London's Cycle Hire

Fabrice

Hiya,

Was looking at that B@rcl@y5 cycle hire in London to see if my partner and I can do a bit of "velo" exercise in the park by hiring one of those.

Membership's a bit complex and pricey, especially when you are forced to buy a £3 key.
Anyway £1 a day access is not bad.

I was wondering, since the first half-hour is free, if it would be possible to hire the bike, come back to the docking station before the 30 mins are up, take another bike and go for another 30 mins and back, and so on?

Say for example, a docking station by Regent's Park, doing a bit of pedalling exercise around the park for 30 mins, then a break back at the dock, then another 30 mins, break, and so on...
That way saving money (i.e. free) on the usage charge.
Or... is there a catch i'm not seeing :think:

Altarf

Fabrice wrote: »

I was wondering, since the first half-hour is free, if it would be possible to hire the bike, come back to the docking station before the 30 mins are up, take another bike and go for another 30 mins and back, and so on?

Yes, perfectly allowable, and you can even take the same bike again, you don't need to take a different bike.

The only thing you need to do is allow a 5 minute gap between returning one bike and taking another (or the same) bike.

The membership is simple - an access fee of £1 per day, £5 per week or £45 per year. The daily access fee is only payable on the days that you use it. i.e use it today pay £1. Don't use it tomorrow, pay nothing. Use it the following day, pay £1.

If you are going to use it more than once a week, then obviously the £45 per year is a better deal.

On top of the access fee then you pay a rental fee, but only if you use it for more than 1/2 hour at any one time. So use it from 9 to 9:20, pay nothing. Take it again from 9:45 to 10, pay nothing. Take it again from 10:30 to 10:50, pay nothing. etc.

Fabrice

5 minutes eh?!
Perfect for a little breather.

Thanks

Simon11

Who says you have to use the same docking station? If you were going at a slow pace and going from one side of london to the other, you could stop halfway at a docking station and exchange your bike for a new one (Without any sweat on it) :rotfl: