Does it seem like 2.0 when pedaling you’re pushing forward instead of pushing down?
An odd seat to Pedal Ratio or something.
Even on a flat surface it seems like I need to slide forward on the seat to feel like a normal sitting and peddling experience.
I need to vent here before I visit my local YouBike office and go off on them.
Today I rented a YouBike. When I decided to go home I checked the app and the station closest to my house showed 8 available docks…
When I arrived, however, there were 0 empty docks, even though the app still said 8. Well, in reality there were 8 docks, but they were all blocked by broken and spare bikes that Maintenance decided to store there…
What to do? Fortunately, there’s a Help Center phone number. Unfortunately, no one ever came on the line despite my waiting on hold for 15 minutes.
And all this time the fee clock keeps ticking.
I suppose I could have ridden to another station and walked home, but the point of the matter is this situation is ridiculous and unnecessary.
I often take the YouBike to the train station. What if this same situation happened then? I can’t park the bike, can’t get through to anyone on the help line, and if I ride to another station I risk missing my train.
Maintenance needs to park the broken/spare bikes somewhere else. If that’s not feasible, then at the very least they should disable the docks that they’re blocking so they don’t show up as available on the app.
OK, rant is over. Now I have a record of this for when I go to the office to complain and hopefully convince them to do something to prevent this in the future.
Brainless.
Side note, some unexpected shops on the other side of park.
I finally signed up for the YouBike 2.0 app and linked it to my credit card (I only want to rent with my cellphone). Very smooth process, signup only took 5 minutes and the 2.0 app is in English.
Renting is smooth too, just push a button on the bike, scan the QR code, and done. No need to swipe out when returning.
One issue is that I tried renting an electric 2.0E bike, but they’re always broken - first station I went to had 4 “out of service” and next had 2. They show up as “Available” and nearly fully charged on the app. Seems to be a reliability issue?
I finally found an electric bike and it’s very fun to ride - there’s no throttle, the motor just assists your pedaling constantly.
If this is for 1.0 then the kiosk has a button for no empty spaces. I’m not sure if it would work in your situation though. After you press it it will give you 30 minutes free to either wait around or travel to another station.
Is this in the app somewhere? I can’t find it.
EDIT: Nevermind, I see you said it’s on the kiosk. I’ll look for that next time, thanks.
I was always thinking about trying to see how long the battery can last on the youbike 2.0 electric. There are two obvious destination choices for hardcore youbike rides:
Guguan I astonishingly found out has a youbike station. Now who the F**k rides up to Guguan on a youbike? That’s 60km from Taichung if you go around the mountain - and around 800m uphill. It seems to belong to Taichung zone if I’m not mistaken. I know you can rent in Taichung and drop it in Fengyuan or Dongshi or Zhongxinlin.
The easier way would be to take an electric youbike up Zhongxinlin - that’s about 400m altitude uphill. Can the battery last that long? Will it overheat? I mean the principle of that bike is clear - it gives you full throttle assist until 22km/h then slowly switches off at 25km/h. Therefore if you ride uphill or just without any power or against super strong wind - you end up going 22-24km/h all the time.
The hardcore ride would be to Gugan via Zhongxinlin… Downhill from Guguan you don’t need motor assist anyhow.
I always wanted to take a youbike to eagle mountain. Renting an e-youbike in Dongshi or Fengyuan then ride it up eagle mountain - I don’t think the battery can stretch 1800m altitude uphill. Plus the carrying up the actual trail would be even harder than a standard youbike…
Think I’m gonnadrop that idea…
YouBikes in general are not suited for any steep roads. They all have only three gears. The lowest gear is only enough for small climbs. When pedal RPM goes too low the assist will turn off on the eBike. Then one can only get down to push the bike uphill.
Er… What? Ubikes are ebikes?
Some of them. (Not in Taipei)
Yeah I haven’t tried when it switches off and how many watts it can do? 250 permanently? Add 250 by myself and that should be easily suffice for 12km/h at 10% incline. But I guess the battery will give up soon then. Guess that bike is 30kg. So it would be 96kg system weight with me on top. I already sometimes pedaled standard youbike 2.0 up to dakeng 4 trail entrance (didn’t want to put my expensive road bike there for some hours fearing it may be stolen.) The main problem is just that the saddle is too low in highest position.
Vienna had exactly the same bikes as youbike 1.0 but they put longer seatposts so good for people 1.45 m to maybe 1.9m not like here 1.3m to 1.65m
I guess I have mixed feelings about this. I like the simplicity of normal bikes, cheaper to maintain, less polluting and people get to do more exercise, but on the other hand older and weaker people could benefit from this and actually use a bike instead of some other means of transportation. However Taipei, Taichung, and any “city” in Taiwan I can think of are really flat, so except for the occasional bridge I’m not sure if there’s any situation in which a motor is required. I don’t remember how these gears feel but I would say the lower gear should be enough for most humans to climb those bridges…?
Yeah I too think for anyone somehow fit those bikes make no sense. They just give you a headstart at red lights similar to scooters. Then you reach the limit of the motor.
But it works for super unfit people. I don’t see the business model working out however at twice the price. It’s too cheap for the effort of charging battery. Especially if someone rides one to guguan or even zhongxinlin then battery is empty after spending like 30ntd or maybe 10ntd. With another 10ntd from City of Taichung. I always think no one will ride a bike up there but plenty people ride one downhill if there is any
There are a number of roads in Danshui which would be hard to climb with a normal YouBike. Big stretches of the cities are flat, yes, but not everywhere.
True, there are houses up those hills…
Taiwan’s public bike sharing service YouBike has reportedly been hacked, exposing the information of 21,000 users to scammers.
Taipei’s transportation department was notified of the data breach by YouBike on May 17. YouBike systems were attacked by an overseas connection that attempted to steal usernames, passwords, transaction information, and registered cellphone numbers.
Bike share operator YouBike announced Friday a compensation program for the more than 40,000 users affected by a data leak earlier this month. Users contacted by scammers will be entitled to a NT$500 voucher to rent the 2.0 version of the YouBike. The distribution system is in the works and will launch as early as September.
YouBike says it has sent text messages to users. It has also strengthened password regulations and added verification systems to keep hacker bots out of the system. The company adds that users who receive scam calls or messages should contact the police for a report on the matter. The report can then be used to apply for compensation from YouBike.
SMS if your data was leaked:
Go to the website and reset your password
YouBike微笑單車-Log In
Taichung City|YouBike微笑單車-News - Service Notice - Content of Announcement
Is my saved credit card info safe?
According to UDN article following data might have been compromised:
- Member transaction data
- Phone numbers
- Member account usernames and passwords
- Card information associated with the accounts
- Riding records
Not clear what they mean by card information, Easy Card numbers or Credit Card information as well.
You can call them to inquire.
