pro tip: just because you see a YouBike with a seat turned around, don’t automatically assume it’s broken. From anecdotal experience at least, there is like a 30% chance nothing is actually wrong with it…really weird.
I guess most people are well intentioned with turning the seat around, and just erroneously think something is wrong with the bike. I would not be surprised though, if at least a few of these cases are people trying to “reserve” a bike and increase there chances of it being there for themselves or a friend at a later time.
Not sure if they set a date for taking out YouBike 1.0 in Taichung, but every station that I’ve been to that has 1.0 has plenty of 2.0 bikes so I seldom see people ride the 1.0 anymore. Also now have the 2.0 Electric bikes which is a nice addition as well, although I think at the moment only a few cities have the electric YouBikes.
Every one I have used cuts out at 25kph. I assumed it was a brake going on, but I guess it could have just been the motor switching off and the resistance slowing me down.
Don’t really want everything to be converted to electric, as biking unassisted has been a daily exercise for me. Hopefully the electric assistance part will be optional.
E-bikes are quite common already, even without the electric Youbikes.
I have used the e-Youbikes in Chiayi and Kaohsiung so far. They work very well. In Lukang I had fun with those green e-bikes they have there. Not Youbike.
It’s great if you want to go far or uphill and need a little boost.
By chance I met a guy who works for YouBike at a station and had a chat with him. Bottom line is that the electric YouBike 2.0E bikes are not that environmentally friendly.
His job is to drive on his scooter around city with a box full of batteries and replace those that are getting low on power.
The YouBike 2.0E has a replaceable battery that can be unlocked with a key. Those batteries are not getting charged while docked to 2.0 docking station! Those have no direct power connection and the tiny solar panels are just enough to power the locking mechanism and a status LED.
Then he goes back to HQ and puts the batteries into charging stations that charge from normal power grid.
He showed me the battery. I asked if I could take a picture, but he declined after giving it a thought. Understandable, he doesn’t want to get in trouble with his employer.
I don’t think anyone thought they were, otherwise every bike would be at 100% when rented
All the electric rental vehicles work the same way (Goku, irent, goshare) - a truck goes around picking up the low battery ones and swaps with fully charged.
At least with Goshare the user has the ability to swap out batteries–and Goshare gives discount incentives to users who do just that. It’s a shame that the YouBike doesn’t have that feature, but I predict the power assist bikes will fade away in time anyway.
