Barclays/TFL cycle hire scheme in London

[Wolveryeti]

Things that annoy me about the cycle hire scheme:

1) If you buy more than one key, each time you use one, you get charged an access fee for all of your keys.

2) There's a 'cooling off' period after you drop off a bike during which you can't take out any bikes from that block of docking bays, and I don't know how long it is.

3) The 'basket' is utterly crap and pointless.

4) They are too slow, and about 50% of them are set up with brakes that rub on the back wheel in ordinary motion.

5) The map with the red dots on it lies.

6) It's going to make me extra paranoid about losing my keys.

I'm still probably going to use it though. There are nights out when bringing your own bike just isn't practical.

 

[salem]

I've had a fair few problems with docking stations refusing to give me a bike. Light goes red when the key is put in. Walking to another station and it's fine.

Still unsure how to renew a 1 day access period. The website tries to sell you another key with it, the terminals don't seem to have the facility yet and the auto-renew feature will cost me double.

 

[Crispy]

Ok, I'm committed to taking my first trip on one of these today. Barbican to Regent's Park. Wish me luck.

 

[quimcunx]

May god be with you, crisps.

 

[Crispy]

In the hard times, there will be one bicycle track in the sand, where He was giving me a backie.

 

[Placid Casual27]

I have joined and used it 6 times this week Moorgate to Tooley Street and back again, has cut the 25 min walk each way to 8 mins and it is a buzz being so much quicker than the walk.

The basket on the front, I now realise the wire thing can be taken off the hooks at the front to make it bigger to go over your rucksack (on Monday I did not know this and crammed my rucksack into the tiny space, thus looking a fool).

The gears are shit in the sense even in 3rd you have to pedal a lot so it is a bit knackering (but not overly so)

Only gutting thing so far was my key didn't work this morning on either of the 2 bikes at the docking station so had to walk to another one.

Assuming they are ironing out glitches (which is part of the point of having it membership only til mid-Sept) it is pretty good on the whole.

I burned a Merc at the lights and to be fair that was worth a year's membership in itself

 

[IMR]

Friend of mine was very upbeat about it this evening and despite not liking the Barclays branding thinks the London bikes are better than the Parisian ones.

 

[Crispy]

my trip was uneventful, but slower than I would have normally cycled. They really have set the gears to incredibly slow, a bit slow and slow. I'll use it again, anyway, and I saw plenty of other people pootling about on them. Good stuff

 

[Orang Utan]

muffins

 

[bi0boy]

I visited London for the day last Monday and went up to a bike place with the intention of using one. There were some French tourists there trying to get bikes also.

Then I read the "bugger off unless you registered online already" sign.

We all left slightly bemused. Surely we should have been able to put our credit cards in the card reader and had the security/deposit/charge/authorise stuff work straight away off of that.

 

[ddraig]

wrong thread OU

 

[Crispy]

I visited London for the day last Monday and went up to a bike place with the intention of using one. There were some French tourists there trying to get bikes also.

Then I read the "bugger off unless you registered online already" sign.

We all left slightly bemused. Surely we should have been able to put our credit cards in the card reader and had the security/deposit/charge/authorise stuff work straight away off of that.

it's still in the "testing" phase
(or the "it's not ready yet but we've got a deadline and Boris is breathing down my back so let's get soemthing going" phase)

 

[Orang Utan]

wrong thread OU

oops!

 

[braindancer]

Apologies if this has already been posted: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyl...ey-puts-the-Boris-bike-through-its-paces.html

Some fairly unawesome stunts on a Boris Bike

 

[braindancer]

I've not seen anyone riding one after dark as yet but the impression I get from seeing them in the day is that while the front light looks adequate the two rear lights look particularly inadequate - they are very low down and I would worry about their visibility.

 

[skyscraper101]

Things that annoy me about the cycle hire scheme:
1) If you buy more than one key, each time you use one, you get charged an access fee for all of your keys.

OMG have they STILL not fixed this?! How long is this going to go on for?

2) There's a 'cooling off' period after you drop off a bike during which you can't take out any bikes from that block of docking bays, and I don't know how long it is.

WHAT? Who decided on this?! I've never heard that one before.

The whole point of returning within half an hour is so that you can dock, and then undock a bike again and continue to use it for free as many times as you want. This is utterly ridiculous of TFL. And to not even tell you how long the cooling off period is is also stupid.

 

[teuchter]

OMG have they STILL not fixed this?! How long is this going to go on for?

It's in the T&Cs - it's not unintentional.

It is explained (admittedly not very clearly) on the page where you sign up to multiple keys.

 

[bi0boy]

I've not seen anyone riding one after dark as yet but the impression I get from seeing them in the day is that while the front light looks adequate the two rear lights look particularly inadequate - they are very low down and I would worry about their visibility.

Yes I noticed this. Not sure but the lights don't look bright enough to meet the required 4 candela, the rear ones are also pretty close to the legal minimum height above the road of 35cm.

 

[19sixtysix]

I've not seen anyone riding one after dark as yet but the impression I get from seeing them in the day is that while the front light looks adequate the two rear lights look particularly inadequate - they are very low down and I would worry about their visibility.

I've been using the bikes after dark on my nightshift lunches. The back light are low but there is one each side so I doubt they can't be seen. Front isn't much use in really dark spots but in central london its never that dark.

 

[skyscraper101]

It's in the T&Cs - it's not unintentional.

It is explained (admittedly not very clearly) on the page where you sign up to multiple keys.

So what's the reasoning behind it?

 

[teuchter]

So what's the reasoning behind it?

I don't know - I'm not TfL

I agree it's a strange arrangement.

 

[teuchter]

I did Mornington Crescent to Oval last night. Would have done it in under half an hour if the first docking station I went to hadn't been full.

I'm not sure whether it really saved any time compared to the night bus but it was quite fun to whistle through central London at 2am.

 

[bi0boy]

I did Mornington Crescent to Oval last night. Would have done it in under half an hour if the first docking station I went to hadn't been full.

What proportion of the spaces are meant to be empty? Most I have seen have been full or quite full.

You might conceivably have had to cycle back again and get the bus.

 

[Sgt Howie]

Had a go over the weekend. They're crap bikes but fine for what they are. Can see me using it a couple of times a month.

 

[skyscraper101]

Lots of people reporting problems again this morning on LBC

 

[teuchter]

If there's not a dedicated bike hire app for your phone ... this website has appeared which is designed to be usable on a mobile browser. Have tried it on mine and it seems to work ok:

http://dockr.co.uk/

Announcing Dockr.co.uk
http://dockr.co.uk is a little web app to find your nearest docking stations for the recently launched London Barclays Cycle Hire scheme.

There’s been a bit of a rush to build apps for the scheme and so I thought I’d have a go and see what happens. It was a challenge combining stuff that interests me: making websites, mobile web, geolocation, bikes and London. So on Tuesday morning I set about building an app and at about 1.3oam on Wednesday I launched Dockr.co.uk.

I decided to go the route of a web app rather than an iPhone or Andoid as I wanted to get things done quickly, enjoyably, and I have no intention of charging. Building the app using standard Javascript in browsers with my normal development tools allowed me to produce a basic app in a matter of hours. The other factor that allowed rapid development was the amount of tools and APIs that are available.

http://blog.edeverett.co.uk/2010/08/announcing-dockr-co-uk/

 

[skyscraper101]

So had my first experience on these bikes on Saturday on two seperate rides.

First one was from Queensway to Haymarket in the afternoon. Negotiating Marble Arch, Oxford Street, Regent Street and Piccadilly Circus along the way. It was ok. A bit heavy for when you need to lift and move the bike off the road. But over all not too bad. The lowest gear is way to light for anything other than starting from still, but it is actually quite useful for all the traffic light stops you need to accelerate from quickly when you've got multiple double decker buses up your arse. Only real complaint about the bikes themselves is the nobbing barclays sign.

Second leg I rode from Haymarket to Kensington Olympia station at night, down Piccadilly, past Green Park, Hyde Park Corner (scary roundabout or scary tunnel - I chose roundabout), Knightsbridge, High St Ken and then Russell Gardens - the furthest west stop. Mnaged both journeys in less than half an hour so both free after the daily deposit. Win.

 

[editor]

*I've changed the thread title for accuracy

I've yet to have a go on one of these things but am definitely going to sign up.

 

[teuchter]

*I've changed the thread title for accuracy

Maybe it should just say "TfL cycle hire scheme in London" so Barclays doesn't get any more advertising than they already have?

 

[Orang Utan]

Maybe it should just say "TfL cycle hire scheme in London" so Barclays doesn't get any more advertising than they already have?

but it might not bring enough new customers to the site