freebike’s dockless e-bike fleet has launched in London's Square Mile, with 150 bikes available to pick up and drop off in over 70 locations.
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Technically freebike offer the only free shared bikes in the country with their first ten minutes for free policy, although that's just in pedal mode without electric assist. To use a freebike as an e-bike, rental costs £1 per 10 minutes. They say it will now be easier to "travel faster, funner and further around the Square Mile" slap bang in the middle of Central London.
The bikes unlock via the freebike app available on iOS and Android, and they're dockless with 70 drop-off locations available for the 150 bikes in the current fleet. freebike have made a guide on how to rent, return and use the bikes so new users can get to grips with how best to utilise them. Riders sign up by entering their details an picking the pay-as-you-go tariff. You can also pause a rental for up to 20 hours, at a cost of no more than two pence per minute.
You can ride the bikes anywhere within the City of London and the inner London Boroughs within freebike's 'geofence' that is marked with a thick red line on the map, which can be found both in the app and on freebike's website. The bike warns you as you approach the geofence, and even has a rather Orwellian feature that generates resistance to stop you from venturing into the forbidden zone. Thus, say freebike, is to make sure bikes "can't stray miles outside their area of operation and so a high level of service can be concentrated in a finite area."
The bikes are available now and you can register now to start renting. If you sign up before the 21st June you also get the choice of £5 credit or 50 minutes of riding to start you off. Head over to freebike's website for more info.
