What's Boris bike scheme like - a stereotype request

mr_poll

Eh up Guvnor, a northern monkey wants a bit of your lager an' lime. I need to know about the London "Dick Van Dyke" scheme.

Us Northerners with our cloth caps and whippets dont have much money so we arent trusted to have bikes lying around on the streets we still have trams up here in our major cities. However you rich city types with your jackets covered in pearls seem to have such a scheme.

I am going up to the big smoke next Thursday and will be staying with my Sis in Kew for a few days, with trip to the tennis at the O2 on Friday and then some usual gawping at the magnificence of the sights on Saturday. Forgetting the November weather has anyone tried out the Boris bike scheme, does it work? Can my trip be achieved by boris bike rather than hopping on and off the tube?

Your thoughts stereotypical or not are welcome.

EKE_38BPM

Kew to the O2 by Boris Bike will be a bit of a trek. Doable, but a bit of a mission.
Do they have BBs that far out? Check the maps.
You have to order a key first I believe. I haven't looked into getting one, so have no idea how long they take to arrive. Maybe a week is cutting it a bit fine?

If you do ride from Kew to the O2, you'll see loads of the city and it would be a longish but relatively flat ride. Quite busy though. You may have to stop at The Morpeth for refreshments. Friday after 6 would be a good time...

Edit: I've just had a look at the map and Kew is a few miles to the South West of the nearest docking station (Earls Court) and the O2 is a few miles to the East of the nearest docking station (Bermondsey).
PT at either end?

kurako

You need to sign up for a key. You can do it here. There's the option to pay daily which is good. I've used mine 3 times I think.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/roadusers/cycling/14808.aspx

The bikes are HEAVY. Kew to O2 will not be fun even assuming they have stands that far out (which I doubt, there's a map on the web-site).

For short jaunts around town (sub 30 mins) they are awesome and way better than getting on the dirty, stinking underground.

deptfordmarmoset

EKE's right, Kew to O2 isn't a cycle hire ride - because the scheme is only in central London. If you want to do some central London sightseeing, the bikes are fine but you'll have to get a key (not expensive but it needs a bit of forward-planning). But Kew to O2, if you can't bring your own bike, you'll be at the mercy of public transport, I'm afraid.. (I've actually done a ride between Richmond and Greenwich, crossing every road bridge and tunnel in between - I think it was 24 river crossings in all) and it was an enjoyable ride. But I wouldn't try it on a BoBi.

(Because I live reasonably near to the O2, by the time I get to where the first cycle-bay appears, I'm already on a bike, so the scheme doesn't make much sense for me. But it seems ideal for those central short hops.)

hatbeard

for getting to the o2 consider taking the riverboat across central london (from the london eye/embankment all the way to the 02 riverboat pier), you'll get to see all the bits along the thames, even in the winter it's not that cold that you can't sit in the outside seating area at the back (hat/gloves recommended though) and it's infinitely better than the tube as you always get a seat, it has toilets and it serves refreshments so you have a bottle of lager or a cuppa while everyone else is wandering aimlessly around hot smelly underground tunnels trying to find a tube platform/way out.

notsoblue

hatbeard wrote:

for getting to the o2 consider taking the riverboat across central london (from the london eye/embankment all the way to the 02 riverboat pier), you'll get to see all the bits along the thames, even in the winter it's not that cold that you can't sit in the outside seating area at the back (hat/gloves recommended though) and it's infinitely better than the tube as you always get a seat, it has toilets and it serves refreshments so you have a bottle of lager or a cuppa while everyone else is wandering aimlessly around hot smelly underground tunnels trying to find a tube platform/way out.

+1 to the Riverboat. Great way of seeing the city, and much better than stuffing yourself onto the tube.

Initialised

There's a similar scheme to the Boris bike's at Newcastle University. I dropped out years ago so haven't enquired.

Clever Pun

notsoblue wrote:

hatbeard wrote:

for getting to the o2 consider taking the riverboat across central london (from the london eye/embankment all the way to the 02 riverboat pier), you'll get to see all the bits along the thames, even in the winter it's not that cold that you can't sit in the outside seating area at the back (hat/gloves recommended though) and it's infinitely better than the tube as you always get a seat, it has toilets and it serves refreshments so you have a bottle of lager or a cuppa while everyone else is wandering aimlessly around hot smelly underground tunnels trying to find a tube platform/way out.

+1 to the Riverboat. Great way of seeing the city, and much better than stuffing yourself onto the tube.

and it's licenced