Melbourne Bike Share review

This weekend I tried a one-day pass to Melbourne's bike share scheme. I did find the initial process a bit clumsy with 80 pages of terms and conditions to agree to.

At least it's not an EULA with "I Agree" at the bottom of the document.

Also I didn't realise that it was a two-step process in that I had to buy the one-day pass and then get a bike-unlock code separately. If there was some prompt on the screen, it wasn't helped by the poor lighting at the Flagstaff Gardens station where I completed my transaction.

The bike itself feels 'squishy' in the same way that a recent Holden Commodore feels squishy with the steering. It's good in that the bike bounces over bumps but quickly runs out of gears. The frame shape is very practical. The bell, however, doesn't seem to work so well - I think it was supposed to work by rotating the cuff around. I could not find a lever. Also, the bike seems to auto-correct steering back to straight. It's not a twitchy bike at all.

The station where I started from had two bikes with loaner helmets. This seemed to be a common number for the stations that I passed. There was no 7-11 store for me to buy a helmet nearby. I probably wouldn't want to as it'd be annoying to carry around a helmet with me.

The website states that you need to wait five minutes between rentals. However...

Keep your trips under thirty minutes and take two minute breaks.

I'm sure you've seen the bike-only lane on Swanston Street and how wonderful it is. Here's Collins Street instead.

Drain is about shoulder width.

It's always good fun when your bike lane exists entirely in the door zone.

Boboyan Hillclimb to 1400m

This ride was a scouting ride for a future cycle tour towards Melbourne. It was a solid challenge and the midday heat was felt while struggling up. I think I didn't bring enough food and was hungry-sleepy traversing Fitz's hill towards Canberra on the way back. That situation was resolved with an ice-cream in Tharwa.

A broken spoke! A pannier bag was sucked into the wheel.

End of the sealed Boboyan road

Touring gears definitely help overcome these gradients.

The dirt road surface was pretty good on Boboyan road. 

Clearing the unsealed section on the way down was a really quick affair. The Hospital Hill lookout provided a stunning view and an idea to use the Old Boboyan Road next time - as long as we're prepared to ford creeks. I didn't feel too bad at 1415m elevation but was feeling rather drained for each uphill on the way back. It was getting a bit chilly towards the end of the ride but the suburban section was flat enough. It was a total of 106km. Interestingly mapmyride suggested it required around 5000kj one way.

Quick Aldi Solar Shed light modification

Here's a quick modification to turn the Aldi Solar Shed light into a dark-triggered lamp.
Three components are used: a resistor, a light-dependent resistor and an N-channel MOSFET. A variable resistor was used for tuning.

one side of rear bicycle brakes touching rim

Check the cable and the sleeve. I didn't realise it had such a great effect on the brake pads.

LED 'bulbs' problems

Flickering - check individual LED modules
Doesn't turn on - check bridge rectifier