Sunday 29 April 2012

On Bixis

As I was walking from the bus station to the Metro after coming back from the April birthday party in North Hatley this afternoon, I had the idea, "Why not take a Bixi back to my house?" As the day was sunny and I had a minimal amount of luggage I did so in my "dingo-rasslin' " coat as my brother Stephen snarkily refers to my Driza-bone coat. (It was sunny but cool.)

On the plus side, it did allow me to stop to shop unsuccessfully for towels at the Bay.

On the down side, it cost more than the Metro; it wasn't easy to use the "vending" mechanism; the bells on the bikes didn't work very well; and Bixis are much too small for me. It didn't help the that I was wearing a pair of shoes with fairly thick soles. However, the fact remained that even with seat raised as far as it could go, I felt like I was riding a kid's bike. I would dearly like to know what the range of user heights those things were designed for as I suspect that there was probably a bone-headed decision made in that regard (one of many relating to the Bixi program.)

1 comment:

Margo and Chris said...

I found the vending system difficult several years ago when I tried it. I thought they would have improved it by now, and it's sad that they apparently haven't. As for sizing, you are on the tall side but NOT at the extreme tip of the bell curve, so I they are also remiss in not equipping the bikes with longer seatposts etc..