"Alternatively they've been selling "vee wipes" since the eighties - a wiper blade that fits on your left index finger. They're currently around seven quid. Or get a pair of gloves with a wiper moulded into the finger."

"Yep. Or if you live in your wellies like some of us, make (or buy if you're fancy) a boot jack. A short offcut of plank with a notch cut in one end and a small block of wood nailed to the bottom about a third of the way along. Stand on it with one foot and use the notch to pull the other boot off."

"Looks to me like the stones would damage the roof panels over time, rather help hold them down.How it's done properly, with 4ft x1ft slabs, not wee pebbles: https://thatchinginfo.com/thatching-on-the-orkney-islands/"

""So an expensive 30ft tall tower that holds 6 bikes???”Nope, the 7m version (that's less than 23ft) can hold 8 bikes securely in a footprint (4.5 m²) that's slightly more than a third of a standard Swiss car park bay (12.5 m²)."

"I'm not sure why you think the volume of a car is relevant, unless you're planning on stacking them up. The fact is, you don't need to "run the numbers" - they already have these outside Beuel station in Bonn (and I think it's one of the photos in the article). It can hold 96 bicycles and takes up slightly less space than three parking spaces."

"Minimum wage in Zurich where the company is based is 23.90 CHF/hour (1 CHF is about $1.10). To pay someone to watch the bike rack around the clock would cost more than $280,000 in wages alone. And it wouldn't be nearly as useful or effective as a secure bike locker."

"1. The expense is a drop in the ocean compared to the amount expended on storing cars for the 95% of the time they are not in use.2. People of all classes use bicycles as their primary form of transport in most European cities.3. Bike theft is a big problem. In Amsterdam, for example, around 30,000 bikes a year are stolen. A thief using a cheap battery powered angle grinder can cut through almost any lock in seconds and you stand almost no chance of getting your bike back. When you rely on it for getting to work, collecting the children from school, doing the shopping, etc, having your bike stolen can have a major affect on your life.I'm not sure this is the solution, but it deserves better than a sneer."