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Hi, Rusty!
I imagine the powered bikes work well in Inner London?
But out here they are few and far between.
I have yet to see a person riding one......
We just see an occasional bike abandoned on a street...it is illegal to leave one on private property, and the offender can be heavily fined.
The bikes must be left in public, where they can be accessed by means of the app.
A potentially hopeful cyclist looks up, on the app, where the nearest E-bikes is situated.... and pops off to collect it!
He then leaves it at his destination for the next person to "find" and use.
I wonder whether a company representative goes about, rounding up "stray" bikes, and depositing them at a more general assembly point?
Such as a railway station?

Good evening, Elle!
I don't really understand about "leaving" the bike.
Could someone not steal it?
Seems to be a rather casual system?
It has been a fine day here, but it is chilly!
I had central heating on earlier/

Good evening, Rusty!
We have had some rain here...and yes, it is chilly!
We have our heating coming on automatically when the temperature drops below the thermostat setting.
Oh dear! We had a bit of a disaster this afternoon!
The electric shower would not switch off...the water just kept on coming.......
We had to turn off the water at the mains.
The plumber popped back and has "isolated" the problem for now - so that we can have the water functioning everywhere else - and he is coming back tomorrow!
An appropriate metaphor might be "it never rains but it pours"?!!
I'm not sure how the E-bikes system works, Rusty?
The bikes will not operate without payment being made, so "stealing" as such would achieve nothing?
And the bikes are trackable.....
Have you had a good day?

Hello, Elle!
I prefer to put my heating on manually, rather than via the thermostat.
Wonder what is up with the shower?
Is that the new one?
Ah, I knew there must be some sort of system for the bikes.
My day has been very quiet and that's fine.
Took me ages to work out the parse to 6a.
A good puzzle today!

Hi, Rusty!
Ah, but we didn't replace the electric shower, you see.......only the cubicle, and new plastering and tiling.
It probably just wants replacing with a new one?
This one is nearly twenty years old!
Maybe we should have done that?
However, the plumber will come back tomorrow, and take a more thorough look.
I thought today's puzzle was a reasonably straightforward one?
There were quite a number of homophones, of which 6a ("hart" sounds like "heart" (beater) was one!
I have a complete grid......but couldn't parse 2d: ominous = hinting at trouble (def)
I can see the two "o"s but where does "minus" come from?
And 7d: reproof = criticism (def)
How does the rest of this parse, please?
Damp out!

Hello, Elle!
Maybe it will be an easy fix for the plumber, or maybe a sparky?
Took me ages to twig "heart" was a beater!
2d, I have no idea, but "ring" is "o", and operator appears to be "minus", ringing "o".
Why minus is operator, I simply do not know.
7d. Actors often perform in Repertory Theatres, which are often shorten to "Rep".
So the actors will have the "Rep roof" over them.
I liked that one!

Rusty, Elle, the minus/operator stuff had me puzzled for a bit, but Chambers helped. An 'operator' is 'a symbol, signifying an operation to be performed (maths)' - and 'minus' would be one such thing.

Hi, Rusty!
It was a plumber who installed the electric shower originally, so hopefully another plumber can fix it...or replace it!
Yes, I got as far as trying to find out why "minus" should mean "operator", but didn't have any success.
I couldn't see "rep roof"!
Thank you for the explanation.
Plenty of Athletics this weekend!

Hello, Malone!
Ah, I see! Thank you!
I did not check the dictionary, I'm afraid.
A new meaning of "operator" to me.

Thank you, Malone!
Sorry...I did not see your post before as it crossed with mine to Rusty.