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Comment by newy | Hacker News Reader

Hello HN! I'm Euwyn, one of the co-founders of Spin (also, 2x YC alum). We're excited about bringing the dock-less bikeshare model to our home city of SF.

I've lived in SOMA for years, and have always wanted to bike around, except: (a) it was always a hassle to deal with a bike after going around town, because I would inevitably end up Uber-ing somewhere after my first stop and (b) my bikes would get stolen :(

Would love to hear any questions you guys had about the business, and look forward to you guys riding our bikes soon.

ps. If you want to follow along or have any questions about Spin or startups in general, I'm 'euwyn' on Whale and Snapchat.

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I love my local bikeshare and dock-less would be a huge improvement.

I've never noticed theft, and while there was some initial vandalism it never impacted our experience.

My local program allows us to check out 4 bikes at a time, per account. Last summer, my partner and I would check out 8 bikes and go out on the town with friends. The ability to share my bikeshare with my friends allows me to ride a lot more - it sucks to be in the mood to go for a ride and be hanging out with people who don't have bikes.

Thanks for the support! Making biking more accessible for everyone is one of our goals with Spin. Where are you based, and what's your local program?

PS. This is Derrick, one of the co-founders of Spin :D

Portland Oregon's "Niketown" program

What are you using for for networking/on board computing? The article mentions 2G is used in China - however here in the US such services are being depricated [1].

[1] https://www.att.com/esupport/article.html#!/wireless/KM10848...

Hey stevenrace, I'm Derrick, one of the co-founders of Spin. Given our roots in the US, we're building our bikes for the local market, and use different tech than the Chinese companies, for example, FCC-compliant devices or networks that are available in the US (3G and newer).

This is a completely empty statement.

Since you are one of the co-founders you should be able to spend at least some effort on answering the actual question or explain why you would chose not to do so.

How do you deal with bike rebalancing?

We've a few tricks up our sleeves here to make it effective and affordable for us.

Dynamic pricing to incentivize trips that bring bikes back to high-demand origin points?

This is key, otherwise a bike being available at the right time just becomes too rare.

Also, getting sign-off & GPS to work reliably in urban environments - it is super frustrating paying by the minute and being unable to stop the clock - or being directed to a bike location and finding nothing there.

Say a bike does get stolen, then you'd need to contact the police, but maybe the police are busy and don't actually care, that's the pain point that I see, maybe its a baseless concern.

As far as I know, it's far from a baseless concern. Paris, for example, lost 9000 bikes just in a year. Relying on the police seems folly, they probably just have to make a good estimate and price-in the replacements into their business model.

> (b) my bikes would get stolen

This is why I don't ride a bike in Philadelphia. I don't know anyone here who rides a bike and hasn't had it stolen at least once.

The only way to guarantee your bike isn't stolen is to bring it inside, which isn't an option at most workplaces. And even if it was an option it's a huge hassle.

Alternatively, buy a cheaper bike. Most folks in Belgium and the Netherlands use bikes that are 50-100 euro, so if your bike gets stolen every couple of years it's not that big of a deal.

When I was working in London, I was always worried about having my bike stolen if I rode to work. Just before I moved back to Japan I started doing the math. My train fare was 18 GBP per day to go a grand total of 30 km each way (22 km as the crow flies). 18 GBP * 5 = 90 GBP per week. As long as I got my bike stolen less than once a month, I could have had a reasonably decent commuter bike and still come out ahead :-P By the time I realised it, I wasn't in good enough shape to ride 60 km a day and I was just about to leave anyway.

Even at 20mph, that's nearly 2 hours a day. What an insane amount of commute time.

It can be enjoyable though. You'll save time in other areas too - will be more awake, won't need to do cardio exercise at the gym etc.

I doubt you'd manage 20mph unless you jump red lights. My 10 mile commute in Manchester takes 45 minutes mainly because of traffic and lights.

It really does depend on the route you take. I don't take the shortest route as that involves lots more junctions, more lights and more conflict; my route algorithm is mostly about minimising stress.

7 mile commute in London and analysis of my GPS tracklogs show that, on average, I am stopped at 5 out of the 23 traffic lights there are on my commute with only 3-4 minutes of stopped time on a 30 minute commute.

It's helped by long sections of nice wide road with few junctions where good progress can be made. The best example of this is Battersea Bridge to Lambeth Bridge (North side of the river) so going along Chelsea Embankment, Grosvenor Road and Millbank, with Cycle Superhighway 8 between Chelsea Bridge and Lambeth Bridge.

[ Sure this is only 14mph (compared to the ~20mph I'd do on the open road) but I'm also on a much heavier bike hauling plenty of clothes/lunch/stuff to and from work. It's still a good workout. The few times I've done it very early or very late I've come a lot closer to 20mph as I'm not slowed up by traffic.

The OPs journey might also be 2/3 rural-ish roads where you can make good progress, say closer to 25mph, and then the last 1/3 of the journey where maintaining that speed without interruption isn't so easy. ]

Yeah, 60km per day is about 3 hours. But the same commute by train was 1.5 - 2 hours depending on the day. So if you like cycling, then it means you get 60km of cycling in for an investment of 1 - 1.5 hours. Definitely worth it in my book. I think the more reasonable problem with the plan was the poor weather and lack of sunlight in London. I'm now working remotely, so I can cycle all I want.

Buy a used bike, with any luck it'll be your own

Standard practice in London is to ride a Brompton, which folds so compactly you can keep it by/under your desk.

I live in Philadelphia. I've been riding a bike around town for a decade. I've never had a bike stolen. What's my secret? Lock it up properly, and don't leave it out overnight. Pretty simple, really. During the day -- at least in center city -- it's fine as long as it's locked up properly.

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