Boris bikes, great idea in principle but.....

t4tomo

I'm off out on the lash tonight so didn't want to lug the Brompton with me and I wouldn't want to leave it locked up in London so thought I'd do the Boris instead.

Had to trail to 3 points near Euston to find one (well there was a lone bike at the 2nd point but someone took it whilst i was getting an access code.)

then had to trail to 4 places in Mayfair to drop it off.

Plus they ride like a dog, are crazily low geared and have a terrible riding position all sit up & beg and cramped at the same time.

Don't think I'm a convert yet, although its marginally better than the tube.

Clever Pun

you can't blame tfl for someone else taking a bike now can you.

you can get free apps that tell you where the bikes are, so saves you traipsing around

get the seat up high that gives you more room, the bikes are for everyone hence the spinny gearing

t4tomo

I didn't blame anyone, just saying its almost impossible to redistribute the bikes quick enough in the morning rush hour as people in general will be taking them from the major rail stations and dropping them off in central london.

Apps need smart phones, if I had one it would be a useful app.

If I had the seat any higher I wouldn't have been able to reach the pedals!

Hats off to the people I see commuting at a reasonable pace on them, hope they have good showers at work!

SlowingDown

I've learnt to put up with most of the bad points about the bikes themselves (taken months to get the least uncomfortable seat height, learnt not to fight the gears and stop spinning (it really aint gonna go any faster!), etc) but I'm with you on dock/bike availability and operability.

I can usually find a bike ok although the one nearest work is often empty but finding somewhere to dock if you are heading central after about 10am is hell. The 15-20 minute tube journey to Oxford Street is down to about 12 minutes on a Boris but far too often this becomes 40 minutes of trawling around for a dock. And then I'm usually a fair walk from where I wanted to be. And that's with the help of a smartphone and app. There need to be more docking points in popular central areas.

Reliability of the system has hit me too. I'd say that on about 40% of the times I've tried to get a bike I find the system wont let me have one. I'm a daily member who uses the bikes occasionally and from what I've found out the daily members have more problems as the system that makes the connection to take the £1 payment often breaks down.

As someone who was snobbily sceptical about the scheme I think it could be really useful...but they have to keep investing in it.

meanredspider

Maybe Edinburgh should invest in a Boris Bike scheme instead of the fiasco that is the tram project

It would have to change its official name to "Royal Bank of Scotland Bike" or something so as nothing up here that also appears in England can be confused

British Gas is Scottish Gas
Rememberance poppies are Scottish Poppies
RSPCA is the Scottish SPCA
Milk is Scottish Milk
and so on....

t4tomo

Are scottish poppies still red or are they tartan? I'd like to think the latter.

bails87

I was looking for one at about 9pm on a Friday night, to get from Picadilly Circus to Euston, there were none at the three or four 'stations' I walked past on the way to Euston. It was a good job because the racks at Euston were full so I wouldn't have been able to drop it off.

I used one going the other way though, and it was fine. Although my London inhabiting friends who I was going to meet thought I must have had a deathwish to ride on the road. :roll:

iPete

Boris bikes would IMO be a nightmare without the mobile apps.

Had a pretty good time using them as my 'pub bike' for a few months but when I started to rely on them for work from Waterloo (on train days) after an office move, it was another story.

A week later I now own a Brompton.

sketchley

My impression on my one and only time.

First didn't help the docking station couldn't print anything. Stil off to next one.

Bike I got has three gears, Super Spinny, Very Spinny and Spinny. Not sure if fault with the bike but I'm clearly used to much better brakes.

Still the three roadies in lycra going across westminster bridge should hang there heads in shame, even if they were not trying.

jzed

Last night, for the first time ever the machine gave me a bike first time without me having to call customer service multiple times and try multiple stations.

I should have known that it was too easy and that 5 minutes later the heavens would open and I would be soaked to the skin.

Brakes are a little bit rubbish but your never going fast enough to really need them.

unixnerd

It'd be interesting to know if bicycle sales in London have risen as a result of folk trying a Boris and then getting their own bike when they rediscover the joys of cycling.

snailracer

Slow, uncomfortable, unavailable?
No worse than any other transport option in London, then.

davmaggs

meanredspider wrote:

Maybe Edinburgh should invest in a Boris Bike scheme instead of the fiasco that is the tram project

I heard the spending figures for that yesterday and it is crazy. Isn't it around £500mn now?

I'm not sure with project management like that (and the parliament) that you'd want a bike scheme.

Surely it would be cheaper to buy everyone in the city a new car or have free Taxis for a decade.

Clever Pun

snailracer wrote:

Slow, uncomfortable, unavailable?
No worse than any other transport option in London, then.

more space, fresh(ish) air, I'll try and use them over the tube if I'm on my own. If I'm with the missus and there's no time constraints then we might use them but how often is that??

mudcow007

are there people who move around those Boris bikes? as surely you will get a build up of bikes parked in popular areas but none being left in the quiet areas?

granted i haven't been to London in years (2007) what a job that must be for someone, just moving bikes around

rick_chasey

mudcow007 wrote:

are there people who move around those Boris bikes? as surely you will get a build up of bikes parked in popular areas but none being left in the quiet areas?

granted i haven't been to London in years (2007) what a job that must be for someone, just moving bikes around

sketchley

Under the arches at Waterloo there are normally hundreds of undocked bikes with two full time attenendents either taking them out of docking stations or putting them in.

W1

I've used them a few times - mix of commute, riding to meetings or riding in the evenings. Overall I think they're great, I've had some teething troubles but have generally been able to get a bike when I needed it and generally able to find a docking point too. I think it would be a different story to use one every day though.

meanredspider

iPete wrote:

Boris bikes would IMO be a nightmare without the mobile apps.

Had a pretty good time using them as my 'pub bike' for a few months but when I started to rely on them for work from Waterloo (on train days) after an office move, it was another story.

A week later I now own a Brompton.

Yup - as per Unix's point - I wonder how many people have dumped other means of transport for Boris Bikes, found they are better but unreliable, and got their own bike? As a "try before you buy" scheme, it's pretty good.

Even up here in the Highlands, I've witnessed an explosion in biking. There are several people in my office (5 or 6 at least) who have started commuting from larger distances. The Cyclescheme has been one factor but I like to think that them seeing me (one of the "older" and more "senior" guys) rolling into the office from 15 miles away, all year in all weathers has made them think "I could do that if he can".

noodles71

meanredspider wrote:

Maybe Edinburgh should invest in a Boris Bike scheme instead of the fiasco that is the tram project

It would have to change its official name to "Royal Bank of Scotland Bike" or something so as nothing up here that also appears in England can be confused

British Gas is Scottish Gas
Rememberance poppies are Scottish Poppies
RSPCA is the Scottish SPCA
Milk is Scottish Milk
and so on....

The gearing of the Boris Bikes are certainly more suited to a trip from the new town up into the old town. Not sure about coming back down via the steps though...... they are a little on the heavy side.