Test riding the new Big Issue e-bikes

It was all going so well. I had cycled up Park Street without breaking a sweat, navigated around Redcliffe Way roundabout and bounced along the cobbles of Welsh Back.

It was the first day of the new bicycle hire scheme from the Big Issue and I had fun trying out one of the bikes for the first time.

On board Lucy (all the 400 bikes have different names), I felt like the wind was forever at my back. One push on the pedals and the electric motor kicks in, enabling Bristol’s many hills to be treated like gentle inclines.

The bike itself is basic but functional. My saddle had difficulty staying up in its highest position and the brakes could be better.

Despite only having one gear, what these red and white bikes are much better than, however, are the much-maligned yellow YoBikes.

But for the scheme to be a big success, however, the bikes need to be regularly maintained by Big Issue staff and well looked after by the general public. I am optimistic about the former. Less optimistic about the latter.

It was all going so well. I had easily unlocked Lucy by scanning a QR code on the bike via my app.

I had cycled up Windmill Hill to the Rising Sun – only having to get off the saddle for the last few metres – and cycled back to the city centre to leave the bike where I had first found it, outside Central Library.

But then the app would not let me finish my ride. It was frustrating to say the least to be asked in the app to submit a photo of the parked bike and seeing the words ‘uploading the picture for verification’ appear and then disappear.

I tried this several times, uploading a new photo and then getting a spinning red wheel of death; all the while still being charged 20p per minute.

(Pay as you go costs a flat fee of 50p when you begin your ride and then 20p a minute; while there is also a £19.95 monthly subscription which gives you the first ten minutes of every ride for free and then also charges 20p per minute. Both ride plans’ daily costs are capped at £12.)

There is plenty of space in the e-bike’s basket for baked goods from the Bristol Loaf – photo: Betty Woolerton

While waiting outside my flat for daughter number one to get changed for that evening’s after-school activity, the bike locked itself due to inactivity.

Hopefully these were just teething problems on day one but this hire scheme will only be as good as its technology, both physical and digital. Patience is a virtue not possessed by many people who need to get places in a hurry.

Nifty as they are, these electric hire bikes will have to be a whole lot better to make me switch from using a Voi for short journeys when not either using my own bike or my own two feet.

Main photo: Betty Woolerton – street art by My Dog Sighs and Curtis Hylton on the side of the Rising Sun in Windmill Hill

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