London Cycle Hire

Oops - http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23995228-ambulance-flips-over-after-swerving-to-avoid-boris-biker.do

From the Bicycle Tag of Bike thread

I just did my first ride on a Boris bike. I hope it's my last - I thought my bike was shit until I got on that deathtrap. Feel was rickety and sluggish, steering twitchy and unstable feeling. Brakes were stiff but weak, and gears were not only too far apart and poor ratios for me at least (with 1st useless and 2nd barely useable, 3rd only just), but the gearing was poorly adusted and kept dropping out of third.

Also, taxis gave me even less space than usual as I wobbled towards near-certain death.

I hope to avoid in future.

email received today:
As a member of Barclays Cycle Hire, I thought you might be interested in taking part in an online "Meet the Managers" forum we will be running on Tuesday 18 October, from 19:00 to 20:30.

The forum will provide you with the opportunity to contact both myself and other senior managers with any questions or suggestions you may have about the scheme, for example, regarding its operation or future plans. The scheme has now passed its first anniversary and we would welcome your input. To join in the live forum, please visit tfl.gov.uk/meetthemanagers

I saw the stockholm version on a recent visit and was impressed with the bikes, much nicer than the barclays tosh. Didn't get to have a go though unfortunately...

looks a bit lighter not sure if they're better

Renewed my annual subs on 18/08/11 paying on my credit card and I tried to use a bike this week and found key not working at all.

Phone them up and they tell me they seem to have lost the payment I made and three months later in November my access was suspended, without any communication to me despite having email/mobile details.

Having to send them a copy of my credit card statement (thank goodness for online .pdf copies) to prove I paid. Shambles.

Two docks spotted in Canary Wharf this morning, "opening soon" fist part of the east London extension?

just saw the same thing right outside my old resident, reckon they're adding a lots more docks to shorten the distance between each one.

They didn't get all the docking stations in during the first round and still have some infill to do. And yes, the extension stations are going in at the moment.

Was going to start a new thread, but as a new user (long-time reader) the system won't let me.

Saw a chap in his BMW (YD58 EWF) parked in the Phillimore Gardens Cycle Hire docking station when I returned a bike yesterday evening. He and his passenger had gone off somewhere, and were away from the car for over five minutes... He was rather confrontational when he returned (calling me a "d**k head").

Reported it to local council, but he drove off.

^ it would have been quite funny if his car got blocked in by returned bikes.

^ it would have been quite funny if his car got blocked in by returned bikes.

Ohhhhhhh. Kicking myself now!

• there were even two of us there, so it was perfectly feasible...
  

Epic Fail Thread

Cycle hire scheme fail.

There I was enjoying the pay as you go freedom of a hire bike and just as I'm about to head back to the office...,,,

They say it never happens!

what never happens?

The suspense is killing me.

p*ncture I bet, innit.

they can run flat... sort of

He got struck by lightning, twice?

hopefully

has this been re-docked yet?

My key's stopped working (about a year ago now), if I can get a free key I'd use it.

Is it churlish of me to not want to pay the £3 I assume they are going to ask for a replacement? Can I get a free replacement if I ask nicely?

consider yourself lucky, i've never been able to sign up for a key, despite being a barclays bank customer.

somehow my tfl account is fooked and won't let me order keys online, in a bout of desperation i needed to get a bobike to get somewhere in a rush so I used pay as you go and now I can't use that card for pre-pay even if i phone up as you can't use the same card for both.

the entire scheme is a lot less convenient when you have to spend 10 minutes wrangling with the machine just to get an unlock code. i'd probably use it 90% of the time to just hop on and cycle a few streets to the next docking station if I was running late for something and not on my bike. most of the time i can walk the same distance in the time it takes to undock and redock a bike with a voucher.