IanD

That may be why on mine the long fixed sliders on the roof are stainless steel, and the plastic ones are strips under the hatch where they can't move or buckle because they're confined...

"For clarity if you have an electric bike with a ‘twist and go' throttle (that can be propelled without pedalling) this is NOT a legal e-bike, it is not allowed on towpaths and can be confiscated by the police if done so." "It's not currently legal to ride an e-scooter in any public place, except for where rental trails are being held. We've not allowed any trails to take place on towpaths. We issued this statement on e-scooters in 2020 This makes it clear that e-scooters are prohibited under our bylaws and that we will not be allowing e-scooters to be used on towpaths unless it can be proved that it is safe to do so. As yet, we have not seen such evidence. Loads of both on the towpaths (and pavements and roads) though, the rules are obviously useless without any effective enforcement ... 😞 (though as discussed earlier, it's difficult to see any way CART could actually do this in reality...)

Tufnol isn't as slippery as HDPE, which in turn isn't as slippery as PTFE -- but which is a lot more expensive and a bit of a pig to work with... (I think mine are HDPE but I suppose they could be white PTFE)

Me too, except the fixed slide is stainless steel not brass...

What you did, referring disparagingly to "Greta and her disciples": https://www.grammarly.com/blog/straw-man-fallacy/ "A straw man argument is the logical fallacy of distorting an opposing position into an extreme version of itself and then arguing against that extreme version. In creating a straw man argument, the arguer strips the opposing point of view of any nuance and often misrepresents it in a negative light." Not only does Greta know a damn sight more about the issue than you seem to, she's shown on many occasions that she understands the difference between emissions in use and total CO2 burden (including manufacturing/disposal and other overheads) of many things, EVs included -- and that though EVs may not be perfect they're much less bad for the planet than ICE. An equivalent argument would be to refer to people like you as "ignorant petrolheads" who don't care about the planet and just want to carry on driving your massive gas-guzzling SUVs everywhere, including to the shops and taking the kids to school... 😉 (which I'm sure you not -- but it's the same type of argument you're putting forward...)

Like most people who respect and understand science, "Greta and her disciples" -- whoever they are -- understand the concept of total C02 burden, and how this applies to EVs. You claiming they don't is simply not true.

The review is definite that THM don't have band 20 and have poorer rural coverage than EE (or 1p Mobile), EE use this low-frequency band because it has very long reach from a mast, which can be a long way apart in the countryside. THM are not the only MVNO to be in this position, and like the others they keep very quiet about it -- and this had been confirmed by users who have dug into this. For the best rural coverage EE or 1pMobile or Spusu or IQmobile (all with the same coverage as EE) are better options. Your personal experience doesn't contradict this, unless you use THM and have confirmed band 20 reception -- which would prove the review was wrong.

So provide some proof -- the SIMSherpa review was definite about this, no 800MHz (band 20) coverage... 😉

Not according to the link I posted above, it says they're the same as Lyca (no Band 20). https://www.simsherpa.com/networks/talk-home-mobile/review-and-guide "Talk Home aren’t as slick as joining EE directly. You don’t get WiFi calling or VoLTE and your SIM won’t connect to EE’s Band 20 4G transmitters, which will affect coverage in rural areas and capacity in urban areas."

Lyca and Talk Home don't offer all the EE bands, especially the 4G one (band 20) used in rural areas, so coverage may be poorer "out in the sticks". https://www.simsherpa.com/networks/ee/virtual-providers-on-ee "Lyca don’t have access to the band 20 frequencies of EE’s network that provide 4G in rural areas and boost urban capacity. So 4G is worse in some areas than on EE, which is worrying as 3G is being switched off."

If you want to use all three at the same time you obviously need a third SIM. Or swap the one from the MiFi into the router.

I know Nigel wanted to retire and sell off Shire Cruisers as a going concern -- were there any takers? If they shut up shop in Sowerby Bridge it could be a body blow for the Rochdale, no hire boats there any more... 😞

The trouble is that it *wouldn't* be perfectly easy, and certainly not cheap... 😞 You have to not only identify the bike but the rider, just like prosecuting/fining a car driver for a driving offence. This works for cars because drivers are licensed and cars are sold/registered/insured with drivers and have visible numberplates -- how would this work for ebikes/escooters without a *massive* amount of bureaucracy (DVLA on steroids) as well as law changes to control the sale/registration of both bikes and riders? It's easy to say "something must be done" and "it can be fixed easily", but coming up with a workable scheme is *much* harder, and maybe impossible in reality -- which is why politicians aren't interested, they have easier and more important things to do like stuffing their own pockets with taxpayer money... 😞

The problem is still how to detect infringements and then enforce the rules -- the escooter/ebike problem is endemic just like traffic offences by car drivers, and almost all the detection (speed/lights) for these is done by (lots of) ANPR cameras not (scarce) bobbies on the beat, because cars have nice big visible numberplates and their owners are on record so can easily be tracked down and fined. This is impossible with escooters/ebikes on pavements/towpaths never mind roads, because they don't have numberplates and nobody knows who owns them -- and there are no expensive cameras to snap them anyway, even if these could somehow recognise the livery of Deliveroo or whoever then how do you prove which rider/bike it was? The only way to fix this would be to have enforcement of licensing/numberplates for ebikes and escooters like cars, which is simply never going to happen -- apart from the practicalities, who would pay for it, and how do you control their sale? Bad behaviour by their riders is an increasing problem, but any way to stop this has to be workable in real life -- and so far nobody's come up with one... 😞

Unless you're moored in a good signal area and/or the router is near a window you're likely to need external aerials, definitely so if you want to move around the canals and have reasonable reception -- steel boxes like narrowboats are not good for mobile reception inside. Three have worse coverage out in the sticks (meaning, many canals) than EE do, which will make your reception problem worse if you move around lots. But if you only care about where you are right now and Three works there with the router inside, you'll be OK -- suck it and see is the only way to find out... 😉