London Cycle Hire

No possibility for advertisers to negotiate one contract for the whole of London. They'd have had to deal with 33 local authorities plus TfL and they didn't fancy that.

guess they sorted this bit out, somehow.

Who pumps up the tyres..?? hmmn....

Who clean the street..?? hmmn....

The Wombles?

I hope they've got strong wheels to withstand the usual drunk-kickers who like to try to fold wheels with their feet.

I keep thinking we need to organise a forum time trial on these things, once they are in action.

What distance can you cover in 30 mins?

about the same as a piece of string.

Holborn-Swains tt innit.

Note: You can't endo these things

More importantly, does it barspin?

Transport advisor kulveer ranger = at best fair weather cyclist

i had a word with the cycle officer at tower hamlets council recently.

he said he cycled 3 or 4 miles ..... occasionally.

corrupt or what...

i think this cycling initiative will be very interesting.

i expect loads of mileage .....

i cant wait to see one on in use.

anybody been on one yet ?

i will buy a pint for the person who rides the first one to easts.

GSIAD on them?

Saw my first one of these this morning pootling through hyde park. Look pretty sweet, great excuse not to get the night bus. Little expensive though.

Saw some being tested near Lord's on Weds.

As for the GSIAD - calling Murts, calling Murts - what will all you Sidi wearers do?

It looks like there will be 27 bikes near Hatton Garden (Duke of York) ..http://cyclehireapp.com/locations.html

Plan: stroll to your nearest, ride to Clerkenwell, do a crazy dock-undock thing so that no one pays more for the 30 mins while GSIAD attendees gather, then leave the Hatton Garden station with no bikes!

I think the ride up Swain's Lane (Swaintoux 2010 on Vimeo
) might be interesting

guess they sorted this bit out, somehow.

Yes, they went for sponsorship, as opposed to an advertising company making money out of the scheme and getting free advertising space (on hoardings etc.) all over London.

Aren't these being launched on the same day as Critical Mass? Hmm... now there's an idea.

Some Tfl people were testing the docking units at the bike station on Theobald's road. There was a supervisor chap there and I got chatting to him about the scheme. (He was riding a fixed gear bike himself, he clearly used it to scoot between the stations doing these tests.) They are going to deploy 6,000 bikes on the night of the 29th of July - quite an undertaking. I asked him why TFL hadn't published a list of stations yet and he said they had been having a nightmare getting local residents to agree to having the stations installed in their borough: concerns about additional infrastructure on the street, etc. The bikes cost about £900 each - that's the bulk price - and weigh the best part of 40 kilos. He told me he'd managed to get one up to 28mph on the Embankment. He was built like a track cyclist, so I'm not sure that's a fair indication of what most people can expect.

I have been cycling with a bloke who's riding one of them from clapham to st Paul (rode all way with him)

The bike is frankly, perfectly fine, the key here is that this isn't a bike that's design for speed, all the way from clapham, he appear fine, comfortable and in control (he's about 50, and doesn't appear to be fit), after a brief chat with him, we come to the conclusion that the bike is more than enough if you relax and take it easy the weight seemed to be on par with a typical Dutch bike.

If he, a normal 50 something bloke can ride it from clapham to st Paul without much effort, so can anyone.

i saw workmen putting in the stands on abbey orchard street and howick place. seem to be quite quiet places to have them, will see little use on weekends i'd imagine.

I think the ones on shoredtich high street are poorly placed, in the main road when it is fairly narrow there anyway. Also seen a stand appear on falkirk street which i expect to be vandalised in due course because it's pretty rough there.

Trying to sign up for this... keeps rejecting my card, apparently this has happened to others?

Saw this couple of days ago....

http://i26.tinypic.com/n380pl.jpg