Madison B Cycle

Finally checked out the B-​Cycle yesterday. A beautiful sunny day and a breeze made the ride even better. We rented at James Madison Park, but really should have rented at the Union as we had planned on biking around the lake.
We ended up just riding the bikes over there, which made for an interesting ride as it was move in weekend.
Overall, it is the easiest experience. You just put your card in to pay, and then you have a certain number of seconds to go grab your bike. I will say that the bike is in fact extremely heavy as others have mentioned. But, once your off and pedaling its great.
We ended up returning our bikes at the Union and then just wandered back down through State Street. Overall, this is a great way to see Madison even if your local. A fun and reasonably priced afternoon activity.

The year before last I had a very good experience with B Cycle. It was easy to sign up and I enjoyed the service.
However, this year upon renewing my service I was never sent my B Cycle card. Their website has a very poor design, it’s really hard to navigate. It seemed that I had paid and ordered my next subscription but my card never came and I was never billed. I tried again and this time got billed, but after 2 weeks still no card.
I sent B Cycle an e-​mail with the payment on my banking site and I got no response. After many times emailing them, telling them I needed my card shipped to me I still heard nothing. Very disappointed, it was a great service the first time I used it but I’ve been waiting half the summer for a b cycle card I paid for so I can’t say I’ve had a great experience the second time around.

I was super impressed by my experience with BCycle. Even if you’re only in town for a week, I would recommend just paying the $ 8 monthly membership fee (make sure to turn off the auto-​renew on your account). If you take three rides or more, the membership will be immediately worth it.
The bikes are indeed heavy, but it is oddly pleasant to feel so centered and powerful as you cruise around on your sweet red ride. As I told my friend, I’m pretty sure I could run over a small animal and still only feel a slight bump on one of these bikes. They are that sturdy. You have to bring your own helmet, but each bike has a roomy basket and night lights (which turn on automatically, as far as I can tell). All of my bikes except for one were well-​maintained.
This is all made even better by the fact that Madison is a ridiculously bike-​friendly city. The drivers are very bike-​aware, and there are numerous bike lanes, each with ample space. They even have solid dividers between the cars and the cyclists at times. I also really liked the commuter bikeways there.
I had one interaction with BCycle customer service, and they were very sweet and accommodating. They also got back to me within 15 minutes — amazing!
One nitpicky complaint: the station map tool on their website is not great. Whenever I typed in an address or a cross street, it never showed me that location as a point on the map; I think it just took me to the area around my desired point. I ended up copying over the bike station locations into Google Maps.
UPDATE: I kept using BCycle for a couple days after I initially wrote this review and I experienced a weird number of issues. I had two bikes with terrible gear shifting, one that could not be pulled out of its docking station and another kiosk seemed to be frozen on the «Start» screen. I also had one instance of no bikes being available to check out (at the Terrace, so makes sense).

My husband and I were visiting from Chicago and loved the convenience of Madison’s bike share program. The bikes were well maintained and stocked. Most are red but I had a special rainbow bike, making my experience extra special. Bring your helmet from home!

I like this program, I wish they offered this in Los Angeles (although, I don’t think it will ever work here). I like the concept; you can check out a bike and ride it around the city for free, for 30 minutes. You can technically ride a bike for a long period of time as long as you keep checking them in and out. I didn’t bother to do so because I found it inconvenient. There are many locations to do so, but I opted to pay the fee. The bike I rode was in good condition and clean. It had gears and a basket to hold belongings. If you’re riding in the dark, the bike comes with light. AND if you need a break, a lock is provided. I rode the bike around Lake Monona.
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to take a ride around Madison. I would be hesitant to try this again because of the drop off, which is the one flaw I find with this program. I was ready to drop off my bike and rode up to one of their locations, but all the racks were full. This meant that I had to back track to another location to park my bike, which was a few blocks down (not ideal after riding for 2 hours around Lake Monona — 13 miles).

I stayed in Madison for the American Cheese Society national conference. Rather than getting drunk in the hotel bar my boss and I decided to rent Madison B Cycle bikes and get some exercise. We biked south around Lake Monona until we got close to your sewer treatment plant. Then we coughed, plugged our noses and pedaled like hell to get back to fresh air and downtown. Great time!
THE BIKES ONLY LOOK THEY WEIGH a metric shit ton. They look so heavy that pedaling DOWN HILL would suck. They’re heavy but once you get rolling you don’t notice.

Visited from out of town for a conference, staying near the Capitol, but had events down near Union South and Memorial Union. And wanted to explore campus and town a bit and run some more errands, so I needed to carry some supplies for the conference, as well as beer and cheese curds. Rented bikes for 2 days and rode at least a dozen times. Bikes were great! Small inconvenience when one location (Charter) had zero open docking stations, but Union South nearby was sufficient.

Hey Hey People… I told y’all this place has some superb customer service. It will bring a tear to your eye — especially if you feel like me or some of my friends that service has died.
Well, got a call on Tuesday with an apology (no need) that the station @ Northshore/​Brittingham park was done. Then yesterday, I had to call in to find the W. Wash location but couldn’t check in the bike. These folks had the guru tech from Denver, CO come in and correct the problems at EACH station. I mean, of course, this means they get to make more money but c’mon… How many times have you went somewhere and received poor service and they didn’t seem concerned about making amends or improving themselves?
I have to admit. I HEART these folks/​this company/​the effort they are making to get it right.

Wonderful way to get around Maddy and for 10.00, you can ride as much as you like, just have to check in the bike now and then during the 24 hour period. We didn’t drive the rental car once during our stay.