My wife and I had our first experience with Nice Ride a few weeks ago. Nice Ride, for anyone who is not familiar, rents out bikes at kiosks all over Minneapolis and St. Paul. We headed to downtown Minneapolis to start our bike adventure. Upon arriving at the first kiosk, it took us a while to figure out how the system worked. The pricing is a little tricky. Turns out that in order to keep a bike ride affordable, it is necessary to change out the bike at another kiosk every 30 minutes. This assures that each kiosk is well-stocked with bikes. Another tidbit worth knowing is Nice Ride needs a bank account to which they can charge a $50 deposit.

We began our ride in the Saturday afternoon sun. The temperature was perfect for a bike ride. Our first stop was just over the 3rd Avenue Bridge in Northeast Minneapolis. When checking in my bike at the next kiosk, we encountered a system glitch but were able to get it taken care of with no problem. We continued our ride through Northeast, soaking in the summer air. We rode through some old neighborhoods that featured big beautiful houses built in the early 1900s. Our next stop was the U of M campus. We checked in our bikes and ran into another small glitch with the system, but we got it taken care of by calling customer service.



After all that riding, we had worked up quite an appetite! We wanted to eat somewhere funky and new, but we settled for a Buffalo Wild Wings. The food was average, but the company was splendid. We finished our bike ride with no problems as we cruised along the old cobblestone of Main Street by St. Anthony Falls.

Despite a few small kinks in the system, the Nice Ride bikes were a lot of fun for my wife and I. Every station we checked into was well-stocked with bicycles ready to use. To boot, the bikes are new and ride smoothly.