Any question answered...

I want the wheel to look like it's bolted in with traditional track nuts.

Make some stepped studs, M10×1.0 on one end to take standard track nuts, whatever size fits your hub on the other end. Screw them into the axle with some Loctite 2700 to provide the axle extension required to accommodate your track nuts. Go easy with the peanut butter wrench if the hub end of your stud has a smaller thread than the nut end.

I don't know the thread size. Why for the love of track nuts can there not just be one standard size! I just want my trixie tool to fit it.

I'll measure it in the morning.

Why for the love of track nuts can there not just be one standard size!

That would be too easy. There is one standard size, 15mm AF with M10×1.0 threads rear and M9×1.0 front. Then there's non-standard Campag 15mm AF and 10mm/9mm×26tpi, and non-standard Miche 14mm AF with metric threads. Americans use yet another size for BMX hubs, ⅜"×26tpi both ends, apart from the ones which use 14mm×1.0mm nuts or ⅜"×24tpi screws (also found on American Classic track hubs). That just leaves the M6×1.0mm (Novatec) M8×1.25mm (Goldtec rear) and M10×1.5mm (Hope) screws to worry about :-)

Go find a local machine shop, they will be able to make you some.

The threaded part measures 20mm long and 5mm across.
This is the hub, no markings on it.

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Yeah, getting some made is an option. Was hoping to just click my mouse and it arrive on my doorstep though #ModernLifeIsRubbish

The threaded part measures 20mm long and 5mm across.

5mm where; over the screw threads or inside the axle? Whatever the answer, the limit on tightening torque is going to be those hub threads whatever tool interface you put on the end, and if you want a 15mm AF spanner to be the tool you're going to have to get something made. Chopping down a solid M10×1.0mm axle from e.g. http://www.velosolo.co.uk/shophub.html is the least amount of machine work, but with the axle + nuts + machining you're still looking at spending ~£40 in order to get no improvement plus the need to carry a much heavier tool than an Allen or Torx key.

This is the hub

Have you actually pulled the hub apart to see what those cones and lock nuts thread onto?

5mm across the bolt thread, but yeah, looks like it's more hassle than its worth.
Not taken it apart, I'll have to wait until father visits as he has the right tools.

I've just got BLB hubs with Allen key bolts, and I like them, apart from the bits which say BLB on them.

But why is a peanut butter wrench called a peanut butter wrench?

Its name is derived from the fact that the wrench handle is reportedly a good size and shape to scoop peanut butter (a fairly cheap energy food for track cyclists) out of the jar

Crunchy or smooth?

For some reason I've always though you could mix and match with sram and shimano drivetrains, feel like I read somewhere it was the same cable pull and therefore fine. I was about to buy some sram apex 10s shifters (the price and weight are good and I would like to try sram) to use with a shimano 105 5600 RD, thought I would do some "just in case" googling before pulling the trigger and am getting quite a lot of, admittedly very old, advice that they can't be mixed on the rear.

Can anyone give me a quick and definitive answer?

SRAM/Shimano cassette can be interchangeable.

Derailleur however could not be.

@Tababa fronts can, rears can't.

There is some crossover with the cheap MTB stuff too.

Ok thanks guys, I'll see if there are some cheap sram RD's about too and if not just go for shimano shifters.

I'm about to replace the original chromed wheels on a 1980s Raleigh Alpha with polished (Rigida) alloys - is there an obvious tyre upgrade from Michelin World Tour (27 x 1 1/4) worth doing?
Main use is rural lanes, i.e. potholes, mud, diesel, cowshit and thorn hedge debris joined together by random tarmac...

Panaracer Paselas and Schwalbe Marathons both come in 27 x 1 1/4 - go Paselas for a nice ride or Marathons for epic sturdiness

To settle a bet, is this a truck or a van?
It's a fucking truck right?

I'm going with van

That's a van Peter.

To settle a bet, is this a truck or a van?

Since it's in England, it can't be a truck because we only have those on railways. That's a van, large goods vehicles are lorries.

mercedes sprinter, therefore van

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