Category Archives: Environment

The sad tale of Obikes in Melbourne

Dear Rouleurs,

What is it about OBikes that has Melbournians so worked up?? MMT rides past many of the bikes in his travels and has been amazed by the amount of vandalism that bikes have experienced. In fact MMT wonders how the operators of the scheme actually make a profit given the trail of carnage he’s seen. The plastic mud guards seem easy to break off. The wheels are frequently bent and doubled over. The latest form of vandalism involves stealing the entire seat post with saddle, rendering the bike useless. MMT really started to notice how much abuse the scheme was experiencing, when took this not-so happy snap taken in October this year.

MMT feels a bit a sympathy for this lost Obike. There have been regular newspaper articles about the large number of OBikes being fished out of the Yarra . One article really caught MMT’s eye. Back on the 19th November, the Herald Sun reported a brawl that occurred on the Metro, where some nut job took a swing at a guy who took his OBike on the train. In the interests of public safety, this is what the nut job looks like.  If you are out riding and see this guy behind the steering wheel of a ute, 4WD or van, get off the road immediately.

Whilst that’s an extreme case, MMT gets the frustration that some Melbournians are feeling about this visual clutter. MMT is amazed to see these bikes being left in the back streets of Port Melbourne. That’s pretty much asking for trouble in MMT’s opinion. It seems that OBikes have become the new shopping trolley, where customers can use and dump without, it appears any significant penalty.

On face value the business case of OBike doesn’t really make much sense. You can hire a bike for about $2 for 30 minutes on a deposit of $69. If each bike is used, 10 times a day, that’s $20 a bike. So the average daily usage will be critical generating cash flow. If the deposit is representative of how much else bike costs, then I guess each bike has a break even point of about 35 rides. So how on earth does this scheme make money?? The answer seems to be in the geo-location technology used to track the bikes.

To use the scheme, a wanna-be customer downloads the app. The app shows the locations of nearby bikes. So here’s the pay off. By data mining your personal information and linking it to your trip behaviour, Obike is on-selling this information to other punters eg marketing and consumer behaviour companies (oh great people are going to sell me more stuff;-). That all sounds very big brother/Google-ish, consequently I’ll be giving the scheme a big miss.

Until next time ride safe

Marv

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Melbourne’s urban cycling

Dear Rouleurs,

MMT has been making a significant effort to some blogging this week, in amongst some pretty busy times at work and at home.  Having a 1 year old daughter means both my wife’s and mine lives revolve around her moods and whims, whether we like it or not ;-).  Notwithstanding, MMT has been able to get out and about at lunch time.  Consequently, MMT’s eagle has noticed a few interesting sights around the CBD.  In MMT’s imitable and plagiaristic style, these have been labelled the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY.

So the GOOD.  Much MMT’s amazement a new private bike hire scheme seems to have appeared out of nowhere on the streets of Melbourne CBD.  That illustrious paragon of journalism, The Age, seemed to have noticed it too -> When it comes to shared cycling, yellow is the new blue by Ebony Bowden.   OBike hail from Singapore and think they can give the Melbourne Bike Scheme a run for its money.  This photo was taken in Docklands and these bikes seemed be a bit lonely tucked away in a back lane.

Now to the BAD.  MMT has been trying out new barbers for his 15 minute 4 comb/2 comb clipper buzz cut.  MMT has gravitated to Kings Domain Barber in the Paris End of Collins St.  For some utterly inexplicable reason, MMT’s work place has blocked the barber shop’s web site, so you’ll have to look it up yourself.  In a nutshell, the barbers there are good, quick and cheap and more importantly don’t try and sell me product that my rapidly balding head doesn’t need.  MMT digresses.  Back to the topic, MMT leaves the barber shop and spies this courier bike chained to a post.  The owner came out later and looked like a total bad ass courier.  There’s one message that MMT strongly agreed with, after a near miss with an SUV in the back streets of Brighton earlier that morning.

Now the UGLY.  MMT was super impressed by the care taken by some civic minded individual who left these signs on the bike racks near ANZ Docklands.  May a terrible pox afflict the bike thieves that are responsible for this terrible larceny.

And that’s it the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY of urban cycling in CBD Melbourne.

Until next time, ride safe.

 

Marv

 

What to do with all those old rubber inner tubes??

Dear Roulers,

Alas, I’ve been busy at work and sick…sigh…again, resulting in this blog being sadly neglected….Booooooo!!!!!!!!.  However its a quiet Friday afternoon and all my co-workers have nicked off early so I’m doing some blogging.  This blog is a bit of hack job/outright theft of an article I read in the May 2017 version of Bicycle Times.  Hopefully the publisher’s lawyers won’t be pursuing me for copyright/IP theft :-).

No matter, this article resonated with MMT as he was wondering what the hell to do with all the old and crappy inner tubes he has.  The question being, if a tube has been patched 3 or 4 times, isn’t it time to let it go?  In this age of recycling shouldn’t there be another use for these things.  Well this arch-plagiarist thinks so. So here’s five really cool uses of old inner tubes.

   
Tie Down Straps
Go to a camping store and find some 1 inch buckles.  A 28mm tube should thread through fairly easily.  They are perfect for strapping things down to a rack, securing items to your handle bars or pretty much anything you might use a bungee cord for.		  Loops
These can be used to hold new inner tubes, holding tools together so they don’t rattle or even holding a flashlight on the handle bars.  Mountain bike tubes seems to work best.
   
Pant Cuff
This one requires a bit more work.  Find some velcro, super glue and a length of rubber.  Figure out the right length for securing your pants/jeans.  Alternately, you could sow the velcro on instead.		 Protective Chain Cover
This is an awesome idea.  Thread your locking chain through the tube to stop it from scratching the bike frame or some other part.
 
Shoe Laces
This really surprised MMT.  Cut the length ways into strips of about 1 cm wide.  Follow the ribs of the tube so they are straight.  Cut them to length. Most laces are of the 55cm to 75cm variety.  Thread them through and tie them up.  You should be able to slip them on without untying them.

Now MMT did a smidge more research care of Google and found another set of interesting uses:

  • Fire starters: An inch-long bit wrapped around some kindling will start a fire, even in the rain.
  • Keep a bit of inner tube on your handlebars. Put it over the brake, locking your bike wheel, very useful when taking your bike on a train or bus.
  • Bits of inner tube make a great cushion between various attachments on your bike, much better than the insets that come with the items.
  • Wrap your D-Lock in inner tube to prevent damage to your bicycle’s paint.
  • Put inner tube on your rack. Your panniers will then fit perfectly and won’t rattle.
  • Inner tube make a great seal. It can be used to make lights waterproof.
  • Use as a seal round fuel or water bottles to stop them leaking

How about that for a list??

Until next time ride safe

Marv

Cars vs Bikes infographics

 

Dear Roulers,

I’m a big fan of the infographic.  Whilst I’m some what concerned that the Gen Y/Hipster/Millennial types may be using these as an excuse not read text that takes longer than 30 seconds, the infographic is a snappy way of getting a point across.  Which brings me to 2 that I found on that wonderful place….the internet.

The first is sourced from CycleAsia who are promoting cycling as a healthly, better for the environment than cars alternative of transport.  Imagine how much better our inner city roads would be there were less cars.
20150628-Car-vs-bike-space

 

The second is from our own wonderfully low profile Cycling Promotion Fund.  For me this one makes the point beautifully as to why people should be riding a bike and not driving a car.

 

20150628-CPF-Environment

 

The moral of the story being if you trip is under 3km, do the planet a favour and use your  bicycle. My own personal contribution to saving the planet this year has ticked over the 2,800 kilometre mark this week, which means I am 56% complete on my goal for this year.

On a different tack, its only 6 more sleeps until the Tour de France 2015.  Woo hoo 🙂

Until next time,

Marv