Lime Bike Injuries

[sheddy]

Frightening developments

Scroll down for story
https://www.londoncentric.media/p/lime-bikes-keep-breaking-londoners

Private Eye interview

View: https://audioboom.com/posts/8718917-day-4-lime-bikes-and-broken-legs


Do Lime hire bikes really weigh 40kg ?

 

[markemark]

I see these an awful lot. I think they can go too fast and accelerate too quickly for inexperienced riders. The incidents listed may be nothing to do with the rider and entire a mechanical failure, I appreciate that.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Horrible things. Just turn the pavements into scrap heaps.

 

[Drago]

Do Lime hire bikes really weigh 40kg ?

I'd heard about 35kg. Either way, that's a lot of lard to drop on a limb.

 

[FrankCrank]

Blimey, I thought it was some of the nutters I see riding leccy bikes that were liable to cause injury, now it's the bike itself

 

[mjr]

I see these an awful lot. I think they can go too fast and accelerate too quickly for inexperienced riders. The incidents listed may be nothing to do with the rider and entire a mechanical failure, I appreciate that.

Belgium and the Netherlands reacted to a surge in e bike rider injuries by offering free training refreshers. The safety institute spokesperson interviewed reckoned many injuries came from having the assistance on max power all the time and surging forwards at inopportune times. Not to say that's what's happening here.

I was also struck by "All three had concerns about the maintenance of the brakes on Lime bikes." Always always always test your brakes at the start of every ride, even on your own bike in case the cables have been knocked while parked, and definitely on public bikes. Not everyone flags faults on public bikes because they think they can cope with the fault and may want to ride it later. Also, I'm unsure if the bikes stay out of service correctly always, so I like to spin the saddle backwards on faulty bikes if possible, to warn other riders. At least the operators can't undo that remotely yet.

 

[Drago]

Pee ride checks. Old pilots, bold pilots, and middle aged cyclists like me who realise they aren't immortal.

 

[markemark]

Belgium and the Netherlands reacted to a surge in e bike rider injuries by offering free training refreshers. The safety institute spokesperson interviewed reckoned many injuries came from having the assistance on max power all the time and surging forwards at inopportune times. Not to say that's what's happening here.

I was also struck by "All three had concerns about the maintenance of the brakes on Lime bikes." Always always always test your brakes at the start of every ride, even on your own bike in case the cables have been knocked while parked, and definitely on public bikes. Not everyone flags faults on public bikes because they think they can cope with the fault and may want to ride it later. Also, I'm unsure if the bikes stay out of service correctly always, so I like to spin the saddle backwards on faulty bikes if possible, to warn other riders. At least the operators can't undo that remotely yet.

I see an awful lot of them and it appears they need virtually no effort and hardly any time to reach max speed. I wonder whether it might be wise to turn down the assistance on them to dampen the acceleration, not necessarily the speed.
I don’t want to fall into the trap of victim blaming and this might be entirely unrelated to the incidents up thread. However I think it is still something worth thinking about as a side issue to what could potentially be poor maintenance.

 

[Willd]

Pee ride checks. Old pilots, bold pilots, and middle aged cyclists like me who realise they aren't immortal.

I think you need a different forum

 

[Drago]

Sorry. I thought this was the cabbage smelling forum.

 

[presta]

even on your own bike in case the cables have been knocked while parked

Or if you forget to hook the straddle cables back on after you've been servicing it.

I wonder whether it might be wise to turn down the assistance on them to dampen the acceleration

The power limit for an EAPC is measured as an average over 30 minutes, there's no limit to the maximum instantaneous power, so no limit to the acceleration. I suggested this isn't a good idea on the CTC forum recently, but people didn't agree. For that matter, I'm not convinced it was ever a good idea to lump EAPCs into the same legal category as push bikes in the first place, I think they would have been better classed as some sort of reduced regulation motorbike.

 

[mjr]

Or if you forget to hook the straddle cables back on after you've been servicing it.

No, I don't know anyone who's descended from Ditchling Beacon with the brake quick releases open, honest(!) 🤨