On the morning of 31st July, Londoners will find six thousand new bikes parked at the docking stations that have been mushrooming on many street corners.
We tested one of the bikes recently and we were favourably impressed: reasonably comfortable, sturdy, not too heavy, with a fairly practical front basket, dynamo lights always on. A couple of small quibbles: it is geared too low: one ends riding in 3rd (top) gear most of the time; and the lack of lock makes it impractical if you want to nip in a shop (if the bike disappears while in your care, there is a £300 fine).
Here is the map of all the London Cycle Hire docking stations, showing number of bikes available and empty slots.
UPDATE: Rob has a very good account of the first day.
Picture taken at a recent architectural exhibition at the British Council, showing the new London bicycle next to a VanMoof, a Jopo, and a Pedersen.
From the experience with Bixi here in Montreal, the low gearing might actually be on purpose, to keep the speeds low. Many people new to cycling use them, and frankly, they’re fast enough to be quite useful without causing too many problems.
The lack of lock isn’t really a problem either, as long as there are enough docks, since the concept is that you dock it, and get another one after you’re done. At first, it was a bit restrictive, but as the coverage and the density of docks increased, it’s now fairly typical to notice a shop while biking, deciding to go on the spot and just keep riding to the next dock, which usually isn’t much further.