Boris' Bikes Cost £900 Each

[juvenal]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/meet-the-honest-london-cyclist--ndash-only-five-boris-bikes-stolen-2090419.html

How can these basic bikes cost nine hundred pounds each?

[porca misèria]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/meet-the-honest-london-cyclist--ndash-only-five-boris-bikes-stolen-2090419.html

How can these basic bikes cost nine hundred pounds each?

At a guess, that incorporates an element of scheme infrastructure/administration costs?

[MrPin]

I'll bet the "approved supplier" is a relative!

[AteMoose]

1. Aren't they a private scheme paid for by barclays?

2. Weren't the bikes designed for the job?

[efdemin]

Oh Noes! Custom-made bicycles more expensive than cheap bicycle-shaped-objects in Halfords!!!111!one

Come on people, these look to have been custom designed for this scheme and have to include the locking mechanism which won't be cheap. They also have to be more durable than the cheap rubbish you're probably comparing it to.

£900 is a nothing figure as well - how long will each bike last? How much does the maintenance cost? The overall running cost is more important than the purchase price for a scheme like this.

It's depressing that people jump on the headline figures without thinking about the actual value for money. Typical short-termism that I should be used to now in the UK I guess.

[ccc]

Oh Noes! Custom-made bicycles more expensive than cheap bicycle-shaped-objects in Halfords!!!111!one

Come on people, these look to have been custom designed for this scheme and have to include the locking mechanism which won't be cheap. They also have to be more durable than the cheap rubbish you're probably comparing it to.

£900 is a nothing figure as well - how long will each bike last? How much does the maintenance cost? The overall running cost is more important than the purchase price for a scheme like this.

It's depressing that people jump on the headline figures without thinking about the actual value for money. Typical short-termism that I should be used to now in the UK I guess.

I think only those who work in the bike building business would know if this is good value or not.

As for being mroe durable ? Highly doubt it. Any MTB bought above £600 is going to be solid as ******. The only things on it you could really brake would be the components. On this bike the components are likely yo be very basic and heavy - as this is not a concern of the manufacturers. Also teh order was for 6000 so ther is some pretty large scope in there for a discount.

£900 for an order of 6000 bikes seems very high for the end result.

[Jadoube]

More to the point are these 6000 bikes getting much/any use? If they spend all their time sitting still then its £900 wasted however you calculate value for money.

The lines I passed yesterday were 95% full of ugly bikes doing nothing. What's it like on a week day?

Edit: And last weekend a whole lot of the tube system was out of operation so those bikes ought to have been popular!

[GloomMonger]

More to the point are these 6000 bikes getting much/any use? If they spend all their time sitting still then its £900 wasted however you calculate value for money.

The lines I passed yesterday were 95% full of ugly bikes doing nothing. What's it like on a week day?

Edit: And last weekend a whole lot of the tube system was out of operation so those bikes ought to have been popular!

The docking station I passed this morning had 1 left which someone was about to use. They seem to have ironed out the early problems with docking and I see them everywhere around the city. I would agree though that on an order of 6000, £900 seems alot, but does that price include the infrastructure too? With our bicycle heritage it's a bigger crime that we couldn't build them ourselves. They were made in Canada.

[Executive Sadman]

It's depressing that people jump on the headline figures without thinking about the actual value for money. Typical short-termism that I should be used to now in the UK I guess.

Its depressing people cant find £100 or so to buy their own god damn bike!

Not sure about others, but if i got used to depending on one, and it was already taken one morning, id feel cheated. Cant see how this can work except as a novelty for dossers/students/tourists.

[Scunnered]

More to the point are these 6000 bikes getting much/any use? If they spend all their time sitting still then its £900 wasted however you calculate value for money.

The lines I passed yesterday were 95% full of ugly bikes doing nothing. What's it like on a week day?

Indeed. It's really lucky that there aren't any other forms of transport that spend the majority of their time sitting still and blocking the streets.

[ken_ichikawa]

Oh I dunno my £150 (in 1997) Chromoly grip shifter bike is still in pretty good condition actually and I've done 1000s of miles on that thing.

[The Ayatollah Buggeri]

Its depressing people cant find £100 or so to buy their own god damn bike!

One of the problems is that there's nowhere to park them in most workplaces.

The university I worked at recently ran a subsidised bike purchase scheme - basically, they gave you an interest free loan to buy a bike from a shop they'd done some sort of deal with, at 15% off their list price. However, once you're the proud owner of one of these things, you get to join a five-year waiting list for a bike locker on campus. There are a few 'first come, first served' bike racks, but if you think that if you leave it there, it'll still be in one piece when you get back, you're terribly naive and trusting. There is also a blanket ban on storing a bike in your office (the ostensible reason being 'elf n safety). So the university is encouraging its staff to buy bikes which it then bans them from using to commute to work!