I think I've written enough odes to bikes and bike trips on here for everyone to know that bikes and I seem to share a deep connection and therefore anything that promotes bike use gets an automatic extra ten points in my book. This little city bike system was installed when I wasn't living in Marseille full time anymore and therefore I never really had the chance to try it out.
First of all, even after almost three years, there are still some glitches in the system. When you go up the ticket machine, it doesn't always work on first try as I've discovered. It didn't want to work with my French visa card, so I used my Finnish visa electron card and with visa electrons it deducts 150e straight away and then you're given your money back after a couple of days. But after you have your 7-day ticket, you just put it in the machine, type your code and pick the bike you want. For this also there seems to be a trick because twice I picked a bike that wouldn't come off the rack but I've seen some experienced users take a look at the bike/rack before going to the machine so I suppose there are some tricks to picking the right bike. Further study is needed! I also forgot to look if the machine could be switched to English.
Second, the bikes. Those bikes are heavy, as can be expected. I first really discovered that when I had to get that bike from street level to sidewalk level at the stop in Mazargues... because it's one of those really awkwardly positioned stops. They're heavy but they're rather easy to use, the brakes seem good, the seat is easy to adjust and there is a basket to put your things in. There are only three gears and I was in third gear all the time but I suppose that the first two are good if someone is not used to cycling a lot.
Conclusion: it's good, it works, it's a good solution if one needs to make a small journey. I, personally, wouldn't want to use it all the time mainly because it seems too heavy for me and there is a lack of useful gears. Also the closest station is at Mazargues so if I've already walked or taken the bus there, I might as well continue... except during bus rush hour. If ever they installed a station a tad closer, I'd really consider it to run everyday errands.
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