First time on a Boris bike.

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TrevA
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First time on a Boris bike.

Post by TrevA »

I was in London yesterday with a spare couple of hours before my train home and with it being a nice day I hired a Boris bike (actually 4 different ones due to the half hour limit).

I hired a bike from Great College St (this is where reporters stand when reporting issues about parliament, with the Houses of Parliament in the background). Rode around Parliament Sq, past Big Ben then along Victoria Embankment. The CS along here is built but not yet open, but it's easy enough to make progress riding on the inside or outside of the virtually stationary queue of traffic along here. Docked the bike at Embankment and had a quick look in the Action Bikes shop. Hired another bike and continued along Victoria embankment to Blackfriars, then past St Pauls and into the City. Docked the bike and hired another and made my way down to Tower Bridge, crossed over, then along Tooley St and back over London Bridge, then up to Bank, where I docked the bike and went to meet my son. I encountered no problems with the London traffic, which moves at a crawl mostly, and found that almost all other London cyclists do actually stop at reds lights.

After a quick drink with my son, I hired another bike and made my way via Barbican, Angel and Islington to Kings Cross. No doubt there are quieter routes, but I vaguely knew where I was going this way, and despite it being rush hour, the traffic wasn't too bad. Plenty of other cyclists and great fun trying to match their speed on the heavy Boris bike!

The one thing I found about the bikes is the gears work the opposite way round to any other twist grip gear system I've used. So I was constantly changing down when I wanted to change up and vice versa. In the end I just left it in Gear 2.

The bikes are a great way to get around London. As quick, if not quicker than the Tube and you can see all of the sights along the way. If you're a confident rider, you shouldn't have any problems coping with the traffic. And they only cost £2 for up to 24 hours use. The slightly annoying thing is that you can only hire them in half hour chunks. This leads to slight panic when your half hour is nearly up and you can't find a docking station. Downloading the app to your phone would be useful in this respect, as it will tell you where the docking stations are and makes hiring slightly quicker.
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MikeF
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by MikeF »

Reading as one who has never used a Boris bike I found that an Interesting post.

TrevA wrote: and found that almost all other London cyclists do actually stop at reds lights.

Well that just can't be right! "Everyone" knows they don't :lol:
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ArMoRothair
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by ArMoRothair »

TrevA wrote:The one thing I found about the bikes is the gears work the opposite way round to any other twist grip gear system I've used. So I was constantly changing down when I wanted to change up and vice versa. In the end I just left it in Gear 2.


Yup, the twist-grip being the wrong direction is really annoying.

I tend to leave it in 3rd all the time. If you look along a docking station you'll see all the bikes are in 3rd; most riders seem to find 3rd the natural gear to use.
greyingbeard
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by greyingbeard »

well worth getti ng holf of the tfl cycling maps before a trip to london - avoid the worst of the traffic
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Redvee
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by Redvee »

I did the Boris Bike thing 2 years ago, just for the experience of riding one. Like the OP I found the gear selection back to front and it didn't help I wasn't used to twistgrip changers, another thig I founds was the saddle was too wide for me and I was riding on the nose of the saddle and therefore a little cramped on the bars. Both my rides were over 30 minutes, one only 31 minutes which irked me slightly as the distance was well within 30 minutes I'd cover on my own bike. One dock I went to said no bike were available to hire despite all the racks being full. I'd use them again though.
Mark1978
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by Mark1978 »

I have no experience of those sorts of things but 30 minutes seems a little harsh to actually get anywhere, an hour would be closer to the mark?
Samuel D
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by Samuel D »

In Paris the time limit before surcharges is also half an hour. That covers most trips by most people. If you allowed people an hour, they’d start doing round trips on the bicycles, locking them up outside the shop or whatever. This is undesirable since it reduces the time each bicycle spends on the road (i.e. it would require more bicycles).
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mjr
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by mjr »

ArMoRothair wrote:Yup, the twist-grip being the wrong direction is really annoying.

I tend to leave it in 3rd all the time. If you look along a docking station you'll see all the bikes are in 3rd; most riders seem to find 3rd the natural gear to use.

I can't remember but isn't the twist grip pull-back-to-go-faster? Seems usual to me but my current most-used bike also has a Nexus 3.

I think docked bikes are left in third mainly because most docks are on the flat and once you get the heavy lump moving, third is the gear to use on the flat. They're geared lower than most three-speeds, which is correct IMO but I'm still surprised they did it when most retailers still don't.
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by [XAP]Bob »

The half hour limit is normally OK - I'd like to be able to nominate a more remote dock as my destination and get a little extra time though.

It's not that many people would actually use a distant dock anyway...

Actually they don't even need to have it nominated - just accommodate distant trips - if the straight line distance between them is more then 5 miles divided by root2 (I.e. 10 miles an hour, the root two allows for roads not always being in a straight line) then you get an additional 30 minutes free. But of course the system can't do that until you redock...
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iviehoff
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by iviehoff »

I was commuting from Marylebone to a govt dept in Westminster for a while recently. I was surprised to discover the road distance was 4 miles. There are certainly longer journeys you can make. Given the large number of slow traffic lights, 8mph is pushing it. And some routes, like up Constitution Hill, then up Hyde Park, are quite noticeably uphill.

45 mins would be a more sensible limit.
Mark1978
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by Mark1978 »

Samuel D wrote:In Paris the time limit before surcharges is also half an hour. That covers most trips by most people. If you allowed people an hour, they’d start doing round trips on the bicycles, locking them up outside the shop or whatever. This is undesirable since it reduces the time each bicycle spends on the road (i.e. it would require more bicycles).


Yes I guess so. So the idea is that you only ever ride them dock-to-dock, nothing inbetween?
Samuel D
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by Samuel D »

I believe that is the hope, yes.
Richard Fairhurst
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by Richard Fairhurst »

The biggest issue I have with Boris bikes is a result of their success - it's difficult to find one in the centre of town late at night when you want to cycle back to your hotel/station/whatever, presumably because everyone else is doing so. Paris seemed to be a little better at trucking the vélibs around town to replenish supplies in the very little experience I have.
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james01
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by james01 »

I've used Boris bikes a few times when visiting London. They're a great way of getting around. A good compromise would be to allow 45 minute rentals - at the moment I start getting a bit stressed after 20 minutes. It's really worth getting the paper Tfl maps which give routes and docking stations, and the App which gives real-time availability. Sod's law certainly applies - when I'm looking for a bike it seems all the stations are empty and when I need to park one they're all full!
It's been good for London, it's definitely got more people (including tourists) cycling, and it demonstrates that normal attire (helmetless) can be worn.
Incidentally the permanently-on dynamo lights are just about good enough to navigate dark side-streets at a pinch.
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Re: First time on a Boris bike.

Post by Samuel D »

Richard Fairhurst wrote:Paris seemed to be a little better at trucking the vélibs around town to replenish supplies in the very little experience I have.

They do truck them around a fair bit, but it’s still common to have trouble finding a Vélib' at the top of a hill or docking one at the bottom of a hill. People prefer to cycle downhill than uphill, it would seem. Who knew?
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