who’s keen for a wheelie comp on the new steeds?
I’m waiting for the first tourist to get cleaned up by a bus on Adelaide street. 
at least the bike would be fine… those things appear fuking bullet proof
polo?
Alleycat, where you have to check in your bike at a station every 25mins or so to keep it free. Time penalties for going over the 1/2 hr plus extra charges. Route would be worked out to be near City Cycle stations.
I just singed up for 12 months today, but i was thinking about some sort of alleycat around newfarm and the city too.
At least they’ve made it easy to spot all of the numpties with those disgusting yellow helmets:
Wouldn’t want to be in the city today!
I find it ironic that they chose to launch the scheme in a place where some of the members on here have been fined for riding through. Apparently they changed the law just in time for the launch of their campaign. I guess the fines they collected over the last few months helped nicely in paying off this white elephant?
Some of the tail end riders on this parade should not be riding a bike…really…it was pretty scary watching them wobble out of king george square…and executing an illegal right hand turn from Adelaide on to Edward…just as well it had a police escort…
Never too late to learn how to ride!
FYI - 24kg is the weight of one of these bad boys.
truckasaurus…
nice BQ payout there dan 
wether you meant to or not - im pretty sure thats ben from bq at the back there, green shirt, yellow met
besides, more people on bikes the better, might start to change some of the closed minds in this city when it comes to bikes as an alternative to cars!
dont get me wrong…i totally support anything and everything that gets more people on bikes…i also worry for bike riders running the guantlet of buses on Adelaide street…no matter what your skill level.
As someone who was totally against this stupid hire bike scheme, I stopped and had a look at one of these bikes up close, and I have to say, I’m actually quite pleasantly surprised. 3speed internally geared hub, so nice and reliable, hub brakes so they are more reliable (and hard to break/deliberately damage), decent tyres. Yes the bikes weigh as much as a smart car but for what they are designed to do, a reasonable and safe bike. Ugly as a burnt thong that was put out with a bag of chains though.
As much as I think this scheme will be a monumental failure, I am now kind of hoping it will succeed. More people on bikes is a good thing, and might help to change the attitudes of city motorists, and hopefully the insane bus drivers, a little bit to make it safer for everyone. I do worry though about what will happen the first time someone on one of these bikes goes under a bus.
Ha! I didn’t know, just pulled a photo off Gavin’s blog. Ooops
I echo the comments of Hillbilly and Simon though, more people on bikes = good. However we are talking about a complex system and the question of whether this bike hire scheme is the best use of rate payers money at this point in time is debatable. My fear is that if the scheme fails (most likely due to the helmet issue), that we will have gifted the car lobby a massive piece of ammunition to push cycling further back into the dark ages. I can just imagine the comment in the courier fail now: “The council wasted $XXX on that failed bike hire scheme, why would we want to spend more money on cycle paths in this city?”
For all of our sakes I hope it works…
I don’t see how it can work in a country where helmet use is mandatory. If you’re carrying a helmet - you’ve probably parked your own bike nearby. Helmets are too bulky and fragile to carry round all the time on the off-chance one may want to use one of these bikes for 25minutes. An annual fee means too much pre-planning for me, too.
yeh works a treat overseas…definately an uphill battle here thou. wouldnt you just get a tram through the city rather than hire one of these anyway?
^ are these ghost trams that you speak of?.. it’s been a couple of decades since we had a light rail network.
I do find it somewhat amusing observing people walking round town now carrying skid lids with them