Using Velib hire bikes in Paris.

[sturmey archer]

I've read in a few places about people having problems using the Vélib hire bike in Paris. The general issue seems to be that you need a credit card with the chip, but even than not all foriegn cards work.

Has anyone had any experience with this recently? My wife an I are going to Paris, and I'd really like to use the bikes to get around after having used the BikeMi hire bikes in Milan.

Also any feedback on using The Barclays bike hire scheme in London would be interesting as well.
Ian

[tallywhacker]

my wife and I will be in France (and Italy) and were planning on riding as much as possible. found this quite interesting, you have to subscribe to get the article (or you can pm me with your email and I'll send you a copy)

[x8pg2qr]

Saw this topic discussed recently in another forum. HTH.

[sturmey archer]

Just an update on this for anyone searching the forums, I managed to get a week pass using the online 7 day option https://aboen-paris.cyclocity.fr/subscribe/details . That gives you an account number and a pin that you put in the machines to get a bike. I didn't try using a credit card in the machines at all.

There are the usual problems of dud bikes , and stations that are full or empty , but it was a neat way to get around Paris and between metro stations. The 30 minute free limit does cause a bit of a problem if you want to go for a long ride, but thats not really wahat its meant for.
I had a Garmin etrex GPS unit with free maps from openmtb.org that have the velib station marked that was quite useful as well .

[sturmey archer]

OK some more information, on a trip back to Paris for a couple of days , I managed to use my debit card at one on of the Velib stations for a day hire. The card was a Mastercard debit card with the embedded chip and was issued through Bendigo Bank.
I just plugged the card into the machine and it worked. All I need to do now is to see how the charges come out .