Are you tired of wasting time choosing your Vélib? Tired of falling on bikes that do not roll?
Here are 8 tips to never waste time choosing your 2-wheeled car again.
I've been an avid fan since day one. Since July 15, 2007 to be exact, date of the launch of the service in Paris.
I am one of the first to subscribe to the service. Ok, I admit, I'm quite proud of it because no one believed it at first!
Now, there are even Vélibs in Bamako! This is to say success.
So it's been 6 years now that I've been walking "free as the air" (oh no, that's Autolib!), wide-eyed to avoid the buses arriving at full speed.
But this daily thrill is nothing compared to the anguish of choosing a Vélib that doesn't hold up.
A bad choice leads to long minutes wasted at the terminal or, worse, a journey that turns into a nightmare.
Fortunately, during these long years of intensive pedaling, I have developed a checklist effective. Result:I save a lot of time on daily journeys.
I share with you today these 8 essential things to check before taking your bike in less than 3 minutes flat.
You arrive near the station. To save time, your eye should already start filtering out unusable bikes. How?
Do you see the bikes that have the saddle upside down (like the one in the picture)?
Avoid them like the plague! It is good practice to return the saddle of a defective bicycle . This tells other users (and also JCDecaux who maintain the service) that the bike needs to be repaired.
Think about it the next time you have a bike with a flat wheel, handlebars without brakes, a pedal less or whatever. It saves time for all cyclists.
Thanks in advance!
Now that your eye has eliminated bikes with upturned saddles from afar, further checks can be done remotely while you're getting closer to the Vélib station.
Which ones? Flat tires (see photo above), broken chains dragging on the ground, bent handlebars and missing pedals (it happens quite often!) can be detected from quite a distance.
More bikes to filter to save time on your choice of Vélib.
Now that you have done an effective sorting by approaching the station, let's move on to the close checks .
Many times I have drooled in front of a Vélib in perfect condition, having it pass all the necessary checks, only to then realize that the light on the charging station was red...
Guaranteed waste of time!
Not anymore. I check every time.
I just take a look at the terminal to see if the light is green. It is red =Vélib blocked . No need to force it, it won't come off!
Before making other more advanced checks, I therefore think of checking the small indicator. If it's green, I go to Control N°4.
The more the tires are inflated, the faster you go! It's physical. Checking the tire pressure is therefore essential, especially for long journeys.
To find out if the tires are properly inflated, feel simply the front and rear tire with your hand.
To avoid getting my hands dirty, I do this by tapping the wheel with the toe of my foot (see photo below) or the bottom of my shoe.
This control is certainly the hardest (because the bike is still attached to the bollard) but also one of the most important.
Raise the saddle, then raise the pedal to the right height to be able to pedal in a vacuum (as in the photo below).
This technique allows you to check if the chain is not damaged or if one of the pedals is not blocked by the chain guard.
I warn you, the chain guard often tends to come off, which blocks the possibility of pedaling...
To enjoy the most pleasant ride possible, the height of the saddle must be adapted to your size .
For this, the seat butterfly must work. Otherwise you will either be too low or too high. In both cases, it will be more difficult to pedal and the journey will therefore be longer.
If the saddle is already at the right height, do not hesitate to climb on it to see if it does not come down under your weight. In this case, the butterfly is no longer working very well.
We're going to have to change bikes.
Now is the time to swipe your navigo pass on the terminal to detach the bike.
In the first few meters after unhooking your Vélib, check that the 2 brakes are working properly by tapping each side of the handlebars.
It does not work ? It is better to go and rest your bike at the terminal. Because ride a bike without good brakes in Paris, it's a bit suicidal especially on the bus lane...
There are plenty of Vélibs that only have 1st gear that works. The one that is very practical for climbing the hills of Montmartre.
Unfortunately when you're not riding in Montmartre, you better be sure that the other gears work too.
Otherwise you will pedal in sauerkraut for miles on the flat!
That's it, here we are. Here is the last check to perform.
The little bell has saved me many times from very perilous situations... For example, a pedestrian crossing without having heard me arrive.
Since then, I never forget to give a little "dring" to make sure that I can make myself heard by pedestrians (because for buses it's another story).
As soon as you take a trip, in the late evening or at night, take a look at your front and rear headlights .
This can come in handy to let cars around you know you're there.
In any case, if you have to rest your Vélib, don't worry. You have 5 minutes to put it down and take another one without having to wait long minutes (as is the case if you put it down at another terminal). Whew!
If when arriving at the station, a Vélib'eur arrives to rest his bike, do not hesitate to ask him if his bike is running well. If so, wait for him to put it down to pick it up.
This is often the best strategy to avoid all checks.
Even if it may seem a bit long in explanation, know that with a little practice, these 8 checks do not take more than 3 min to do.
In return, you will save tens of minutes on each of your trips. In total, these are tens of hours earned per month. Interesting for Parisians in a hurry, right?
