Boris Bikes management - and redesign - contract up for tender

Given that Serco, and therefore presumably their competitors in this process, are service companies I really hope that a "key part of the job will involve the design.........of the next generation bikes" is not the case. Let's leave this to a bike company.

When the bikes are well maintained I think the current design works really well; yes they are heavy and low geared, but work for a wide range of height and athletic ability and are designed for short journeys.

Having also used the same bikes in other cities (most recently Chicago) then getting the right service company to run the system is critical - without this then you will hit issues with bike and slot availability and the condition of the bikes will quickly degrade (around 1/2 the bikes I used recently in Chicago had some issue or other that made them noticeably harder to ride).

I used to work for the Devinci distributor in the UK and can tell you from talking to them directly, how hard it is to get the design right for an urban bike hire:- needs to be incredibly robust, easy to use for non cyclists and theft resistant.

Following on from lessons learned in Paris with Velob and Montreal's Bixi bikes, Devinci and their design team made 140 changes to the design.

I was asked to visit Serco's assembly site before the scheme went live, to represent Devinci and advise Serco as they were having some technical issues with assembly of the bikes.

The bikes are manufactured in their plant in Chicotoumi, just outside Quebec.

Great to see domestic manufacturing being done successfully (like Brompton here in the UK).

They also make cool bikes like these:

I'd like to see a deal done with Bikes For Africa http://www.uk.worldbicyclerelief.org/

These bikes change people's lives - they're reliable, utilitarian work-horses that are relatively cheap and simple to maintain. If they can deal with the African outback, I'm sure they can cope with the rigours of inner city London.

The current bikes are a great idea but horribly heavy and the three speed gears are clunky. The design of the Buffalo is far superior -a lighter, single speed bike with a rack on the back, what's not to like?

I'm sure a deal could be done whereby for every bike sold to London, a second bike is donated to participating African nations.

Seems like a win-win situation to me

Why is it that Boris gets all the credit for these bikes. It was Ken Livingstone's concept and his team did all the spade work ! !

I love them - use them all the time when I'm in London.
I've got a key now, one of the "pay as you pedal" memberships so there's no annual fee. Never once had an issue with charging and you can see your statement online whenever you want anyway.

And I won £123 in a photo competition that Santander were running when they took over the contract from Barclays.

I rely on Boris bikes the days I'm working in London. Used one 5 times only yesterday. Not sure if it's my imagination but it doesn't seem to have worked so well since it switched to Santander. Been several times lately where I've struggled to find a working bike or to find an empty slot to dock. Makes me wonder if Serco are getting less money under the new sponsorship or whether it's unrelated - I have no idea.

The bikes themselves are ok but could obviously be better. Except the wheels. The wheels are spot on. Great wheels.

Bigger wheels. I had a 12-month key but I only rode them a couple of times because the wheels were so small that steering was lethal. Put bigger wheels on them. I'd like to see bigger wheels. Can they have bigger wheels?

big heavy tanks buy I use them most days. I am not sure how you would make them much better with a) spending loads of money or b) making them too feeble for the abuse. Better gearing is the only thing I can think of