bikenow - Bike rental & freedom

bikenow - Ukrainian bicycle rental initiative

Utilize a mobile application to secure a bike and ride at your leisure.

The service is user-friendly:

1.Obtain the bikenow mobile application at no cost.

2.Complete a straightforward registration process and link a payment card.

3.Select the bike closest to your location, initiate the rental, and revel in the ease and freedom of travel!

4.Ensure to park the bike properly in designated areas meant for bicycle parking.

Let's ride: how to ride a rental bike around Kyiv

Why do Kyiv residents sometimes have their own bikes at home, but choose to use rental bikes? How do drivers and pedestrians treat cyclists? Is it possible to make a trip profitable? Natalia Zorik has been riding around the city on rental bikes for the second season and shares life hacks from such trips with Weekend.

How long have you been using bike rental?

— The idea of bike rental is not new, from time to time we took bikes for trips through the Carpathians. But in the city I have only been actively using this service for the second season.

Firstly, before, the cost of the service canceled any desire. Secondly, the rental conditions were inconvenient for me. The first points with rental bikes required a return to the same point, and charged for the service by the hour. This is not always convenient in a city, especially when you use a bicycle not as an “attraction”, but to get from point A to point B.

During a trip to Warsaw, I was impressed by the bicycle rental service, where bicycle points are located almost throughout the city, and you can take a bicycle in one place and leave it in another.

— This is a dream, — I thought, — If there were something like this in Kyiv, I would use it all the time.

Several years passed, and a similar service appeared in our country. So far, there is only one, but the organizers are actively developing it, purchasing new bicycles, offering a franchise for other cities.

Why a rental bike, and not my own?

— I have my own bicycle, but I enjoy using rental bikes. Why? There are several reasons. There is no freight elevator in my house, and a passenger bike does not fit in it, so I have to lift and lower it on foot. It is difficult.

I also do not repair rental bikes. I do not need to return it home for any reason. The rental service has now developed so that I can leave my bike almost anywhere. The main thing is to keep an eye on the parking permit marks in a special program. And even if I have a flat tire or am tired, I need to bring my bike home. So my daughter had to ride a bike with a flat tire from the Metro bridge home, which is 11 kilometers. If it had been a rental bike, she would have left it there, or taken another one.

During the lockdown, when access to public transport was only possible with passes, my family and I often used the rental service for trips to the doctor, to my mother's apartment to water flowers, to the office, etc.

Of course, there are disadvantages to using rental bikes. You can install a comfortable seat on your bike, adjust the gearbox and handlebar height. And rental bikes come across defective bikes, and it is not always possible to replace them with another one. You have to give up on the trip or put up with the squeaking of the wheel, ride in an awkward position, without a working flashlight or with a broken gearbox.

Do you prefer to ride for fun or go somewhere with a specific purpose?

— It depends on where I rent a bike. In the Carpathians, my family and I rent bikes for “rides” for fun. In Kyiv, it’s more like a means of transportation.

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