Austin B Cycle

I rented a bicycle and my CC information got stolen, so I don’t recommend anybody to rent from this business because they should be more careful and check for any suspicious device on their stations that might steal information when customers swipe their credit card.

If you want a crap bike and plan to only ride in less than 30min intervals, b cycle is for you. Otherwise, rent a real bike from a bike rental shop for about the same price per hour, way less for all day.

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.

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!

I really enjoy this service and the payment plan is written out clearly all over the docks. It’s amazing how many customers have written bad reviews here based on their own misjudgment. It’s true I’d like to have some better bikes but they are functional and it’s a good service. I also wish they’d expand a bit further south down Congress and Lamar but as it stands they are doing great things for this city and I’m grateful to have them.

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.

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.

Oh man… Gavin is a condescending ass. After having the same issue with many of the people reviewing B Cycle, I called to dispute charges. He barely refrained himself from calling me stupid. When I pointed out that this was not the first time this issue has occurred he just stated that there are plenty of people that don’t have issues. The bikes were great, but if the signage was clearer we would have gone to a traditional bike shop to rent bikes so we wouldn’t have to turn the bikes in every 30 minutes. If this was my company I would never have someone with as poor of people skills as Gavin answering the phones. Actually, I wouldn’t have Gavin anywhere close to my company.

affordable, convenient, and easy to understand. what more do you want from a bike-​share program?
people who complained about a «scam» simply didn’t read what they were agreeing to. they’re not burying the costs in fine print.

I don’t understand all of the bad reviews. This is NOT an all day bike rental. Read the directions, people! This is meant to get you from point A to point B. It’s wonderful. I use it daily during SXSW and weekly other times. Love my B-​Cycle!!!

I’ve been a member for almost a year. I really like having this option to get around the city. I have my own bike but don’t always want to bring it downtown. This is very convenient, park your car anywhere then hop on a bike. Use them anytime. Return on time. Never had any issues other than the rare minor worn-​out details on a bike.
Now you can also get a text message notifications.

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.

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 Unilocal 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.

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.

This could be a cool service if it weren’t for two things. Their payment language sucks and is obviously unclear to many. When I contacted their «customer service «group about the charges, I got the rudest response I have ever received. If they would’ve explained why I was charged the way I was politely no problem. Instead I get a shitty response right from the beginning. Customer service is key in any business. Why spend my money on crummy bikes and deal with jerks afterwards. Dont waste your money.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.