One in 10 Lime bikes have dangerous mechanical issues including malfunctioning brakes, report suggests

Business model innit?  When they brought in hire bikes in our town, they approached the bike shop I was then running to so the maintence.  It was the most ludicrous one-sided almost non-renumerated it of contractual filth imagineable; obviouslly we told them to take a running jump.  So I have do doubt they are getting un/badly trainined mecs working for peanuts to have a stab at it, and no more - if that, looking at the general state of the bikes I see around.

Given that every other lime bike I see on my 1/week commute into london appears to have its rear light hanging off by the cable rather than mounted to point backwards, this really doesn't surprise me...

I mean this should be trivial to spot before you do any other functionality checks...

The numbers seem to be all over the place. The head line says 1:10. The first paragraph says 12%, which is 1:8. Later in the article it says 14% had issues with braking --- that is 1:7. Nowhere in the article (except the headline) is anything 1:10?!

'...Lime insisted that safety is "our highest priority"...'

- then -

"...bikes are not immediately stopped from being hired when a report of a safety issue is made unless it concerns their brakes."

Loose steering, flat tyres, loose saddle, loose cranks, loose pedals, cracked frame, inoperable lights, would not be safety concerns, apparently. Nice (for profits).

Ratio would seem to fit in with my experiamce so far in West London.  Used for half a week from Tube to work (plus return)  1 bike had a rear brake that was either on or off.  Still got me to work, with no effort, and reported as I ended ride.  Was collected by a maintenance van a couple of hours later.

I've seen loads of people riding Lime bikes with flat tyres. And while I was walking the dog last night I noted one of the bikes in the e-bike parking area round the corner from my house didn't have a saddle. I've seen several being ridden that have very dodgy wheel alignment and one with badly bent bars. Some people riding them don't care and some don't know. The standard of riding of people on Lime bikes I see suggests that many are very inexperienced, not least the woman I saw getting on one who fell off it three times in the space of about 100m. 

The way they're left after use suggests that many people who ride them don't care and don't think about anyone else.

I've rented Lime bikes a few times myself and they are very useful at times. Both my sons use them regularly too. But we're all experienced cyclists and we wouldn't ride one in poor condition.

Forgive my lack of astonishment - but:

a) still not sure exactly what Lime's money making model is.  At least some of the dockless bike companies essentially used dumping in public spaces as a way to make cash from venture capital / advertising.  And I'm dubious that large-scale open-access bike hire actually makes money on the hire part anyway (see later).

b) hire bikes get trashed far quicker than privately owned ones.  Bikes left unsupervised in public spaces get trashed faster than that.

That's why the more successful models for large-scale bike hire tend to be "dock-based" - or even integrated with another service.  That takes care of the "watchful eyes" to deter some vandalism and theft.  And means people are on hand who can spot / do something about faulty bikes - even if it's just taking them out of service.

In the case of something like the Dutch OV Fiets service it also gives a good financial base for the bike rental perhaps not covering its own costs as that potentially feeds more customers into using the railways.

Fair point about the brakes. But users would notice pretty quickly if the tyre was flat or the bike was missing a saddle.