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uphillstruggler
Legendary Member
OP
OP
toffee
Guru
uphillstruggler
Legendary Member
Cheers, mk pub crawl by hire bike on the cards
steveindenmark
Legendary Member
I used to be a policeman in MK. Give it 3 weeks and those bikes will be sprayed red in Liverpool :O)
steveindenmark
Legendary Member
That's because the supplier is in 9n it as well :O)
uphillstruggler
Legendary Member
Hello Steve
You'll know my spot then. Used to play football with a load of plod back yonder.
Denmark seems a long way from here.
From your posts, no regrets leaving this green and pleasant place I take it?
steveindenmark
Legendary Member
No regrets and the two things that MK gave me was a wonderful sense of navigation and a love of concrete cows. My one regret is that I was based in Northern Germany for 8 years and never came to Denmark. I would have moved here years earlier if I had known.
stowie
Legendary Member
This is now up and running, and I took one out yesterday to get from MK station to my office. It wasn't too bad, feels heavier than the London version though, and I found the instructions somewhat unclear. However, it has made me aware of the problems with MK cycle paths
1) They really aren't particularly well maintained - the ride on a slow, heavy bike is pretty bumpy
2) Whilst drivers have everything at-grade, I am cycling up and down man-made hills at every junction. Which is irritating in a town which is really rather flat
3) Has no-one in MK grasped the concept of signs?! The ones that are there say useful things like "local centre", on the assumption everyone knows which local centre they are talking about. Cycling back to the station, the first signs for it were pretty much when I could see the f*!)ing thing.
4) No visual clues to help either. You cycle along and occasionally pop up like a disorientated mole to see a building you recognise. You pop back down again with an idea of which direction to go, but when you pop up again, the building is tantalisingly over a major road, or otherwise inaccessible, or mysteriously appears behind you . I was, at one point, navigating by the sun. Seriously.
5) If you are going to have a major cycle path converge to the station and the cycle parking, don't make the last few hundred metres of a massively wide underpass and path pedestrian only. Everyone, including me, will ignore it.
1) They really aren't particularly well maintained - the ride on a slow, heavy bike is pretty bumpy
2) Whilst drivers have everything at-grade, I am cycling up and down man-made hills at every junction. Which is irritating in a town which is really rather flat
3) Has no-one in MK grasped the concept of signs?! The ones that are there say useful things like "local centre", on the assumption everyone knows which local centre they are talking about. Cycling back to the station, the first signs for it were pretty much when I could see the f*!)ing thing.
4) No visual clues to help either. You cycle along and occasionally pop up like a disorientated mole to see a building you recognise. You pop back down again with an idea of which direction to go, but when you pop up again, the building is tantalisingly over a major road, or otherwise inaccessible, or mysteriously appears behind you . I was, at one point, navigating by the sun. Seriously.
5) If you are going to have a major cycle path converge to the station and the cycle parking, don't make the last few hundred metres of a massively wide underpass and path pedestrian only. Everyone, including me, will ignore it.
PhilDawson8270
Veteran
The walk from Manchester Oxford Road station to my work, is too short to use a bus, but long enough that I'd consider a quick cycle, but not so long that I'd go through the hassle of bringing my bike (that I leave at home station) onto the train.
There is one of those hire things right outside the station. But there is none actually near my work, so I'd have to pay for the hire for the whole day, instead of the 10 mins it would take. I would consider say £2 per day to go back and too there. But certainly not £10 per day due to not enough racks.
There is one of those hire things right outside the station. But there is none actually near my work, so I'd have to pay for the hire for the whole day, instead of the 10 mins it would take. I would consider say £2 per day to go back and too there. But certainly not £10 per day due to not enough racks.
stowie
Legendary Member
I have exactly the same thing with the MK hire - the nearest to the office is a good 15-20 minute walk. However, I normally get a cab which costs more than the £10 for a day of the bike, so I just locked it up outside the office. Surprisingly, the hire period actually stopped and the bike became available again, so the trip only cost me £2 in the end anyway. Not sure how this works - the website is clear that parking away from racks continues the hire, but this must be a GPS geofence thing as opposed to the Boris Bike smart dock solution. So maybe the geofence is set very wide?! I also notice today, looking at the website that to continue hire whilst parked you should press a button on the keypad (so the bike doesn't get hired by someone else I assume). I didn't do that, and if there is an option to leave it close to work without hiring whilst parked but risk someone else using it, I am happy with that.
I suspect it is either a teething issue with the system or they have set it up in the first few weeks so anyone not following the instructions exactly aren't penalised with an unexpected bill.
snorri
Legendary Member
But registration is only £10 for a year and enables you to hire a bike from dozens of stations in the UK for a daily hire charge of £3.80, which is a reasonable charge, I think.
http://www.bikeandgo.co.uk/
