People Are Jousting on Rental E-Bikes in London, and Lime Is Not Happy
· Vice
E-bike rental company Lime has had enough. They’re sick of it. They’re not taking it anymore. They’re being loud and clear in their warning: their bikes are not to be used for jousting, under any circumstances, you hear? No! Not even if you need to slay a real dragon that’s for some reason within the vicinity of a real lance and a Lime e-bike rental. But more specifically and realistically, you should not use the bikes at any e-bike jousting tournament held in London.
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According to reports from the BBC, the warning comes after footage blew up online showing artist Jack Carden and actor “Camtholomew the First” throwing a medieval jousting tournament; just instead of horses and knights, it’s rental bikes and regular dudes.
The dudes, dressed head to toe in suits of armor and chainmail, pedal as hard as they can on lime e-bikes through London Fields, Hackney, in East London, raising their lances, charging at one another as hundreds of spectators chanted “joust, joust, joust!”
Footage of the event racked up millions of views on Instagram, and Carden framed it all as “performance art,” which, if we’re being honest, is just a bit of highfalutin speak trying to dress up what is clearly a collection of guys being dudes as they demonstrate one of the many non-toxic ways dudes rock.
A Viral E-Bike Jousting Tournament Has Forced Lime to Issue a Very Strange Warning
Executives at Lime did not see it that way, probably because their minds were instantly filled with all of the lawsuits they could probably be privy to should something go wrong, even though their e-bikes were not intended to be joust’ed upon. Or because they don’t want this to become a thing and suddenly their bikes are being wrecked by dudes slamming them into each other across the world.
Whatever the reason, company higher-ups felt inclined to release an official statement reminding everyone that their fleet of mental e- bikes is meant for pleasant and convenient urban commuting and not medieval violence.
In the statement, the company says that it appreciates the “medieval spirit, safety must always come first,” which is why they remind everyone involved that anyone might want to do their own e- bike jousting tournament and that Lime bikes “are not for jousting.”
I guess it ultimately is a good thing they came out against it. They could have stood idly by and raked in all that jousting rental money as people collided into one another over and over again. That would have been evil, but it’s hard to deny it would’ve been lucrative.
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