How far can you take an oBike?

I took one to Newcastle for a spin to find out

FYI – this post has been sitting in my drafts since October last year. Thought I might as well publish it now 😂

If you live in Sydney or Melbourne, I’m sure you would have seen one of those dockless sharebikes by now. If not, you’ve certainly seen them featured in the news for ending up in the Yarra or up a tree.

One day, I had a thought:

So, that’s what I did. Not to Katoomba as I had originally tweeted, but to Newcastle.

One afternoon in October last year, I rode a bike parked near Central Station onto a NSW TrainLink V-set (#purpletrain) bound for Hamilton (Newcastle). Once on-board, I parked it in the designated public parking spot on the train — labelled clearly in the vestibule area — and locked it.

oBike parked in a public bike parking space on Newcastle-bound #purpletrain

About 3 hours later, the train pulled into Hamilton Station (the terminus of the Central Coast & Newcastle Line at the time). I unlocked the bike and took it for a quick spin around the block. One thing I was glad to see was the presence of dedicated bike lanes near Hamilton Station!

oBike parked at Hamilton Station
oBike app showing the bike in Hamilton

Kenneth Tsang

I'm the author of jxeeno™ blog and co-founder of HSCninja.com. I'm a bit of an #NBN and public transport geek. You can normally find me juggling work and my studies at UNSW where I'm currently completing a degree in Geospatial Engineering.