Is 'Barclays Cycle Hire extreme' coming to a street near you?

London's new cycle hire scheme - Barclays Cycle Hire - will launch at the end of next month and mayoral agency Transport for London has released a video to guide people through the process of hiring a bike through the initiative. The first docking station for the scheme was installed earlier this week. TfL says that 6,000 bikes will be available to hire through the initiative from 400 docking stations in London's Zone 1 area.

But the mayor will no doubt be hoping that the scheme will fare better than Paris' Velib cycle hire initiative, which was launched in July 2007. Last year it was reported that over half of the scheme's original fleet of 15,000 bicycles had disappeared, presumed stolen. Some bikes were found hanging from lamp posts, dumped in the River Seine, or even torched and broken into pieces. Others have turned up in eastern Europe and Africa, according to reports.

The Paris bikes have also fallen victim to a craze known as "Velib extreme". Youtube videos show riders taking the bikes into metro stations and being tested on BMX courses. It remains to be seen how the Barclays Cycle Hire bikes will stand up to this sort of treatment.