Tired of London, Tired of Life - A website about things to do in London

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22 August 2011

Take a Boris Bike on a trip out

Though they may soon be given more freedom, life for the first year or so has been a fairly sad existence for a Boris Bike, riding on short hops in Zone One, choked by Central London smog. Though the hire charges do start to ramp up a bit when you extend your session, it feels humane to liberate our little blue friends for a longer trip.



Over the weekend your author accepted an invitation from Ian, owner of the eternally interesting Ian Visits website, to abandon his yellow bike and take two lucky Boris bikes on the Eurostar to Paris. Eurostar operator does provide a useful bike transfer service on its trains, and our bikes were accompanied by lighter touring bikes being taken for continental cycling holidays.


The bikes seemed to thorougly enjoy their trip out, visiting the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Notre Dame and the Place de la Concorde on a loop around the city, and even allowing their riders time for a pleasant lunch in a pavement cafe. It was a lovely day out, and though the combination of heavy bikes, French cobbles and the heat meant a couple of stops were needed along the way, it was well worth the effort. One of them even found time for a little romance during the trip.

Your author must thank Ian for using his Eurostar tickets, organising the bike transfer, and for having the idea to liberate the bikes for a day. If you do decide to follow the lead of Ian and other intrepid bike liberators, be sure to keep an eye on the hire charges, to ensure you don't get a shock at bank statement time.

For a full report on the trip, head over to http://ianvisits.co.uk/

3 comments:

  1. i think evening standard took boris bikes on eurostar a year ago. http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23864991-paris-says-vive-la-bicyclette-de-boris.do

    and according to the cycle hire scheme they counted this as one of the 15 boris bike thefts!

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  2. Looks like you're right Dom, but it was a fun trip. Thanks for the link.

    We thoroughly checked the terms and conditions, and had them back by midnight, so ours was not only within the rules, but within the spirit of the rules.

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  3. Brilliant idea for a trip! The full article was well worth the read. Loved the shot with the Union Jack over the handlebars...

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