BillD

No worries, there's lots of good stuff here and it's helped me refine my bike specs. I'd just like it to be visible to future browsers/searcher, hence the wish to refine the Thread title. To that end, once I've decided on hirer & bike, I intend to bullet point (in a positive way) what I've found/been told about the hirers and bike(s).

Hi all OP here. Many thanks for all the comments and advice. On our last boat we had cheap folding bikes with 16" wheels, or possibly slightly larger. With folding pedals and quick release on handlebars and seat, they were compact and easy to fold. In travel bags we could fit them into the really deep lockers under the Pullman dinette seats. To keep ready for use I could fit one under the cratch table (which was almost always down) and another one in the semi-trad on the side without a locker. They were really good for lock-wheeling, repeat visits to shops and laundrettes. Little wheels were not the best on towpaths away from locks but rear suspension helped. Didn't hit much mud; the worst was when crab-apples were covering the path - it was like riding over very bumpy ball-bearings. They'd shoot out sideways as far as the middle of the canal! If there's room on the boat we hire, I'll buy a cheap 20" folder from Argus or Halfords and a bag. I like the look of this one https://www.halfords.com/bikes/folding-bikes/apollo-tuck-folding-bike-127104.html I'd sell it on eBay at the end of the trip. By the way, is it possible to change the Thread title to e.g. "Which three month hire in northern canals/folding bikes/bike storage"??

Thanks Tony1, good advice.

Thanks cisamcgu. I'm interested that you took bikes. Your own or from Rose? I've read elsewhere that many hirers prohibit bikes, especially if stored on the roof or inside. We had 2 bikes on Jabulani, though usually only one used at a time. Do you mind telling me how much it cost to hire Joey, in a message? We're hoping that we can find a big discount off weekly rates.

Brilliant, thanks agg221 and Jo. I'd love to go up the Macclesfield & Peak Forest again. Will check them out.

Many thanks, M_JG, David Mack, Stroudwater1, there's some new ones there for us to contact. Canal Cruising and Rose look especially promising as they are used to long term hires, and on our wanted long T&M ring. Thanks MartynG: tidal rivers (and our route generally) is something we're checking with hirers. Our planned route avoids the fiercest tidal rivers, and so far we'd not need extra insurance and/or permission.

Hello CWDF experts, We (Bill & Daphne) are expats living permanently in New Zealand, and now retired. We want to do a circuit including the Leeds and Liverpool cross Pennines and back up the Trent, in spring of 2024 starting early April for around 3 months. We're looking for reasonably priced hire 50-57' semi-trad or cruiser with a permanent double bed, and able to host 1 or 2 visitors for a few days at a time. A reverse layout would be a bonus. Start location is flexible, preferably near or on that circuit. We've found Manchester good to fly into. Can anyone recommend a hirer that does long term hires at reasonable rates? https://www.longtermnarrowboathire.co.uk/ are good (we met one of their boats at Lechlade - looked good and had very happy hirers) and are a definite starter, but their base near Oxford means a lot of travel over canals we know and which may make timescales a bit tight for our usual relaxed pace over 3 months. cheers Bill From my research so far: https://www.longtermnarrowboathire.co.uk/ look great and we're talking to them but they are further south than we'd prefer Rose Narrowboats are a bit further north near Coventry, and I'm contacting them. Escape the Rat Race https://www.etrr.co.uk looks possible too. http://www.sheffieldnarrowboats.com/ looked good, but closed some years ago, saying they were "undermined and eroded by constantly having to do battle with the Canal and River Trust ... Their 'on the ground' staff, especially lock keepers are absolutely superb however, but anyone in an office ....." But I'm sure there are other threads on CRT, so let's not go there here! Background: We had our own lovely 58' narrowboat Jabulani which we aimed to spend 5-6 months aboard, and maintained and serviced. We've had 2 very good years and explored most of the cut south of Manchester, until COVID and family considerations are forcing us to sell. Have nb river experience on Avon, Severn to Gloucester, Lee Stort, and whole Thames down to Limehouse. Also owned small yachts. (If anyone living outside the UK reads this and is contemplating owning a nb from afar, I'd be very happy to discuss and advise from our experience.)

Our surveyor recommended Rustoleum paint as it had rust inhibitors and was self priming. So I slap some black rustoleum on the top plank, or for a better result if doing several scrapes at once, or for non black paint, see **** below. Rust spots/scrapes/scratches generally: If rusty, I used to use Fertan rust converter, but it was a pain having to wait 24 hours, wash with water and then prime/paint. Vactan (or Hydrate 80) or similar are better - they are rust converters that then leaves a waterproof acrylic coat than can be overcoated. The problem here is that if there is too much rust for the Vactan to convert (or if there is some under the paint edge because you didn't quite strip back far enough), it seals some rust underneath which will then erupt through over time. I've used 2 coats Hydrate80 in the forepeak/gas locker, and 2 coats Vactan on a well rust removed and cleaned integral water-tank - Vactan is certified OK for use with potable water systems. These days I've found the Owatrol oil products good to use. Here in New Zealand we have fish oil products which are excellent on boat trailers and other steelwork where it's almost impossible to remove all rust - for instance inside a trailer hollow steel box member. Owatrol seems similar but less smelly, possibly linseed oil based. It is said to (and seems to to do) to penetrate well attached rust down to the good steel before drying into a tough coating that seals out air and water, and I think/surmise also penetrates (to some extent) and does the same under adjoining paint that is cracked/slightly loose/slightly rust - all quite possible with a scrape or ding on the hull side paintwork. ***** I remove loose paint with a scraper, wirebrush loose rust, paint on Owatrol which immediately protects and dries fairly quickly, and topcoat it 24 hours or up to several months later. It's also a paint conditioner and makes ordinary oil based paint more rust inhibiting, so I mix in 10% into the topcoat (in my case International Toplac as that's what the boat was painted with, best to with a small quantity first). I reckon this makes ordinary paint as good as Rustoleum, but with a better colour match. Cheers Bill PS I've also found Owatrol is great for bringing colour back to faded paint or fibreglass gel coat (but not white). They sell it as colour restore too. PPS No, I've no financial ow work interest in Owatrol. It just seems to work well (with a credible explanation why it does), and takes less effort for a reasonably good result.

Update on CRT Brentford bookings system etc. The CRT Thames Lock booking on their website has just been (partially) updated and now allows Brentford Lock bookings going to or from Limehouse. Although the text on the page does not mention Limehouse, the drop down list for Direction now includes Brentford to Limehouse and Limehouse to Brentford. They have also fixed the very annoying bug whereby at least 48 hours notice excluded the weekend, e.g. if booking on Saturday, you can now book a passage on Tuesday. Previously, if booking after 5 pmish on a Friday, the first day bookable was Wednesday. CRT closed the Limehouse route for the last week for 'urgent repairs' that turned out to be normal maintenance, and did not include fixing the leaking seals that (together with low water levels in connected canals) mean that the LimeHouse Lock hours are further restricted to 2 hours each side of HW. The restricted hours, and CRT’s inflexible bookings, are not only a customer service issue, but also appear to be a safety issue, when boats attempt but cannot make the narrow Limehouse window, and then cannot divert to Brentwood because the ‘system’ won’t let them…. Finally, I'd like to plug http://thamescruising.co.uk/ which is the best site I've found for tidal Thames resources. The Tideway Handbooks Upstream/Downstream etc at http://thamescruising.co.uk/?p=25 etc. are brilliant, though now 16 years old. This site may be well known, but I found many other less useful sites listed above in in Google searches. cheers Bill, Dashfield Jabulani

What type of fridge? If a Shoreline 12v fridge, ring their tech support - very good and helpful, their test advice & part fixed our 15 year old fridge. Following their advice I rapidly ruled out a thermostat problem. They've experienced very very few coolant leaks, other possibility was control unit. Unit couriered next day on sale or return, fixed problem.

I've used Owatrol Oil is a similar situation - getting to engine bilge in corners behind calorifier. The blurb says "Used alone it provides a tough, flexible finish, driving out excess moisture and air; displacing it from rusted metal, so stopping rust. • Apply directly to rusted surfaces. • Penetrates deep in to rusted surfaces to drive out moisture and air. • Forms a solid stable layer that other paints can firmly adhere to. • Completely seals sound underlying metal against corrosion." Midland Chandlers have recently started selling it. https://www.midlandchandlers.co.uk/brands/owatrol I suggest applying it using a garden spray, if it's not too thick. The 'wand' should help get it into awkward spaces. The spec says clean up is with mineral turps, so it might be possible to thin it with turps - but you'd need to test it first to make sure it still dried off OK or if the turps destroyed it... Using turps is a big fire risk till it all dried off of course. Over here in New Zealand, I've used a similar product made from fish-oil. https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/shop-by-category/paint-and-panel/rust-prevention/fish-oil It too has the great advantage of working on rusty surfaces and can be used alone or painted. Excellent for boat trailers. Hurry up and get COVID under control over there, so we can get back to our boat Jabulani...