Author Topic: Dockless Bikes (merged superthread)  (Read 26819 times)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #50 on: 01 October, 2017, 07:42:24 pm »
https://instagram.com/p/BZrm_FzFFnp/

A Yo bike plus rider disappearing into Bristol docks.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #51 on: 15 November, 2017, 07:26:45 pm »
So mobike comes to an end in Manchester, apparently it'll be back but the coverage will basically be the city centre, won't even run as far as the uni on the flagship cycle route. Seems a bit pointless.

Not fast & rarely furious

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Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #53 on: 15 December, 2017, 06:29:51 pm »

Yo no mo!
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

telstarbox

  • Loving the lanes
Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #54 on: 25 January, 2018, 11:38:56 am »
There are also now Ofo bikes in London which are yellow/black. The scheme is apparently with the blessing of Hackney and Islington councils.

https://www.hackney.gov.uk/bike-sharing
2019 🏅 R1000 and B1000

Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #55 on: 25 January, 2018, 08:20:49 pm »
Oxford has yellow Ofo bikes, teal Pony bikes and grey/orange Mobikes (which look extra funky with mag single sided wheels). Apparently there are also oBikes, but I don't think I've seen any them about the place.
There was also a docked bike scheme, but I think that one failed.

telstarbox

  • Loving the lanes
Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #56 on: 28 March, 2018, 08:37:42 pm »
Seeing more and more Ofos and Mobikes around inner London every week.
2019 🏅 R1000 and B1000

Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #57 on: 29 March, 2018, 12:59:56 pm »
Plenty of Mobikes down here @ salford quays but then they seem scattered throughout the Salford area.

Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #58 on: 29 March, 2018, 06:03:54 pm »
I keep seeing ofos in the canal near Meadowhall in Sheffield, is there a word that means "funny sad"?

arabella

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Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #59 on: 03 April, 2018, 09:12:26 pm »
I noticed today that something called 'Urbo' has arrived in Ipswich.  Green and silver, fwiw.
50p/half hour aiui.
Any fool can admire a mountain.  It takes real discernment to appreciate the fens.


Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #61 on: 05 September, 2018, 02:18:12 pm »
I was watching the Irwell having MoBikes retrieved from it in Salford recently.

Torslanda

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Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #62 on: 08 September, 2018, 07:19:58 pm »
I was told that the scrotes would snap the sidestand off the bike and use it to batter the lock off. When they got bored of riding around at 4 - 6 mph they would repurpose the bike into a watercraft or art installation (depends whether it floated) by throwing it into one of several water courses spread liberally about the city centre.

The minority win again. I doubt I would ever have used the scheme but it would have been nice to have it on the city's CV.
VELOMANCER

Well that's the more blunt way of putting it but as usual he's dead right.

ian

Re: Mobikes in Manchester and Obikes in London
« Reply #63 on: 10 September, 2018, 09:24:38 am »
There seem to be more knocking around London and I have seen the occasional one in what looks like legitimate use (as opposed to estate monkeys bombing between crime scenes as a prelude to it ending up mangled on a street corner or in a canal). It still to be a minority in legitimate use which, as business models go, isn't the most effective. Still, post-Brexit we might be able to eat them. The bikes, not the estate kids. When The Desperate Times come, the estate kids will probably eat us.

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Lime E-bike
« Reply #64 on: 10 January, 2019, 09:35:40 am »
This week, I've just started seeing these Lime E-bikes around the place in That London - dockless hire bikes in the mould of Mobike/Ofo but with electric assist. Interesting.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/dockless-electric-bike-scheme-arrives-in-london-a4010041.html

Coincidentally, I've been pondering recently whether the Santander hire bikes should go electric. It would make a lot of sense for users, and the docking stations could act as charging points. On the other hand, I imagine the costs involved in converting the bikes and docking stations would be phenomenal.

For a dockless hire bike scheme to go electric seems a whole other level of logistical nightmare. They're depending on the accuracy and reliability of GPS to be able to track them down when they need recharging. A GPS signal is not always a given in London - especially if the bikes are taken inside buildings...

Has anyone tried one yet? I'm minded to give them a go, just to see what they're like.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Kim

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Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #65 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:28:11 pm »
This week, I've just started seeing these Lime E-bikes around the place in That London - dockless hire bikes in the mould of Mobike/Ofo but with electric assist. Interesting.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/dockless-electric-bike-scheme-arrives-in-london-a4010041.html

Coincidentally, I've been pondering recently whether the Santander hire bikes should go electric. It would make a lot of sense for users, and the docking stations could act as charging points. On the other hand, I imagine the costs involved in converting the bikes and docking stations would be phenomenal.

Weren't there noises about them rolling out some e-bikes as an expansion into hillier areas?  I assume the money didn't happen...


Quote
For a dockless hire bike scheme to go electric seems a whole other level of logistical nightmare. They're depending on the accuracy and reliability of GPS to be able to track them down when they need recharging. A GPS signal is not always a given in London - especially if the bikes are taken inside buildings...

Well they're not relying on GPS alone.  They've also got contact details and credit card authorisation for the person who last used the bike, so if a bike disappears they can get someone to un-disappear or pay for it.

I expect vandalism is a greater concern.


Quote
I'm minded to give them a go, just to see what they're like.

:thumbsup:

Easily hired e-bikes should be a great way to get more people trying them (and hopefully discovering that they're a really practical form of transport).

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #66 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:28:47 pm »
I've downloaded the app. Looks quite good. It shows you the location of bikes and also how much charge they have remaining in the battery, which is handy:


To unlock the bike, you scan a QR code.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

citoyen

  • Occasionally rides a bike
Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #67 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:32:29 pm »
Weren't there noises about them rolling out some e-bikes as an expansion into hillier areas?  I assume the money didn't happen...

Haven't heard that one, but it seems a bit of a no-brainer - as long as they can get the funds...


Quote
Well they're not relying on GPS alone.  They've also got contact details and credit card authorisation for the person who last used the bike, so if a bike disappears they can get someone to un-disappear or pay for it.

They need to be able to prove that the last person to use the bike was the one who made it disappear though, right? I mean, you could just say someone came along and threw it in the back of a lead-lined van just after you finished your session, and how would they prove otherwise? (To answer my own question, I suppose in London the answer to that is CCTV.)

Quote
I expect vandalism is a greater concern.

True.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #68 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:36:34 pm »
They've been in Brent around a month.

Pretty pricy at £2 to unlock + 15p/min.

I don't think they're getting many takers.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #69 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:44:52 pm »
The GPS isn't going to be much use once it's taken out of the bike, which is presumably no harder than with any other dockless (or even docking) hire bike. But I'd have thought collecting them all in for recharging is the biggest logistical problem. Presumably they'll have some sort of van which they can charge them in while they ferry them to wherever.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #70 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:48:15 pm »
They've been in Brent around a month.

Pretty pricy at £2 to unlock + 15p/min.

I don't think they're getting many takers.

That doesn't compare favourably to London bus fares, does it?  It doesn't even compare favourably to Birmingham bus fares, TBH.

Tourists would use it, of course, but Brent isn't ideal in that respect.  I'm sure you'll get plenty of people 'having a go' simply because they're novel, but I reckon that's more likely to send them to the e-bike shop than create regular users.

Kim

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Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #71 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:49:00 pm »
The GPS isn't going to be much use once it's taken out of the bike, which is presumably no harder than with any other dockless (or even docking) hire bike. But I'd have thought collecting them all in for recharging is the biggest logistical problem. Presumably they'll have some sort of van which they can charge them in while they ferry them to wherever.

I assume someone rocks up in a van, removes the bat flattery and slides in a fully charged one, leaving the bike where it is unless it needs repairing or re-locating to somewhere less stupid.  The great thing about e-bikes (and electric motor scooters[1], for that matter) is that the batteries are small enough to do that with.


[1] Which I believe are a thing in ABROAD, where the FOREIGNS have less restrictive licencing requirements for users of low-power motorcycles.

Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #72 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:50:00 pm »
A portion of the Paris Velibs are electric now. They had to rebuild all of the docking stations to make it happen though.

There's no appetite in London to spend more money on the Santander scheme - it's expensive for the number of journeys taken.

Quote
To answer my own question, I suppose in London the answer to that is CCTV

Have you ever actually tried to get CCTV footage - the chances of finding a camera pointing in exactly the right direction, in working order and tracking down the owner and getting the footage off them before it's auto-erased is not good. Going through plod makes it even less likely to happen in time. And even if you are successful, you have blurry footage of unrecognisable people doing something you already knew happenned...

As far as I know the Lime model depends on making their money back before the bike is disappeared. Or not making their money back and filling in the gap with endless venture capital. In other countries Lime manage to run a business renting much more disappearable electric micro scooters (which are illegal to use on the street here) rather than bikes, apparently at not-enough-of-a-loss to have gone out of business yet.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #73 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:54:46 pm »
The GPS isn't going to be much use once it's taken out of the bike, which is presumably no harder than with any other dockless (or even docking) hire bike. But I'd have thought collecting them all in for recharging is the biggest logistical problem. Presumably they'll have some sort of van which they can charge them in while they ferry them to wherever.

I assume someone rocks up in a van, removes the bat flattery and slides in a fully charged one, leaving the bike where it is.  The great thing about e-bikes (and electric motor scooters[1], for that matter) is that the batteries are small enough to do that with.


[1] Which I believe are a thing in ABROAD, where the FOREIGNS have less restrictive licencing requirements for users of low-power motorcycles.
Yes, that would make sense. Assuming they find more than a gps chip on the ground, of course!

Electric motor scooters are very much a thing here too, although not so much as electric kick-along scooters, which of course you don't kick along. I suspect most users regard them as more convenient e-bikes, so no licence.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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Re: Lime E-bike
« Reply #74 on: 10 January, 2019, 01:58:24 pm »
Electric motor scooters are very much a thing here too, although not so much as electric kick-along scooters, which of course you don't kick along. I suspect most users regard them as more convenient e-bikes, so no licence.

Yes, I'm seeing a lot more of those non-kick scooters around (mostly on the pavement).  They seem to appeal to the yoof who don't quite have the nerve for electric skateboards, but I've seen a couple being used by what you'd normally consider to be the mobility scooter demographic.