal bonds very poorly to epoxy polymers, adding a metal surface in most cases will add too much weight to the rim to be practical. Further, just adding a tiny strip of metal won't really help because the heat has nowhere to go. The heat will still build up very quickly unless you add a heatsink and/or cooling fins. This just adds more weight and lowers aerodynamic performance.

Hence the alternative is to use different materials. Not all of them work in the same way.

On PL wheels, the braking surface is made of a layer of basalt fiber.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basalt_fiber

This gives a heat buffer that protects the epoxy polymer of the rim from damage.

That just leaves the brake pad.

If the brake pad melting temperature is too low, it will melt.

If the brake pad melting temperature is not too low, there are other ways that it can cause damage. One way is to be too hard. This will cause physical damage to the braking surface. Alternately, the brake pad can be made softer. This will increase the 'grabbiness' of the brake pad. However, this will increase friction and therefore will increase temperature buildup.

Hence, the characteristics of a brake pad lie in a very fine balance.

What works on one rim may not work on another.

We cannot say what works on a Mavic rim or a Campagnolo rim or whatever, since we don't make Mavic's rims or Campagnolo's either. We do make rims for some other companies, but we don't disclose which ones and even when we do, they are always made to their specifications, so compatibility is always their call.

If you have another brand's wheel and want to use our pad on that rim, you could ask them if our brake pads work on their rims (we have tested other brands pads on our own wheels, but the results are invariably worse, not better), but given the cost of a set of brake pads compared with a new set of rims, it is difficult to see any practical benefit to not just using their pads for their wheels.

It's not a case of 'better/worse', simply a case of balancing the characteristics of the pad to match the heat handling characteristics of the rim.

What about aluminum rims? Can I use <XX> pads on <XX> aluminum rims?
As observed above, aluminum rims are much more forgiving, so heat buildup is not generally an issue. You may use whichever brake pads you choose on pretty much any aluminum rims.

Having said that, the primary difference from pad to pad will be braking performance. Some brake pads do work better than others, so you may wish to experiment to find your favorites.

PL Blue brake pads have been tested for use with aluminum rims and offer good to very good performance. Easily better than average.

If you have no carbon braking surface equipped wheels, you can feel free to try the blue pads out on your standard aluminum rims and know that you won't suffer any performance penalty.

They were not designed for an aluminum braking surface, so you might find other high performance pads that you like better for this usage, but you won't be disappointed with the blue pads either.

For quite a few years now, Steve has been supporting Taiwan as the most important center for serious bicycle manufacturing in the world. With the ability to manufacture top quality parts with diverse material choices and the centralized experience and knowledge base, this is simply the best place to be right now. And the importance of that is that building on the momentum from current successes, we have an unbeatable opportunity to do business like at no other time in the history of the bicycle.

Gathering our strengths to a single time and place is what Taichung Bike Week is all about and has become in the minds of the many CEO's and managers that have come to view it as an indispensible part of the industry calendar.

Sincere thanks to Bicycle Retailer for this award and for the support they have given for the event.