Recently, a company by the name Ofo set
up shop in my home city of Oxford and being of a two wheeled
persuasion, lots of people have asked me what it's all about. So I
thought i'd investigate.
Here are the facts. Ofo is a
bike hiring service, dubbed “Uber for bicycles”, you download
their app, find a bike and away you pedal.
Full disclosure, I live just out side
of the city and I did have to ride my own bike to get to the nearest
ofo bike.
The app includes a map that tells you
all the locations of all the Ofo bikes so you can easily find the one
nearest to you. It showed me that the closest one was at the Park &
Ride. Which makes sense. You've parked up, but don't fancy paying the
extra for the bus. Then unlock an ofo bike and head into town. For
me, this is where the problems began.
I scan the bike that was there and
received an error message: Bike is locked, out of authorised zone.
Off to a flying start. The Park & Ride is not in the authorised
zone! So I checked the map and the next nearest bike was at the train
station – another 10 minute cycle.
Just outside the station I find the
distinctive yellow bike and attempt to unlock it. Success this time,
the timer starts. This is how the app knows how much to charge you.
(There is currently a six week free trial, but in the future its
£1.00 an hour).
So I decide to take a little trip
around the city.
The bike it's self is ok. They have
been designed for all types of rider, so it's a fixed gear with a low
cross bar, responsive brakes and pretty light weight. I have to
adjust the seat almost immediately as the last user left it on the
lowest setting. I've never used a fixed gear bicycle before and I did
learn that I don't like them, so the day wasn't a complete waste.
I decided to stop in the centre of
town. To end your journey you simply slide the in-built lock into
place and because your app and the bike are connected, the timer
stops and your journey has ended. However, I hadn't stopped at a very
good place and I spotted a bike rack just ahead, so I thought I'd
just unlock it again, put it in the bike rack and that'll be that.
Except that when I turned on the app it still thought I was riding.
But it was locked!
Seeing no way to resolve it I called
the ofo phone line that is printed on the bike. They told me that
there is an issue with the app and they are working hard to resolve
it but there was nothing she could do right now. So that was it, I
had no choice but to leave the bike where it was and walk back to the
station.
I think my biggest question still
remains with these bikes.
Exactly who are they for?
I assume they are supposed to be aimed
at students, but then I would argue that you can pretty much walk
across Oxford (for free) and even if you went a bit further, the bike
would be out of the authorised zone.
Time will tell if this actually takes
off but for now I wouldn't recommend it. You'd be better off spending your money on a real bike.
Thanks for reading folks.
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