Any question answered...

Heat treatment doesn't (substantially) affect Young's Modulus does it? So the 31.8 is stiffer.

So the 31.8

FWIW, a 31.8mm OD tube only needs a wall thickness of 2.2mm to be as stiff as a solid 26.0mm bar. A 31.8mm OD tube with a wall thickness of 1.6mm is as stiff as a 26.0mm OD tube with a wall thickness of 4mm

What are they made of and what’s the heat treatment?
Heat treating mild steel will do little.(the larger diameter still wins)
I’ve made a few small leaf springs recently the heat treatment then relaxing process is really tricky. At the end you give them a squeeze with a pair of pliers and they might squash, they might shatter and bits fly across the garage or you might have done it just right.

This one?

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15231858/

I’m thinking about something like a Ritchey neo classic 31.8 compared to a Nitto bar with 26mm clamp but heat treated.

it's a clever bodge to limit the problems otherwise inherent in a simple single pivot suspension design unworkable at the time as shocks were total garbage

Looking at it...is it a URT? The BB can't be attached to the swing arm or you'll lock your suspension out when you stand on the pedals. Or is it? Every time I look at it I can't really tell what's going on.

I very much doubt the Ritchey doesn't have heat treatment too. Either way, the Ritchey will be stiffer.

is it a URT?

It's a URT with an EBB which is free to rotate, with the rotation controlled by a dog bone joining the EBB to the downtube. It partially compensates for the BB movement otherwise inherent in URTs. I have no idea why they think it's an improvement on a single pivot swinging fork.

but heat treated

All the aluminium alloys commonly used in bicycle parts are solution heat treated and artificially aged, nearly always to the T6 or similar condition. If somebody chooses to draw attention to that, it's only because they have nothing else to say.

I've heard some people who prefer a stiffer bar as it is more responsive and others who prefer a bar with 26mm clamp who have said it reduces some road vibration.
Any thoughts on that?

Any thoughts on that?

Perceived ride and handling differences between 31.8 and 26.0 are placebo effects. The effects fall below the threshold of human perception if you have the right tyre pressure, mostly because fat bars exploit geometry to obtain similar stiffness to thin ones while being lighter, rather than using the same amount of material to make a substantially stiffer product. There is a small aero gain from using thin bars if they are tubes of circular cross section, but it's irrelevant because nobody chasing the aeros would use round metal tubes anyway.

YES!

Cheers.

How about these as an example:
Rene herse bars, same bar, different clamp size. The 31.8 is a couple of grams heavier. Does this suggest extra material / stiffness?
[31.8]

Does this suggest extra material / stiffness?

Well, if it's heavier then there's extra material 🙂

Bars are tapered in both OD and wall thickness, so you'd need a detailed model to see exactly how much stiffer the 31.8 version is. Bear in mind that once you're past the "ferrule", both bars will be the same (~23.8mm) OD and most likely the same wall thickness. Unless you have something like the old Pro Vibe which was 31.8 OD all the way to the first corner, the bending stiffness of a handlebar is going to be dominated by the long grip section, not the short clamping section.

Any thoughts on that?

Post-rationalisation to justify buying decision. If you're that good/fast that the difference between the two is actually appreciable, then your Pro team is already providing you with the bike courtesy of their sponsors.

Ha I know what you mean. But this time at least it's not to justify more purchasing. I was just curious.
Personally I like the aesthetic of skinny tubes, quill stems and 26.0 bars.

In that case, I'd recommend a bike with skinny tubes, a quill stem and 26mm bars.

I'll have to bite the bullet and buy a book.

I just had another look, and the only published volume of translation listed on Wikipédia is this:

Vision et prière, poèmes traduits par le poète Alain Suied, coll. Poésie Gallimard

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas

This is his version of 'Do Not Go ...':

N’entre pas sans violence dans cette bonne nuit (Do not go gentle into that good night)

N’entre pas sans violence dans cette bonne nuit,
Le vieil âge devrait brûler et s’emporter à la chute du jour ;
Rager, s’enrager contre la mort de la lumière.

Bien que les hommes sages à leur fin sachent que l’obscur est mérité,
Parce que leurs paroles n’ont fourché nul éclair ils
N’entrent pas sans violence dans cette bonne nuit.

Les hommes bons, passée la dernière vague, criant combien clairs
Leurs actes frêles auraient pu danser en un verre baie
Ragent, s’enragent contre la mort de la lumière.

Les hommes violents qui prient et chantèrent le soleil en plein vol,
Et apprenant, trop tard, qu’ils l’ont affligé dans sa course,
N’entrent pas sans violence dans cette bonne nuit.

Les hommes graves, près de mourir, qui voient de vue aveuglante
Que leurs yeux aveugles pourraient briller comme météores et s’égayer,
Ragent, s’enragent contre la mort de la lumière.

Et toi, mon père, ici sur la triste élévation
Maudis, bénis-moi à présent avec tes larmes violentes, je t’en prie.
N’entre pas sans violence dans cette bonne nuit.

Rage, enrage contre la mort de la lumière.

Traduction d’Alain Suied Dylan Thomas Vision et prière Gallimard COLL. POÉSIE -

https://www.espritsnomades.net/litterature/dylan-thomas-flamboyant-jusqu-a-la-brulure/

It's evidently a poor translation (one of undoubtedly loads without rhymes because people find rendering it in villanelle too difficult), so I doubt I'd bother with trying to find a book. Sometimes, with poetry you just have to accept that it's either untranslatable or just hasn't been translated properly yet. Obviously, there may be a better one somewhere.

N’entre pas sans violence dans cette bonne nuit (Do not go gentle into that good night)

sans violence looks clumsy, even my schoolboy French offers doucement. By introducing violence in line one, he has tipped us off about the rage which comes later, which kills the effect.

Well, yes, but I wouldn't even say that that's the main issue with this. I find it astonishing that it got published. As I said before, I'd have a go, but I don't trust myself with translating into French. Perhaps someone will turn up a better one somewhere.

Advice on an inexpensive HR option for swimming?

There are lots of super cheap wrist-watch style options out there, but some first hand experience could help. Just want something I can get HR data from, and then add to intervals.icu to track load (or just upload via strava if it's tracking HR data for swimming). If I could also use it while climbing, that would be a bonus, but not sure I'll want to climb with anything on my wrist in the long run.

I do have a waterproof strap, so I guess another option is getting an Android smart watch that has apps I can sync that with?

Been feeling a bit to much weight on my hands on the bike recently. If I move the saddle back about a cm or so, is that enough to make a difference?

I was a minute away from disc cutting the frame in half to take it to the tip. After much huffing and puffing and sweating I can now say it's a Swiss bottom bracket. I think the bearing cups will be okay, just need a new spindle and ball bearings.

Whew, good job - I went back and forth for weeks trying to get an old bb out of an alu frame (eventually successfully) but at least there was no question as to the threading!

Frame geometry / handling question:

This may be nonsense and completely circumstantial and my own bloody fault (it is that, I agree).

I've ended up in A&E once in the last 30,000km odd km of cycling (this was today).

I've ended up off the bike hard enough to remember it 3 times in same time (including today).

Two times were on my Surly cross check, and both were my fault.

One time was on my Lynskey R230 and arguably only partially my fault - I went round a corner which turned out to be muddy and greasy and the bike slid out from beneath me. I think there was oil / deisel as well as mud on the road.

So, on the Surly, both times I've lost the front wheel and it's whipped round and ended up under the downtube.

First time I was going slowly and just did something stupid which unbalanced the bike and I came off.

Today I was coming down a shallow incline, thoughts were miles away, I was nearly home after a 3 hour ride. Hit a bit of a bump in the road which knocked either one or both of my hands off the bars, next thing I know the wheel's tucked under and I'm heading to the tarmac face first at around 25-30kph. Which hurt, a lot.

So my question is, is there something about the geometry of the Surly which makes the front wheel less inclined to track back into a straight line after receiving a shock?