Several giant ofo bike parked near Nanshan Museum have attracted the attention of many passers-by due to the bizarre look and large size of the bikes, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Monday.
The giant ofo bikes are taller and longer than normal shared bikes. Apart from their size, they also weigh 50 percent heavier than normal bikes.
According to ofo’s spokesperson, the giant bikes are beach bikes and the company has put into use 150 of such bikes in the Nan’ao area in Dapeng New Area. The deposit for a giant bike is 199 yuan (US$29.26) and it costs 1 yuan per hour.
The giant bikes have higher safety standards than other ofo bikes as they can be unlocked manually or via Bluetooth, according to the spokesperson.
The giant bikes also feature gears, with accelerating and decelerating gear levers on the right side of the handles.
Some netizens praised the bike’s gears, but others complained that the giant bikes are exhausting to ride because of their weight.
A resident, surnamed Qiu, said the giant bikes have their own target market, but the growing number of app-based bikes being put on the market in Shenzhen might add to the city’s growing burden of managing shared bikes.
Another resident living in Buji, who gave only his family name Peng, said plenty of broken ofo bikes have been placed under the Sanlian Bridge in the subdistrict and are waiting to be repaired.
He said the bikes should be taken back to the manufacturers instead of being piled up under the bridge.
“The mechanical locks on ofo bikes are damaged more easily than other shared bikes, and many old-generation ofo bikes don’t have GPS devices, so a great number of them have gone missing,” he said.
