Riga Bike Rental: BalticBike

Tonight while I was watching hilarity ensue with the Religious Fanatic Man in Old Town, I came across a BalticBike rental station. Since arriving in Riga, I've witnessed many people riding around on bikes. For some reason I did not rent one myself, and I should have sooner! BalticBike is probably the easiest and most convenient way to rent a bike in Riga. You simply need to login to their website and register with your phone number (my USA number worked!), personal details, and credit card. The system will automatically debit your card by 5 lats, and use this as credit for your rentals. Then you just approach a BalticBike station, and put the number of the bike you want into the website. It will give you the code to the lock, and you now have the bike!

I rented my first BalticBike and noticed some interesting features. It had a white light on the front and a red light on the back for after dark. The BalticBike also had a bell that you could use to warn pedestrians ahead. It had three gears and a basket to put your items in. I found that it was a nice bike to cruise around on. Also, since you have the lock which comes with it, you can go to any bike station and lock the BalticBike while you are visiting a store or just resting!

Unfortunately the BalticBike website doesn't have much information. The rate is listed at the stations as 1 lat per hour. I suppose it's a flat rate, no matter how long you keep the bike? Essentially it seems that BalticBike has simplified their website, to the point where it's only a checkin/checkout system. There is no additional information. I found this a little annoying.

After renting my BalticBike, I had a blast riding around Riga! First I zoomed through Old Town. The cobblestone was definitely harder to ride on, and made me wonder how long the bike tires could possibly last! The area around Freedom Monument was very smooth and fun to ride on. I wanted to see more of Riga, and rode towards the city center. Although I rarely had a clue as to where I was, it was quite an experience. Sometimes many pedestrians would be on the sidewalk, and I would simply slow down, following them for a distance. However, the pedestrians were not fond of the bright white light on the front and became angry with me for following them! Getting onto the sidewalk is a challenge, because there's not always a dip where you can drive your bike. Sometimes you must "jump up" to get onto a curb, and this was hard for me to do.

Since I haven't ridden a bike in almost 10 years, and I'm not familiar with Riga traffic flow, I wanted to be cautious. The locals made it clear that they weren't happy with my lack of bike skills, and often gave me nasty looks. Ah, what would a day in Riga be like without some nasty locals? After some time I decided to head towards the river. I discovered a local "secret" which led to more fun..

After approaching the Daugava River from Old Town, I found the nice walkway next to the river that Christine and I had walked on days earlier. I wanted to see how far this sidewalk went, towards the suspension bridge. It was completely dark at this point, and probably close to 11pm. As I drove down the sidewalk next to the river, I saw couples engaged in.. "romantic activities" at nearly every single park bench! It seemed that I had discovered a popular romantic destination in Riga! However, these couples were not thrilled with me disturbing the dark and romantic area with my BalticBike featuring a bright white light. Unfortunately there was no way to turn this light off either. One man cursed at me loudly in Russian as I passed.

At around 12pm, I finally decided it was time to return the bike. I had cruised for almost 3 hours across many miles. I returned to a BalticBike rental station and locked the bike up. After finding wifi I logged into the BalticBike website and checked the bike in. The total cost was 3 lats, which wasn't too bad. The website wanted to know which station I had returned the bike to, but I wasn't sure! At this point I was far from the station. I guessed the station name using a map, and hoped I wouldn't be charged extra!

Biking in Riga is an AWESOME experience, and I highly recommend it to any visitors. Biking after dark is a more unique experience, and you can see many parts of the nightlife in Riga. Either way, it's a refreshing change from walking around everywhere.