KEY POINTS:
Cellphones hold the key to unlocking a new generation of rental bicycles aimed at broadening public transport options in Auckland and other northern centres.
Almost 130 of the machines - bearing colourful artwork by Waitakere painter Dean Buchanan - have been unleashed on the streets of Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Mt Maunganui and Rotorua by business trainer and cycling enthusiast Julian Hulls and his company Goodgear Bikes.
They have been left unattended but chained up with safety helmets at strategic sites, including seven in central Auckland and one in Newmarket, ready to be unlocked with the use of cellphones to obtain combination numbers.
Customers are required to register credit card details in the first instance only, so they can be billed for each subsequent use, at rates varying from $3 an hour to $15 for 24 hours - or $8 for an overnight deal aimed at encouraging commuters to try cycling as an occasional alternative to other forms of transport.
Mr Hulls says his machines are designed for safety and comfort rather than speed, making them less daunting for casual users than high-technology racing bikes.
Although he hopes they will earn their keep as a commercial venture, Auckland City Council is making some of its cycle stands available for a peppercorn rental in return for receiving patronage data useful to transport planners.
City transport committee chairman Ken Baguley gave qualified support to the scheme yesterday after test-pedalling one of Auckland's allocation of 45 bikes.
Despite the bumpy cobblestone surface outside the council's offices in Aotea Square, Mr Baguley said he enjoyed a reasonably comfortable ride on a well-sprung saddle.
"It was easy enough to ride - I guess it's solid technology," he said of the bike, which has the simplicity of just three gears, although with the slightly more complicated combination of one handlebar-brake and another operated by kicking back the pedals.
But he expected the initial appeal would be to tourists pottering around places like the waterfront rather than those needing to make longer trips through hillier parts of Auckland.
Mr Baguley was taken easily through his "pre-flight" procedures, in which he dialled Goodgear's call centre from his cellphone and then keyed in a number carried on the rear mudguard of his chosen bicycle, in return for which he was given the combination for unlocking it.
After his brief ride, he phoned Goodgear again, to stop the clock on his hypothetical hire.
