Hacker News Reader

> bikeshare bikes are usually one-size-fits-all, which I guess is fine if you're the perfectly average size.

I think they are tiny. I have wondered how they got this so wrong, but decided that it must be intentional. It prevents long journeys and limits the frequency of curb hopping and other damage causing activity.

View on HN

One size fits all cannot be average, it has to be tiny. You can fold a tall person into a small bike, but you can't stretch a short person onto a large bike.

There seemed to be a series of Chinese companies that offered particularly small bikes in Paris. Ofo and Mobike were (are?) just tiny. Maybe they came from a market where the average person was significantly smaller? The bikes were pretty much unusable on a shallow incline if you were of even average height. For comparison, my 9 year old child has a bike that has a larger frame than those ones.

It seems safer for a big person to ride a too-small bike than a small person to ride a too-big bike.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com