London Cycle Hire

The pheasants were revolting

Don't grouse.

Forgot to mention earlier, the seats are horrible on the hire bikes. They make me slide forward onto the little knobly bit at the front, which proceeds to try and rape my guch.

Well, yes, but he's not original or really insightful. He's unappealing because he is a typical media solipsist. Things only become important when they affect him. And having become, in that way, truly important of course he has to tell us all about it. It's not enough for him to change, he has to be seen to change. His subject is not the real subject; he is the subject, he is what he actually finds interesting.
Accompanied as ever in these kind of risible 'experiments' by an overweening sense of self pity: "The first months of my brand-free life were hell" and "I was also forced to plan ahead." as well as justifying his basic shallowness and self-absorption with some cod-scientific pathology "I suffered from a condition known as obsessive branding disorder" He should have listened to his mother a lot earlier in life.

Read this thread the other night and wanted to post something along exactly these lines. Thank you.

anybody who rides one of those bikes looks like a dick.

on my bus ride from king's x to brixton this evening i only spotted four (fair enough, it wasn't the ideal time...), what is the general consensus on the usage / expected usage? do they align or is there more or less?

anybody who rides one of those bikes looks like a dick.

Trolling alias? Or genuine bore?

he might be talking about this person.

in which case he would be true.

nice...hopefully that kind of ad-busting will start appearing on all the bikes...

well this subvertising does seem to spreading and will be interesting as reportrd by indymedia,
The bikes are an easy target

Well, yes, but he's not original or really insightful. He's unappealing because he is a typical media solipsist. Things only become important when they affect him. And having become, in that way, truly important of course he has to tell us all about it. It's not enough for him to change, he has to be seen to change. His subject is not the real subject; he is the subject, he is what he actually finds interesting.
Accompanied as ever in these kind of risible 'experiments' by an overweening sense of self pity: "The first months of my brand-free life were hell" and "I was also forced to plan ahead." as well as justifying his basic shallowness and self-absorption with some cod-scientific pathology "I suffered from a condition known as obsessive branding disorder" He should have listened to his mother a lot earlier in life.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with any of that, Will, but I bet that the number of people for whom Boorman's article is genuinely interesting news is higher than the number of people that would be able to question what he writes in the way that you do. I thought it worth pointing out that he, whoever he is and however he chooses to present it, is basically right. Perhaps he has to present it in this way to be true to himself/his past self and would be a hypocrite if he didn't paint himself in this unflattering light?

Just out of interest, is anyone else having a problem wherein the site allows you to sign up and then rejects known-good card details, thus preventing you from actually accomplishing anything useful? It's a mite tiresome.

Yes.

I can't sign up. Poo.

Maybe it;s your credit rating?

Credit limit, rather than rating. I expect they try to get an authorisation for the non-return charge of £300 when you sign up.

Credit limit, rather than rating. I expect they try to get an authorisation for the non-return charge of £300 when you sign up.

Don't think so!

They would have to ask if they are doing a credit check.

It was a joke

Possible, but I'm doubtful. Same card happily books flights, for example.

Defo not limit issue, I signed up with a card that has far less headroom than £300.

there are still plenty of glitches on the bike hire system. If it rejects your card one time it sometimes won't let you try again using the same card details. Phone them up, then they will sort it out.

I had a go on the Brussels Villo system yesterday. This is a new version of the Paris system run by JC Decaux. It replaces the failed Cyclocity system which was too small and you had to pay for any trip. Now it is free for 30 mins then 50c for the next. There are only 50-60 locations in the central area and a bit too far apart for comfort. Three times the stands were full up with bikes, making returning them tricky.
The bikes seemed a bit lighter than the Paris and London version, maybe it was the 7 speed hub gears that made climbing the Kuntsberg possible and zippy coming down again.

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I like the cat thing, but I guess in London a bit of bike related sculpture would most likely be used as a pissoir... [/or be branded bright blue with corporate logos all over it. Because someone has to pay, right?]

I did a (by all accounts awesome) fishtail skid on a Villo bike when I turned left across the tramlines in the rain. I found them pretty hard work (yeah I know, MTFU and all that), but certainly handy.
Navigating in Brussels took some getting used to, but it was alright in the end. I may be misremembering, but did they have a map stuck to the handlebars?
The stopping power was a lot better when I figured out the front brake was on the left!

Tried to hire a bike yesterday from behind Selfridges around 5.30pm. My key fob was declined repeatedly. The docking station computer thing wasn't working/couldn't access my account. Phoned the helpline - surprise surprise they were hexperiencing 'an unprecendented volume of calls'. A guy walked past me and said he'd been to 3 other docking stations in the area and none of them were working. Meh.

http://www.oobrien.com/vis/bikes/

Well, yes, but he's not original or really insightful. He's unappealing because he is a typical media solipsist. Things only become important when they affect him. And having become, in that way, truly important of course he has to tell us all about it. It's not enough for him to change, he has to be seen to change. His subject is not the real subject; he is the subject, he is what he actually finds interesting.
Accompanied as ever in these kind of risible 'experiments' by an overweening sense of self pity: "The first months of my brand-free life were hell" and "I was also forced to plan ahead." as well as justifying his basic shallowness and self-absorption with some cod-scientific pathology "I suffered from a condition known as obsessive branding disorder" He should have listened to his mother a lot earlier in life.

I wouldn't necessarily disagree with any of that, Will, but I bet that the number of people for whom Boorman's article is genuinely interesting news is higher than the number of people that would be able to question what he writes in the way that you do. I thought it worth pointing out that he, whoever he is and however he chooses to present it, is basically right. Perhaps he has to present it in this way to be true to himself/his past self and would be a hypocrite if he didn't paint himself in this unflattering light?

Agree with both those things. The book gives a potted history of branding and advertising and introduced me to organisations like the Slow Food Movement and The Idler Magazine, and made me question my actions more (always a good thing). And I think the personal aspect speaks to people more than a more objective and in depth book might.

He's an all-over pranny, but at least he's doing better things than most of the self regarding prongs.