Did anyone who isn't from Edinburgh Uni try the £40 deal?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Infrastructure
Edinburgh Cycle Hire Scheme
(1600 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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For what it's worth there doesn't seem to be any authentication to confirm if you work or study at UoE.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Is it only for new users? When I go through the link it errors saying I already have an account - doesn't show up on the 'buy' page when logged in.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Did anyone who isn't from Edinburgh Uni try the £40 deal?
A lot of subscriptions will be up for renewal next week so I'd expect there'll be a few people testing it
Posted 5 years ago # -
Is the Holyrood Road station new?
Was full (25 bikes) when I went past at 8pm last night, and currently only has 12 bikes in it. So being well used, if that's accurate.
Posted 5 years ago # -
There were four "atypical users" trying to climb Arthur's Seat on JustEat Bikes yesterday around 5. Given the Ranger and police presence/pursuit, I suspect they weren't subscribers though.
Has the rate of thefts reduced yet? I would guess that I see about half of users in the burberry cap/grey tracky bottoms uniform.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I asked about how one could convert from a standard membership to a promotional membership when your annual membership expires.
I was told that membership does not automatically renew when it expires, so you would just need to subscribe afresh via the promotional membership link (if eligible), no conversion as such needed.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Also, new hire points:
Edinburgh College / Milton Road,
King's Buildings at Murchison House (relocated from the bus terminus, however),
Holyrood Road at Moray House,
Lidl, Dalry Road (is that a recent reappearance, or has it been there for a while?),
Lothian Road at Usher Hall (yeay!),
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art,
Edinburgh College / Sighthill (the logical thing to maybe do would be to have counterparts at Bankhead tram stop or the bus stops on Calder Road to save a schlep?).
There are still rather too many sites "temporarily closed for upgrading" however, so expansion is still painfully slow.
Posted 5 years ago # -
You'd think the tram stops would be excellent for docks. Well lit with CCTV.
Lothian Road was a very handy addition and is doing well. Noticed a sticker on it saying how it received funding/support from Sustrans. They were doing one a day two weeks ago but it's slowed down quite a bit since.
Posted 5 years ago # -
"Lidl, Dalry Road (is that a recent reappearance, or has it been there for a while?)"
That's my nearest, I think (certainly the one I pass most regularly). Not that I use them. It reappeared pretty recently - this week or last week IIRC. It is a proper dock now, not a virtual one.Posted 5 years ago # -
Ebike roll-out delayed until next year.
https://www.scotsman.com/news/transport/edinburgh-electric-hire-bikes-delayed-to-next-year-1-5006243
Posted 5 years ago # -
Lol, we are never getting the e-bikes, are we?
Posted 5 years ago # -
I assume someone realised they would be barely any harder to steal than the unpowered cycles.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Even if they're much, much harder to steal - they'll get nicked. The usual bike is 'only' being nicked for funsies, really, cos there's no resale value in them. The e-bikes will bring out those with ALL the tools.
Maybe they should use them as a honey trap and unleash the ravens.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I genuinely can't see this scheme surviving the winter.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Trixie
Surely only the broken-up parts of the e-bike would be resaleable and probably only the high-value items like the motor and battery? Even then, I think the motor and battery would be easily recognisable as "hot"
Posted 5 years ago # -
As bike theft levels show, being hot is no deterrent to the market. :(
Posted 5 years ago # -
For those waiting with bated breath here's an update to my mini conundrum about renewing my subscription or fixing my bike.
Got my own bike fixed (new chain, cassette, BB, and service for £150 at BG Cycles in Porty, total cost should have been 165 but they honoured their rough quote of 150). All done in 2 days as well, they're all round good guys
It was really weird cycling a "normal" bike after a year of burger bikes. My bike is fairly light and the handle bars are a bit on the narrow side but after using the hire bikes for so long it was an odd feeling for the first mile or two!
Btw - do we have a thread to give shout outs/recommendations for good service? I was going to tag it onto the Bike Smith thread but that's taken a different turn lately
Posted 5 years ago # -
The Pashley-built bikes are simple to use, while offering a degree of control.
You can't alter the power level, unlike most e-bikes, but there are three gears, which easily change by twisting the right handlebar.
They are said to have a range of 50 miles, with Serco able to track battery levels remotely so they be swapped over between hires.
The cycles are a little heavier than the regular Just Eat bikes, but still feel easily handle-able, with a kick-back stand for parking.
They will be spread among the scheme's current 74 docking stations for its 500 regular bikes, which are due to increase to around 100 by next March.
There's a small pannier at the front, big enough for a handbag or laptop-size bag, but only a slim or small backpack.
So, easy to use and fun to ride. My only concern is will there be enough to go around?
Posted 5 years ago # -
Right as the first wave of subscribers are due to renew. It's like a study in how to make a new scheme fail at times.
"Just Eat Cycles will close all 31 of its remaining “virtual stations” in Edinburgh, where users do not have to lock bikes to stands, the Evening News can reveal."
Posted 5 years ago # -
Folk are using the bikes though. I have no plans to do so, but I'm not the target market. Still early days, let's wait and see.
As for the vandalism, maybe the operators were naive about that, but they have clearly learned their lesson now.
Posted 5 years ago # -
How does the level of vandalism experienced with the Burger Bikes compare with other cycle hire operators in other cities? Glasgow still has NextBike; Liverpool's Citybike scheme seems to be super popular.
Did they see a spike in vandalism following introduction, or has the vandalism been fairly constant?
Posted 5 years ago # -
The Chipwrapper didn’t give the full story. The virtual points are being replaced with physical docking stations.
https://twitter.com/cyclehire_edi/status/1174976095696773122?s=21
“we are replacing the virtual hire stations with physical ones and growing out network.”
Posted 5 years ago # -
@arellcast: How does the level of vandalism experienced with the Burger Bikes compare with other cycle hire operators in other cities?
From the EEN article:
Just Eat Cycles general manager Charles Graham said: “We have seen a lot of vandalism, which we were surprised by as it was at a higher rate than in London
Nextbike, which runs Glasgow’s 650-bike hire scheme, said vandalism had been “very minimal” and only a few bikes had gone missing.
It's not clear whether either of those schemes use virtual docking stations.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Nextbike runs using regular sheffield stands, huge armoured cable locks and a rather clunky app. Stealing a Nextbike would probably require a decent angle grinder.
The London scheme uses physical docks that are much more robust than those used in Edinburgh. The docks are all linked to mains electricity, which means the locking mechanism can be part of the dock, rather than part of the bike. While it will be possible to steal a Santander Cycle, it is much harder than in Edinburgh.
The real problem is the Edinburgh scheme is being done on the cheap. The locks are part of the bike and run off dynamo powered batteries - which must limit their strength. The Edinburgh physical docks are feeble. Unless a new, stronger dock design is rolled-out, I imagine they will continue to be easily wrecked by bike thieves.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Group of uniformed but definitely not at school kids were busy trying to extract bikes from the stand on holyrood road up from the old bongo club, I assume after attending the Climate Protest. A bit of a shame...!
Posted 5 years ago # -
I may be wrong but I believe the London docks secure the bike by a retracting bar that is actuated by a screw motion. So they are very deadlocked in unless you grind the lock off the bike (it is significant in thickness) or completely destroy a dock
Posted 5 years ago # -
Used a takeaway bike to get myself into town to pick up my own bike from the shop today. Was such a nice day that I decided to make the best of the hour's hire, and took the takeaway bike from King's Buildings to Nicolson St via Loanhead.
20km journey, made it to the dock in 59 minutes :)
Reached 33mph going down Lasswade Road past the Murrays.
Posted 5 years ago #
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