London Cycle Hire

so, got a puncture yesterday with 6 miles to go on my commute. had no tube nor patches, so strapped my bike to my bag and got on a borisbike home. bit painful, but turned an hour and a half walk into a 45 minute ride. cue loads of looks and comments. turns out the gearing is perfect if you're crossing central london with a bike on your back.

Mikey5000 caught up with me round Regents park, laughed, told me he usually carries around a spare tube rather than a spare bike and then helped me fix my puncture. cheers to him. and a lot of appreciation for the boris bikes as they did come quite in handy.

The TFL API is shit, so I rolled my own if anyone sees a use for it:
http://www.lfgss.com/api/tfl.php

Simple, light-weight, JSON.

There's also this: http://borisapi.heroku.com/

Same data :)

and now this

http://www.geo.me/blog/111/london-cycle-hire-map-live-data/

Yum! I've had a few roots in the back of that bus.

and now this

http://www.geo.me/blog/111/london-cycle-hire-map-live-data/
That's fairly nifty, now they just need to get google to update streetview so you can see the exact location of the racks.

The new bike hire scheme is a clever way of turning us into mobile billboards for Barclays.

WPP, the world’s biggest advertising agency, charges £3,625 to bike an advert around London for a week. If you use a Barclays bike every day for six months, you should be entitled to nearly £87,000. So here’s the plan: this time next year, every single Barclays human billboard should pedal down to head office in Canary Warf and invoice them for services rendered. The £1.7bn bill would wipe out a fair amount the profit they declared last year.

http://www.viceland.com/wp/2010/08/the-truth-about-sponsorship/

Multiple key owners beware.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-10852927

1 spotted being used on my commute Monday, 2 yesterday, 7 today. I think I see a trend.

Just witnessed someone trying to lock their own bike into one of the racks.

Multiple key owners beware.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-10852927

Yup! I was afraid of this... That's why you need to be careful if you sign up for the yearly membership! Expect £45 and pay £135...

Shame we didn't have a spare £25m down the back of the sofa to sponsor the scheme...

1 Attachment

The new bike hire scheme is a clever way of turning us into mobile billboards for Barclays.

WPP, the world’s biggest advertising agency, charges £3,625 to bike an advert around London for a week. If you use a Barclays bike every day for six months, you should be entitled to nearly £87,000. So here’s the plan: this time next year, every single Barclays human billboard should pedal down to head office in Canary Warf and invoice them for services rendered. The £1.7bn bill would wipe out a fair amount the profit they declared last year.

http://www.viceland.com/wp/2010/08/the-truth-about-sponsorship/

Journalism fail

And you owe the Forum a £10 donnation for advertising your shitrag on here, if you want we can organise a group ride down to Vice to get it off you

P.S. Your article is trite.

Your reply is polite.

boorman by name.
dull as fuck arguments by nature.

My mood is light.
anyone fancy a fight?

/stop rhyming and i mean it!

Please, PLEASE tell me you're this guy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6977844.stm

hilarious.

Please, PLEASE tell me you're this guy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6977844.stm

hilarious.

^ Scoble with a bit more hair?

Slightly ironic that article is in Vice, doesn't their output a) entirely depend on advertising and b) encourage self-regarding-coolness-hipsterism through brand promotion and risque photo shoots?

See, that's the irony of it!

Neil Boorman is right.

"My psychotherapist encouraged me to confront my negative self-esteem and to stop judging myself by the impossible ideals that confronted me in the media"

• "I had to discover my local fishmongers and butchers and bulk-buy cosmetics......."*
  
  

**HTFU **

Neil Boorman is right.

I agree.

I received 2 barclays bikes t shirts through the post this morning - They will make good chain rags

The word Barclay's can fuck right off from the bike hire scheme.

Anybody want a peanut?

phew! thought i was alone on that one

/MNIIMYKMFPTD