Buzzbike - bike leasing in London

[Tim Hall]

Looks like I'm on that ride. See you (and your ourquers de vache) there.

Excellent !

(Ourquers ??   Wassat ?)

Ourquers de vache. De vache, cow related. Being Frenchish, the adjective and noun are reversed. Thus ourquers de vache becomes cow ourquers, or co-workers. It's a shedde thing. I expect you're pleased you asked

[hatler]

Aha !  Thank you. I hadn't applied the accent to get there.

[DuncanM]

It looks like a decent bike, with only 2 minor drawbacks - "puncture proof tyres" are almost certainly crap, and they come only in sizes 57cm and 52cm. I guess, if you want bicycle as a service then punctures break the model, but...

[hatler]

One of the ones at work has (I think) Schwalbe Lugano Endurance tyres on it.

[quixoticgeek]

I live in zone 2 and have a 12 speed Brompton. This may upset the dataset.

My avatar is me doing an actual cyclocross race on mine*. With the mudguards on. And not for the first time. In sticky conditions the chain tensioner clogs long before the mudguards do.

(* on a motocross course in zone

Tell me more.

What tyres did you use? I'm wondering how race control would be about me turning up with my winter spiked tyres... they at least have some tread to them...

J

[grams]

What tyres did you use? I'm wondering how race control would be about me turning up with my winter spiked tyres... they at least have some tread to them...

Just the standard marathons. They work fine on most surfaces. Raleigh Records are available in Brompton sizes and have knobblies, though I don't think they'd help much in proper mud.

It was an "anything goes" fun race before the more serious race. I did it on an original Bickerton the following year, although sadly no photographer...

[Wycombewheeler]

3-speed's fine if you're not venturing beyond about *handwaves* Zone 3.

*ponders*

I've just realised the TFL zones in fact denote the optimum number of gears you need on a bike in that area.  That's genius.  It also explains why Bromptons come with up to 6 gears as standard (with those living in the further reaches of the Metropolitan line requiring a visit to Kinetics), and why areas where serious gearing is needed (Wales, Yorkshire, The Alps) don't recognise your Oyster card.

I've used a Santander bike, I found I only needed one gear in central London (the biggest one) but were I venturing to Hampstead (zone 2) I think I'd need more than 2

[ian]

I confess I only use the most-spinny of the six gears to get up that 25% hill and up the driveway. There's another couple of hills (I mostly come over Crystal Palace for instance) that don't require that. I'm not sure if that's because I'm awesome or slow. I think my Brompton commute is a tad atypical though.