Forum Discussion

vhutheesing's avatar
vhutheesing
Resourceful Rider
4 years ago

Why do electric bikes say not available for rental?

I am new to the bike rental system here in NYC and could not unlock the only two electric bikes that were available in my neighborhood.  After walking for 20 minutes to them, I spent another 20 trying to unlock one.  Nothing.  Then the other one.  Nothing again.  Same message.  What is up with this?  Thanks for any info you can provide.

  • Tyler's avatar
    Tyler
    4 years ago

    Hey vhutheesing, We hate to hear you were having issues riding ebikes! There are two main reasons an ebike would say "not available". The first is if the battery is too low. The second is if the previous rider thought there was something wrong with the bike and pushed the wrench button on the dock after locking it up. Both of these reasons flag the operations team to go replace the battery or inspect the bike. 

  • Tyler's avatar
    Tyler
    Bike Angels Team
    4 years ago

    Hey vhutheesing, We hate to hear you were having issues riding ebikes! There are two main reasons an ebike would say "not available". The first is if the battery is too low. The second is if the previous rider thought there was something wrong with the bike and pushed the wrench button on the dock after locking it up. Both of these reasons flag the operations team to go replace the battery or inspect the bike. 

  • WestEndAl's avatar
    WestEndAl
    Steady Solver
    4 years ago

    You can check on the availability of bikes, e-bikes or classic, by clicking on the symbol for the docking station you're interested in. I'm not sure, but I'd bet that the station you walked to -- the one with the 2 out-of-service e-bikes -- probably showed there were no e-bikes available. They may be physically there, but would not show as available on the app.

  • CarolTandava's avatar
    CarolTandava
    Steady Solver
    4 years ago

    Sometimes the app says a bike is unavailable because it has not been docked properly. This happened to me yesterday.


    After getting the “unavailable” message twice, I pulled the seat and the bike popped right out of the dock.

     

    When I docked it properly I was able to use the app to undock my account.