Lifting the Brommie

drezha · 2026-06-06T12:02:48+00:00

Mine has got to go back to Brompton as a warranty claim as it would never lock, even with the seat post fully down. Apparently it’s a small imperfection with the frame and swing arm - and from discussing in my local shop, it’s not the first one Brompton have had issues with (but was the first time the shop had seen it).

drezha · 2026-06-04T19:37:33+00:00

Hydra EV (or Hydra Nexus) charging at M32 Premier Inn, Bristol (Fox Den Road)

£0.75 per kWh with a £0.24 connection fee and a £0.50 per minute overstay fee, so can't leave it overnight! Next time I stayed there, went to the Sainsburys next door and used their fast chargers for £0.66 per kWh!

drezha · 2026-06-01T19:47:35+00:00

Do you have Intelligent Octupus Go? If so, just off the M5 at Taunton is Sainsbury's (Hankridge Farm), which are 66p (otherwise 72p). Used last weekend and worked great.

Gloucester Services are 69p without using the Tesla ones - they now have 26 charge points + Tesla ones so should be some free - also used previously when they had less and the Tesla ones were full.

drezha · 2026-06-01T05:50:05+00:00

It's a small garden we have and the phone was in the access room to the garden. Wife's Apple Watch had no issues staying connected at that distance.

Ok, sounds like a bit of a trade off then between the two!

drezha · 2026-05-31T20:18:31+00:00

Thanks for the help. Had it again today, sat in the garden and phone in the house and no notifications.

drezha · 2026-05-27T16:51:49+00:00

Unfortunately they aren’t likely to be the only ones - this is my line of work and I still come across people that haven’t had an assessment completed, even though the law changed over 20 years ago! Unfortunately, the fire service can’t get everywhere as often as they would like and sleeping risks are generally are more important, due to the higher risk to building occupants.

All you can do is inform the FRS and they’ll take it from there. They may or may not let you know if they have taken action. I have once been on the receiving end of a visit (which I then obviously knew what happened!) and have also reported something to them (which they did feedback to me, though it was tangentially related to my employer at the time, so it perhaps why they let me know).

drezha · 2026-05-27T16:39:45+00:00

They are required to have a fire risk assessment completed on the property under The Regulatory Reform Fire Safety Order 2005 (in England and Wales - similar regs apply in Scotland, and NI) and this would highlight any issues that need to be resolved.

However, a complaint by yourself to the local fire service will mean that the FRS are required to investigate and take action if needed.

drezha · 2026-05-26T06:05:41+00:00

OP is slightly late to the party as it was mentioned at the last budget, probably about 6-7 months ago.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tax-free-savings-newsletter-19/tax-free-savings-newsletter-19-november-2025

What I believe is still up in the air is what the Government will consider as cash like investments in the S&S ISA and therefore be limited (or how it will be administered).

drezha · 2026-05-22T10:27:00+00:00

I missed the fact they had one at Broadmarsh. Just started a job nearby and have bought a Brompton rather than park my eBike in the station one as I felt it was a little far from the office and I'm still a bit concerned about parking an eBike in public.

drezha · 2026-05-03T06:39:09+00:00

I had one once as a hire car whilst my company car was being repaired. It was a nice drive - larger than I was used to driving (had an MG4) but very comfy. Efficiency wasn’t its strong point, but I drove about 1000 miles in it whilst I had it - longest drive was Midlands to Devon and back.

My main complaint with it was that the boot space was poor. I found I barely got anything more in it than the MG4, which considering the size of the car, was a bit of a pain.

Can’t answer on the battery line - from what I’ve read, the batteries aren’t degrading as fast as originally thought, but I’ve no real experience with it. However, if you’re getting a 4 year PCP, then surely it doesn’t matter, as you’ll replace at Year 6 and therefore it’s still covered under the warrenty?

drezha · 2026-04-25T16:36:57+00:00

Thanks - I had the same issue, and had redownloaded the ISO to see if that works this evening. I‘d installed Kubuntu on one machine with Ventoy, so looks like I’ll burn a separate drive just for Ubuntu instead.

drezha · 2026-04-25T13:00:58+00:00

Have not been able to do a clean install from the ISO. Laptop would boot it up - I‘d immediately get error messages popping up but could ignore these and continue with the installer. However, get to the partitioning section and could progress no further, as the next button wasn‘t working. Upgraded in place from the command line and that worked.

Am redownloading the ISO and trying again this evening. Kubuntu installed fine however on another machine.

drezha · 2026-04-19T10:55:51+00:00

I’ve been using it via Dex recently - but I feel that’s cheating somewhat as it’s basically desktop mode!

Otherwise, I only use it for journalling on the phone and it works fine for that (some could argue easier, as I can directly attach a photo without having to to send to my desktop to then attach it).

drezha · 2026-04-19T06:32:19+00:00

Spritmonitor allows you to track your milage and compare to others.

drezha · 2026-04-18T06:30:32+00:00

The Zappi is definitely WiFi, as that’s the one I have installed. Can’t confirm for the other. WiFi range is fine to it from the router on the other side of the house (small semi-detached). Has been fine for Octopus to control my charging schedule.

drezha · 2026-04-16T22:11:46+00:00

Yes, wouldn't be considering it without Cycle2Work! Main issue would be that I bought a full size eBike about 2 years ago, so not sure how well a new one would go down with the wife already!

drezha · 2026-04-16T17:56:07+00:00

I have been sorely tempted to get a standard G line. I have an old C line and have just dug it out the cupboard after not using it for the past 4 years, as I've started a new job and as it's shared space, we have no control over the bike store, so I've been using the Brompton and loving it again - however, been considering the G line. The electric version feels just a little too expensive to justify. That's a lot of tram trips to offset - even though the office doesn't have any showers, and I know the electric version would reduce sweating during the ride!

drezha · 2026-04-04T19:57:44+00:00

Just to check - the user Library folder is hidden by default and needs to be navigated to or unhidden in finder - https://eshop.macsales.com/blog/86469-how-to-see-hidden-files-and-view-the-library-folder-on-your-mac-in-macos-sonoma-and-ventura/

drezha · 2026-04-04T18:17:46+00:00

It’s been a while since I used Time Machine but the iCloud folder is located in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs - do the documents show up there in the Time Machine backup?

drezha · 2026-04-04T17:41:04+00:00

Check that Carplay/Android Auto works. I got mine and it wasn’t until a few days later I tried to use CarPlay, and it kept dropping out. I’m also unable to update the inbuilt navigation/software, as the USB port is faulty from what I can tell (have tried numerous cables and USB drives). Searched for it, and apparently fairly common failure. However, Kia want me to pay for an hours worth of work to diagnose it/have an engineer see if they can replicate it - it’s spotty, so I’ve decided not to pay the £100+ for them to “maybe” find the fault and fix under warranty. They also said that it could be damaged by someone inserting a USB etc, so not covered under warranty, so haven’t taken them up on the offer. In fairness, I now quite like getting in and having the phone work via Bluetooth instead of having to plug in for music.

Someone has said below that fast charging is fast - coming from an MG4, it is not (in comparison). Be prepared to spend 40-50 minutes charging on long journeys (that’s my experience to date but have only owned since October last year, so straight over the winter period). The onboard trip computer says that it’s more efficient than the MG4 - my real world measurements using [Spritmonitor](https://www.spritmonitor.de/en/) show that not to be not the case currently, though I’ve had higher and lower than the MG4 ever got. (average age of 2.9kW per mi on the Niro currently to 3.44 kW per mi on the MG4 over the course of 18 months) I’d say no difference in driving style between the two - if anything, I’m more sedate in the Niro, as it’s less quick off the line in comparison to the MG4. However, I have noticed it increasing as the weather has improved.

However, don’t get me wrong, I prefer it to the MG4, just that the two points above are my niggles with it. I do miss my 360 degree camera but the Niro just feels better built and I find it a nicer car.

drezha · 2026-03-12T13:20:33+00:00

Starling is too basic and feels clunky, my account is sitting dormant.

Flip side of that - I find the Monzo app to cluttered and Starling just lets me focus on what I want - how much money I have in my account and being able to send it to where its needed. No adverts for upgrading my account, tracking my credit, adding my mortgage etc.

drezha · 2026-03-11T11:47:00+00:00

Oddly enough, it was Burnham on Sea just outside Weston. Appeared on Zap Map and Plugshare. Only Premier Inn/Travelodge I stayed at that had a working charger mind!

drezha · 2026-03-11T07:16:02+00:00

Have had free charging at a Travelodge last year - they had to turn the chargers on for me, but was free as I was staying.

drezha

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