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Comment by bobsgame | Hacker News Reader

I tried to ride one of the bikes from one Google building to another once and a black security SUV pulled up and started yelling at me. They aren't very good bikes anyway- they are fixies which are kind of useless for rides longer than a block.

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The Gbikes are single speed, not fixies both of which are excellent for commuting longer than a block.

I don't buy it.

Google security can't tell if you're an employee or not at first glance. How would they know to yell at you?

I'm guessing you were riding in the middle of the road or doing something else stupid.

The first thing he yelled was "show me your badge." I didn't know I wasn't allowed to ride them if I didn't work there. I was riding on the sidewalk on Shoreline at about 11 PM.

Loads of people ride fixies and would probably disagree with you. I don't personally like them since I live on a hill but they work on flats ok.

To be fair the problem with the Gbikes is not that they are fixies, but rather that they are super heavy. They work fine for moving around the campus, but you wouldn't want to ride more than a mile in them. I'm pretty sure that's by design.

Not necessarily by design. If they're ordering fleets of bikes, they want them cheap. Steel bikes are the cheapest around, can take a lot of abuse, and also happen to be the heaviest.

Steel bikes don't have to be heavy but cheap bikes usually are. A good steel bike might weigh 19-20lb (compare with a medium- to high-end carbon fiber bike that is 15-17lb) while the frame is only 3.5-4 lb of that total. The rest of the components make up a lot of the weight and to save weight there you have to spend more.

The Swiss Army used very heavy single speed bikes, and people rode major distances with them. Of course, they were selected for physical fitness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_army_bicycle

Amazingly, they are much lighter than some other services.

Boston's Hubway bikes are 3-speed, but 42 pounds despite (I believe) an aluminum frame. New York's Citi Bikes are also 3-speed, but 45 pounds.

Holy crap, I didn't even know you could make a bike that heavy.

Almost all electric bikes weigh more than that (source: me one handing city rideshare bikes after carrying around my electric bike).

Cast iron frame!

I ride a fixie (Fuji Feather) daily around a city that is reasonably hilly. It was $600 which fills the gap between beater 6-speed mamacharis ($100-$200) and a serious geared bike ($1000+).

It is much nicer to ride than any cheaper bike I have owned and I was happy with the price.

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