OYbike
 

Spotted this little contraption a few days ago outside olympia,
thought it would be a very useful means for my olympia-white city
weekend commute.

The prices are a little strange - it costs more for the second 15
minutes then the first 15 minutes!

I havent looked at the bike stands very thoughorly, and their website
seems a little dire. While riding to white city and back would be
great, I'm a little confused over what I do with the bike once I get
it there. Do the stands take more then one bike?

Are the bikes equipped with lights (forgot to look!)

As I work late nights I get a taxi home. Do little gremlins reposition
the bikes or does it rely on people traveling all over the place
equally.

OYbike
 

I could be wrong, but the way I interpreted the prices was that those
are the total price you pay, just like a Car Park. So for up to 15
minutes, you pay 30p, 16 minutes to half an hour 80p, and so on.

Yeah. So rent it for 15 minutes, then another 15 minuts and pay 60p. Rent
for 30 minutes without a break and pay 80p.

I would assume it's one bike per "stand", just like a normal bike rack,
but without seeing the actual system I couldn't be sure.

Checked this morning, there are 3 locks on the "stand" at Olympia, with one
bike plugged in (Space for anoher on). PHoned up to register but its not
live until July 1st (shame they didn't bring it forward for the strike)

Again, it's down to users to find an empty stand to return the bike
to...Not a lot of use if they're all full.

No, does seem this could be a major problem. They should have a system where
you can see the number of bikes/spaces available at a gievn stand online.

OYbike
 

In message , Paul Weaver
writes

I could be wrong, but the way I interpreted the prices was that those
are the total price you pay, just like a Car Park. So for up to 15
minutes, you pay 30p, 16 minutes to half an hour 80p, and so on.

Yeah. So rent it for 15 minutes, then another 15 minuts and pay 60p. Rent
for 30 minutes without a break and pay 80p.

Breaking the journey would involve finding a vacant location point,
docking the bike, and making two mobile phone calls - not much incentive
to save the 20p :)

But it is an odd pricing regime, geared to very short use - perhaps
that's because it currently seems to be a west-London localised pilot
project.

In the longer term, 8 quid for more than an hour's bike hire is
ridiculous for regular use - it would be cheaper to buy a brand new
basic bike from Halfords every fortnight!

--
Paul Terry