Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme.

[onmebike]

I was in the City of London today and saw the launch of the Barclay's cycle hire scheme. Bike's appear pretty basic with 3sp nexus gears Rental prices range from 30mins for free to 24hrs for £50.00.
One problem I forsee is, once finished with the bike, if there's not a free stand where you are, you have to find the nearest vacant one. This can be found on an active map but may be a considerable distance. Another option is to press a button and wait for someone to come out to you.


Barclays Cycle Hire Scheme: painting London 'Tory blue' or putting colour in a whitewash? - Telegraph

 

[Mussels]

I'm desperately trying to justify the cost of signing up, thinking how it could be useful to me as I have a docking station outside my office. But I can't find a reason to try it.
I might use it occasionally for trips to and from pubs as I don't want to leave my own bike outside, other than that I'm at a loss.

 

[onmebike]

You apparently don't have to sign up, you can use a credit or debit card at the machine. I think the free 30mins will be useful to people wanting to get from the station to office but may leave all the stands close to stations empty.

 

[Mussels]

You apparently don't have to sign up, you can use a credit or debit card at the machine. I think the free 30mins will be useful to people wanting to get from the station to office but may leave all the stands close to stations empty.

The price is a bit misleading for casual use, the 30 minutes are free but you have to pay £1 for the days access. Cheaper than the tube but not enough to make the effort of spinning 23kg round a one way system worth it.

 

[flecc]

The reporter trying one on the midday BBC news remarked on how heavy it was, and how low geared and slow in consequence. It certainly looks a brutally heavy beast, they are obviously trying to avoid the high level of damage the more normal weight Paris bike hire models suffered.

Also in trying to avoid the very high theft levels of the Paris bikes, they seem to have placed too many obstacles in the way of using them, getting a key etc. I remain to be convinced this sort of scheme is worthwhile in any way, especially in a climate like ours. It was the one Ken Livingstone cycling scheme I didn't like, so fortunately Boris Johnson has cut it down to a quarter of the original intention.
.

 

[Barry Heaven]

I heard that one of the lessons learnt from the the Paris scheme was that kids were taking them and using them for stunt riding, so maybe they have made them heavy as a deterrence.

 

[onmebike]

Security doesn't appear that good from what I've seen.
Bike locks into stand by front wheel and although there are security type bolts on most components, someone with bolt croppers could take all but the front wheel quite easily.
Anyone want a new rear wheel with nexus hub and tyre? 6000 going cheap.

 

[flecc]

It's started, a man has already been arrested for stealing some of these bikes.

Also in another incident in Hyde Park people are defacing the Barclays advertising area at the rear of the bikes.

This already before day one is half over, and given what we know about the crazy costs of the Paris scheme, as a London council tax payer I'm not looking forward to how much this is going to cost us.
.

 

[onmebike]

It's started, a man has already been arrested for stealing some of these bikes.

Also in another incident in Hyde Park people are defacing the Barclays advertising area at the rear of the bikes.

This already before day one is half over, and given what we know about the crazy costs of the Paris scheme, as a London council tax payer I'm not looking forward to how much this is going to cost us.
.

The ongoing cost of maintaining these bikes is going to be horrendous.
I fully expect some nutter to go round punturing all the tyre's on a regular basis.
Although most city workers will treat them with respect, vandals will see them as an easy target.

 

[Mussels]

The ongoing cost of maintaining these bikes is going to be horrendous.
I fully expect some nutter to go round punturing all the tyre's on a regular basis.
Although most city workers will treat them with respect, vandals will see them as an easy target.

Looking at the map the bikes are mainly in the finance and tourist areas and kept away from the residents.
I saw one today coming back along the superhighway, it looked like a journalist riding it.

 

[Vikki]

Tomorrow there'll be hundreds of them ruined as teenage oinks try and spoil it for everyone else - all in the name of fun

Boris tries to do something nice and kids will ruin it. (I have very little faith in British kids these days ).

Vikki.

 

[simonbarnett]

Tomorrow there'll be hundreds of them ruined as teenage oinks try and spoil it for everyone else - all in the name of fun

Boris tries to do something nice and kids will ruin it. (I have very little faith in British kids these days ).

Vikki.

Paris has vandals too and a fair number of Velibs were trashed early on, but the thrill wore off.

The main difference to me is that Paris is smaller and generally flatter (ignore Montmartre) so possibly better for heavy bikes.

But the ideas commendable and the cost to be assessed. I'd rather see my taxes used to promote bikes than much else on recent agendas.

 

[flecc]

Paris has vandals too and a fair number of Velibs were trashed early on, but the thrill wore off.

And fully half of them stolen, now used all the time without paying of course since it's impossible to say which is legally used or not. The total of all costs of running these schemes is crazy since there are many unexpected large ongoing expenses, hence the Decaux company refusing to carry on running it without a contract renegotiation for much more money.
.