New stationless bike rental scheme in Dublin - BleeperBike

vectorvictor

Heisenberg. wrote: »

Gave these are try at the weekend. I felt like I was cycling a wrought iron gate with potatoes for wheels.
Dublin bikes feel like carbon fibre TT bikes in comparison.

Gave this a shot. Have to agree here. Found signup easy and the app and rental process straight forward but my god the hardware is shocking - a simple jaunt is a bit of an endurance test when compared with DB.

Don't understand investing in everything and having the end product being so bad. Fine for getting across a college campus but after that no good.

80cent an hour to take a bike for a walk

loyatemu

they're in the process of replacing the tyres to make them easier to ride - the ones with the new tyres have an orange sticker on the rear mudguard.

TheJak01

I tried these the other week. They're not as good as DB, but they were convenient to get across town quicker than on foot. Will I be using them to cycle the 6km home from town? Probably not. Will I use them to turn a 30 minute walk into a 5-10 minute cycle? Absolutely.

I don't always need to fly on a bike. The process was quick and painless, there were thousands of places to lock them and they saved me a bit of time. The added convenience over Dublin bikes of not needing to move from dock to dock, and being able to use it outside the canals still makes this one a winner for me. Bikes could be better, but in all honesty I didn't find them that terrible.

CramCycle

loyatemu wrote: »

they're in the process of replacing the tyres to make them easier to ride - the ones with the new tyres have an orange sticker on the rear mudguard.

Thats actually nice, I heard they were replacing them (and supposedly the rolling resistance has vastly decreased) but I was wondering was it going to be pot luck if you got one, I like this idea of marking them.

vectorvictor

loyatemu wrote: »

they're in the process of replacing the tyres to make them easier to ride - the ones with the new tyres have an orange sticker on the rear mudguard.

My one had an orange mudguard sticker saying always park bleeper legally. It's not that one is it?

loyatemu

vectorvictor wrote: »

My one had an orange mudguard sticker saying always park bleeper legally. It's not that one is it?

this is all I know...

vectorvictor

loyatemu wrote: »

this is all I know..

Thanks very much for that. May have cause to use one this evening if I can find the magic dot ill report back on how I find it

vectorvictor

vectorvictor wrote: »

Thanks very much for that. May have cause to use one this evening if I can find the magic dot ill report back on how I find it

Five bikes no orange spots. Gave one a bash in case I got a complete dud earlier. Horrible ride. I can take a DB from Connolly to Phoenix Park without breaking a sweat or it feeling like effort. After 25 minutes on a bleeper I am literally soaked with sweat and wrecked.

Good that they are upgrading. I'm near a large college and business park. I imagine the word has spread given that I rarely see the bikes move so be interesting if they can renew faith.

Looking at their Twitter they make light of it by saying stuff like "enjoy the extra workout". I think people want an inexpensive, fast and accessible transport option - not a cardiac.

ED E

People are lazy, look at how the e-scooters are spreading in the US.

Thargor

A Dublin bikes version of Bleeper with the same pricing would be amazing.

Arcade_Tryer

Thargor wrote: »

A Dublin bikes version of Bleeper with the same pricing would be amazing.

An expansion of Dublin Bikes beyond the canals would be amazing.

ED E

Thargor wrote: »

A Dublin bikes version of Bleeper with the same pricing would be amazing.

Not possible really.

Bleeper model: Cheap bikes, no maintenance or moving vans. Low cost.
DB/BorisBike model: Expensive infra, regular servicing and load balancing, high cost offset by the municipality (Money and giving away advertising in this case).

Fighting Tao

ED E wrote: »

Not possible really.

Bleeper model: Cheap bikes, no maintenance or moving vans. Low cost.

I saw a guy on an electric bike servicing the Bleeper bikes at a dart station only a few weeks ago.

vectorvictor

Fighting Tao wrote: »

I saw a guy on an electric bike servicing the Bleeper bikes at a dart station only a few weeks ago.

Takes a lot of 80cents to pay for that.

Like innovation in any sector there will be those that it get it wrong and those that thrive.

For me it should be the perfect solution as I've easy access to alot of bikes and parking stations in all the main areas I travel to regularly. The bikes are unusable in their current form.

I'll use up the last of my months membership by using them as exercise bikes and after that uninstall.

Fighting Tao

vectorvictor wrote: »

Takes a lot of 80cents to pay for that.

Like innovation in any sector there will be those that it get it wrong and those that thrive.

For me it should be the perfect solution as I've easy access to alot of bikes and parking stations in all the main areas I travel to regularly. The bikes are unusable in their current form.

I'll use up the last of my months membership by using them as exercise bikes and after that uninstall.

It would still be a lot cheaper than having a car/van and getting stuck in traffic.

politicoo

sugarman wrote: »

How would they expect the service ever to pick off like this? ...and its actually a great idea and a very reasonable price. I was going to give it a go only for they were removed a few days later.

In fairness, name of the website/app is on the bike. and first day is free so you can demo it and see what you think.

politicoo

loyatemu wrote: »

this is all I know...

Fair play. You listened to feedback. I tried one of the bikes with the orange dot. It's better but still not where it needs to be.


It's so easy to be critical, and everyone's at, and let's face it it's 20 Euro a quarter so I shouldn't really complain but I would pay more for it if the bikes were better. Cycling those bikes is like permanently cycling uphill.


But hats off to you for providing a service, making a go of it, and being good value.

loyatemu

Electric Bleepers on the way:
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/plans-to-make-electric-bikes-available-to-irish-commuters-862521.html

politicoo

loyatemu wrote: »

Electric Bleepers on the way:
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/plans-to-make-electric-bikes-available-to-irish-commuters-862521.html

How on earth are they going to manage that without infrastructure? If they can do it I will buy it...

The Davestator

Lads, I cycled a Raleigh Grifter for 10 years so I reckon I'm strong enough for these?!

vectorvictor

The Davestator wrote: »

Lads, I cycled a Raleigh Grifter for 10 years so I reckon I'm strong enough for these?!

They might still have you "bleeping"

site_owner

Very interested to see what the proposal for this will be.

ted1

politicoo wrote: »

loyatemu wrote: »

Electric Bleepers on the way:
https://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/plans-to-make-electric-bikes-available-to-irish-commuters-862521.html

How on earth are they going to manage that without infrastructure? If they can do it I will buy it...

Fairly easy,
€1 for a normal bike
€2 for an EV bike
And -50c if you take a bike while using a dynamo to charge the bike for the next guy.

f1000

I'm not going back to read over 28 pages and am not sure if this annoyance/issue has been aired here before... They are taking up parking spots. Had to go around a block earlier looking for a secure-ish space to lock my bike

ED E

ted1 wrote: »

Fairly easy,
€1 for a normal bike
€2 for an EV bike
And -50c if you take a bike while using a dynamo to charge the bike for the next guy.

You'd need to do what the scooters do in the US, pay teens to go out and collect the bikes, charge em, then return em.

Need to charge €5/trip to make the numbers work, not 2.

magicbastarder

f1000 wrote: »

I'm not going back to read over 28 pages and am not sure if this annoyance/issue has been aired here before... They are taking up parking spots. Had to go around a block earlier looking for a secure-ish space to lock my bike

it was the main issue i raised with them, has been discussed way back.

Arcade_Tryer

f1000 wrote: »

I'm not going back to read over 28 pages and am not sure if this annoyance/issue has been aired here before... They are taking up parking spots. Had to go around a block earlier looking for a secure-ish space to lock my bike

In fairness, the obvious issue there is the lack of bicycle parking. More bicycles on the road is a good thing for the city and cyclists.

vectorvictor

ED E wrote: »

You'd need to do what the scooters do in the US, pay teens to go out and collect the bikes, charge em, then return em.

Need to charge €5/trip to make the numbers work, not 2.

This is the struggle with low margin high volume. They need to gain critical mass to make either fee viable. They have 5000 android downloads so at best maybe 12-15k across all platforms. That's not a bad start (DB have just over 40k registered users) although DB are paid subscribers we've no idea if bleeper ones are using/paying.

I wish them well and hope they get there I think the concept is great (apart from the bikes being brutal)

Electric would be brilliant. I'd be happy to pay the premium but they need a big PR effort behind it with colleges, employers, business parks etc..

ted1

I guess they’ll copy jump bikes

https://jumpbikes.com/about/

Uber paid $200m for them.

site_owner

ted1 wrote: »

I guess they’ll copy jump bikes

https://jumpbikes.com/about/

Uber paid $200m for them.

I still don't get how they charge them?