It's mine! I thought i posted an ad on here already.

More on the topic of grease on threads.
https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/technical-faq-wrist-pain-greasing-fastener-threads-and-more-on-drivetrain-compatibility/
and:
https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/technical-faq-velon-transponders-greasing-fastener-threads-and-warm-shoes/

I think you only get a few free articles at that site.  You might consider using a private or incognito window for that.

Zinn used to write a free column that I looked at every week, the above are segments from that.  I do not recall when he quit, but it was several years ago.

A fine collection of rides in your extended neighbourhood, Adrian!  A lot of familiar names in your "climbfinder"    A steep ride out of Litton Cheney, for sure.

The Ottawa Valley, where I live, has a collection of climbs on both sides (Ontario & Québec) of the river.  Before I joined the Church of Rohloff a decade-plus ago, I rode an Eclipse, a nice ti-framed bike which was the house brand of a local bike shop.  I spent a decade trying to find workable gear ranges. (I made my life more complicated by doing medium-heavy touring on a light-medium tourer.) 

I finally settled on 24 - 34- 44 at the front, and 12 - 34 at the rear.  This was on a 9-speed bike, with a Shimano T-105 groupset. And, I stopped using the Eclipse for anything other than day rides and light overnights...

Cheers,  John

I noted above on rack bolts, fender bolts, I use thread locker.  A lot of bike shops do not even have any thread locker in the shop, that is not as common as you might think.   Water bottle cage bolts, a bunch of other fittings, I grease the threads first.  You do not think of grease as being a good way from keeping a bolt from vibrating loose, but it actually is pretty good at that because grease is very very viscous.

There's some useful discussion of grease in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqiTtlVo-xA (starting at about 10 minutes). My conclusion from that is (i) lithium-based grease where low friction is needed (eg bearings) and (ii) a calcium-based grease where high friction is needed (eg on threads). The guy highlights that most branded bike greases don't say what's in them.

Thank you all for the advice, think I'll start with replacing the pads with Koolstop thin line salmon or dual and see how it goes before adjusting the straddle cable... lots to learn!