Any question answered...

I question whether moving away from steel is appropriate for that interface

It's fine, people have got away with Ti and even aluminium skewers. Modern hub axles are stiffer than old skinny steel ones, carbon forks are usually stiffer in lateral flexion than old lightweight steel ones, the QR clamping force holding the whole edifice together is more than adequate.

The only people who actually need QR wheels are pros with following cars, and they have abandoned them since the manufacturers forced disc brakes on them for commercial reasons. The only people who are not better off with disc brakes are pros with following cars...

Not into discs at all, despite their advantages. Do not like. Don't like squeals, sensitivity to contamination, hydraulic hassles or constant cable adjustment (although hybrid is a great compromise on that score), pad rub at the drop of a hat, otherwise unnecessary and asymmetric frameset reinforcement, front wheel dish and minimum 24h, fugly rotors and hydro levers.

That's a longer list of cons than consumable rims, limited wet braking and possibly inferior modulation, although those are admittedly bigger cons. I like the purity, but not an absolutist since I'm down with Di2.

And yeah, not interested in QRs, but allen head or anti theft skewers are a lovely way to secure a wheel (even though I do feel it's a bit light-on).

It's an Armour. More here: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/315918/

I dont want to spend a lot making 2 stickers you see, but it will have to be the way

pad rub at the drop of a spoke.

Sounds like you've just ridden shit or badly set up discs, hydraulics are pretty much fit and forget. If you're just doing roady/fixie shit then a good rim brake is plenty good enough, just not as good.

grumpy middle aged man alert.

mmm so i want a smartwatch but i dont want a smartwatch..... my trusty Suunto T3C from many a year back is eating batteries and has plenty of battle scars - generally i put on the HR belt once a year for a few months but have basically used it as a digital watch and it (used to) last years on a battery

i want to replace

but i dont want a fitness watch that i have to charge every night or get bothered with notifications from everyone every second.

but actually i'd like to track runs and rides, but just time/speed and maybe HR - i'm assuming wrist HR would do? or perhaps i should stick with/get a newer chest HR.

digital or analogue face , dont mind

does anything like this even exist?

ta.

Withings?

One of the running Garmins will do that. It’s the venu's etc that are smart watches, the forerunners are fairly dumb.
Forerunner 45 or similar

The GPS tech thread is a good place to get fuller info on this, but on the charging point, I upgraded a decent but old Suunto for a Forerunner 945 over Christmas and couldn't / still can't believe the battery life (and is far from the best of the bunch on that score) - it easily goes well over a week without charging, that's even with a few tracked runs and rides during the week. And the quality and features of it are quite amazing... recommended getting up-to-date (and yep the watch records HR the whole time you're wearing it).

Get a Garmin something. My Fenix 5x is coming up for 4 years old and needs charging less than once a week. If you don't want notifications you can switch those off.

I just bought a second-hand Garmin Vivoactive 3 for £68 from CEX. Yes, I gave it a good wash.

Battery lasts about a week tracking wrist HR 24 hours a day.

A lot less if you use GPS though, which is optional for explicitly tracked activities. As others have said you can turn off notifications, in fact most default to off.

Coros Pace 2 is great, and you can (I have) turned off all phone related notifications etc. so it's just a GPS fitness watch, which does HR full time, and with my 2 daily commutes and the odd Parkrun it'll last a full week on a charge. Also got the option of setting the screen to look like a simple analogue watch or an all-singing all-dancing screen of a million different digital stats - there's lots of styles to choose from in the app. Recommended!

Amazfit bip, great battery life, change the clock face to whatever you want more or less

https://www.amazfit.com/en/bip

Pair with the notify and fitness app for optimum usability

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mc.amazfit1&hl=en_GB&gl=US

I got a Vivoactive 3 in 2019 and the feeble battery is pretty much my only complaint (that and the accuracy of distance when swimming lengths is a bit suspect, occasionally). I’d get a s/h Fenix if I were looking to get another Garmin, tho.

I could send you some spare paper. I only used one sheet for my project. It's about 20 years old, I don't know whether it has a shelf life

Edit: I've had a look at it and it seems in excellent condition. It's been dry stored. Send me a SAE and it's yours.

Fascinating! I've never heard of sliding dropouts. Where did you get them? I don't think they're in the Ceeway catalogue!

What ceeway stock
What ceeway show on their website

These two things are only very vaguely related.

Paper? What do you mean?
You have some decals ?

Thanks

Paper?

Something like this gear I assume

Blank printer paper. You grab an image or scan it or draw it. Print it on the paper. Soak it in water, then it slides off. It's so thin that it looks like paint. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTKFxzJvH1U

How illegal is it to play amplified music in a public park in London? Let's assume this is before 11pm.

Could you get some decks out and smash out some tunes at a reasonable volume without getting arrested?

I assume this is unlikely to be permitted 😆

The rule would be in the park by-laws, on the web site of the relevant council. Or if it's a Royal Park, on their site.

You're not allowed to do it in my borough if it annoys anyone unless you pay the council a fee.

It will be borough by borough but I think most will require permission for that.

On the other hand, if you stay out of the royal parks there probably isn't going to be anyone to enforce it.

Obviously you should also consider whether you want everybody in the park to think you're a bellend.

I’d have thought this would be the quickest way to meet as many of your local law enforcement as can be assembled on a weekend but maybe hire a bouncy castle and put up some balloons and pretend it’s a kid’s birthday party?