Most folded bicycles can be taken on all public transport in London, however for non-folded bicycles we recommend heading to the Transport for London website for more detailed information. While regular bicycles are not allowed on buses, they are allowed on some London Overground services outside of peak times. For our guide to taking bicycles on public transport and trains up and down the country, head to our Bikes on Trains section of the website.
FAQs: Hire
Hire
During summer, our opening hours are 9:30am - 7pm. You can pick up your bike during our opening hours, with the earliest time in summer being 9:30am and the latest 6:30pm. Please be aware that in summer we are especially busy with dispatching tours throughout the day, so depending on the time you may be asked to wait or come back a bit later so we can give you our full attention. Our busiest times of the day, when we have to prioritise tours, are between 9:30am and 11am, and between 1:30pm and 2:30pm. Please be aware of this if you are booking a bicycle to be collected during this time. You can drop off a bicycle at any time we are open.
During winter, our opening hours are 9:30am - 5pm. A bicycle can be returned at any time during our opening hours, and collected at any time up to 4:30pm.
In the event that you cannot return the bike during our opening hours, you can lock request a key to open our garage to deposit the bikes securely. If this is your plan it must be discussed with and agreed to by the office staff in advance.
COVID19 has left us very short staffed and some days we are unable to open
During winter, we aren't generally too busy with checking customers in for and dispatching tours, because it's a quieter season. During summer, however, and especially on weekends and sunny days, we are busy serving pre-booked guests on our guided tours, which depart between 10am and 11am. Therefore, if you are looking to hire a bike between opening time (9:30am) and 10:30am you may be asked to wait until 10:30am, because we will prioritise tour guests over bike hire, especially for customers that have not made a pre-booking with us via londonbicycle.com, which we strongly recommend. Thank you for your patience; we will do our best to accommodate everyone as soon as is possible.
No. We have helmets available free of charge. We highly recommend that you wear a helmet when you are on one of our bicycles but there is no law in the UK that says that you must.
Yes. We offer child seats and crossbar seats. Child seats are seats that perch behind the adult, suitable for children up to 3 years old roughly. They are fitted to a traditional bike. Crossbar seats attach to the cross bar so the child sits in front of the adult. They can only be attached to large male traditional bikes, as they have a higher crossbar. To reserve child seats or crossbar seats, please find the bike in the childrens section of bikes for hire.
We sometimes hire bicycles at special prices for an an event.To find a special event, go to the hire section on the site and select any bicycle. In the book now block, select the date of the event, and the time you wish to pick the bicycle up, and press submit.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and look for the group events, click on this and then you will see the event page.
You can check out the maps of our guided tour routes and follow them, or you could go your own way. It depends on how much time you have and what you are interested in seeing. If you have a few hours, try Hyde Park. If you have young children, you can use the dedicated cycle track that runs past our door. Half a day - head East to Greenwich, and come back via Canary Wharf and Wapping. Full day - Follow the Regent's Canal from Limehouse to Little Venice via Camden Town. Out of London - cycle to Hampton Court Palace along the River. For more ideas, subscribe to our blog, where we will be posting regular ideas about where to cycle to from our Tour/Hire Centre on Gabriel's Wharf. London's cycling infrastructure has been developing regularly and quickly in recent years, which has seen miles of new segregated cycle superhighway opening all over London and tracing it's nicest and most diverse areas, as well as its iconic monuments and neighbourhoods.
For cycling routes and maps provided by the government, please visit the Transport for London website, where you can download additional information.
Our 74 Kennington Road Location is a gentle 20min cycle to/from Hyde park. If you want to cycle in Hyde park, we can provide you with a map, showing you the safest route to get there. It's a nice ride, and you'll pass some of London's best sights on the way!
We wish. A lot of the thamesfront has been bought out by private developers. There are some long sections further west though that you can cycle along, such as Putney to Hammersmith, and Richmond to Hampton Court.
We don’t mind, just as long as it doesn’t come back damaged. Please note that if you take your bike far away from us we may not be able to offer support if something goes wrong.
We provide D-locks (the strongest type of lock) free of charge with bike hire.
If you want racks, you will need to hire a Touring bike. These are good for long distance/ charity rides and cycling holidays.
We recommend booking if you want something specific, or if there is a special bike event that is happening. We can’t guarantee a bike’s availability without a booking, but most of the time we have something available for hire on the spot. Advanced bookings can only be made for full day (or more) hires. If you just want to rent for a few hours ride around the city, you can book the bikes online on the same day only. When you check availability, select hourly hire. Summer Weekends though you may want to call us first to check on availability. You can book bike hire here.
Note. All our bicycle hire is completed online, and sometimes leads to banks rejecting overseas online payments. It is best to book the bicycles in the country the card is issued, or inform your bank you are travelling to the UK to avoid disappointment.
For online bookings, you pay at the time of booking with credit or debit card. You also authroise us to take up to the value of the bike(s) from your card if the bike is not returned. The deposit is not charged to your card.. it's an authorisation only.
The only other way to hire a bike is to leave a security deposit of cash, which we hold onto until the bike is returned. It's £200.00 per traditional bicycle. More for specialist bikes and accessories. Please note we don't accept passports or ID cards as security.
We don't. We have not been unable to find any insurance provider in the UK that provides cover for hire equipment. If you lose a bike, you have to pay for it. When you hire a bicycle from us you accept the same responsibility as if you own the bicycle yourself. I.e. If the bicycle is stolen, it is your loss.
Please check you're happy with your bike before you leave the hire centre. Occasionally problems do happen with bicycles while they are out on hire. Please bring it back to us. We will check the problem. If we find that it has been damaged by reckless use/ theft or the like, you may be charged for the repair, as per our hire contract conditions. This is a rare occurrance.
We are very sorry when this happens. It does occassionally happen and it's something out of our control. It may be caused by cycling through some glass for example. You have to walk the bike back to us or bring it on a train or in a taxi (black cabs can take bikes). We repair the puncture free of charge/or exchange you for another bike. You must not ride on a flat tire- this damages the wheel. If you ride on a flat tire, you may have to pay for a wheel repair or a new wheel.