Any question answered...

I think it might be down to the versatility of the Surly.
Fenders, racks and general abuse are encouraged.

But this surly has no rack lugs. Is 853 a bit delicate?

853 is as tough as the builder wants it to be, it's available in more diameters and gauges than any other Reynolds tubing. A superlight TT frame won't be as tough as a burly dirt jump frame. Size for size, 853 is stronger than 4130, but that extra strength is usually exploited in thinner walls rather than using the loads of material to build an ultra-tough frame.

853 is not delicate.
I was speaking about Surlys in general, their rep for toughness and ability to work in a variety of terrain seems to have saturated the web, stories of their use and abuse have reached mythic proportions. As for rack braze-ons, it does have eyelets that could easily be utilized for a rack along with either p-clamps up top or a single point attachment.

No, my well used but excellent condition 60mm front/90mm rear tubular track wheels.

Ah yes, I see them now.

Could also be due to the negative coolness of Ribble, rather than just the positive hipness of Surly.

Has anyone ever had any luck with repairs for the NiteRider line of lights? I broke the case of my old MyNewt Mini this morning. Everything else still works but not sure if the case can be easily replaced.

are there bike racks in front of Cafe Oto?

^Vinegar and brown paper.

How easy is it to snap the axle on an exage rear hub?
This is what the bike shop is saying is wrong with my sisters road bike. I've never encountered this before and I thought her bike seemed fine bar a slightly crunchy bottom bracket and some thin brake pads.

Find the exploded view for the exact model and have a look, it's unlikely to be tricky. Getting the exact replacement might be hard, usually it's cheaper with low/mid Shimano to buy a whole new hub and swap the guts over, but Exage is quite old so you're probably going to have to find a close match from current Sora/Tiagra etc. and maybe tweak the spacers to get it to work.

That, by the way, was the answer if you'd written "swap", which is what I read where you wrote "snap".

In answer to your actual question, axles do snap, usually from fatigue across the threads just inboard of the drive side cone. Oddly, solid axles are worse than QR ones, as the compression from the QR skewer actually reduces the peak tensile load on the axle in spite of there being less material due to the hole through the middle

Snap, or swap?
If it's cassette-era, I'd not expect it to snap, but it's possible. As far as not noticing it goes, often the QR will keep the axle compressed so you'll not notice by just spinning the wheel whilst it's still in the frame.
For swapping, I'd try to salvage the cones, locknuts etc. and just change over the axle. No more faff than any other hub IME.

Snap. Thanks for the explanations.
I'm always dubious about this bike shop so my first thought was that they were trying to fleece her.

You could always ask for the broken axle 'to see if it matches one I've got at home', no embarrassment or suspicion either way.

is it possible to add your own little group icon in FB?

Is that a rhetorical question?

What sort of money should I be looking at for 30 mile a day fixed wheelset.

You can build something suitable for around £130

Novatec hubs £50
Rigida rims £38
DT Alpine III £30
Nipples £12

And the assembly?££

I swear to G, Tester is the king of this thread.

I swear to god, tester is supposed to be getting on the rollers and is posting on LFGSS as displacement activity :-)

And the assembly?££

wheelbuilding thread, but anywhere from £20 to £80 a pair, depending on who builds them. Or of course £0 if you roll your own.

Best Penguin book title for an outright race bike?

It's currently codenamed MAMILocalypse, but that won't make production.

Am I right in thinking that a Dolan Seta needs a 45x45 headset and a Dolan Track Champion needs a 36x45 headset? What does this measure?

It's the angle of the cartridge bearings, there are also some slight differences in diameter, sometimes they're labeled as campy or cane creek spec.