I noticed Lime bikes almost as soon as they arrived in London, in 2018, because of the teenagers. Let me explain: it’s possible to hack the rentable ebikes – and when I say “hack”, I mean “not pay for”. You just have to pedal as fast as you can and you’re golden. If you haven’t paid, though, they make a loud clicking noise, which some bystanders find annoying, but I perceive as the soundtrack of naughty teenagers living their best life. I live next to a school and shoals of hoodlums cycle past like a percussion orchestra.
This is where my problem originated, I think: that casual association between the Lime and the scofflaw, which became even more pronounced after my brother got into an altercation with a police officer who told him off for salmon-cycling (going the wrong way down a one-way street). He was so rude, he told me, that he was amazed he hadn’t been arrested. He put it down to a Lime high. Even when you pay for the bike, its heft and speed relative to a regular push bike (never mind relative to walking) gives you a highwayman’s bravado.
