I have used these in other cities and it was a great experience but the Austin setup is looking pretty beat. I assume with all of the scooter competition that they are not investing in keeping up the bikes. In San Antonio they are going electric which is great. We also had to call the help center when we tried to dock the bikes and could not. The only plus is that the bikes can be taken on the bike /hike path while the scooters are prohibited. read more

I used B Cycle both mornings to get to ACL. Rode from downtown to Zilker both days, and spent about $5 each time-one day I rode the trail, other day I rode in the bike lanes. Both bikes were fine, but the best part was the customer service from B-Cycle, now called Metrobike. Their staffers were so friendly and helpful-they legit showed interest in me as a customer and desire for me to be happy! Yay! Something that's sorely lacking right now. Plus, they had THE CLOSEST docking station to ACL (by a lot), at the corner of Sterzing and Barton Springs Road. Far closer than the mandatory scooter parking (geofencing prohibits you getting any closer-you have to take them to Toomey). I made that mistake Day 1 ACL. I will for sure use these bikes again. Happy to have them around central Austin. *The payment options are clearly stated on the app and the website. Not sure what others are bellyaching about. Each amount on the app has a drop-down with a VERY clear description of what you're buying. Jeez. read more

Great customer service! I accidentally bought passes on Metro and couldn't figure it out. Call the number on the screen when we were trying to check out the bikes and the lady was super helpful. Then one of the people in our group couldn't get the hang of it so we returned the bike right away and the Customer service person helped us with that as well. Just have to say it was so refreshing to have a real person pick up the phone and help you!! Now to the biking experience. Yeah those electric bikes are like magic! I kept it turned off a lot of the time but when we came to a hill, oh my goodness, I felt like superman! Loved it! read more

I ignored the horror stories I had heard about b cycle and used one anyways. I biked from East Austin to Zilker (~30 mins) and even when I docked my bike and it was locked in, it did not end my ride. When I tried to call no one answered and they ended up charging me $51. I called the next day and the person I talked to was very kind and said that these problems happen with the bikes going offline, and that they would take care of it. However, 12 hours later I was sent a confirmation that I was still charged the $51. Now I have been trying to call back for a while and have yet to get through. I would suggest renting a bike from a bike rental company or just using a scooter share even if that means having to avoid the hike and bike trail. read more

Visitor here. Opted for the 24-hour explorer pass (or something like that) which let us check bikes out for an hour at a time for 24 hours. There were a few bike share locations right near our Airbnb. We got bikes and rode downtown, to the capitol, then to the waterfront. We checked our bikes back at a waterfront station, then immediately got them back to start our clock at 0 again. Explored the waterfront and made it to the springs! The bikes themselves are ok. 3 speed with adjustable seat. As others have noted, the brakes vary per bicycle but we never had problems. My first bike was fine but the 2nd one had worse brakes and learned a bit to the left. 2 of us have road bikes and 2 of us don't bike so we had the range of experienced bikerness in our group. Would definitely recommend for visitors looking to ride along the river. Biking downtown was a bit scary, since we didn't have helmets. There were bike lanes and drivers were really nice, but still was a bit uncomfortable knowing I didn't have a helmet and was on an unfamiliar bike. read more

Metrobike Austin - The bike - Public Transportation Near Me - Austin, Texas

Traveling through Austin, I thought I had understood the membership options when signing up in the app, but sure enough I got a $16.23 charge after arriving home because I had mistakenly signed up for the "Local31" instead of "Explorer" pass. Sounds like customer service has a policy of not helping, even though they're well aware that these sign-up mistakes keep happening. Outside of paying more than double what I thought I was, I was able to find bikes when I wanted them and didn't have too much trouble finding an open dock. The app itself was pretty glitchy, and the bikes are rickety, but totally rideable. read more

In huge bold: "24 hour pass!" In subtle subscript that clearly has misled lots of past customers: "unlimited 60 minute rides." What's even more upsetting is when I called to understand the additional $17 charge, I talked to an extremely rude and inept customer service rep who just kept reading the policy to me and did not answer my questions. A cool idea with incredibly misleading marketing and inept service. read more

Okay, so since I loved my first B Cycle experience so much, I signed up for a membership! If you plan on riding more than one day a month, you'll definitely want to invest in a membership...it's $8 for a day access pass, $11 for a monthly access pass, and I believe $80 for an annual pass. The fees for having a bike checked out for more than a half hour at a time remain the same regardless of which type of membership you have. I have since come across a few minor issues that I didn't encounter during my first ride. A lot (I'd say at least 50%) of the bikes have broken bells, which is too bad because the bells are really great when you're riding through crowded areas like the trail. A lot of the handlebars could use a little love too. Also, I wish they had stations further down S. Lamar, S. Congress, and west of downtown. I'm hoping that perhaps there are future plans to expand in those directions :) Also, their website is...not totally great, and you can't access your account at all on the mobile version. Their customer service is seriously top-notch. I've called a few times with issues, and they typically answer after one ring, and have my issue solved within a minute or two. Awesome! I've also taken around 60 or so rides, and I've never come across an empty dock when I've been looking for a bike, and I've only found a full dock when I wanted to return a bike one time (and that was at the finish of the Cap10K, so it was unsurprising). I'm not ready to ditch the car just yet, but I'm loving B Cycle as an alternative means of transportation to run errands and the like. read more

There's better, less expensive ways to get around. Husband and I borrowed these for one evening and it ended up costing ~$100! The lock didn't even work, so we crossed our fingers that no one else would take them and use them. Luckily no one did, but their business model is still not competitive for Austin. I read the instructions on the kiosk several times but it didn't make all that much sense. I thought maybe it was for every 30 minutes you were actively riding it you would be charged. We could have rented a car for the same price, so what exactly is the good that this bike sharing bull even accomplishes when that's the case? Lime costs a significant amount less and is far more reliable and definitely not as clunky as these bikes. I think they know they are ripping off their users by using an intentionally wordy price explanations. We have something very similar in the city we're from and it doesn't cost nearly as much and the bikes aren't clunkers. Avoid this borderline scam. read more

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. They are UNETHICAL in their business dealings and, at the end of the day, scammers. I've never been so appalled by the customer service of a company as I was when I spoke to the rep at Austin B Cycle. Do yourself a favor and avoid them at all costs. read more

My fiancé and I only had one full day to explore Austin. We decided to rent bikes so we could cover more ground in the limited time we had. Based on the yelp horror stories I was apprehensive about doing Austin B Cycle, so I called around to some of the higher rated bike rental places and found they generally wanted $25/bike for 3 hours or $35/bike for 5 hours. That was just too much. So we took a gamble and tried b cycle. We spent a little over 5 hours riding bikes and paid a grand total of $16 ($8 each) vs the $70 it would have cost us to rent bikes for the same amount of time from a shop. I have no idea why people are confused by the pricing. It is clearly articulated in a chart on their website and on the kiosks. Short of smacking you in the head with it, they couldn't make it any clearer. There are bike stations allover downtown, so if you are sightseeing you can easily check the bike in (it takes all of 2 seconds) and walk around or check it in and check it back out right away to avoid the overages for going over 30mins. We were able to travel between the sights we wanted to see in less than 30 minutes, so it didn't disrupt or inconvenience us at all to dock the bike every 30mins. We picked up the bikes at the convention center - auditorium shores - so congress shopping district - whole foods flagship - outdoor art gallery - state capital building. We stopped and walked around/hung out at each location and still covered so much ground. Download the app. It will show you exactly where every bike docking/rental station is. Read the instructions. If you do, there is nothing confusing about the pricing structure or the bike return process. They also text you every time you complete a return, so you can confirm it went through....if the blinking green lights aren't confirmation enough. We tried a bike share in DC a couple of years ago and it was honestly a pain in the ass with lots of glitches. Our experience with Austin b cycle was seamless. read more

Metrobike Austin - How are people confused by this?!? - Public Transportation Near Me - Austin, Texas

PLEASE READ BEFORE SIGNING UP FOR BCYCLE: A truly open, honest, and fair review of the service. My partner and I decided to use this service while living in Austin for three months. We purchased the 30-day membership, which is actually damn cheap and great. Step one DO NOT use the bikes unless you have a membership, they charge a LOT per minute and you'll have charges that are 3-4 times more than a monthly membership. Paying by the minute is a financial trap, don't do it! However, with the membership, my partner and I were able to bike several hours a day and never paid more than 11-13 dollars (I can't remember the monthly cost). In that situation, we LOVED the service and I biked every single day for months. I owe Bcycle for that incredible experience. The bikes are fair, most were good, we only ran into two bad bikes over two months of active usage. One had a damaged rim and the other blew a tire but that's likely from me going too fast and off a few jumps. I can't emphasize enough how badass the electric bikes are. HOWEVER, you may ask yourself, why the one star then? Bcycle brought one of the worst customer experiences I've had in several years. First off, YOU CAN'T CANCEL YOUR MEMBERSHIP ON THE APP. That's right, a common, simple feature on nearly every major app doesn't exist for Bcycle. You may ask yourself, "ok, then use their website?" NOPE, again, you CAN NOT DEACTIVATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP ON THE WEBSITE. Instead, you have to email or call (for the love of god call, they aren't organized for customer support). But wait, there's more, if you make the mistake of moving to any other city, the Bcycle app will show you THE WRONG customer support info, phone number, even email! So after moving to NYC I emailed support several times just to be told I wasn't a customer. So I called, again I was told, "you're not in our records." I finally said, "well I signed up for Bcycle and the app lists this number as support." The app showed Indego customer support as the support for Bcycle. I started to think, "ok this is a separate company, let me google Bycle support." I did that the websites FAQs literally shows the customer support number as the Houston number. So, after calling I was then again told to call a different number, "you need to talk to Austin Bycle." So I called another number and got to Austin Bycle where "curtis" told me he'd cancel my membership. But they don't offer any confirmation on the phone, I asked how I would know when it was deactivated and he said they'd call me. Uhhhhh, ok. I don't understand why there are multiple numbers for each city, why can't one customer support employee simply look up one customer from another city and deactivate their membership. It seems like this company's database and customer support is running off the 1990s. It's weird and SUPER INEFFICIENT. read more

I understand the 24 hour pass/60 minute per ride thing, that's fine. I paid $24 to rent two bikes last night to go from South Congress to the Drafthouse because we were running late. On the way back, every station on Congress was full. By the time we got to Elizabeth street, we called the B Cycle number. They told us that we had to ride our bikes down to Riverside/Barton Springs and then somehow get home from there, after talking to them on the phone for a good 15 minutes. Why would I pay $12 for a service that makes me go out of my way and then still have to take an Uber home? I'm pretty disappointed with the way this was handled. Hopefully one of the newer bike shares in town will be better than this. read more

Requested a refund (for an auto renew I didn't enroll in) and was told refunds couldn't be processed for transactions "over a week ago." This policy, unlike the refund/return policies of just about every legitimate company, can't be found on their website. Guys, a policy is to be made available to those you wish to hold accountable... otherwise it's like you're stealing my money and making up un-verifiable rules to justify it. Doesn't that sound a little unethical? I want my money back. You weren't authorized to take it. If "the computer won't let you" credit the charge, I will happily accept a check. Make this right. read more

Love this local non-profit. I'm an annual member on my 3rd year (2017). I use this service often when I go downtown. Austin definitely has public transportation challenges and this is a great addition to it. With B-Cycle I can take the bus/metro downtown and then take a quick bike ride to my final destination, or I can park in a low transit area easily and then get on a bike. I also like this as a leisure option. I've bought passes for friends visiting and it's a great way to go around the city exploring places. Customer support was very helpful anytime I had issues with a bike/station (such as the return not being acknowledged by the system). Things to improve: * Seems like pass instructions wording could improve, many people have trouble understanding the 24-pass and 60 minute mark (previously 30 minutes), even though this seems to be the norm in all bike-share programs I've tried across the nation. * The bike horn/bell system is a hit or miss (many are broken). Pro-tips: * use the phone app to check start/end station availability/occupancy. * use a timer and plan your route so you can check-in the bike in a station every 60 minutes (annual members get some monthly extra time forgiven). * make sure you get an sms text when you return a bike (contact support otherwise) * leave specific bike feedback in the email/text return form if you have any issues read more

Total Scam! Don't ever sign up for the app. They will continue to charge you a monthly fee for a membership EVEN if you have auto-renew membership switched OFF. I had to email customer service after a concern that I was still being charged. It was not until I logged onto the website via computer could I see the statements that I had been charged every month for the past year. Still, I cannot find a way of removing my billing information from my account. I have emailed customer service asking them to delete my account, which they responded promptly saying they did. I hope they didn't keep my credit card info. The company is trash and is surviving by only billing unknowing customers on subscriptions they are not using. read more

This is a good lesson in how not to run a bike-share program. The pricing scheme is confusingly worded, as other reviewers have pointed out. It's clearly targeted more at people who are trying to quickly get from one place to another rather than tourists exploring the downtown area. 30 minutes is just too short for a bike to be checked out. What this means in practice is I spent most of the time on the bike worrying about would I be able to get back to a bike rack in time. They also claim on their website that they have enough stations to allow you to easily circle Town Lake on the bike trails. This is definitely not true. Even if you were steroid-infused Lance Armstrong, there's a huge gap between the Rainey St. and South Congress stations that I doubt most bikers (especially on these bikes) could make in time. Speaking of the bikes, the other reviewers are also on point--there are no brakes on most of them. You could squeeze the brakes as hard as possible and you might slow, but won't stop on the 3 that I tried. Given that the bikes are already unbalanced by the rather useless baskets on the front (which come with some kind of metal cord that makes an ungodly racket throughout the ride) and you've got a bulky, unwieldy bicycle that you better get back to a rack in 30 minutes or else. In theory, this would be a great program to explore Austin on. But they need to redo the pricing (45 minutes at first would be much better) and take better care of their bikes to make for a more user-friendly experience. read more

Horrible!! I really wanted to like this company. But I rented a bike from downtown to west campus and should have been charged $8 for just twenty minutes. Later did I find out I got charged an additional $65 because the "system" didn't show a return till the next morning?!? I called to dispute - customer service was horrible. The guy said there's no way they can prove that I hadn't return the bike earlier when I know 100% I did. Why would I wait to return the bike till the morning is beyond ridiculous? He said he would reimburse me only half of that amount! When I shouldn't have even been charged the additional fees anyway! I still have not gotten any reimbursement. I ended up resorting to call my credit card company and disputing the charges. This whole company has horrible customer service and is a total rip off! Plus the bikes are super heavy and chunky that just make it hard to ride. - if you want to save yourself the time/headache/money do not rent from this place! read more

They scammed and tricked me and three of my friends out of money. We thought we signed up for the day pass because we do not live in Austin, therefor we didn't need the monthly membership. However, my friends and I were charged a few days later for the membership. When I called the customer service rep he said he would cancel the subscription and refund the money. Yet again they deceived me because today I received an email saying they wouldn't refund it because "Unfortunately we are not able to refund passes that have been used or mistakenly purchased since passes are described upon check out." Don't use the service. read more

Wow I've now just checked the reviews for B-cycle in Austin and I wish I had done it earlier. I bought an $8 24 hour pass and mistakenly kept the bike overnight. Turns out after 30 minutes you are charged an additional $4 every 30 minutes. Since I was never charged any extra amount for the first ride, I did it again in June and guess what? The next day they had charged me $90.00! When I called a man in customer service he said I owed $150 from the last ride and that I wouldn't be given a refund! The man began to get really rude and I could hear him snickering over the phone over how stupid I was to not understand. Whats the point of a 24 hour rental if I can only ride the bike for 30 minutes!!?? At least in the end I didn't have to pay the $150, just the $90, great. Also the bikes are really heavy as others have noted and its basically impossible to lock them since they don't have any. They're really only good for a trip to the store down the street, but the cost doesn't make it anywhere near worth that. read more

Worst bike share experience ever. We had family in town and they wanted to ride around town lake, the machine to check the bikes out was faulty and 6 of the bikes had seat issues and flat tires. We ended up paying $90.93 for a 20 minute ride! We called the B cycle information center and they were no help at all, we were embarrassed and deeply saddened by the overall experience. We will definitely not be using this ride share in the future. read more

Hey Holly C, it extremely clearly states on their website that it's $8 for 24hours of bike usage, and unlimited check-ins and check-outs in that 24hrs, but if one check-out lasts longer than 30 minutes is when they charge you the usage fees of $4 every 30 minutes until you return the bike. Not that I'm supporting this company at all, but your facts are wrong and 30 seconds on their website explains it simply. Despite the semi-low rates, these bikes are crap. 3-speed, heavy chunkers of bikes, half of the seats don't stay locked when riding, others slip out of gear when you hit even the smallest of bumps. Knowing the 30 minute check in/out policy, I carefully mapped the stations in town based on where I was going to assure I was in those limits, and at least 3 stations didn't exist when I arrived at the addresses listed on their website. As a self proclaimed tourist, I wish I had a trusty mode of transportation while here, and I was extremely disappointed in the quality B-Cycle has to offer. read more

This bike share is awesome, especially compared to others I've used in other cities. These bikes are perfect for getting around downtown and to/from the train station. I don't understand the problems people had with grasping the concept of a 30 minute time limit. read more

I rented a bike from Bcycle this weekend, not a great experience. I downloaded the app and set up payment, then it wouldn't work when I got to dock. Ok, credit card at the dock and we pull out what seems to be the best bike as far as condition. As I rode off to go exploring with my wife on her own bike, I learned that the shifting was intermittent at best and the brakes were more an idea than a reality. Soon we learned that while seat height was easily adjustable, the slant on the seat, about 25 degrees nose up, was not. Then we found that the cable lock had no key and would not work... Lastly, we learned that while I assumed that a day pass meant we could ride around all day, we were wrong. You have to redock your bike every hour to avoid additional charges. You can do this 4 times on a day pass. We weren't riding where the docks are. read more

Update: I ended up contacting their office and the guy I spoke with was very helpful and polite. Refunded the extra charges in full and let me know that one of the bikes hadn't returned correctly, despite our efforts to check for the lights in the bays and yank on the handlebars. Three stars for good customer service because I'd consider using it again. Not five until their system gives some kind of end trip confirmation like Car2Go. Also, helpful hint: when we took our bikes out for a second 25 minute ride, we selected the "no membership" option because we thought that was for annual subscriber members. He said we should have selected that to avoid the extra $8 charges because it won't recognize your card. It wasn't clear to us, so hope that will help you out! read more

Tried it out for 1 day ($8 pass), and didn't have any problem understanding the 30-min limit. I actually like the fact that they incentivize you to park it before 30 mins is up because I don't want to have to deal with locking the bike up everywhere I go. Even if you biked from the two farthest locations on their map, it would take less than 30min. Since I work/play downtown, I'll probably use the annual membership to be my "faster than walking or car+parking" transportation when downtown and going somewhere else within a few miles. There seem to be plenty of b-cycle stands around and just enough on the other side of the lake to be useful. Seriously, $80/year seems like a steal. Note: I own several bikes but don't always have them when downtown. read more

Love the bikes! Only $8 for 24hours and as many uses as you want. Lots of fun and easy to get around the downtown area, lots of pickup/drop off areas. read more

Metrobike Austin - Fun!!! - Public Transportation Near Me - Austin, Texas

If you'd like to pay for a membership but not actually be able to use their bikes, go ahead and sign up for Austin B-cycle. Their system flagged my account as "credit card declined" when in fact they charged me for the full month (confirmed with bank). No explanation from customer service other than "I don't know why." He sends it to their billing department, which is closed for the next two days. So now I've paid for a service I can't use... wonderful. This is the latest in a string of billing and app failures - almost every time we've used the system there is an issue. Not worth the money. I really wanted to support this venture, but they're treating loyal members with "sorry, can't help ya!" attitudes and refusing refunds or full assistance. I wish I could give less than one star. Avoid this company. It seems convenient on the surface but is really a messy, time-consuming hassle from start to finish. read more

No bueno! Not following COVID-19 protocol! Service is no good! Bikes are no good! Not clean!

My take. As easy to use as the marketing messages say. Stations are located all over downtown. Bikes are well-maintained. There is a built-in lock if you need one. There is a handy basket so you can easily commute to work with your lunch and your briefcase. There is a station outside my high rise home and my high rise office. It is inexpensive. I have zero complaints. I'm surprised at all the negative reviews. I think it is a simple and easy to use system. I am grateful we have it! read more

This was a fun activity for a relaxed night; however, there were some issues with the pricing. With it being my first time using this Austin B Cycle, i was oblivious to the little prints. It's not a 24-hour pass if you have to check in every hour. A few days after riding the bicycle i got charged another $5 for "usage fee." My opinion, it's not worth it unless you are not planning on riding very far which in that case is pointless. read more

Austin you're wrong on the 2.5 star. I've done philly, Miami Beach, chicago, and now austin bike rental as a tourist. You can't beat Chicago, let me just tell you. Miami is an absolute train wreck, and philly was expensive. At $15 for 3 days, austin may be the best value out of all. Note that I am a clown and failed to read the 3D/$15 on the screen so bought 2 daily passes for $24 instead of a 3d for $15. They ride OK-good. Not fantastic, but I had no issues. Great customer service too. 1 hour rides now not 30", they may have changed it? read more

Do NOT recommend Austin B Cycle ! ! ! Literally got charged 60 bucks for 2.3 hours ride. You better buy yourself your own bike. In addition, bikes are heavy and not easy to navigate and there's some areas without any station to park your bike. Locks don't even work and they're absolutely unclear on the rental rates. Avoid at all price! read more

The bikes are terrible and the business model is just as bad. The bikes have very steep seat stay and fork angles which make the bike more difficult to control at slow speeds. My mom felt unsafe attempting to ride even a short distance. Meanwhile my bike had zero rear brake and almost no front brake. I would AVOID this service with gusto. There are plenty of other bike rental services throughout downtown Austin to take advantage of. Good luck..... read more

Never again. I called to dispute an overcharge because the bike dock did not register the two bikes when we returned them at the same time. Strike one. I was also charged $4 per 30 minutes over the initial $12.99 hour ride per bike. I told the representative on the phone that the kiosk stated $4 per hour past the initial first hour. Strike two. His response "Well you obviously did not read it correctly". Extremely unprofessional! Strike three. I would avoid renting from an overpriced company with poor customer service. I will take my money elsewhere and I hope you do to. read more

Why is the 24 hours even in the description? How hard is it to say its $8 to rent the bike plus $4 every 30 minutes? Or do you purposely try to deceive people into thinking that $8 is for a 24 period? Disgusting tactics and i will be contacting BBB about this obvious scam. read more

Disgusting & Deceptive What a sad thing. They clearly deceive the consumer who naturally read from left to right by writing in large clear letters " "$8 24 Hours". So what would this mean to you? SO what does any normal person do, they say, OK $8... 24 hours, so thats fair, and I will turn it in early. Well...if you read more, it says you must return the bike every 30 minutes and get a different bike or you will be charged $4 extra dollars every 30 minutes you keep it. WTF ???? So we rented 4 bikes for 3 hours and it was over $100 dollars. 3 hours? Seriously? How ridicilous is that? Who gets a bike and keeps it 24 hours but returns it every 30 minutes? That it's such a clear violation of deceptinve trade. It just so happens B Cycle had a tent and 2 employees promoting the bikes that we returned them to. This is when it was all discovered. When we realized we had just paid about $40 for under 3 hours and I began to question them, they got really uncomfortable and the girl could not even look me in the eyes. I can't wait till they are sued and I hope they sink like an anchor in the pool of other companies who stole from consumers. They are the epitome of what wall street and Enron did to all of us. Really disgusting that The City of Austin would allow this to happen. read more

Bikes brakes were terrible. Pricing was confusing. We used the daily rate thinking we had the bikes for the day. Nope. That is just an "access" charge. They charge you every 30 minutes on top of that. Customer service said this happens "all the time" but was unwilling to do anything about the additional charges. Waste of your time and money. read more

UPDATE WITH RESPONSE TO BCYCLES ASININE REPLY: Amanda, I'm sorry you don't understand English, and care so little about your potential customers that you can't bother to read their feedback before you reply. I understand the pricing structure just fine. I took one ride that took about 10-15 minutes max, parked the bike, and got charged as if I never parked the bike. This isn't because I didn't understand your pricing structure as you so condensedingly suggested. It's because your bike rack didn't register that I had returned it, and the next person got a free ride on my account. Either way, given my experience and now your reply, you can be damned sure I'll never ride it again. I've already encouraged all my visiting friends to use other bike and transportation services as well, and will more energetically do so from now on. Original review: I used B-cycle duing Austin Film Festival since I couldn't find parking anywhere downtown and had some time to kill, I thought I'd give it a try. $8 for a few rides seemed steep, but this wasn't a normal use case so I get that. Getting and paying for the bike was easy enough, I adjusted it to fit me a little better, but immediately noticed the reachback handlebars make it way harder to steer than a bike with bars closer to the stem. Anyway, I get what they are trying to make these bikes seem "easy", even if that makes it harder, but whatever. I did my ride, found a place to return it, stuck it in the thing and finished the ride. I was planning to ride back later, but ended up not... what happens at AFF stays AFF, let's leave it at that. But the BIG PROBLEM is that a few days later, I get charged for ANOTHER $4, as if I took another ride on it. I don't understand at all why - I put the bike back in properly and followed all directions to a T. But I also don't have time to waste chasing down those $4 with people who probably don't give a rat's ass. Suffice to say, I live here, I own my own bike, and what could have been a fun occasional rental option will now just be a 1-time sour memory. read more

TLDR: Please do yourself a favor and get one of several other options available around town. I drove to one of Austin B Cycle stations near Zilker park to bike around the park for some sightseeing. Got a 24-hr pass and got a bike pretty easily. Remember with 24hr pass, you have to return the bike every hour and check out a new one. That in itself is plenty of hassle. Problems quickly started when I tried to return my first bike to check out another one since my first hour was nearly up. I docked the bike. There was no beep, no green light. But the bike was clearly in place since I couldn't pull it back either. Since the station didn't register my return, I couldn't check out another bike. I called their "24/7" customer service to sort it out. Nobody picked up, with a repeated message of "first customer in line" for at least 10 minutes. At this point, it was getting dark and I was on the other side of the park. It seemed clear to me that nobody was going to pick up - surely, I couldn't be the "first customer in line" and not get help for 10 minutes. So I had to Uber back to my car. Next day, I called customer service again to make sure they are not going to rack up the fees since the bike wasn't registered as returned. After a few back and forth phone calls, they confirmed that there was a defect in that docking station. So, at the end of the day, I still had to pay for $12.99 for the 24-hr pass (because they didn't have refund policy), which I used for 30-40 minutes because of defects in their systems. Plus Uber fees to get back to my car. Plus just the inconvenience and frustration of getting stranded with no answer on customer service. Plus back and forth phone calls to make sure my card is not getting charged for whatever extra fees. Please just use any of the other options available. There are other bikes just lying around the city. You won't have to worry about finding a station or having to return it every hour. You won't have to worry about their docking stations being full or not functioning. And they might even end up cheaper, depending on how much you're going to bike. read more