I used to use oBike all the time, then I got my own bike. I have a very occasional need for an oBike, but last time I tried to use it, it wouldn’t connect to the server. I’ve tried several times and I’ve got the latest update. The little wheel spins, but it says there’s no connection to the server. Contacting customer service doesn’t work either. I sent a message to their FB page, but no reply. I know they’ve pulled out of their homebase in Singapore and also Australia and a few other places, but I can’t find any news that they’ve shut down their service in Taiwan.
Their bikes are still around. I never used it because the bikes don’t seem sufficiently strong for an average american body, so not sure if the system is still up.
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Yeah, the bikes are here. I can’t use the app to unlock one anymore and customer service isn’t replying.
oBike seems to be effectively dead. I’ve been keeping track of three oBikes parked close to my work for well over six months now. This is a high bicycle-usage area of Taoyuan, but none of the oBikes have moved. They don’t appear on the app map, either. Just sitting there rusting.
Yeah there’s a couple near my place too, and a few further down. One is missing the seat. A few seem to have been abandoned mid-ride as they are in the middle of nowhere.
I just tried to sign into the app, and all I get is a “can’t connect to the server” error.
Well, it’s not just me then. I guess it’s well and truly dead. I got paint. Anyone got a bolt cutter? We’ll resell the few bikes that are still worth riding.
I read someone bought the lot of impounded oBikes in Melbourne for a few thousand.
The non-connection happened to me for a few days some months ago. Then it was back in working order. Could be a temporary glitch.
I have found the oBikes are not very good quality compared to YouBikes. When I finally get my new glasses (I’m in my post-cataract-surgery adjustment period) I will start riding public bikes again.
Lots of oBikes are absolute crap, no argument there. But stationless is stationless. Sometimes you just need a quick ride down the road, or you don’t want to walk all the way home from the YouBike station, half of which are at MRT stations that you could just take the MRT to anyway. So they’re good for a fun day trip, but not practical for day-to-day travel.
from wiki:
oBike is a Singapore-registered stationless bicycle-sharing system started by businessmen Shi Yi and Edward Chen with operations in several countries. The bikes have a built-in Bluetooth lock and can therefore be left anywhere at the end of a journey, not just at a docking station. Users use smartphone app to locate and hire bikes. It launched in Singapore in February 2017, and ceased operation on 25 June 2018 in Singapore. Subsequently, the parent company filed for insolvency in its home market. Before it withdrew from Singapore, it transferred the deposits owed to the Singapore users to its sister company in China. They are currently under investigation for fraud by the Singapore Police Force. The effect on operations outside of Singapore is unknown.
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Here’s a recent article (in Chinese) about the oBike debacle in Taiwan: https://www.cw.com.tw/article/article.action?id=5094694
And here’s a recent one in English with an eye-catching headline: https://vulcanpost.com/657718/obike-singapore-investor-10m-debt/
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Environmental disaster that was promoted as good for the environment .
Knew those guys would go belly up eventually reclaimed my deposit long ago.
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That looks like a van Gogh…
Still in use this month in Jiji in Nantou.
This station just outside the train station.
Jiji Station
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The gov’t seized all oBike property. They’re probably repurposing them.
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I don’t see how they can still be in use. Maybe because those ones were actually placed in a bike rack they were never spotted as roadside trash or as blocking anything (although they are blocking the bike rack).
I used to see an old guy riding one around Banqiao last year, but I don’t recall seeing even the parked bike recently.
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I meant to post this months ago. It was taken near Shida. Someone knocked the back lock off and did a very obvious spray paint job.
The government legally took possession of all of oBike’s property when they bailed and left a ton of debts, mostly traffic fines. They owed me $215. I thought about doing something similar to this, but the design of the bike is too hard to mask. I think the only way many of them are “in use” is if the government used some working models to rent in a tourist area that didn’t have YouBikes. I remember reading that most were sold for scrap metal for some hundreds of thousands.
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The bicycle behind it looks interesting. It looks like it has the exact same basket as a Youbike but is actually some kind of folding bike.
I’d be interested about how the government rents out the Obikes. Do they somehow use the inbuilt system or just do something to the locks? I wonder what would have happened if they had released all the salvageable bikes back into public with the locks removed, like the white bicycles of Amsterdam?