My camera costs nothing per month.

 

I understand how jolly good they can be, but I don't need one, neither do most others.

Yes by all means, although I am not getting grumpy. This conversation started with me mentioning some things that I was doing/buying to add co-ords to my photos in the future. I wasn't actually trying to get myself converted, and all attempts have failed. People keep telling me how good smartphones are, and they may be where you live. With the poor mobile reception here it is not a good solution for me, and the reason that I have chosen my multi-device approach. I have tried to highlight this, but it seems to be falling on deaf ears, I have nonetheless enjoyed the attempts of those who obviously think that they know better, despite the fact that there is a good chance that they have never been here!

 

Provision of functionality at little or no extra cost is a bit wide of the mark. £16 has been stated, per month, for the rest of my life presumably.

 

No.

Currently you have a SIM card and account costing we are told 12 per month. Where you to purchase for cash a phone it is your property and you could continue to pay whatever tariff you are now on. If for any reason you ceased to pay then you would only lose GSM access. The phone would work similarly to your iPad .. access to .Wi-fi camera GPS and other functions. Such phones are available new at Carphone warehouse and second hand at CEX ( a electronics swop shop) or on eBay etc. There is no rental cost in using what is your own equipment.

Again , not knowing the locale, if you already own your nonsmartphone, is 12 £ per month not steep? For limited functionality. There seem to be SIM only plans from 5£available in the UK from ID and other brands. I believe that these companies piggyback on the same infrastructure as the big players, so your current network should work.

You're wasting your time with these guys, Dan. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. For whatever reasons, probably sheer bloody-mindedness, some guys just don't want to take advantage of the new things available to them. That's their choice. We try to help them by providing information, but they see the help as an attack on their integrity or intelligence, so they'll defend their position to the death.

 

We had a guy at work, who would always sit down with us at lunchtime and start the conversation by explaining that he had a problem and needed a solution to it, but no matter what logical solution anybody offered, he would argue to the death why each solution wouldn't work, changing the problem along the way just to make sure. I'm sure we've all met guys like that.

II don't need to buy a phone. I have one already that suits my needs.

 

My dumb phone does not provide limited functionality, it gives exactly what I require, voice calls and text. There is also a camera should I require one and for some reason didn't want to use the better camera that I usually have with me.

 

I will look for a SIM only deal that is cheaper, and take it up if that offers the same level of minutes and calls that Virgin offers, or at least enough, otherwise I find the Virgin package more than covers my needs. I use texts, but the entitlement is unlimited. I would use plenty of voice calls. I have no need for the data allowance as I am able to wait until I can get fast and reliable access elsewhere via wifi.

My camera costs nothing per month.

 

I understand how jolly good they can be, but I don't need one, neither do most others.

All you need is warmth, food, water, company and a chance to express yourself. Everything else is optional.

 

FYI, if it helps, smartphone cameras cost nothing per month as well. It's only the calls/internet that you pay for, and you don't have to pay anything if you don't use then. Everything else in it is free.

All you need is warmth, food, water, company and a chance to express yourself. Everything else is optional.

 

FYI, if it helps, smartphone cameras cost nothing per month as well. It's only the calls/internet that you pay for, and you don't have to pay anything if you don't use then. Everything else in it is free.

 

Thank you for not wasting any further time on me. You seem to think you have the answer to everything, but it appears that you don't. You can't seem to get it into your head that we don't have the same circumstances or the same needs. My capacity tale has obviously blown a hole in the Utopia which you think that you can introduce me to with an all-singing smartphone.

 

One of the answers that you didn't have was between future predicting and forecasts.

 

Free smartphone cameras? It's only the calls internet you pay for? So presumably I can nip down to the local smartphone shops and ask for a box of smartphones and say that I don't need calls and internet as I just want to use it as a camera? You sir are the dream of sales and marketing drones everywhere.

People keep telling me how good smartphones are, and they may be where you live. With the poor mobile reception here it is not a good solution for me, and the reason that I have chosen my multi-device approach. I have tried to highlight this, but it seems to be falling on deaf ears,

 

I have the same problem and experience. I have no mobile reception in my home on any network, despite being in a London Borough. I'm retired and home quite a lot, so there's no point in others having a number for me that cannot connect, so no point in my having a smartphone for communications.

 

Of course when on the odd occasion when driving far from home an emergency phone can be useful, so I have a minimal under £10 PAYG one for that outgoing-only purpose, no-one else having its number. Every couple of months I charge it's battery and make a brief test call to keep the PAYG account valid.

 

I use cameras suited to the purpose for my wildlife photography, my computers provide for all my online needs and my car has a dedicated GPS.

 

Yet still others keep telling me I should have a smartphone!

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As far as I can see, guys, nobody is telling anybody what to do, we only said what alternatives are available.

 

Flecc, are you sure there's no reception where you are, not that you need it at home? It's when you're out and about that it's useful. There's a lot of new masts and networks gone up recently. They normally make sure that there's at least one that works in every location. I have been all over UK. The last time I couldn't get a signal was on the Isle of Lewis 8 years ago. I've never had a problem anywhere on the mainland in the last 10 years. Are you sure that it's not your crappy phone that's the problem? Modern ones have much more sophisticated receivers. I'll bet you £20 and buy you the take-away of your choice if I cannot get reception standing outside your house using my phone. You can get the take-away whether you win or lose, but you only get it if you accept the bet.

My son's experience is different in his part of London, Clapham was very well served with mobile coverage, in fact one day he sent me a screenshot and the download speed was something around 80mbps. I bemoaned the fact that the fastest I get on my partner's network was 8mbps, assuming that he was referring to broadband speed, but he was able to confirm that was what he was getting on his mobile, although I don't know if he was at home, he was certainly somewhere in London. The capital is well served in both coverage and competition, and the further that you get from it the lower the service gets, especially in areas of small populations. There are of course many things to make up for this in quality of life, and you soon start to realise that all of the other things that are musts in the life of others are not actually so important. I am sure the day will come when I will need a clinometer, no probably not actually.

And your alternatives are being rejected, but you are not taking no for an answer.

 

So which shop do I get this box of free new smartphones from?

Flecc, don't buy a new one. You can have one from this free box that I will be getting, once I get the details. There may be a short wait!

Flecc, don't buy a new one. You can have one from this free box that I will be getting, once I get the details. There may be a short wait!

Some people just can't help being wakers, or did I miss something there?

You mentioned free smartphone cameras. It's like free lunches, there's no such thing!

Smartphone cameras have killed off the point and shoot camera and are now decimating the DSLR market. And remember, the smartphone can do a million other things as well!

 

Though true, why is it that I am so often called upon to rescue smartphone camera photos, using Adobe Photoshop and other softwares?

 

It's not always the incompetence of the user. An associate in my local environmental issues often produces excellent smartphone photos of certain subjects, but equally fails to in various circumstances where even a dedicated pocket camera can do much better. His top flight smartphone has lost him many a photographic opportunity and that's when I can sometimes perform a rescue of what he did get.

 

Fortunately he does understand the difference, for he also owns an excellent DSLR and knows how to use it well, but of course cannot always have that with him.

 

I have four cameras currently, but most of the time use one of the two pocketable ones, both able to meet any of my photographic needs, which a smartphone couldn't. Two of my jackets don't even have a pocket large enough for today's smartphones, but can accept one of my pocketable cameras (Canon SX260). Of course that wouldn't trouble those who live with their smartphone in their hand from dawn to dusk, but I wouldn't want to live like that.

.

Fortunately he does understand the difference, for he also owns an excellent DSLR and knows how to use it well, but of course cannot always have that with him.

.

 

This associate sounds very wise!

Though true, why is it that I am so often called upon to rescue smartphone camera photos, using Adobe Photoshop and other softwares?

 

It's not always the incompetence of the user. An associate in my local environmental issues often produces excellent smartphone photos of certain subjects, but equally fails to in various circumstances where even a dedicated pocket camera can do much better. His top flight smartphone has lost him many a photographic opportunity and that's when I can sometimes perform a rescue of what he did get.

 

Fortunately he does understand the difference, for he also owns an excellent DSLR and knows how to use it well, but of course cannot always have that with him.

 

I have four cameras currently, but most of the time use one of the two pocketable ones, both able to meet any of my photographic needs, which a smartphone couldn't. Two of my jackets don't even have a pocket large enough for today's smartphones, but can accept one of my pocketable cameras (Canon SX260). Of course that wouldn't trouble those who live with their smartphone in their hand from dawn to dusk, but I wouldn't want to live like that.

.

 

You are probably correct regarding the competence of the user not being the only factor but it is the main one. I was at a wedding a few months back and noticed the highly regarded photographer was often snapping with his S7. After a couple of beers we questioned him on this and he replied that in some instances he preferred the phone over his usual camera and often included photos taken with it in his proofs to the customer.

 

This has really got away from the OP original review of his new bike and his trials and tribulations which were very well expressed and made for great informative reading. Thanks Templogin

You are probably correct regarding the competence of the user not being the only factor but it is the main one. I was at a wedding a few months back and noticed the highly regarded photographer was often snapping with his S7. After a couple of beers we questioned him on this and he replied that in some instances he preferred the phone over his usual camera and often included photos taken with it in his proofs to the customer.

 

No dispute, for that sort of subject I fully agree, and indeed for the great majority of photos that most people take, a good smartphone is well up to the job.

 

But in many areas of natural world photography the range of adjustability of even a good compact pocket camera copes with circumstances where a smartphone often fails.

.

You're wasting your time with these guys, Dan. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. For whatever reasons, probably sheer bloody-mindedness, some guys just don't want to take advantage of the new things available to them. That's their choice. We try to help them by providing information, but they see the help as an attack on their integrity or intelligence, so they'll defend their position to the death.

 

We had a guy at work, who would always sit down with us at lunchtime and start the conversation by explaining that he had a problem and needed a solution to it, but no matter what logical solution anybody offered, he would argue to the death why each solution wouldn't work, changing the problem along the way just to make sure. I'm sure we've all met guys like that.

 

 

Dave, I agree

 

Andy,

your comments about the box of smartphones is either wilful obstruction or a jest, in the spirit of Christmas and charity I am assuming the latter.

Of more importance is the decision about your friends bike and the problem of lugging it up steps.

Electric bikes are supposed to improve our lives or at least make them easier. I am a strong believer in the machine being the servent and human being the master. Lugging a 20 to 30 kg machine up and down steps seems to me reversing that role and acting as a major disencentive to using a bike. How long would she consider doing this. 1 year 5, ? 10 ? . I know that I would start resenting it after a fortnight

Yes a bike will suffer more weathering outside, but the model I suggested seems to be either alloy or plastic or stainless steel on exposed surfaces. I expect that other models in the same price bracket have similar components.As I stated previously I also am close to the sea front .... A correction I checked the distance and I am actually 350m from the high tide mark. , So I am familiar with salt water corrosion. A cycle cover should provide weather protection to some degree. The great advantage you have is that crime is low and certainly identifying what would be for a very distinctive bike missing it's battery should be trivial.

If that is unacceptabl or impossible, have you considered inserting a ramp onto the steps?. It need only be as wide as the wheel thickness 5cm and could even be constructed from guttering. Then the walk assist control could be used to power the bike plus groceries up to the premises.

Edited January 2, 20179 yr by Danidl

Perhaps we can let the issues lie now. There are good smartphones around but you don't have to have one.

Both sides are happy with their choices. Further debate is pointless.

 

Now have a nice new year everyone.

My other half has had 14 years of practice of humping an albeit non e-bike up and down the steps so is well used to it, but I keep pointing out to her that she needs to get as light a bike as possible.

 

The ramp is a good idea, but for the steps being so steep and the chance of other neighbours or those that use the steps as a cut through having an accident. We have discussed the possibility of building a structure at the other side of the house in what is a communal garden, but being a conservation area there are very tight rules.

 

I don't deserve your charity. I have been abused on a number of occasions on this thread. I have taken it on the chin as when people start abusing you, they know that they have lost the argument. It's a way for butthurt people to fight back. What I have pointed out is some of the foolish statements that have been made, free phones being a classic of many.

 

Hopefully this thread will return to what it was, a review of my bike, and I know that it was me that diverted from the topic by mentioning gPS datalogger, but can I just say that I don't want a smartphone, even if it was free. Mine does what I need just fine thank you.

I love my phablet and my sony Qx 10 but I would rather read about your Moulton in this thread. Perhaps someone should start a phone thread.

 

Sent from my D101 using Tapatalk

Is it bad form to bring a thread back on topic when we are having an interesting discussion?

Flecc, are you sure there's no reception where you are, not that you need it at home? It's when you're out and about that it's useful. There's a lot of new masts and networks gone up recently. They normally make sure that there's at least one that works in every location. I have been all over UK.

 

Sorry I missed this question earlier. (Apologies for being off thread subject for this reply)

 

Yes, quite sure, a very common sight here is people wandering around in the road outside and climbing the hill with their latest smartphones to get some sort of a signal.

 

A few years back we had a chance of a relay mast at the local primary school but one nutter mounted a successful campaign against it on "radiation" grounds and that failed as a result,

 

The same has happened at a number of locations around here so even around the local area the signals are very patchy.

 

The fundamental is that the networks are mainly relying on a set of huge masts at the top of the North Downs by the B269 to beam over a large area. Fine for many, but those of us in some folds in the downs and on the lee side masked from the signal get nowt. If I walk down the hill, cross the road and climb the steep hill on the other side a signal appears and at the top of the opposite slope reaches five bars on any network's SIM card!

 

My only mobile use is for emergency contact when travelling. I absolutely don't want mobile internet access. I get more than enough of that indoors and don't want to spend my life peering at screens.

 

I don't reject advances when they are genuinely useful, for example we set up QR trails in our nature reserve, much of which sits on a plateau so mostly has a good signal.

 

QR Green Trail

QR Red Trail

This post might interest you!

.

Edited January 4, 20179 yr by flecc

Sorry that it has been so long since the last update. Things have not been going well.. I have had a cough for ages. The first time that I can find it mentioned in one of my emails to a friend was back in September. Nevertheless, once the Moulton arrived I was busy riding it back and forth to work. My colleagues around me were coughing too, and they had all been diagnosed as having a viral chest infection, and I assumed that mine was the same.

 

Around the beginning of December I was getting fed up with the cough and went to see a GP at a walk-in clinic, was prescribed antibiotics and steroids, and told to take a week off and rest. I felt no different after the week off so just soldiered on until xmas, when I decided that I was probably putting a strain on my chest and would stay off the bike until the cough got better. By the end of February there was no improvement, so I went to the doctor and he suggested that my reflux has got worse and stomach acid is being driven up into my lungs, which seemed obvious once he said it, so I am now on some new meds. The first lot just made me sick, so the second lot I am hopeful will cure me. If not I will have to have a test for helicobacter pylori.

 

Things have changed at work and I needed to access the cellular network rather than the work wifi. My iPad mini was just wifi so I gave that to my son, who was about to buy a used one from CEX, and replaced mine with another iPad mini, but this time the cellular/wifi one. Vodafone managed to balls up the online order, but with a bit of chasing on the good old telephone it had them running the credit check, which they had failed to do. “The SIM will be in the first class post today sir, so you will have it tomorrow”, they said. There’s no point telling them that it wont arrive tomorrow. Three days later I now have it. I popped the nano SIM out of the card and it comes as no surprise that there is no signal here at home. We just haven’t got any coverage, but I know that it will work at the place of employ as my colleague is using one not 12 feet from my desk, and work is where it is most important. I spoke to my son about the lack of signal, and he said, yes people get so used to having such a good signal wherever they are in the UK, even in the Peak District and the Lake District in the middle of nowhere, but Shetland really is in the back of beyond and unless you go there you just can’t understand how it is. Indeed!

 

Anyway, getting away from the personal tech, my other half has just had an electric bike delivered and was keen to go out on it. As we were at her place at the time, Scalloway, once the capital of Shetland, seemed like a good place to go where we could get a coffee. I should add this was before the latest trip to the GP. I wasn’t sure that I would be able to do the 11 mile round trip, and we agreed that if my lungs gave up on me I would turn back and she would carry on. Amazingly I made it in one piece feeling really well, and I just couldn’t understand why I was coughing so badly one moment then zooming off on the bike the next. We sat down in a cafe and had a cake and a coffee and then headed back. I had changed the battery over so that I wouldn’t have to stop on the way back, and we headed off back to Lerwick by a slightly different route with more hills.

 

A third of the way into the trip a car came by, the driver tooting the horn and waving, a friend of ours. She pulled into the lay by and we had a chat, but I set off after a while and let the women have a yarn. I got back to the other half’s place, and except for a fit of coughing I felt fine. I wish I hadn’t left it so long until trying to ride the bike again.

 

She arrived home later and was obviously pleased with the bike except for a rubbing sound that we weren’t able to track down, but seemed to be plastic on plastic around the crank area. Being small she fins the bike difficult to lift up the steep flight of steps to the block of houses, taking the battery off reduces the weight, but I was surprised how little it weighed. The Bosch batteries on mine are much more densely weighted. With the battery on her bike, to me the weight seems to be much the same as my heavily built Thorn.

 

I engaged a talented young man with engineering skills and the tools for the job and he has knocked me up a lovely stainless steel front rack to fit the panniers to. Unfortunately the measurements I gave him didn’t take into account key access to the lock that can lock both the ePod and the battery to the bike, so I plan to lop the top of the key off.

 

I have since ridden the bike the 18 miles home with loaded tail pack and front panniers, albeit not heavy, and the bike still rides like a dream.

 

Pottering about on a Moulton with its small wheels, whilst the other half rides about on her large wheeled bike reminded me of when we rode from Aberdeen, back to Shetland via Cullen on the Moray Coast, Inverness, Tain, Wick, JoG, along the coast, then across to St Margarets Hope on Orkney and Kirkwall, before getting the ferry to Shetland.

 

As you will know if you read the thread from the beginning, it took a long time to make a decision which bike to buy, and a lot of the decision was based around the battery. In a way I am envious when I see her large wheeled Bergamont from the Electric Transport Shop in Cambridge. It is very stylish, except for the Dutch sit up an beg look about it. I have no wish to be bent over drops, but I like to lean forward a lot towards the handlebars, and that is probably born out of riding in the winds up here.

 

Being used to riding a rigid bike the Moulton always seems like a little bit of luxury when I get on it. I know that the suspension doesn’t move much, but that small amount of movement, especially at the back does make a difference, and I think it is that, and the combination of a saddle that suits me, means that my butt survives painless for longer.

 

The Moulton doesn’t really have a huge carrying capacity compared to the large wheeled bikes, which naturally have more space to hang stuff from, and further before it scrapes on the ground, though I have seen some very heavily laden Moultons on touring expeditions. That does have an advantage though as it prevents people like me, who like to be ready for anything, from taking the kitchen sink with me. Generally though I don’t need to take a lot back and forth between home and work, and if it does get heavy and/or bulky the trailer will step into the breach..

 

So if it got stolen tomorrow what would I replace it with? I really can’t say with absolute certainty. I would prefer a large wheeled bike, but the Moulton has its advantages, as well as looking very cool. I still like the battery system. I know that Bosch batteries will be available for years to come. The ePod system has worked well, and the only problem that I have had was when I hadn’t clipped the battery on properly, but a warning light indicated a problem, and as there isn’t many places the system can go wrong, I went straight to the battery fitment. I have ridden through torrential rain without problems, and we all know that ebikes take a good few years off your legs so I ride in winds and conditions that I wouldn’t have considered before. It was initially horribly expensive, but lungs permitting I will do many more miles on this bike, and go to places that I may not have gone to before. Yes, it’s been good value. If you like Moultons, then this could be the perfect way of getting about, and hub gears have surely got to be a logical choice for all but those who don’t ride in adverse conditions.

Vodafone ballsed it up again, by charging me for a service that I didn't want, despite it being free for 3 months. Even when I told them this they still wanted to charge me for it. It was only a quid, but that was not the point, so I used their 30 day agreement and opted out of the contract. It has been the only bit that has gone smoothly!

 

Today I rode the ARCC Moulton to a local art gallery 8.4 miles in 35 minutes. I handed the battery and charger to the staff and they charged it up for me whilst I sat in the cafe eating, drinking and listening to screaming babies. We then had a look around the gallery and shop and by the time that we were finished the battery was charged.

 

Then we set off the 12.6 miles into Lerwick and all was going well until the bike started lurching, despite being in the correct gear, going up a hill and giving the motor plenty off assistance, both with the position of the switch and the input from my legs. I was on my second battery, which was properly fitted and well charged. It was as though the voltage was being reversed intermittently to the motor, and had the effect that engine braking has, especially on a large engined motorbike with few cylinders. It was even happening downhill. I have used ARCCs online web form to ask for advice.

 

The other half is loving her Bergamont eHorizon and managed to leave me standing up the hills, despite being in the second lowest level of assistance. There is a long descent into Lerwick, which she doesn't like, due to the speeds that you can get up to, so she took a longer detour, so I got back first. We both came back cold, but well exercised, her having ridden 26 miles as we set off from different locations.