ryan

The new bicycle hire scheme in London is similar to those of Paris, Rome and Amsterdam - this deceivingly inexpensive scheme is successful in other major European cities and is an excellent mode of transport to experience wider areas of any city. Experiences in Rome took us into the outskirts of the inner city. In Paris we breezed between locations and made our evening meals in time.

Here are some facts for you

- To use one of the 6,000 hire bikes you will need to buy access, either as a memner or a casual user. Don't be put off by this, it takes seconds

- Members will be given a key which will allow them to pick up a bicycle from any docking point. Just make sure you check it has 2 pedals and 2 full tires ;-)

- Casual users will be able to pay for their access online at or a docking station, where they'll be given a five-digit cycle release code.It's okay, they make the number easy for you to remember

- Choose a bike from any docking point that doesn't have an illuminated light. This is an excellence way of indicating available bikes!

- Either insert your membership key into the slot or tap in your five-digit release code into the pad at the docking point

- When you see the light turn green, take a bicycle, hop on and cycle to your destination. See simple!

- Re-dock the bike in any docking station at the end of your journey and ensure the light turns green. What I love about this is you can go from east to west and dump the bike (i mean replace it in a docking staion).

- All journeys under 30 minutes are free (YES FREE!!!!) of usage charges, Charges for longer journeys will be deibted from your payment card when you have docked the bike.

You may think 30 minutes isn't that long, but an average journey btween destinations is up to 10 minutes by underground, and with bikes there's no stairs, no 'next trains' and you can go direct seeing the sights along the way.

For me - every city should have this! Check out my blogs on Cuba, Athens, Rome and Paris.