riding rental bikes in Toronto
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Today I rode a rental bike from Toronto's bike sharing service and thoroughly enjoyed it. Five of us from 32 Spokes met at the Victoria Park station at 7 PM and traipsed all around the southern half of the Beaches - East York area. Here's what I thought:
- The bikes are heavy, no question. But here's what you're getting with a heavy bike: a step-through frame suitable for people of all ages; built-in lights; an easily-adjustable seat that nearly went high enough for my 36" in-seams; big, strong wheels and tires; a basket; a locking mechanism to dock the bike at a station; a bell; a three-speed internal gear hub; and fenders. These are features that make the bike worth renting.
- The upright sitting stance and the relatively short geometry work well together.
- The internal gear hub climbs quickly to give you an easy start (perhaps in part to compensate for all that weight). It's low set of gears limits your top speed but that's a good thing: it's not a race, and the city shouldn't be encouraging riders on the main roads.
- The step-through frame accomplishes three useful things: it allows women in skirts/dresses to use the bikes; it allows people with limited mobility or agility to climb aboard; and it lowers the center of gravity to a point below the rider's knees. The latter stabilizes the bikes and makes it easy to turn and ride around things.
The only negative for me was the low handle-bar height. This is not a flaw in the design, I think the design hangs together very, very well. The problem is that I'm 197cm tall. Which, according to some site I found, puts me at the 99.84th percentile of adult Canadian males. I didn't actually know that until we were discussing the bikes after our ride, but it certainly explains why I don't fit things like rental bikes. Or office furniture. Or clothes from the rack. Or shoes, which I have to order from the 'States. So it's not really the bike's problem at all, but I found my lower back had a strange ache for 2-3 days so I won't be using the service regularly.
Outside of the bikes themselves, it took us three or four tries to actually rent the bikes, due to the odd purchasing system. But we worked it out!
All in all, we had a good experience. I'm very please the city is doing this!