Any question answered...

They are user serviceable. Details on the CK website.

Yeah I saw that, I meant to replace rather than service but I might as well give that a go and see how they feel first

Yes they are serviceable, there's a snap ring which conceals the bearings and you can see a slit which you can lift the ring up. Clean thoroughly and repack with grease and reassemble.

Done it before and I used SuperLube marine grade grease.

The bearings aren't user-replaceable, no. They're proprietary and pressed very firmly into place.

Ok so “serviced” them as per CK website. Bottom cup now fairly smooth again, top one remains stiff and notchy but not any worse than it was so overall not too bad I suppose

I'd say shift ramps.

Cool, that was what I figured. It’s just been a while since I did any geared stuff!

There was another photo of the back of the cassette where it was more obvious that there was a pattern of two ‘shaped’ teeth/ramps then 5 normal ones repeating around the whole cog so that convinced me it wasn’t wear and I bought it.

Good to have my hypothesis confirmed!

A mate is looking for a bike.
Single ring up front.
Flat bars.
Like a tasty Dad bike.

Where should we be looking?

Where should we be looking?

Decathlon probably

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/500-hybrid-bike-red-id_8577822.html

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/C-376962-hybrid-and-touring-bikes?opeco=VF4&type=Cycling_UniversePage

also stuff like https://www.decathlon.co.uk/rc-120-flat-bar-disc-road-bike-blue-id_8556195.html

Here's a photo of a new UN55, the washer came off the axle.

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Where should we be looking?

From the other's link, this one impressed me with it's value.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/riverside-120-hybrid-bike-id_8405304.html

Cube SL Road Pro

(You did mention tasty, but not budget, those decathlon are anything but tasty, but def budget)

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cube have some nice belt drive models too

But the belt they use is the shit plastic one so if you put any kind of power out beat avoid.

On One bootzipper
Comes in 29er or 650b flavours.
You can change some bits on ordering to switch out risers for flats, etc.

I bought some NOS 90's LX shifters, the factory grease has dried out and one of the pawls in the shifter body is sticking intermittently. Is there a forum approved product that will free them up/lubricate them?

Is that recent? I could have sworn the one I was admiring had a gates carbon belt

Until it was commandeered by the Gammons for sticking down their comb-overs
i thought the Forum-Approved solvent for every application was Unicorn jizz?

Gates do 2 levels. CDX and CDN.

CDX is the carbon belt, ~20000km belt.

CDN is the cheap shit version.

They look very similar.

CDN uses a plastic cog where CDX uses a metal cog, that’s an easy way to spot it.

Blog post here

White Spirit might be a good start,
but,
not the 'Low Odour; version as that has all the solvency.
Toolstation, operating an online 'Click'n'Collect' service item number 69849 £2.65 for 750ml.

gotcha, good to know. Thanks

Spray a load of GT 85 or similar in them.

Yeah, I GT85 a bunch of old shifters every winter and they work fine. A strip and regrease is probably better if you're going to be using them a lot on a nice bike but it a squirt and some shifting up and down is easy and works for most stuff.

The upgrade is expensive but we recently successfully warrantied a CDN (Destroyed in a few months by a big guy) and they sent a CDX with metal cog to replace (nice surprise)