Bike Rental Barcelona

Moving around with a rental bike in Barcelona is a great experience if you want to visit the city from another point of view and in a green way. The majority of the tourists move by metro, but below the surface you miss many of the details that define a city: the differences among the different neighborhoods, how the level of activity changes from one street to another, the different kind of shops you can find in different parts of the city and even you can identify the economic level of the inhabitants of the different zones you pass by. As well with a rental bike in Barcelona you can explore and move at double or even triple the speed you move on foot and without depending on public transport schedules or having to orientate yourself through different metro and bus lines to reach your destination.

Moving with a rental bike in Barcelona is extremely safe. With the 2015 local elections there was a change of government team in the city council, and this new government is making an effort on changing the mobility tendences all around the city. This meant that the number of kilometers of bike lanes have doubled, by the end of 2019 there will be more than 230 km of operative bike lanes, and the objective is reaching more than 300 km of bike lanes by the end of 2019. With this new tendence the bicycle is taking space from the private vehicle, giving the cyclists safe spaces for their rides. With this expansion of bike lanes Barcelona is becoming one of the most bike-friendly cities in Spain and Europe: the council wants that in 3 years every citizen have a bike lane less than 300 meters away form their home.

The first of the reasons is the price, which is almost the same. A daily ticket for the metro is 8,60€ but for just 1,40€ more -the price of a coffee- you can rent a bicycle in Barcelona from us for a whole day, including helmets, locks, basket and baby-seats if needed. The public transport doesn’t give you the freedom you have with a bicycle, you have to orientate yourself through different metro and bus lines and finding the stops and entrances.

The second reason is the experience by itself. Moving with a bike rental Barcelona is an experience full of sensations, colours, sounds and scents. The bicycle allows you to move around and integrate inside the city life at the same time, in a green and nature friendly way, without missing those small details that difference a city from another.

It all depends on the speed you can move, how fit you are and the zones you want to visit. Moving at low speed you can trace a circle of about 20 km in less than 2 hours. That’s a big distance for Barcelona, so inside this route you will find almost all the tourist attractions of the city that appear in your guide. As well, Barcelona is flat or with a small inclination towards the coast, so don’t worry about big hills. You will only find a bit of uphill when you move direction north. If you travel those 20 km in a whole day, making stops for eating, having a drink, for the visits… you will see the most interesting spots of the city at a really slow pace and without big efforts.

According to the regulation for riding a bicycle in Barcelona the helmet is only mandatory for children under 15. However, in By-Cycle we care about safety and the helmet is one of the things included in the price for every customer, children and adult.

According to the normative bicycles can’t ride on the sidewalks if the sidewalk is less than 5 meters wide. That means that you can’t ride you bike rental in Barcelona in almost no one of the sidewalks in the city, with the exception of few streets where its sidewalks are wide enough. However, you can ride on the sidewalk during the night from 22.00h to 7.00h. Children under 15 and their parents/responsables can ride there at any time too. In By-Cycle we recommend you to search for the bike lanes -you have almost 200 km of bike lanes inside the city- and don’t ride on the sidewalk to avoid fines and infractions.

Leaving your bike unattended and without any lock is a very bad idea. In 2018 around 3.000 bicycles were robbed in the city, what makes an average of 4 bicycles robbed every day. The price of the bike rentals Barcelona with By-Cycle includes two high security lockers, so you can safely park your bicycle during the stops. In By-Cycle we recommend that you leave the bikes always locked by the frame to any of the 13.000 locking points available in the city. If you make a short stop like money withdrawals, have a drink, tapas, restaurants, etc, you can leave the bicycle on the kickstand if you can see it. However, we recommend you to use one of the lockers to block a wheel anyway. It is better to be safe than to regret for a lost bike!