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Comment by jeffnappi | Hacker News Reader

Lime has the worst bikes on the planet - they are complete garbage compared to the Uber/JUMP bikes (and probably others). The Lime bikes seemed to constantly be falling apart and were actually pretty terrifying to ride. On the other hand, the JUMP bikes feel very robust and I feel safe riding them. I would rather walk half a mile to find a JUMP bike than ride a Lime bike. No wonder they are failing.

Source: Rode both Lime and Uber JUMP bikes in Seattle (rode a JUMP bike twice last night)

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Same story with their scooters IMO. I would rather walk a block or two and find a Bird than settle for a Lime. On at least one occassion my options were Grab a Lime or walk 10 blocks; I walked.

Though, I feel like the reasoning is opposite for the scooters; they're absolutely huge vehicles that were clearly built to last in the harsh environments they're deployed in, and in doing so gained a ton of weight and volume. They're slow. The brakes are often so strong that they could cause riders to loose balance from the negative acceleration. They manuver so poorly that I feel unsafe while riding them. The big reason why I love the gen-1 Bird scooters, as unreliable as they are, is because they're so damn nimble, I have zero issues taking super-tight turns and weaves, and often that's necessary in urban environments just to protect yourself from the hazards of broken roads or cars. The newest gen Bird scooters strike a decent balance between being lightweight, fast, and (I assume) durable to the extreme environment.

I have the opposite experience with the Lime scooters; they're my go-to. I've had a few duds, and of course anything on the street is subject to abuse and vandalism, but it's nice that outside of battery and motor issues, a five second inspection will give you a reliable indicator of how it will ride. All the electronic brakes I tried from any company make a very dangerous assumption that stopping time and distance don't matter as long as you come to a stop gently, so I stopped using scooters without mechanical brakes. The number one thing I appreciate about Lime is that they have gone entirely to mechanical brakes, atl least in my market. Bird scooters are okay, too, but I've relegated them to second choice after having some bad experiences with their speed regulators kicking in really hard (similar to the braking experience you describe, but without any warning, much less any action by the user.) Early on I experienced some inconsistency and frustration with their top speed, as well. Aggression from drivers is more likely to kill me than anything else, so when I set out on a one- or two-mile trip on city streets and realized I couldn't top 13mph, it was scary enough to make me stop and look for a different scooter.

Most of all, though, I wonder how much of my brand preferences are entirely the result of randomness.

Same, in LA, I much prefer the Lime scooters to Bird

Totally agree with this. Lime bikes were garbage (I have not tried their newer redesigned ones, since I swore Lime off). I had a Lime bike literally snap in half at the joint where the handlebars connect to the riding platform WHILE I was riding it. It flung me forward in to the street. Luckily no traffic around. I contacted support and they offered to reimburse me for the ride. No indication they were treating it seriously whatsoever. After that, I can't support Lime at all.

I will no longer give Lime any business after I hopped on a scooter with 30% battery and it died within less than 5 minutes. I was late for work, and my only option was to unlock another Lime scooter after the first died, costing me extra $ for the unlock. I communicated this to their support team and they refused to give me a refund, telling me that I should check the battery life before getting on a scooter (shouldn't 30% enough to go 1.5 miles?)...I expressed my frustration to the survey following up the support and still no refund for the unlock fee. It may seem silly, but that was the straw that broke the camel's back and I uninstalled the app.

Strong agreement. JUMP bikes were designed for the hostile environment of vandals and sabotage that exist here. Lime bikes weren't.

I LIKE dockless bikeshare. But the bikes have to be safe to ride.

I didn't even realize they still had bikes.

In my town, they rolled out the Lime bikes and then pulled out a year and a half later. Now there are a bunch of abandoned green squares around the neighborhood where they used to be deployed.

Surprising how quick cities were to carve out parking spaces and create signage for rental bikes and scooters just to have them pull out a year later.

In copenhagen Lime is the most robust (and albeit clunky) of the 5-6 brands present. It seems they are the same as in your town. Wonder why our experience differ so much?

Maybe because Americans treat the bikes poorly compared to the civilized folks of Denmark ;)

The JUMP bikes are just better made by a wide margin and seem to handle the abuse well - https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/london-electric-bikes-tested...

GP has used Lime e-bicycles, but you've used Lime scooters.

Example Lime e-bicycle: https://road.cc/content/news/252967-london-gets-its-first-do...

Jump bikes are also safer as the brake lines are a lot harder to cut than the Lime ones (since they're shielded). This happens quite frequently to people I know.

Here in Lima their scooters are bigger and more robust looking than the competition (Movo and Green). Lime has only been operating here for less than half a year and I was looking forward for them to bring bikes too :(

I actually really like the lime bikes. In my city lime is the only option with the E-assist and I see people riding them all the time.

If the only option with e-assist was Lime I can see why you'd like them :) However if you have JUMP available it's no contest - https://www.standard.co.uk/tech/london-electric-bikes-tested...

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