Lime Bikes are Slime Bikes

I remember when they built the docking bicycle ports near my sailboat. One at Cabrillo Beach, one by the Double Tree Hotel and one next to the homeless rec center at 22nd Street Park. These docking station required a slab being poured and mounting racks with a solar panel charging the batteries to operate the log in.

Notice the missing grip on the bike

Then came along the dock-less version of urban pollution the Slime Bike.

Hard to ride with handlebars this low

I was walking the two dogs one morning when I first encountered
the bikes sitting across the street from a Metro Docking Station. 

There is no shortage of internet stories about how ugly these things can be. At first the slime folks came out in their rented vans an picked up the broken ones but lately they don't seem to give a fuck as now the hot item is the scooters that they rent and the charges are higher.
The scooters require a daily service truck to recharge the internal battery. If you check out the California DMV Code you will see that you must have a valid divers license, wear a helmet and DO NOT OPERATE ON THE SIDEWALK

One of my bike geeks "Neon Fred"was running stairs to get in shape for mountain bike riding on a coaster brake. He found the rear lock off a slime bike laying in the gutter. I took his discovery and with the addition of a tamper proof socket I took it apart (the lock) but before I did that I sent an e-mail to Lime Bikes saying I had their parts if they wanted them back.

They did reply to my e-mail but since reading and writing is not a skill required these days they went to the wrong place so I took the lock apart. Lots of neat gears controlling the locking bar, a speaker, a nice battery plus GPS a couple of other LSI circuits. Not cheap.

At first the cute Chinese Flight Crews that visit the Double Tree started riding them and that was enjoyable. Probably doesn't beat girls in Holland.

Then the homeless started riding them in great numbers. That is a hard figure since you need a smart phone with an downloaded app and a credit card for payment. You can get a cell phone for free if you are on any welfare plans but you also need a credit card? The lock can be forced open by breaking the small plastic gears inside the lock. I see Slime Bikes with dogs in the basket and homeless cruising.

The e-scooters have been banned in various cities up and down the coast of California. same with the dock-less bicycles. YouTube has plenty of dock-less in Asia.
Lots of media jumping up and down about this great cure for transportation.

I see these as another slur a rolling graffiti. Dumped everywhere and anywhere. The ocean is great for rusting and maybe the Pacific will rust this scum.