Handlebar box of tricks unlocks share bike, no docking station required. System is cheap enough for small-scale share schemes.

Grand Scheme of Newcastle upon Tyne is the operator of the Scratch Bike city bike share scheme created for students on Tyneside and rolled out to all last year. Scratch Bikes are unlocked with text messages to a mobile phone; Grand Scheme uses a handlebar-mounted unit to release a bike lock key.

Scheme members punch their keycode into the handlebar box to release the key. The box contains a GPS chip and an accelerometer so Grand Scheme knows where bikes are and whether they are being moved without authorisation.

The handlebar box takes the place of expensive docking stations used by cycle share scheme such as those in Paris, London, and big cities in America.

Grand Scheme CEO Robert Grisdale said: “We think bike sharing should be accessible to everyone, not just the biggest, richest cities in the world.That’s why, with our simpler technology and lighter infrastructure, Grand Scheme offers a brand new approach to bike sharing.”