Barclays Cycle Scheme needs a bit of puff - Some Hints and Tips

R and I went to try out the Barclays Cycle Scheme that started yesterday in London. As you can see in this lop-sided Anti-bullying video my victim-come-able assistant had trouble getting started. The brakes had been over-tightened (we were told) making them incredibly stiff. Not all were as stiff and there is a simple way to check them that you'll find in the tips below. We soon got going.

The bikes - they look very clunky and heavy. I found them a very comfortable ride after a brief spell of adjustment. Shortly after starting I turned into the packed thoroughfare of Borough Market and was able to crawl along very slowly without having to use my feet at all for balance. They are incredibly stable. You feel enthroned on them. The gears are smooth and on the flat you can get a bit of speed on.

Docking stations - it would have helped me as a rider (but not as a resident) if they were bright orange and had thirty foot totem poles beside them and blared out air raid signals all day. It would make them easier to find. The map I had been sent showed a docking station on the North East side of Tower Bridge which is simply not there. I was close up to my thirty minutes and went hunting without a happy ending. I found one in Vaughan Way but arrived there just over the 30 minutes you get "for free".

Docking station assistants - they are just there for an introductory period. When R had trouble with the first bike a friendly and well informed assistant 'fessed up that he had never actually "been on one". This seemed to be the general rule with the assistants and that has got to be a bit daft in anyone's book. After the missing dock fiasco I caught up with R at another dock and explained the issue to the two assistants there. One of the assistants looked like I had accused her of being Raoul Moat's spirit guide. Way too defensive - the sort of defensiveness you get when you haven't been properly trained. The other assistant was pleasantly surprised when I gave positive feedback about the ride-ability of the bike so I guess other riders had been negative. Those stiff wheels one can assume.

Connecting and disconnecting-A lot of people have had trouble taking them out. Lift the saddle so the rear wheel is clearly off the ground before pulling the bike away from the dock. You'll want to do this for the stiff wheel check anyway (see below).

We didn't encounter the "full docking station" scenario. This is where you arrive at your destination and find you have nowhere to dock. As well as the non-existent dock mentioned above we did find a totally out of order dock (Panton Street) when we were going to collect a bike for a new journey. This didn't allow anything to happen and wasn't able to tell you where the next nearest docking station was - you wouldn't have been able to credit yourself the extra fifteen minutes either so a bum deal if you were running close to your thirty minutes.

Check the lights on the dock - I encountered two non-functioning docks (within an otherwise functioning docking station). You have to see green. R got pounced on by curious onlookers (see "Meet the People" below) just at the critical moment so was unsure if she had docked - so concentrate for a few seconds just to make sure. It can take a few seconds for the bike to be recognised and docked. We went to double-check that it had docked correctly online when we got home but the system was down (and continues to be down at the time of writing).

Meet the people - if you crave attention get on one of these before the novelty wears off. This is why people spend loads on clothes and speedy cars, I guess, except that instead of shying away in envy people were really open and communicative. A bit too communicative. Entering into a FAQ session whilst you're waiting for the lights to change on the Tottenham Court Road is a bit distracting. People in vehicles asked questions as we cycled along. It got a bit too much at times. I had a lengthy encounter with some woman who kept pulling incredibly long faces whenever any kind of charge was mentioned. "If you use it a lot it costs less than one pound a week" cue LONG FACE "if you are a professional thief and nick them you get £300 deducted from your credit card" Cue INCREDIBLY LONG FACE OF GOBSMACKED DISBELIEF. After each long face there was an immediate re-birth of enthusiasm which would go fine until any money was mentioned. And she didn't look poor. Meanwhile to my right a very gentle (probably medicated) young man in an anorak slipped in supplementary questions during the woman's dramatic pauses. Then some Angry of Woking type in a suite strode over and demanded "some maps please". I told him I didn't work for the scheme and that I was just a cyclist but he obviously didn't believe me and he walked off muttering about jobsworths.

Earlier in the day a nice, better-informed guy tried me to help me find a docking station as he could see I was lost. "My girlfiend says there's definitely one down there by a small park" - I thanked him and cycled off and soon realised the kindness was greater than the utility of his advice. He might as well have said "there are docking stations in London somewhere".

The weirdest one was the woman sternly shouting at me as I whizzed past "Where is the Swedish Embassy!" - quite who or what she thought I was I will never know - some sort of free-ranging tourist guide on wheels? Maybe they have them in Stockholm.

Hints and Tips

1. Check that the bike's rear wheel spins smoothy. raise the bike by lifting the seat and spin the back wheel. If it looks sticky try the next one until you get one that runs smoothly.
2. Carry a stop watch. You'll need to check how much time you've used yourself there is nothing on the bike that tells you. Adjust your seat height (very easy to do) and load your bags into the basket before you undock to stop wasting any of your thirty minutes.
3. Get a members key even if you're going to be an infrequent user - for the extra three quid you get a lot of convenience . Doing Tip #1 (above) may not be possible without a key (I'll need to check this). I am still not sure if the £3 fee is per key or per order. You can order up to four keys per account (for your non credit card carrying teenage family and friends). I found registration very easy but you do need a credit or debit card.
4. On your first journey put in some planning - though I am an ok cyclist and know Central London quite well combining the two was harder than I thought. I got completely befuddled at Berwick Street when on my way to Wardour Street. My theory is that when you are walking you have more mental route planning time. On a bike you're always ahead of yourself - and its not just routes to "where-you-are-going" but routes to "the-nearest-docking-stations-to-where-you are-going" that you need to calculate. Look at a variety of route planners if you can. The route I had down Cleveland Street from a Tfl cycling map had changed due to one way systems.
5. If you have the opportunity to take some spare maps or literature do so - it will save you chat-time with interested strangers. Explaining the pricing scheme is complicated I can assure you.
6. Look at the Highway code section for cyclists if you're not a motorist already to better understand the road signage - the maze of streets in the centre of town are quite confusing with their various restrictions. As you are riding on public property you're expected to obey the rules of the road.
7. Don't think "Bike Hire" think "Public Transport Journey". This came home to me when R was speculating about the ability to take Scheme Bikes on the Thames Clipper service. There's no point - she was thinking in terms of hiring a bike for a period of time. Her sequence was "Collect bike -cycle to pier- embark with bike on Clipper-travel to desired pier-disembark with bike continue and cycle on to final destination where bike is returned". The proper sequence is "collect bike - dock bike near pier- FORGET ABOUT BIKES ENTIRELY AND GET ON WITH NORMAL LIFE-get off boat and start another completely different journey on a new bike." It is not a bicycle hire scheme. Its "a flexible self-propelled element of the public transport system based on a bicycling model".
8. FIVE MINUTES - that's the time you have to wait between docking your bike and setting off on a new journey. The longer the bike remains unreturned the steeper the hourly rate but there's nothing to stop you breaking your journeys into smaller bits apart from this five minute wait time. The scheme organisers emphasis time and again that this is all about short journeys.

Although I loved riding the things after four and a half journeys and glass of Rosé in Davey's Wine Vaults in Greenwich and a further (own) bike ride home I was totally knackered. R and I found the whole thing totally addictive. I just hope it can keep ahead of the low-level crims and ahead of demand from the many people who are going to use and hopefully love and respect this new transport system.


boris
london
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cycle hire

'Mare of London

So what are the choices facing us electors next week in London's Mayoral elections?

On the one hand you have the media-savvy one with the unruly hair, a shopping list of uncosted policies and the funny accent. On the other hand you have the astute political performer with years of experience and friends in high places, basking in his subtle shift to the centre ground.

As for the gay one with the fetching smile and penchant for nicking the other candidates policies - well he hasn't got a hope in hell of winning so why even bother considering him? I think he kind of knows that anyway hence his newfound knockabout style.

Who, oh who, can save us from all this?

boris london mayor elections mayor

Plumstead High Street

I love this picture - its got a wild west feel to it. It's looking from the west to the east. The lamp post on the right is the entrance to what is now Mineral Street- or at least I think it is.

A made a tentative start to a mini-project : photographing the High Street. I am curious to see if I will ever be able to complete it. By the time I have photographed both the north and south sides something will have changed again - another estate agent opened, another pub closed.

When I went out for my first 'shoot' early on a Sunday a few weeks back my batteries ran out after half a dozen snaps and I couldn't be bothered to go back and start off again. Its got to be done in order or I will get too muddled at the editing end of the process. And the weather was horrible.

I have attempted to stick a couple up on Google-Earth. I am a total newb as far as adding content (kml/z files etc...) so I be interested to see if they have turned up yet.

Oh yes - the High Street has a central role in what seems like a new blog in Plum. It's called Planet Plumstead and wants to get a debate going about the High Street. I'm off to check it out right now in fact. ( Blogger is giving me an error so here's the link long-hand www.planetplumstead.co.uk )

If you've got Google Earth my two pics are supposed to be at the Walmer Terrace and Griffin Road junctions with the High Street. Haven't got a clue if they're up there yet though.

plumstead google earth photography

Rose again

And here's another strange thing. I wrote a couple of posts back about the demise of Rose's Free House. Well I was drinking in it again last night. Apparently it was only closed for a couple of days. When I first went in it I thought Fullers had taken it over (this would have guaranteed its continuance in the mid-term).

It hasn't been taken over by Fullers thought - it is under new management and they have decided to go with that brewer as well as stocking a guest ale.

So if you want a decidedly un-Woolwich like chill out real ale joint to continue I think you had better get down there and experience and support it now. Otherwise the next closing down might be for real.

A Rose by Another Name




Went to have a last drink at the Prince Albert aka Rose's this afternoon. R and I had encountered it a few years ago when we were visiting the area (a tip from the CAMRA supporting Kev and Mrs T I think) and have since enjoyed the great beer, Jackie's brilliant rolls and its well known 'time-warp' atmosphere whenever chance has allowed.

When contemplating the move out here it played a positive role - we could fantasise about soaking in its mellow atmoshere on some weekend evening.

Then we move here and R comes across it in an auction website and today its history. Not so much history - more a small collection of happy memories for me and R and a much larger collection for all the long-term locals who came to pay their last respects today.

It was extraordinary in this day and age for any type of retail outlet to go out of its way to look as if it was closed - Gordon's Wine Bar in Villiers Street could be another example. Whether it was deliberate or not I don't know but there was almost a Narnia feeling in walking through its front door. The contrast between the warm womb of the place and the harsher goings on outside couldn't be more extreme. I spent one summer afternoon sipping beer there listening to the biggest of barnies between a mad bus driver, an insane car driver and what seemed like a hundred hot and bothered kebab customers from the shop over the road. The door was wide open and there was nothing between us and it but the goings-on still seemed very far away - no more real than as if someone had started showing a Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" on the uncharacteristically 21st century plasma screen.

Even timelessness, it seems, must come to an end.

Technorati Tags woolwich camra SE18 london rose's pub sad old fashioned real ale beer

The great day has come and gone - July the First. I have been mildly amused by the various sights offered up by the implementation of the ban.

This evening it was a guy standing outside a bookies having a fag and craning his neck so much to view a race that he was to all intents and purposes inside the place.

R thought it was only a ban in pubs and even I was a bit surprised by the sight.

I have been in a couple of pubs this week - my old grotty favorite the Hole in the Wall and the lovely Royal Oak in Tabard Street.

The former has miraculously developed a yard with three tables in it - the pub was the deadest I have ever seen it but it was an unusual time of day for me to be in it.

The Royal Oak is a gorgeous Harveys pub down a back street near Borough Tube which does great food. I met a friend for a meal there just before quitting and he found its smokey atmoshere a bit too much despite being an ex-smoker himself.

No smoke now in either of these two boozers. The smoke has been fully replaced with the smell of chip fat. The new excuse of those who can't admit to getting old is quickly being formed. "I don't go to pubs much myself -I can't stand the smell of old fat on my clothes the next morning."

smoking ban london pubs

Now here is a pub that isn't going to be too worried by the forthcoming smoking ban. It is the Pembury Tavern in Hackney.

I had vaguely heard of it through the SPBW (Rose signed up and gets the Pint in Hand) and had confused it with a boozer I used to frequent when I lived nearby in Rowhill Road. I was wrong it turned out. Despite being located on a major junction that I walked passed several times a week I had no recollection of the building. It was quite possible it was in its burnt out stage then but I doubt it. there were loads of vast boozers around Hackney at that time, and probably still are, and I am sure I would have noticed it in a disapproving kind of way. My dole office was located not very far away but I can't remember heading for a post sign-on beer up there. I was too near the flat I guess.

To cut a long blog short - it has undergone a bit of a transformation. To be honest I am surprised to find such a pub in Hackney despite the passage of the years.

What made me drag myself across London to get there? In the end it was an accidental purchase of a Linux magazine, "Linux User and Developer", one that I don't really like because it's a bit waffly and short on practicalities. It was accidental because its colour scheme put me in mind of Linux Format a magazine that I do like. There was one good article in it however about this man, Steve Early, who had developed his own opensource EPOS system . His thinking was pragmatic about the issue - he didn't want to be beholden to EPOS companies who deliberately lock in their customers data to their systems and who are at the same time often small outfits vulnerable to going bust. Not only has the combination of Steve's programming talents and existing opensource software protected his data he can flex it around in various creative ways. He also has the potential of putting his ideas out to other businesses with similar needs and possible making some money from offering system support.

The article also listed some classic pieces of OSS that I feel suffer because of their familiarity. Open Office is certainly one of them. Just because its commonly bundled with distros doesn't mean we should take its capabilities for granted. Less well known outside of the Gnu/Linux world is Gnucash. I have started to look at it on my Ubuntu install. The article was reminder of what a powerful set of tools are available to people without the stranglehold of closed formats and code or , less importantly, licence fees.

Steve's other interest is beer and he is a founding director of Individual Pubs a mini-chain of pubs who's main speciality is real ale. The Milton Brewery plays a leading role in the beers usually available but guest ales aren't in short supply either. (like Samuel Smiths they also avoid your bog standard products like Fosters Guiness or Coca Cola). There was a nice looking cider on when I visited but at 7% it was beyond my reach.

The Pembury has been a non-smoking pub since its re-opening under the Individual Pubs banner and this can only be to its advantage. Not one of their devoted band of customers is going to be changing their drinking habits one bit. And others attracted by the beers and light spacious atmosphere but put off by the smoking restriction will suddenly be without an excuse to avoid the place. (Perhaps a pub garden or nice area to smoke outside is missing-the junction they are located on isn't the noisiest but neither is it the nicest).

They do a great menu. The bar staff are lovely and the management think out of the box. I hope they go on to bigger things. (I also hope they spare a thought for the neglected world of SE18 - me and R might soon be in need of an individual pub ourselves.)

hackney real ale pembury tavern