Challenge #50: Hire a Barclays Bike

Hiring a Barclays Bike is an expected excursion for any tourist in London. I'm not really a tourist anymore, but hiring a bike still seemed like a good idea one sunny Sunday. 

Locals in the know call these 'Boris Bikes', in honour of the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who supposedly came up with the idea. Or, at least, he bankrolled it. In reality, Ken Livingstone proposed the idea back in 2008. 

Bike at the ready!

Not that any of that matters in the slightest for my purposes. 

Always one for helping the environment, I am all for these bikes. They're all around the city in convenient places and they're really cheap to hire. It's all pretty foolproof. Well, until you try to ride through crowds or through Jubilee preparations outside Buckingham Palace...

We found our bikes near Westminster using the App my friend, Ash, had downloaded on his phone. Useful! After watching Sarah figure out the hiring process, we put in our credit cards, received our codes and chose our bikes. 

Cruising around London on a bike is somewhat daunting. There are all those crazy London taxis and insane central traffic. Not to mention road works. All of this does not make for a safe journey when coupled with the fact that I have absolutely no sense of balance or coordination. 

In fact, by the end of the ride my new nickname was 'Wobbles', due to the fact that whenever I would slow down I would wobble from side to side and nearly fall off. And I used to be such a good rider when I was little!

We ran into strife around Buckingham Palace where they were setting up for the Jubilee. Told off by guards, we wheeled our bikes to Green Park, only to find that there was 'No Cycling' in this part of the park. Ever the group of rebels, we rode on anyway. 

No Cycling

The verdict? Boris, Barclays... Whatever you call them, these bikes rock! The only snag is waiting for a sunny day to make the most of them...