We tried something similar a few years ago with Spokefly. We didn't own the bikes, anyone with an extra bike could participate, and we didn't put GPS on them. U

We tried something similar a few years ago with Spokefly. We didn't own the bikes, anyone with an extra bike could participate, and we didn't put GPS on them. Users checked bikes in and out with their phone's GPS. There were numerous problems and the company failed. The market for our service wasn't big enough. If you owned the bikes I think it would work better since sizes are consistent, they're easier to brand, etc. That said it's really hard to make money on it when you're competing with publicly subsidized bike shares and VC subsidized ride shares. Phones still don't work well. It was too easy for the GPS location to be wrong or for users to have phone connectivity problems, causing a lot of frustration. Our service was popular at big events where traffic was bad (eg SXSW) but that's when cell service is the worst. If you rely on phones your users will have problems.