Well, if it were neighborhood localized it might work well. Yeah, you might not hop on one of these to get from Pizza Luce to Woodland. But, around downtown? Downtown to Park Point and back? UMD to St. Scholastica, or Mt. Royal? Western part of Duluth along Superior and Grand? 
And if the bikes are compatible with the bike racks on the buses then it expands the range significantly. 

I think the actual biggest problems will be the relative short season for biking, 7 months optimistically in a good year, and a lack of bike-based infrastructure. But, at least with the second, you have to start somewhere and it well may be worth it. 

Personally I am already thinking of finding a cheap Huffy to use during next Homegrown, but if one of these systems was in place I'd think about that as well.

It's endemic to all news site comment sections. Not even necessarily folks from the region posting. When I was following the Cascade Mural project (because I am on the DPAC) there where commentators popping up from St. Cloud and Brainerd and other points south and west. I mean WTF?

Aren't comments on Area Voices strongly negative about almost everything? I hope no policy maker takes that stuff as a snapshot of local opinion.

As far as bike sharing, I'm all for helping folks get out of their cars, but I think it won't work as well here as it does in the Cities in part because there is not yet a culture of accepting bikes as vehicles in Duluth. Roads aren't designed to accommodate bikes, and there's a sizable minority of hostile drivers. 

I bike all summer and fall for fitness, but I don't bike commute and don't bike downtown because it's hilly and unfriendly to bikes.

Duluth has to be one of the most difficult American cities to ride in due the narrow and busy streets and roadways, minimal cycling infrastructure, climate and topography.  Some of this we simply must accept.

The Bike Share idea is heading in the right direction but if it gets implemented anywhere other than the eastern Lakewalk to the western Munger it will be tough.  

I bike commute 6 miles round-trip to work March - November and more when the routes are 'safe'.  The cold and snow do not bother me as much as the drivers out there.  I have witnessed an innate hostility from many motorists toward my cycling presence on the road which make it even more difficult than it already is or has to be.  I believe this city requires an entirely new approach to bike travel, commuting and 'culture' within it's limits.  

A friend relayed this story to me: he overheard a city engineer speaking with another about the idea of including a 'bike lane' along Woodland Avenue near Mt. Royal and UMD during it's recent repair and redesign.  They both laughed at the idea.  That pisses me off.  Not everyone in that area drives a damn car.  

Honestly, in the future I see fewer motorists out there and more cyclists around town, and now is the time to address some of these needs of the future.  Implement active plans by concerned/involved citizens who ride and live here and not leave the choices to the decider's who drive.  Let's get that started!  Count me in.

Speaking only to the issue of topography: San Francisco has a huge bike culture and has elevation changes of ~900 feet from place-to-place around the city. Wikipedia tells me that Duluth's elevation change from the waterfront to the airport is a very comparable 825 feet.

Echoing bluenewt, I wouldn't take counsel from the strong contingent of knuckledraggers among the Area Voices commentators.  That said, I don't think this is a great plan for Duluth.  Most people who might think about riding already have a bike [1]--what's needed is to get them out the door doing it more frequently.  

There, I think the need is to deal with the more solvable environmental challenges Elden mentioned--changing the weather and the topography are out, but there are plenty of things we as a city could do.  In Bozeman, MT, the downtown area is so clotted with parked bikes in the summer that the city installed big bike racks in several street parking spaces. Although we probably don't need that much capacity right now, we could certainly use to add more plain old utilitarian public racks here.  I'm very enthused to see the news about the Lakewalk and Munger Trail extensions, but we also need to think about doing more to facilitate cycling downtown--not least because in the summer the Lakewalk between 21st and Canal Park (and especially west of Leif Erikson Park) is often too crowded to ride on safely.  

[1] To aid those who don't have a bike and might struggle to afford a solid one, I think a small public and/or charity program rehabbing donated or garbage-picked bikes might work well, especially if it included a DIY component (both to aid people in maintaining a new-to-them bike and to discourage people seeking to exploit the system.

I read something a little cryptic here about the Bike Cave back in the spring--it sounds like a great idea, which might (or, admittedly, might not) benefit from a little more publicity.

In other cities that have this sort of option, the bicycles are intended mainly for transportation on short trips. They could work great for people who work downtown and need to get from place to place during the day. There are situations when a bicycle might be more practical than driving and parking a car.

At the same time, the city, and on some streets the county, will have to consider adding bicycle friendly facilities such as bike lanes. In Minnesota it is illegal to ride a bike on sidewalks in business districts. On street, cyclists must obey all traffic rules. (I know, sometimes they don't and that is just wrong, wrong, wrong.) Riding a bike will only be acceptable if it is easier than driving a car and if riders feel safe.

As others have written, most people who ride for recreation already have a bike and probably wouldn't pay the fee for this option. For those of us who commute into downtown for work, it could be a fine choice to get to meetings and lunch if the racks are placed properly.