Nice review. I rode these for my 7 1/2yrs at Google. This version is way better than the 20” version when I joined in 2011 - it was too short for my 6-1 frame. It also didn’t have a basket. There was a short period when they outfitted the 26ers with solid tires (horrible ride). And the seat post in basket was supposed to indicate a broken bike, however I knew some Googlers who would do that to “reserve” a bike for when they finished their meeting in some isolated building that typically didn’t have many bikes. My biggest complaint with the bike had to do with the basket - it scratched up my company issued MacBook so I often just rode with it my hand to prevent scratches. Oh, and on helmets, the lobbies usually had a pile of them but nobody ever wore them. Accidents rarely occurred and I never heard of a serious injury. Did you know the 14th avenue Google building in NYC has scooters instead of bikes to commute the city block long building - even trickier to ride while carrying your laptop 😂
@@PaulioNZ that’s funny 😆 no one protected their laptops with covers or cases - I rarely made it from one meeting to another without opening my laptop to check something or show something to someone I met while moving around on campus
DCR review of a single speed coaster brake. My life is complete. My only question is whether this was scripted or did Ray make all of this up on the spot? either way it is wonderful.
Thank you for this review! I know over the years you’ve received some criticism that you’re not serious enough in your discussions and insights on the multi-billion dollar fitness and tech industry intersection. I hope that this comprehensive review will put all that criticism to rest and prove once and for all that you have not become captured by the money and influence of said industries.
You should do a side-by-side review with a unit fished out of Permanente Creek. As far as theft … there are tons of these out and about in Palo Alto and Mountain View and other nearby communities. Sometimes they get picked up, sometimes not …
The city bikes here in my city in Norway have enviolo nuvinci stepless hub gears and a belt drive, and are surprisingly good to cycle a little longer distances. So Google could easily make a new version in the future.
Hey welcome to the Bay area!!... Yep I gravel ride the Bay trail between east palo alto / Dumbarton bridge and Alviso and those G-bikes are all over the place. People use them and just abandon them.
Great bike, gets you from A to B without any hassle. We have lots of these very practical bikes here in Holland. It's great to see they are not electric bikes . Next up: review of Buffalo bike from World Bicycle Relief, right?
Dudes steal these all the time. Hobos in my town about 30 miles from the nearest google building ride google bikes. I've taken them from my (non-google) office to Levis stadium to go to games.
Ray can you test the accuracy of pedal based power pedals on a full suspension platform? (Comparing wheel-on trainer power vs pedal power may be the method?). Theoretically a full suspension platform is less metabolically efficient, thus higher HR to a given power reading. Can you test by how much?
"So what is Ray going to ask us?" "According to the G-bike he's presently on, he'll be asking about why we reduced payments to content creators and why channels have been exploding." "Switch on the mics on the bike."
This is actually the third generation (or fourth if you count the original blue Huffy's). The first generation was 20 inch wheels, second gen was 24 inch, latest is now 26. So I think we have to hope 29s before a dropper post release. If you were curious the 24 inch version has to be one of the worst handling bikes I've ever ridden. Extremely twitchy, felt like you were going to fall over.
