Any question answered...

It's fucked, buy Aerospoke.

:( thought that was it

How can you tell if your hub bearings are...in need of service?

If you have to ask, it's time for a service :-)

Take the wheel out of the bike and turn the axle, then give it a little pull in all directions. If it doesn't rotate freely but with negligible free-play, the bearings are fucked. Free-play should be able to be felt but not seen at the axle, it turns out that your fingers have about an order of magnitude higher resolution than your eyes.

Cheers Tester, will give it a once over in the morning.

I'm looking for a some Motorola C155's. If eBay or Amazon haven't got anything where do I look? Are there any online retailers selling old phones?

Ok I have accepted an offer to go road riding with my cousin, I don't have a road bike. Do I:

A) prove how hench I am by keeping up with him and his roadie mates on one of the current bikes : polo/mtb/cx

B) build up an old 70's Carlton I have (unfortunately will need either 27 inch wheels or massive drop brakes)

C) build up other frame I have that I think was a touring bike as it has canti mounts

D) try to fix up my old alu trek 1000, that was making scary creaking noises last time I rode it, which was approx 10 years ago.

E) buy a new bike.

If B or C what is the best derailer for frames with a build in hanger, does it matter? Anywhere a good resource for answering these questions?

polo, obvs

Is the CX bike geared? If so it will be fine with some road tyres on it.

B, C or E also fine if you are looking for an excuse for doing B, C or E.

are they hardcore roadies? can they spin? what is your highest gearing on CX?

Depends on how much fun you want to have. The CX bikes I've owned feel nice and stable on the road and 44t is fine for a 'big' ring. That said, the wheelbase is longer and the position slightly higher which provides a secure feel but the bike can feel a bit...um, to be kind, staid... in comparison with a road bike.

YMMV tho.

FWIW I'm going to ride Roubaix on my CX bike with a single 39t ring lolz etc

So I'm piecing a bike together for my brother. Since he doesn't want to spend much money, this is mainly a parts bin / cheapo build.
I have a front wheel with a dynohub from his old bike. It works, so I would like to use it.
So where do I put the light if the fork crown is occupied by the front brake?
Do I need a special kind of light? or some addition to the fork?

Polo is fixed 70gi on road gear... Would love to turn up on that and still keep up with them!
I do that with the cycle club at work, but this is a bit more than a few laps of RP... 80 k or so and I've not done that kind of distance on a polo bike for a while.

The CX bike would be alright, but I've actively been moving it away from road (wider rims and tyres), it's also pretty heavy and not geared for roadie duties. So I'd be looking at new rims (therefore wheelbuilding), tyres and a chainring anyway!

@Howard, that's a great description of the problem with the cx bike!

Hmmm.

If you look at most dyno lights they have brackets to make sure they don't foul the brakes.

Can you put an internal battery on ultegra 6770 di2?

Also whats the best place to learn all about di2?

Polo is fixed 70gi on road gear... Would love to turn up on that and still keep up with them!

I do that with the cycle club at work, but this is a bit more than a few laps of RP... 80 k or so and I've not done that kind of distance on a polo bike for a while.

The CX bike would be alright, but I've actively been moving it away from road (wider rims and tyres), it's also pretty heavy and not geared for roadie duties. So I'd be looking at new rims (therefore wheelbuilding), tyres and a chainring anyway!

@Howard, that's a great description of the problem with the cx bike!

Hmmm.

I went out for a ride today with 28c tyres on 29er rims, worked perfectly.

How wide are your rims?

Best chain wear gauge?

Progold, Park Tool cc2 or Park Tool cc3.2

Or should I just use a ruler as chain gauges are rubbish at differentiating roller wear vs pin wear?

Shimano TL-CN41 measures only pin wear, but seems to have been discontinued.

I'd be surprised if B or C resulted in significantly better handling than your CX bike.

calculating headset stack height
i have a frame and fork requiring a headset, currently frame has no headset parts at all in the headtube

when i put the fork snuggly in the headtube and measure the amount of fork above the top of the headtube it measures 50mm
below is an idea of what i am talking about but not my bike, this one has 39.7mm

what headset should i buy to fill this 50mm gap ? would a 50mm stack height headset be right for this ? should i just get a regular 1 inch tange sekei type and put some spacers in ?

i want to avoid cutting the steerer

I'm not convinced that's the best way to measure it, as how far the steerer goes into the headtube may be affected by the shape of the fork crown.
Measure the length of the head tube and add the stack height of the headset of your choice. This tells you how much steerer you need.
Now measure your steerer and discover if you have enough steerer and/or how much you'll need in the way of spacers.

B was my pub beater death trap faux-pro bike (breakless, clip less, toe overlap, with handlebars that didn't quite fit the stem so would spin if enough force went through them!), certainly be worse handling, but makes it feel really really fast! :)

Actually I it wasn't for the problems of finding good (long drop) brakes for it this would be my first choice by miles!

Hmmm.

23mm... Yeah the cx bike would make the most sense and be the least effort, but it's still not my favourite option.

Are there any beginners guides for setting up cleats and clipless pedals?
Just bought my first pair of clipless shoes...

@Murphys_Law I went with this as best I could.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2BXOkM-wHs

That should work with MTB style clipless pedals too. Thanks.