Testing the Boris Bike

This time next week, London will choose its mayor. Two candidates, implacable enemies ideologically, yet united by a desire to get the capital cycling. Launched in the summer of 2010, the Barclays Cycle Hire bicycle sharing scheme has more than met expectations. Popularly nicknamed 'Boris bikes' after current mayor Boris Johnson, the concept was in fact prepared by his predecessor and mayoral challenger, Ken Livingstone.

Below: the Boris Bike docking station at Hyde Park Corner. Most of the people hiring bikes here are tourists; the decision to limit hire conditions to credit or debit card ownership rather than insisting on a cumbersome registration scheme has boosted usage among non-residents.

Keen to try one since arriving in Central London on Monday, I was waiting for a break in the rain, and finally this evening it did. I picked up my one in Kensington Gardens, by inserting my credit card in the docking point and getting a five-digit number to unlock the bike. Costs are really low if you use it for short hops. The access fee was £1 for 24 hours and usage fee £1 for the first hour, then rising steeply thereafter.

My ride was less than 50 minutes, so I would be charged £2 in total - marvellous value for money when you consider that a short-hop bus journey costs £2.30 and a tin of sockeye Alaskan salmon at Waitrose costs £2.50. A small problem in releasing my bike was the fact that the docking stations are so heavily used that the PIN code buttons are worn out and you can't see the numbers (but then there are only three of them - 1, 2 and 3).

Above: These bikes are really popular; and not only with tourists. Only the Brompton is seen in greater numbers on London's streets.

The bike itself is heavy (indeed, weighing twice as much as my Cannondale Caffeine F2) and built around the concept of battleship-like indestructibility. A low-geared three-speed drive means its not hard to get the beast moving, but this limits top speed. As I rode the bike down the Bayswater Road, I found myself in the unusual (and somewhat demeaning) situation of being overtaken by every single cyclist on the road (except others also on Boris Bikes). But it was comfortable, stable, easy to ride and pleasant-handling. The Shimano Nexus hub gears are robust and efficient (once you work out the twist-grip system) and the brakes are also buried in the hubs (so they too are protected from the elements).

My regular Canadian readers will be proud to read that the whole Boris bike system, docking stations and all, is Made in Canada (by Bixi)

Left: if there's one mankament, it's the risk of finding your destination docking station full. This happened to me as I attempted to dock my Boris bike off outside Whiteley's on Queensway. Every single bay was taken - what next? Fortunately, there are around 600 docking stations around London's Zone 1. The nearest one was actually even nearer to my hotel on Kensington Gardens Square; here I found plenty of empty bays.

I have seen the future, and it works.

This time last year:
Corruption: reasons to be cheerful

This time three years ago:
Bicycle shakedown day

This time four years ago:
Jeziorki in full bloom