August Break day 14 - First time on a London hire bike

How to hire to use the London Hire bikes.

1. Before travel download the free London Cycle App which tells you where to find the nearest hire station and how many bikes and spaces there are at the station. (I don’t know how else you quickly find an a hire station without this very handy App.)

2. You need a credit card or debit card and you follow instructions on the terminal. The terminal will register you for the day and you will be charged accordingly. You can pay for longer but I only wanted a day.

3. You will need to insert your card again after you get your receipt for the daily hire so that you can hire a bike. This time you will get a code that allows you to release the bike.

4. Enter code on panel on the left hand side of bike station. When the green light comes on you can release the bike.

5. Releasing the bike is tricky. It is heavy and you need to lift up the seat and pull back.

6. I missed this the first time around and the bike got locked. If this happens call Transport for London TFL using the number on the terminal station. Sadly the operator was unable to help other than tell me to try another bike. The code did not work.

7. Discovered the code only works for 10 minutes by which time I got another code by putting in my debit card again. (I still don’t know if I will be charged for two bikes but because I called I hope that they will have a record that I had difficulty getting the first bike out.)

8. Lift and pull the bike out and thank everyone who helps you.

9. Work out on the London Cycle App where your nearest docking station to your destination is and whether there are spaces for you to drop off your bike.

10. Adjust the seat and off you go.

11. When putting the bike back, make sure that it is firmly locked on the station or you will be charged for the time.

Verdict. I will use it again. The seat is comfortable but the gears on my bike were useless and I just kept in the highest gear.