Brompton Bike Hire

Absolute Design

About this app

The compact folding bike in lockers across the nation.

Available from over 70 lockers (and more on the way) in train stations, near public buildings and places of work. Pick up at one location, drop off wherever you choose. Hire for 24-hours. Keep it as long as you need. All for just £5 a day.

Get that Brompton feeling for a day, a week or more. Just download the app, hire, and ride.

Ratings and reviews

It's mixed. The whole thing is terribly slow, even buttons on the hire stations don't respond for about 20s. I have no idea why I couldn't return the bike to one - there were empty boxes. The bike's gears are way too high - I cruise in 1st at about 15mph on them.. on the flat. 2nd is going downhill. ANY hill is major effort. There're no marks on the seat post for you to get the right height each time you unfold it. But it was very useful to be able to use one for four days.

Overall the app experience is terrible. On the plus side you can book with a couple of taps, but if you just want to check availability, you end up booking accidentally. For electrical hire you need to call them. Then the systems don't work when you get there - took many attempts to be able to scan the QR code and the tablet they had in shop didn't work either, they had to call a number to release the bike (40 minutes I'm not getting back). App needs a lot of improvement.

This is such a useful service and can only grow in utility as more docks pop up. Being able to combine train travel with a bike but being able to drop it in at a different dock on the way home is brilliant. The system can sometimes be a bit buggy- sometimes the system doesn't clock you've collected the bike and so you can't book a return, sometimes codes don't work, sometimes docks are out of action, but the team on the helpline are really helpful and lovely to deal with

What's new

Ability to manage promotional codes