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Paul Murphy wrote:
Perhaps as well as having a power assist option, the proposed rental
bikes could have a simple inbuilt gps with this capability. It would need
to be yob resistant though.

Perhaps they could have HUDs too (or voice output and screen blanking
whenever the bike starts moving). Otherwise I predict a lot of head-down
rental cyclists powering their heavy machines into car tailgates and
pedestrians as a result of looking at the map instead of the terrain.

Have you heard of the Tomtom rider (designed for motorbikes)? Even the
software I have on my PPC gives voice directions if required and it only
weighs about 190 grams. With this sort of technology its possible to make
things extremely compact and light - problem is they're also quite fragile.

Bearing in mind alot of people would go for a rental bike to see the sights
as visitors/tourists, how would you suggest they should be assisted to find
their way around or would you have them cast out into Londons traffic
without a clue?

Paul